Business
Ullman Ousted, Case In Line For Appointment
Ada Commish Sharon Ullman self destructed in the primary election, paving the the way for Gov. Butch Otter to appoint Dave Case to fill the remaining six months of the seat vacated by Vern Bisterfeldt. Case garnered 11,471 votes to Ullman’s 9833 for a 54-46% victory. The Ada County Republican Central Committee meets Thursday to [...]
Some Educated Thoughts To Consider
Its an annual event this time of year: students graduate either high school or college, there are inspiring stories of old immigrants getting degrees, students overcoming emotional and financial hurdles, and of course politicos making commencement addresses to show they are “pro education.” Just today we encountered a couple of youngsters (nearly everyone is a [...]
County Outbids Citizen For Land
Jeff Wood lives in Hidden Springs and for years has dreamed of building his “dream home” atop a rugged bluff north of his current residence. He contacted the owner, only to learn the property was in the midst of a legal battle and subsequent foreclosure action. He followed the land dealings through the legal process [...]
Politico Takes Dynamis And Beer Seller Payments
Looks like freshman Congressman Raul Labrador has taken money from Lloyd Mahaffey, the controversial CEO of Dynamis. Interesting to note back taxes in Boise County go unpaid while political payments are made. Betsy Russell of the SPOKESMAN-Review lists Mahaffey as a contributor to Labrador–who happens to live in Eagle where Dynamis is based–to the the [...]
Sparks Fly As Dynamis Deal Short Circuits
Several interesting developments today in the saga of Dynamis Energy’s proposed waste-to-energy project at the Ada County landfill. Commissioner Sharon Ullman has publicly claimed Ada County spent $2 million for design plans for the waste-to-energy facility and the money will be repaid once construction begins or is approved. Today after long consideration the GUARDIAN has [...]
Dynamis Looks Like “Garbage In, Garbage Out”
The DAILY PAPER posted a well done summary Thursday of the various short circuits experienced by an Eagle firm seeking to build a “waste-to-energy” facility at the county dump. Cynthia Sewell– publicly cited by Commish Sharon Ullman for her award winning reporting on the issue–told readers Dynamis and its CEO, Lloyd Mahaffey have refused to [...]
Assets vs Liabilities In Banking, A lesson
Boise’s SYRINGA BANK is in trouble and faces a merger or takeover from state and federal regulators because it’s capital level is less than 10% of its assets. Terms used to describe banks are somewhat reverse of what we normally think. When we DEPOSIT funds in a bank–savings, checking, or CDs–the institution shows that as [...]
Daily Paper Promotes On Line Neighbor Site
DISCLAIMER–The GUARDIAN has never been to an ATM machine, rarely uses the drive up teller at a bank, fakes confusion for automated “check in” at the airlines, has never sent an electronic birthday card, and generally prefers to talk face-to-face with tellers, agents, friends, and other humans. When we saw the majority of Monday’s front [...]
Ice World Policies Skating On Thin Ice
After the fiasco over 11-13 year old hockey players being forced to use the lobby of Idaho Ice World to change instead of a locker room as punishment for the action of a single player, the GUARDIAN has been flooded not only with comments, but more news tips. We have “done our homework” regarding the [...]
A New Month Brings Hope For Future
This morning we awakened to all sorts of good news. First it was Team Dave announcing they have abandoned plans for not only a downtown baseball park, but they also promised to not use any public money to further the desire named Streetcar (also known as the Trolley Folly). Next thing we heard was the [...]
Melt Down At Boise’s Idaho Ice World Continues
Plagued by theft, conflict of interest, a midnight Zamboni run to Burger King, the infamous “strip hockey,” and rowdy boys having fun drinking and mooning, Boise’s City-owned Idaho Ice World can now add forcing young boys to disrobe in public to its credit. When young men were participating in a game of “strip hockey,” at [...]
Local Banker To Join GBAD Board
The GUARDIAN has learned of the imminent appointment of Rob Perez, a local banker, to the Greater Boise Auditorium District Board. He will be confirmed at the Monday meeting to fill the vacancy created by the departure of former board member Mike Fitzgerald. The following bio was provided by the District: Rob Perez joined Idaho [...]
House Panel Votes To Keep State Out Of Commercial Ventures
On a 15-1 vote The House Resources and Conservation Committee approved a measure Wednesday to prevent the state endowment fund from purchasing and running businesses. This is a practice the GUARDIAN revealed in 2010 when the Dept. of Lands went into the private storage business with the purchase of Affordable Storage in Boise. With an [...]
Dynamis Deal With Idaho Power Gets IPUC Approval
The so-called trash to energy project planned for the Ada County landfill has passed a hurdle with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. The IPUC approved the rate contract Friday between Dynamis and Idaho Power saying, the agreement “contains acceptable contract provisions,” and is in the best interest of the parties and ratepayers. Dynamis was denied [...]
Idaho PUC Proposes Power Payment Program
The Hoku Solar panel plant in Pocatello is still not up and running and it appears to the GUARDIAN it may never reach production, despite all kinds of taxpayer subsidies and tax credits. The company got behind in its payments to Idaho Power and now the Idaho Public Utilities Commission is proposing an agreement that [...]
Bill Would Limit State Role In Commercial Business
A Bill to limit the Idaho Land Board’s role in private sector-type commercial enterprises has been introduced in the legislature. The GUARDIAN made public the state’s ownership of Affordable Self Storage in 2010, touching off a controversy which has the Dept. of Lands claiming they “do it for the children.” Meanwhile business interests and some [...]
Williston, N. Dakota — Growthophobe Heaven
The following list has been circulating on the internet with several copies being directed to the GUARDIAN since it is prime fodder for our GROWTHOPHOBE philosophy and followers. We talked to a Williams County, ND Deputy who not only confirmed the accuracy of the data, but told us, “We have a fair number of people [...]
Chinese Communists Pony Up Cash For Hoku Power Bill
The troubled Hoku solar panel plant in Pocatello got a $10 million infusion of cash from its Chinese Communist parent company this week which should allow them to pay their Idaho Power bill before the plug is pulled. In action before the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, Hoku has sought to amend a contract with Idaho [...]
Idaho Dept. Of Lands Posts Loss On Commercial Ventures
Thursday we asked Gov. Butch Otter about his thoughts on the land board going into the commercial real estate business. Otter stressed that he was adamantly opposed to the state operating enterprises that would otherwise be found in the private sector. He said as long as the state remained in a LANDLORD capacity and avoided [...]
Eastern Idaho Energy Dreams Slowly Crumbling
Eastern Idaho’s grandiose efforts to attract business with “incentives” taken out of the pockets of taxpayers are slowly crumbling despite feeble attempts at life support. First it was the Hoku solar panel plant in Pocatello falling on hard times with plummeting stock prices and Idaho Power ready to pull the plug on its electricity. Now [...]
Get the Guardian by Email
Categories
Recent Comments