PORTSMOUTH – The City Council retreat started with a bang Friday as Mayor Tom Ferrini announced his intention to ask for no increase in the next city budget.

PORTSMOUTH — The City Council and School Board will hold the first of two work sessions Monday night that they hope will bridge any divides on the future of Portsmouth Middle School.

PORTSMOUTH — The embattled Sarah Mildred Long bridge was open to vehicular traffic Friday morning after engineers and the project contractor spent much of the night testing the lift system.

RYE — A baby sitter and an infant escaped harm after an unattended candle caused a second-floor apartment on Sagamore Road to erupt into a fully involved fire that destroyed the building.

DURHAM — Members of the second fraternity to be stripped of campus privileges and recognition at the University of New Hampshire faced a Durham District Court judge Thursday morning on charges of hazing and underage drinking.

EXETER — Smack in the middle of a weekend of holiday celebrations — including the Festival of Trees and the Exeter Holiday Parade — is a concert by Livingston Taylor.

PORTSMOUTH — Plans are under way by the Pease Development Authority to give southern Seacoast bicycle commuters access to the tradeport from Route 33, without having to deal with traffic turning onto or getting off Interstate 95.

HAMPTON BEACH — On a crisp, sparkling Thursday morning at Hampton Beach, seven community members lighted up the stage in Ashworth by the Sea's main ballroom as honorees of the Great Bay chapter of the American Red Cross.

RYE — A unique avenue is being used to help the Rye family who lost their home and possessions in a late-morning fire Thursday on Sagamore Road.

PORTSMOUTH — For the first time, the City Council will hold a retreat to discuss potential policy initiatives on the most pressing issues facing the city.

PORTSMOUTH — A local teen charged with raping a 14-year-old girl last Thanksgiving was sentenced to jail and ordered to undergo a sex offender evaluation.

PORTSMOUTH — Three days after the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge reopened, it was closed again, twice, on Thursday following electrical malfunctions

PORTSMOUTH — Firefighters knocked down a vehicle fire after a paper-shredding truck burst into flames Thursday morning.

PORTSMOUTH — Police were called on Tuesday regarding threats made to a downtown bookstore where an MIT physics professor and author was scheduled to speak the following day.

YORK, Maine — A gentle man who found it easy to talk with princes and paupers, a fast friend, a civic leader who loved his town, a father and husband who wove an abiding familial cloth of mutual respect, admiration and love.

PORTSMOUTH — A meeting between Maine and New Hampshire on the fate of the Memorial Bridge could be coming soon.

ELIOT, Maine — Police here arrested a local woman after her vehicle plowed into a telephone pole Monday morning.

SEABROOK — Newbury-port, Mass., police have charged a local man with a felony of kidnapping after he reportedly took his mother from her nursing home on Wednesday night.

TOPEKA, Kan. — A former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders is set to die next month in what would be the U.S. military's first execution in nearly 50 years.

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — Cookie Smith was surprised to learn the fake lawn that earned her a home-beautification award violated a city ban on artificial grass.

BOSTON — It took six days for builders to put together a modular classroom with wood panels and walls of windows on a concrete plaza in Boston this week.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Red ink continued to spill Thursday in the State House as state budget reviewers got a new report on plunging revenues and officials confirmed their belief that the shortfall for the current fiscal year will be just shy...

Associated Press

MANCHESTER — Family members of fallen Manchester police officer Michael Briggs are expected to testify at the sentencing hearing of convicted murderer Michael Addison.

FRANCONIA (AP) — The federal government is supporting a land swap that is key to New Hampshire expanding its Cannon Mountain ski area.

CONCORD — New Hampshire officials have been trying to lure Massachusetts businesses over the border for years by touting the state's low taxes and high quality of life, but in this economic downturn, recruiters are turning to wining and dining.

What's Bill Ball's No. 1 concern entering Saturday's Division II championship game? It has to be his team's offense.

Thank goodness for second chances. That may be what St. Thomas Aquinas football coach Rod Wotton is telling himself this week.

DURHAM — Strange as it sounds, University of New Hampshire hockey coach Dick Umile saw some things last weekend that he liked.

BOSTON — Rajon Rondo had 18 points and eight assists, outplaying new Pistons acquisition Allen Iverson and leading the Boston Celtics to a 98-80 victory over Detroit on Thursday night in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference finals.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Matt Cassel gave words of encouragement to one of the Heisman Trophy winners who kept him on the bench at Southern California.

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox have promoted three players to their major league roster.

NEW YORK (AP) — For more than three decades, George Steinbrenner's imprints were all over the New York Yankees.

DIVISION II CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

NEW YORK -- Wall Street put a stop to a terrifying decline and stormed higher Friday as President-elect Barack Obama appeared ready to tap the chief of the New York Federal Reserve as the next treasury secretary and hand him the herculean task of...

GREENLAND — Beginning this weekend, residents and businesses who want to buy "green" will be able to enjoy one-stop shopping right here on the Seacoast.

PORTSMOUTH - Sandi McCormack, NP, has joined the practice of Doctors Thomas Clairmont Jr., Paris Khavari and James Fieseher.

PORTSMOUTH - RiverRun Bookstore has a brand new web site with exciting features, including the ability to order books online and get them shipped for free.

PORTLAND, Maine — AAA forecasts a small decline in the number of Americans traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

WASHINGTON — NOAA's Fisheries Service announced this week that the states of Massachusetts and Maine will each be eligible for up to $2 million, and New Hampshire will be eligible for up to $1 million in disaster aid to assist the shellfishing...

WARREN, N.J. — Nearly three in five (58 percent) female business owners anticipate that their organizations' revenues will grow in 2009, and 44 percent do not expect difficulty in obtaining access to credit, according to the 2008 Business Risk...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — New England is sliding into a "significant recession" and is expected to lose a quarter-million jobs during the rest of the decade. Economists at the New England Economic Partnership forecast Thursday that unemployment...

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks plunged for a second straight day Thursday, falling to a ranges not seen in six years as financial and energy stocks tumbled and as demand for the safety of government debt spiked to historic levels. Stocks, which had...

Associated Press

Portsmouth

The Commissioner's Roundtable on Cultural and Heritage Tourism rolled into Portsmouth this week.