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| Main / Idaho News |
Author: maricela Created: 3/26/2007 11:20 AM |
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Headline news in the state of Idaho. |
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Just you wait, Raleigh. There's always next year.
Boise is the second-best place in the country for business and careers, according to Forbes magazine.
For the fourth straight year, Boise landed in the top 5 in what may be the most prestigious of city rankings compiled by national business magazines. A high Forbes ranking provides a marketing tool for state and local business recruiters like the Idaho Commerce Department and the Boise Valley Economic Partnership.
Forbes released its annual list of the top cities Wednesday. Boise moved up one spot from No. 3 in 2007. Raleigh, N.C., captured the top spot for the second year in a row.
The report ranked 200 metro areas on factors including job and income growth, business and living costs, education of the work force, migration trends, and quality-of-life measures like crime rates and cultural opportunities.
Boise ranked highest in job growth at 13. It also ranked 17th for the cost of doing business and 15th for...
| Posted by maricela at 10:20 AM |
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Wealthy folks are colonizing rural areas,
bringing cash, culture -- and controversy
| Posted by maricela at 10:03 AM |
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter wants the state to go green. According to an Associated Press story in BusinessWeek, the governor has signed an executive order requiring state agencies to decrease fuel usage, cut back on the number of miles logged by employees and demonstrate a clear business need before purchasing SUVs or other specialty vehicles.
Source: Idaho Business Review
| Posted by maricela at 3:31 PM |
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Monday, December 10, 2007
BOISE, Idaho -- When Europeans think if Idaho, Karen Ballard wants them to remember the state for something more than famous potatoes.
And, thanks to a new four-state international marketing initiative, there's been a seismic shift in the way potential overseas visitors see Idaho, the state's new tourism director says.
"People are starting to place us in the mountains, which is where we belong, versus we grow potatoes and we're somewhere in the Midwest, one of those 'I' states," Ballard said recently.
Ballard handled international tourism development for the state Department of Commerce before being named tourism chief last month. She's been attending international tourism trade shows for more than a decade on behalf of Idaho and notes that fewer people at European trade shows ask, "Where is Idaho?"
Now, hoteliers approach her to ask about their prospects for developing new hotels in the state. "It was a pretty seismic shift," she said.
Ballard credit...
| Posted by maricela at 11:42 AM |
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Monday, November 19, 2007
It has been twenty years since I was in this state in the upper northwest and I was not prepared for what I found here, as the keynote speaker for the 61st meeting of the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho (ATI). The ATI meeting was a unique mix of state legislators and business people and Gov. "Butch" Otter joined the ATI meeting for lunch and as the featured luncheon speaker. All in all, an impressive assemblage of men and women interested in the future of this state.
I wasn't prepared to find a state economy that is red hot and one of the top growth economies in the United States. Idaho ranks first in so many important measurements of growth, innovation and entrepreneurialism, that it is hard to know where to start:
It's first in the nation with its investment in manufacturing.
It is first in the nation in the number of patents issued on a per capita basis.
And it's only 5th among the states that show a high start-up rate among new businesses.
It's the #2 state in terms ...
| Posted by maricela at 10:29 AM |
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Friday, November 16, 2007
Although the tech sector is struggling, the Boise area's economic outlook for 2008 is upbeat, with the worst of the local housing slump soon to be history, experts said Tuesday.
Speakers at the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce's Economic Outlook Forum said high population growth and low unemployment will keep the Treasure Valley economy one of the nation's strongest next year.
Here are some key forecasts:
Housing: The national slowdown will last, but the Valley's won't
Portland-based economist Bill Conerly, principal of Conerly Consulting, said robust population growth will help reduce the Valley's excess housing faster than other areas.
"The national housing market is in very sad shape," he said. "We've overbuilt since 2002, when low mortgage rates allowed us to put first-time homebuyers in houses, and then home prices went up and investors moved in. But now home prices are too high for first-time homebuyers, and investors are moving out."
Conerly said he does...
| Posted by maricela at 10:31 AM |
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
President Bush today signed into law the Department of Defense bill containing the $940,000 for Boise State University to research a human West Nile vaccine. The virus is causing health concerns in Canyon and Gem counties. "It's exciting to know that this research will save lives and millions of dollars in health care costs. Boise State University is a great research university and the right place to get this job done," Sali said.
Source: Idaho Business Review
| Posted by maricela at 11:41 AM |
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Monday, November 05, 2007
Idaho Power Co. is the latest utility to temper its enthusiasm for new coal plants, telling federal stock market regulators that escalating costs, permit issues and greenhouse-gas-emission concerns led it to abandon plans to build enough coal-fired electricity generation by 2013 to light 187,500 more homes. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week, the Boise-based utility "determined that coal-fired generation is not the best technology to meet its resource needs in 2013." The company had planned to get an additional 250 megawatts from coal by then.
Instead, it now aims to develop a new natural gas turbine somewhere in southern Idaho by 2012, to augment plans to add 101 megawatts of wind generation in December 2008 and 45.5 megawatts of geothermal generation in phases between 2007 and 2011. One megawatt can light about 750 homes.
Across the nation, utilities have been making similar decisions, with at least 16 coal-fired power plant proposals getting scrap...
| Posted by maricela at 3:23 PM |
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Idaho Transportation Department is preparing to submit its final environmental impact statement for the planned conversion of 31 miles of U.S. 95 to a four-lane divided highway.
Once the Federal Highway Administration approves the EIS, the way will be clear for the state to start acquiring the necessary rights of way along the first two sections approved for design and construction.
Ultimately, ITD will spend about $342 million on the project between Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint beginning with the first two sections, which are in a 12.7-mile stretch of road near Silverwood Theme Park at the north end of Kootenai County. U.S. 95 is the primary north-south corridor for the state, and has seen increased international commercial traffic since the enactment of NAFTA in 1994.
A contract for design of the first section of the planned 31-mile highway conversion has been awarded to Keller Associates Inc. of Meridian, Idaho, and the southern part of the 6.7-mile Chilco section could go out...
| Posted by maricela at 10:00 AM |
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Tuesday, October 09, 2007
After 10 years running a highly successful Internet-based travel business in Sun Valley, local entrepreneur Tracy Lotz recently moved vacation/rental business to Boise to support the rapid expansion taking place in his business.
Lotz said, "We have had a lot of great people work with us over the years but the availability of affordable market rate housing, which resulted in the lack of qualified employees were the biggest factors for the change."
1st Choice Vacation Rentals became a pioneer in the vacation rental segment. Over the 13 years, 1st Choice expanded from being a web directory for vacation rentals to providing websites for vacation property managers.
Source: Idaho Business Review
| Posted by maricela at 9:42 AM |
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