Civics 101: New Hampshire

The state's cops, firefighters, and building inspectors all fall under the umbrella of one big, vital government office: the Department of Safety. On today's episode, a tour of this huge department and the ways it has probably affected your life.

The online realm of government-run “.gov” websites is vast, confusing—and sometimes crucial to modern democracy. On this episode, we venture into that wild landscape and we discuss government cyber-security in New Hampshire.

On this episode of Civics 101: New Hampshire, we're telling the stories behind New Hampshire's many borders, boundaries, and district lines. We talk with a historian about how the state border acquired its convoluted shape, and we dig into an ongoing challenge to the way New Hampshire voting districts are drawn.

One of New Hampshire's most distinctive civic institutions is the Executive Council, an elected group of five people from across the state who vote to approve or veto many of the Governor's decisions. In this episode, Nick Capodice goes for a jaunt into the history and function of the Executive Council.

Some jobs are just too local for the state government to handle, but too large for a town to deal with, and that's where counties come in. On this episode, we hear from the people who run county offices in New Hampshire about how this in-between governmental structure holds the whole state together.

New Hampshire's legislature is not run by professional politicians, it's run by regular people who volunteer their time to make laws. This week, we investigate the advantages of a citizen legislature, as well as the disadvantages.

At the top of New Hampshire's judicial branch, five justices comprise the state Supreme Court. They don't have as much power as the illustrious name would imply, but they do still have quite a bit. On today's episode, we walk through the life of a supreme court case.

Every bill has to visit both the New Hampshire House and the Senate before it can become state law, and the deadline when they must cross over from one to the other is called, well, crossover day. Every year, the legislature kicks into high gear as lawmakers rush to meet this deadline. On today's episode, we go behind the scenes of New Hampshire lawmaking to find out how crossover even happens and what it means for the rest of us.

New Hampshire may not have a reputation for farmland the way Midwestern states do, but agriculture is a pillar of our identity. The executive department that oversees New Hampshire farms does a lot more than just meat inspections (though they do plenty of those). Today, we take a trip inside the Department of Agriculture.

Before any bill can become law in New Hampshire, it has to withstand a dose of public scrutiny, in the form of a hearing to which absolutely everyone is invited. Today's episode is about the power, as well as the shortcomings, of public hearings.