The benefits of immigration reform outweigh the costs
POSTED: Thursday, May 23, 2013 at 09:12 AM PTBY: Peter R. Crabb
Bipartisan support for immigration reform has been growing in Congress, and legislation has been introduced that will go a long way to bettering the lives of many immigrants and rationalizing U.S. labor market policies. In spite of a wide range of support, this important effort now faces a stumbling block. Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador [...]
Beware of English-only rules
POSTED: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 05:05 PM PTBY: Barry Rosen and Charles Bacharach
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced last year that Delano Regional Medical Center, an acute-care hospital in California’s San Joaquin Valley, agreed to pay $975,000 to settle a class action national origin discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of a class of approximately 70 Filipino-American hospital workers. The employees alleged that the hospital’s English-only rule [...]
Idaho’s farmers should prepare to be targeted
POSTED: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 01:27 PM PTBY: Sarah L. Wixson
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is targeting the Northwest’s farmers. For the uninitiated, the EEOC is a federal agency that enforces federal laws against workplace discrimination. The commission receives and investigates thousands of charges of discrimination brought by employees throughout the United States, but only brings suit upon a small percentage of those charges. [...]
Doctors and golf? The stereotype doesn’t hold
POSTED: Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 09:28 AM PTBY: Lauren Chasin
The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. It’s time for fitness in the great outdoors. That’s why we love the Treasure Valley, right? And for doctors, this means dusting off that putter … right? Wrong! It’s true I am a doctor. I love golf, but only about as much as I love shopping for [...]
E-Fairness is good for Idaho retailers
POSTED: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 11:16 AM PTBY: Pam Eaton
Shopping online is a simple and convenient way to make purchases. The Idaho Retailers Association fully supports online shopping, and we encourage all our members to develop an online presence to compete in today’s marketplace. What we do not support is the unfair advantage some out-of-state online retailers have over local businesses by not being [...]
Going green in commercial real estate
POSTED: Monday, April 29, 2013 at 01:51 PM PTBY: Darren Currin
With the growth of LEED certification and a desire among building owners, developers and tenants to become better stewards of the environment, green practices have increased significantly over the past decade both nationally and locally in the industry. In honor of Earth Day, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) has issued its “Top 10 [...]
Guns in the workplace and employer liability
POSTED: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 11:39 AM PTBY: Amy Lombardo
Recent news of shooting incidents in or near business establishments may have employers considering the question: What if? If a similar event happened at your business, do you have a responsibility to protect employees? Could your company be liable if the unthinkable happened? This fear is not entirely without foundation. The U.S. District Court for [...]
Out of sight, but important
POSTED: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 10:48 AM PTBY: Marc Johnson
For a state that hates government so much, Idaho sure has a lot of it. Idahoans have single-purpose districts for airports and hospitals, sewer systems and mosquito abatement. Idaho has government “closest to the people” to handle fires, irrigation, highways, cemeteries and auditoriums. Idahoans hate government so much that they often make it largely ineffective [...]
Just glad we left California
POSTED: Monday, April 22, 2013 at 08:08 AM PTBY: Chas Bonner
Tags: Business regulations, California regulations, Idaho regulations
Reading about recent developments under Proposition 65 in California again reinforces my family’s decision to move out of California to Idaho 12 years ago. Proposition 65 passed by a large margin in 1986. Many referred to it then as the “Attorney Full-Employment Act.” The essence of it is that consumers must be warned of any [...]
Better data analysis can help us heal our health system
POSTED: Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 11:25 AM PTBY: Bob Lokken
Data, data, data. We have data everywhere, and we are only just beginning the collection of data. It has been estimated that from the dawn of civilization until the year 2003, humankind created about five exabytes of data, and that now we generate that much data every two days. An exabyte is a quintillion, or [...]
