Tag Archives: idaho

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

More pleas for help from Idaho company that wants to save Pocatello’s Hoku polysilicon factory! 1-thousand new jobs to be created?

23 November 2013 (18:09 UTC-07 Tango 22 November 2013)/19 Muharram 1435/02 Azar 1392/21 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

The following was sent by Francis W Kreais III of JCF Funding:

Gordon Jenkins has been working closely with Francis Kreais who is the founder and CEO of JCF Funding-who has been the front man for Arco Hills Silica Company making this deal work.

Gordon Jenkins is the president of Arco Hills Silica Company. This company owns some very large and very pure silica located in Butte County, Idaho. (About 20 Billion tons) When we heard of the bankruptcy auction of Hoku, we became extremely interested in acquiring that polysilicon plant because it fits in so well with what we are trying to do with our silica mine located near Arco Idaho.

We plan to purchase the entire plant at this upcoming auction because it would make it possible for us to go into operation without having to build our own processing plant. We also would benefit the local community because we would not only bring back the some 160 jobs related to the shutting down of the Hoku plant, but at least another 500 to 1000 jobs related to the development of our silica mine and related to the companies that are willing to move their plants out here to Idaho just so they can decrease the transportation costs of hauling the silica back to where they are already located.

Contact Francis W Kreais III at [email protected] to express your support!

Read More about the Hoku Materials saga:

JH Kelley blocked by federal court

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

More Economic Decline: Who is the new owner of Chubbuck’s Pine Ridge Mall? It’s not the “family” company you think it is! GGP connection?

21 November 2013 (01:34 UTC-07 Tango)/17 Muharram 1435/30 Aban 1392/19 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

A couple of days ago the Idaho State Journal reported that the Pine Ridge Mall, in Chubbuck, was bought by a company called Farmer Holding Company.  The local newspaper quoted Rob Kingsbury as saying the company is a “family business”.

Farmer Holding started as Farmer Concrete back in 1948.  There are members of the board with the family name of Farmer (and employees related but not with the name Farmer), but today’s Farmer Holding Company Incorporated is a full fledged corporation created in Missouri in December 2000.  The incorporation has a “Permanent” (no expiration date) registration according to the Missouri Secretary of State.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Farmer Holding employs at least three political lobbyists at the state level.

Farmer Holding Company branched out to mall properties in December 2012 when they paid a measly $11-million USD for the Capital Mall in Jefferson City, Missouri.  Farmer holding just paid a paltry $9-million for the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho.  And there is a connection; both malls were owned by GGP (General Growth Properties)!

Here’s another twist, according to Missouri’s News Tribune, ‘family owned’ Farmer Holding is a subsidiary of F&F Development.

At last report Farmer Holding was proposing a plan to improve the Capital Mall by combining it with an events center.  Farmer Holding told the Jefferson City council they would expand the property, and the city promised to give Farmer Holding $9-million collected from hotel taxes to help pay for $36-million expansion!

Interestingly Farmer Holding admitted that event/conference centers are money losing propositions.  Their own independently conducted economic survey said they would lose $250-thousand per year on the deal!  Yet, on 12 November 2013, the Jefferson City conference center facilitator told the city council to go with Farmer Holding’s plan.

On 18 November 2013, this is what city council member Carrie Carroll had to say about two competing convention center proposals: “At this point, neither one is right. Neither one is outstanding. Until they’re outstanding, they’re not going to be capable of getting our $9-million until we are enthused that this is right.”

On top of this Farmer Holding told city officials they had only $12-million of their own “investment” money to pay for the project, so even with the city’s $9-million they have to come up with $15-million from somewhere!  (thin air?)

A Jefferson City resident, Charles Gaskin, conducted his own research and warned city officials that Farmer Holding’s plan was a bad deal for the city.  He said city officials have become so desperate for developers that they now have the audacious hope that ‘if we build it customers will come’.  Gaskin says his research shows the economy is so bad that nobody will show up.  Remember, even Farmer Holding said they would lose money on the plan. (the Idaho cities of Chubbuck and Pocatello have adopted that same ‘built it they will come’ attitude)

In November 2013, Jefferson City council member Ken Hussey even warned “There’s a potential for super TIFs.”  TIF means Tax Increment Financing.

Farmer Holding was created out of a successful, truly family owned construction business.  The heirs decided to take their construction business to the next level and become fully incorporated.  In other words what they are doing is really all about making profits for their original construction ops.

And who is F&F Development?  At this point I don’t know!  Internet searches come up with many different companies that specialize in things like property development to things like direct selling.  Every listing for an F&F Development, whether it was a company in Florida or Connecticut, showed it to be a privately held company, which makes it hard to find info on them (they are not a publicly traded company).  There are several of these ‘development’ companies who list their forte as hotel and event/conference center developers.   If the News Tribune is correct about F&F being the parent company of Farmer Holding, it could explain why Farmer Holding is pushing Jefferson City to help pay for a new hotel and event/conference center in the Capital Mall.

Here’s another connection: GGP is an Illinois based corporation, Farmer Holding supposedly bought the Capital Mall but isn’t involved in operating it, another Illinois based company called Covington Realty Partners is actually running the mall (gee, it’s like an onion, so many layers).   Coldwell Banker Commercial Intermountain is managing the leasing of spaces at the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho.

I’m beginning to suspect that Farmer Holding always approaches city officials with the claim that they want to “rejuvenate” the local economy.  It could be that their true plan of action is to buy up distressed commercial properties for dirt cheap, build them up with the help of local taxes, then sell them off to the first sucker that comes along.  It’s like house flipping, but with commercial properties.

2017 Update:  In 2015 Caldwell Banker revealed that Farmer Holding-F&F Development took-over the once independently owned Carmike 7 theater in Chubbuck, Idaho.  The property was demolished and replaced with spaces for restaurants, currently occupied by Panera and Red Robin. The demolition of the Carmike 7 actually began in December 2014, as documented by Blind Bat News.

Also in 2015 Farmer Holding Company-F&F Development began buying vacant healthcare facilities when it took over Jefferson City, Missouri, Saint Mary’s Hospital.  Officially the plan is to redevelop the property (as part of the nationwide REIT conspiracy),  and at the beginning of 2017 Farmer Holding-F&F Development asked for taxpayer ‘incentives’ to finance the hospital redevelopment, which would allow Farmer Holding-F&F Development to cash-in on 50% of local sales tax revenues, and the imposition of an additional 1% sales tax on locals!  The city also granted easements for two parcels associated with the hospital property, blocking ‘right-of-way’ so that Farmer Holding-F&F Development could start redevelopment.

At the end of 2016, Farmer Holding asked Jefferson City to not only continue the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the Capital Mall project, but to increase it, as well as create a new TIF for their convention center project!

2018 Capital Mall Update: New signs and paint is all taxpayers got? 

Investment companies dump GGP & J.C. Penney!

Grand Teton Mall, in Idaho Falls, for sale! GGP dumping malls en masse! 

East Idaho’s Pine Ridge Mall, in Chubbuck, sells for paltry $9 million!

East Idaho shopping malls….quietly put up to be auctioned off….Merry Xmas!

A History Lesson in Economic Decline

All part of REIT plan to change the way you shop, and they blame you the shopper!

Mitt Romney….Destroyed jobs in Chubbuck 

International, Technology

Don’t take your Crapper for granted, it’s time to celebrate World Toilet Day!

20 November 2013 (14:53 UTC-07 Tango)/16 Muharram 1435/29 Aban 1392/18 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

The words crapper and crap, for that matter, are ligit.  They come from the name of a real person.  Thomas Crapper was a successful British plumber who was incorrectly associated with inventing the modern flush toilet.

The idea of a flushing toilet is ancient.  Archeologists say the first example was created for the King Minos more than 2800 years ago.  The first patent for a modern flushing toilet went to Alexander Cummings in 1775.  The first use of indoor plumbing and flush toilets was in 1825 by a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.  But toilets back then were for the elites.  It wasn’t until after 1910 that flushing toilets took on a design similar to current toilets, and became affordable for us commoners.

And it wasn’t until after the Second World War that most commoner families of the Western World got indoor flush toilets.  I was in Scotland in 1991 and visited a museum dedicated to the history of sewage.  It even had a full size replica of a 1800s sewer system complete with stinking crap and piss (of course it was replicated, but who’d of thought somebody could be paid to make models of craps, other than those joke crap toys)!  But what awakened me to the fact that we take our crappers for granted was a small display that pointed out that most Scottish homes didn’t have indoor plumbing, or toilets, until after the 1950s!

Then you have to wonder at the Japanese, for taking toilets to the extreme.  Apparently the Japanese are so afraid of their rear ends they created toilets that blast their asses with water jets so they don’t have to wipe.  The latest Japanese toilets provide imaging systems and soothing female computer voices to tell them if they still have a nasty ass, and then it blasts them again.  (there are some people in the U.S. that are the same way and will pay top dollar for a robot toilet from Japan)

By the way the first production toilet paper wasn’t invented until 1857.   And the technology to make modern toilet brushes was used to create the first artificial Xmas tree, in the 1930s, thus linking Xmas and toilet cleaning.

Now to get serious,  the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) marked 19 November as World Toilet Day.  They want people to be aware of the major impact toilets have on reducing disease.  Even so, UNICEF says one reason for the rise of new diseases is the fact that (in their estimation) as many as 2-thousand children die every day because they live in areas that have no toilets, or way of handling sewage: “Access to toilets remains the unmentionable, shameful secret for even some very prosperous countries.  But its invisibility doesn’t make it harmless; in fact it is quite the reverse. Lack of access to toilets is quite literally killing children, making adults sick…”–Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

So those of us commoners who have toilets should be proud, and thankful, for they truly are our porcelain thrones!

Oh commodus selarium deus, forgive me for taking you for granted. I am truly thankful to have you.

Oh commodus selarium deus, forgive me for taking you for granted! I am truly thankful to have you!

Idaho, U.S.

Exceptional Failed State: Obama on drugs? Says 100-million people now have Obama Care insurance!

19 November 2013 (15:37 UTC-07 Tango)/15 Muharram 1435/28 Aban 1392/17 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

There are about 314-million citizens in the United States, the Obama regime was recorded during a phone conference telling his NAZI Organizing for Action operatives that 100-million citizens now have Obama Care insurance: “In the first month alone we’ve seen more than 100 million Americans successfully enroll in the new insurance plans.”

That’s even 99.9-million more than what the Obama regime predicted!

But guess what?  Obama was including an estimated million citizens that applied but so far haven’t actually signed up, and citizens that supposedly will now qualify under expanded Medicaid.  In other words, Obama’s claim that 100-million now have insurance is a total guesstimation, it’s not fact!

I’m one of those citizens that should qualify for expanded Medicaid, except I live in one of about two dozen U.S. states that are refusing to expand Medicaid coverage!  You here that Obama?  About half of the 50 U.S. states are refusing to expand Medicaid coverage!

Even the main streamer pro-Obama regime news media says about 100-thousand people have signed up, or applied for Obama Care!  Is Obama on drugs?

Obama also told his NAZI followers that Obama Care insurance would cost less than a cable TV bill!  Guess what I can’t even afford cable or satellite TV, I use the old fashioned free TV antenna!  How the hell can I afford Obama Care?

“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security……..That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.”-Barack Obama, 10 September 2013

Prepare for permanent economic terrorism

Idaho’s Obama Care Christian corruption covered up

 More Obama Care job cuts!

Obama Care shuts down yet another Christian nursing home!

Hundreds more laid off due to Obama Care

Obama Care being blamed for 61 people becoming unemployed

Former mainstreamer news man gets screwed by Obama Care! 

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

Economic Decline: JH Kelley blocked by federal court, Hoku auction done in violation of court order! Proof the property will be broken up, into more than 1-thousand lots!

19 November 2013 (13:24 UTC-07 Tango)/15 Muharram 1435/28 Aban 1392/17 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

When it rains…..

The auction of Pocatello, Idaho’s White Elephant, Hoku Materials factory was ruled in violation of federal court rules.   JH Kelley made a high bid after the piecemeal and bulk auctions ended.

Judge Jim Pappas also pointed out that the massive property was split up into 1364 lots, and that all but 300 lots were bid on.   That’s interesting because after the auction JH Kelley stated they would help Pocatello “…attract a new user to the property…”

The judge will set a date for a new auction.

Idaho politicians give away tens of millions to companies that shut down! 

Hoku factory bought by construction contractor

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

More Economic Decline: Heinz pulls stake, Warren Buffett abandons Pocatello, Idaho! Happy New Year!

15 November 2013 (13:34 UTC-07 Tango)/11 Muharram 1434/24 Aban 1391/13 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

It’s official, Heinz is shutting down their long time Pocatello, Idaho, factory.  410 people soon to be unemployed!  That’s another huge impact on the Chubbuck/Pocatello area.  The Idaho Department of Labor estimates the shut down will also impact 200 additional local jobs.  The city of Pocatello currently has the highest unemployment rate in the whole Gem State.

In February 2013, Heinz Frozen Food factory in Pocatello, Idaho, ended production of T.G.I. Friday's frozen meals, and laid off 80 employees.

In February 2013, Heinz Frozen Food factory in Pocatello, Idaho, ended production of T.G.I. Friday’s frozen meals, and laid off 80 employees.

At one time the Pocatello Heinz operation employed 800 people.

Heinz is also closing two other factories, one in South Carolina, and one in Ontario, Canada.  At least 1350 people will become unemployed (on top of the 600 jobs cuts Heinz made in August).  The shut downs will take place over the next eight months, happy New Year!

Heinz was sold to vulture capitalists 3G Capital and Warren Buffett.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Exceptional Failed State: Idaho politicians give away tens of millions to companies that shut down!

15 November 2013 (03:25 UTC-07 Tango)/11 Muharram 1434/24 Aban 1391/13 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

“It’s a terrible program. It wastes more money than it does any good. Obviously, it’s a cost borne by Idaho businesses throughout Idaho, and employees.”-Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Freedom Foundation

According to the Idaho Statesman, Idaho’s governor, Butch Otter, “beamed” as he helped announce the ground breaking for Clif Bar in Twin Falls.  Otter shouldn’t beam, because he and other state leaders gave Clif Bar $4 million USD, from the Workforce Development Training Fund.

The Idaho Statesman discovered that since 1996 Idaho has given away at least $47 million to companies through the Workforce Development Training Fund.  But many of those companies fail, or fail to hire on the trainees.

Even the Idaho Department of Labor called the results of the WDTF “mixed”.   60% of grants failed to create long term jobs!

Also, 400 people who actually went through job training under WDTF were never hired!

Some failed companies that got WDTF money are Hoku Materials in Pocatello ($650-thousand) and Transform Solar in Nampa ($1.5 million).

 The WDTF “…is financed by employers through an offset to the unemployment insurance tax.”-Idaho Department of Labor

“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security……..That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.”-Barack Obama, 10 September 2013

Idaho, U.S.

Martial Law United Police State: Idaho child prison covering up sex crimes, defies federal court order! Culture of systemic corruption in Christian Gem State!

15 November 2013 (01:07 UTC-07 Tango)/11 Muharram 1434/24 Aban 1391/13 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

Whistleblower employees of the JCC-Nampa child prison are shouting out about the Idaho Department of Juvenile Correction’s violation of a federal court order.  The court order requires the public release of documents regarding claims of ongoing child sex abuse, and corruption at the hands of sick prison guards!

What’s interesting is the JCC-Nampa website clearly states “Populations Not Intended for Program Placement at This Facility: Adjudicated sexual offenders”.  It only applies to the child prisoners?

One whistleblower said what’s going on in the Idaho Department of Juvenile Correction is systemic, even abused child prisoners are hired as prison guards after becoming adults: “One staff member was involved with a juvenile. That juvenile became a staff member and now they are involved with another juvenile!”-Shane Penrod, whistleblower who had to get counseling because of what he witnessed

The attorney for the current and former whistlblower employees of JCC-Nampa (aka Juvenile Corrections Center–West) says the Idaho Department of Juvenile Correction is deliberately stalling the court.  Apparently the child sex abuse also involves cronyism (so it was a family affair?).

The whistleblowers went public in 2012: “In at least two mind-boggling incidents, female IDJC staff members are believed to have been involved in unlawful sexual relationships with male juvenile offenders in their custody.”-Andrew Schoppe, attorney for whistleblowers

The whistleblowers say the systemic child abuse goes back to at least 1998.

Management at JCC-N said they were not informed of the sex crimes, however, whistleblowers say they repeatedly notified supervisors of the crimes.  Supervisors promised they would tell management.

Also in 2012, a 15 years old former male child mental health prisoner at JCC-N sued the Gem State, after being forced to have sex with a fat 31 years old female prison guard.  The prison guard was arrested, she pled guilty in August of this year.  Bruce Skaug, attorney for the child police state victim, said “On information and belief, we believe that there are other victims of similar crimes at the facility and we do hope they will come forward to the police.”

Most of the population of Idaho call themselves Christians.  The dominant groups are Mormons and Catholics.  Mormons tend to dominate in law enforcement jobs!  I remember when a Mormon contractor I hired to repair my bathroom was arrested for child porn.  The Mormon cops actually let the guy come to my house and return my payment because he wasn’t going to be able to finish the job, then he was taken to jail!

I was working as a News Producer at KPVI at the time (about 1998).  This was when the national news was all over reports of Catholic sex crimes, and we were doing our local coverage of it.  A reporter who is Greek Orthodox came back from the Bannock county court house and reported that all the registered sex offenders in the area were Mormons.  I demanded that if we were going to do a local Catholic sex crime angle then we need to report on the number of local Mormon sex offenders, just to be fair.  That demand was shot down on the grounds that it would upset not only our main audience, but local public officials!  We reported on the contractor being arrested for child porno, but I was not allowed to mention that he is a Mormon from my neighborhood Ward!

I’m sick of Christian hypocrisy!

“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security……..That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.”-Barack Obama, 10 September 2013

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Exceptional Failed State: Idaho’s Obama Care Christian corruption covered up by federal court! JAMA is right!

14 November 2013 (11:24 UTC-07 Tango)/10 Muharram 1434/23 Aban 1391/12 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

Associated Press reporting that “A coalition of news organizations has asked a federal appeals court to order the release of sealed witness testimony and exhibits in an antitrust trial….” involving Obama Care and Christian hospital networks and insurance companies in Idaho.

The news media coalition includes Idaho Statesman, The Associated Press, The Times-News, Lewiston Tribune, Idaho Press-Tribune, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and the Idaho Press Club.

The Christian hospital networks accused are Saint Luke’s, Saint Alphonsus, as well as the medical insurance industry and even the Federal Trade Commission.

The news media is demanding the details of a federal trial, that ended in October, to be made public.  The trial was held in secret!

The case involves Christian health care systems apparently trying to take advantage of Obama Care by creating a health care monopoly.   Specifically the case involved a medical center takeover in Nampa, Idaho.

The federal judge sealed trial details that would reveal “…how a health insurance company, hospital or medical practice makes or negotiates contracts, how much a company pays, and future plans.”

This trial backs up recent claims by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security……..That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.”-Barack Obama, 10 September 2013

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Diesel Prices: U.S. federal agency says prices should go down, AAA says there is glut of fuel and dropping demand! Blame never ending War on Terror for high diesel prices!

14 November 2013 (08:34 UTC-07 Tango)/10 Muharram 1434/23 Aban 1391/12 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711

“Idaho just happens to be 20 or 30 cents behind the times.  Supplies are plentiful right now, driver demand is down.  A little profit taking is going on in the marketplace.”-Dave Carlson, AAA Idaho, 04 November 2013 interview with KTVB

The U.S. oil industry is about to retake its number one position in the World market.  Oil production and fuel refining is way up, and gas prices look to be coming down significantly.  But wha’ hoppin’ to diesel?

According to the 12 November diesel fuel retail price report from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, across the country diesel prices are going down.  But from where I can see, in Idaho, there’s a big disparity between gasoline and diesel prices.

In Idaho Falls, on 13 November I noticed gas prices were at an amazing $2.90 per gallon!  However, on the same day in Pocatello they were about $3.30 per gallon.  A 40 cents difference between two cities less than an hour’s drive from each other.

In Idaho Falls diesel prices were about $3.60 per gallon.  But in Boise, on the western side of the state, diesel was just over $4.00!  According to TruckMiles.com, the current average for Idaho diesel is $3.91.

Idaho is in PADD4 Rocky Mountain region.  PADD stands for Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (notice this is a military thing).  U.S. EIA says gasoline prices have dropped 33 cents per gallon since last year.  Diesel dropped 26 cents since last year.

The EIA predicts the average price for diesel, across the U.S., will hit about $3.30 per gallon by the end of the year.  But will that be true for Idaho?  Right now Idaho’s diesel prices are way above the national average, as are Idaho’s gas prices.  But as you read in the above quote, Idaho’s non-profit AAA (formerly known as American Automobile Association) says demand from Idaho drivers is down, and the glut of fuel supply does not justify the above average prices.

For a more graphic look at the past two decades of U.S. diesel retail prices you can view the EIA’s chart here, which shows diesel prices skyrocketing beginning in 2004 (mmm, that’s right after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the U.S. military* is a major user of diesel).    Even though diesel prices have dropped a little since the peak at the end of 2008, they’re still near record highs.

Of interest; California has become such a big user of fuels, and because the NAZI environmental nut jobs running the state have put such refining standards on fuel, that EIA now lists California fuel data separate from the rest of PADD5 (West Coast region).

*According to 2009 numbers the DoD used $13.3 billion worth of fuel. That equates to 360,000 barrels of oil per day, in 2009 dollars! The U.S. military ranks 36th among the top 35 countries (yes, that’s entire ‘countries’) in fuel usage! The U.S. Air Force is the number one user of fuel in the DoD. The jet engine, aka turbine, normally uses kerosene based fuel, but can also use diesel. I know, being a former 19k (& former 19E, 13F, 12B and C-130 Crew Chief) we use diesel in our turbine powered M1 Abrams tanks (the same diesel used in the HUMWV [humvee] and cargo trucks). The M1 gets only 1 mile per 1.6 gallons of fuel!!! We burn more than one gallon for every one mile we drive! Regarding my time in the USAF, the Air Force doesn’t measure fuel by gallons, the aircraft use so much it’s measured in pounds. The latest C-130J cargo hauler uses about 66,000 pounds of fuel to fly about 3452 miles!!!