News

In recent years, New Hampshire's Health and Human Services department has seen deep budget cuts and layoffs,  and is now battling with the state’s hospitals and the U.S. Department of Justice over issues of taxation and patient care.  Leading the way, its commissioner, Nick Toumpas, who was just reappointed for another term last month.  We’ll hear Toumpas’ take on these issues, as well as how the state is handling aspects of the new federal health care law. 

Guest

With demand for cremation, secular services, and environmentally friendly burials rising, funeral directors are adapting what could be called new end-of-lifestyle choices. Max Rivlin-Nadler is editor of Full Stop magazine. He discovered an industry scrambling to meet new demands while attending the 130th  National Funeral Director's Conference, held this year in Chicago.

Under the bill, lenders could charge 15 percent monthly interest. 

Governor Lynch’s veto message notes the annual percentage interest rate on these so-called installment loans translates to more than 400%. Lynch says allowing such rates would hurt New Hampshire families, communities and the economy.

Lynch’s message also says the bill limits the state’s regulatory authority.

Lenders would get advance notice before the banking department conduct exams and regulators would have reduced power to levy administrative fines.

There’s National Pi Day...that’s P-I for the mathematicians.

There’s talk like a Pirate Day....ARRRGH... and then there’s today- January 27th, the IRS’s Earned Income Tax Credit Day.

Who knew?

Usually infomercials sound too good to be true, right?

“The Ginsu 2000 can saw a lead pipe and still slice a tomato like this. The legend is back..” 

You expect this kind of shtick from a company peddling steak knives.

But the IRS?

Next week on the Exchange, we begin with New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas and how he’s handling budget cuts and legal challenges.  Then we look at the debates over the state's Voter ID bill and if Granite State adults may need to flash an ID before stepping into the ballot box next election.

Part 1: "Ready for Liftoff: 3...2...None?"

We talk to the co-authors of a new book who spent years in the field of  political “opposition research”.   They’re the folks that dig up the dirt and unveil the skeletons on candidates for Presidential on down to the local school board.  It’s a story that involves shady characters, clandestine meetings and piles of documents, all aimed at bringing down your opponent and winning elections.

Guests

You can catch up on the Oscar-nominees this weekend, but there's also a chance to catch a rocumentary on Portsmouth's music scene in the 90's and ask the screenwriter of Ground Hog Day why he wanted Bill Murray to live forever.  Hippo Editor Amy Diaz has the popcorn.

New Hampshire Audubon's annual Backyard Winter Bird Survey is coming up: the second weekend each February.

Three woodpeckers common statewide are among the early birds when it comes to loudly proclaiming territory and courtship. Lend an ear this time of year and you'll hear the rapid-fire drumming of powerful bills on resonant deadwood. Vocally challenged, woodpeckers drum while most other backyard birds sing.

Until last July, when the state charged low-income parents with abuse or neglect of their children, the state provided them with a lawyer.

But to help balance the budget, that funding was eliminated.

New Hampshire is believed to be the only state in the country that’s ever taken such a step.

The people charged with enforcing the new policy are worried that it doesn’t serve parents or their children very well.

When Governor John Lynch and his staff were preparing his budget proposal last year, the governor made a decision.

After hearing nearly four hours of public testimony, a senate committee set aside a trio of bills that would loosen gun laws. 

The first bill would give the legislature the exclusive power to prohibit guns on public property – like colleges and the state-house. That would mean that if UNH wanted such a restriction, it would have to get lawmakers to agree.

For Ed Mackay, the chancellor of the University of New Hampshire system, that’s not a good recipe.

Vice President Joe Biden visited a Rochester manufacturing plant to tout the administration’s economic policies.  Biden was upbeat, saying America is in the best position to continue to be the dominant economic power in the 21st century.

Speaking at Albany Engineered Composites, the vice president said the country should change tax law to reward companies that bring jobs home from overseas operations.

We’ve spoken on the program before about the tendency in science to connect today’s  traits and ailments to evolutionary adaptations for survival from which they presumably developed.  Not every aspect of humanity derives from Darwinian roots, argues Dr.

Historian Simon Schama calls it another example of British television’s “cultural necrophilia”. Well then, bring out your dead…the Downton Abbey miniseries now airing Sunday nights on PBS has invigorated public television, revved up sales of cloche hats and maxi skirts, and has publishers scrambling to appeal to readers who devour period dramas.