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.
Among the requests approved by the council was $500,000 in funding to upgrade Twin Falls’ municipal water system. That upgrade is necessary to support the area’s new Chobani Yogurt facility.
A second $500,000 allocation will partially cover the cost of improving the town of Fairfield’s water system. Continue Reading →
The state's Department of Labor administers the Idaho Workforce Development Training Fund.
More Idaho workers would be eligible for subsidized worker training under a proposal that will go before the state’s Workforce Development Council next month.
The council will decide whether to allow employers to tap into the state’s Workforce Development Training Fund to train workers replacing existing employees. Currently, the fund can only be used if businesses are expanding or averting a layoff.
“We have $16 million in the training fund right now,” says Department of Labor Assistant Deputy Director Dwight Johnson. That’s a larger amount than the fund has held in more robust economic times. “Given that balance, we want to be more aggressive in using that fund to train Idahoans to fill vacancies with businesses,” Johnson says.
The fund reimburses employers for the actual costs of training workers. Johnson believes employers in the high tech, health care, advanced manufacturing and energy industries would be most likely to take advantage of the funding, if the proposal is approved. The expanded eligibility would remain in effect as long as Idaho’s unemployment rate remains at or above 7 percent.
The Department of Labor’s press release about the upcoming decision is available here.
Moxie Java's first store opened in 1988. The Deans purchased the company in 2001.
The most recent trade mission to China organized by the state Department of Commerce and headlined by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is underway this week.
Computer and electronic products make up the lion’s share of Idaho’s exports to China, but that sector isn’t represented in the lineup of 15 Idaho companies working to explore and strengthen trade ties.
Instead, the companies on this trip represent a range of industries and business objectives, and run the gamut from familiar Idaho companies like Boise Cascade and Melaleuca to Intermountain Auto Recycling, a small after-market auto body parts distributor based in Rigby, Idaho. Continue Reading →
To see RealtyTrac's March foreclosure data, click on the map above.
The number of foreclosures in Idaho has remained relatively stable since October of last year, according to data from RealtyTrac, out today. Foreclosure filings made a slight .62 percent dip in the first quarter of 2012.
Compared to the first quarter of last year, filings have come down dramatically, falling by about 60 percent. Nationally, the number of foreclosure filings has dropped by a much less substantial 16 percent over the same period. Continue Reading →
Nine homes are under construction at a Coleman Homes development outside of Boise.
Idaho was hit hard in the housing crash. For the better part of three years, the state’s foreclosure rate was one of the highest in the nation. The Boise area saw the worst of it. That means it’s been a while since this scene played out with any kind of regularity.
Fairfield, Id. hopes to receive federal grant funds to improve the town water system.
Twin Falls needs to upgrade its water system to meet the demands of the new Chobani Yogurt plant. Fairfield needs a new pump, because its water pressure is so low that bacteria builds up in its pipes. They’re just two of the communities applying for a decreasing pool of federal grant funding.
For Idaho cities and counties, one effect of the recession is this: funding for the Idaho Community Development Block Grant Program has fallen by a quarter over the last two years. That’s according to Dennis Porter, a Community Development Manager with the Idaho Department of Commerce.
Porter says the program has about $10 million available this year. The Idaho Economic Advisory Council will consider $8.8 million in funding requests at its meeting tomorrow. Because this is only the first of four rounds of applications the council will consider this year, Porter says, it’s clear demand for funds will outstrip availability. “We run into more demand than dollars,” he says. Continue Reading →
Another day, another study that places Idaho among the worst states in terms of the gender pay gap.
This time, it’s the American Association of University Women that’s tracking the disparities in men’s and women’s earnings by state. The AAUW study places Idaho 43rd, based on federal data from 2010.
What does placing 43rd mean? Well, median pay for a full-time worker in Idaho is $41,128, if that worker is a man. If the worker is a woman, it’s $30,403. Put in other terms, women in Idaho earn about 74 percent as much as men.
As the study points out, these differences cannot be explained away by differences in men’s and women’s educational and occupational choices. However, the “segregation of occupations” does contribute to the pay gap.
It’s not the first time we’ve noted Idaho’s gender wage disparity. Last month, the financial news and commentary site 24/7 Wall Street ranked Boise the eight worst city, based on this measure.
Before the 2012 session began, Speaker of the House Lawerence Denney expressed "mixed feelings" about establishing a state-run health insurance exchange.
It was expected to be one of the biggest debates of the 2012 legislative session: would Idaho create its own health insurance exchange? The Associated Pressheld a special discussion of the issue during its January legislative preview. In a series of interviews that StateImpact conducted in December, legislator after legislator predicted it would be a defining issue of the months ahead.
For Idaho’s gas station owners, that’s cold comfort.
The Wall Street Journaltoday points out that rising gas prices are taking a toll on independent station owners. “Until the past five years or so, many gas stations were, in fact, owned by the big energy companies,” the article says. “But most have since sold off their portfolio of stations to focus on more profitable areas, such as wholesale fuel sales.” Continue Reading →
This American Life delved into D.C. deal-making in its most recent episode, Take the Money and Run for Office. In it, former Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick details the never-ending task of fund raising. “I needed to raise $10,000 to 15,000 dollars a day,” Minnick says in the piece. “And you only do it by elbow grease.”
He needed to raise so much because, as a conservative Democrat running in Idaho, his reelection bid was expected to carry a high price tag — $2.5 million or more. Minnick was defeated by Republican Rep. Raul Labrador in 2010.
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