Complete text of Strafford County Superior Court Presiding Justice John M. Lewis in Duncan v NH.Read More>>

Grant Bosse looks into how the New Hampshire House and Senate use Conference Committees to resolve differences between the two chambers. Guests include Representatives David Campbell (D-Nashua), Gene Chandler (R-Bartlett), Nick Lavasseur (D-Manchester), and Neal Kurk (R-Weare), as well as House Clerk Karen Wadsworth. Read More>>

FOR THE MONITOR The intelligent and hard-working members and staff at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission are working hard to lower your electric rate. They’re from the government, and they’re here to help. The PUC and the New Hampshire Legislature have been trying to reduce New Hampshire’s shockingly high utility bills for a while now and have even introduced a sliver of market competition into the bureaucratic, overregulated, micromanaged labyrinth of electric rates. Last week, the PUC recommended Public Service Company of New Hampshire, the state’s largest electric utility and the only one to generate much of its own power, sell its remaining generation assets. The Merrimack Station coal plant in Bow is at the heart of the issue.Read More>>

(CONCORD) A hiring freeze put in place five years ago by Governor John Lynch is doing little to prevent state agencies from filling their vacant positions, as the Governor's Office has issued 436 waivers so far this Fiscal Year. Governor Maggie Hassan has not denied a single request to waive the hiring freeze in her first six months in office.Read More>>

Gambling has been one of the most contentious issues in the New Hampshire Legislature this year, and Governor Maggie Hassan based her budget on approving a single high-end casino, presumably at Salem’s Rockingham Park. The State Senate, which has long favored expanded gambling regardless of which party was in the Majority, passed a casino bill. But the House, long skeptical of casinos whether Republicans or Democrats were in charge, scuttled the plan by a wide margin. State Senator Lou D’Allesandro, a Manchester Democrat, has long pushed to bring a casino to the Granite State, while former State Senator Jim Rubens, an Etna Republican, chairs the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling. Both spoke at a March forum held by the Seacoast Media Group on the pros and cons of casinos. Live Free or Die Alliance member Paul Briand captured the event for this Live Free or Die Alliance Podcast. Read More>>

Winter is coming. But Father’s Day is this Sunday. Tell your Dad how you really feel about him with our new line of Games of Thrones Fathers Day Cards. Read More>>

The Concord Monitor this week asked its readers for 200-word Commencement Speeches containing the best advice they could for graduating high school seniors. Here is my submission:

Congratulations! If you’re headed to higher education, learn something. Your diploma is an expensive signal to future employers that you didn’t screw up too badly in high school. Whether or not you actually learn anything useful is up to you. Challenge yourself. Attendance counts. You will be judged on your clothes, hair, piercings and attitude. Choose carefully. You will rarely, if ever, make as much money as you think you deserve. If you hate your job, get better at it. Excellence is more fun than mediocrity, and it often pays better. And even if you love your job, you’re not going to love it every day. Be content, but never complacent. Learn to be a better writer every year. Writing is a keystone skill. Clear writing is evidence of clear thinking. Your generation will rely less on big companies to give you a job, and more on yourselves to carve out value in the market. Find something people want, and get great at providing it. The modern economy holds growing challenges, but endless possibilities if you take control of your own career.

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Reporter Lauren Collins covers the continuing controversy as UNH looks for a new logo. Read More>>

The Union Leader this morning editorializes that spending $100,000 on the search for a new UNH logo demonstrates the University's inability to prioritize its spending.Read More>>

Andrea Bulfinch reports in Foster's Daily Democrat about our effort to crowd-source a new UNH logo. Read More>>