Tight Race in New Hampshire

House set in Manchester could make a different in D.C. balance of power

Former Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta hopes to unseat Representative Carol Shea-Porter to win the 1st Congressional seat in New Hampshire this mid-term election.

A Republican, Frank Guinta served two terms as mayor of Manchester. He was elected twice to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives. If elected to the U.S. Congress, he says he will work to reverse President Obama’s health care package. Guinta wants to lower taxes, cut spending, and reduce violent crime.

Democrat Shea-Porter is seeking her third term in the U.S House of Representatives. When elected in November 2006 she beat incumbent Jeb Bradley. She beat him again in the 2008 election.

Shea-Porter is the first New Hampshire woman to have been elected to a national office. She was inspired to run for congress after volunteering during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. She noticed the poor federal response and decided someone from New Hampshire needed to speak up.

According to recent popularity polls by WMUR-TV and the University of New Hampshire taken on October 15, Guinta has taken the lead. Polls shows Guinta with 48 percent of likely voters to Carol Shea-Porter’s 36 percent. 

Shea-Porter is winning the money race. Currently she has $605,595 on hand, while Guinta has $421,000. Most of Guinta’s funding is coming from the national Republican Party, which has targeted this seat as a possible win in their attempt to regain a majority of votes in Congress.

You can check back here on Election night November 2 for results as I am one of many Kid Reporters covering important races around the nation.

And don’t’ forget: Remind your parents to vote!

—Chloe Conway

PHOTOS: (Top) Former Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta. (Photo Courtesy Frank Guinta) (Bottom) Representative Carol Shea-Porter (Photo Courtesy Carol Shea-Porter)

Scholastic Summer Challenge Shout Out

Purple Sea Stars win the reading challenge.

From May to August I logged in my minutes on the Scholastic Summer Challenge. The Summer Challenge was perfect for me because I love to spend my time reading a great book. Since it was a very rainy, cloudy, and cool summer where I live, I had a lot of time on my hands and a wonderful excuse to read.

The books I enjoyed reading the most during the Summer Challenge were Little Women and the Harry Potter series. I could relate to Little Women because I have three sisters and the book is about the lives of four sisters. It was a heartwarming story and I highly recommend it. I enjoyed Harry Potter because it was a magical enchanting book! (I enjoy magic!)

I also enjoyed writing a book review on Chasing Vermeer when I was captain. I was lucky to be the Purple Sea Stars team captain during the month of May. I am extremely proud of everyone on the team! The Purple Sea Stars clocked the most reading minutes in May, June, July, and August and won the Summer Challenge! The team also earned a total of four participation awards. I think all the teams did very well and placed very close to each other.

Each month was dedicated to a different program from Save the Children. May was Early Childhood, June was Physical Activity and Nutrition, July was Literacy, and August was Emergency Relief. The program that got an extra bonus that everyone voted for was Emergency Relief!

There was so much to do on the Scholastic Summer Challenge Web site that I did not even come close to exploring every nook and cranny of it. I loved taking quizzes, changing my profile, sending shout outs and playing games. I also enjoyed reading kids’ posts and comments on the message board. I hope that there will be another program like this during the school year or next summer.

When I went on the Summer Challenge Web site a smile always lit up my face. The Web site is so colorful and cheery that it affects your mood! You’ll never get bored if you keep on exploring. I especially love how you’re not just reading for the sake of reading, but you’re reading for a good cause.

—Chloe Conway

Chocolate Power!

Can chocolate help the environment?

Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), the state’s largest electricity producer, and Lindt Chocolate in Stratham, New Hampshire, have come together to go green with chocolate.

Lindt will begin processing chocolate at its plant in Stratham by the end of 2009. The company plans to contribute its leftover cocoa bean shells to PSNH. 

PSNH is experimenting with turning those shells into electricity by burning them along with coal in their Schiller Station power plant in Portsmouth. Mixing a biomass product like cocoa shells with coal reduces the amount of carbon dioxide the power plant emits into the atmosphere.

PSNH and Lindt hope that by burning this mixture they might be able to reduce each of their companies’ carbon footprints. Both PSNH and Lindt hope that replacing a fossil fuel with a biomass product like cocoa shells will lead to greener power.

—Chloe Conway

PHOTO: Cocoa beans in a shell sits on a bag of already shelled cocoa beans. The discarded shell can be burned to produce energy. Credit: istockphoto.com