Boise-based MotivePower designs, makes and re-makes trains.
The Idaho Department of Labor today approved $325,000 in worker training grants for two Boise-based companies.
Locomotive maker MotivePower Inc. is eligible to receive $288,000 and iVinci Health, a hospital software company can get up to $38,000.
Workforce Development Training grants are reimbursements to companies that need to train new employees, existing employees or employees who are in danger of being laid off unless their skills are updated. It’s paid for by a tax on businesses. Continue Reading →
PNW Arms, a relative newcomer to the state, manufactures several lines of ammunition at its new facility just outside of Potlatch, Idaho.
Kayla Cuellar counts herself lucky. She was born and raised in Idaho, and considers it a great place for the business she and her husband started a few years ago.
It’s called Valiant Firearms and Ammunition, and it specializes in pistol and rifle ammunition. Each cartridge is assembled by hand.
Cuellar spends a lot of time testing their products, which means a lot of shooting. And in Idaho, she explains, that’s not hard.
“Here in Idaho, stick your gun on the dash of your car, the seat of your car, as long as it’s in open view,” she says. “Drive out to BLM land or wherever you like to go. I don’t have to worry about how I transport my firearm.”
Earlier this week, StateImpact published this map showing where Idaho’s 180 gun and ammunition makers are located. But what about them? Who are they and what do they do? Continue Reading →
The work group Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed to study whether Idaho should create a state-run health insurance exchange heard from two organizations that have long opposed President Obama’s health care law.
Policy analysts from the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC spoke with panel members Wednesday about why Idaho should not create its own exchange.
Under the federal health care law, states can decide to create and operate their own exchanges, participate in a federally-established exchange, or let the feds create an exchange with the plan to eventually transition to a state-run model. Continue Reading →
U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Health Insurance Estimates
To see the Census Bureau's interactive map and full data set, click on the image above.
In five Idaho counties, at least 29 percent of residents are uninsured. In two — Clark and Owyhee — the rate tops 32 percent. That’s much above Idaho’s state average of 20.3 percent, which is itself higher than the national average of just over 16 percent.
Clark and Owyhee Counties are best described as remote and rural. With a total population of just 982, Clark County has the fewest people in the state.  Continue Reading →
Part of the health insurance exchange work group at their first meeting earlier this month.
The governor’s group to study whether Idaho should have a health insurance exchange meets for the second time today.
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter created two work groups following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Obama’s health care law. Otter must decide whether Idaho should set up an online marketplace for people to purchase health insurance, and whether the state should expand Medicaid eligibility.
Health policy studies director at the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute Michael Cannon is scheduled to speak to the group. Cannon’s online bio says he was a policy analyst for the Senate’s Republican Policy Committee, working with former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.
The American Legislative Exchange Council’s interim director of the health and human services task force, Sean Riley, will also speak.
One North Idaho town — Potlatch — is honing its pitch to attract the gun industry and jobs. Local economic development official BJ Swanson is key to the effort. Not long ago, Swanson drove through an overgrown patch of ground on the outskirts of Potlatch, population 800. It’s a humble spot, but in it she sees the town’s future and its past.
Micron Technology CEO Mark Durcan spoke to a full house at the City Club of Boise today.
It was an opportunity to hear the new head of one of Boise’s most influential companies and largest employers discuss its market position and future.
Durcan stressed Micron’s strength in a notoriously volatile industry, and explained the strategic importance of acquiring bankrupt Japanese memory chip maker Elpida. That deal should be finalized by this spring, he said, pending the approval of Elpida’s creditors and antitrust approval from several countries.
It was Durcan’s answer to a question about education that drew the most significant response from the audience. Continue Reading →
There are 180 firearms and ammunition makers in the state of Idaho. They're spread across much of the state, with many locations clustered around Boise, Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston. Continue reading →
Sayer says he's "not proud" of the financial difficulties he faced years before his appointment.
Idaho Commerce Department Director Jeff Sayer filed for personal bankruptcy in 2003, less than a decade before Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed him to his current job. That’s according to an Idaho Statesman report this weekend.
Director Sayer’s bankruptcy was not public knowledge ahead of his appointment last fall, but it was known to Gov. Otter and a number of lawmakers, including at least one Democrat. Sayer today said he was deliberately forthcoming with those who vetted him for the Commerce Department’s top job. “Had I been an elected official, clearly it would have needed to be a public discussion,” he says. Continue Reading →
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