This Week’s Essential StateImpact

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Our weekly roundup of the StateImpact posts that lit up the internet

In honor of the awesomeness that’s the Friday afternoon weekly wind-down, we’re proud to present this week’s Top 5 StateImpact posts.

  1. Has The Stimulus Created Jobs In NH? Depends On How You Slice The Numbers: Since its passage in 2009, the question of whether the so-called “Stimulus Package” has actually created jobs crops up.  We offer a couple of New Hampshire-centric perspectives.  (And, of course, some good data.)
  2. How–And Why–NH Resurrected A Help Center For Women Entrepreneurs: The return of a women entrepreneur-oriented help center has been a cause for celebration in the state’s business community.  We explain how the new Center for Women’s Business Advancement hopes to avoid some of the pitfalls its predecessor faced.
  3. Latest Links: Brewery Accident Victim Identified, NH To Get Slice Of $500 Million MetLife Settlement: Sometimes, our morning link roundups catch your eye.
  4. Exploding Keg Kills Redhook Brewery Worker”: Our link to the latest coverage of this terrible accident, courtesy of SeacoastOnline.com
  5. Five Reasons Why Angel Investors (Think “Shark Tank”) Matter To The Economy: This post lifts the curtain a bit on the murky, high-risk angel investment market.

Why Obama’s Pushing Student Debt As A Campaign Issue (And Why It Matters To NH)

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President Obama's adopted student debt as one of his big campaign issues

One of the stories we try to check-up on regularly at StateImpact is New Hampshire’s student debt situation.  The average Granite Stater carries $31,000 in student debt–more than anyone else in the country.  The US House is set to vote today on whether cuts to student loan interest rates will expire this summer.  If so, the interest rate will double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

And, as a number of media outlets have noted, President Obama’s latched onto the student debt debate as a campaign issue.

Recently, NHPR political reporter Josh Rogers spoke with Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott about this latest round of electoral gamesmanship.  Here are some highlights. Continue Reading

Follow-Up: Opposition Crystallizes Against So-Called “Agent Orange Corn”

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Opposition is swirling around a new type of genetically modified corn

One of our most popular posts has been our Q&A with former Stonyfield CEO and organic food crusader Gary Hirshberg.  A substantial part of our interview revolved around a new kind of genetically modified corn designed to withstand harsher chemical treatment.  Opponents (like Hirshberg) have taken to calling it “Agent Orange corn.”  At the time we talked with Hirshberg, it was a well-known issue among natural food activists and environmentalist-types, but mainstream coverage was a bit sparse.  Now, Lucia Graves of the HuffingtonPost writes that opposition to this new breed of corn has intensified:

“A new kind of genetically modified crop under the brand name of ‘Enlist’ — known by its critics as ‘Agent Orange corn’ — has opponents pushing U.S. regulators to scrutinize the product more closely and reject an application by Dow AgroSciences to roll out its herbicide-resistant seeds.

The corn has been genetically engineered to be immune to 2,4-D, an ingredient used in Agent Orange that some say could pose a serious threat to the environment and to human health. Approval by the United States Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency would allow farmers to spray it far and wide without damaging their crops, boosting productivity for the agribusiness giant…

More than 140 advocacy groups have participated in a letter writing campaign calling on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reject Dow’s regulatory application for the herbicide and herbicide-resistant crops, submitting more than 365,000 missives ahead of a public comment period that ends April 27.”

Graves’ piece is well worth the read.  It digs into the back-and-forth between DowAgrosciences and activists about the economic, environmental, and health implications of planting this corn, and the very nickname “Agent Orange corn.”

Why A 60-Year Old Contract Has Massachusetts And NH At Loggerheads

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Flood control, town tax reimbursements, and tight state budgets have NH and Mass wrestling over back payments

Since the economy tanked and the legislature started slashing the budget, there’s been talk at the town level about so-called “down-shifting.”  That’s when the state stops supporting local programs or making certain payments to towns, forcing localities to pick up the slack.  Now, the legislature’s considering what to do when not only New Hampshire, but Massachusetts, has shifted costs.

At issue is the drily titled 1953 Merrimack River Valley Flood Control Compact.  As Tricia Nadolny reports in the Concord Monitor, 18 New Hampshire communities agreed to give up a set amount of land for flood control.  In exchange, Massachusetts would reimburse the state for 70 percent of the towns’ lost tax revenue each year.  New Hampshire would pony-up the other 30 percent, and between the two states, the towns would get their lost tax funds.

But, Nadolny writes:

“About seven years ago, Massachusetts stopped covering its part, leading New Hampshire to pay the reimbursement in full. But in 2011 the state paid only its 30 percent share, and this year New Hampshire hasn’t covered even that much.” Continue Reading

This Week’s Essential StateImpact

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These are the posts you decided were most worth your time

Before you prepare to pack up and check out for the weekend, we’ve rounded up the top five posts that caught your collective eye.  From obscure urbanization studies to electricity deregulation and women entrepreneurs, our Essential StateImpact posts make for a particularly motley crew this week.

  1. Why Urban States Are More Productive Than Rural Ones (And New England’s A Case In Point): Credit Suisse put out a niche report looking at the effect of urbanization on emerging markets.  What got it buzz in the American business press, though, was a graph linking US states’ productivity to urbanization.  Besides just being a cool graph, it’s a great illustration of the northern/southern New England divide.  We delve into the data and explain the Credit Suisse findings.
  2. WiValley Battles Topography And Budgets To Connect Monadnocks: Swaths of New Hampshire are struggling with slow internet speeds in a high-speed innovation economy.  For one guy, a frustrating telecommute morphed into an enterprise to bring broadband to the Monadnock Region.  And he’s just one of several small operations hoping to bridge the so-called “last mile” of service. Continue Reading

Has The Stimulus Created Jobs In NH? Depends On How You Slice The Numbers

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Since its inception, the Stimulus Package has been a hot-button issue

As the clock winds down on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka: “The Stimulus Package”), it remains a controversial–and highly politicized–initiative.  This week, Grant Bosse of the conservative/libertarian New Hampshire Watchdog* project stoked the Granite State stimulus debate on the organization’s website.

Using data from the federal stimulus-tracking website, Bosse ran some figures and determined that with $985.7 million in New Hampshire funding, only 845 full-time jobs have been created.  That’s a cost of more than $1.1 million for each job.  Bosse notes this is a sharp contrast to the Obama Administration’s original promise to “create or save” 16,000 jobs in the Granite State: Continue Reading

NH House Mulls Deregulating Phone Service

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Deregulating phone service is one of the big issues in the legislature this session

Fairpoint’s struggles since taking over Verizon’s northern New England land line network in 2007 have been well-documented in the media with varying levels of snark.  A running theme the company’s cited over the years has been competition-stifling state regulations.  Now, SB 48, a bill Fairpoint believes will help remedy the situation, is making its way through the House.  Nashua Telegraph reporter David Brooks writes:

“New Hampshire appears well on its way toward deregulating the price of retail telephone service and loosening most other aspects of a century of government oversight, although details about Internet-based voice communication remain to be worked out…

The bill will be discussed in a working session by the Science, Technology and Energy Committee, partly in response to some concerns from the Public Utilities Commission. But it appears headed to the floor of the House soon, where it has bipartisan support. It has already passed the state Senate.” Continue Reading

What A Small Firm’s Challenge To PSNH Could Mean For The Future Of The Electricity Market

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Years after NH partially deregulated its electricity market, a company is challenging PSNH

More than a decade ago, the New Hampshire legislature partially deregulated its electricity market.  The move was supposed to allow residential customers the chance to buy power from companies other than Public Service of New Hampshire, which dominates the state’s electricity market.  But for a long time, nothing really happened.

Now, NHPR’s Sam Evans-Brown reports one company is finally mounting a challenge to PSNH.  Resident Power guarantees customers will save at least five percent on the PSNH rate. Continue Reading

WiValley Battles Topography And Budgets To Connect Monadnocks

(Photo by Cindy Kibbe)

Internet connectivity using a blend of WiFi and fiber optics is the 'only way that makes sense going forward' for rural communities, says Brian Foucher, founder of Keene-based WiValley.

Brian Foucher traveled some 300 days a year for business. When the Harrisville, N.H., resident was home, he telecommuted to meetings around the globe, but found his Internet connection so poor his employer became frustrated. With a wife and young family at home, that kind of work life was quickly growing old.

Foucher’s initiative to solve his own Internet problems eventually evolved into a business, WiValley, Inc. of Keene, which solved connectivity issues not only for Foucher, but for other Monadnock residents as well.

Going The ‘Last Mile’

After successful pilots connecting several dozen rural customers, Foucher launched WiValley in 2008 with seed money from investors, some of whom were the recipients of connectivity from those pilot projects.

Today, WiValley has installations in some 40 towns in southwestern New Hampshire, as well as six communities in eastern Vermont and five in northwestern Massachusetts. Continue Reading

Dartmouth College President Will Head World Bank

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Jim Yong Kim will take over the World Bank presidency this summer

It’s official: Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim will head the World Bank starting in July.  But the New York Times’ Annie Lowrey reports that this time around, the board’s vote was more than just a rubber-stamping process:

“While the selection of Dr. Kim by the bank’s 25-member executive board was no surprise, the board had, for the first time, considered more than one candidate, a reflection of the increasing clout of emerging-market nations on the global stage.”

Kim faced challenges from Nigerian Finance Minister and former World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Colombian José Antonio Ocampo of the UN, who formerly worked with the Colombian Central Bank.  But, Lowrey reports, they were long-shots.  That’s because “Europe, the United States and Japan control about half of the voting shares.”  Continue Reading

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