At the beginning of November, Hewlett-Packard reported they had donated $1 million to charity, for the fiscal year which ended October 31.
Now, according to a Boise TV station, HP employees called and reported a major layoff at the HP Boise operation was in the works.
KBOI says they contacted HP officials. The officials stated they are still working on the details of a forthcoming press release, which will explain the layoffs.
“I wish somebody had come to us, you know, in the months before all of this happened and said, look, you really, really should look at a short sale or taking any other option other than foreclosure.”-Ben Jensen, Idahoan who lost home to foreclosure and was still sued by Bank of America
Did you know that as many as 40 U.S. states allow banks, and debt collectors to sue you even after a home foreclosure is finalized? It’s called ‘deficiency judgment’.
Idaho attorney Brian Webb, says he’s seeing a sudden increase in such legal action by Corporate America: “I only probably handled five or six in 2010; versus 2011, it’s been, you know, off the top of my head, between 15 and 25 deficiency cases.”
If you lose your home to foreclosure you could get hit with a lawsuit fives years after the fact: “In many other states around the country, homeowners find themselves subject to deficiency actions one, two, three, four or five years after they’ve been foreclosed.”-Geoff Walsh, National Consumer Law Center
Another Idaho attorney, Terri Pickens, says the sudden increase in deficiency judgments are due to a disturbing new trend; banks are selling their deficiency claims to collection agencies. It’s all part of Wall Street’s new “investment” strategy: “I do know some private investors who are coming in and purchasing up bank loan packages and have been paying literally pennies on the dollar; just sitting on the paper, waiting for the right time to collect on it.”
Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem was shocked to learn that her jewelry store is being sued for more than $80,000.
Panhandle State Bank says the lawsuit is over a $75,000 loan made back in 2005. Bloem says she was in the process of renegotiating the loan, and never had any indication the bank was going to sue. She says her jewelry store is not in financial trouble, even though the bank says she failed to pay off the loan.
After several months of what looked like a downward trend in home foreclosures, October had a 7% increase from the month before.
The reason for what looked like a downward trend was because the big banks and mortgage companies had been holding back, mainly due to red tape and just too many cases to go after: “The October foreclosure numbers continue to show strong signs that foreclosure activity is coming out of the rain delay we’ve been in for the past year as lenders corrected foreclosure paperwork and processing problems.”-James Saccacio, RealtyTrac
Nevada is still the number one state for foreclosures, although Las Vegas dropped to 5th place for cities. Stockton, California, is now the number city in the U.S. for foreclosures.
Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan are the top five losing states, making up 53% of the country’s home foreclosures.
The next five most losing states are Georgia, Illinois, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado.
In the name of efficiency, and international competition, J.R. Simplot is building a new potato processing plant. It will use only 250 employees. The problem is that the new highly efficient Simplot potato factory will replace three existing plants (in Nampa, Caldwell & Aberdeen), resulting in 800 Idahoans losing their jobs. That’s a net loss of 550 jobs.
East Idaho doesn’t have a big population so the job loses will hit hard: “It’s going to have a negative impact on Nampa and Caldwell and the whole country. We’re encouraged that they will remain in Caldwell, but certainly concerned about the overall impact of job loss.”-Steve Fultz, Caldwell Economic Development Council
J.R. Simplot officials say it’s necessary to build such an efficient factory, because global competition in the food market is getting tougher. In fact potato prices for this years potato season have fallen to the point that Idaho farmers will be lucky to break even.
At least Simplot employees have been given a decent heads up; it’ll be at least two years before the new super efficient potato processing plant will be completed.
J.R. Simplot has been streamlining operations in Idaho since the 1990s. Simplot’s corporate headquarters used to be in Chubbuck, Idaho. But they closed it down and moved to Boise right after I moved to Chubbuck.
Their Chubbuck HQ was replaced with the TJ Maxx/IHOP strip mall.
Former location of J.R. Simplot Corporate HQ, Chubbuck, Idaho
The metal awnings/canopies covering the Simplot HQ entryway can now be seen in front of the Pocatello City Hall.
Ex Simplot Chubbuck HQ canopies adding charecter to the otherwise drab Pocatello City Hall
On November 8, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced that 17 employees were exposed to plutonium. The INL now says it is 16 employees who were exposed, but, the number of those testing positive for contamination is going up.
The INL has also released more info on how their employees got exposed to deadly plutonium. The affected area at the decommissioned Zero Power Physics Reactor has been isolated.
Japanese media are reporting that seven workers are now confirmed to be contaminated. At least three workers are undergoing additional checks after lung examinations pointed to possible internal exposure.
Local east Idaho media are reporting that two employees tested positive for Americium 241 in their lungs. INL officials say it’s almost sure that their lungs are contaminated with plutonium as well.
The Japanese and Idaho media are giving conflicting info on how the workers were exposed.
Idaho media says INL employees accidentally ruptured 30 year old containers filled with plutonium. Japanese media says the workers found the containers already ruptured, with powder spilling out. They opened the containers to see what the powder was. It was oxidized plutonium that had turned to dust. The Japanese media says the INL is trying to find out how the containers were ruptured. INL officials suspect the containers were ruptured a long time ago, which would explain the oxidized (rusted) plutonium (it also means employees might have been exposed to plutonium since 1981).
The INL is currently run by contractor Battelle Energy Alliance.
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) announced that on November 8, seventeen employees were exposed to plutonium. At least six show signs of contamination.
It happened inside the decommissioned Zero Power Physics Reactor. A container containing plutonium was opened by the workers.
The employees went through decontamination procedures, and are being checked at the INL’s Central Facilities Medical Center.
The INL is run by contractor Battelle Energy Alliance.
This is the second ‘event’ this year involving radioactive material from the INL. In January, 2011, an employee was nearly exposed to a full years worth of radiation, after a miscalculation as to the amount of radiation the worker would be exposed to for a specific task.
Also, in September, 2011, a small container was found on an Idaho Falls street, it was labeled as containing radioactive Iodine 131. The INL was called in to investigate. They claim the container was empty and not radioactive. They discovered it was used for medical purposes.
On November 2 the U.S. Senate presented a plan to “save” the USPS.
That plan would pay back U.S.$7 billion of the funds Congress stole, I mean, that Congress forced the USPS to overpay in retirement funds. However, the $7 billion is to be used to buy out employees (a nice way of laying people off, as many as 100,000 employees will lose their jobs in the buy out). It would also require a two year study before ending Saturday deliveries. The draconian retirement fund payment schedule would be ended as well (it’s the main reason the USPS is in financial trouble).
Then on November 7, the U.S. Postmaster General announced that he will officially present plans to “save” the USPS on November 21!
His plan will include laying off thousands of workers, closing offices and sorting facilities, and ending Saturday deliveries. He’ll make his official announcement at the November 21, National Press Club Speakers luncheon in Washington DC.
Local Idaho postal workers told me what ever plan is official announced that it’s basically a sham, what’s going down with the USPS is a “done deal”.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity recently released the latest rankings of U.S. colleges and universities.
They include the 2011 rankings by Forbes/CCAP, using the Carnegie Classification (by geographic region). Idaho State University ranked 111, out of 112!
Portland State, in Oregon, came in dead last. Who’s number one in the West? Stanford, in California.
By the way, Boise State didn’t do much better, coming in at 109 out of 112!
The Idaho Division of Financial Management reported that October tax revenues were $1.6 million short of what was needed.
State officials were hoping for $210.6 million. So far for the fiscal year 2012, overall tax revenues are $10.8 million below what’s hoped for! Amazingly officials still think they’ll finish the 2012 fiscal year with a surplus!?
The biggest drop was seen in sales tax revenues, to the tune of $4.1 million! So far Idaho sales tax revenues are short by $14 million! Sales taxes are a good way to gauge how well your economy is doing, and it doesn’t look too good.