Payrolls for Idaho’s manufacturing sector remain stuck at 1991 levels, for the 6th month in a row.
Total construction employment for May was at 1994 levels.
Idaho’s business services sector remained constant, for the third year in a row.
The health care sector created jobs in May, but at only half the pace of the past five […] Continue Reading…
The Idaho Department of Labor reported a slight drop in Idaho’s unemployment, now at 9.4%, but they also reported a drop in job creation.
The Department of Labor says seasonal hiring for May was below normal levels, and that job creation was weak. So why the drop in the unemployment rate? Officials say it’s due […] Continue Reading…
June 20, Idaho announced that they can’t make Medicaid payments, yet last week they announced bonuses for 102 government workers!
Example: Legislative Services Director Jeff Youtz, paid himself, and his staff, bonuses equal to $94,633. The total amount of bonuses paid to agencies of the State of Idaho came to $227,003.
Idaho House Speaker Lawrence Denney […] Continue Reading…
June 20, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says they’re out of money for Medicaid.
As a result, Medicaid payments to Idaho hospitals will be suspended for at least one week. Those payments would have come to $13 million. Officials will announce, by the end of the week, if payments will be delayed for another […] Continue Reading…
“If Greece was to be the first country to default, eyes would turn to other countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, maybe Belgium but also France, given its deficit and debt levels. We don’t know where the contagion would stop.”-Didier Reynders, Belgian Finance Minister
After the European Union announced they […] Continue Reading…
“The fact that there are three separate lines of evidence all pointing in the same direction is very compelling.”-Frank Hill, National Solar Observatory in New Mexico
Here in Idaho we can attest to claims that an ice age might be coming; we’ve had cooler and wetter weather this year. So much so that some farmers […] Continue Reading…
European Union finance ministers are holding back on another bailout loan for Greece. They’ve decided that Greece to needs to make even more cuts to social services, and other government spending (which is called “austerity”, something that’s going on in the U.S., but U.S. officials and media have avoided using that term).
The EU decision […] Continue Reading…
The Cooper Nuclear Station, in Nebraska, is flooded. The Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, also in Nebraska, has been shut down.
By Sunday, 19 June 2011, several levees failed along the Missouri River, causing nuke plant operators to issue a “Notification of unusual event.” A ‘notification’ is the lowest of four emergency classifications developed by the […] Continue Reading…
For the second month in a row Japan has posted a huge trade deficit. Not only that, it’s the second highest deficit since January 2009. Preliminary reports say Japan’s May trade deficit hit $10 billion.
The March 11 natural and nuclear disasters are to blame. Japanese economist are blaming increasing imports of oil and gas […] Continue Reading…
The Japanese Health and Labor Ministry reports that Tokyo Electric Power Company still has 125 workers that are waiting to be tested for radiation. Those workers were present when reactor buildings exploded after the 11 March 2011 disasters.
Despite the government’s complaints about TEPCo dragging its feet on testing employees, TEPCo claims they’ve tested 1,100 […] Continue Reading…