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.
While farmers across the U.S. are suffering through the worst drought in decades, Idaho farmer Jim Tiede's irrigated wheat field promises a bumper crop.
Today brought new information about the unrelenting drought that’s affecting a broad swath of the country.
Here in Idaho, the drought has been less pronounced than it has been in many parts of the U.S. The national drought monitor says conditions across the southern part of the state are “abnormally dry” or experiencing “moderate drought.” Continue Reading →
Steve Spletstoser, who oversees quality control for Idaho Forest Group’s Laclede mill, straightens the lettering on a sign welcoming Japanese buyer Koji Fujiwara.
The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course boasts “the world’s only floating green.”
Idaho Forest Group’s Mike Henley tells buyer Koji Fujiwara and consultant Paul Owen how the company sorts timber for the Japanese market.
Freshly cut lumber awaits the dry kilns at an Idaho Forest Group mill.
Before the recession hit, the sawmill in the North Idaho town of Laclede was known for its reliability. It had never seen a shutdown, not in Steve Spletstoser’s nearly 30 years of working there. Then came 2008.
“It was really eye-opening to see,” Spletstoser says. “Your livelihood is hanging in the balance.” Day after day, the mill cut lumber, and day after day it piled up. Very little left the lot. Continue Reading →
Laura Summers of consulting group Leavitt Partners presents preliminary information to working group members.
The first meeting of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s Medicaid expansion working group is underway. The group is charged with providing input to the governor as he weighs whether the state should expand its Medicaid program, as prescribed under President Obama’s health care law.
The biggest news out of today’s meeting so far: an additional 90,000 to 100,000 Idahoans will be eligible to receive Medicaid, if the state expands eligibility to 138 percent of the poverty line. That’s according to preliminary information from Leavitt Partners, the Utah-based consulting group the state has hired to evaluate the Medicaid expansion. Continue Reading →
Idaho Department of Insurance Director Bill Deal will lead today's meeting.
Calling all healthcare policy wonks! The Supreme Court’s health care ruling leaves some important decisions about the law’s implementation up to the states, as StateImpacthas reported. Those questions are: Should Idaho create its own health insurance exchange, and should it opt into the Medicaid expansion that is a key facet of the Affordable Care Act?
And now the day has come. The Health Insurance Exchange Working Group meets today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the J.R. Williams building. StateImpact will listen in with a few big questions in mind: How will these working groups coalesce around an opinion or set of opinions? How will Gov. Otter take in that information and come to decisions? And, most of all, what’s at stake for Idahoans?
One point of clarification: the governor’s working groups are distinct from the Legislature’s Health Care Task Force, which met on Monday. The groups are working on separate but parallel tracks, since the Legislature and the governor ultimately may come to different views of the questions now facing the state.
Supervalu and CVS Corp. purchased the majority of Albertsons' stores in 2006.
Supervalu will lay off 20 administrative employees in Boise between now and the end of August, the Idaho Statesman is reporting. That news comes on the heels of the announcement this morning that the grocery chain has ousted CEO Craig Herkert.
Albertsons’ parent company suspended its dividend earlier this month, leading to speculation that Supervalu could be sold. Supervalu in February announced it would lay off 130 employees at its corporate offices in Boise. Those cuts were to be complete by February 25.
Minnesota-based Supervalu bought Albertsons in 2006. Albertsons local workforce has since shrunk from between 5,000 and 6,000 to between 3,000 and 4,000 employees.
The Legislature''s health care task force is meeting in Boise today.
The Legislature’s health care task force donned its waders this morning. It was time to take up the many questions surrounding the extent to which Idaho will implement President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
StateImpact has followed closely the implications of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling upholding the health care law. For states — especially those where opposition to the law runs high — the ruling raised two main questions: Will the state establish its own health insurance exchange, and will it decide to expand Medicaid eligibility as prescribed under the ACA?
Let’s take it question by question, and break down the highlights from today’s discussion. Continue Reading →
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