StateImpact NH

Recently, the Obama Administration announced plans to change Labor Department rules so that home care workers–personal care aides and home health aides–are guaranteed federal minimum wage and overtime pay.

Since the economic collapse, the commercial real estate market has been faced with a glut of vacant buildings. And that chief icon of American consumerism–the shopping mall–hasn't been spared. But that's not to say these massive markets can't be reclaimed. Recently, NHPR's Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott dished with a New York Times reporter about the rising trend of "repurposing" the American mall.

By far, our most popular post to date is a map we created using federal data on which states offer minimum wage and overtime guarantees to home health workers, and which don't.

The debate over the economic impacts of HB 593 (or "The Casino Bill," if you will) continues. As Kevin Landrigan of the Nashua Telegraph reports, discussion of the bill continued Monday, when the House Ways and Means committee listened to about three hours of public testimony:

A new report finds that Granite State communities are leaning more and more heavily on property taxes. Examining data from 2007–2010, the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies found:

Coos County residents receive far more help in federal funds than the national average, according StateImpact NH, a project between NHPR and NPR.

StateImpact’s Amanda Loder examined a recent story in The New York Times that investigated how much help various counties nationwide get from the federal government.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, small government–at all levels–is something of a signature issue in the "Live Free or Die" state.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America is eyeing a spot in New Hampshire. The for profit chain wants to build a hospital in the Northeast.

Today at 1:30, the resurrected Right To Work bill comes up for public hearing at the Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee.  Given union reaction to the legislation last year, and to other bills targeting collective bargaining this session, it promises to be an eventful hearing.

And we’ll be liveblogging it at Representatives hall, shortly before the hearing begins.

The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee has already heard a number of controversial bills targeting collective bargaining. And unions have responded in force.

A new report released by the New Hampshire Housing and Finance Authority shows home foreclosures spiked in December 2011–up 35 percent from that November.

Jane Law of the Housing Authority says foreclosures have been declining since their peak in 2010, and December's jump might be an anomaly,

"The biggest factor is just mortgage companies are just kind of clearing out some inventory before the end of the year, which is the end of their tax year usually."

After years of speculation on a "jobless recovery," finally, things could be looking up–at least for the moment. This week, the Bureau of Labor statistics reported some serious gains on the national jobs front for January, with the creation of 243,000 jobs.

One of the big issues in the New Hampshire business community this legislative session is the push to continue deregulating utilities. The state's current power regulation model is something of a hybrid between old-fashioned regulation and deregulation.

One of the key consequences of the economic collapse a few years ago was the passage of a massive piece of legislation called the "Dodd-Frank Act." The bill was co-sponsored by (now-retired) Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and (soon-to-be-retired) Democratic Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank.