POLITICAL BATTLES return to the State House this week as the House of Representatives prepares for spirited debates over abortion, lead paint testing and the Right-to-Know Law.

DON’T YOU LOVE IT when the facts obliterate a narrative/caricature?

LIKE MANY successful politicians, former President Donald Trump isn’t necessarily superstitious, but he is partial to venues that stir fond memories.

WITH ONLY A FEW bumps, the closely divided House was able to get through its massive pile of leftover bills last week.

THE CURTAIN GOES UP Wednesday on the 2024 legislative session, with lawmakers bracing for some long debates as they attempt to dispense with 325 bills left over from the 2023 meet.

WITH LITTLE FANFARE, Attorney General John Formella got permission last week to hire 10 new full-time staffers to serve under Medical Examiner Jennie Duval, a move he said would be “budget neutral” and might wind up saving the state a few bucks.

THE CAMPAIGN to encourage voters to write in President Joe Biden’s name on the New Hampshire presidential primary ballot will have some financial backing.

THERE IS NO ARGUING that former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s record campaign fundraising helps her status as the early favorite to replace Gov. Chris Sununu in 2024.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATE for governor Cinde Warmington of Concord got the kind of national media attention last week no one wants.

THE EDUCATION FUNDING court rulings last week will no doubt end up in the hands of the state Supreme Court.

LAST WEEK, Gov. Chris Sununu said he thought legalizing the sale of marijuana in New Hampshire was “inevitable.”

THE STATE’S LARGEST public employee union plans to play in both parties’ gubernatorial primaries in the 2024 election.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY Superior Court Judge Charles Temple upheld a 2022 Republican-backed law that requires those without identification to submit proof of eligibility within a week of voting or have their votes nullified.

SOMETIMES IT’S OUR JOB to debunk media reports, especially those affecting the first-in-the-nation primary.

THE CASE AGAINST former state senator and charity casino owner Andy Sanborn of Bedford entered a new, and more hostile, phase last week.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN dissed the New Hampshire presidential primary last week when he signed up to run in the Nevada primary in February.

LAST WEEK DIDN’T do much to boost House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm’s hopes of becoming speaker in 2024.

THE UNIVERSITY OF New Hampshire in Durham and Dartmouth College in Hanover are less than 100 miles apart.

SOME POLITICAL OBSERVERS jumped the gun last week in concluding that the powerful Republican Governors Association was taking sides and picking former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte as its choice of GOP candidates for governor in 2024.

THE TOPIC ISN’T sexy, but it’s a pivotal one for New Hampshire voters.

SECRETARY OF STATE David Scanlan is dropping some important news Wednesday.

A LONGSHOT presidential candidate who filed a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court to knock former President Donald Trump off the ballot in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary has quite a back story.

WHO WOULD HAVE expected Gov. Chris Sununu, a four-term Republican, to heap praise on a Democratic candidate to succeed him?

HOUSE SPEAKER Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, decided none of Gov. Chris Sununu‘s vetoes justifies bringing back lawmakers into session this fall.

IT’S NOT CAUSE for panic, but state revenues came up short of forecast in July.

CHRIS SUNUNU is fast becoming Governor Hot Take.

WHEN IT COMES to presidential primary politics, New Hampshire residents do not pay to play.

MEMO TO GOV. Chris Sununu:

THE STRATEGY BEHIND of seeking division — unrecorded — votes on the floor of the New Hampshire House of Representatives is a long and well-practiced one.

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE Federation of Republican Women is more united than the Russian Federation was in its heyday.

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU didn’t say anything about a veto, but supporters of a biomass plant in Berlin should keep a close watch on a bill that retains substantial subsidies that advocates say are needed to keep it open.

THE STARTLING AGREEMENT on a compromise state budget last week took many by surprise for how quickly it came together.

THE STATE SENATE made an 11th-hour effort at reviving one of its favorite topics in recent years — bail reform.

SENATE BUDGET WRITERS rejected a plea to alter how much money victims can receive for sexual and physical abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center and its predecessor, the Youth Development Center in Manchester.

AN AMBITIOUS PROPOSAL to deliver public pension benefits to nearly 2,000 state workers has a formidable enemy at the State House.

THE SENATE WAYS and Means Committee handed Senate budget writers a welcome gift a few days before Mother’s Day.

SENATE PRESIDENT Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, cracked the door ajar on Medicaid expansion, suggesting he might be able to swallow a sunset date for Medicaid expansion rather than insist that it had to be permanent.

ANYWHERE ELSE, getting 51 state reps to endorse you — as former President Donald Trump did last week — would be a head-turner.

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL will have a $31 million decision to make.