Census: Idaho 2011 median household income fell for third straight year

Here's a news release that came out Thursday from the Idaho Department of Labor. Normally I'd post the link, but this is short enough to run in its entirety.

The slow recovery from the Great Recession continued to have an impact on Idaho households in 2011, dropping median household income for the third straight year.

New U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday put median household income in Idaho at $43,341, down 0.3 percent from 2010. Since the recession took a firm grip on Idaho’s economy in 2008, median household income has dropped 8.9 percent.
 
Only eight other states have posted three straight year of declining median household income, the income level at which half the households bring in more and the other half less. But only Nevada and Georgia recorded larger three-year declines.
 
Florida has seen median household income decline for four straight years. The other states with three-year declines were Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Jersey and New Mexico.
 
The share of Idahoans living in poverty last year rose to 16.5 percent from 15.7 percent in 2010, and the households receiving food stamps rose from 72,000, or 12.5 percent of all households, to over 78,000, or 13.5 percent, in 2011. While Hispanic households receiving food stamps fell from 31.9 percent to 30.7 percent, the number of white households receiving food stamps rose from 10.2 percent to 11.9 percent in 2011.
 
At the same time 83.5 percent of the population had some kind of health coverage, up from 82.3 percent in 2010 primarily due to additional people qualifying for government health care. Those with private insurance dropped from 67.4 percent in 2010 to 66.9 percent in 2011 while those enrolled in public health care programs rose from 26.9 percent in 2010 to 28.5 percent in 2011.
 
Additional demographic, social and economic statistics on Idaho and the other states based on 2011 estimates are at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t on the American Community Survey site of the U.S. Census Bureau.

New sports bar, The One16, plans Monday opening

Queenie Linderman, left, owner of the One16, a sports bar near Exit 116, talks with Debra McBride of Alpine Insurance, taking care of details Thursday before the bar's opening Friday. 

The opening of Idaho Falls' newest sports bar, the One16 Sports Bar and Grill, originally set for Friday, is been pushed back to Monday.

Located at 3078 Outlet Boulevard, near the Sleep Inn off I-15 Exit 116, the bar has four wide-screen TVs, two pool tables, two dart boards and a golf machine. There is a full menu, wine and beer at pre-mixed drinks.

Here is the link to the One16's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheOne16SportsBarAndGrill

This is the third bar for owner Queenie Linderman, who ran the Classic on Anderson Avenue years ago, then the Company Club. After five years in California, Linderman, a Kamiah native, moved back to Idaho Falls with her daughter three years ago.

She is already familiar with the One16's layout (occupancy: 148), having worked there last year when it was Charlotte's Web.

The last few days have been something of a scramble, but Linderman said she's ready. UFC fights start on Oct. 13.

What's the secret to running an successful bar? "Attitude," she said. "It's all about the people you have behind that bar."

Author to speak about Idaho's role in Cold War

Phil Taubman

Former New York Times reporter and award-winning author Philip Taubman will discuss Idaho's role in reducing the Cold War threat at an evening program on Monday, Sept. 24 at the Shilo Inn Yellowstone Room in Idaho Falls.

Taubman, author of the book "The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb," will discuss his book and then join in a panel discussion about Idaho and Idaho National Laboratory's role in ending the Cold War. The program is sponsored by the Idaho Section of the American Nuclear Society and Idaho National Laboratory.

The program starts with a social half-hour at 6 p.m. when attendees will be able to purchase Taubman's book and have him autograph it. The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. and will feature a menu of chicken cordon bleu with honey glaze and Swiss cheese served with a Mornay cheese sauce served over rice, tossed green salad, steamed vegetables and chef's choice dessert.

Following Taubman's presentation, he will participate in a panel discussion about the Cold War. Mike Tyacke will moderate the panel. Other scheduled participants are Igor Bolshinsky, Ken Allen and Dan Wachs from INL as well as Stan Moses from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Cost for the dinner and program is $20 per person or $10 for full-time students. Reserve your place by close of business on Thursday to IdahoSectionANS@yahoo.com or by calling Shannon Eddins (526-0100).

Here is a link to a panel discussion Taubman hosted earlier this year featuring three former Defense Secretaries, George Schultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn: http://cisac.stanford.edu/news/video_google_talk_with_taubman_nunn_shultz_and_perry_cold_war_may_be_over_but_threat_of_nuclear_attack_persists_20120329/

Partnership seeks voices for LINE Commission hearing Friday

Lane Allgood, Partnership for Science and Technology executive director

If Idaho Falls has a reputation as the most pro-nuclear community in the United States, few have worked harder or longer at presenting it in that light than Lane Allgood, executive director of the Partnership for Science and Technology.

Allgood's history of nuclear cheerleading goes back more than 25 years. In 1985, he organized a parade in support of bringing the Special Isotope Separation project to what was then the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Even then, the handwriting was on the wall. Between 1951 and 1995, there were 52 reactors built on the desert west of Idaho Falls. Today there is one, the Advanced Test Reactor.

SIS didn't get built anywhere, the Cold War ended, and in the last 25 years much of the site's focus has shifted  to waste cleanup and environmental remediation. In the '90s, the work at INL was about 70 percent cleanup and 30 percent research and engineering. Today, Allgood estimates it's the other way around, but the employment numbers have grown.

Will the lab ever land a big new nuclear project?

Only if people in the community stand up and voice support for the idea, Allgood said Tuesday morning at an "Up n Atom" breakfast. "We cannot take this laboratory for granted. Were going to have to fight as hard as we fought in 1949," he said.

Idaho's Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission will be meeting all day Friday at the Idaho Falls Hilton Garden Inn. It will be taking comments from the public at 2:45 p.m. The Partnership will present its recommendations, but Allgood is eager to encourage anyone who supports new nuclear research and development at the INL to speak or submit written comments.

Shrinking federal outlays have intensified the competition for nuclear funding, said Jackie Flowers, director of Idaho Falls Power and the Partnership's board president. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently said she plans to be "as aggressive about going after DOE funding as if it were trying to land the Olympics." Haley's state is home to the Savannah River Project, and stands a very good chance of receiving $450 million from DOE later this month for a Small Modular Reactor test project.

Nevertheless, there is an infrastructure and culture in Idaho that dates back to 1949, when the Atomic Energy Commission selected the Snake River Plain as the site for its National Reactor Testing Station, Flowers said. "It doesn't make sense to rebuild infrastructure that we already have," she said. "We have expertise, infrastructure and workforce training. When it comes to SMR manufacturing, what better place than here in Idaho?"

Allgood said LINE Commission meetings earlier this year in Boise have been dominated the Snake River Alliance, an Idaho anti-nuclear group dating back to the early '90s. In preparation for the Idaho Falls meeting Friday, the Alliance held a teach-in Sept. 12 in Pocatello.

"Some key people in the area will be there, monitoring, taking notes, reporting back to us," said Liz Woodruff, the Alliance's executive director. "I don't think there will be a lot of surprises."

Woodruff said her group's main concern is the 1995 Spent Fuel Agreement reached between the state, the DOE and the U.S. Navy, which closed the Idaho to future shipments of commercial nuclear fuel for storage or reprocessing.

"We are concerned the line LINE Commission exists to change the 1995 agreement," she said. Idaho voters upheld the agreement in 1996 on two separate ballot initiatives.

"The people of this state have made it clear enough that no means no, and to ask again is coercion," said Woodruff.

As for the possibility of any new nuclear research at the INL, "The PST is always eager for something." The Alliance is favors any new R&D money going toward battery storage for energy produced by wind and solar power.

I.F. Ad Federation plans first fall get-together

The Idaho Falls Advertising Federation is kicking off its 2012-13 season with an informal get-together at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Rutabaga's.

Anyone who wants to join or renew their club membership at the door gets in free. The same goes for anyone who wants to join online at http://groupspaces.com/IFAdFed/public/pay/subscription/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=group-mail&utm_term=group-mail-97756.

IFAF now takes credit cards to make it super-easy to join. Win fun door prizes, including a special gift basket of Betty's Not-For-Sheeple hand-crafted body products.

Pick up an official calendar of the IFAF year events and special dates. Meet your IFAF Board and get to know other members. Eat amazing hors d'oeuvres from Rutabaga's! A no-host bar will also be open.

Cost is $5 at the door for those not sure if they're ready to join.

Another moment of truth arrives (sigh ...)

Oooh ... shiny! The new iPhone 5

Now that the iPhone 5 is out, Verizon is giving away the iPhone 4 and letting customers with new contracts have the iPhone 4s for $100.

Since my Verizon contract expired May 28, I am in a position to take advantage of this deal. It looks really good -- I've been hating my Samsung Android phone ever since I learned it went out of production a month after I got it last year. Why call a phone the "Continuum" if you're going to pull the plug so fast?

There's only one thing holding me back on this deal. I HATE paying as much as I do for mobile phone service. 

When I look at what I was paying for a land line and cable 25 years ago, it amounted to around $59 a month. It was all the phone and TV I needed. We were young. We had a VCR. We could go to Great American Video, rent all the "Godfather" movies and hunker down for the weekend (although we had to go get Chinese food by the end of the first tape -- just warning you in case you try this yourselves.)

Sounds idyllic, eh? Going by the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator (http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm), what I paid for phone and cable would amount to $119.65 in 2012 dollars. Considering the cable package I have now costs around $90 -- and that includes Internet -- I'd say I'm ahead. Add in streaming Netflix and it's still a wash (although the "Godfather" movies are not available, my "Mad Men" marathon was worth the time, except instead of Chinese food I had an urge to smoke Lucky Strikes and guzzle Canadian Club.) 

Smart phones for the family? I cringe when I see the bill, yet feel helpless to do anything. I guess the big question is whether you want to look at your mobile phone as a communication tool or as a life-enhancing device. I could save money by going back to a flip phone like the ones everyone uses on "Breaking Bad" (another Netflix marathon). I was tempted to go that route when I got the Samsung, but caved (and hated myself for it.)

Nevertheless, there is this pull … with the iPhone I can load my iTunes, and I need to replace my iPod anyway ... I can use it at the gym ... I can keep track of my calories ...

You tell me where this is headed. Any wonder why this country is in the shape it's in?

Boiseans petition for Trader Joe's; store coming to SLC

It's been months since we last touched on the subject of Trader Joe's, one of those things that gets Idahoans salivating both here and in apparently in Boise, as evidenced by this piece in the Idaho Business Review by Anne Wallace Allen: http://idahobusinessreview.com/2012/09/11/an-action-plan-on-trader-joes/

If you were an early reader of this blog, you will remember that last year Brad Cramer of the city of Idaho Falls Planning Department told me he'd received a phone call from someone interested in possibly acquiring land for a specialty grocery store. The mere hint that it might be Trader Joe's set off a buzz.

We spoke to Trader Joe's at the time and they told us they planned 18 months in advance. There were no plans for a store in Idaho Falls in that window. Or Boise, even with a Facebook petition pleading for one.
Check out this link I found. If you really care, bookmark it: http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/coming-soon.asp. And note that Salt Lake City is on the list.