Economy
Boise Schools To Layoff Teachers, Staff
Although the details are too complex to enumerate here, look for some major personnel cuts at the Boise School District–both in certified teachers and classified staff. Here is an excerpt of a memo sent to employees Wednesday: “Based on current revenue projections and our recent history of declining enrollment, the Boise District will be forced […]
COMPASS To Provide “Hosted Bar” to Legislators
COMPASS, the Community Planning Association funded by local city and county governments throughout Ada and Canyon Counties has scheduled a 2009 Legislative Reception Thursday to include free booze. Each city and county pays dues to COMPASS which supposedly acts as a regional planning agency for things like Transit. Just in case anyone in the unwashed […]
Coppers Oppose Tickets As Fund Raiser
The GUARDIAN has inadvertently stirred up a hornet’s nest with the publication of Top Copper Mike Masterson’s cost containment memo. The local news channels jumped on the GUARDIAN story and the police union has come out in strong opposition to Masterson’s cost containment strategy–especially as it relates to ticket writing. We pretty much agreed with […]
G-BAD Boy Gets 25% Bonus Despite Downturn
It sounds like one of those reports from the Wall Street gang or a banking CEO, but this story is about a local government official. The GUARDIAN was presented with documents today showing the general manager of the Greater Boise Auditorium District (G-BAD) got a 25% bonus on top of his $103,000 annual salary for […]
Big Bens Burn For Vietnam New Year
ANOTHER SPECIAL POST FROM THE GUARDIAN’S RECENT EXPEDITION TO VIETNAM There are many traditions practiced by the Vietnamese at Tet, the lunar new year, but none catches the eye of the American tourists more than the act of burning thousands of U.S. $100 bills with the familiar face of Ben Franklin turning to ash. Instead […]
Guardian Upbeat Views From Vietnam
THIS POST WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF A SERIES REFLECTING ON A JANUARY TRIP TO VIETNAM BY GUARDIAN EDITOR DAVID R. FRAZIER. TIME HAS A WAY OF PUTTING EVENTS INTO PERSPECTIVE. Four decades have passed since the GUARDIAN sat in Saigon in 1967 watching the tracer rounds, rockets, and flares pass overhead while listening to […]
Does Butch Really Get $4500 For House Rent?
A reader sent us a message suggesting Guv Butch might want to rethink his housing allowance–which was reported by the reader to be $4500 a month. We don’t know if he actually gets that much for not living in his former father-in-law’s hilltop Guv Mansion, opting for the personal property along the river near Star. […]
Trickle Down Economy Costs County Jobs
You know things are bad when GOVERNMENT is laying off workers. Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade has axed four part time and two full time positions in the DMV (auto licensing and registration) division due to lagging auto sales–and fewer cars being registered. He has also declined to fill two part time and two full […]
AMBUS Yet Another Transit Solution
We get fed up with all of the competing logic when it comes to the government bailing out the auto manufacturers while at the same time some folks say we have to stop building roads and advocate more trains. We need a nationwide intercity government operated bus system. We can call it AMBUS, retool the […]
Idaho Records More Moves OUT than IN
Idaho and Missouri are the only states west of the Mississippi River to have more people moving OUT than moving IN, according to records of the highly credible and scientifically astute Atlas Van Line MIGRATION REPORT. The moving company keeps records of all their moves and came up with the data indicating the GROWTHOPHOBE movement […]
Avimor Sales May Total 6 Units
Avimor has been beaten up in recent comments–especially on the Dry Creek “Planned Community” story. We got the following from an obvious insider and frankly what they apparently see as a positive sign is pretty weak. “Avimor has had residents since October. There are three homes closed, two with families living therein. One home is […]
Cascade Photo Surfaces On The Net
The GUARDIAN got an e-mail from a friend who discovered aseries of old KODACHROME images taken by U.S Government photogs working for the Farm Security Administration. The colorful images were made all over the USA as a “make work” project prior to 1941. This one happened to be of Main Street in Cascade, Idaho. Not […]
New Voice Sounding Like A GROWTHOPHOBE
Here is a nicely written piece BY JEAN McNEIL, a Boise Freelancer, which also appeared in the Daily Paper. It is published with her permission. When I moved to Boise 30 years ago, I called it a 10-minute town – you could get from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else in 10 minutes or less. […]
CWI Joins Long List of Faltering Ventures
The new College of Western Idaho, set to open January 20, joins a long list of ventures that glibly blame “the soft economy” for failing to meet predictions. It looks like the long awaited opening will fall two-thirds short of predicted enrollment. We fear the bill of goods sold to voters was overly optimistic and […]
Banking On Christmas Dinner
We got word from the Idaho Food Bank that Thanksgiving was a a huge success in the turkey acquisition department. Times are tough for many folks, just look at the crowded parking lot at the plasma center on Overland. The IFB is looking for Christmas help now with both turkey and ham. OR If you […]
The Real Dirt On Clean Air
For growthophobes there may be a silver lining in that yellow cloud of pollution hanging over the Treasure Valley. Without reductions in current levels of existing pollution, new businesses won’t be able to locate here and dump their vile concoctions into the air. During a recent speech, the Idaho DEQ air quality czar said if […]
Fame, Greed Behind Special Winter Olympics
PREFACE I have lived in Boise all my adult life–38 of those 40 years in the first and only home I ever owned. There is no other place on earth I care to live. My roots go deep and I am on a first name basis with most of the movers and shakers, having known […]
Friday Parking Holiday Downtown
Team Dave is doing its part to provide an economic stimulus without using a taxpayer bailout. Mayor Dave Bieter has declared Friday to be a parking holiday with no enforcement of parking meters to help out both consumers and merchants in the downtown area. Motorists are being advised to obey safety areas such as crosswalks […]
Politicos Continue Puppet Act For Chamber
In the spirit of Christmas, local politcos continue to act as puppets of the Chamber of Commerce–often at the expense of commoners unable to buy the access to power the Chamber controls. For a mere $40 you can drink and munch with politicians who don’t even understand they are being used like Willy Nelson at […]
Audits Should Be Routine In Government
At least three issues involving audits–or lack of audits–in Idaho governments have hit the GUARDIAN in the past few days. Readers have asked for comment. The State of Idaho caught a couple of crooked employees embezzling funds at an obscure agency of the Agriculture Department, but there seems to be a difference of opinion among […]
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