Supervalu and CVS Corp. purchased the majority of Albertsons' stores in 2006.
The owner of Idaho’s Albertsons stores, Supervalu, announced today it will close 60 stores nationwide by the end of February.
The Minneapolis-based grocery giant will close 27 western Alberstons stores, 19 in southern California and eight in Washington and Oregon.
Supervalu spokesman Mike Siemienas says the company plans to close eight additional stores, but he couldn’t say where those closures will occur due to “ongoing contractual discussions”.
Supervalu estimates it will generate up to $90 million from selling assets, monetizing real estate and clearing operating losses over the next three years.
At a recent trade show in Nampa, Stacey Nagy of Idaho-based Primary Weapons Systems exhibited one of the company's firearms.
It’s a straightforward pitch: Idaho is a gun-friendly state. Why not encourage gun manufacturers to come in and set up shop?
Several years ago, that logic led Idaho’s Department of Commerce to begin recruiting “recreation technology” companies. The term refers to makers of all sorts of outdoor equipment, but the department’s most prominent pitch was to firearms and accessories manufacturers.
Preparations were underway Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Idaho’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention have wended their ways to Charlotte, N.C., where the convention gets underway today. The delegate list includes prominent party members like Sen. Edgar Malepeai, from Pocatello, and Boise Mayor David Bieter, as well as a retired mailman, a teacher, an electrician, and the president of Idaho Young Democrats, Morgan Hill. The full list is available here.
“There’s a kind of complicated formula, but the majority of the people on the list were elected at the state convention,” explains Dean Ferguson, the Idaho Democratic Party’s communications director. “They had to give speeches to their fellow delegates about why they were best to go.” Continue Reading →
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.
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