IDAHO

According to Hamdi Ulukaya, the CEO of Greek yogurt giant Chobani, 2,000 of its employees will each receive shares in the multi-billion-dollar yogurt company if it goes public or is sold.

Companies in Idaho’s triangle of innovation (east, north and west) are finding capital, talent and opportunity without having to move to capital-rich locations on the coasts.

A small aviation night-vision technology company, Aviation Specialties Unlimited sells night-vision goggles to buyers such as the military and law enforcement. It outfits helicopters and planes with night-vision systems and offers a week-long flight school where pilots learn to use night vision.

"Building the largest yogurt manufacturing plant in the world and expanding it three years later is a really proud moment for us and an example of how right it was to pick Idaho as our second home."

The Capitol City Angel Fund invested in IdeaRoom, Proskriptive and RetroLux.

But there is more to the Idaho education story than just dollars. Lawmakers worked to ensure that new money would promote more than the "same old, same old."

Perhaps it is time to discuss a "Trust, But Verify" approach — but the prospects for such negotiations will be better when Otter and others start speaking directly to Wasden instead of past him, and all parties work with the Energy Department.

Idaho consistently ranks near bottom in sending kids to college

Idaho colleges hoping to get a little more money could soon have to prove they are meeting state higher education goals first.