NHPR Midday Newscast for Friday, August 14, 2026

From NHPR News, I'm Joe Bainline. The three Republicans running in the state's first congressional district met on stage last evening in Brentwood for debate. There was a lot of agreement, including on continued deportation efforts by ICE and support for President Trump's military actions in Iran. On the economy, Holly Noveletsky called for more investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. The issues here in New Hampshire are really affordability. Kitchen table issues, housing, health care, energy, and jobs. Anthony D. Lorenzo said the state needs to retain and attract young people. Our workforce in New Hampshire is among the oldest in the country. And although our state is ripe to attract businesses, without a workforce to work in those businesses, it's going to be difficult to do that. Brian Cole called for the creation of more nuclear power to help bring down energy costs. The first congressional district is considered a swing seat. Incumbent Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas is not seeking re-election as he runs instead for the state's open Senate seat. New Hampshire advocates say the federal government's 21st century Road to Housing Act will give developers more flexibility and incentive to build affordable units in the state. Alyssa Margolin is with St. Anselm College's initiative for housing policy and practice. She says the legislation will modernize the country's housing regulations, much like updating a toolbox to reflect the times. It's like you used to have a drill that you had to plug in the wall, but now a lot of people use cordless drills, or perhaps you had to pour gasoline into your leaf blower, and now you have a battery you can do that with. The bill includes provisions to preserve rental assistance for rural housing programs, streamline environmental reviews for developers, and reduce costs for manufactured home construction. We'll see mostly sunny skies this afternoon. Highs around 70 to the lower 80s, mostly clear tonight, lows in the mid-40s to upper 50s. Some patchy morning fog tomorrow, mostly sunny in the afternoon, though, with highs in the lower 70s to lower 80s. This is NHPR.