House Bill 1678 would create a two-year pilot program to reimburse 10 public schools that purchase food from New Hampshire farms. Here, an apple grows in an orchard in Unity. (Scott W. Baker | Getty Images) Senators are considering creating a state-run “farm to schools” program to increase the amount of local produce that goes to school meals.  House Bill 1678 would create a two-year pilot program to reimburse 10 public schools that purchase food from New Hampshire farms. The program would cover purchases of dairy, fish, pork, beef poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, cider, and maple syru ..read more

Activists paint signs at an encampment protest with Students for Justice in Palestine at the University Yard at George Washington University on April 25, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images) As campus demonstrations protesting Israeli actions in Gaza continue across the country, New Hampshire lawmakers are seeking to regulate how public colleges and universities respond to questions of free speech.  House Bill 1305 would insert freedom of speech rights on college campuses into state statute. The bill would establish that outdoor areas of campuses “shall be deemed pub ..read more

The Rev. Wheeler Parker, 85, was a 16-year-old Chicago resident on vacation during August 1955 in the Mississippi Delta when friend and cousin Emmett Till wolf whistled at a white woman. Within days he was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two white men who were acquitted by an all-white jury but subsequently confessed to the crimes. (Tim Carpenter | Kansas Reflector) LAWRENCE, Kansas – Black teenagers Wheeler Parker and Emmett Till were on vacation from Chicago when they stepped into the white-owned Mississippi Delta grocery store operated by Roy and Carolyn Bryant to buy candy in the sum ..read more

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Jennifer Shutt | States Newsroom) WASHINGTON – U.S. House lawmakers will no longer be able to request earmarked funding for some nonprofits under a change in eligibility made by the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The alteration is related to an uproar during last year’s annual government funding process, when House Republicans, who are in the majority, included three LGBTQ projects in one of their spending bills and then stripped that funding during a tense public markup. The ..read more

Dozens of anti-Trump protesters gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, while the justices heard arguments about whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution on criminal charges related to his actions while in office. (Jane Norman | States Newsroom) WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical Thursday of former President Donald Trump’s argument he is immune from criminal charges that he tried to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. But conservatives who dominate the court appeared open to returning key questions to a trial court, possibl ..read more

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, speaks during a press conference at Columbia University on April 24, 2024, in New York City. Johnson visited the campus as school administrators and pro-Palestinian student protesters made progress on negotiations after the school set a midnight deadline for students to disband the encampment, and agreed on a 48-hour extension. Johnson has called for the resignation of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik. (Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images) U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson decried antisemitism and raised the possibility of calling in t ..read more

It is unclear whether Gov. Chris Sununu will sign the voter ID bill should it make it to his desk. (Kate Brindley | New Hampshire Bulletin) Sue Nastasi lost her birth certificate years ago. “Beats me where it is,” she said.  But getting it back is not a simple matter. Nastasi was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in a hospital that doesn’t exist any more, under a different name, she said. She was taken into New Jersey family services at 4 months old after neglect from her parents, and she emerged with a new family and a new name.  Over the decades, Nastasi has kept her passport up to d ..read more

Travelers board an Amtrak train at Union Station on Nov. 22, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images) The Northeast corridor is America’s busiest rail line. Each day, its trains deliver 800,000 passengers to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and points in between. The Northeast corridor is also a name for the place those trains serve: the coastal plain stretching from Virginia to Massachusetts, where over 17 percent of the country’s population lives on less than 2 percent of its land. Northeasterners ride the corridor and live there too. Like “Rust Belt,” “Deep Sout ..read more

President Joe Biden shakes hands with NABTU President Sean McGarvey after giving remarks at the North American Building Trades Unions 2024 Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton on April 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Biden attended the conference to receive an official political endorsement from NABTU. (Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images) WASHINGTON – Cheered for his pro-union stance and promise to rework the tax code, President Joe Biden picked up a major endorsement Wednesday from North America’s Building Trades Unions, a massive labor organization now committing resources in the battl ..read more

President Joe Biden on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, signed into law foreign aid that includes $60.84 billion in assistance for Ukraine. In this photo, Biden delivers remarks about Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified” military invasion of neighboring Ukraine in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer | Getty Images) WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan emergency spending law Wednesday to provide an additional $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, ending months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and public pleas for Congres ..read more