Category Archives: Idaho

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

Economic Recovery? Idaho’s Micron Technology invades Japan! Micron on the offensive!

May 4, 2012, Japanese media reporting that failed Elpida Memory has chosen Idaho’s Micron Technology as its corporate savior.

According to NHK: “Elpida is Japan’s sole DRAM memory chip maker. It filed for bankruptcy protection in February after suffering losses stemming from the strong yen and intense foreign competition.”

But here’s the irony; Idaho’s Micron is also having revenue trouble.  Idaho media, real estate web sites, etc, have been reporting Micron as the Boise area’s largest employers.  But Micron’s employment in Boise dropped to 5,000 in 2009, and has been trickling down ever since.

Micron has had a lot of investors, yet their quarterly reports for 2011 were loss after loss (in the hundreds of millions each quarter).  This is because the memory chip market basically crashed.

However, since the beginning of 2012 Micron officials have been busy buying up other factories, and now companies.  Micron recently took over a Toshiba owned factory in Virginia, called Dominion Semiconductor.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch said: “The current state of the memory-production business is looking like the hotel business, where various facilities are bought and sold like trading cards from company to company.”

One reason for that is that memory chips have become a dime a dozen (actually less) and there’s no brand loyalty among chip users.

Micron officials seem to have scouted the next wave of memory innovation correctly, they are now pushing their RealSSD (Solid State Drive) and computer companies are buying it up.

On May 4, 2012, Elpida officials chose Micron, out of three bidders, to take over their company.  It’s reported that it will cost Micron $2.5 billion USD.  The take over will be finalized at the end of May, and new company plan submitted to Tokyo District Court by August.

Originally Micron offered $1.9 billion for Elpida, but Elpida shareholders threatened legal action.

 

 

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

Oil & Gas Prices: Iran 100% increase in shipments! Nigeria oil & gas boom. North Dakota oil jobs draining Idaho & Washington. Ohio’s oil industry refuses to hire locals? Chevron big profits. Texas is proof that Obama is an oil man.

Despite U.S. oil sanctions against Iran, Iran experienced a 100% increase in refined petrol (gasoline) exports in 2011!

Iranian officials say their gasoline sales in 2011 hit a record $134 million USD!  Some of the countries buying Iranian petrol are Armenia, Afghanistan, the UAE, Iraq and Oman (some are U.S. puppet states).

By the end of 2010 Iran became self supporting in petrol production, ending years of dependance on foreign suppliers of refined gasoline.  Iran is now a major exporter of refined fuels.

Officials in Nigeria announced plans to increase oil production to 4 million bpd by the year 2020.  They are also close to increasing liquefied natural gas production by an additional 20 million metric tons a year, from the current level of 26 million tons.  Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa.

Texas oil and gas surplus equipment supplier, Jhump & Associates, is reporting a 117% increase in sales in 2011!  But that’s nothing compared to the 300% increase they had in 2010!!!

The Texas based company started in human resource solutions, but has seen a huge boost after they moved into surplus oil equipment sales.  They now plan to move into off shore drilling technology. They say their increased sales is due to a huge increase in oil and gas exploration and drilling in the United States.  What was that about Obama not doing enough to increase oil production?

In the panhandle of Idaho, and eastern Washington, people are leaving for oil jobs in North Dakota: “I’ve had guys come running through the door, saying, ‘I need my CDL [commercial drivers license] now! I’ve got a job lined up in North Dakota!’ .”-Tina Sykes, Sage Truck Driving Schools

Sage Truck Driving Schools now offers a shortened course for those Idahoans and Washingtonians heading for North Dakota.

North Idaho College is experiencing a jump in enrollment for electrical and plumbing programs that end with apprenticeships in North Dakota.

While educators are warning job seekers to do their homework before heading for North Dakota, there seems to be more than enough jobs available: “We’ve had both types of people, those who jumped in the car and left, and others who did prior research on companies. We’ve never had anyone who didn’t get employment.”-Tina Sykes, Sage Truck Driving Schools

In contrast, Ohio is seeing a seeming rejection of local people for consideration of employment in the oil and gas industry there.

One union member claimed that not a single contractor in Coshocton County, Ohio, has been hired by the shale oil and gas industry: “…I have been a local construction laborer for more than 30 years. I have talked with other construction laborers living in the Carroll, Harrison and Jefferson county areas. They are totally discouraged on the lack of, or in other words zero percent, work they are getting from this construction based shale gas industry.”-Timothy Mulford, Business Manager Laborers Local 134

Chevron reported a $6.5 billion USD profit for the first quarter of 2012.  High oil prices driven by speculators was one of many reasons for the huge profits.

According to Visiongain, all oil refineries around the world are now worth a combined total of $46.64 billion USD.  Visiongain expects huge investments and developments will be made in refineries until 2022.

 

 

 

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

Corporate Evil: Did Monsanto create mutant wild dogs in Vietnam? Vietnam’s Kanup 480 SL is called “Roundup” in the United States.

Farmers in Vietnam, who’ve only just started using herbicides in the past two years, are suffering from terrible symptoms, even dozens of deaths.  On top of that, and seemingly in coincidence, wild mutant dogs have been terrorizing villages, attacking and killing domestic animals.

Local Vietnamese media reports are now blaming an herbicide that farmers were tricked, I mean convinced, into using.  Most of the farmers had never used herbicides before.

In Vietnam the herbicide in question is called Kanup 480 SL.  It’s made by a company called Thang Bac Giang (Vithaco).   Turns out that Kanup 480 SL is the very same herbicide known as Roundup in the United States.

Roundup was patented in the 1970s by Monsanto.  The patent expired in 2000.

Here’s the thing: In 1996 Monsanto was sued by the state of New York for lying about the safety of its products.  In 2007 Monsanto was convicted by the European Union for lying about Roundup being safe and biodegradable.  It turns out that Roundup is not safe or biodegradable (under European standards). The main ingredient, isopropylamine salt of glyphosate, is “dangerous for the environment” and “toxic for aquatic organisms”.  Another ingredient of Roundup is polyethoxylated tallow amine, it is known to be highly toxic to animals (humans are animals too, you know).

Lab test showed animals that were contaminated with Roundup resulted in mutated offspring.  Some media reports say Monsanto knew of this as early as 1980.  It’s interesting that the wild mutant dogs in Vietnam showed up in the very same areas that Kanup 480 SL is being used.

There have been dozens of studies on Roundup, showing it causes mutations and death. How much Roundup does it take to kill a human?  It depends, but studies have found as little as 85 ml could kill you, while some people have survived accidental doses of as much as 500 ml. The latest study was in 2009.

Another interesting point: Monsanto is also behind genetically modified plants (which involve using deadly bacteria to make the modifications stick).  The modified food crops are meant to be resistant to Roundup.  However, some of these crops (the first being Soy) cross pollinated with weeds and created super weeds.  The super weeds can not be killed with Roundup, however many people don’t know that and will just spray more and more Roundup.

I still deal with weeds the old fashioned way; I pull them up with my hands, or run over them with my electric lawn mower, or chop them down with a weed whacker.

Why just yesterday, after writing my article on the Mystery disease, I saw employees of the city of Chubbuck, in Idaho, busy with their yearly spraying of Roundup in the park adjacent to my back yard.  They like to run that crap along the fence lines of everyone’s property that butts up to the park. It’s so strong you can smell it.

I used to work for a retail property management company. The boss was obsessed with using Roundup, even on a single weed that was growing in the middle of a parking lot that could hold a hundred cars!  In less time than it took to mix the Roundup, then prime the pump and go about spraying, I was able to simply pull the weeds out of the asphalt. But I actually got reprimanded for that!

People in the United States better wake up and stop smelling the Roundup before you can’t smell the Roses anymore!

Warning!  Roundup’s warning label is misleading.  It basically says Roundup is just an ‘irritant’. Yet, on some Roundup warning labels (on their larger containers) it tells you to immediately call your local poison control center for help!

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Department of Labor to end long term unemployment help, even though job creation is slacking, Merry early Xmas!

“It’s a hard cut off, there is no phase out. Nobody gets squat after December 31!”-Bob Fick, U.S. Department of Labor

The U.S. government is ending long term unemployment help (stop calling it “benefits” main stream U.S. media!!!).  Emergency unemployment compensation is being reduced from 53 weeks, to just 13.  Another program known as extended benefits is being ended altogether.

As a result, in the state of Idaho overall maximum unemployment help will drop from 99 weeks to 39!

The official U.S. unemployment rate is at 8.2%, Idaho’s official unemployment rate is around 8%. But that doesn’t mean companies are hiring enough people.

April 9, 2012, U.S. stock markets dropped because of news that hiring is not what everyone thought it was. The U.S. Department of Labor announced that 120,000 jobs were created in March.  That’s 80,000 less than expected!

Many “experts” were sure it would be more than 200,000!   In fact many of those “experts” now think the job gains of the previous three months were temporary, and more losses are to come: “We’re thinking that the economic data is going to lose some momentum from here going forward.”-Bob Baur, Principal Global Investors

Even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the recent drop in official unemployment numbers was “out of sync”.

Teenagers continue to get hit hard with lack of jobs.  The official rate of unemployment for them is 25%!  The highest rate since last year, and getting close to the all time record of 25.5% in 2009 (the highest since 1948)!

Here’s a fact: There are 5.1 million less U.S. jobs now, than in December 2007! The U.S. economy needed to create at least 4.7 million new jobs since then, in order to “recover”, and it has not!

Here’s another interesting fact about the official unemployment numbers game:  New York City is considered to have made a faster “recovery” than the rest of the country, yet their unemployment numbers have gone up!  They’re now around 9.6% unemployment, close to the 10% they hit in 2009.

This is just an example of how you can’t trust the “official” numbers.  Remember, the official unemployment rate does not count people who have been unemployed for so long they no longer qualify for unemployment assistance. Also, the Department of Labor issues at least six different “unemployment numbers”.

U-3 is the one the main stream U.S. media runs with.  It’s the one giving us the 8.2% rate for March.  The Department of Labor calls it the “official unemployment rate”.

But there is also U-6, and it says the unemployment rate is 14.5%!  It’s also known as the “under-employed”, which means people who are working part time but want full time work.  The Department of Labor said there were 7.7 million under-employed people in March 2012.

U-1 is also the “employment to population rate”, which looks at how many people have jobs, and it says 58.5% of the people have jobs.

Then there’s U-4 and U-5 (aka “long term unemployment” or “discouraged workers”) numbers which tries to count people who’ve been out of work for more than six months. It’s now at 5.3 million long term unemployed.

There’s also U-2 which tries to count people who just lost their jobs.

It’s confusing, especially when you get to the “discouraged” calculations.  Examples: U-4 is U-3 + “discouraged workers”.  U-5 is U-4 + “marginally attached workers”.  U-6 is U-5 + “part time workers who want full time work”.

The bottom line is that there are millions of people in the United States still without jobs, or without good paying jobs, and that is a sign that there is no economic recovery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fukushima, Idaho, Technology

Radiation mystery at Idaho National Laboratory, Cesium & Cobalt

U.S. department of Energy reported on April 6, 2012, that radioactive particles of cesium and cobalt are being found on construction materials.

A contractor discovered the contamination.  Officials think it could be from the demolition of old buildings in that area of the INL site, which would imply that the buildings were contaminated before being torn down.

A local east Idaho DOE spokesman said there was no concern “…unless you get it onto your skin…” and you had “…prolonged exposure…”

Employees and vehicles are now being checked for contamination as they enter and leave the site.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Idaho’s Coldwater Creek loses a VP, Judge tells former employee to expect more prison time, makes store closings watch list

A 1st District Judge in Idaho, has refused to accept terms of a plea agreement.

The case involves a former executive assistant at Coldwater Creek.  She pled guilty in exchange for paying $251,943 in restitution, a suspended three to 10 year prison sentence, and 90 days in county jail.

She is accused of racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent personal expenses at Coldwater Creek, and taking money from a non-profit group involved in education.

The judge said he didn’t like the 90 day county jail time deal, because there are other cases of fraud, in Idaho, in which the defendants took much less money, and spent much more time in county jail, after making a plea deal.

Also, Overstock.com has hired away Coldwater Creek’s vice president of marketing.

Timothy Dilworth worked for Coldwater Creek since 2000.  But is Overstock.com getting a good executive?  After all, hasn’t Coldwater Creek been losing sales for the past several years?

According to Internet Retailer, out of the top 500 U.S. retail companies Coldwater Creek ranks 93rd (not to bad, if that’s 93rd from the top).

Towards the end of March, Coldwater Creek stocks led a small rally in the retail sector. This was due to a smaller net loss than expected.  However, their sales were less than expected as well.  Coldwater Creek stock is now trading for just over one dollar per share.

A Florida based group called Turnaround Management Association, listed Coldwater Creek as one of dozens of troubled U.S. retailers to watch for store closings, right along with Sears.

Turnaround Management Association specializes in distressed debt, liquidations and bankruptcy proceedings concerning retail companies.

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

What Economic Recovery? Good and Bad news for Idaho’s Hoku Materials

On March 22, 2012, Hoku Solar (a subsidiary of Hoku Corporation, in turn majority owned by China’s Tianwei New Energy) was selected to build a 7.2 megawatt solar farm in Kaua’i, Hawaii.

In December 2011, Hoku Solar actually delivered a 1.18 megawatt solar energy facility, the largest solar power plant in O’ahu, Hawaii.

After the announcement of the 7.2 megawatt solar farm contract, Hoku Corp stock went up 11%.

Now the bad news, another subsidiary of Hoku Corporation, Hoku Materials, is getting hit again by the construction contractor in charge of completing the southeastern Idaho polysilicon factory.

There are reports that once again Hoku has not fully paid its contractor JH Kelly.  This has happened before, and is part of the main cause for many construction delays in the past.  JH Kelly officials say they are taking “action” against Hoku.

Hoku Materials has also played the same game with electricity supplier Idaho Power.  Their latest battle was settled by an Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) decision.

According to an 15 March 2012 IPUC statement, Hoku got a new electricity contract which: “… reduces Hoku’s monthly minimum payment to about $800,000 for up to 18 months through June 2013.  To protect customers and the company from the lost revenue from the lower minimum payment, Hoku will reimburse the difference between the current and the revised minimum charge in payments spread through November 2014, plus 6 percent interest.  Hoku will also make an initial payment of $3.8 million, with $2 million of that coming from a $4 million deposit already provided by Hoku. The remaining $1.8 million will be paid over the next 18 months at $100,000 per month.  Hoku must give Idaho Power 30 days’ notice when it plans to exceed 10 MW and six-months’ notice when it plans to exceed 20 MW.”  

HOKU MATERIALS’ CUSTOMERS WHO ‘PREPAID’ ARE GETTING IMPATIENT!

Idaho, U.S.

Dumb ‘Mericans: South East Idaho’s School District 25 “flagged” for “suspicious” test scores, again!

In an independent investigation into public school federal test scores, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found the Southeastern Idaho School District 25 had suspicious test scores three years in a row.

The Pocatello/Chubbuck/Bannock County school district was “flagged” because it had test results that varied from year to year “outside the norm”.

A normal variance is considered 5% from year to year.

In 2008 there was a 13.1% variance.  In 2009 it was 8.54% variance.  In 2010 it jumped to 14.29% variance in test scores from the previous year!

Compare School District 25’s test score variance to Eastern Idaho’s School District 91 (aka Idaho Falls district): 2008; 1.28%. 2009; 6.41%. 2010; 6.41%.  Much closer to the 5% “normal” variance.

Researchers say if education is consistent, and the children taking the tests are answering the questions from their own knowledge, then there shouldn’t be such high shifts in Idaho School District 25’s test scores from year to year.