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.
A worker manned a machine as lumber headed to the stacker at the Emerald Forest Products mill this month.
It’s a rare thing for a small sawmill to try to get up and running while a crucial market driver for lumber — housing construction — remains in a national slump. So when the Emerald Forest Products mill reopened in Emmett, Idaho, this month, something unusual was happening. “That’s a news story,” timber industry expert Todd Morgan said of the new mill. “That’s like, ‘man bites dog’ instead of ‘dog bites man.’ It’s very counter to the trend to have a new mill opening during these market conditions.”
New home starts peaked in 2005, when construction began on more than 2 million homes. By 2009, the number had fallen to 554,000, a low not seen in 40 years of record keeping. Housing starts haven’t improved much since. Moreover, the housing crash came on the heels of decades of timber industry consolidation. Since 1990, Pacific Northwest mill closures have put thousands of people out of work.
Given all of that, how is the Emerald Forest Product mill making a go of it? Part of the answer is federal economic stimulus funding. Continue Reading →
Idaho legislators' current annual base salary is $16,116.
The committee that oversees compensation for state legislators today attempted to clarify when lawmakers may claim the $122 per diem payment intended for those who maintain a second residence during the legislative session. That payment became a source of controversy last fall, after the AP reported that one state senator claimed it while staying with his parents, and another claimed it while staying on his law firm’s couch. Continue Reading →
Alex LaBeau has been president of IACI since 2006.
Anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the federal health care law is mounting with talk of a decision early next week. Here in Idaho, business leaders say the lack of a state-run health insurance exchange is a main point of concern.
Legislators didn’t establish a state-run exchange last session, despite pressure from the Idaho Department of Insurance and the state’s most influential business lobby. Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry President Alex LaBeau says that heightens worries for businesses concerned about the future shape of health care provision in the state.
“The path that the Legislature unfortunately chose was to not do anything, which was I think a glaring failure,” he says. “As a result, it put the State of Idaho behind the eight ball, and, I think, was gambling with our citizens’ future. I think that’s just wrong.” Continue Reading →
Dick Vinson began logging at 16, when he was a high school junior in Polson, Montana. Now 75, he’s trying to start up a sawmill in Emmett, Idaho.
Much of the area where Boise Cascade used to operate is fenced off and boarded up.
Judging by a faded sign next to its front door, this building once housed administrative offices for Boise Cascade’s local mill and beam plant.
The new Emerald Forest Products mill is just getting started. Here, logs await a machine called a debarker.
Once cut, boards are stacked according to size.
Three generations of mill workers: Ray Flowers, his daughter Debbie Flowers, and his grandson Casey Heideman
Emmett, Idaho, where farmer Vaughn Jensen raises corn, wheat, alfalfa hay, clover seed and cattle
Stories about mill towns tend to go something like this: generations of families work at the local sawmill. Then, the mill shuts down, taking hundreds of jobs with it. Emmett, Idaho is one of those towns. Boise Cascade closed its mill here in 2001. But that’s not where this story ends. Instead, it picks up with a Montana entrepreneur and millions in stimulus funding.
Bryant Francis, a Boise Airport Deputy Director, is making Boise's case to airlines.
This spring, Boise business leaders found a target and zeroed in. The Boise Airport had recently been hit by a spate of cuts. Southwest had suspended local service to Seattle, Salt Lake and Reno, and that was only the latest round of flight reductions. Preserving and expanding air service would be its chief focus, a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce committee decided.
Toward that goal, the Boise Airport this month applied for a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program. The Boise Metro Chamber signed on to provide a match — $10,000 in cash and an additional $10,000 in promotional support. Continue Reading →
Foreclosure activity rose last month in Idaho, but the housing market's overall trend is one of improvement.
Idaho saw a 9 percent uptick in foreclosure filings from April to May, according to housing data provider RealtyTrac. That mirrors the 9 percent rise in foreclosure activity seen nationally over the same period. RealtyTrac says foreclosure activity is picking up in the wake of the landmark, multi-billion dollar mortgage settlement reached earlier this year. Continue Reading →
Kelly Barker, in the backyard of her Meridian home.
For months now, our “Jobless in Idaho” series has followed people here in Idaho as they search for work against hard odds. Kelly Barker, a single mom from Meridian, had been out of work for the better part of a year when we met her last winter. Since then, she’s made do with a combination of temp work, food stamps and unemployment benefits. In April, those benefits were running out.
This week, workers lined up at a job fair in New York.
Here’s one lesson of the economic downturn: unemployment disadvantages different age groups in different ways.
Yesterday, we revisited the problem of high teen unemployment, which is particularly severe here in Idaho. Labor economists predict the resulting lack of work experience among young people — especially those who can’t afford college or choose not to pursue post-secondary education — could negatively affect earnings years down the road. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s teen unemployment rate was nearly 30 percent in 2011, BLS calculations showed. Andrew Sum of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies stresses that Idaho, more than many states, has watched its teen labor force decline in recent years. Continue Reading →
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