New Hampshire

Tim Thomas was a big deal yesterday in his hometown of Flint, Mich., where the Bruins goalie had his day with the Stanley Cup. But in East Conway, N.H., Thomas is a really big deal.  Via the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce , we discovered the above photo of Thomas's image etched out into the corn field at Sherman Farm . Visitors to the farm are welcome to explore the maze beginning Sept....

LEND A HAND Randolph, New Hampshire Members of the venerable Randolph Mountain Club ( randolphmountainclub.org ), founded in 1910 in northern New Hampshire, care for more than 100 miles of trails on three majestic Presidential peaks — Adams, Madison, and Jefferson — as well as Randolph's town trails located in the Crescent Range. Volunteer Trail Days on Saturdays in July and the beginning of August invite the public to give a little back with their backs.

LEND A HAND Randolph, New Hampshire Members of the venerable Randolph Mountain Club ( randolphmountainclub.org ), founded in 1910 in northern New Hampshire, care for more than 100 miles of trails on three majestic Presidential peaks — Adams, Madison, and Jefferson — as well as Randolph's town trails located in the Crescent Range. Volunteer Trail Days on Saturdays in July and the beginning of August invite the public to give a little back with their backs.

CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire Episcopalians elected a priest from Western Massachusetts on Saturday to succeed Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion, who is scheduled to retire in January. More than 250 clergy and lay electors who gathered at St. Paul's Church in Concord chose the Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, the 51-year-old rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Mass. With the consent of the Episcopal Church's General Convention, which meets in Indianapolis in July, he will be consecrated in August and installed in January ....

Vice President Joe Biden is headed back to New Hampshire. An official with President Barack Obama's re-election campaign says Biden will be in Keene on Tuesday. Tuesday's trip will be Biden's fourth trip to New Hampshire this year. Most recently, he spoke in Exeter last month.

CONCORD, N.H. — Kelly Ayotte, former New Hampshire attorney general and a conservative Republican endorsed by Sarah Palin, defeated Democratic congressman Paul Hodes yesterday to keep a Republican in the seat being vacated by retiring Senator Judd Gregg. A fiscal and social conservative, Ayotte painted herself as an outsider who will cut government spending and vote to repeal health care reforms. She also opposes stimulus spending and special requests by members of Congress called earmarks.

A recent report by the Globe that New Hampshire is sending a consultant across the border to recruit Massachusetts companies sparked consternation here. You know the story: Lumbering "Taxachusetts" - with high taxes and heavy regulatory burdens - had once again left itself vulnerable to economic poaching by its free-wheeling, lower-cost, faster-growing neighbor. But an analysis of a variety of indicators shows that these stereotypes are often misleading, if not plain wrong.

I WANT New Hampshire to matter. I really do. There's something inimitable and irreplaceable about the New Hampshire primary process, the way voters haughtily candidate-shop, asking tough questions, withholding judgment. I love the way New Hampshire makes the candidates kowtow, if briefly, to the people. But 2012 might well be the year that makes New Hampshire look irrelevant. We don't know much today that we didn't already know a week or a month ago. Mitt Romney was never going to lose; he had run for too long and built an operation too extensive.

Many New Hampshire State Parks make a great early autumn base camp. For a complete list, visit www.nhstateparks.com/nhstateparks1.html. Reservations: 603-271-3628. Here are a few of note : Mollidgewock State Park & Campground Route 16, Errol 603-482-3373 Open through Oct. 9. Dry River Campground Crawford Notch State Park Route 302, Harts Location 603-374-2272 Open through mid-December. Umbagog Lake Campground Route 26, Cambridge 603-482-7795 Open through mid-October.

Ten days of bloodshed in New Hampshire during April have left residents on edge in a state that prides itself on its low homicide rate and considers violent crime more commonly the scourge of neighboring Massachusetts. Ten violent deaths, which spanned the state geographically and occurred without discernible pattern, have set the state on course this year to exceed the 23 or 24 murders, depending on the final classification of each case, that occurred in 2011, according to the state attorney general's office.

New Hampshire officials and victims' families and friends are gathering in Laconia to dedicate the New Hampshire Homicide Memorial Garden. Attorney General Michael Delaney and Laconia Mayor Michael Seymour are participating in the ceremony. They are being joined by victim advocates and other professionals who provide support to family members who have lost a loved one to violence. The garden is sponsored by the New Hampshire chapter of Parents of Murdered Children and Other Survivors of Homicide Victims and the Victim/Witness Assistance division of the Attorney General's Office.

Vice President Joe Biden is headed back to New Hampshire. An official with President Barack Obama's re-election campaign says Biden will be in Keene on Tuesday. Tuesday's trip will be Biden's fourth trip to New Hampshire this year. Most recently, he spoke in Exeter last month.

CONCORD, N.H. - The state's community colleges and four-year campuses are working together to turn out more high-tech graduates, promising to double the number in the next 13 years. Last year, the four University System of New Hampshire schools and the 11 community colleges awarded about 8,200 degrees and certificates, including 1,100 degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math. Under an agreement signed Tuesday, the latter number would increase by 50 percent by 2020 and double by 2025.

NORWICH, Vt. - The top law enforcement officers from New Hampshire and Vermont met Monday in the middle of a bridge over the Connecticut River to confirm that, yes, their shared border has not changed. State laws require the states' attorneys general to meet every seven years to reaffirm the states' 160-mile border, a process called perambulation. The laws are designed to ensure the two states remain in agreement. They followed a 1935 US Supreme Court decision that settled what had been a decades-long legal battle.

New taxes on personal income would be banned in New Hampshire — a state with no personal income tax — under a proposed constitutional change before the Senate for a vote. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the proposal on Wednesday. The House passed it in January over the objections of critics who argued it could have unintended consequences, such as higher business taxes. Supporters argue enshrining the prohibition against the tax in the constitution would leave any existing taxes untouched.

A thick, morning fog hung over the Oyster River as we paddled our way to the mouth of Great Bay. A pair of white swans was feeding in the nutrient-rich marshes; a whitetail buck nibbled on bushes at the top of a leafy hill overlooking the river. Black comorants sat on hunks of driftwood, spreading their wings to dry. Our double-ended paddles churned a path through the brackish waters, passing Wagon Hill Farm, its small sandy beach giving way to lush lawn and woodsy hills. We kayaked past scenic coves and inlets before the river opened up, dumping us into Little Bay...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Republican presidential candidates who aren't Mitt Romney brought along modest hopes on their smiling, hand-shaking visits to New Hampshire's polling places today — just let me come in third place or so, most said, and survive to challenge the front-runner again in South Carolina and Florida. Romney held on to the demeanor of the overwhelming favorite, despite coming under increasing volleys of criticism from his rivals and suffering an ill-timed, foot-in-mouth moment on the eve of the nation's first presidential primary.

Where to stay Three Chimneys Inn 17 Newmarket Road Durham, N.H. 888-399-9777 www.threechimneysinn.com This historic inn, with 23 updated, individually-decorated rooms — all with private baths, original woodworking, and antique furnishings — overlooks the Oyster River and Old Mill Falls. Walk through terraced gardens, before dining at the cozy ffrost Sawyer Tavern, housed in the original summer kitchen of the 1649 homestead. Rates start at $129.

Police say two people are dead following a fiery single-vehicle accident on a New Hampshire interstate. State troopers were called to the crash site on Interstate 89 in Hopkinton shortly after 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Officials say the northbound vehicle burst into flames after leaving the highway and striking a tree. Both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene. Their identities have not been released. The crash is under investigation.