Gov. Otter speaks with Col. Brad Richy, left, after a helicopter tour of the Halstead and Trinity Ridge fires.
*StateImpact received new information this afternoon from the Idaho National Guard that the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost to activate Idaho soldiers and airmen for support on the Trinity Ridge fire. The federal government typically shares this cost with the state, but in this case, the federal government requested Gov. Otter activate the guard, therefore, they’ll pick up the full cost.Â
More than 100 Idaho National Guardsman have been activated to support firefighting efforts in the state, costing $25,000 per day.
On Sunday Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter activated 101 soldiers and airmen to help with the Trinity Ridge Fire. They’ll provide security and helicopter support.
Col. Tim Marsano anticipates the guardsmen will be active through September 14. That would put the estimated cost at $675,000. The federal government will reimburse the state for 100 percent of the cost.
The Trinity Ridge Fire, burning near the towns of Featherville and Pine, has burned nearly 100,000 acres so far.
The Idaho Department of Lands says the state’s general fund paid for almost $6 million in fire suppression costs for the year ending June 30, 2012. The average general fund cost over the last five years is $8.6 million. The Department of Lands reports as of August 1, Idaho had already spent $9.1 million.
IDOC says inmates who have been convicted of serious or violent crimes won't be considered for a move to Colorado.
The Idaho Department of Correction flew 130 prisoners to Colorado this morning in an effort to relieve crowding as Idaho’s inmate population goes up.
“We know how hard this is on the inmates’ families but the fact is we’re running out of room,” Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke says in a press release.
The Department could eventually move as many as 800 inmates to Colorado over the next couple of years. It’s unclear how long the inmates will be housed out of state. A written press release says it could be “several years.”
On average, it costs the state $52.82 per day to house an inmate at an Idaho correctional facility. It will cost, on average, $54.19 per inmate per day at the Kit Carson Correctional Center (KCCC) in Burlington, Colorado. Continue Reading →
St. Luke's CEO David Pate started blogging on health and policy issues in the fall of 2011.
The results are in on an informal Medicaid and insurance exchange poll by St. Luke’s CEO.
As StateImpactreported last week, Dr. David Pate wanted to hear his blog readers’ thoughts about whether Idaho should expand Medicaid eligibility and create a state-run health insurance exchange. Both are fundamental pieces of President Obama’s health care law which was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
As Pate writes on his blog, about 140 people responded to the unscientific poll:
“In all, 142 people answered the question, “Should Idaho implement a state-operated exchange or allow the federal government to implement the exchange in our state?”  Continue Reading →
Jim Tiede and Hans Hayden in Power County, in southeast Idaho.
Some of Idaho’s most fertile farm ground has been hit by the drought that’s crippling crops nationwide. Farmers who have deep wells and irrigation are faring well. Those who don’t aren’t. It’s one indication of the very different economics of dry-land and irrigated farming.
Sec. LaHood visits the Port of Lewiston Wednesday.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be in Idaho Wednesday, days after the Obama administration announced plans to send unspent transportation dollars to states.
As The Associated Pressreported Friday, $470 million will be made available to states for infrastructure projects as long as states “promise to use the money to create jobs and improve transportation.”
The AP reports it’s an effort by the Obama administration to sidestep Congress. Continue Reading →
Farmer Hans Hayden says this spring wheat field is an almost total loss.
In Idaho’s arid, high desert, the drought has a mixed effect. There’s a big divide between farmers with deep wells and irrigation, and those without.
Hans Hayden is a rare find: a talkative farmer. He likes to explain things. But when it comes to the wheat he planted this spring, there’s not much to say. This field needed rain it didn’t get.
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Idaho's jobless rate ticked down two-tenths of a percent from June to July.
Almost 20,000 more Idahoans had jobs this July compared to last. The Idaho Department of Labor reports July’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point from June to 7.5 percent. That’s a three-year low, and it’s better than the national rate of 8.3 percent.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Idaho and Rhode Island were the only two states, to post a decline in the jobless rate from June to July. The District of Columbia also saw a decrease. Continue Reading →
Researchers Godfrey Miles, ARS, (left) and Venkatesan Sengoda, Washington State University, evaluate symptoms in fried chips made from potatoes infected with zebra chip. (USDA)
Starting Friday, fresh potatoes from Idaho, Oregon and Washington can no longer be exported to South Korea.
As Capital Pressreported earlier this week, Korea’s export ban results from concerns over an insect-borne disease that causes light yellow potato flesh to darken and stripe — the zebra chip.
According to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, the state exported $469 million worth of vegetables in 2010. Potatoes were, by far, the state’s the single largest vegetable export.
Still, Idaho Potato Commission president Frank Muir says just one Idaho potato grower sends fresh spuds to Korea. “At this point it doesn’t hurt Idaho’s economy because we didn’t have that much product shipping,” Muir says. Continue Reading →
When Rockland voters went to the polls in May, 80 percent supported the school levy.
The Nampa School District has discovered a budget problem.
Last school year, due to an accounting error, it spent $2.8 million it didn’t have. Boise State Public Radio’sAdam Cotterell has the full story.
The given reason for the error is worth special note at StateImpact.
Superintendent Gary Larson tells Cotterell the miscalculation came about because the district’s finance team is understaffed. As state funding for districts fell in recent years, Larson says, he decided to leave some finance department positions unfilled.
“At the time it was a signal that we are in this together, the district office and the schools,” Larson says. “Well, as a result it impacted our finance department and I think we got too thin, and because we were thin I think we made these human errors.” Continue Reading →
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