Molly Messick was StateImpact Idaho's broadcast reporter until May 2013. Prior to joining StateImpact and Boise State Public Radio, she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
According to documents released today, Mike Bloomberg donated $200,000 in support of the Students Come First laws, which will be put to a vote next Tuesday.
We originally reported that Foster Friess donated $50,000 to Education Voters of Idaho. He gave $25,000.
Right now, the question in the mind of every Idaho journalist is: Why did New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg give $200,000 to a campaign supporting Idaho’s controversial Students Come First laws?
A working group appointed by the governor last week recommended that Idaho aim to have a state-based health insurance exchange up and running by 2014.
When Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry President Alex LaBeau made his ultimately successful motion that the Health Insurance Exchange Working Group should call for Idaho to implement a state-based exchange by 2014, he spoke in dramatic terms.
“What is in the best interest of the employers in the state of Idaho?” he asked. “How can we mitigate this massive increase in their costs that’s coming? The only way is to pursue a state-based exchange.”
Health insurance exchanges are a key component of the federal health care law. Essentially, they’re marketplaces that allow consumers to evaluate and purchase health insurance. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter convened his 13-member working group after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal Affordable Care Act earlier this year, forcing states to decide what form of exchange to pursue. Continue Reading →
Gov. Otter's insurance exchange working group met at the Capitol today.
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s 13-member health insurance exchange working group says Idaho should pursue a state-based health insurance exchange for 2014. The panel arrived at that decision today, months after the Supreme Court upheld the federal Affordable Care Act, landing the issue back in the laps of state leaders.
Committee member Alex LaBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, made the impassioned argument that ultimately won out. “What is in the best interest of the employers in the state of Idaho?” he asked. “How can we mitigate this massive increase in their costs that’s coming? The only way is to pursue a state-based exchange.”
Two work group members — Rep. Lynn Luker (R-Boise) and the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Wayne Hoffman – disagreed. Hoffman encouraged the committee to “keep the federal government from implementing this unconscionable law.” Luker wanted to put off the decision for a year. Continue Reading →
Hewlett-Packard set up shop in Boise decades ago, in 1973.
Idaho’s Students Come First laws are controversial for a lot of reasons. There are the limits the laws impose on teachers’ unions, and the effects on teachers’ job security.
This week, when Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter announced that Hewlett-Packard has won a $180 million contract to provide computers, maintenance and technical support to every high school student and teacher in Idaho, a new consideration joined the fray: local tech jobs.
Any Boisean can tell you that HP has a long history in Idaho. This is the home of the HP LaserJet, an iconic printer, as printers go. By HP’s own estimates, the company employs as many as 4,000 people in the state. Lately, though, the company’s news hasn’t been good. Continue Reading →
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and Gov. Butch Otter at Tuesday's announcement. Meridian School Superintendent Linda Clark and Hewlett-Packard Vice President Von Hansen are also pictured.
There are the limits the laws impose on teachers’ unions, and the potential effects on teachers’ job security.
Now there’s something more to consider: local tech jobs. This week Hewlett-Packard won a $180 million contract to provide computers, maintenance and technical support to every high school student and teacher in Idaho.
To hear StateImpact‘s story about what this agreement means for HP, click on the audio player below.
Upfront, it’s good: unemployment dropped by three tenths of a percent in September, falling to 7.1 percent. The rate “plunged,” as Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick puts it, and reached its lowest level since May of 2009.
Also in the positive column: there were 1,200 more Idaho workers on the job in September than in August. That made for a faster August-to-September payroll growth rate than the state saw in any of its pre-recession boom years. With that gain, the number of working Idahoans hit 720,600 last month, the largest number of people with jobs the state has seen in the last four years. Continue Reading →
In a February appearance, President Barack Obama called on Congress to extend unemployment insurance through the end of this year.
About 150 Idahoans are exhausting their unemployment insurance benefits each week without finding work, according to the state Department of Labor. In addition, the department this week notified more than 6,000 Idahoans that their unemployment insurance benefits will expire at the end of the year.
Congress has so far chosen not to extend the emergency benefits, but an extension still could happen. “Right now it appears to be off the table, but I believe it will come back on the table,” says Chad Stone, chief economist at the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s been a fight every time it’s had to be renewed.” Continue Reading →
Wyoming's Jim Bridger Power Plant is a significant source of electricity for Idaho Power.
Idaho utilities and wind developers are squaring off over the wind industry’s future in the state, as StateImpactexplained last month. As part of that reporting, we’ve rolled out stories on Idaho’s electricity supply, including this one on in-state electricity sources.
Hydroelectricity accounts for nearly 80 percent of in-state electricity generation, it shows. While that’s true, it prompted the Idaho Conservation League’s Ben Otto to send the email equivalent of a friendly finger wag. I’d left out part of the story, he said.
Which part? Well, the significant detail that not all of the electricity consumed in Idaho comes from in-state sources. Continue Reading →
Betty Murphy staffed the Democratic office in downtown Hailey last week.
Helen Stone and Ben Schepps of Hailey watched Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan face off.
Blaine County Democrats register voters and distribute signs and literature from their small office in Hailey.
Suzan Stommel is a co-founder of Blaine County Republican Women.
Vonnie Olsen has called the small Blaine County town of Carey home for nearly 50 years.
There aren’t many places in deep red Idaho where you’re likely to hear the kind of proud introduction Gini Ballou offered up not long after we met.
“I’m Gini Ballou,” she said. “My mother stopped to vote for John F. Kennedy on her way to the hospital to have me. And the greatest gift I ever got for my birthday was the ’08 election, when I was given President Obama on my birthday.”
StateImpactreported in April that funding for the Idaho Community Development Block Grant Program has been cut by a quarter in recent years, leaving the state with about $10 million this year. When the first of four rounds of applications came in early this spring, Idaho communities already had requested nearly $9 million. Continue Reading →
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