Category Archives: Idaho

Idaho, U.S.

2 1/2 mile fire update, containment. More Idaho fires expected, warns officials.

03 July 2013 (23:12 UTC-07 Tango 02 July 2013)/24 Sha’ban 1434/12 Tir 1391/26 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

Blackened hill from 2 1/2 Mile Road fire. About 1048 acres (424 hectares) burned. During the night winds died down and firefighters got the upper hand.

Blackened hill from 2 1/2 Mile Road fire, northern Bannock County (as seen from Cotant Park, Chubbuck). About 1048 acres (424 hectares) burned. During the night winds died down and firefighters got the upper hand.

Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center reports the 2 1/2 Mile fire is contained.

EIIFC also reporting the lightning caused Beaver Pass fire in Butte County.   One of the fire crews that battled the 2 1/2 Mile fire are now working the Beaver Pass fire with other crews from federal agencies and the cities of Arco and Custer County’s Lost River.  50 acres burned so far.

In southern Idaho, several fires are burning federal Bureau of Land management property.   The Emery Fire has burned at least 600 acres (248.8 hectares), they hope to have it contained by Wednesday night.  Another fire 3 miles north of the city of Wendell has burned 1833 acres (741.7 hectares), and is considered contained.  The Point fire, near Rogerson, has burned at least 2500 acres (1011.7 hectares).  The Jim Brown fire has burned 13000 acres (5260.9 hectares), containment expected by Wednesday night.   The West Hollister fire is contained, and burned at least 3000 acres (1214 hectares).  All the mentioned fires are suspected of being caused by lightning.

In western Idaho, fire crews are fighting the Turner fire, near Lucky Peak.  It burned about 300 acres (121 hectares) and is suspected of being human caused.

“We saw what last year’s fire season did to Idaho. Right now, we are set up to have potentially a worse fire season than last year.”-Bob Shindelar, Boise National Forest

Back in June, analysts warned that the fire danger is extreme for Idaho mountain areas.

“They’re coming into their third year of really dry conditions. Even though we had a relatively good snowpack across most of Idaho this year, it hasn’t made up the deficit we’ve seen in the past.”-Ed Delgado, National Interagency Fire Center

02JUL2013 update: 2 1/2 MILE FIRE, APPROACHING NORTHERN POCATELLO

01JUL2013: NEW 2 AND A HALF MILE FIRE NORTHEAST OF CHUBBUCK, IDAHO

June 2012:

Smoke seen from downtown Old Town Pocatello. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 28JUN2012.

POCATELLO CHARLOTTE FIRE STILL BURNING! 66 HOMES NOW DESTROYED!

Idaho, U.S.

2 1/2 mile fire update, approaching northern Pocatello

02 July 2013 (20:37 UTC-07 Tango 01 July 2013)/23 Sha’ban 1434/11 Tir 1391/25 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

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Idaho, U.S.

New 2 and a half Mile fire northeast of Chubbuck, Idaho

01 July 2013 (22:07 UTC-07 Tango 30 June 2013)/22 Sha’ban 1434/10 Tir 1391/24 Ji-Wie (5th month) 4711

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Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Another $20 million lost by Coldwater Creek! Blames it on climate change and shuttered stores!

29 June 2013 (21:41 UTC-07 Tango 28 June 2013)/20 Sha’ban 1434/08 Tir 1391/22 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

The Idaho based women’s clothing retailer, Coldwater Creek, just keeps bleeding out cash!  For its most recent quarter, which ended in May, Coldwater Creek lost $19.4 million USD.

Executives headquartered in Sandpoint blamed it on climate change and the fact that they’ve closed so many stores: “Our first quarter results were impacted by unseasonable weather throughout the quarter….”-Jill Dean, CEO

Coldwater Creek closed two retail stores in the last quarter, along with one factory store.  Company officials don’t expect any good news when this current quarter ends, either.  Amazingly, Coldwater Creek (CWTR) stocks are selling for about $2.50 per share, despite being downgraded to neutral by investment bank B. Riley!

To try and become more efficient, Coldwater Creek just spent money on a Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization program: “Ultimately, this should lead to further reductions in aged inventory and allow us to increase our full price selling, making us more productive and profitable.”-Jim Bell, CFO/COO

They say the program will let them better forecast what women want to buy (by spying on customers’ shopping habits).

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Idaho Electric rates going up, blame the demise of Pocatello’s Hoku silicone factory!

11 June 2013 (15:02 UTC-07 Tango)/02 Sha’ban 1434/21 Khordad 1392/04 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

It’s been revealed that in May, Hoku Materials laid off its last engineer at the failed $700 million USD polysilicone factory in Pocatello, Idaho.  There are now only eight security guards working at the 50 football fields long factory.

Pocatello based news media interviewed the engineer who told them they were trying to work on a way to save the factory from bankruptcy sale.

Hoku Materials ghost town factory, Pocatello, Idaho. Now estimated to have cost $700 million.

Hoku Materials ghost town factory, Pocatello, Idaho. Now estimated to have cost $700 million.

Today, the factory is considered officially shut down, and will likely be parted out in bankruptcy liquidation sales (who wants to buy a 50 football fields long, never been used, polysilicone factory?).

The project was started five years ago, but right away ran into trouble because Hoku Corporation didn’t really have the money to build their Hoku Materials factory.  Pocatello even gave the company a huge tax break equivalent to the value of the land the factory was being built on.

Construction was delayed several times because Hoku couldn’t pay the construction contractor on time.  Eventually Hoku sold out to a Chinese company (Tianwei).  Then commodity market prices for polysilicone crashed.  The coup de gras was given by President Obama when he imposed high tariffs on Chinese solar power companies.

Another issue was that Idaho Power, the main supplier of electricity in Idaho, cut off power several times because Hoku didn’t pay their electric bill.  Now Idaho Power is jacking up electric rates for Idahoans, partially blaming it on the failed solar power polysilicone provider.

Most of Idaho Power’s electricity comes from dams on the Snake River, but water levels are so low they must rely more on wind and gas fired plants to generate electricity this year.  Regarding Hoku, Idaho Power is trying to regain the $23 million they invested.  In other words, Idaho Power company officials made a bad investment and they’re going to make their captive customers pay for it!

Electric rates for Idahoans trapped on the Idaho Power grid will see a 12% increase, the fourth largest increase in Idaho’s history.

I’ve been following this disaster for years, here’s more on the demise of Hoku Materials:

Capitalist Commodity Markets to blame for Pocatello’s Hoku Polysilicon near abandonment!

 

 

Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

Cell Phone Martial Law: Verizon ordered to hand over all customer records to NSA & FBI! Idaho’s Frank Church was right!

06 June 2013 (03:46 UTC-07 Tango)/27 Rajab 1434/16 Khordad 1391/28 Wu-Wu (4th month) 4711

“The NSA’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter.”-a prophetic warning in 1975 by Frank Church, U.S. Senator from Idaho

“We decline comment.”-Ed McFadden, Verizon

The news media in the United Kingdom has revealed a top secret order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.  It orders cell phone companies to hand over all customer records to the U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.  It specifically names cell service provider Verizon.

The order states that the collection of customer data (called “tangible things”) will be “…on an ongoing daily basis…”  It encompasses “…all call detail records…” 

Not only that, but it ordered “…that no person shall disclose to any other person that the FBI or NSA has sought or obtained tangible things under this Order…”

However, the Guardian obtained a copy of the police stateist order, and you can read it by clicking here. 

Your glorified leaders in Washington DC are using legal games and referring to phone calls as “metadata”, because if they used the term ‘communications’ then they would have to get court orders on each and every customer!

“We’ve certainly seen the government increasingly strain the bounds of ‘relevance’ to collect large numbers of records at once, everyone at one or two degrees of separation from a target, but vacuuming all metadata up indiscriminately would be an extraordinary repudiation of any pretence of constraint or particularized suspicion.”-Julian Sanchez, Cato Institute

This is more proof that Obama is no different, perhaps even worse, than Bush Jr!

Business/Economics, Idaho, Opinion

Washington Unions & city officials opposed to employee owned WinCo! It’s not evil crony Walmart man, it’s employee owned WinCo!

31 May 2013 (14:51 UTC-07 Tango)/21 Rajab 1434/10 Khordad 1391/22 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

“Bellingham will not win with the opening WinCo…..It is an unfortunate ‘race to the bottom’ for jobs, wages and benefits in Bellingham.”-Jack Weiss, an obviously ignorant Bellingham city council member

I’ve been shocked to learn of a growing anti-WinCo movement in Bellingham, Washington.  It involves unions and some city council members.

They claim WinCo will crash local wages, and hurt other businesses.  On the first count, WinCo actually pays well, damn good in fact.  And the benefits are considered some of the best in the whole U.S. of A.

My ex-wife worked for WinCo for at least a decade, she admitted to me many times that it was the best damn job she ever had (considering she never finished high school, at one point she was making more money than me).  She loved the medical benefits!  She also loved the employee ownership of WinCo stocks.

My eldest daughter is working for WinCo, nine years now, and she’s extremely happy with her income and benefits, especially since she sees what’s going on with the rest of the grocery industry.  She was started several dollars an hour above minimum wage (a WinCo policy. WinCo’s pay policy is also adjusted according to region) and gets periodic raises.  She’s now making more money than her mother did while she was working for WinCo.  She also loves the medical/retirement benefits and the employee ownership of the company through stocks.  That’s the real threat to unions, they don’t own the company.

As far as hurting other businesses, I know another Idaho based grocery store, Albertsons, went down, but not because of WinCo, but partly because of their unions!  The unions forced Albertsons to charge outrageous prices for food.  (There are cases of mom and pop stores going under because of competition from bigger stores, but not any case that could be specifically pinned on WinCo.)

Employee owned businesses threaten both the traditional ‘publicly’ held evil elitist corporations and unions (I think some unions have become a type of evil elitist club).

Employee owned businesses usually have tougher employee work policies, which are voted on by your fellow co-workers so it’s hard to challenge (WinCo employees don’t dare be late to work, and if you’re sick for more than one day better get a doctors note).  Isn’t that similar to a union, except, once again, the union doesn’t own the company.  Also, no outrageous union dues, in fact WinCo employees get back more in their medical/retirement/stock benefits than what the average union member gets from their union!

A weakness is that it is possible for the employee owned business to be tricked into becoming a publicly held company, which would open the door to Romney style vulture capitalists.

In Pocatello, the new WinCo 117 recently opened up across the street from the ‘new’ Fred Meyer, yet I don’t see any sign that Fred Meyer is being adversely affected by the new expanded WinCo.  Fred Meyer is still just as busy (my other daughter works for Fred Meyer and loves it, employee pay/benefits similar to WinCo but it’s not employee owned), as is the evil Chubbuck Walmart.   I have noticed a lot of out of county and out of state license plates on the vehicles parked in the WinCo 117 parking lot, so it seems the WinCo is actually bringing new customers into the area.

The manager of the Bellingham, Washington, Fred Meyer was asked about any concerns over the idea of a WinCo being built.  His response: “It’s just an additional competitor in town. I’m sure there will be some customers who are price sensitive and will go to WinCo for certain items. But we have the one-stop shopping concept, where WinCo is just the basic food store.”-Bill Pelan, Lakeway Fred Meyer store director

(if Bellingham has a publicly held Fred Meyer, then there’s no excuse for Bellingham not to have an employee owned WinCo!)

Construction/remodeling started on the new Bellingham WinCo on 09 May 2013.  It should be ready to go before the end of the year.

WinCo is proof that employee owners know how to run a company better than unions or corporate elites! 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. Economic Front: Job losses & store closings 13 March 2013. More school cuts! Surprise layoffs!

INL welcome sign

INL welcome sign

The Idaho National Laboratory laid off 101 people in eastern Idaho, that’s after 114 employees voluntarily quit and 60 positions were eliminated!  More layoffs are planned: “We will be watching the budget situation closely in the coming months and hope to have a clearer picture of any additional actions that will be necessary.”-Mark Holubar, INL human resources

In Kentucky, Murray-Calloway County Hospital laid off 28 employees.  Hospital officials blame Obama/Romney Care and a huge decrease in customers ($7.5 million USD decrease)!

The Decatur Public School Board, in Illinois, warned that teachers could be laid off by Spring Break.  School officials blame lack of state funding and unpaid debts.

In California, the Twin Rivers Unified School Board notified 101 employees of layoffs!  They have to save $9.1 million!  Southern Humboldt Unified School District said they need to layoff at least 14 people.  School officials blame the state government: “This is happening at every school district in California. Think about how many people that is, having to scramble, having to figure out who we’re going to lay off, who we’re going to notice, and how many families that affects.”-Blake Lehman

Also in California, the 1st Hunan Chef Wong Restaurant closed down in Pleasanton.  Restaurant owners blame the landlord: “…Due to a dispute with the landlord, the 1st Hunan Chef Wong Restaurant will be permanently closed…”  In Los Angeles, Pull My Daisy clothing store closed down, the owner saying she needs to “try new things”.  In San Diego, Continental Maritime laid off 185 people!  They’re blaming federal government spending cuts.

Without warning, Entertainment in Troy, Michigan, laid off 400 more employees, without severance!  This only a couple of days after they went bankrupt and laid off 267 people!   Herb David Guitar Studio shut down after 50 years of business.

In Calhoun, Tennessee, the paper mill closed down. The new owners said demand for newsprint has crashed.  150 people out-o-work!

Language learning software maker, Rosetta Stone, laid off about 70 people in their Harrisonburg, Virginia office.  The Virginia ABC liquor store closed down in Rosslyn.  State officials said the store will not renew its lease.

In Indiana, postage meter service provider, Pitney Bowes, announced they are laying off 137 people in May!   Music Factory Direct closed its retail store in South Bend.  They switched to internet sales.

Archer & Greiner law firm laid off 14 attorneys and 27 staff at offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Pace Outlet store closed down in Teaneck, New Jersey, after only one year of operations.

In Portland, Maine, the Oriental Table restaurant shut down.  The restaurant owner blames the landlord.

Archer Uniform store in Minnesota shut down.  The owner blames the Mayo Clinic Health System for changing to color coded uniforms.

In New Lisbon, Wisconsin, Grocery Depot closed down.  Despite it being the only grocery store in New Lisbon, owners say there just wasn’t enough customers.  U-Bake closed down in Onalaska.  Owners closed stores earlier in the year as part of a consolidation plan, but it looks like even that failed: “Simply put, sales are not what we anticipated when we consolidated stores.  Our expenses have been increasing and financially, we can no longer support the business.”-Kris Nandory

 

Idaho, U.S.

WorldWar 3, U.S. False Flag Front: U.S. military quietly takes over from the President?

17 May 2013 (13:05 UTC-07 Tango)/07 Rajab 1434/27 Ordibehest 1391/08 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

“…Federal military commanders have the authority….where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable….to quell…civil disturbances….”–DoD Instruction Number 3025.21, February 27, 2013

Back in February 2013, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued a new “instruction”, which allows the military to take action on U.S. territory without presidential authorization!

State National Guard units on federal active status (mobilization) will be forced to take part.  Those on state active duty, or weekend warrior status, are supposedly exempt, although the “instruction” says National Guard units can “…be ordered into Federal service…”

The “instruction” also states that the DoD will begin training up local law enforcement agencies (including MOUT).  Also, the “instruction” allows federales to take over locally when “…local authorities….decline to provide adequate protection for Federal property…” (is that why the Sheriffs of southeastern Idaho recently went to the public begging for money to buy AFVs?  63% of Idaho land is owned by the federal government).

The take over by the military involves U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOC).  The involvement of SOC should frighten people, after all the Afghans have been pointing out that most atrocities in their country are being committed by U.S. SOC units.  The ‘Syrian’ insurgents that summarily execute Syrians on video, and even video record themselves decapitating and eating human hearts, got training by CIA/SOC personnel (those insurgents admit they were trained by U.S. personnel).

The “instruction” allows for “…pre-positioning of Federal military forces for CDO [Civil Disturbance Operations]…”  But how can you preposition forces before a civil disturbance happens?  CDO will include SOC units.

The military now has the power to deputize volunteers.  Military aircraft will be used to transport civilian law enforcement.  Native American tribal law enforcement agencies will be involved.   Intell shall be processed through the El Paso Intelligence Center.

And who has authority regarding this “instruction”?  If the President of the U.S. is not available to make such authorization, then “The Secretary of Defense is the approval authority for requests for direct assistance in support of civilian law enforcement agencies…”

 

 

 

Idaho, U.S.

World War 3, U.S. False Flag Front: Idaho Sheriffs demanding Armored Fighting Vehicles!

17 May 2013 (11:17 UTC-07 Tango)/07 Rajab 1434/27 Ordibehest 1391/08 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

Local southeast Idaho news media reporting that the Sheriff of sparsely populated Bear Lake County is begging residents to fork up the bucks to buy an expensive BearCat Armored Fighting Vehicle, supposedly to fight the growing violent crime in the county.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 data, there were only 6001 people residing in Bear Lake County.    According to FBI Uniform Crime Reports data, from 2001 to 2008 there was a total of 312 crimes reported in Bear Lake County, only 15 were considered violent!

In fact, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reporting that their 2012 UCR data shows a continued drop in violent crime across the United States, so what is this Sheriff from Bear Lake County, Idaho, talking about?

But wait, there’s more!

North of Bear Lake County is another bigger county, and the Sheriff is demanding a BearCat AFV for his deputies as well!

Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen is making the same claim; violent crime has climbed so high that “This has been, as I refer to it, the year from hell. We have been involved in three officer-involved shootings in the last year.”

For most metropolitan areas of the United States, three officer involved shootings is a good year!

Because of the three officer involved shootings, Nielsen wants to get a tank on wheels to protect his deputies.  That’s strange because it was his officers that were doing the shooting!!!  Do they plan on more shootings and they’re afraid people might start shooting back?

The BearCat AFV is claimed to be able to withstand a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) bullet.  To date there have been no officer involved shootings where the suspect was using an expensive and big .50 caliber gun!!!

The BearCat can carry 12 Boston Strong false flagger take your rights away from you paramilitary cops.  Some local law enforcement agencies in Idaho don’t even have that many cops!!!

The 2010 Census Bureau data for Bannock County, Idaho, shows a population of 83691.  From 2008 through 2009 there were about 11000 ‘crimes’ (including false calls to 911).  The overwhelming majority of those crimes were not violent crimes!  So why does the Bannock County Sheriff really want a tank on wheels?   (he already has an older one, but it lacks a heater and it gets cold in there in winter)

But wait, there’s more!

Next door, in Power County, Jim Jeffries the Sheriff said “Anything that can happen anywhere else will eventually happen in our hometowns, and in our counties. If you are going to have a team, it’s important to train that team to do the tactical things that they need to do.”

Sounds to me like Idaho Sheriffs are prepping for a little Boston Strong police stateism in the sparsely populated Gem State.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 data, there were only 7766 people residing in Power County, Idaho.   Unfortunately Power County does have more crime than Bear Lake County.  According to FBI Uniform Crime Reports data, from 1999 to 2008 there was a total of 1257 crimes reported.  But only 83 were considered violent!

But wait, there’s more!

In toto, all six southeastern Idaho county Sheriffs are begging the underemployed residents to fork up the bucks to buy the AFVs.  And that’s even after they get grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and use money legally stolen from people who were arrested for drug related crimes.  (how expensive are these damned Lenco BearCats? About $260000 for one)