Krystal Esterline and Nikki Tangen posed together after Esterline spoke at a panel discussion last month.
In the wake of spending cuts, the Idaho Legislature is now in the process of determining how the state’s revenue surplus should be spent. It’s a process of sorting out priorities, and the decisions have palpable effects. For one Medicaid recipient, for example, recent budget cuts mean an uncertain future, even if funding is restored.
Last month, Krystal Esterline made a brave decision. The then 22-year-old decided to talk publicly about recent cuts in Medicaid services, and how they’ve affected her. “With having services, I’m successful in life when I have them,” she said. “When I don’t have all my services, I’m not successful. I have issues.”
Single mom Kelly Barker has found short-term work, and hopes the job will last.
The unemployment rate has ticked down in recent months, nationally and here in Idaho. Two of the people StateImpact Idaho has followed through its “Jobless in Idaho” series are among those who have made progress in finding work. But they haven’t simply landed jobs and resumed the lives they had before unemployment.
When we first met Kelly Barker, a single mom in her mid-40s who lives in Meridian, she had been out of work for seven months. She talked about the “what-ifs” – the fears she couldn’t shake from her mind.
Steve Appleton became Micron's CEO in 1994. He died at age 51 on Feb. 3, 2012
Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton died in a plane crash this morning. His death has been met with shock and sorrow in Boise, where Appleton was known for his influence as a business leader and philanthropist. Micron Technology remains one the state’s largest employers, despite recent cutbacks.
Retired Boise State University Professor Dick Payne, one of Steve Appleton’s early mentors, today remembered when he first met Appleton. It was on the tennis courts at the university. Appleton had character, Payne says.
“One of the things that stood out is – he never gave up,” says Payne. “He could be down a set and just pull it out. I admire that a great deal – his tenacity, honesty. He made fair calls.”
Payne says Appleton was also a promising student.  “I think, ‘Here’s a guy that is going to do well.’ I had no dream that he could do so well,” Payne recalls. “I felt like – here’s a sharp guy, a good guy. And they win sometimes in this world!” Continue Reading →
Allen Brown stopped in Boise on his way from Lewiston to Pocatello for a job interview.
The Idaho Department of Labor estimates there are at least 65,000 people in the state without work. That doesn’t include thousands more who are underemployed or have stopped looking for a job. This is the latest story in our “Jobless in Idaho” series, that follows several Idahoans in their search for work.
We introduced you to Allen Brown a few days before Christmas. He’s a 44-year-old single father who was one of 250 people laid off from the Clearwater Paper sawmill in Lewiston. We recently caught up with Brown as he passed through Boise on his way to a job interview in Pocatello.
When Allen Brown lost his job at the sawmill he thought finding a new one wouldn’t be that tough. He has a background in electronics and is a good 20 years away from retirement. But when he started applying for jobs and meeting with potential employers he found a lot of low-paying temporary or part time work. Continue Reading →
Lucky Friday Mine workers in Mullan, Idaho are valued for their skill at "jackleg" mining, using hand-held equipment seen here.
They say the days when you could go from high school to a high-paying, blue collar job are long gone. But there are places in the Northwest where those days still exist — that is, if you’re willing to work a mile underground.
For gold and silver miners, it looks like boom times right now. Rising salaries, more job opportunities. Even a recent layoff in north Idaho doesn’t look like other layoffs.
Don Kotschevar teaches at the tiny high school in the small north Idaho town of Mullan. He’s the assistant principal/ basketball coach/ shop teacher.
But lately Kotschevar has been questioning his career path. His students are parlaying the skills he teaches them in this industrial mechanics class into mining jobs. Continue Reading →
Sandy Brown has worked at the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare for six years.
This story is a collaboration between StateImpact Idaho and Northwest News Network. Contributing reporters are Emilie Ritter Saunders, Chris Lehman and Austin Jenkins.
Across the Northwest, government agencies and schools have laid off thousands of workers. Just like corporate downsizing, those public sector job losses have a human and an economic impact.
The health and welfare office in Boise was unusually quiet on a recent Tuesday morning, thanks to the first major snowstorm of the year. Only a handful of people waited in line to sign up for food stamps, Medicaid or other programs. This office typically sees 100 people a day. Continue Reading →
Medicaid recipient Krystal Esterline and her guardian Nikki Tangen spoke at today's Medicaid roundtable.
Medicaid recipients, their advocates and service providers want to drive home the point that cuts to the program have real effects for individuals and communities. At a roundtable discussion this morning they called for a restoration of services that have been reduced in recent years.
At the heart of the broad-ranging discussion was an individual story. Twenty-two-year-old Medicaid recipient Krystal Esterline talked about the effects of recent service cuts in her own life. A year ago, she was forced to choose between one service that assists her with depression and anxiety, and another that helps her cope with developmental disabilities. When she stopped receiving what’s known as psychosocial rehabilitation, she says, things changed. “Life just went pretty much downhill,” she said. “I was on a good path when I had my services, and when I lost part of them, I just wasn’t able to cope.”
Rep. John Rusche (D-Lewiston) wants to see Idaho establish its own health insurance exchange.
Under the federal health care law, states are charged with deciding whether to establish their own health insurance exchanges. Those exchanges are often described as transparent marketplaces where people will be able to purchase health insurance. States including Utah and Nevada have already established their own exchanges. In Idaho, lawmakers will come to a verdict this session. As they prepare for the debate, advocates of a state-based exchange say local jobs are at stake.
To bring one of their herds in for the winter, the Isaak family lured in the cows and calves with hay, then gathered them together in a makeshift corral.
Across the U.S., the price of good quality cropland is soaring, and it’s not just farmers who are driving demand. In an unsteady economy, investors are looking to farm ground as a safe haven. Prices have been highest in the Midwest Corn Belt. Here in Idaho, demand is centered in the Snake River Plain, where farmland has reportedly sold for as much as $10,000 an acre. That’s more than double average values just a few years ago.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
