This Week’s Essential StateImpact

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These are our five posts you've dug the most this week

It was a varied news week for the business and economy beat–as our traffic patterns proved.  Our most popular pieces covered issues ranging from the State of the Union address to green jobs to Northern Pass and credit card debt.  So if you missed any of the five key posts our readers are talking about, we’ve your weekly roundup of the Essential StateImpact ready to roll.

How A Start-Up Incubator Is Racing Against The Clock To Create Jobs: Our top post this week takes you inside a stimulus-funded green business (and jobs) incubator–the Green Launching Pad.  We look at where it’s succeeded, where it’s potentially struggling, and how effective it’s been at jump starting the state’s green economy.

Study: NH Ranks #2 In US For Credit Card Debt: Purported Yankee frugality aside, new data shows the Granite State is near the top of the heap in terms of credit card debt.  We look into why, and provide tables showing how New Hampshire stacks-up to the country’s highest- and lowest-debt states.

Visualizing The State Of The Union Address (And The GOP Response): With so much heavy-duty analysis floating in the national news ether, we decided to offer you a visual aid that doubles as brain candy.  With our handy-dandy word clouds, you can quickly and easily compare the major themes of the State of the Union address, along with the Republican response.

Why Eminent Domain Bills Are Center Stage In Northern Pass Controversy: This is one of our posts that took awhile to pick up steam, and then took off.  Using recent coverage from several news outlets, we give you the lowdown on why eminent domain is becoming more and more important this legislative session.

Will Northern Pass Create Jobs? It Depends On Which Study You Believe:  A Northern Pass rival commissioned a study disputing the project’s job creation estimates.  Which one is right?  We’ve posted both studies for your review.