(WASHINGTON, DC) It’s harder to become a barber in New Hampshire than an Emergency Medical Technician. And you’d better not try to shampoo someone’s hair without a license. Those are just two of the startling conclusions from the Institute for Justice’s survey of occupational licensing in New Hampshire.

The non-profit public interest law firm examined fees, education requirements, and licensing exams for 102 low and medium income jobs across the nation in its new report License to Work. The Institute concluded that New Hampshire places fewer burdens than most states, but there are a few areas where getting a job in the Granite State is harder than it ought to be.

FOR THE MONITOR

With so much partisan sniping in modern politics, it’s heartening to find an issue where Republicans and Democrats in the New Hampshire Legislature agree. They don’t think your electric rates are high enough.

Charlie Arlinghaus and Jack Heath discuss education funding, public pension reform, and the proper way to say Windham in this installment of the Josiah Bartlett Report.

The recently released investment return figures from the third quarter show that while the New Hampshire Retirement System investment fund saw a 8.4% return in the corpus’s investments, beating the benchmark, the fund has only seen returns of just under 3% so far for the year, falling short of the 7.75% assumed rate of return.

The domestic equity portfolio, saw a 12.2% return, though falling short of the benchmark of 12.9%. Non-US equity saw 13.2%, which beat its benchmark by 2 points. Fixed income assets also did well, seeing a 2.5% return versus a .9% benchmark.

(CONCORD) Criticizing members of the New Hampshire Legislature would trigger stiff new reporting requirements, but praising incumbents or attacking their opponents would be free from state oversight, under an amendment to be considered tomorrow by the New Hampshire Senate.

The Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee unanimously approved an amendment to HB 1704 that changes campaign finance limits for New Hampshire candidates, and adds a new section requiring groups that criticize sitting Senators and Representatives to register with the state within 24 hours.

Guest Host Grant Bosse interviews Jay Nordlinger about his new book “Peace They Say” about why the Nobel Peace Prize so often gets it wrong.

Jack Heath asks Grant Bosse about the NH Senate’s decision to delay a vote on repealing the state’s Certificate of Need Board in this week’s edition of The Josiah Bartlett Report on NH Today.

Guest host Grant Bosse interviews PSNH spokesman Martin Murray and Will Abbott from the Society for the Protection of NH Forests about the controversial Northern Pass project.

House map draws three lawsuits

Back in November, I predicted that the House Redistricting Committee’s decision to ignore the New Hampshire Constitution in an attempt to avoid a federal challenge “virtually guarantees that the state would be sued in state court, and it would lose.” The first part of that prediction has happened. The second is on its way.

Last week, the new map for electing all 400 state representatives was hit with three separate lawsuits. The city of Manchester doesn’t like two of its wards sharing a district with Litchfield. The city of Concord objects to a ward sharing three seats with Hopkinton. And a group of Democrats from several contested districts is complaining about 62 towns and wards that don’t get their own seats.

(CONCORD) The three legal challenges to New Hampshire’s 2012 House Redistricting plan each face very different legal challenges. The cities of Manchester and Concord have each filed suit, alleging that forcing their wards to share state representative districts with neighboring towns violates the New Hampshire Constitution. Concord Representative Mary Jane Wallner has filed a separate petition on behalf of local Democrats making the same claim.