Incomplete list of economic related events in The Gem State of Idaho, Gregorian year 2015.

JANUARY: An independent investigation revealed that recently re-‘elected’ Pocatello mayor Brian Blad farmed out city road crews to other cities, for free and without permission of the city council (as required by law).  The cost to Pocatello taxpayers is at least $15,773 in labor!  To add insult to injury the city council said they aren’t going to pursue the matter, even though Idaho laws allows them to call in the Attorney General!  The investigation was done by Deaton and Company, who submitted a seven page report to the city.  Local news media refer to the scandal as Pokey Pave-Gate. 

In Chubbuck, Mario’s Pizza and Orange Julius shutdown their Pine Ridge Mall stores.

According to National Association of Counties most recent data eastern Idaho’s Bannock County has failed to make any recovery in the areas of Jobs, Unemployment, GDP or Home Prices since 2008!  Never mind that Bannock County is still assessing the value of homes at tens of thousands of dollars above what they will actually sell for!

FEBRUARY:  The Idaho Department of Labor has finally posted some past due WARNs issued by Kimbal and Plum Creek Timber (in my earlier Job Loss reports I noted that no WARNs had been posted concerning their layoffs-shutdowns).  Also, a WARN was posted by food producer JR Simplot saying 20 people will be laid off from their Aberdeen ops in April.

It’s official, six (of approximately 24) Gem State RadioShack stores shutdown, pending a bankruptcy sale to cell phone service company Sprint; 152 Bullock #4, Chubbuck.  Elm Tree Plaza Suite 101, Meridian.  Nampa Business Center, Nampa.  733 Yellowstone Ave, Pocatello.  3134 E Mullan Ave Ste A, Post Falls.  Valley River Center, Rexburg.

Virginia based Obama Care call center operator Maximus confirmed they will shutdown their Boise call center, rendering 1-thousand 5-hundred people jobless!  According to state WARN records, Maximus was planning to shutdown back in April 2014.

MARCH: In Nampa, after 69 years Nafziger Men’s Store shutdown.

Burley based King’s Variety Store is crashing & burning, according to Payette news sources.  The 100 years old (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) chain store has 26 stores in five states, but now is forced to shutdown six stores within The Right to Work (you over) Gem State; Payette, Weiser, Emmett, Middleton, Twin Falls and Pocatello.

Pocatello’s failed Hoku polysilicon factory (Hoku-Gate) has caused China based Tianwei  to default, it can’t even make the interest payment of 85.5-million yuan ($13.8-million USD)!  It’s the first time a government controlled Chinese company has defaulted on a massive loan.  

Will nuclear power plant operator Areva shutdown their Eagle Rock project?  The French government owned Areva revealed they lost more money.  This time they lost $5.4-billion USD, and as a result they will begin cutting back on their international operations (they refuse to give details about those cuts).

In Kellogg, the Sunnyside Elementary school shutdown due to massive population exodus which created what I call DSS (Disappearing Students Syndrome): “Since 1970, we’ve had a 66% decrease in our enrollment!”-Art Krulitz, Kellogg School District

APRIL:  In Idaho Falls, after repeated denials Curtiss-Wright Scientech laid off an undisclosed number of employees.  No  federal mandated WARN has been filed with state employment administrators, but the Idaho Department of Labor admitted they heard rumors of layoffs since October 2014: “We don’t have any official numbers at all. Just simply word-of-mouth is about 30 people, or so.”-Christopher Saint Jeor, Idaho Department of Labor

In Pocatello, the United States Postal Processing Center on Flandro Drive (aka Gateway Station) shutdown.  Through transfers, early retirements and out right layoffs at least 50 good paying jobs (one of those jobs being mine) disappeared from the cities of Chubbuck and Pocatello.   In the months preceding I discovered most of my fellow east Idahoans didn’t even know there was a USPS processing-distribution center in eastern Idaho!   Also, those that did know about it were unaware it was shutting down despite public notices.

MAY:  Federal bankruptcy court revealed that from June 2014 to May 2015 there were 4-thousand 426 cases filed in The Gem State. Boise led the state with the lions share at 1-thousand 673!  The good news is Idaho bankruptcy filings were down 26% compared to the same time period in 2013-14.

The College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center warned of sharp increases in war refugees being sent to Idaho, which will impact the job market.  Blame your federal government’s failed foreign policy.

JUNE:  Republican state ‘lawmakers’ created new taxes and fees which will now impact already cash strapped taxpayers.    Vehicle registrations fees increasing by an average of $21, and by much more for vehicles deemed to be fuel efficient such as electric cars.   The fuel tax increasing by an additional 7 cents per gallon.  Taxpayer funded teacher pay being increased, which implies taxes will have to be raised to pay for it.  A total of 342 new ‘laws’ were approved, can you figure them out?   (jacking up taxes and creating more unnecessary laws are a sign of a Failed State system)

In Coeur d’Alene, youth outreach program Crosswalk North Idaho shutdown due to having its federal taxpayer funding canceled.  Also in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Youth Ranch announced they must shutdown their Anchor House addiction treatment center for boys, it will be re-purposed as a family resource center.

Twice in one week masses of pollenating bees escaped after the trucks transporting them crashed.  Near Coeur d’Alene about 2-million bees were lost after the trailer tipped over. Apparently those bees were on their way to Montana farms.  On state highway 33, near the nuclear INL site, 20-million bees heading to North Dakota farms were lost when the truck and trailer tipped over while trying to avoid hitting a car.  One news report says firefighters killed the bees with foam.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared Clark and Jefferson counties drought disaster areas.  There are now 15 Idaho counties qualifying for drought disaster loan assistance programs.    KPVI reports that Franklin County farmers, who rely on irrigation, are struggling with invasive mussels.  The foreign quagga mussels are clogging the irrigation pipes, cutting off precious water for the crops.  Franklin County, working with state ag administrators, has begun boat inspection at local reservoirs.

More trouble for southeast Idaho wheat growers.  The University of Idaho reports that a difficult to diagnose blight called Leaf Spot is reducing wheat yields by 10%.  Leaf Spot prevents the plants from absorbing nutrients. UoI ag experts working in Arbon Valley say most farmers do not know about it, and when they see crop damage they assume it’s a fungus and spray fungicides, instead they should treat the soil with chloride.

In Boise, the Chili’s restaurant on West Franklin Road (near Boise Towne Square mall) shutdown. The Montana based franchise owner says they are getting outta Boise and moving to Nampa.

Idaho State University (ISU, my alma mater) is cutting more programs.  Some courses, like German and French, will no longer be offered as a BA degree, just a piddly certificate (in fact many other courses will now get you just a certificate).  The administrators voted to eliminate their BS in Theater, Bachelors in University Studies,  MS in Physical Education Pedagogy, Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Studies and Bachelor of Music in Music/Business.  ISU will also shutdown their Environmental Science and Policy Research Institute, Center for Environmental Sensing, Geospatial Research Facility, Musculoskeletal Research Institute , Permian Research Institute and International Center for Bayesian Methods (by Fall 2020).  This can only mean layoffs, but administrators didn’t mention it.  ISU is so proud of their austerity that they went on local TV news to brag about it: “…ISU also received a commendation from our regional accreditor, The Northwest Commissioner On College and Universities, for the process we undertook, that we can be a model for other states.”-Selena Grace, Associate Vice President for Institution Effectiveness, KPVI interview

France based French taxpayer owned nuclear power company Areva is being sold off and now 6-thousand jobs around the World are threatened!  Areva has been operating under contract at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in eastern Idaho.   On 03 June the French government approved  the sale of the majority of Areva to a company called EDF (Electricite de France).   Areva administrators are challenging the sale.

JULY: Right to Work you over gov’na Butch Otter is forcing taxpayers to give ‘lawmakers’ multi-million dollar retirements!  Idaho Freedom Foundation reports that Dean Cameron of Rupert has been promised $1.4-million USD if he stays in office for only four years!  Bob Geddes of Soda Springs is being promised a little more than $1-million if he remains the Department of Administration’s director for a mere 30 months!  Gov’na Otter told Boise radio interviewers that his offers of huge pensions to at least 11 ‘officials’ were “minuscule”!  

Republicans have successfully forced all state taxpayers to fund their $2-million USD GOP only Primary: “It’s a small, basically private election, and the Republican leaders in Idaho have succeeded in getting the taxpayer to fund that private election.”-Dave Finkelnburg, Bannock County Democrats, interviewed by KIFI

Powerball Lottery administrators in The Gem State have revealed that their kickbacks to the state are crashing.  The state dividend from Powerball fell by 8% compared to 2014.  It’s the first time the lottery dividend dropped from the previous year.  Right to Work you over gov’na Butch Otter stopped short of mandating lottery ticket purchases: “I’m not going to put a gun to anybody’s head and make them buy a lottery ticket…We can do marketing; we can encourage people in a responsible way.”

Interestingly lottery administrators said they were not going to spend anymore money on advertising, when you couple that with Otter’s statement it suggests that Idaho taxpayers will be funding the “marketing” Otter proposes.

News reports say gov’na Otter and his cronies spent at least 1-million taxpayer dollars paying attorneys to defend the Idaho Education Network!   The Gem State now owes Syringa Wireless $930-thousand USD in connection to the Idaho Education Network (IEN)  scandal.   Syringa sued the state after being blocked from the IEN contract.  Of course state taxpayer funded lawyers are appealing the case, but wait there’s more!  Education Networks of America and Qwest Communications are demanding at least $6-million for unpaid work they did on the IEN project!

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that the net personal income for Idahoans in the 1st quarter of 2015 dropped by $500-million!  In Idaho the state ‘lawmakers’ have realized what idiots they are, especially after years of giving away hundreds of millions of tax dollars to lure foreign companies to Idaho, only to have most of them back out or fail, so now they’ve authorized the Department of Labor, and the Workforce Development Council, to offer a new “micro-grant” to train Idahoans for jobs within The Gem State.  However, the “community based teams” doing the training must be able to 100% match the funding, so good luck.

State Department of Labor reported that July was the third straight month of increased new unemployment claims, and also reported that personal farm income fell 18%, and profits crashed 23% from the end of 2014! Economists say expect more crashing & burning: “We’re looking at soft prices for every crop in the state basically, except for beef. Cash receipts will be way, way down this year.”-Garth Taylor, University of Idaho

“We dodged a bullet last year. But we’re not going to dodge it this year. We’re going to go down.” so says southeast Idaho economist Ben Eborn who warns that the strong USD and 15 years long drought might finally kill-off Idaho’s farmers. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared more than 90% of Idaho’s 44 counties to be food production disaster areas because of the 15 years long drought! Never has the USDA declared an entire state a disaster area!

Clearwater County declaring a state of emergency as the 15 years long drought has killed off 66.67% of the local wheat crop!

In eastern Idaho participating farmers (a little more than 20) in the Thresher Artisan Wheat sustainability program reporting good results; 17% more bushels of winter wheat per acre than farms not in the program. 18% less energy used (fertilizer, electricity, fuel). Improved water efficiency by 17% and reduced greenhouse gases by 19%. General Mills started the program and reports say corporate farmer Simplot will join the program.

The Idaho Barley Commission is asking other barely production states to unite to fight growing problems with the growing, selling and transportation of the crop. Idaho is the largest producer of barely in the United States. Idaho sees growing transportation costs hindering the competitiveness of U.S. barely and wants investments to “ensuring a more competitive transportation infrastructure to move barley and malt more competitively to markets across the country and in neighboring markets in Latin America.”

In Meridian, after 26 years Miss Tami’s restaurant shutdown. The owner said the economy is forcing them to scale down to a catering/drive thru operation only.

Boise based micro chip maker Micron is about to be sold-off.  The potential buyer is China’s Tsinghua Unigroup, which is offering $23-billion for the troubled company.  If Micron agrees the deal must be accepted by the Committee on Foreign Investment.  

Also in Boise, Post Holdings shutdown their PowerBar factory, 165 jobs lost! Company administrators have decided to outsource the making of their energy food to unknown contractor factories, in the name of increasing profits.

Payette County administrators have a plan to take advantage of neighboring Oregon’s new legalized marijuana; instead of jailing pot heads that cross the border into Idaho they simply fine them.  They save money by not packing their county jail full of weedies, and they’ll make money off the thousands of fines they expect to collect.

Despite taxpayers shelling out $180-thousand on an anti-distracted driving campaign, the Idaho State Police report a 61% spike in deaths by car accident compared to the same time last year (from Memorial Day weekend through July 29)!

Gov’na Butch Otter spending big taxpayer dollars on a new Cyber Security Task Force, claiming that “We have seen dozens of cyber attacks that seem to be increasing in frequency and boldness, costing our businesses and taxpayers untold billions of dollars each year.” But that’s at the national level, not state level, you numbskull!

The Idaho Falls Regional Airport is spending money on a new website in an attempt to attract more customers. They claim it will show how much money you can save by using a smaller airport.

Pocatello administrators have revealed their hyped up deal to bring a major employer to Pocatello Regional Airport is dead, for now.  Administrators have been claiming since November that an unnamed company code named Project Pipe was about to set up shop at the airport.  One problem, the operation might be in conflict with FAA environmental regulations.  The so called Project Pipe company has announced they are not going to wait any longer for a decision by the FAA regarding the environmental impact of the project, and will go elsewhere to set up shop: “Project Pipe needed to be in place by a certain date. We were already five months behind schedule and we were getting bogged down in the environmental review process.”-David Allen, Pocatello Regional Airport press release

‘Pokey’ administrators will now play a shell game to rezone some of the Pocatello airport land as no longer being airport land, to avoid the FAA rules: “We are taking the necessary steps to remove about 900 acres of land from the official Airport property map. This land was already released by the FAA for non-aeronautical use and can be removed from the map under proper procedures. The City will still own the land, it will still be annexed into the City limits and it will still have advantageous access to air transportation. But once it is no longer Airport property, it no longer falls under FAA rules. When future projects are identified, the City would only have to ensure the project does not create an aviation hazard or otherwise impact aviation.”-David Allen

KPVI revealed that Walmart was ripping off a Pocatello business.  The owners of Pocatello based American Built Apparel (not associated with troubled California based American Apparel) discovered Walmart was selling shirts with their logo on it, but they weren’t made by them!  The shirts were made by a company Walmart contracts with, called Hybrid Apparel, and Hybrid Apparel decided to settle the lawsuit brought by American Built Apparel.  American Built owner Nicholas Carson said the U.S. corporate system is unfair: “You jump through all the hoops, jump through the legal system to get a federal trademark to protect your business, and a big company comes in and steps all over it!”-KPVI interview

The city of Coeur d’Alene (population about 45-thousand) must layoff four employees to meet their new budget.

 The Idaho Statesman has revealed that ObamaCare is actually raising healthcare prices in The Gem State through insurance and hospital mergers, which the healthcare system administrators claim is the only way they can survive the ObamaCare reimbursement cuts: “Size matters, and the objective of many hospitals and hospital systems is to get sufficiently big in a given geographic area so that you have leverage over the insurance company, because if you’re big enough, the insurance company needs your facilities in their network, because if they don’t have your facilities in their network, they can’t sell their product to the employers in town or the individuals in town.”– Paul Levy, a former hospital CEO

North Dakota’s Industrial Commission fined Idaho based Alturas Energy $900-thousand for massive wastewater spills that have yet to be cleaned up. News reports said the oil service company’s Hailey, Idaho, phone number is no longer in service. North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources also accused Idaho’s Alturas Energy of abandoning oil wells: “I think it’s important, especially with the lower oil price paradigm that we’re in, that we send a message to companies that we mean business.”-Lynn Helms 

AUGUST:  State Department of Labor admitted that the unemployment rate went up in The Gem State, blaming a net loss of 4-hundred jobs in August! 

Once again the ‘conservative’ republican leaders of Idaho are screwing over the state taxpayers, to the tune of between $900-thousand to $1-million USD! This time taxpayers will pay for failed lawsuits brought by republican state ‘lawmakers’ against the federal government. The repeat offender, I mean 3rd term gov’na Butch Otter was at a loss to explain it, but also admitted the dumb state republican leaders get sued all the time, saying “You’re going to have to ask the lawyers why we’re losing……We get sued by so many people we can’t keep track.” 

Gem State ‘lawmakers‘ have finally realized their contracting system is at the very least a failure (and very likely totally corrupt) so they created a committee to come up with a new system. Some of the biggest scandals involve the evil for-profit prison operator Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the state prison which became known as The Gladiator School under CCA’s watch, and the $61-million failure known as Schoolnet. Auditors say taxpayers were forced to payout $1.5-billion to contractors in 2014!  

Since 1978 renewable energy contracts with the Public Utilities Commission lasted 20 years. An investigation by state regulators discovered that 20 years contracts actually increased renewable energy prices for customers.

The state Department of Insurance has approved ObamaCare (Affordable Care Act) health insurance rate increases by as much as 26% in 2016! It was also revealed that ObamaCare Idaho insurance rates have already gone up by as much as 15%! Health insurance providers claim that they still payout far more than what they get in premium payments under ObamaCare, which means from the insurance industry perspective their own ObamaCare (they wrote the law folks) is a failure! The wimp-ass state Department of Insurance director feebly said “In spite of our best efforts in working with carriers, health insurance rates will be increasing for some Idahoans in 2016….we urge consumers to review their plans and shop wisely…” 

A lawsuit has revealed how desperate Boise, Idaho, area hospitals are, and could be a sign of things to come across the United States now that ObamaCare is ‘law’: “…discretion has been exercised to favor the hospital where the physician was employed. After St. Luke’s purchased five specialty practices, ‘their business at Saint Alphonsus Boise dropped dramatically…the amount of business that they did at St. Luke’s facilities increased dramatically.’”– B. Lynn Winmill, U.S. District Judge

Taxpayers are funding $467,435 USD in utility connections for the new Inn at 500 Capitol in Boise. As usual the taxpayer funding is going to a ‘foreign’ outfit, Obie Development Partners in Oregon. What’s really interesting is how news outlets in Boise can’t seem to get the story right; in March, Boise Weekly said it’s a ten story hotel with 180 rooms. But then in April, Boise Weekly said it was a seven story hotel with 104 rooms. The latest Idaho Business Review report says it will have 113 rooms. The new hotel, partially funded by local taxpayers, isn’t expected to be completed until December 2016. Also in Boise, the taxpayer owned 8th and River streets property will be developed into a condominium (“Prices will start in the high 200s [that’s $200-thousand], he said, and escalate from there.”). The property is owned by taxpayer funded Capital City Development Corporation, the condominium (to be called The Afton) will be built by Mike Hormaechea who refuses to say how much it will cost (he also claims to already have buyers for the condos). The first phase might be finished by early 2017.  Also in Boise, Assurant Health laid off 65 employees. 

It’s been revealed that the Madison County Sheriff used $42-thousand USD from fees collected for concealed gun permits to put new flooring in his office. He claimed the tile and carpeting were a “wise use” of money.  $17-thousand was spent buying a new vehicle for a ‘civil’ deputy. Only a fraction of the fees were spent on things like police gun range maintenance and new guns for cops.

In order to generate more funding for public schools the state Department of Lands is auctioning-off 38 Priest Lake vacation lots, “…we hope to make a lot of money for the school trust up there.” Last year they auctioned-off 59 Priest Lake lots. Normally people buy cabins but must pay rent for the lot. Another auction for state owned cabins/lots is scheduled for Payette Lake. Last year’s sale of lots generated more than $52-million USD for the permanent endowment, however, it’s been revealed that some of the cabins/lots are up for auction because the previous owners couldn’t make their payments.

According to the Idaho State Journal, many of southeast Idaho’s school districts have shifted to a four day week realizing a huge savings in school bus transportation costs. However, a study done by the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho says that overall costs to taxpayers actually went up: “Contrary to expectations, some districts saw their costs rise as a result of the need for additional enrichment activities and after-school snacks during the extended day.” 

The city council of Chubbuck has put the kibosh on the dynastic mayor’s desire to give himself a 45% pay raise! However, the council did agree to give the mayor, and themselves, a pay raise in 2017. I hope it’s because they know the local economic situation is going to be much improved by then.

Pokey Housing-Gate;  TV station KPVI revealed that Pocatello housing projects have sat unfinished for years!

Pokey Pave-Gate fallout;  Pocatello administrators have been running TV PSAs asking taxpaying residents to voluntarily clean out storm drains in their neighborhood streets. This comes after revelations of “abuse of authority” after it was revealed by observant local taxpayers that city of Pocatello road crews doing road work in other cities, and were not even being reimbursed for the work!  The city council claimed to have no clue and the mayor claimed he didn’t know that it was going to be an issue!

Amy’s now located in the abandoned Pocatello Heinz factory

Hoku-Gate, Housing-Gate, Pave-Gate now Amy’s-Gate! It’s been revealed that Bannock County administrators were under investigation by the Idaho Tax over massive local tax breaks given to California based frozen veggie food maker Amy’s Kitchen.  At the end of 2014 Amy’s Kitchen took over the abandoned Heinz frozen food factory in Pocatello, but it came at a price to individual taxpayers.  Amy’s Kitchen is already getting a big state tax break called the Tax Reimbursement Incentive, but according to the Idaho State Journal the county of Bannock also threw in their own local tax incentives, which could have violated state Law 63-602NN.

In Ketchum, after less than five years Main Street Market grocery store shutdown. The operators blame escalating rent: “The original five-year lease term is ending, and it did not make sense to extend the lease for the required seven-year commitment.” 

SEPTEMBER:  A net of 5-thousand jobs added in September but those were mainly the usual education jobs that happen at the start of every school year, so they can’t be counted as a sign of ‘growth’.  1-thousand construction jobs lost in September, this is interesting because at the same time the Department of Labor says job growth in the construction industry increased.  The Department also stated that the number of people in The Gem State’s workforce hit a record high of 800-thousand 800 (in a state that has a population between 1.5 million and 2 million), yet stated that only 1-hundred people were newly unemployed and yet also stated that the labor participation rate (as well as unemployment rate) was “unchanged” from the previous three months, and apparently 22% of unemployed people getting unemployment assistance dropped out!   This data comes after the University of Idaho’s McClure Center for Public Policy Research discovered that since 2009 reported a 6% increase in people moving to metro areas to look for work (basically the Boise area is the only metro area) because they can’t find any in the rural areas.   I revealed that Idahoans are being forced to spend at least $187-million USD towards illegal migrant workers!    Immigrants are why there’s now a record number of people in The Gem State’s workforce and an unchanging unemployment rate despite the fact people are struggling to find jobs.

Now realize the Department of Labor admitted as much when they reported they expect 109-thousand jobs to be created over the next ten years, to be filled by foreign and domestic migrants!  

The state Department of Education has revealed it is using taxpayer money to create a new department for migrants! State Right to Work (you over) administrators admitted there are so many migrant workers who don’t speak English that they feel compelled to rape taxpayers in order to provide migrants English classes.

It’s been revealed that the teacher’s union known as Boise Education Association is being funded with state taxpayers dollars: “Every dollar that taxpayers are asked to put into public schools ought to go to public schools, not into feeding the union machine!”-Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Freedom Foundation

Once again this year, in order to generate more funding for public schools the state Department of Lands is auctioning-off Priest Lake vacation lots, nine this time. It was revealed that the main reason the auctions aren’t going so well is because many of the properties are actually ocupado: “I know that people are hesitant to bid against a person that built it and currently occupies the structure and still wants it.”-Sid Anderson, Dept. of Lands

It’s been revealed that after certain medical care providers were cut-off from Idaho’s Medicaid that taxpayers are still shelling out money to those banned service providers! At least six providers have been paid $820-thousand USD since they were banned! Another two banned providers did not get payments but are still on the list of approved healthcare providers! It’s not just Idaho, the revelations come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It’s also been revealed that Idaho is one of several states that allow the employers of home healthcare workers to pay them less than minimum wage and avoid overtime pay!

The drought is so bad in Idaho that taxpayers are being forced by the Idaho Water Resource Board to fund $200-thousand USD worth of cloud seeding ops.  And the Water Resource Board is returning a $4-million USD investment made by four large water districts into the Hagerman Valley pipeline project because several smaller water districts decided to take on a loan to cover the costs. Apparently it has something to do with water access rights issues and the ongoing drought, as usual Idaho news sources weren’t very good at explaining it.

The International Rescue Committee reports that hundreds of war refugees, people on welfare and people with disabilities are being evicted from the Glenbrook Apartments off Curtis Road in Boise, Idaho.  Reports say the new California based owners of the apartment complex has plans to remodel the complex and greatly increase rents, from $650 per month for a two bedroom to $1-thousand USD per month!

Boise based Syringa Networks announced it is ending its Syringa Wireless service after Xmas: “….Syringa Wireless has fought hard to maintain low prices and high quality service for our Idaho communities…..Over the last 3 years we have made extensive financial investments…..As a small, locally owned and operated provider, we have arrived at a point where it’s simply not feasible to continue to operate.” 

For the third time in four months, millions of bees used by farmers were lost when a tractor-trailer rig flipped while driving through Idaho.  This time it happened near Pocatello/Chubbuck, on Interstate 15.

Amalgamated Sugar, in Twin Falls, reports record level sugar beet harvested under contract. Idaho is the second largest producer of sugar beets for sugar production in the U.S., the record harvest should keep the prices for White Satin brand sugar down.

More proof employers are shunning people over 35. In Twin Falls it was reported that the growing food processing industry will focus on hiring people ages 18 to 34 only. Jan Rogers of Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization admitted that’s it’s also a national agenda. The push to get rid of older workers has been dubbed by Jeff Sayer, director of Idaho Department of Labor, as The War for Talent.

In Bannock County the Bannock Development Corporation outright lied about jobs saying “The demand is here but the workforce isn’t.” Bullshit! I’ve been unemployed since April (when I got laid off after the USPS shutdown their postal processing center in Pocatello on Flandro Drive).  I’ve got 13 years military experience, decades in retail/warehousing/delivery and six years in television, yet I got three rejection notices for entry level jobs saying I “didn’t have the qualifications they were looking for”! Where are these jobs Bannock Development Corporation? I’ve been told my problem is my age, I’m over 45 years old which seems to be the unwritten cutoff for hiring workers. Most of the young adults in the area flee due to the lack of good paying jobs, and companies won’t hire older experienced workers who are willing to take less pay, it’s a recipe for economic disaster.

The Idaho Statesman revealed that Idaho police have not been enforcing state laws regarding the sale of beer and wine. One rule says all brands of beer/wine must be available to all retailers who want to sell it, no “private label” sales.

The Idaho Statesman investigated which companies and organizations are ‘bribing’ (political ‘donations’) failed-false-conservative Right-to-Work (you over) Idaho politicians. The top three ‘bribers’ are major utility company Idaho Power (so that’s where a lot of our utility payments go), east Idaho based “wellness company” Melaleuca, and out-o-state Washington DC based ‘conservative’ lobbyists Club for Growth.

Survivalism is driving up sales for some Idaho Falls businesses. The Post Journal reports a spike in sales over the past six weeks. The journalist said none of the preppers wanted to talk to him, but at one store “One woman bought almost $2,000 worth of merchandise and another purchased about $400 worth of items.” On one hand it’s a good thing because sales are up, on the other hand it’s bad because more and more citizens think we’re about to go to hell in hand basket!

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled the evil 2011 anti-unions law (given the Orwellian Double Speak title Fairness in Contracting Act) to be in violation of the federal National Labor Relations Act. Because of lawsuits the Fairness in Contracting Act never went into effect. The bad news is that yet again Idaho taxpayers are stuck paying the legal fees caused by their inept and evil ‘lawmakers’!

Idaho taxpayers will also have to pay for the burial fees for a female U.S. Navy veteran, as well as $70-thousand USD in legal fees. The female vet wants to be buried along side her wife in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery, but ‘lawmakers’ forbade it due the fact the vets are the same sex. However, after court battles Deputy Idaho Attorney General W. Scott Zanzig admitted “There is no question that the plaintiff is entitled to an award of fees and expenses under controlling law.”

After 89 years (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) Chubbuck’s iconic Green T Bar & Grill (aka Green Triangle) shutdown suddenly. The property, which has been in operation as the Green T decades before the city of Chubbuck was even created and included customers like U.S. President Harry Truman (the guy who nuked Japan), Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Willie Nelson, was sold to a property developer supposedly to make more restaurants.  Mayor Kevin England views the destruction of the last of Chubbuck’s historic landmarks (to be replaced by yet more restaurants) as “…the beginning of some real good things coming in.” Yeah that’s what we need to save our local economy, more restaurants.

OCTOBER:  Local news media proudly boasted of Idaho’s personal income ‘growth’ making The Gem State number 8 in the country.  Hate to burst your bubble but 1.1% is not growth, it’s stagnation!  Let’s break it down to reveal just who’s getting that 1.1% increase in personal income; utilities, landlords-property owners-property developers-real estate, banks and insurance companies.  Yep, if you’ve been paying attention to my Job Losses reports those are the very people jacking up costs to everybody! Gee, the 1% of Idaho are the ones getting the 1.1% increase in personal income, go figure.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration shutdown Ketchum-based Sun Valley Juice Company for repeated violations of federal food safety regulations.   The company got in trouble with the federal regulators back in 2006 as well.

Potato growers are warning of lower crop yields this year, even though acreage is way up.   Analysts say this year’s spud harvest will be below the five year average: “We’ve had some unusual weather this year. Some growers were hit by cold, some by heat and some had a lot of water. And with the water came late blight.”-Frank Muir, Idaho Potato Commission

 A disease affecting potatoes has been discovered in four farm fields in three counties.  It’s called Zebra Chip (Liberibacter bacterium) and could put a damper on what was expected to be a good year for spud farmers. Zebra Chip first showed up in the Pacific Northwest in 2011, it makes a fresh potato look like it’s rotting on the inside.  This bad news comes as the Big Idaho Potato (propaganda) Truck just returned to The Gem State after a costly ($700-thousand USD) multi-state tour.

Pumpkin farmers south of the Boise area reporting a shortage of pumpkins: “It’s been a rough year. It’s probably been the roughest year I’ve had with pumpkins since we’ve been doing it, and we’ve been doing it a long time.”-Fred Schreffler, owner of The Berry Ranch

According to Surro Sisters for Brooke the Burley, Idaho, woman was gestating twins for a couple from Spain when she died from “a rare medical complication” on 08 October 2015.  This was not the first time she sold herself to be a surrogate fetus carrier (for legal reasons they now avoid the term surrogate ‘mother’).  Some news reports said Idaho’s ‘baby farming’ industry is a way for poor Idaho women to make money.  A post by Jennifer Block reveals the downside of being a surrogate, and even reveals that women can make between “…$15,000 to $30,000 – for a job that is high-risk, 24/7, and lasts about a year, maybe more…”

A Kaiser Family Foundation study says Idaho is one of dozens of states keeping low income people from affordable ObamaCare (called the Coverage Gap), and that it’s actually costing taxpayers more money as a result, saying the cost of healthcare in The Gem State went up 6.9%! 

Idaho’s ObamaCare insurance exchange Your Health Idaho admitted that 78-thousand Idahoans (in a state with about 1.5-million people) whose low incomes (or sex; that fact they’re healthy low income adult males) won’t allow them to qualify for Idaho’s sexist Medicaid program!

Idaho’s version of ObamaCare has directly caused a death. Jenny Steinke died in Idaho Falls,  her husband Jason had just gotten insurance, but it didn’t go into effect until 01 September, the very day Jenny suffocated to death due to her asthma.  Jason stated that ObamaCare is “just not affordable” and bemoaned his wife’s death “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”  Jason’s mother Cella describes Idaho’s version of ObamaCare as nothing more than “death by poverty.”

It’s been revealed that Lewiston’s non-profit Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center is being sold to a for-profit op out of Tennessee.

Hungry people have increased in The Gem State as demonstrated by the fact that the Idaho Food Bank Fund (funded by donations from taxpayers) has supported seven more local food banks than last year!  The evil Right to Work (you over) ‘lawmakers’ made it harder to qualify for federally funded food aid (aka SNAP or food stamps), but created a local taxpayer supported Idaho Foodbank Fund.  Since then evil pro-government weenie heads pointed to the resulting drop in food stamp (SNAP) distributions as proof Idahoans weren’t going hungry! I wonder what those Right to Work (you over) ‘elected’ lawmakers are doing with that federal food stamp funding?

The Idaho Education News has revealed that “Almost every district and charter in Idaho is out of compliance with state laws created to promote transparency in spending, contracts and long-term strategic planning.”

Taxpayers screwed over by education, again: “This case presents an Idaho taxpayer challenge to the illegal expenditure of Idaho public funds to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, on the grounds that the consortium is an illegal interstate compact not authorized by the U.S. Congress.  The Idaho Constitution recognizes that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The membership of Idaho and other states in the consortium violates … the United States Constitution, together with other provisions of federal and Idaho law. The use of Idaho taxpayer funds to support the consortium, an illegal interstate compact, therefore constitutes an unconstitutional expenditure subject to challenge by Idaho taxpayers.“-Idaho taxpayers suing their state ‘lawmakers’ in federal court

Court ruling shuts down horse race betting venue Double Down Betting, Sports Bar and Grill in Idaho Falls, 70 jobs lost.  the Idaho Supreme Court banned instant horse racing gambling machines.

The Idaho Supreme Court upheld Boise’s plan to use hotel room taxes to pay bondholders via a series of one-year leases to fund the expansion of the city’s convention center.  Also in Boise, Supervalu grocery store laid off 115 employees!  And Shopko issued a shutdown WARN for their East Gowen Road, Boise, warehouse.  148 jobs lost on New Year’s Day!

The small southeast Idaho town of Soda Springs got hit with at least 1-hundred layoffs when apparently Mark III Plant Construction shutdown! I could not find any local news reports about it, I only found the WARN notice conspicuously publicly posted by the state Department of Labor after the fact (about 20 October, the layoffs took place on 11 October), even though they got the notice back at the beginning of September!

Another WARN that Dept. of Labor dragged its feet on publicly posting is architecture, design, engineering, and construction company AECOM laying off 85 people in Boise right before Thanksgiving.  Dep. of Labor got the WARN on 21 September, but  posted it to their website in October!  Last year AECOM merged with rival URS.

In Idaho Falls, troubled family-employee owned Post Register has managed to find a buyer.  Minnesota based Adams Publishing Group buying the Idaho Falls Post Register and weekly newspapers Challis Messenger, Jefferson Star and Shelly Pioneer.  Adams Publishing Group has been buying up troubled newspaper ops across the country, don’t be surprised by massive layoffs and shutdowns as a results, guaranteed they’re going to consolidate (like everybody else).

Six months after I lost my job at the Pocatello Gateway Postal Processing Center, due to plant shutdown, the ‘elected’ officials of Pocatello and Chubbuck are pushing the USPS to re-open the center.

Some good news (hopefully), a 20 year lease to create a large solar power project on the property of the Pocatello Airport (which is not located in or near the City of Pocatello proper) has been approved.  It will be run by Energy Partners-Pocatello Solar One and will sell the electricity to Idaho Power.

Major electricity supplier Idaho Power has signed a 20 year deal to contract out maintenance work on its gas fired plants to Germany based Siemens.  But get this, Idaho Power refuses to say how much the contract is worth, and, is selling $21.9-million USD of equipment to Siemens as part of the deal, sounds like Idaho Power is hurting for cash.

NOVEMBER:   Now Meridian based (formerly California based) Flagship Food Group shutdown their food factory in Chatsworth, California, 123 jobs lost!

The Center for Public Integrity ranked Idaho ‘lawmakers’ and Courts among the worst in the United States for corruption and lack of openness.

It’s been revealed that state taxpayers shelled out more than $2.1-million USD in failed state sovereignty lawsuits!  Those lawsuits are funded through the Constitutional Defense Fund.  For proof your ‘elected’ officials are idiots it’s also been revealed that The Gem State has lost every state sovereignty case since 1996!  There is only $322-thousand remaining in the Constitutional Defense Fund.  Governor Otter is asking ‘lawmakers’ to rape taxpayers for an additional $1-million for the Constitutional Defense Fund!

In Nampa, HVAC maker Hart & Cooley (aka HCI) issued a shutdown WARN saying 67 people will lose their jobs right after the Gregorian New Year’s Day.  However, in a fine example of proof that ‘official’ WARNs do not reflect the actual number of employees affected, local TV station KIVI said “over 70 workers will lose their jobs”, citing an official Hart & Cooley letter received by the mayor of Nampa.

The bad economy is rearing its ugly head in the form of a 28% increase in property crimes in the city of Idaho Falls.  That’s based on a new report published by the city using 2014 data.  Property crimes include theft, burglaries and larcenies.  Also in Idaho Falls, and possibly as a result of increased crime, the Guns and Gear store reports increased training of individuals for the state concealed carry license: “The concealed-carry class is getting busier and busier. I’ve been doing three a month here at the store. I usually run anywhere from 12 to 15 students. In the last two weeks we’ve filled all the courses.”-Pete Italiano

For proof the state government has failed with its SNAP (food stamps) allocations, fuel station Stinker Stores donated $20-thousand USD to the Idaho Food Bank, along with $50-thousand from customers of Stinker Stores.

In Pocatello, the Idaho Food Bank enlisted the help of police to control traffic.  The number of hungry families in the area is so high this year that the Food Bank created its first ever drive-thru operations, which caused traffic problems.  Local TV station KPVI described“Hundreds of cars were wrapped around South First Street and East Halliday…”  Idaho Food Bank administrators said besides food they also gave out 1-thousand 5-hundred food vouchers in one day!         Also in Pocatello, Cynthia Louise Boutique shutdown after six years.

Time for a reality check on misleading Idaho news reports about increased home loan applications.  The overwhelming majority of mortgage applications are concentrated in one county, Ada, which is home to The Gem State’s capitol Boise.  The further away you get from Ada County the more the number of applications crash and burn.  Only 8% of applications came from minorities who faced a 20% rejection rate (higher than non-minorities).  Many of the mortgage applications were for refinance of existing loans, or existing home improvement/repair projects, not for buying a home.  The Associated Press did not give a specific source for their info, vaguely referring to the “banks and mortgage companies” as their source.

Evil property renters are jacking up rents on farmers!  The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Survey says the cost to rent non-irrigated farmland in The Gem State has gone up to $158 USD per acre (0.4 hectare), a 5% increase from 2014 to 2015.   Irrigated farmland hit $208 per acre, an 8% increase!  However, it was revealed that rent for farmland with a pivot irrigation system and strong water rights access was going for as much as $350 per acre!  Here’s another whammy against farmers; the USDA said many of the current rental contracts were signed when commodity prices were high, this means farmers are actually paying rent so they can lose even more money for what they grow!

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics claims The Gem State’s new jobs grew by 3.8% from October 2014 to October 2015, but, according to American Staffing Association the majority of Idaho’s new jobs are part time and temporary only.

State government created (by current gov’na Butch Otter) non-profit Buy Idaho revealed to be Big Fail after 29 years!  Back in October they held their 29th statewide trade show in Boise, but finally in November released the attendance data; a whopping 20 Idaho businesses showed up with just over 170 people in attendance (wu-who!!!).    Hey why don’t you Buy Me a Job, gov’na Otter? 

 Homeschooling is one reason why taxpayer funded public schools are losing students.  According to Idaho Coalition of Home Educators there’s an estimated 7-thousand kids being educated at home, in a state with a total official population of 1.5-million.  The reason the number of homeschool kids is an ‘estimate’ is that The Gem State does not have any laws regarding the tracking or even state testing of home educated kids.

A judge has ruled that West Ada School Board violated the Constitution of Idaho by charging fees.  In fact the ruling reveals just about all Idaho public schools are violating the state Constitution: “So we’re hoping that moms and dads will ask these questions about ‘Why are you charging fees when they’re unconstitutional?’”-Russell Joki, West Ada School Board member who actually agrees with the court ruling

Idaho State University (ISU) revealed that the majority of their ‘international’ students come from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  Despite increasing foreign student enrollments ISU suffered a net loss of 671 students for the 2015-16 school year! 

 School District 151 is now suddenly short $15-million USD after convincing taxpayers to issue new bonds!  District administrators blame an architect from the School District 25 area for grossly under-budgeting new construction projects!  That architect admitted as much adding that “I feel sick.”  

This’ll make you sick, in the Twin Falls area a ranch hand was arrested for stealing elk sperm!  He was paid $3-thousand USD by a competing elk ranch to steal the sperm!  A sure sign the economy in Idaho is in desperate straights.

 The League of Women Voters of Idaho is demanding a reduction in state sales tax.  They’ve launched a ballot initiative to drop it by 1%, from 6% to 5%.  Gee, when I first moved to Idaho in the late 1990s it was 5%.  I remember when the state ‘elected’ lawmakers told us the increase to 6% was “temporary”, then suddenly it became permanent.

Administrators in Burley warn that the J.R. “Jack” Simplot Airport could shutdown in 2016, if it doesn’t get more help from impoverished federal and state taxpayers.   The Federal Aviation Administration says the small and deteriorating airport will be shutdown due to its short runways.  The only way to save it is to move it to a new location, but so far every possible location has brought up new legal issues.

DECEMBER:  The federal EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice have ‘convinced’ the food controlling giant JR Simplot to spend at least $42-million USD reducing pollution from its Don Plant in Power County.

State ‘lawmakers’ decided to give state employees a 3% pay raise, yet the Idaho Press-Tribune says state employees are still paid 22% below the ‘market average’ for state government employees across the U.S.  My own short experience working with state employees at Idaho State University revealed that the pay disparity gets even worse when you break it down by region, yes, state employees are not paid uniformly across The Gem State.  It was also revealed that the state Department of Health and Welfare experienced a 15% employee turnover rate in 2015, blamed mainly on low pay rates!  So much for Right to Work you over laws!

In Nampa, after 28 years the facility for ‘troubled girls’ Syringa House shutting down because the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare stopped sending them ‘troubled girls’.

The state Department of Health and Welfare is slashing Medicaid payments for in-home care of mentally disabled people.  Already, in-home care operation A New Leaf, in Meridian, is shutting down and eliminating 39 jobs as a result.  Many more in-home care operations will be shutdown as the draconian state ‘lawmakers’ want to warehouse disabled people in institutions.  (better do your research to find out what happened the last time people were warehoused in institutions, it not pretty)

The rip off artist known as Your Health Idaho ObamaCare enforcer is being cut loose from federal funding. For 2016 Your Health Idaho is expected to fund itself, which guarantees rates will go up.  And for more proof Idaho lawmaker’s version of ObamaCare is evil: “Students and their families are also facing steep increases in prices for policies offered on the state exchange, with average prices for a minimal coverage ‘bronze’ plan exceeding $200 per month.”-from staff report recently presented to Idaho Board of Education

A federal court has ordered the sale of Saltzer Medical Group. Corrupt Boise based Saint Luke’s Health System took over Nampa based Saltzer, but a federal judge ruled the takeover violated anti-trust laws.  Saint Luke’s has 12 months to sell-off Saltzer.

Switzerland based drugs maker Novartis paid $390-million USD to settle U.S. charges of kickbacks to pharmacies that pushed Novartis’ drugs into Medicaid and Medicare patients.  This is just a slap on the wrist as the money has to be split between at least 40 states.  For The Gem State a piddly $52-thousand will come from that pot.  By the way, this isn’t the first time Novarits got caught being a criminal in Idaho, back in 2010 they paid the state $350-thousand for basically the same thing, bribing healthcare providers for pushing their drugs!

Idaho ‘lawmakers’ continue to rape taxpayers, and again it involves lawsuits but this time the tax payments came from an little known fund.  The Legislative Legal Defense Fund has shelled out more than $275-thousand over the past three years to hire private attorneys to fight cases involving sage grouse and ObamaCare.

The evil and corrupt School District 25 (aka Pocatello/Chubbuck school district) fired a food service worker for giving a starving child a free lunch valued at a measly one dollar and 70 cents!  On top of that the A-hole District 25 administrators sent the good samaritan (now former) employee a letter stating they consider her act of charity “theft”!  To make matters even worse it turns out the junior high school student had the money to pay for the meal in her school lunch account, but for some reason the computer system didn’t recognize it!

According to the Idaho Department of Education more than 60 school districts saw decreasing enrollment, even though the overall statewide enrollment levels were up from last year.  For unknown reasons School District 2 (West Ada) is seeing the lion’s share of enrollment increase, far outpacing the next four districts with the top enrollment.

College of Southern Idaho revealed that 30% of its student body are still in High School!  The imbecilic Idaho Board of Education realizes that it’s a sign of a ‘significant’ change in college student body demographics (you think?).  What this really shows is a mass exodus of traditional college age students from Idaho!

For more news on the sad state of Idaho, the U.S. Department of Education says Idaho’s High School graduation rate is 41st out of the 50 states and Washington DC! 

A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court judge ruled that your ‘elected’ lawmakers act with extreme hatred (“animus”) regarding things like animal rights: “The overwhelming evidence gleaned from the legislative history indicates that (the statute) was intended to silence animal welfare activists, or other whistleblowers, who seek to publish speech critical of the agricultural production industry….a review of the (statute’s) legislative history leads to the inevitable conclusion that the law’s primary purpose is to protect agricultural facility owners by, in effect, suppressing speech critical of animal-agriculture practices.”-B. Lynn Winmill

The state Public Utilities Commission has accepted monopoly Idaho Power‘s 20 years operation plan.  The plan includes shutting down a coal fired plant and passing on the shutdown costs to captive customers.  The ‘lawmakers’ of The Gem State allow Idaho Power to operate as a monopoly.    Idaho Power is also begging wealthy customers to make donations to Idaho Power’s privately funded Project Share, which helps low income people pay their winter heating bills.  Between October 2014 and September 2015 a measly $200-thousand USD has been raised for Project Share.  The Gem State does not have taxpayer funded social programs to help people pay their utility bills, yet taxes in the Right to Work you over state are unusually high for so few social programs.

Washington based Avista Utilities jacking up both electricity and natural gas rates for its Gem State customers.  The increase was approved by the evil Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

It’s been revealed that the incompetent Idaho ‘lawmakers’ spent $715-thousand of your tax dollars fighting legal cases to prevent ‘gay marriage’!

The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that taxpayers must pay the Coeur d’Alene Tribe about $57-thousand USD concerning competition from Round Eye operated horse racing casinos.  An earlier court ruling shut those equine gambling ops down.

Guess what, don’t fight a fire if you’re expecting to be paid by the state! It’s been revealed that The Gem State lawmakers do not normally pay firefighters hired at the last minute to fight wildfires! In 2015 state ‘lawmakers’ agreed to pay last minute local fire fighting hirees 65% of what is considered “standard rate” for contracted firefighters!

The city of Dalton Gardens wants to spend local taxpayer funding on birth control, not for humans but for deer!   Despite the fact the deer were there first city administrators say there are too many and they’re destroying property values, so they want to spend tax dollars on a vaccine that will prevent pregnancies for at least two years.   This is the same animal-people hating city that gave us politician “…Vito Barbieri, who famously asked a physician during a February House committee hearing if doctors could perform gynecological exams remotely by having patients swallow tiny cameras.”

Kevin Settles, the owner of three successful Bardenay restaurant and distillery operations, decided to exodus The Gem State with his fourth operation: “I would like to operate in a state that doesn’t have a state control system. I have three licenses in three areas and even then it isn’t a stable investment. There is always the chance you lose it to a violation and then who knows when you will get another.”  Gee, and our exalted ‘conservative’ republican ‘lawmakers’ have always led us to believe they’re against such state controls.  Settles is moving to Colorado.

In Ammon, the optimistic city leaders went running to the local news media with “the biggest booming” business news ever!  They’re getting a Kneaders cafe, Popeyes chicken (there’s already at least one nearby in next door Idaho Falls) and a  Rita’s Custard and Ice.  Yep, the same ol same ol, service sector jobs that are totally reliant on manufacturing sector jobs, which they don’t got.

More rebellion against the 30+ years old Right to Work you over laws as yet another company is taken over by its employees.  Boise based Norco, “the nation’s largest privately owned welding, safety, medical and gas supplier”, is now 35% owned by its employees under the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan)!

New York (get a rope!) based New Media Investment Group has taken over the Idaho Business Review.

Some good news that’s actually bad news; Corporation for National and Community Service ranks Idaho in 2nd place in the country for volunteerism.  Why is that bad?  Because it’s a freakin’ sign of how many people are suffering you Gem State rock heads! 68% of Idahoans help their struggling neighbors through ‘informal volunteering’!   (Blind Bat News is brought to you by such informal charity by a tiny number of Idahoans, because Blind Bat News makes no money from advertising, and nobody wants to use the ‘donate’ button for some reason. If you guys donate maybe Blind Bat News could become a real threat to mainstreamer news sources.)

“The City of Boise launched a secretive, surprise attack on a vulnerable community.  We are aware of no open meeting that the City ever held about its plan, nor did the City ever discuss its plan with Cooper Court residents.  The planning was done behind closed doors, to intentionally keep the broader community out.  The taxpayers and the people directly impacted were left out…….the City intentionally created panic, confusion, and paranoia.  Worse, it is forcibly evicting and processing human beings.“-American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the average income for Idahoans declining while the number of Idahoans in poverty is increasing!

IDAHO ECONOMIC DECLINE 2014: “WE’VE LOST A LOT…SINCE 2007.”