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.
Idaho Department of Insurance Director Bill Deal advocated for a state-run health insurance exchange at the AP Legislative Preview in January.
Mitt Romney laid out his health care plan this morning, as the Supreme Court nears a decision on the constitutionality of the federal health care law. It’s the first time Romney has discussed the specifics of his proposals since a speech in Michigan last year, the Los Angeles Times says.
“Romney said he wants to make the nation’s health-care system more like a consumer market, likening it to the tire, automobile and air-filter markets that he said keep costs down and quality up. To do so, he said, he would allow individuals and small businesses to buy insurance coverage with the same tax advantage that larger businesses enjoy and to purchase insurance across state lines or join organizations to give them bargaining power with insurers.” — The Washington Post Continue Reading →
Click on the image above to see a larger version of the graph.
The Federal Reserve dropped a sobering statistic on the American public today: 40 percent. That’s the proportion of median net worth families lost from 2007 to 2010. The Wall Street Journalpulls no punches in describing the number’s significance:
“The data released Monday are the real, step-back deal. In 2010, the median net worth of families stood at $77,300, down from $126,400 in 2007. A lot of that big drop is because of the sharp decline in home values across much of the nation.” — The Wall Street Journal
We’ve detailed the decline in Idaho’s median family income and compared it to the national numbers in an earlier post.
Planet Money headlines their piece on the Fed data “A Lost Decade for American Families.” For their short and sweet visualization of the drop in net worth, click here.
Families have lost ground in terms of wealth and income, according to data the Federal Reserve released today
At a time when economic news appears to come in two forms, “grim” and “grimmer,” this opening line from an article in today’s New York Times is especially bleak. Binyamin Appelbaum writes:
“The recent financial crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than they had in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday.” — The New York Times
The pull of the great outdoors generates billions for the economy, according to a recent report.
Americans spent far more on outdoor recreation last year than they did on pharmaceuticals. That’s one finding of a report released this weekend that highlights the economic impact of outdoor recreation nationally and in the West.
U.S. spending on outdoor recreation exceeded $645 billion last year, the report says. By comparison, spending on pharmaceuticals totaled $331 billion, and spending on motor vehicles and parts totaled $340 billion.
Of that $645 billion total, 40 percent of the spending — more than $255 billion — was in Western states. It generated more than $15 billion in state and local tax revenue for the region, the report says, and 2.3 million jobs. Continue Reading →
Last fall, this Nampa neighborhood was dotted with foreclosures.
Most of the $13.5 million Idaho received as part of the multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement reached earlier this year has gone into the state’s general fund, as StateImpactrecently reported. Now, the state Division of Financial Management’s May report shows that the $13 million directed into the general fund last month helped to offset weaker-than-expected individual income tax collections.
Reports including this one from ProPublica and this one from affordable housing group Enterprise Community Partners have pointed out that many states are putting the settlement funds not toward housing programs but toward budget gaps. Continue Reading →
A Department of Labor employee assists a jobless client at a state office in Meridian.
As many as 500 Idahoans will lose unemployment benefits this week, according to the state Department of Labor. That termination of benefits was triggered when Idaho’s three-month average unemployment rate fell below 8 percent.
The Idahoans losing benefits are those who have been in the program the longest, and who are in its final phase. “They’re at the tail-end of the benefit program,” the Department of Labor’s Bob Fick explains. “They’ve had the hardest time finding a job.” Continue Reading →
Iraqi refugee Qusay Alani with Dhiaa and Ahmad, two of his three sons. They, along with Alani's wife and older son, came to the U.S. with travel loan that totaled more than $4,000.
The issue of refugees’ economic well-being has been a focus of ours here at StateImpact. This week, Boise Mayor David Bieter made refugee resettlement and employment one focus of his annual State of the City Address. Bieter had this to say:
Over the last few years, in this tough economy, it became obvious to me that the challenges refugees face are compromised further in a tough economy. So we convened a roundtable of the Idaho Office for Refugees, refugee agencies, our partners in the community, and the result of that is a refugee resettlement comprehensive plan and a way forward to help them with housing and transportation, social integration. We don’t just benefit them, but we benefit our community as a whole, to the extent that Boise has been recognized as a model for how you successfully bring refugees to your community. – Mayor David Bieter Continue Reading →
Chad and Samantha Boucher made offers on home after home, only to be outbid. At last, they had good luck. They're packing up their apartment and moving into their new home soon.
Broker Dave Ferguson stands in front of a house in Caldwell, a good 45 minutes from downtown Boise. The five-bedroom home is in a quiet spot, shrouded in trees. In this case, that’s not a selling point. Ferguson points upward.
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