Lawyers head to Boise for crucial BP hearing
POSTED: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 11:19 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: BP, City of Boise
Dozens of coastal attorneys are descending on remote, land-locked Boise for a hearing in federal court to decide what to do with several hundred lawsuits arising from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
A panel of seven judges will decide whether and how to consolidate the cases - which judge should oversee them and where - during [...]
Brookings report disparages cities’ ‘desperate corporate recruitment’ 
POSTED: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 11:32 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, Boise Valley Economic Development, Brookings Institute, C.L. "Butch" Otter, Idaho Department of Commerce, Idaho District Export Council
A new Brookings Institution report derides the kind of business recruitment campaigns that have dominated the time and money of a lot of Idaho business and political leaders in recent years.
The report outlines a new job creation approach focused on boosting exports in place of the “desperate corporate recruitment bids and California cherry-picking that Western [...]
Boise Centre ups marketing program
POSTED: Monday, July 26, 2010 at 11:13 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Bobbie Patterson, Boise Centre, Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greater Boise Auditorium District, Pat Rice
The Boise Centre’s executive director is enlarging his marketing staff after a decision by the Greater Boise Auditorium District July 22 to end support to the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Pat Rice said he expected to do phone interviews for a director of sales and marketing position July 26 and review resumes for an additional [...]
Board cuts off money to Boise visitors bureau
POSTED: Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 06:04 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greater Boise Auditorium District
The three members of the Greater Boise Auditorium District’s board of directors didn’t want to hear any more.
They didn’t want further explanation from auditors. They didn’t want any more replies or excuses in response to their concerns. They didn’t want a public hearing with a room full of angry hoteliers.
After another bitter public meeting, this [...]
Minnick crafts bill to avert commercial loan collapse
POSTED: Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 02:24 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: finance, Walt Minnick
Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick, hoping to fend off a looming wave of commercial loan defaults and a continuing decline in real estate prices, was preparing to introduce a bill July 22 that aims to avoid catastrophe for banks, property owners and small businesses with a new federal program.
The first-term Democrat, who has earned credibility in [...]
GBAD chairman wants board to reverse vote on BCVB
POSTED: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 04:42 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Centre, Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greater Boise Auditorium District
The chairman of the Greater Boise Auditorium District is threatening to reverse his vote to give the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau three additional months to sort out its future because of “uncovered information that was misrepresented or not presented.”
Mike Wilson has called a special meeting for 3:30 p.m. July 22 and is urging the [...]
Idaho’s education system lags in money, results
POSTED: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Some Idaho business leaders say they’re concerned about a recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau that ranks Idaho 50th in per-pupil spending on K-12 education, but they’re troubled by a lot more than that.
For one thing, students aren’t continuing their education after high school. Only 45.7 percent of Idaho high school graduates went on [...]
Professors launch company to confront toxic gas
POSTED: Friday, July 16, 2010 at 10:25 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Air-Track Electronics, DC Group International Inc., Lynn Russell, TECenter, Uwe Reischl
It’s under the carpeting, behind the wallpaper, above the ceiling tiles, in the insulation, under the bookshelves, in clothing and cosmetics, all over our cars and just about anywhere you go indoors.
And yet it’s a slow killer.
Concerns have been growing about the pervasive use of formaldehyde in consumer products and building materials, and two Boise [...]
GBAD votes to fund Boise visitors bureau for three more months
POSTED: Monday, July 12, 2010 at 05:39 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Centre, Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greater Boise Auditorium District, Idaho Travel Council
The Greater Boise Auditorium District’s board of directors voted to maintain the agency’s financial support of the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau for another three months at the end of a tense two-hour meeting July 12.
The auditorium district board, responsible for collecting a 5 percent local hotel room tax and overseeing operations of the Boise [...]
Geothermal loop that will connect to BSU advances
POSTED: Friday, July 9, 2010 at 07:50 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: alternate energy, Boise State University, City of Boise, geothermal, stimulus funding
A project that will link Boise State University to the city of Boise’s geothermal system is moving full steam ahead, with university officials expecting nearly 1 million square feet of campus space to be heated with the naturally heated underground water over the next few years.
Sen. Mike Crapo, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter and university officials [...]
