New Hampshire

Council approves $16 million change to Bedford tolls, confirms new member of PUC • New Hampshire Bulletin

Published

1 year ago

November 13, 2024

Council approves million change to Bedford tolls, confirms new member of PUC • New Hampshire Bulletin

The Executive Council on Wednesday agreed to convert the toll plaza on F.E. Everett Turnpike in Bedford to all-electronic tolling, meaning vehicles won’t slow down to pay.

On a 3-2 vote, the councilors approved a nearly $16 million contract between the Department of Transportation and R.S. Audley Inc., a construction company based in Bow. They also OK’d a contingency of just under $800,000 for “unforeseen issues” during construction. The project is funded through the state Bureau of Turnpikes’ Capital Program and is expected to be completed by September 2027.

This project will replace the traditional toll plaza with an overhead, boothless system that doesn’t require vehicles to pump the brakes. That means people won’t be able to pay with cash as they pass through the toll, a point that split the council. Instead, E-ZPasses will be captured by the system, or travelers can pay online within seven days or through a mailed invoice.

A minimum of two lanes of traffic will run on both sides of the highway during construction, and there will be three lanes of traffic both ways once completed, according to documents DOT submitted to the council and governor.

DOT Commissioner William Cass said toll plazas have posed safety concerns, pointing to “horrific” accidents where people have driven into the barriers. Besides eliminating the accident risk posed by the barriers, it will also help “increase capacity” and “decrease emissions from idling cars,” according to DOT.

Gov. Chris Sununu said the all-electronic tolling should be considered on a “case-by-case basis, if it’s expanded at all.”

The outgoing Republican governor met with the Executive Council for his third-to-last time Wednesday. Come January, the long table on the second floor of the State House will be surrounded by some new faces, but it will have the same party makeup: 4 Republican councilors, one Democrat, and another Republican governor, Kelly Ayotte, at the helm.

In other news from the meeting:

On a 3-2 vote, the council confirmed Mark Dell’Orfano, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, to the Public Utilities Commission.
Sununu nominated Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais to serve on the state Boxing and Wrestling Commission, which helps provide “a framework for the conduct and performance of all boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and wrestling exhibitions” under its jurisdiction, according to its webpage.
The council approved the use of federal funds for an energy efficiency program, which will provide rebates for income-eligible residents to purchase certain electronic appliances. The program is expected to launch early next summer, said Joshua Elliot, director of the division of policy and programs at the Department of Energy.
Sununu gave some hints as to what’s next for him, saying it would probably be a mix of things. He told reporters he has been looking at opportunities in the private sector, which may include sitting on boards, “helping companies navigate and strategize around avoiding political landmines,” or perhaps media. “I haven’t signed on the dotted line with anything yet,” he said.

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New Hampshire

Your weekly guide to taking action in New Hampshire May 6-10, 2026 –

Published

2 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Press Room

Your weekly guide to taking action in New Hampshire May 6-10, 2026 –

Protests and rallies:

📅 Wednesday (May 6)

New Hampshire Peace Action: Vigil for Permanent Ceasefire Now! (Dover, 2 p.m.)

New Hampshire Peace Action: Ceasefire Now! (Hanover, 4-5 p.m.)

603Forward: North Country Power Hour (Gorham, 6 p.m.)

📅 Thursday (May 7)

New Hampshire Peace Action: Ceasefire Vigil (Concord, 12-1:30 p.m.)

American Friends Service Committee: Meeting for Worship with Attention to Peace (Virtually, 7:30 p.m.)

Brookline Democrats: Gerrymandering in NH (Brookline Historical Society, 6:30 p.m.)

📅 Friday (May 8)

American Friends Service Committee: Action Hour for Palestine (Virtual, 12 p.m.)

Indivisible: Nashua Bridge Brigade (Nashua, 2-4 p.m.)

New Hampshire Public Radio: By Degrees Climate Summit Community Resilience (Manchester, 12 p.m.)

Rochester Dems: Dance for Democracy (Rochester Performing & Arts Center, 6 p.m.)

📅 Saturday (May 9)

NH Peace Action: Standing against authoritarian actions (Kingston, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.)

New Hampshire Democratic Party: Pro-Democracy Weekly Visibility (Derry, 12 p.m)

📅 Sunday (May 10)

Occupy Seacoast: Civil Rights Sunday (Portsmouth, 12-4 p.m.)

First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter: Bridge Brigade (Exeter, 5-5:30 p.m.)

Have an event to add? Email Lily Jackson, lily@couriernewsroom.com with details (please send details at least one week before the event).

Make Mother’s Day memorable with these 6 activities in New Hampshire

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New Hampshire

NH Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 Day winning numbers for May 4, 2026

Published

15 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Press Room

The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at Monday, May 4, 2026 results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from May 4 drawing

30-36-42-60-63, Powerball: 13, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from May 4 drawing

Day: 6-2-1

Evening: 3-3-9

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from May 4 drawing

Day: 7-9-1-8

Evening: 9-8-0-8

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Megabucks Plus numbers from May 4 drawing

01-05-33-34-41, Megaball: 05

Check Megabucks Plus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Gimme 5 numbers from May 4 drawing

23-27-29-37-38

Check Gimme 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 4 drawing

08-17-22-34-39, Bonus: 05

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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New Hampshire

NH medical marijuana program added 2,100 new patients last year – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2026

Press Room

NH medical marijuana program added 2,100 new patients last year – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

More than 2,100 new patients signed up with New Hampshire’s Therapeutic Cannabis Program last year, bringing the total registry to nearly 17,000, according to new state data.

That increase — about 14.5% from the year prior — is the largest since 2021.

Likely driving the growth were changes to state law in 2024 that allowed more people to qualify for medical marijuana use. They can now join the program at doctors’ discretion — which covers any debilitating or terminal condition or symptom, as long as their medical provider agrees the benefits of cannabis could outweigh the risks — or with a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder.

More than 900 patients list anxiety as their qualifying condition, according to the report issued this week by the state Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the program.

“There was certainly an uptick in growth after those bills took effect in late 2024. It hasn’t skyrocketed, but has somewhat accelerated the growth of the program,” said Matt Simon, a lobbyist for GraniteLeaf Cannabis, one of three licensed cannabis providers in the state. “Where we’ve been, this extremely tiny program that was tiny for years, it is steadily growing.”

With 16,846 people, about 1.2% of the population are either certified patients or designated caregivers, who are authorized to buy cannabis on behalf of a patient. That’s close to one in every 84 Granite Staters.

The data released by the state was collected in June 2025. Simon estimates roughly 1,000 more people have joined since then.

The Therapeutic Cannabis Program, established in 2013, is the only way to lawfully consume marijuana in New Hampshire, as recreational use remains illegal. Patients require a doctor’s approval to join and receive a state-issued card that licenses them to buy medical cannabis products from seven dispensaries across the state, operated by three producers: GraniteLeaf Cannabis, Sanctuary Medicinals and Temescal Wellness.

The new data comes as the Trump administration reclassified medical marijuana last month as a less dangerous drug, effectively legitimizing programs run in 40 states, including New Hampshire’s. The change opens the door for more cannabis research and potential tax breaks for producers.

NH Therapeutic Cannabis Program patients by municipality Credit: NH Department of Health and Human Services

In New Hampshire, program demographics skew older. Nearly a quarter of patients are between 55 and 65 years old, and almost 70% of patients are over the age of 45. Pain is far and away the most common condition that people aim to treat with cannabis.

Patients are concentrated in southern New Hampshire and in towns where dispensaries, also called alternative treatment centers, are located. There are seven across the state in Chichester, Conway, Dover, Keene, Lebanon, Merrimack and Plymouth.

Concord has between 300 and 734 patients, according to the state data. Manchester has the most patients out of any municipality, at 1,150.

Despite the program’s growth, cost and accessibility remain a challenge. Jerry Knirk, a retired surgeon and state representative who now chairs the state’s Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board, said New Hampshire’s strict regulatory environment plays a role.

“Part of the issue is we have a very high-quality, highly regulated program with testing of all products and lots of restrictions and things, and that does make things more expensive, but it’s how you keep the quality to be really high,” Knirk said. “We want to have really good quality. Unfortunately, it does make it a little bit harder.

One family of three spent $548 after discounts on a six-week supply of their medicine, which they use for chronic pain and other ailments, the Monitor reported last year.

Limited retail locations also mean that in some parts of the North Country, patients must drive upwards of an hour to obtain their medicine.

“The lack of dispensary locations, well, yeah, that is a problem,” Knirk said.

The oversight board, joined by other advocates, has pushed for laws to alleviate those concerns. Some of the biggest include allowing patients to grow their own medicine at home and letting dispensaries use outdoor greenhouses to cut down on electricity costs.

That legislation is introduced in the State House almost every year but is often torpedoed by Republicans’ concerns over security protocols.

While advocates expected little movement on marijuana policy under Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who opposes legalizing recreational use, the bill to allow greenhouse cultivation is nearing the finish line this session. Former governor Chris Sununu vetoed a similar bill two years ago; Ayotte hasn’t indicated whether she’d sign it.

Simon said that while cost and accessibility are still challenges, patient satisfaction with the program is improving.

“We started in a tough place with a lot of people really not liking the law and the program,” he said. “I think it’s been steady growth and steady improvement. Prices have come down somewhat, and the vibes are better.”

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