Idaho based women’s apparel retailer, Coldwater Creek, lost another $30 million. That’s their loss for the quarter ending April 2011. They also lost $37 million in the previous quarter.
Coldwater Creek has 371 stores, with 9,400 employees, across the U.S.
The beginning of June and eastern Idaho is under a frost warning. Temperatures could get down to 30 Fahrenheit.
On top of that the rivers are still flooding. We might be experiencing Climate Change, but there’s no Global Warming here.
Recently Idaho newspaper circulation directors speculated that the increase in thefts of newspaper coupons were due, in part, to people trying to save money and deal with high gas prices.
Here’s a solution, that unfortunately for me ends up being free promotion for two stores; shop at Fred Meyer or Smiths.
Both these stores give away thousands of free in store coupons. Also, if you join their points club (free to join) you get discounts on their already competitive gas prices, and a quarterly rebate based on how much you shop during that quarter.
Actually, at the Fred Meyer in Pocatello, their gas prices are usually the cheapest, even before the points discount for club members (again the club is free to join). Take advantage, save some money, and don’t be a coupon thief!
Daren Palmer plead guilty, in a Federal court in Pocatello, Idaho, to running a ponzi scheme which cost investors $76 million.
The FBI spent two years investigating, and last month criminal charges were filed against Palmer. He will be sentenced in August.
The SEC, and CFTC filed civil cases against Palmer, which resulted in an order for Palmer to pay fines and restitution of $90 million.
U.S. Federal attorney’s say Palmer wanted to plead guilty last year. Some of his neighbors were in the Federal courtroom when he plead guilty, they say he’s a nice guy and believe he just “made a mistake”.
“The people who are doing it, I guess they wouldn’t consider themselves a criminal. They are just trying to save money.”-Matt Davidson, publisher
The Idaho Statesman reporting a trend making an appearance in Idaho; people stealing newspaper coupons from newspaper vending machines.
“It is becoming a real problem on Sundays because of the value of the coupons and the local interest in couponing over the last few months.”-Frank Peak, newspaper circulation director
In the Boise area, newspaper staff, who stock the vending machines, noticed that many of the Sunday papers were still in the machines but missing the coupons. They eventually caught one woman, who tried to use the excuse that no one uses them anyway.
Frank Peak says there are several reasons people are stealing coupons, one being the new ‘reality’ TV show “Extreme Couponing”. Other reasons are the price of gas and the bad economy.
There’s been more news about the continued falling home prices in the U.S. One company that tracks those prices says Idaho is the biggest loser.
Corelogic reports that for April 2011, Idaho home prices fell 15.2% compared to April 2010. It’s also twice the current average for the entire United States.
According to the Center of Business Research and Economic Development at Boise State University, most of Idaho’s home sales, prior to the housing market bubble burst, were actually being driven by “second home” buying and real estate speculation.
When the bubble burst those kind of sales stopped. Now Idaho is looking at a more realistic picture of property sales, which is reflecting the overall bad economy.
U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson, from Idaho’s 2nd District, admitted that the Republican party will get beat up in future elections, for Medicare reforms: “We knew that the first person that threw something on the table was going to get the living crap beat out of them, we might be beat up in the elections in the future. But you got to be willing to take that if you want to reform the system.”
Simpson is supporting House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s reform bill, which would replace Medicare with federal subsidies to buy private health insurance. I know people who got tricked into switching to privately run Medicare programs (private insurance) and they regret it. Even the AARP is against it.
When Simpson says the GOP will be beat up in future elections, because of their Medicare reforms, who does he think will be doing the beating? The voters of course! So in a round about way Simpson is admitting that Republicans are not doing what the voters want!
Buhl Middle School, in Buhl, Idaho, is using model car kits to help students with reading and researching.
6th graders are not just putting together models, they’re spending time doing historical research about the cars they’re building. They’re also learning about different styles of customizing cars.
The building of model kits has made some huge progress in the past 4 decades. Many builders don’t just slap the kits together; they spend lots of time researching their subjects to create the most accurate representations they can. If you want to compete in the big time model contests it’s a necessity that you’re historically literate.
When it comes to the history of cars, it’s not just the technical history that kids can learn, it’s also the cultural history, especially when it comes the “fads” of car customizing trends. So don’t think of model kits as “toys” (especially when you realize how expensive they’ve gotten over the decades), think of them as “educational tools”.
According to the National Weather Service, Idaho is going through the coolest spring since 1984.
High temperatures for Idaho have been as much as 17 degrees (Fahrenheit) below average.
Even though there’ve been lots of rainy days for Idaho (and rivers are flooding, mainly due to snow melt), the Weather Service says the actual amount of rain, so far, is not enough to set any records.
Local weather forecasts, calling for warming up to the 70s, seem to get pushed back week after week. No global warming here.
The planting season is way behind schedule in the U.S. state of Idaho; at least two to three weeks according to some farmers. The weather has been too cold, and too wet. Here in eastern Idaho the Snake and Portneuf rivers are flooding, making it worse.
The flooding Portneuf is hitting farmers in Inkom: “We’ll lose about 4 to 500 ton of hay and probably, I don’t know how much barley, 150 ton of barley. The problem is there’s still a lot of snow to come down, and I think it’s probably gonna be in July or August before we can get in here, and it’s gonna be to late to crop.”-Jim Guthrie, Inkom farmer
The cold is keeping seeds from sprouting: “The cold weather has probably been as much of a delay as the moisture has been. My sugar beets have been in the ground three weeks and they haven’t sprouted yet. With the cold weather we’ve been having, maybe it’s a good thing they haven’t.”-Jim Tiede, American Falls farmer
Potatoes need relatively dry soil to be planted, and they need a hot summer to help them grow big. Farmers are worried this summer might not be hot enough, or long enough. Add to that a little worm that likes to eat spuds: “It’s an extremely difficult pest to get rid of. The thing can last in the soil for decades, and so the process that you go through to get rid of it is extremely long.”-Larry Hawkins, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Hawkins is talking about a microscopic bug that has seen $36 million spent over five years, trying to get rid of it. It’s shown up in several eastern Idaho potato fields this year. The nematodes are not native to Idaho; they first showed up in Bingham county in 2006. They’re not dangerous to people, but can reduce potato yields by 80%.