{"id":27223,"date":"2026-09-19T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/?p=27223"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:56:10","slug":"september-19-2026-new-england-news-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/?p=27223","title":{"rendered":"September 19, 2026 New England News Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 dir=\"ltr\">Top Stories \u2014 New Hampshire<\/h3>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li><strong>NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigns amid ethics findings.<\/strong> MacDonald stepped down after admitting he violated three provisions of the judicial code of conduct related to a roughly $50,000 payout arranged for a favored staffer. His departure caps months of turmoil for the state&#8217;s high court. <em>(New Hampshire Bulletin \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/newhampshirebulletin.com\/\">newshampshirebulletin.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Dartmouth Health lays off 124 employees.<\/strong> The hospital system, which operates facilities across NH and VT, eliminated 124 positions and canceled 303 open roles \u2014 427 positions total \u2014 including its Tele-ICU and Tele-ED programs, citing long-term sustainability. <em>(New Hampshire Bulletin)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Drought expands across central New Hampshire this fall.<\/strong> More than half the state is now in moderate drought despite near-normal winter snowfall, with parts of the southeast and Seacoast never having recovered from last year&#8217;s dry spell. <em>(NHPR \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/\">nhpr.org<\/a>)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">Top Stories \u2014 Maine<\/h3>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li><strong>UMaine plans staff and faculty layoffs to close a projected $19 million shortfall.<\/strong> The cuts follow months of budget pressure that began with a 7% department-wide reduction target reported earlier this year. <em>(Portland Press Herald \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/\">pressherald.com<\/a>; background from Bangor Daily News \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangordailynews.com\/\">bangordailynews.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>State environmental board delays final decision on CMP&#8217;s NECEC conservation plan.<\/strong> Regulators are still weighing an appeal from conservation groups who say Central Maine Power&#8217;s plan to offset the transmission corridor&#8217;s forest impact falls short of permit requirements. <em>(Portland Press Herald)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Victim describes machete assault near Portland&#8217;s Nickelodeon theater.<\/strong> Testimony detailing the attack was reported as part of ongoing coverage of violent incidents downtown. <em>(Portland Press Herald)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">Top Stories \u2014 Vermont<\/h3>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li><strong>Barre schools eye cuts to sports and activities after budget fails a third time.<\/strong> Voters in Barre Town and Barre City rejected a $57.1 million school budget this week, continuing a pattern of local budget defeats tied to rising property taxes. <em>(VTDigger \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/\">vtdigger.org<\/a>; Vermont Public \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vermontpublic.org\/\">vermontpublic.org<\/a> has covered the district&#8217;s recurring budget battles)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Hundreds of layoffs hit Vermont&#8217;s two largest healthcare networks.<\/strong> Dartmouth Health is cutting more than 420 positions while the University of Vermont Health Network is laying off 199 staff, as both systems try to rein in costs. <em>(VTDigger)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trial testimony continues in the Burlington shooting of three Palestinian students.<\/strong> A newly revealed recording captures the defendant describing a voice that told him to act before the shooting. <em>(VTDigger)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Stories \u2014 New Hampshire NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigns amid ethics findings. MacDonald stepped down after admitting he violated three provisions of the judicial code of conduct related to a roughly $50,000 payout arranged for a favored staffer. His departure caps months of turmoil for the state&#8217;s high court. (New Hampshire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Supreme-Court-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27224,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27223\/revisions\/27224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}