A year ago, Boise resident Carmel Crock talked to StateImpact about the painful experience of losing her home in a short sale.
Idaho’s foreclosure rate was the fifth highest in the nation when housing data provider RealtyTrac released its numbers at this time a year ago. At that time, John Starr of Collier’s International gave a folksy, downbeat description of the local foreclosure problem.
“You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who has been personally affected or has a family member or an acquaintance who has been affected,” he said. Continue Reading →
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories says it plans to hire 350 new employees.
In a press release, the company says it needs more employees “to meet the increased customer demand for their products and services.”
SEL is an engineering company with area facilities in Pullman, WA and Lewiston, Idaho.
The job openings are for positions in manufacturing, research and development, human resources, accounting, information technology, and business. Continue Reading →
President Barack Obama left a rally celebrating the Affordable Care Act's passage on March 23, 2010.
If you have trouble getting jazzed about health care policy, consider this: “Between 1999 and 2012, workers’ health care costs grew four times faster than their earnings,” The Atlanticreports.
The data is drawn from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual Employer Health Benefits survey, released this week.
The survey also includes information about how employers have responded to Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as they kick in. It’s information that is worth noting in this state where implementation of the law remains particularly contentious. Continue Reading →
For the fourth straight year, real median income in the West is down. Data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau shows median household income across the country fell 1.5 percent from 2010 to 2011 when adjusted for inflation.
The average household took home $50,054 in 2011. That’s more than 8 percent below median household income in 2007, when the average household earned $54,489.Â
In the West, real median income dropped by 4.1 percent between 2010 and 2011. That’s the biggest decline of any region in the country.
Last month, Hans Hayden examined wheat yields near his farm in Arbon Valley, near Pocatello.
In Idaho, this summer’s drought has picked winners and losers. In southeast Idaho, farmers with deep wells and sophisticated irrigation systems predicted record profits as harvest time began last month. Meanwhile, dryland farmers nearby contemplated withered spring wheat fields, and hoped to break even.
Now, dryland wheat farmer Hans Hayden says the drought is beginning to cause problems for next season’s crop. “We’ve already lost potential for next season,” Hayden says. Continue Reading →
Did you miss anything at our site this week? We gathered the five most-read stories and put them all in one place. Take a look and let us know what you think.
Emmett, Idaho, where farmer Vaughn Jensen raises corn, wheat, alfalfa hay, clover seed and cattle
A coalition of farm groups calling itself Farm Bill Now will descend on Washington, D.C. next week. The group aims to pressure Congress to take action on 2012 farm bill legislation before the current farm bill expires September 30.
Idaho Farm Bureau spokesman John Thompson says the delay poses problems for farmers in Idaho and nationwide. “Not only are we experiencing the worst drought since 1956,” he says, “but a farm bill in place gives farmers certainty into the future, when they’re trying to plan crop rotations or capital purchases or building herds or reducing herd sizes. If no farm bill is in place, they can’t use that to their advantage.” Continue Reading →
Idaho has cut per-student education spending by 19 percent in the last five years. That’s according to a report published this week by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities.
Idaho schools have seen the fourth-largest cut among states since 2008, ranking behind Arizona, Alabama and Oklahoma.
The report points out education funding cuts have slowed since the peak of the Great Recession. Only 13 states have increased per-student spending since 2008.
CBPP says the effects of spending cuts on local communities will be wide reaching, and in some cases will “slow the pace of recovery.”
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