Just one day before his budget presentation

One day before he was due to give the budget presentation to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee for the Department of Commerce, Director Jim Ellick has gone on leave effective immediately for unspecified personal reasons, according to Governor Butch Otter's office and the Department.

Ellick had caused some controversy earlier this year by reportedly telling Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Representative Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell, that he expected Micron's manufacturing facility to leave Idaho within two years. [more]

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• Click here for the questionnaire for a free subscription.
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In the Spring Issue and online here:

• Montana’s Cash Cowboy
• Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out
• Essay: The Family Farm, Version 2.0
• Essay: Tracks Across A Landscape
• Have Your Ranch & Develop It, Too
• Design Showcase: The Big and Little of Western Building
• Stuff It: Can Wolf Hunting Help Conserve the Species?
• Traffic Perplexes New Western Communities
• Boise in Its Own Little Bubble
• Revenge of the Resource Economy
• Spotlight North Idaho: On the Agenda: Youth, Growth & Silver
• Spotlight North Idaho: Players of the Panhandle
• Spotlight North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom

[more]

By Robert Struckman, 2-01-08 | comments (23) | email story | print story

 

Monday Business Roundup

There's a big NFL game this Thursday night pitting the 10-1 Dallas Cowboys against the Green Bay Packers, who sport the same record. But plenty of fans in the Mountain West won't get it to see it, because their cable provider doesn't include the NFL Network, which will broadcast the content, in its basic cable package.

The dustup between the NFL, which owns the NFL Network, and the major cable providers including Comcast, has brought to a boil the long-simmering dispute between proponents of bundled cable service – where you pay for a big package of channels, only a few of which you actually watch – and "a la carte" service, in which consumers would choose, and pay only for, the stations they actually want to see.

In other business news: Colorado looks at possible abuses of conservation easements, and for streamside development it's two steps forward, one step back.
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Monday Business Roundup

The ski resorts of the Mountain West are looking at millions of dollars in lost revenue as unseasonably warm temperatures and an almost complete lack of snow pushes back opening dates for the region's major resorts. This is especially troubling in a year when resorts across the region have invested hundreds of millions in new developments and upgrades in hopes of luring more visitors.

Telluride became the latest ski area to postpone its opening when it said on Friday its planned opening date of Thanksgiving Day is unrealistic given the lack of snow.

Many mountain operators were hoping for a big dump early this week to allow for Thanksgiving skiing – but it now appears that the real snow will happen only in the far northern Rockies, bypassing Colorado and Utah.

In other business news: DIA beefs up its snow-handling force; big labor creates a "behemoth" union for state employees; and Boulder minds the gap between revenue levels and relatively lavish city services.
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Monday Business Roundup

With the national equity markets slumping and Fed chief Ben Bernanke predicting an economic slowdown, the question becomes, how long can states in the Mountain West defy the national trends?

Booming energy production, strong tourism results, a resilient construction sector buoyed by the continuing influx of new arrivals, a resurgent technology industry – all of these are contributing to making the Mountain West the nation's strongest economic region. Now, some snow for the skiing industry would help.

In other business news: Colorado legislators seek a new method of distributing exploding revenues from energy production; Crocs' magical stock-market ride ends with a thud; and Colorado's State Fair faces a roller-coaster future. [more]

Hurdles For E-Trains

Backers of Northern Colorado's ambitious FasTracks plans for light rail spidering out from downtown Denver cannot be pleased with the results of this week's referendum in Washington State.

There, voters soundly rejected a long-term, multi-billion-dollar mass transit plan for Seattle that had as its centerpiece the Puget Sound's first light-rail system. Notably, among the groups expressing doubts about the "Roads & Transit" Proposition 1 were environmentalists like the Sierra Group.

In other energy news: Gov. Ritter unveils his Climate Plan while seeking middle ground with the oil and gas industry, and energy prices hit an unfortunate trifecta with gasoline, heating oil, and diesel fuel all topping $3 a gallon. [more]

Throwing Away the Key

El Dorado County is nearly bankrupt, and one reason is the chronically overcrowded county jail, which is so understaffed that the inmate-officer ratio is 89-1 – a situation has led to "near-riot" events, Sheriff Terry Maketa tells the Colorado Springs Independent. That would seem to be a recipe for a private prison operator – but the business of corporate corrections in Colorado has proven to be a mixed bag at best.

Since the riot at the privately run Crowley County jail in 2004, and the State Auditor's report two years ago that found unacceptable health care and staffing levels, not much has changed in Colorado's five private lock-ups. Nevertheless, the state plans to contract out more prisons to private firms.

In other business news: local officials gear up to handle renewed molybdenum mining in Southwest Colorado; private security force MVM is sued by a Westminster resident; and investment firm Janus tries to recover from the loss of star money managers. [more]

Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

The Rocky Mountain West’s tourism industry is worth billions of dollars. In 2006, Montana raked in $3 billion from non-resident vacationers, Wyoming $2 billion and Utah $5 billion. An increasing number of these visitors are leaving behind their jobs and worries for a few days not only to fish blue ribbon streams or ski the perfect powder. They are coming West to don a pair of spurs, rustle some livestock and sleep in a farmhouse on working farms and ranches.

From 2000 to 2001, 62 million adults visited farms and ranches across America according to the United States Department of Agriculture. This agricultural tourism, better known as agritourism, includes farm tours, you-pick operations or country stores as well as farms that provide accommodations. From New Mexico's El Rancho Nido de las Golondrinas to Brush Creek Ranch in Wyoming, places of work are becoming places of play and respite. [more]

Monday Business Roundup

Across the West, small-town business leaders, city officials, and local residents are dealing with the consequences of success. Downtowns once marked by decaying storefronts, "For Sale" signs and empty apartments are now thriving, and the questions now are not about how to revive commerce and contemporary housing, but how to define the limits of growth.

In Golden, next month's city elections will largely be a referendum on how to "balance Golden's small-town feel with new opportunities to liven up the downtown."

Feeling the overflow from the tycoon's paradise of Aspen, Basalt has successfully implemented a master plan that confines development to the town's tiny downtown area, while Lakewood, once your basic bedroom community for Denver, is now becoming a self-contained town of its own.

In other business news: ski resorts pour billions into lavish makeovers; bid to amend outdated mining law gathers steam; and a constitutional amendment to make Colorado a "right to work" state nears the '08 ballot.
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'NEW ENERGY FUTURE?'

Thanks to new wind farms, a massive solar plant, a wind turbine blade factory and an ambitious governor and legislature, Colorado has become a rising star in developing renewable energy. Its work has attracted international attention and put Gov. Bill Ritter in the national spotlight.

While Colorado stands at the forefront of these issues in the Rockies, though, it doesn’t stand alone. Long a supplier of fossil fuels like coal, oil, natural gas, even uranium, the West increasingly sees its energy future in the sun, wind and earth.

“The West does have some of the best wind, geothermal and solar resources in the country,” says Doug Larson, executive director of the Western Interstate Energy Board, the energy arm of the Western Governors’ Association. [more]