Incomplete list of economic related events in The Gem State of Idaho, Gregorian year 2014.

JANUARY:  In Gooding, Glanbia Foods officials warned of layoffs saying “….we are actively pursuing a number of strategic growth opportunities, the current milk supply situation in Idaho is extremely tight.” Glanbia Foods claims to be the number one manufacturer of American Style Cheese, with four factories in Idaho and the world’s largest cheese factory in New Mexico!

In Garden City, after 54 years The Stagecoach Inn shutdown. The owners blame “not enough business” for their failure to pay taxes and the loss of their booze license.

In Boise, the Saint Luke’s affiliated non-profit Elk’s Rehab Hospital laid off “…less than 20 positions, all licensed practical nurses within the inpatient unit…” in an effort to adjust to reduced funding caused by ObamaCare. Elk’s Rehab Hospital began in 1947 to help victims of polio.

In Pocatello, the short lived Marhaba restaurant shutdown. The building auctioned off at the end of the month.  It’s now one of them-there vapor joints.

Also in Pocatello, the property that acted as construction storage for Sunbelt Broadcasting (a previous owner of NBC affiliate KPVI Channel 6) was abandoned and put up for sale.  It’s been replaced with a medical clinic.

FEBRUARY: In Boise, ObamaCare call center operator Maximus announced it will kill 1-thousand 6-hundred jobs by the end of April! Retail businesses located around the call center say they will be directly impacted. Employees are suing because they have not been paid for overtime that they’ve worked, and they were told the jobs were permanent full time positions. Company officials now say the positions were officially temporary! Company officials directly blame ObamaCare: “The reduction in staffing is based on the nature of the contract and the reduced volume of calls, both of which are directly related to the enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act.”

Boise based computer chip maker Micron reported profits at the end of January, but it was revealed that they also killed 419 jobs in Italy! It’s blamed on Micron’s take over of Italian chip maker Numonyx. Layoffs could be coming for Idaho.

In Meridian, cement/minerals engineering company FLSmidth laid off 46 employees.

Also in Meridian, Utah based First National Bank of Layton killed 56 jobs.

In Coeur d’Alene, Office Depot announced it will shutdown in May. It’s blamed on the merger with Office Max.

In Twin Falls, upscale home decor store Inspired Living shutdown. The owner said she wanted to retire.

Presbiterian/Agnostic Warren Buffet owned Heinz Frozen Food made it official and notified Idaho that it will shutter its Pocatello plant, killing at least 4-hundred jobs! State Department of Labor analysts said the frozen food factory shutdown will have a domino effect and kill an additional 2-hundred ‘support’ jobs in Pocatello/Chubbuck!

In Aberdeen, food and agriculture giant Simplot announced they will kill 309 food processing jobs by April!

MARCH: In Nampa, food producer Simplot announced they will shutdown operations at the end of May, 206 jobs lost! It’s part of their ongoing consolidations of food processing.

In Idaho Falls, according to an official WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Center Partners laid off 4-hundred call center employees!

APRIL: Sandpoint based women’s clothing retailer Coldwater Creek now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and shutting down all 365 stores. More than 1-thousand jobs will be lost across the U.S.! Idaho will lose 490 of those jobs by June!

In Boise, Pennsylvania based diesel-electric locomotive maker Motive Power announced it will kill 162 jobs in June!

JUNE:  In Twin Falls after only two years of production at the world’s largest yogurt factory, Chobani laid off an undisclosed number of employees. Officials say the layoffs are because production quotas were reached (in other words the former employees did their jobs well)! But wait, more layoffs could be in the planning! Chobani officials told local news media that the factory was still using hundreds more employees than they really need. The new factory was designed for 4-hundred employees, but state employment officials estimate there are between 5-hundred and 1-thousand people working the successful operation.

Also in Twin Falls, after 47 years the Twin 12 Cinema movie theater shutdown.

In Pocatello, After less than three months Timberline Home Furnishings-3G Used Car Sales is already busted! The location used to be the Ashley Furniture Liquidation store, which went away in March.

JULY: In Boise, Italy owned highway and airport food service company HMS Host (Host Marriott Services Corporation-Autogrill S.p.A.) issued a WARN saying they will kill 79 jobs by the end of September.

Also in Boise, the Elk’s Rehab Center shutting down, 516 jobs lost as Saint Luke’s Health System takes over in September! Reports say Saint Luke’s claims it needs only 4-hundred employees to do the same job, so a net job loss of 116!

In Nampa, Macy’s Clearance Center shutdown, eight jobs lost. Local news reports indicated that the lease on the property was still in effect.

What housing market recovery? RealtyTrac’s top ten list says at the end of the 2nd quarter the Boise-Nampa area had 765 properties in foreclosure, and 237 homes abandoned!

What housing market recovery? In Naples, it was revealed that Washington based Alta Forest Products (whose main product is fencing for homes) laid off at least 25 employees. Hours for other mill employees were reduced. Salesman Jeff Cook kinda blamed the housing market saying “We’ve lost a lot of sawmills and building products companies since 2007.” However, it’s probably due to the May 2014 merger of TMI Forest Products and Welco Lumber, which created Alta Forest Products. What’s (not) funny is company officials promised that job security was the goal of the merger: “This agreement will help secure employment to the local communities and strengthen the regional economy built on the growing lumber industry.”-company statement

In Pocatello, the U.S. Postal Service Gateway Processing Center made the shutdown list for 2015, about 50 jobs lost through transfers, early retirements or outright layoffs.

AUGUST:  In Chubbuck, Sears Holdings finally decided to put their dying Sears store, at the Pine Ridge Mall, to death. The store will close in October.

Also in Chubbuck, the 24 years old Carmike Cinema 7 was sold off to property developers and will be torn down. Word is that the owner does not think it’s worth it to convert the theater over to digital, especially when he already spent boo-koo bucks building a new digital theater on the north side of the Pine Ridge Mall property.

In Blackfoot, after 15 years Tweedy’s Music shutdown. The owners revealed there are two speculators competing to buy their property.

SEPTEMBER:  The fact that so many former employees of recently created Scientech (a division of nuclear industry Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company) are applying for unemployment assistance reveals a layoff of at least 25 people in Idaho Falls. Local news reports say company administrators refuse to talk. At the end of 2013, Scientech announced they were to set up business in Idaho Falls by the summer of 2014, meaning the company had just barely started ops before killing jobs already.

NOVEMBER: In Boise, after 73 years Molenaar Jewelers announced a going out of business sale, the owner was unable to find a buyer for the business which will shutdown in Janaury 2015.

Also in Boise, a year after taking over Boise Paper (aka Boise Inc) for $1.27-billion USD, Packaging Corporation of America issued a WARN saying they will shutdown the Boise location by March 2015, at least 152 jobs lost!

After 66 years Blackfoot Appliance & Furniture announced they will shutdown by the end of January 2015, “everything must go!”

The mayor of American Falls reported that the local ALCO store was shutting down, he was alerted when he saw employees putting up the going out of business signs. It’s one of five Idaho ALCO stores being shutdown. The American Falls mayor says his small city can’t afford more job losses: “Any worker who loses their income will have an impact on the city!”-Marc Beitia

In Challis, Colorado based Thompson Creek Mining (aka Thompson Creek Metals) issued a WARN saying they will layoff 160 people and shutdown their molybdenum mine in December. Administrators blame the crashing price of moly-B.

School District 25, in Bannock County, warned they could be $1.5-million USD in the hole, with the ending of current levies. But wait, there’s more bull-shit! District 25 administrators want new levies valued at $10-million! This despite decades of levy and bond issues burdening tax payers, as well as decades of lottery payments which school district administrators can’t seem to account for! It’s interesting the school levies and bonds always pass ‘elections’ no matter how many people publicly oppose them.

In Chubbuck, after 23 years the iconic local Dapco Hobbies now up for sale. The current owner (not the friendly family owners that moved the shop to Chubbuck, Corey & Melia) is selling everything off and wants out of the hobby business. Dapco Hobbies was originally located on Garrett Way in Pocatello (according to the BBB that was beginning in 1991), then, after Corey & Melia took over Dapco relocated to Chubbuck around 2007-08. For a very brief time Dapco Hobbies had a shop in Ammon, then moved that one to Idaho Falls (apparently they left about the same time the ‘big box’ Hobby Town left Idaho Falls), and they even had an internet website. They started out focused on trains, then shifted to RC when that got big.

DECEMBER: In Chubbuck, Mario’s Pizza and Orange Julius announced they will shutdown their Pine Ridge Mall stores in 2015. Local TV station KPVI said company administrators told them the economy was so bad in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area that it wasn’t worth keeping the decades old pizza joint and juice blender open any longer.

Also in Chubbuck, the demolition of the 24 years old Carmike Cinema 7 is slowly underway. It will be replaced with yet more redundant chain restaurants.

In Post Falls, office furniture maker Kimbal International issued a WARN saying they will shutdown beginning in February 2015, at least 251 jobs lost!

What housing market recovery? Administrators with “the nation’s largest supplier of building materials for home building” ProBuild announced they’re shutting down their Sandpoint ops due to crashing sales.

“We’re going to go down.”: Idaho’s Economic Decline 2015 

“It was a blow, cut us off at the knees.”: Idaho, Economic Decline 2013