Ridenbaugh Press/Northwest

Often is - more often than people typically think - that bankruptcies and other reorganizations aren’t fatal problems for businesses. A good many have come out of them whole and prosperous.

But this from the Idaho Statesman, concerning the Tamarack ski resort near Donnelly, gave us pause:

An Idaho judge on Thursday refused to let Bank of America Corp. repossess two ski lifts from Tamarack Resort, providing at least a brief reprieve for owners trying to keep the failed Valley County vacation getaway intact for a possible buyer.

Going back a few years, remembering the fall of 1983 - October specifically - in Idaho. I was in Pocatello then, and the city seemed almost to be gasping for air . . . which is to say, business and jobs. A chunk of the downtown shuttered; a big factory in operation since World War II shut down. Hard times.

With that in mind, news today from the Idaho Department of Labor:

June’s rate was the highest jobless rate since October 1983 when the state was pulling out of the double-dip recession that ushered in a major economic shift from natural resources to services augmented by some expanded advanced manufacturing – particularly in the high technology sector.

Another 3,400 Idaho workers lost their jobs in June, driving the number of unemployed to over 62,000 for the first time ever. Over 40,000 of those workers shared $59 million in unemployment insurance benefits paid out during the month. A year ago, Idaho’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, and the number of workers without jobs was under 36,000.

This is not an argument that the system of background checking is getting out of hand or that these in particular aren’t merited. But after a while, you do start to think that some overall parameters should be set around the practice, lest we wind up with half the country doing background checks on the other half.

From the Idaho administrative rules posted Wednesday:

The Department [of Health & Welfare] has added certain individuals and providers who are required to have a criminal history and background checks under other Department rule chapters. This chapter of rules is being updated to add those individuals and providers to the list of those who are required to have checks, including references to the programs’ rule chapters. The programs or individuals being added are: Alcohol or Substance Use Disorders Treatment Facilities and Programs for Adults, Designated Examiners and Designated Dispositioners, Idaho Child Care Program, and Nonhospital, Medically-Monitored Detoxification/Mental Health Diversion Units.

Our current president is a former U.S. senator, but historically that’s an anomaly: In recent decades, and even no so recent, a lot of them have come from the ranks of governors. (Bush II, Clinton, Reagan, Carter . . .)

So Ken Rudin of National Public Radio decided, just as an exercise, to rank the nation’s current Republican governors - Republicans since Democrats probably have their next party nomination taken care of - in terms of probability of ever (either in 2012 or later) becoming president. His top-ranked was Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (our guess, until the last moment, for GOP VP last time), and second is Utah Governor (though not for long) Jon Huntsman. Alaska’s Sarah Palin was 7th.

In the Northwest? Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter came in 15th out of 22. Though considering that Rudin still has South Carolina’s Mark Sanford at number 9, Otter certainly should rise at least one spot.

This list was shortly followed with another one (developed by other bloggers) for Democratic governors, which was led by Brian Schweitzer of Montana. Washington’s Chris Gregoire was No. 9. Oregon’s Ted Kulongoski did less well, ranking at 26 (out of 28 total).

Absolutely nothing scientific about any of it.

How much of all that public school money is actually making it to the classroom?

That’s a question that ought to be asked a lot more. There’s some useful information toward answering it in a new post by Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation:

“Records from the State Department of Education indicate while Idaho’s student population has grown about 16 percent in the last 15 years, the ranks of school employees have grown disproportionately. Teaching staff grew by 26 percent, but school bureaucracies fared better: District administrations grew by 33 percent, while school building administration grew by 27 percent. But the big growth market is in school classified staff - computer techs, secretarial staff, bus drivers, custodians and similar support professions - which has grown 55 percent since 1994.”

It’s expensive to be poor, especially when it comes to health care costs. Hold a good, solid, full-time, upper-income job with good health care benefits, and such things as preventive care and earlier physician intervention are practical things. Hold the other kind of job, part-time with lower pay and benefits, and most likely you’ll be stuck putting off health care until time has come for the emergency room - which is just about the most expensive kind of health care around.

You can see why some of this develops (and it is an increasingly common approach in both private and government organizations), and there is some reason behind at least some of it. Give full benefits to a part-time employee who at least in theory might be able to work part-time somewhere else too, and - in the zero-sum game that is personnel budgeting - you’re limiting what you can provide a full-timer. Except, of course, that in this economic environment, what’s really happening is that the part-timers are being shut out of health insurance and, until emergency room time, health care altogether.

Hence the controversy in Idaho, outlined in an Idaho Statesman story today, about a change in state personnel policy requiring, in essence, those state employees who earn the least will have to pay the most for health insurance and related benefits, likely soon kicking them out of the system.

The story clarifies some of this in the case of state employee Zack Gonzales:

Gonzales works 20 hours to 40 hours a week at the Idaho State Emergency Medical Service Communications Center in Meridian.

He pays about $30 a month for health insurance. That’s what all qualifying state workers insuring only themselves - not family members - now contribute for the health-plan option Gonzales has, whether they’re full-time or part-time. But beginning this fall, his share of the premium will rise to $302.50, a 900 percent increase, or most of one of the two paychecks he gets from the state every month.

Gonzales and his companion rely on Gonzales’ check for the mortgage on their home. So Gonzales, 23, will choose the mortgage over health insurance. That means medicine he pays only a few dollars for now will cost him $200 a month.

We sent an inquiry about this policy shift to the governor’s office a couple of weeks back. Never got a reply.

Idaho’s Greg Smith Associates polling is also actively pulling up numbers for leading political figures and - considering how static and one-sided things often are in Idaho - some of them ought to be of broader interest.

The strongest numbers among the major figures belong to 2nd District Representative Mike Simpson - his favorable/unfavorable is a very strong 56/8, or +48; as a benchmark, Simpson (now in his sixth term) typically wins general elections with two-thirds of the vote or a little higher. Senator Mike Crapo (59/17, or +42) is close to that, and freshman Senator Jim Risch (49/19, or +30) isn’t far off.

That’s all about what you expect; what’s been less clear is what sort of numbers the new Democrat in the delegation, 1st District Representative Walt Minnick, would draw. Turns out that his numbers (47/20, or +27) are closely comparable to those of Risch, the other new member in the delegation. Those are sound, strong numbers for a Democrat; they suggest Minnick is well-positioned at least for now. There is one distinction: Minnick has a higher number of people saying they have “no opinion,” meaning that he (and his opposition) has more room to sketch in a narrative about him between here in November 2010.

The other numbers of interest concern Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter, whose favorable/unfavorable now sits at 47/35 (+12), not terribly strong, and a clear decline from previous polling. Smith’s comment on that: “On one hand, Otter certainly took some popularity hits due to the Legislative session. His insistence on desiring to raise gas/transportation-related taxes for road improvements, along with a negatively perceived Legislative session these tax stands contributed to, certainly caused some perceptual damage to Otter. But, recognize that these perceptions were measured only about a month after the Legislature ended – in other words, while memories are still fresh and haven’t had the time to ‘mellow’. Potential Otter opponents who smell electoral blood would be wise to consider this, and ask themselves who specifically is ‘out there’ sufficiently perceived positively, ably, and credibly enough to be elected Governor in 2010.”

Still, sometimes these early results help make their own realities, as prospective campaigns come together, or fail to.

In Coeur d’Alene, there’s a company called U.S. Products, which manufactures commercial carpet cleaning equipment, portable heated carpet extractors, and related equipment. It declares itself “Quality made in the U.S.A.,” and “Keeping America clean for over 30 years.” Its web page also notes that “Since our products are manufactured in our Coeur d’Alene, Idaho factory we are able to keep tight control over product quality throughout the manufacturing process.”

All of which sounds good. Until you get to the business section of the Coeur d’Alene Press, which reports that the company which owns U.S. Products, Nilfisk-Advance, has decided that within a few months it will move U.S. Products’ manufacturing operations to Queretaro, Mexico. (Some administrative staff will remain in Coeur d’Alene, which you might think will hamper the logic expressed on the business’ home page.)

A question: Will they still call them U.S. Products? And if so, will they try to do it with a straight face?

Tom Tidwell

The Northwest pulled in another upper-rank person in the Obama Administration with announcement today of Tom Tidwell as chief of the U.S. Forest Service - a very big-deal agency in the Northwest.

Tidwell has been a career Forest Service employee, and described now as a “Montana forester.” But areas to the west of there have a fair claim on him too. From the USDA press release:

Tidwell has spent 32 years with the Forest Service in a variety of positions. He began his Forest Service career on the Boise National Forest, and has since worked in eight different national forests, across three regions. He has worked at all levels of the agency in a variety of positions, including District Ranger, Forest Supervisor, and Legislative Affairs Specialist in the Washington Office.

Tidwell’s field experience includes working from the rural areas of Nevada and Idaho all the way to the urban forests in California and the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah, where he served as Forest Supervisor during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

He seems to have navigated the rugged resource waters with some efficiency; offhand, no major squabbles from his years around the Northwest come to mind.

No doubt to the relief of the Idaho Fry Company’s people, and to their customers (they produce some good eats), that firm has reached a settlement with the Idaho Potato Commission over the disputed use of the business’ name. It will henceforth be the Boise Fry Company; the IPC evidently will underwrite the name change. (For more, see our post on June 6.) Presumably, the growers and processors of the Gem State’s tubers are now safe.

Considering the hailstorm that descended on the commission after word about its challenge to the small restaurant’s name got out, the commission is probably just as relieved. Doubtless its people never intended to be, or saw themselves as, legal bullies. They have the (legitimate) job of protecting Idaho potato growers’ investment in their good name, and that’s what they thought they were doing.

But then, what we see as the key point here really isn’t about the potato commission: It is about a series of interpretations of trademark and related law, from coast to coast, that amounts to a real threat to several types of liberty in this country, and that’s a point we’ve come back to in a variety of past posts and doubtless will again. When that last post made the point that, under the commission’s logic, the Idaho Statesman newspaper might run afoul of it (and maybe have to remove the Idaho from its name) if potato chips are sold in its vending machines, the point wasn’t simple sarcasm: It had to do with a reach of the law run completely amok.

Settlements or not in this case, that serious point remains, with a reach well beyond the Idaho Potato Commission.

Melissa Sue Robinson

Provocation - getting right in your face - seems to be the point of one particular municipal candidacy in Idaho this year. Not so much city policies, the qualities of an incumbent, or anything so mundane. From the announcement of a just-declared Nampa mayoral candidate:

My name is Melissa Sue Robinson and I am a Male to Female post-op transgendered person who is hereby announcing my intentions to run for Mayor of Nampa, in the November general election. I am running because I am progressive and I feel that Nampa is a City that needs progressive people in City government. I am the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Transgendered Persons (NAATP), a transgendered civil rights organization which was founded in Lansing, MI. in 2000. The organization was put on hold due to Michigan’s poor economic climate, my change of careers, and my relocation to Seattle in Jan. 07. I have not only restarted the NAATP, but have also founded a new organization (Equality Idaho), which will also focus on LGBT rights. If elected Nampa Mayor or not I intend to push for a LGBT rights ordinance in both Nampa and Boise in the near future. I am a 58 years old telecommunications worker, and a former owner of Design Masters Construction Co, Inc. (a 25 employee small business) in which I was President for 10 years.

Provocation rather than substantial candidacy, because only one sentence out of seven had anything to do with a rationale for leading the city of Nampa.

She’s not been active in civic life in Nampa, hasn’t been in the city long enough to get to know it, evidently lacks relevant experience at Nampa city hall . . . there aren’t any real qualifications for the job here, and Nampa is a substantial city of more than 80,000 people which needs a leader with some measurable experience. (Incumbent Tom Dale, who was a city council member before his election in 2001, has gotten generally positive remarks for his two terms on the job.) She isn’t a viable serious contender.

But watch the reaction of people in town - and this is what Robinson’s candidacy seems aimed toward. How will they react? What response will there be?

A side note. Consider Stu Rasmussen, the newly-elected (as of last November) mayor of Silverton, Oregon, a rural city of about 8,500 a city much smaller than Nampa. He is transgender - wears women’s clothes and on the same path as Robinson - and was elected with 52% in a field of three candidates, and was open about his personal transition. But there is also this: He has a long history in town, has run a local business for many years, was on the city council when he was elected last year, and in the 90s served two terms as mayor. Not everyone in town is happy with him, but the place overall doesn’t seem especially shaken up.

Burley, which has seen some hard times in its ag-processing operations over the last few years, might get a break with word that a joint operation called Magic Valley Poultry International is interested in building a mass chicken farm there - about 1,000 jobs (12,000 beaks?), maybe more. It would begin operations by sometime in the summer or fall of 2010.

As the Idaho Statesman’s Rocky Barker points out, there will be an ongoing challenge in waste disposal. Probably a good deal less, though, than from the area’s mega-dairy operations. [Updated to reflect proper numbers.]

Ken Roberts

Vaughn Ward

In announcing as he did today in Canyon County that he will run for the U.S. House, state Representative Ken Roberts has to be hoping he’ll be the next Ron Crane.

Crane, the state treasurer, was an earlier Republican prospect for the first district congressional seat now improbably held by Democrat Walt Minnick. But he was also more than that; he was the Republican strategic approach to a difficult problem.

The problem is that, to consider the district’s core leanings, it should be about as close as any in the country to a Republican slam dunk, except that it isn’t. Depending on how you count, Democrats hold around four to seven of the 50 or so state legislative seats here - a useful indicator; the courthouses reflect margins not far from that. It was a very strong McCain district last year. It was lost to Republicans last time in large part because of the weak candidacy of incumbent Bill Sali.

And yet, the Idaho Republicans we’ve talked with aren’t exactly overwhelmed with confidence about winning it back: Possible, they argue, but not easy. Credit that in largest part to Minnick, who’s made no self-destructive moves (and quite a few that work neatly strategically) while in office, routinely is described as conservative even by Republicans (!) and has managed to develop a strong and highly visible cooperative relationship with the three Republicans in the delegation. Those three Republicans will ultimately line up behind the Republican nominee, of course, but they may be restrained in how hard they go after the guy who has been working with them so closely.

On the Republican side, there’s also this: For all the many Republicans in the first district, nailing down the logical candidate to run against Minnick isn’t easy: There’s no self-evidently obvious heir. That in itself creates a problem, which you might call the 2006 Problem: A potential primary with a bunch of candidates, each getting a sliver of the vote, with the possibility one of the weaker contenders winning.

Crane was supposed to be the solution to all that. A statewide elected official, well-liked in Republican circles, source of hardly any negative headlines over his years (at least, his years as treasurer) and linked to all of the key constituencies without coming across as as an extreme member of any of them - Crane seemed to hit the sweet spot.

And he seemed interested, and apparently had the whole upper-end Republican hierarchy ready to sign on for him the way they did last round for Jim Risch for the U.S Senate. Until Crane pulled the plug - he seems to like being treasurer, and the office is up for election next year and he’d have to give it up - and the establishment plan went to pieces. And hasn’t been replaced by anything else since.

One candidate is already in the field: Vaughn Ward, a Marine and former staffer for Senator Dirk Kempthorne, who (because of being little-known) seemed at first a splinter candidate, but has begun to pick up support around the Republican organization, and a decent treasury as well. He’s not exactly the establishment’s great hope, though. Ward has never run for office before, and taking out Minnick will be a tough task even for an experienced hand. And the experienced hands haven’t been clamoring for the opportunity. Two such - Sali and 2006 House candidate Robert Vasquez - might still enter, but they would hardly be establishment picks, either.

Roberts, the state House majority caucus chair, is the closest to such an experienced hand to emerge so far. Only but so close, though, which will lead the state Republican establishment to consider with some care: Is this the guy who can clear the rest of the Republican field and take out Minnick? Continue Reading »

Amid a National Public Radio feature story this morning about “hooking up”, a point was made about the rising average age of marriage. A sub-point also emerged: Idaho was listed as having, on average, the youngest married couples in the country.

When we pulled the census stats on this and averaged marriage age for men and women, Idaho appeared to rank second (behind Utah) rather than first. (The average age at marriage in Idaho was 24.6 years for men and 22.8 for women, compared with the national average of 26.7 and 25.1.)

The rundown of states by marriage age, though, does match up remarkably well against red-blue measures. After Utah and Idaho, two of the reddest states, is Oklahoma, also among the most crimson. The red of the low-age top 10: Arkansas, Kentucky, Alaska, Wyoming, Texas, Alabama and Tennessee. All were McCain states in 2008.

At the other end of the list, oldest at marriage: the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Maryland, all blue states and (except Pennsylvania and maybe New Jersey) among the bluest. All went for Obama in 2008.

Oregon and Washington are close to the national average on marriage age.