As published on page one of the Jan. 5, 2012 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

Longtime Keene manufacturer Kingsbury Corp. may be sold by the end of the month.

As published on page one of the Jan. 3, 2012 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

The sidewalks are cracked and uneven, and many of the display windows open onto dark and empty rooms.

More than a year has passed since a change of management offered hope for a new future for The Center at Keene. But the number of tenants in the shopping center has continued to decline -- leaving one in three storefronts vacant, and prompting remaining businesses to wonder what the future holds.

As published on page one of the Dec. 27, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

'Twas the day after Christmas, but the holiday wasn't over for local retailers and shoppers on the prowl for bargains.

As published in the Dec. 12, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

SWANZEY CENTER -- For some, it's a process of elimination.

Others see a set of options to be carefully weighed.

Still others will rely on a feeling in their gut.

But no matter how the decisions are made, voters have less than a month to go before New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

As published on page one of the Dec. 12, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The facade of the Keene State College Alumni Center is a mix of old and new -- in more ways than meet the eye.

As published on page one of the Dec. 11, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

PUTNEY, Vt. -- Three- year-old Lawrence Duncan was shy at first.

As published on page one of the Dec. 8, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

Grace A. Smart has lived in Central Square Terrace, a 90-unit housing facility for seniors and people with disabilities on Central Square, for 15 years.

She says she's noticed a change since Keene police moved from downtown to Marlboro Street.

As published on page one of the Nov. 30, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

William Lonardo estimates he stuck almost 100 campaign signs in the ground around Cheshire County on Sunday -- from his home in Rindge up to Alstead and over to Westmoreland -- all supporting Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

As published on page one of the Nov. 23, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Tired of black?

Try plaid.

Not a Friday person?

Maybe Saturday is a better fit.

Published on page one of the Nov. 7, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Children are the future, but young adults may be the key to the next presidential election.

As published on page one of the Nov. 6, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A musical fan group with a local following that was thrown into the spotlight following a killing this summer has been identified by the FBI as a possible criminal gang.

As published on page one of the Oct. 28, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A Keene real estate investor has signed a bargain-priced agreement to buy the Roxbury Street property soon to be vacated by the Keene Family YMCA.

As published on page one of the Oct. 28, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The economy may be offering more tricks than treats lately, but that isn't stopping some Monadnock Region residents from investing in a little Halloween fun this year.

As published on page one of the Oct. 27 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A Keene police substation downtown is the first priority, but a range of other ideas for mitigating bad behavior in the heart of the city should be considered, a City Council committee suggested Wednesday night.

As published on page one of the Oct. 26 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

PETERBOROUGH -- A prominent politician, decorated World War II veteran and the town's oldest resident has died.

Perkins Bass, 99, died peacefully Tuesday a little before 10 p.m., according to his family.

As published in the Oct. 24, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WINCHESTER -- The town's planning board faces a legal challenge to its handling of a new asphalt plant operating on Route 10 near the Winchester-Swanzey border.

As published on page one of the Oct. 22, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

It was all fun and games at the start.

But as the turn-of-the-century toy maker grew and evolved into a company that shipped customized manufacturing equipment around the world, it also became one of the pillars of Keene and its economic life.

As published in the Oct. 22 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The story of Kingsbury Corp.'s early years, told repeatedly in marketing brochures and historical pamphlets and by proud employees, is the stuff of legend.

As published in the Oct. 21, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WINCHESTER -- A statewide preservation organization has thrown its weight behind local efforts to save a dilapidated 200-year-old house on Winchester's Main Street from demolition.

As published on page one of the Oct. 21, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

They're coming.

In less than 24 hours, Keene's population will swell as pumpkin peepers from near and far descend on downtown for the city's 21st annual Pumpkin Festival.

As published in The Keene Sentinel.

WINCHESTER -- The asphalt plant isn't the only problem with Mitchell Sand and Gravel, according to neighbors of the business.

An explosion detonated last week at the gravel pit on Route 10 on the Winchester Swanzey border shook windows and raised ire in both towns.

As published in The Keene Sentinel.

WINCHESTER -- A statewide preservation organization has thrown its weight behind local efforts to save a dilapidated 200-year-old house on Winchester's Main Street from demolition.

As published in The Keene Sentinel.

It's a small piece of the federal budget, but the $5 billion program that helps people with low incomes purchase home heating oil is a big deal to those struggling to make ends meet through a New England winter.

As published in The Keene Sentinel.

Winter is always unpredictable. But when it comes to heating costs, homeowners have a bigger-than-usual question mark over the coming season.

As published in the Oct. 6, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

One of the Monadnock Regional School Board's newest members has been formally censured for what other members say is an unwelcome attitude.

As published in the Oct. 5, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel and online.

Before the legislative committee charged with re-dividing New Hampshire's 400 House seats among it 1.3 million people gets started, residents have a chance to weigh in on how they think the pie should be cut.

As published on page one of the Oct. 4, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel and online.

A struggling local manufacturer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday -- part of an ongoing effort to resurrect the company from beneath mounting debts and resume operations at what was once one of Keene's largest employers.

As published on page one of the Oct. 4, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WINCHESTER -- Tension continues to build concerning a recently opened asphalt plant on the Winchester-Swanzey border.

As published in the Oct. 3, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WINCHESTER -- The fate of a Main Street house will be in the balance again at the town zoning board meeting Thursday.

As published in the Oct 2, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel and online.

As published in the Oct. 2, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel and online.

STODDARD -- With a federal lawsuit hanging over its head, the town's zoning board is poised to resume operation after a spate of resignations that left it out of commission back in July.

As published in the Sept. 30, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

DUBLIN -- A former employee is suing the town, claiming her old boss created a work environment so uncomfortable she was forced to leave her job.

As published on page one of the Sept. 29, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A Massachusetts accountant has been charged with stealing more than $250,000 from a trust fund he supervised on behalf of the employees of a Peterborough company and with falsifying documents to hide that he had previously taken even more money.

As published in the Sept. 29, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Keene voters go to the polls on Tuesday for the municipal primary -- even though none of the races for city officials has enough candidates for anyone to be eliminated.

As published on page one of the Sept. 28, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Former N.H. Rep. David A. Young's latest appearance in the news may be his most surprising -- and mysterious -- to date.

As published on page one of the Sept. 27 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

All kinds of conflicts are resolved in courtrooms, from the aftermath of murder and embezzlement to loans that can't be repaid and marriages that haven't worked out.

Judges -- the people with the training and authority to make legal decisions -- are essential to the functioning of the court. And in New Hampshire these days, judges are in short supply.

As published on page one of the September 23, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The city may not drain Robin Hood Pond after all.

Instead of replacing Robin Hood Dam, the almost 120-year-old earthen dam that creates the pond in a park on the eastern side of Keene, officials now say they can reinforce the structure -- a solution that should cause less disruption in the park.

As published on page one of the September 20, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WINCHESTER -- An asphalt plant that drew vocal protests in the spring went online late last month, and neighbors say it's just as they expected: It stinks.

As published on page one of the September 17, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

BRATTLEBORO -- Stanley Lynde sat in a folding chair outside of Lynde Motorsports on Flat Street Friday afternoon, enjoying the sunny, crisp weather and the company of a half-dozen friends.

"I haven't done any work to get paid for since the flood," he said, sounding unexpectedly cheerful.

As published on page one of the September 15, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The Keene-based Kingsbury Corp. is down but not out, according to owner Iris A. Mitropoulis, who speaks with confidence of a recovery by the 117-year-old manufacturing firm.

As published in the September 15, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The Swanzey factory and Keene storefront of Trikeenan Tileworks will be closed by the end of October, according to the attorney representing the company's new owners.

As published on page one of the September 13, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

By mid afternoon Monday, nearly 30 people could be seen in Keene's Central Square.

They sat in small groups in the bandstand, on the park benches and on the ledge around the water fountain.

As published on page one of a special commemorative insert in The Keene Sentinel on Sept 11, 2011, and online.

It was 10 years ago and hundreds of miles away, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are still clear in the memories of Monadnock Region residents.

As published on page one of the Sept. 8, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

More and more people are loitering in public places downtown, some Keene residents say, and that has them concerned.

As published on page one of the August 30, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- A trail of muddy footprints led up the stairs of the town's municipal center Monday afternoon, as residents and business owners from flood-ravaged Brattleboro neighborhoods gathered hoping to learn when, and how, they will be able to rebuild their lives.

As published on page one of the August 29, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- Flooding from rains caused by Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc on Brattleboro Sunday.

Many West Brattleboro residents remain evacuated from their homes, and roads in the area were decimated. The flooding extended into the heart of the downtown central business district.

"At this point it's overwhelming. We have so many areas of concern we're trying to prioritize -- where do we go first?" Selectboard Chairman Richard A. DeGray told reporters this morning.

As published on page one of the August 28, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

By 11 a.m. on Saturday, President Barack Obama had declared Hurricane Irene's arrival in New Hampshire a pre-landfall emergency disaster.

The air in Keene was still and heavy with humidity. Flags hung straight down on flagpoles.

As published in the August 25, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

An assortment of young people took to Keene's Central Square with brooms, rakes and a bucket of soapy water Wednesday afternoon in an effort to help clean up their image.

As published on page one of the August 21 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A few days after the fatal stabbing of a local high school student in downtown Keene last month, Margaret Green stopped by Central Square.

As published on page one of the August 16, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Starting in the 2012 election, individual Keene voters will be choosing fewer members of the N.H. House -- a change that some representatives say may challenge Democratic control of the city's seven-member delegation.

As published on page three of the August 3, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A little over a week after the stabbing death of a Keene High School student in downtown Keene, some area residents are searching for a way to permanently memorialize the slain youth as an alternative to the graffiti that has appeared since he died.

As published on page one of the August 2, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

MARLBOROUGH -- Flashes of green peeked out among the more formal black funeral attire at the graveside memorial service for a slain Keene High School student Monday morning.

Hundreds of friends, family and classmates of Craig Metivier clustered around a red and black urn to pay their last respects to the 17-year-old, who died from a stab wound on Dunbar Street in Keene on July 24.

As published on page one of the July 27, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The stabbing death of a Keene High School student has triggered a time of public mourning by the victim's friends in Keene, raising some eyebrows among downtown residents and property owners.

As published on page one of the July 26, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The Keene High School student and the teenager accused of taking his life traveled in the same social circle for years.

And there was a time -- not long ago -- when the two young men were friends.

As published on page one of the July 25, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A 17-year-old male was stabbed and killed in Keene on Sunday night, according to people who identified themselves as friends of the victim.

As published on page 13 of the July 23, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

SWANZEY -- The ABTech crew is floating on air.

The Swanzey company designs and manufactures machinery with moving parts separated by pressurized air -- air bearings -- for use in high-tech applications, including jet engines and machines for making optical lenses.

The 13-year-old firm is handling twice as many orders as it had this time last year, according to Kenneth D. Abbott, company president.

As published on page one of the July 5, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Redevelopment of the old Keene Middle School building is likely to happen the way it was built: one section at a time.

As published on page one of the June 29, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Personal stories told with passion are the mark of fathers who decry the role the legal system has played in their families' lives.

Fathers' rights activists make headlines from time to time. Their actions can be silly, as in the case of British activists who periodically dress as comic book superheroes and scale public buildings. Or, they can be tragic, as in Thomas J. Ball's recent public suicide outside the Cheshire County Court House in Keene.

But the questions these activists raise touch on fundamental social issues of family, justice and the roles that men and women play in the world.

As published on page one of the June 17, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

For a time Wednesday evening, Thomas Ball's death outside the Cheshire County Court House transformed a familiar spot in the heart of Keene into a landscape of grim-faced first responders, sobbing witnesses, emergency vehicles parked at odd angles and passers-by who held cell phones tight to their ears.

Twenty-four hours later, little evidence remained that Ball, at 5:30 p.m., took his life by setting himself on fire.

As published on page one of the June 16, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

A man who was found dead after he was seen ablaze outside the Cheshire County Court House in Keene has not yet been identified, police said.

Police and fire officials responded to a report of a person on fire at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

As published on page one of the June 4, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WESTMORELAND -- Ernest Hebert's ninth novel will be published in September. Titled "Never Back Down" and set in Keene, it chronicles 40 years in the life of a French-Canadian member of southern New Hampshire's working class.

"It's my life if I hadn't gone to college," Hebert says.

Hebert, who turned 70 in May, is a tenured professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, where he heads the creative writing program. But his road to the Ivy League was long -- and it ran almost entirely through the Monadnock Region.

As published on page one of the May 12, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WALPOLE -- Golfers should enjoy the Hooper Golf Club while they can.

Two years from now, the course may be sold.

As published in the May 5, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Among the bright decorations on the door to the Monadnock Community Early Learning Center in Peterborough is a yellow sign reminding visitors of the clothing collection bin in the center parking lot.

"We get $$ for every pound of clothing and shoes," it reads.

As published in the April 20, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

STODDARD -- Cell phone users waiting for reception where Route 9 passes through Stoddard will keep waiting.

As published on page one of the April 6, 2011 edition of the Keene Sentinel, and online.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House unveiled a budget plan Tuesday that took aim at two of the biggest recipients of federal dollars: Medicare and Medicaid.

What are these programs -- with their confusingly similar names -- and how are they used here in the Monadnock Region?

As published on page 13 of the April 2, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Six men sat down to share a lunch of pizza and Pepsi at Structal Bridges in Claremont on Monday. Three were experienced metal workers with between two years and more than a decade of experience with the company, shaping and assembling metal beams into bridges and overpasses for installation around the Northeast.

As published on page one of the March 5, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

SULLIVAN -- Tiffany Briggs is a farmer, and she wants more people to understand what that means.

As published on page 13 of the February 26, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

The banner across the website of the Westmoreland-based company Polyonics reads: "Polyonics ... means high quality and high performance in any language."

As published on page one of the February 19, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Asked how she imagined her retirement, Janet LaBelle laughed.

As published on page one of the Feb 13, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

WALPOLE -- When George L. Hooper looked out over his estate a century ago, he pictured an educational institution dedicated to training the youth of Walpole for careers in agriculture and forestry. Nothing in his last will and testament indicates he pictured a golf course.

As published on page 13 of the January 31, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Standing on a bale of hay at Stonewall Farm on a recent afternoon, 4-year-old Sara Dafeldecker laced small pieces of hay into her father's hair as he talked about his family's relationship with the farm.

Sara has been drinking fresh-from-the-cow, unpasteurized milk from Stonewall Farm for her entire life, Kai Dafeldecker said. The Swanzey family picks up the milk from a refrigerator in a room attached to the cattle barn each week. Sara knows the cows by name.

But these regular visits will come to an end on March 31, when the farm stops selling raw milk to consumers. Dafeldecker and his wife, Jenn, say they will continue to visit for events, but it won't be the same.

As published on page 13 of the December 31, 2010 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Tweet. Follow. Friend.

Internet-based social media has been adding new shades of meaning to old words for years. But what once may have seemed a frivolous pastime for the young and idle has become a daily part of doing business in a range of local industries, from retail to manufacturing and hospitality to professional development.

As published on page one of the November 13, 2010 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.

Professor James Waller paces as he lectures. His hands jump around in front of his torso, spatially acting out ideas as he speaks. He makes eye contact with his students and calls on them by name.

The projector screen displays the flow charts and bullet points of a social psychologist, and deals in abstract academic language of group identity, cultural constructions and socialization. Speaking to this roomful of undergraduates, however, Waller alternates between lighthearted anecdotes and calm, detailed scenes from some of the most violent and heartbreaking events in human history.

The course title is "Genocide."

Sedgwick Avenue residents got an unwelcome holiday surprise on a recent morning when they discovered their neighborhood had become a construction site.

"One day we came out and all of a sudden there are signs saying 'tow away zone,'" said Danalyn Velez, who lives near the winding stretch of road between Giles Place and Stevenson Place.

In West Africa, a new United Nations initiative aims to organize crime fighters against organized crime.

In addition to the flow of cocaine passing though West African coastal ports en route from Latin America to Europe, the region is home to black-market trades in counterfeit medicine, stolen oil, human beings and small arms, as well as the dumping of toxic and electronic wastes, according to a regional report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime this month.

It's a sunny spring afternoon, and a handful of residents are spending time on the stoop of Jasmine Court, on the corner of 138th Street and Bruckner Boulevard. Trucks rumble on and off the expressway. Pedestrians hurry past.

Laura Barksdale, 52, says she sits outside because she likes to watch the people go by. But she acknowledges Port Morris is not the most comfortable place to hang out outdoors.

"There's nowhere to relax and sit around," she said. "There's nowhere to go."

The United States on Friday, June 19 became a full member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, having previously shunned the three-year-old body.

The world now waits to see what this change of course will mean for international dialogue on human rights.

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan may be a wanted man, but his day in court could be years away.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Bashir in March 2009, charging that his government has been promoting widespread killing and rape among millions of civilians displaced by the ongoing civil war in Darfur and preventing food and medicine from reaching those civilians. Since then, Bashir has defied the warrant and remained in power in Sudan.

By Kate Zhao & Sarah Trefethen

As published in the New York City News Service

Brooklyn - The stained glass windows, pipe organ and varnished wood could be taken for any U.S. church, at any time. So could the cheery, sing-along hymns - at least until hundreds of voices rise up to praise the lord in Mandarin.

Tian Fu Church started in Sunset Park only five years ago, sharing space with a small Latino congregation in a church built a century ago for a Norwegian parish. Tian Fu's founder, the Rev. Zhaodeng Peng, said his flock in New York City's third Chinatown has grown to include more than a thousand believers.

It sounds like something your mother told you to never do in public, but the little-understood Uniform Land Use Review Procedure is a powerful force in the world of New York real estate.

Every inch of New York City, both public and private land, is granted a municipal identity through city rules that dictate what can be done where.

If you want the rules on a section of land waived or modified you have to ask permission - from just about everyone. The procedure is outlined in the city charter, and the details are fleshed out in the City Planning Commission's own set of rules.

as published in the Norwood News

Ozzie Brown looks at the oil-drenched industrial stretch of Webster Avenue and sees a completely different future for this wide corridor that runs parallel to the Bronx River.

"We want to see bookstores, museums and cafés, so that it has a village feel," said Brown, the chair of Community Board 7's Land Use Committee. "We want to see nightlife, cuisine and culture."

The Department of City Planning, working closely with Brown's committee and the whole board, have drafted a plan designed to bring in new apartment buildings, stores and businesses on Webster, between Fordham Road and Gun Hill Road.

The MTA needs a bailout. The agency plans to make up it's budget deficit by increasing user fees and cutting back on services. Some bus and subway lines are slated to be eliminated entirely.

Fernando Tirado, the Community District Manager for Bronx Dixtrict 7, which includes the neighborhoods of Fordham, Norwood and Bedford Park, is concerned that reductions in MTA services will hit his community particularly hard.

"There's already such an economic divide as it is. People have to travel farther to go to work and do their shopping," Tirado said. "Increasing the cost of the only means these people have to travel outside their communities just isn't fair."

As published in the Norwood News:

On a Sunday last month, in a temporarily converted funeral home in Bedford Park, the Rev. Doug Cunningham preached about change. Standing without a podium or pulpit and speaking without notes, he talked about changing unhealthy lifestyles, government, public schools, the church’s attitudes toward homosexuality and the changes God can make in your life.

This was the first ever worship service of New Day United Methodist Church, a small but passionate group of Christians in search of a permanent home, an open-minded congregation and every opportunity to bring their justice-based message to the north Bronx.

As published in the Downtown Express...

South Street Seaport Museum’s scrappy W.O. Decker is the Tug of the Year.

The 52-foot-long, 78-year-old vessel owned by the Seaport Museum headed to Waterford, N.Y. Sept. 5 to claim her title at the tenth annual Waterford Tugboat Roundup.