Here are the top stories at 7:30 a.m.:
Shares of FairPoint Communications jumped yesterday after a Wall Street analyst said the company’s planned purchase of Verizon assets in northern New England is likely to be approved, perhaps by year’s end; a promise to use 51 percent U.S. granite in the King memorial is no change; and a study by two free-market economists says Vermont has the lowest economic outlook index in the country.