Mobile banking arrives – along with risk management 
POSTED: Friday, April 13, 2012 at 04:13 PM PTBY: Scott Klitsch and Randy Romes
Earlier this year, Global Payments Inc., a third-party processor of credit and debit cards became the target of a major security breach. Tens of thousands of cardholders were suddenly vulnerable to fraud. It’s a story that financial institution leaders never want to see, much less experience. “Mobile banking is one of the hottest topics discussed [...]
‘Freedom of contract’ has its limits
POSTED: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 08:25 AM PTBY: Molly O'Leary
Generally speaking, public policy favors the right of two or more people to enter into an agreement for whatever purpose they agree upon. In legal terms, this policy is called “the freedom of contract.” But the freedom of contract is not without limit. Take for example a recent Idaho Supreme Court case dealing with a [...]
Can you get fired for wearing an orange shirt to work?
POSTED: Friday, April 6, 2012 at 12:18 PM PTBY: Rich Meneghello
Tags: National Labor Relations Act
One of the most common questions I hear from my non-lawyer friends is something along the lines of: “I know that my employment at my company is at-will, but that doesn’t mean that my boss can just fire me for no good reason, right? Don’t I have to actually screw up pretty badly to get [...]
How social media has shaped the case of Trayvon Martin
POSTED: Friday, April 6, 2012 at 12:06 PM PTBY: John Stodder
In the killing of Trayvon Martin, the angel and the devil of social media have discovered the perfect battlefield. Without social media, the Feb. 26 killing of Martin, an unarmed, black 17-year-old in Sanford, Fla., probably would have remained forever a four-paragraph news brief in the local newspaper. On that rainy night, Martin was walking [...]
With the right financial tools, your business can expand to global markets
POSTED: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 08:59 AM PTBY: Gary DeGrange and Lee Gibbs
Tags: Zions Bank
Exporting to a market like China was a challenge for a small business just 10 years ago. But thanks to a variety of factors — including technology such as the Internet — almost any business can export today. Idaho businesses exported a record $5.89 billion in 2011, according to data from the Idaho Department of [...]
Data breach is the liability du jour
POSTED: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 08:15 AM PTBY: George Dahlinger
Insurance is pretty dry stuff that no one really wants to think about. But everybody buys it, albeit reluctantly. That’s an impression that I’ve gotten in the over 30 years of being in the business. And since insurance can end up being a rather significant line item expense on the balance sheet for a business (at [...]
Study: Fracking doesn’t pose groundwater risks
POSTED: Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 02:42 PM PTBY: John Stodder
In a possible foreshadowing of long-awaited findings by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin has found “no direct link to reports of groundwater contamination” from the controversial natural gas extraction method known as fracking. According to project leader Charles Groat, “From what we’ve seen so far, many [...]
SEC’s whistleblower program is off to a fast start
POSTED: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 08:12 AM PTBY: Brandon and Matthew Purcell
Charles Polk famously said, “There are no financial incentives for nefarious activities.” That may be true, unless, of course, you happen to be the whistleblower reporting the nefarious activities. In the months following the implementation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistleblower rules as required under Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform [...]
Discrimination is bad for business
POSTED: Friday, March 23, 2012 at 03:52 PM PTBY: Anne Wallace Allen
I’m glad that Idaho lawmakers are finally taking animal cruelty seriously. Now I wish they could show that level of regard for members of their own species: Gays, lesbians, and transgendered people who are being denied the basic right of job, education, and housing security. It seems as though stories about this issue are all [...]
Stop smirking, Grandpa
POSTED: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 09:02 AM PTBY: Sen. Tim Corder
Tags: Idaho Department of Lands
With great fondness I remember the facial expressions of my grandfather. I remember also that I often could not interpret their meaning. Time, and the Legislature, is teaching me that when grandpa witnessed follies he also had a remarkable view into future probabilities and outcomes because he remembered and respected the lessons he learned from [...]
