CONCORD: New Hampshire’s unemployment rate for December inched down a point, to 2.6 percent, from November and was well below the 3.8 percent rate in December 2020. Nationally, the rate is 3.9 percent, a 0.3 percent decline from November and 2.8 points lower than December 2020. But while there are fewer unemployed people in New Hampshire, there are also fewer people who are employed. The state’s labor force fell by 1,000 in December and a total of nearly 19,000 for the year. The average weekly wage in December is about 30 cents an hour more than November and $1.40 an hour higher than the same time last year, a 4.5 percent increase, but still below the consumer price index increase of 7 percent.

PORTSMOUTH: The Pease Development Authority board of directors agreed to a 180-day option on the two parcels for an air cargo facility at Portsmouth International Airport proposed jointly by the Kane Company and Procon Construction. Another air cargo proposal has been put forth by East West Aeronautical for the same parcel, but the board’s actions put the Procon/Kane proposal at least a full step ahead of the East West proposal.

MANCHESTER: Heather McGrail, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of membership and community partnerships, will take over as the organization’s interim president and CEO after current CEO Mike Skelton steps down from the job. McGrail, a Bedford resident, has worked for the chamber for five years and has nearly two decades of nonprofit and corporate experience. Skelton, who has led the chamber since 2014, announced late last year he will become president and CEO of the Concord-based Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire.

HAMPTON: The Hampton Planning Board is recommending voters support a zoning amendment to facilitate the future development of the state’s liquor store properties on Interstate 95. But the amendment doesn’t include the state Liquor Commission’s desire to allow a charitable gaming casino or hotel to be built there. The article will go before voters at the March 8 Town Meeting.

MANCHESTER: Kelsen Brewing Co. of Derry has won approval from the Manchester Zoning Board to operate a brewery in the former American Legion Post 79 building at 35 W. Brook St. in downtown Manchester. Kelsen had to find a new location for its seven-barrel brew plant after the multi-tenant commercial building it is in now was acquired by the state to construct a new exit off Interstate 93.

BETHLEHEM: Casella Waste Systems, a Vermont-based landfill operator, must pay $50,000 to a conservation trust and remediate at a Bethlehem landfill to end a federal suit brought by environmental advocacy groups. The suit was filed in 2018, with advocacy organizations Toxics Action Center, Inc. and the Conservation Law Foundation alleging that Casella had violated the Clean Water Act when part of its Bethlehem landfill leached contaminated fluids into groundwater that filtered into the nearby Ammonoosuc River. The settlement requires Casella to remove contaminated soil from a drainage channel and repair the channel, with work to be completed within the next three years.

QUINCY, MASS.: Atlantic Broadband, the nation’s eighth-largest cable operator, has rebranded as Breezeline. The change follows the company’s acquisition of two cable systems in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, in September, which expanded the company’s serviceable households and businesses to more than 1.6 million. In addition to recent growth through acquisitions, the company has launched a major fiber expansion initiative that will extend connectivity to more than 70,000 additional homes and businesses in New Hampshire and West Virginia via fiber-to-the-home technology.