Potlatch Corporation has announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved the Company’s previously announced plan to pursue a tax-free spin-off of its pulp-based businesses into a publicly-traded company called Clearwater Paper Corporation. The planned spin-off is subject to final Board approval based on regulatory, market and other conditions.
A spin-off will create two stand-alone, publicly-traded entities: a timber Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT, with 1.7 million acres of forestland in Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arkansas; and a pulp-based manufacturing company that will include Potlatch’s Consumer Products facilities in Lewiston, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Elwood, Illinois, and its Pulp & Paperboard facilities in Lewiston, and Cypress Bend, Arkansas.
The businesses to be spun-off had revenues of approximately $1.2 billion in 2007. Michael J. Covey will remain Chairman, President and CEO of Potlatch. As previously announced, Gordon L. Jones will be President and CEO of Clearwater Paper. Potlatch will remain headquartered in Spokane, Washington, and Clearwater Paper’s headquarters will be based in the Spokane area at a new office location that has not yet been determined.
Mr. Covey said, “After a careful evaluation, our Board determined that separating these distinct businesses is a logical next step for Potlatch in our ongoing efforts to strengthen our businesses and build long-term value for shareholders.
This strategic move will enable shareholders to have a direct stake in two unique companies - an essentially pure-play timber REIT and a solidly positioned pulp-based manufacturing company. This increased transparency will enhance the likelihood that each company will receive appropriate market recognition of its unique performance and potential.
The state of Idaho and the Nez Perce Tribe have struck a deal that will return the sale of lottery tickets to the Nez Perce Reservation.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter was at the Clearwater River Casino and Resort on Wednesday to sign a pact with Tribal Chairman Samuel Penney, making the agreement official.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter comments
As far as the timeline for the lottery actually being up and running, Secretary of the Interior and former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has up to 45 days to approve the agreement, after which it has to be published in the National Register for 45 days before final approval.
The agreement comes after another record year for the Idaho Lottery that resulted in a dividend of more than $34 million.
Otter continues
Lottery officials say fiscal year 2007 marks the fifth straight year of posting a new record for dividends. Since its inception in 1989, the Idaho Lottery has returned 402 million dollars to public education and state buildings.
Both the Idaho and federal minimum wages are scheduled to increase on July 24.
The minimum wage will increase from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour under state and federal laws passed in 2007. It is the second of three increases that will set the wage at $7.25 an hour a year from now - the wage rose from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour last July.
Over 40 percent of those receiving a pay boost in 2007 worked in leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurants, hotels and recreational businesses.
States are not required to adhere to the federal minimum wage, but the Idaho Legislature voted last year to make Idaho’s basic minimum wage identical to the federal level so that any change in the federal wage would immediately be reflected in the state.
The minimum wage for Idaho employees in jobs where they earn tips — such as bartenders, waiters and waitresses — remains unchanged at $3.35 an hour. But employers must ensure that tips provide another $3.20 an hour so that tips combined with wages equal at least the new minimum. If the combination falls short, the employer is required to make up the difference.
July’s minimum wage increase is likely to have the least impact in the northern part of the state. Employers in border cities like Moscow, Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene have had to boost wages well over the minimum to compete for qualified workers with businesses in Washington, where the minimum wage is $8.07 an hour.
Washington’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent in June, up from May’s rate of 5.3 percent.
According to the state Employment Security Department’s Caitlin Cormier, demand rose as the number of non-agricultural jobs remained unchanged from May.
Caitlin Cormier, spokesperson, comments?
The total number of non-agricultural jobs in Washington in June was up 32,800 over the same time in 2007, a 1.1 percent increase. Nationally, year-over-year job growth for the past year was 0.01 percent.
Industries in Washington with the largest job growth in June were manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality. The largest declines were in construction, financial activities, and government.
Asotin County reported 4.9 percent unemployment for June; Garfield County 5.6 percent; and Whitman County 5.8 percent.
Officials with the Idaho Department of Agriculture say that hay thefts and illegal hay purchases are on the rise as the price of hay continues to climb.
According to the USDA market report, hay prices are dramatically higher than last year, with supreme-grade alfalfa selling for roughly $235 a ton in Idaho last week, compared to about $160 a ton in 2006.
Idaho officials have received 20 complaints involving unlicensed dealers in the first six months of 2008 after receiving a total of 25 complaints all of last year – complaints about nonpayment or theft have also increased from ten in 2007 to seven or eight so far this year. Officials say those numbers don’t represent all hay thefts, as outright thefts are often reported directly to law enforcement agencies, bypassing the department regulators.
This year, the Agriculture Department is also getting complaints from licensed dealers who say they’ve been wronged by farmers. The department is trying to remind farmers across the state to deal only with licensed and bonded dealers, and remind dealers to make sure that the contracts are dated and signed by everyone involved. (AP)
Unusually cold spring weather has decreased the volume of the Northwest’s cherry crop, leaving some growers with little or no fruit and delaying the harvest for everyone else.
The region, which includes five states, has shipped more than 3 million 20-pound boxes, compared to the 7 million normally shipped at this point in the harvest, which will continue through this month. The region is expected to ship only about 8 million 20-pound boxes this season, just over half of the amount shipped a year ago - and it would barely match the 8.7 million 18-pound boxes the California cherry region harvested this spring.
The shortage has also driven prices up, which has hurt producers with more people paring back their grocery bills in the midst of a struggling economy.
Meanwhile, raspberry prices have doubled since last year, with processors paying $1.50 a pound.
Prices are expected to climb, reaching $2 a pound later this summer.
The spike is providing financial relief for farmers, who have faced plummeting prices in recent years.
Washington and Oregon lead the nation in red raspberry production, with more than 12,000 acres. (AP)
The Idaho Farm Bureau says retail food prices in the state increased 3.5 percent over the last few months.
The bureau compared a list of 16 basic food items including milk, eggs, oil, and bread, and compared prices now to three months ago.Prices increased on 14 of the 16 items and shoppers paid an average of a $1.64 more.
The most significant increase was vegetable oil, which increased by 38 cents, but the price of a dozen eggs dropped by 34 cents. (KTVB)
A federal judge has temporarily halted an emergency program that would allow grazing and hay production on an estimated 24 million acres of conservation lands across the country. In May the Department of Agriculture decided to allow grazing on land protected under the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers not to plant crops in order to return fields to native vegetation. The decision was intended to aid cattle producers hurt by rising hay prices, a result of grain farmers shifting to corn and wheat. Hay costs have increased from $75 to $100 three years ago to as much as $200 a ton today. Washington is among the top 10 states for participation in the conservation program with more than 1.5 million acres providing habitat for birds, curbing soil erosion and improving water quality. According to the USDA the decision would have boosted production of up to 18 million tons of cattle forage worth $1.2 billion. The National Wildlife Federation and six affiliations filed suit over the decision, saying the government should have performed an environmental assessment before acting. The fallow lands under the conservation program have been crucial to wildlife. Cattle producers say there were counting on the emergency measure to get through the coming winter. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order earlier this week to halt implementation of the emergency program and set a full hearing for July 17. (AP)
