The Bulletin week in review

Good morning, New Hampshire. As we begin to acclimate ourselves to September on this Labor Day Weekend, here’s a look back at the past week of Bulletin coverage and commentary. Thank you for reading, and for supporting our work. — Dana

By William Skipworth

In his effort to convince voters to send him to the U.S. Senate, Chris Pappas, who currently represents the eastern half of New Hampshire in the U.S. House of Representatives, has begun touting an agenda to keep big money out of politics. “One of the major issues that we’re hearing about everywhere across New Hampshire is how we confront the culture of corruption in Washington, how we address the influence of big money in our political system, which is so corrosive to our democracy,” Pappas said at an event in Manchester last month. But others in the race, including Karishma Manzur and Scott Brown, argue those efforts are “too little, too late.”

By Maya Mitchell

With the price of childcare for New Hampshire families rivaling college tuition, more are looking to the state’s scholarship program for assistance. New data shows that in the past fiscal year, usage of the program increased, while the state is spending over $12 million more than the previous year.

By Molly Rains

A spate of cyberattacks on water systems in at least 12 states this July brought national attention to a growing concern for water operators in New Hampshire and across the country. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is not aware of any impacts to state systems from that particular spree of attacks, but a spokesman said the “systems are always being probed” by would-be hackers. It’s a constant and evolving threat, operators told the Bulletin, and the advent and evolution of advanced artificial intelligence is rapidly making bad actors more capable.