By MATT SCHOOLEYCity school officials are drafting a pay-to-participate policy that would include athletics, a policy that many say would have negative consequences at all three city high schools, but particularly bad at West High School. Facing a budget crisis that could lead to layoffs in the city, Manchester school officials discussed the ...

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKIEpsom voters were emphatic about keeping the official ballot vote but allowed both town and school budgets to pass as recommended. Everything passed in Hooksett for the school vote, but nearly everything failed in Allenstown. Candia passed a school budget and kept its Budget Committee, but put the town on a default operating ...

"Change Has Come to America".  We will now have an open government. Follow the transition. President-Elect Obama wants to hear your vision for America. Its time for us all to unite as one America. We can not stay divided as a red America or a blue America. After all we are the United States of ...

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI A record turnout is likely in the works for the presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and area police and poll workers are gearing up for the crowds. In Hooksett and Pembroke, police will be enforcing a change in the usual traffic patterns at the school buildings where voting takes place. Police in ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEY With Halloween arriving, not all students will be getting tricks or treats in the classroom, as many schools have shifted away from traditional festivities. One school that has done away with Halloween festivities is Hooksett’s Fred C. Underhill School, as Assistant Principal Ralene St. Pierre said the school has been ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Last year, Auburn’s Joey Dudek rode his arm and leg to Gillette Stadium – and very nearly the Super Bowl. Dudek, who won the 10- and 11-year-old division of the local Pepsi Punt, Pass and Kick competition last August, also triumphed at the sectional competition in Bristol, R.I., and then the regional ...

EASTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALITIS Although Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, has not been detected in samples taken from around New England this year, officials urge that care be taken to avoid contracting this viral disease, considered to be one of the most deadly mosquito-borne diseases in the United States, according to the U.S. ...

BY JENN McDOWELL As warm summer weather entices people to spend more time outside, state health officials are warning residents to be more aware of the big dangers that lie in wait in the tiniest of organisms. Jason Stull, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ public health veterinarian, said that right now ...

BY JENN McDOWELLEpsom Police Chief Wayne Preve said he’s lost two officers this year to other departments that offer higher pay and more opportunities. Officer Joseph Lister left in April, about two weeks after the March vote, at which the town inherited its fourth default budget in a row. He took an opening with the Northwood Police ...

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI If there’s one person who’s doing well in this changing economy, it’s John Labbe. Labbe is the owner of Hearth Designs in Hooksett, and he sells pellet stoves, wood stoves, fireplaces and other heating-related items. With people looking for alternatives to heating with oil, he said pellet stoves ...