Granite State Organizing Project

05/29/2026

NH Sea Grant awards over $1M to coastal research on PFAS, flooding, and fisheries

Erik Chapman runs the New Hampshire Sea Grant, a federal-state partnership that provides the awards every year. He said what sets these projects apart is how they’re working with communities, businesses and government agencies to find solutions.

“It’s really what makes sense when you’re trying to make a difference in the world. Solutions to problems don’t typically come from one kind of approach or another,” he said. “They require combining different ways of doing things.”

One team is working with the city of Portsmouth to develop sensors to track the timing and location of flooding at the city scale to provide communities the data and tools to prepare for and respond to these major storms.

Full article from Hampshire Public Radio here: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-05-27/nh-sea-grant-coastal-research-pfas-flooding-cod-fisheries

05/29/2026

Right on time, good news Friday delivers.

Hoping you take this energy and momentum with you into whatever this weekend has in store for you!

"A proposal to build a data center in Nottingham has been withdrawn just hours before it was slated to be discussed by the town’s planning board on Wednesday night.

Opponents had organized a protest against the proposal ahead of the meeting Wednesday, with the planning board anticipating “a significant turnout,” according to Drew Stevens, chair of the planning board, who confirmed it was withdrawn."

Link to article: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-05-27/nottingham-data-center-proposal-withdrawn-after-backlash

05/28/2026

Beautiful mural to honor a beautiful story of strength and resilience.

We encourage all to go check it out and learn more about Ona's path

Judge escaped enslavement by George and Martha Washington 230 years ago.

05/28/2026

Another good piece on the link between minimum wages and public health!

Minimum Wage Increases Could Improve Health and Advance Equity

"Minimum wage increases have a positive effect on health and are associated with reduced rates of mortality due to suicides, alcohol or drugs, and improved parent-reported health among young children, among other key health indicators."

Link to full report here:

05/28/2026

“Too often in conversations around housing, there is a sense of a choice that has to be made, a choice between fighting to build more housing or fighting to organize to preserve the housing that we have,” Mamdani said. “And that doesn’t have to be the case any longer.”

Very cool to see this initiative begin to take shape in NY!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/zohran-mamdani-wades-housing-debate-plan-define-time-office-rcna346454

05/24/2026

The Economic Experiment That Upended Reality

Minimum-wage increases were expected to kill jobs. The fact that they didn’t should make us rethink a lot of assumptions.

"These were not people who disagreed with our goal of fighting inequality. But they were unwitting captives of an economic paradigm that said a $15 minimum wage had to be crazy. That paradigm, which we call the neoliberal consensus, generally holds that markets, left largely to themselves, allocate resources efficiently. One of its iron laws is that anything that forces employers to raise wages kills jobs. It was basic supply and demand: Make something (labor) more expensive, and you’ll get less of it. If you accepted that premise, then a $15 minimum wage was an act of economic madness that would harm the very people we were intending to help."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/minimum-wage-experiment-worked/687255/

05/24/2026

"The minimum wage is once again generating contentious political debates. Virtually all the arguments involve economics, however. Questions pertain to the effects of increases in the minimum wage on poverty, unemployment, automation, job quality, income of low-wage workers, work hours, and income inequality. Rarely, if ever, do debates mention public health. But all these factors—poverty through income inequality—are widely researched in the Social Determinants of Health literature."

link to some deep research here:

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05/24/2026

A Strong El Niño Could Be Coming. Countries Are Already Preparing.

Experts say a powerful El Niño weather pattern could be forming, which could put serious strain on a planet that is already dangerously heating up.

From time to time, ocean winds shift and the central and eastern Pacific Ocean experiences a heat wave.

The phenomenon, known as El Niño, occurs naturally roughly every three to seven years, and was documented well before people started raising the planet’s temperatures by burning huge amounts of fossil fuels.

But this year’s El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, and could arrive as the world is already experiencing some of the hottest temperatures in recorded history as a result of human-driven climate change.

Over the years, El Niño patterns have led to intense flooding in some parts of the world, while other areas, including some of the planet’s most important agricultural lands, face drought. Already, countries are preparing for the possibility of food shortages.

Link here! https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/climate/el-nino-weather-patterns-climate-change.html

05/23/2026

Critics of the policy say the longstanding system allowed families to stay together during the lengthy application process.

The new method could also make it difficult or impossible for some immigrants who leave the country in hopes of gaining a green card - which grants permanent residence in the US - to return...

More here on this backwards immigration decision!

A new policy closes a loophole that has allowed people to apply for a green card, or permanent residency, while in the country.