IDAHO

Businesses can get help with employee manuals, marketing plans, business plans, economic forecasting, employee training, information system development, compensation plans and more.

The hope is that the free service will be a draw for vacationers looking to stay connected to home or business while relaxing in the city’s famed hot springs.

DuPont’s Boise company markets Power Cordz, lightweight synthetic strands that can replace steel cables in applications from bicycles and airplanes to prosthetics.

"It beat out every other town in the Rocky Mountain region for its summer weather," said David Vokac, who with wife Joan crossed the country north to south and east to west to compile the guidebook first published in 1998. "From June to mid-September it is a flat-out 10."

"The Innovation Council will be charged narrowly with identifying and clearing obstacles to commercializing Idaho-born technology, primarily arising from the state’s universities and the Idaho National Laboratory."

Federal regulators are accusing an Idaho businessman of conning at least $40 million from investors and using the money to make credit card payments, pay for snowmobiles and a mansion in Idaho Falls.

Idaho manufacturing companies are invited to take part in a national study to assess America’s progress in adopting manufacturing strategies not only to survive the current recession, but thrive in its eventual recovery.

The company expects foreign investment under a federal immigration program that grants foreigners visas in exchange for investing at least $500,000 in U.S. businesses. The program offers foreigners permanent U.S. residency, or a green card, in exchange for helping create U.S. jobs.

Intermountain Community Bancorp, based in Sandpoint, has plans to depart from the corporate culture by initiating funding, leadership and coordination for economic development programs within its banking communities. These activities will all fall under a bankwide initiative called “Powered By Community.”