This Week’s Essential StateImpact

January 6, 2012 | 3:00 PM

By Amanda Loder

• Comment
• Email
• Tweet

It’s late Friday afternoon.  And we wouldn’t blame you for feeling a bit fidgety at your desk.  So in the spirit of combating pre-weekend restlessness, we bring you this week’s roundup of our most popular posts–the stuff people are talking about, and you just might’ve missed in the mid-week bustle.

1. The Ultimate NH Primary Cheat Sheet: Where The Candidates Stand on Economic Policy: This is by far our most popular post of the week, in terms of both clicks and comments.  We break down the Republican presidential candidates’ economic plans into easy-to-read roundups of their views of personal taxes, corporate taxes, and government spending.

2. The States With The Best And Worst Wage Laws For Home Health Workers: Our top post of 2011 is still drawing a respectable number of clicks (and reams of comments).  This color-coded map illustrates which states have minimum wage and overtime provisions for home health workers, which have neither, and which fall somewhere in between.

3. Conservationists Battle For Land Sought By Northern Pass: Our take on the big Northern Pass story at the start of 2011 caught your attention.  We boil down Union-Leader coverage of the Forest Society’s race to raise $850,000 for a conservation easement on some Balsam’s property.  The land is reportedly crucial for the Northern Pass project.

4. Days Before The Primary, Restaurant Bans Politicians: The tale of Colby’s Breakfast & Lunch in Portsmouth was making the online rounds this week.  This is our take on the SeacoastOnline.com story that offers a waitress-eye view of NH’s retail politics, complete with dishy stories on well-known politicos and juicy quotes.

5. The 2011 NH Legislature in Review: The “Open for Business” Session: A little preview of the new legislative session.  House Republican leadership says they’ll be focused on business.  How does that focus look so far?  And what’s left to go?