Thanks to the work of the environmental movement, solar power plants and bicycle paths are being built. New Hampshire's biggest solar power facility will likely soon be built in Hinsdale, which borders Brattleboro. In Keene, the government is set to spend $412,000 to extend an existing bike path by four miles. Pedestrians are allowed to walk on the path. The only motorized vehicles allowed on it are snowmobiles. More information about the path is at:

www.keenepaths.com/trails/cheshire-rail-trail

The city held a public hearing about the planned improvements to the path on February 13.

Activists in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont are asking police to enforce existing laws against loud motorcycles. “Motorcycles come out of the factory quiet,” Ted Rueter told the Valley Post. “People illegally modify them so they make more noise.” Rueter works for Noise Free America, a group with chapters in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont and a web site at www.NoiseFree.org.

November 20 is the deadline for a coalition of labor, religious and community groups to submit 200,000 signatures on petitions that would let Massachusetts voters decide whether the state’s minimum wage should stay the same or increase, and whether workers should have the right to miss work when they’re sick. The group, Raise Up Massachusetts, filed the two proposed ballot questions with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office this summer. It has the support of both the state’s U.S. senators. The group can be reached via www.MassUniting.org.

Bullying by bosses leads some workers to commit acts of violence, and causes stress-related health problems in many more workers. Massachusetts is poised to become the first state in the nation to pass a law against workplace bullying. Vermont is likely to pass similar legislation next year. Legislation in New Hampshire is stalled.