Some government loans for college graduate students covered, or forgave, the interest payments while the student was still in school. Not anymore: “They will be responsible for the interest while they’re going to school, beginning in the 2012/2013 academic year.”- James Martin, Idaho State University Associate Director of Financial Aid
You can thank the Debt Limit deal just signed into law by President Obama.
For some students who have to take the maximum loans, it could mean paying $207.00 per month in interest, while they’re in school. That would mean they would have much less of their loans to live on.
Many graduate students at Idaho State said they might not be able to continue their higher education: “So I think taking away the subsidized, which most of my loans are, I don’t think I would have attended this program if they had done that.”-Chris Thurston
“You know, I know they have to make cuts somewhere, but unfortunately it’s the one that will affect me. But you just gotta do what you gotta do.”-Zach Migel
“If we don’t have the ability to pay for it, we’ll go for not the top notch schools, we’ll go for cheaper schools, cheaper programs.”-Sheila Mitchell
On top of the ending of the interest subsidies, the Debt Limit deal also ends a credit for students who make 12 on time loan payments.
After decades spending millions of dollars to get Idahoan’s connected to the World Wide Web, Idaho has the slowest connection speed in the U.S.
Pando Networks surveyed 4 million internet customers across the country, and found Idaho’s average connection speed to be 318 kilobytes per second, with 83% completion rate.
Idaho’s northern neighbor, Montana, and eastern neighbor Wyoming, also made the slow connection list. Wyoming actually has a slightly faster connection rate, than Idaho.
Two of Idaho’s other neighbors, Washington and Oregon, made the top 15 fastest rates.
So who’s number one in the United States for internet connection speed? Tiny old Rhode Island: 894 KPbs!
“Traditional explanations for the seasonal increase in dengue are not consistent with my experience in Thailand, Peru, and Puerto Rico.”-Doctor Thomas Scott
A recent study shows that long hot seasonal temperatures help the spread of Dengue. The areas of the world, where Dengue is becoming more prevalent, are areas that are not cooling off as they used to, and are subject to radical swings in warmer temps.
The study also showed that mosquitoes are less likely to spread disease during cooler temperatures, and more likely during hot weather: “…whereas transmission probability is estimated to be 0.11 at a constant mean temperatureof 14 °C, it shows a 2.7-fold increase with a DTR [diurnal temperature range] of 20 °C.”
While many parts of the World are experiencing warmer than normal weather, here in Idaho our weather is much cooler than normal. That is keeping cases of West Nile virus way down, so far.
The big concern in Idaho is protecting horses. Horses are more susceptible to dieing from West Nile, than humans.
Local mosquito eradication officials are reporting that, so far, there’s a drop in West Nile infected mosquitoes, possibly due to the cooler weather. However, they pointed out that mosquitoes with West Nile usually show up in the later half of Idaho summers.
Another factor in favor of mosquitoes is flooding. Parts of Idaho have been hit with increased seasonal flooding, and the cooler weather (resulting in less evaporation) means there are large areas of standing water, perfect for mosquitoes.
Officials are already taking action by spraying insecticides on ponds, and asking property owners to drain standing water.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Idaho, Oregon and Washington state are free of any West Nile cases (as of 26 July 2011). It could be due to the cooler than normal weather.
The CDC reports human cases of West Nile in the following U.S. states: Arizona, California, Georgia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming.
According to the most recent CDC Dengue HealthMap, there are no cases of domestically acquired Dengue fever within the United States.
The United States Postal Service released a list of nearly 3,700 post offices that could be shut down. Many post offices in Idaho are on the list.
The list of cities where post offices could be shut down are: Ahsahka, Almo, Arbon, Avery, Boise, Calder, Chester, Clayton, Desmet, Ellis, Geneva, Hamer, Harvard, Howe, Monteview, Moscow, Ola, Parker, Pocatello, Swanlake, Tensed, Weston and Yellow Pine.
The USPS says it will also consider replacing some of the post offices with “Village Post Offices”. These would be contracted offices run by existing local businesses.
The United States Postal Service does notmake money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge, and other products they sell.
Credit scoring companies are getting so nit picky that now they judge you based on where you live.
CardRatings.com now considers the state you live in as part of your credit score. One of the states that can make your rating go down is Idaho. Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com, says Idaho scores low because of high unemployment and high bankruptcy/foreclosure rates.
A low credit score for your state doesn’t just affect your rating, but the credit ratings of your local banks. This makes it harder for local financial institutions to get major loans from national banks, which in turn makes it harder for them to issue local loans.
Which state can make your credit score go up the most? Oil rich North Dakota.
Initial reports say that a grass fire on U.S. Highway 30 (Old Bannock Highway) near the Hoku plant, and the malting plant, in Bannock County, Idaho, caused a massive junk yard fire. Fortunately the wind was blowing the flames away from the gas company.
Walt’s Auto Salvage fire, July 26, 2011
The salvage yard is run by Walt’s. Law enforcement blocked off several roads, because a gas company, Ameri Gas, is located right next to the salvage yard. They deal in liquid oxygen and propane.
WAS fire, U.S. Highway 30, Bannock County, July 26, 2011
By 14:30 (2:30 PM) about 45 vehicles in the yard were on fire. The fire was brought under control around 15:00 (3:00 PM), thanks to the massive response by local fire fighters. Some witnesses say the junk yard fire started after one or more propane tanks exploded.
The city of Pocatello is back to the drawing board after voting against buying $6.2 million worth of water rights. The deal would have been made with Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company. City officials backed out after credible threats of lawsuits from water users “downstream”.
Water is a big issue for Pocatello. Its main source of water is the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, and it’s running dry. The Portneuf River flows through Pocatello, but it does not recharge the aquifer, and the city does not take any water from it.
To add to the problem, the city of Pocatello is not the only one using the Aquifer, the city of Chubbuck also gets its water from the same source.
For a long time it was thought that surface water runoff made its way to the ground water (Aquifer), but now its known that most surface water runoff just ends up in rivers heading out to the oceans (although some recharging comes from Mink Creek, and snow).
Geoscientists believe the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer was created 17,000 years ago when a natural dam broke, releasing a huge sea into the area (Bonneville Flood). Part of that sea was trapped in what is now known as Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer.
Another issue is that while many aquifers are held in small rock formations, even pebbles and sand, the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is trapped by huge boulders, which were part of the natural dam holding back the ancient sea. You can see huge boulders around the area now. Every time a housing development goes in they end up spending a lot of time digging out the boulders in order to put in basements. It has also resulted in lucrative local rock mining businesses.
The water in the Aquifer is almost finite, it does not easily recharge as was once thought.
However, while most rain ends up in rivers, any water from slow melting snow, or used on farms or residential properties can get into the Aquifer. The problem is that large boulders do not filter the incoming surface water, like sand or pebble aquifers. This means the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is very vulnerable to contamination.
To add to that, the soil is only about 2 to 8 feet thick, before you hit rock. I can attest to that since I’ve done a lot of landscaping here, and I grow vegetables and fruits. I can dig the depth of a shovel blade and hit rocks 4 inches in diameter or bigger. The thin soil means if you dump used motor oil on the ground, or use chemicals on your garden, it’s almost instantly heading for the Aquifer.
There is a three part (boring, basically a college lecture from 2010) video explanation of the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer issue, presented by Glenn Thackray of Idaho State University:
Thackray explains that the cities, residents, farmers and businesses take out more water from the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, per year, than what flows into the Aquifer. This has been going on for a long time, and is why we’re running out of water. Add to that the fact that we’ve had some very dry winters, with less than normal snowfall (a big source of recharge, because it melts into the ground, unlike rain that runs off). The water level has been dropping since the 1990s.
Pocatello city officials say they are taking this issue seriously, and are being proactive about finding a solution.
“It really doesn’t do much good if the money goes back to repairing the irrigation system. I can’t use it. I’m paying for a service I have no choice to pay for, but I have no access to the benefits.”-Mary Fullmer, 77 year old school bus driver
The city of Gooding, Idaho, is charging residents $104.00 per year for an antiquated irrigation system that many don’t use, not even the mayor: “It’s an old and broken system. But we can’t stop charging people. I even have to pay the fee, and I don’t use the irrigation system either.”-Duke Morton, Gooding Mayor
Six years ago Mary Fullmer’s access to the irrigation system was cut off, when the city cemented over the pipes that connected her property to the system. Yet she still has to pay $104 per year.
Many city residents complain about the fee, and city officials claim they’re looking for an alternative, but they admit they don’t see it as a priority.
The Idaho AARP (formerly known as American Association of Retired Persons) is sending 20,000 signatures to the U.S. Congress, demanding that Social Security and Medicare be left out of budget cuts.
Cuts to SS and Medicare would adversely affect hundreds of thousands of Idahoans who paid into the system for decades.
