Jim Roche, president of the Business and Industry Association, opined recently that the association “believes in the sanctity of contracts between private parties.” This was part the group’s reason for stating that the proposed tax-free merger of FairPoint and Verizon…

You’re standing in the checkout line at the supermarket. Ahead of you, a 4-year-old is whining to his mother in the hope of getting a candy bar. Clearly frazzled, the mom begins to berate him in a voice loud enough…

Conservative commentators are having a dust-up over whether former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a conservative. The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, say no. The Washington Times’ Tony Blankley says yes.…

Every summer, the Business and Industry Association engages in policy development roundtable discussions with business and opinion leaders in 14 locations throughout the state. And every summer, particularly in the Monadnock Region, Upper Valley and North Country, many roundtable participants…

Seventeen members of the New England House delegation, including Congressman Paul Hodes and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, recently came together in Boston for a unique morning at Suffolk University Law School. Hosted by the New England Council, the congressional delegation had…

What do Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani have in common? They’re the leading presidential candidates of the two major parties. But they have more in common than that. All choose not to offer specifics on waste…

Like most states, New Hampshire struggles with the issue of affordable health insurance coverage for its citizens. Roughly 150,000 people across the state lack health insurance. Of this number, a large group, approximately 75,000, are working-age individuals or their families…

In New Hampshire, nearly 1,900 children a year - approximately 37 per day - become regular smokers. In our state alone, we spend $564 million on health-care costs directly caused by smoking. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death…

It wasn’t long ago that energy was something most people took for granted. Gas was plentiful and cheap, renewable energy was something only “tree huggers” talked about and global warming was an exotic theory. How times have changed. These days,…

Last year, 6.6 million children from families between 100 percent and 200 percent of the poverty level received health insurance through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, and I fully support increasing this effort by 60 percent over…

When the phrase “first in the nation” is used, it’s usually a reference to New Hampshire’s presidential primary. But it can just as easily apply to the state’s college tuition savings plan - an overlooked jewel in the crown of…

It is fall, and things change quickly. Leaves, like blossoming flowers, are on our minds and in the headlines these days. Down in Merrimack, a high school senior’s flower-holding portrait was banned from the school’s yearbook on grounds that it violated…