Regional Economic Development

The loss of even limited amounts of agriculture capacity in certain areas could have a major effect.

The plan calls for taking $350 million of tobacco-settlement money that will flow into the state from 2008 through 2017 and funneling it into promising research ideas at research institutions such as the University of Washington, Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

Community-supported agriculture is lauded as a way to help family farmers stay in business and protect farmland from development. Farmers are guaranteed retail prices for their crops, and consumers usually pay less than they would for the same quality produce, such as heirloom tomatoes, in a specialty grocery store.

"It’s been a productive first year," said Commerce and Labor Director Roger B. Madsen. "The Office of Science and Technology has made great strides in identifying where we need to focus our efforts in 2005. The new dollars would be used to attract millions of federal research dollars to Idaho, coordinate the efforts of our three TechConnect facilities, and add a new TechConnect Office in the Magic Valley."

WEDA Annual Legislative Conference February 8th & 9th http://www.wedaonline.org Thanks to our conference sponsors: Key Bank, Puget Sound Energy, enterpriseSeattle, Port of Tacoma, EDB of Tacoma Pierce County, Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association, HDR Engineering,…

"The Wayne Brown Institute has worked with probably thousands of companies presenting to hundreds of investors, and so they know exactly what it is the investor is looking for and what is important to them," Malan said. "If we had not secured this financing, my recommendation was actually to go back to Wayne Brown, have them take a look at our presentation and give us pointers on where they thought that we could improve."

"It’s a tool that allows you to apply your imagination to different scenarios, whether it’s economic or saying, OK, in my county I want to be able to transform the employment number into an occupational number so I can understand what kind of demand is being created by this overall expansion," Gallagher said.

The Kauffman Foundation recently launched "Giving Back to Entrepreneurship," a website dedicated to informing entrepreneurs how they can use their energy and creativity to support their communities and help jumpstart the next generation of entrepreneurs.

In this edition of Newsline Eight — we recognize the six SBA Region Eight District Office Employee of the Year winners and the Regional Employee of the Year winner.

The Idaho economy is gaining strength. The outlook for 2005 is "pumped up."