Wall Street Journal blog highlights INL's cyber-security role

In case anyone is interested, here's a link to a post on the Wall Street Journal's blog about the Idaho National Laboratory and its place in cyber-security research.

http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/11/14/top-u-s-cyber-defenders-work-in-idaho-falls/

Melaleuca CEO to speak at Dec. 18 Idaho Falls Chamber luncheon

Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot

Melaleuca President and CEO Frank VanderSloot will be the guest speaker Tuesday at the Greater Idaho Fall Chamber of Commerce's weekly forum luncheon, to talk about the company's investment in eastern Idaho and its future plans.

At a press conference Dec. 11, Melaleuca announced it will be building a new 371,000-square-foot home office on the land it owns on 65th South, near I-15's Exit 113. The company is centralizing many of its Idaho operations, and the new home office will be three times larger than its current space. They expect the new office to be ready by spring of 2014.

The company is already awarding construction work to local contractors, with Bateman-Hall as the general contractor on the projects. VanderSloot on Tuesday plans to detail how the company's growth is causing the need for more administrative, manufacturing and distribution space

Melaleuca began in Idaho Falls in the mid-1980s. The company conducts its sales of vitamins, nutritional supplements, cosmetics and household products through people who sign on as "marketing executives," building networks of their own and getting paid for the people they bring in. Those networks are now worldwide, and in 2011 the company passed the $1 billion sales mark.

A Melaleuca news release said VanderSloot will also announce future plans for additional expansion.

The Chamber Forum luncheon is at noon at the Hotel on the Falls. Cost is $11. For more information, visit this link: http://www.idahofallschamber.com/.

Idaho ranks 31st in survey of entrepreneur-friendly states

Considering everything one hears about the Gem State's favorable climate for entrepreneurial endeavor, one would expect Idaho to have done better than 31st in a survey of states released this week by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

The Washington-based organization on Thursday released its report, titled “U.S. Business Policy Index 2012: Ranking the States on Policy Measures and Costs Impacting Small Business and Entrepreneurship.”

Idaho came in between West Virginia and Montana in the ranking, which lists the states from most favorable to least favorable. The rankings, which are derived after considering each state’s tax, regulatory and government spending measures, put South Dakota at the top. California was judged to be the least favorable.

Here’s the top 10:
1. South Dakota
2. Nevada
3. Texas
4. Wyoming
5. Florida
6. Washington
7. Alabama
8. Utah
9. Colorado
10. Arizona

The report, which can viewed here, http://www.sbecouncil.org/resources/publications/business-policy-index-2012/, lists the positives and negatives for each state.

For Idaho, the positives were:

• Low property taxes.
• Low consumption-based taxes.
• Low wireless taxes.
• Second lowest electricity costs.
• Very low crime rate.
• Right to work state.
• Lowest level of government spending.
• Lowest level of government debt.
• Low level of government workers.
• No death tax.

The negatives included:

• High personal income, capital gains, and dividend and interest taxes.
• High corporate income and capital gains taxes.
• High unemployment taxes.
• High workers’ compensation costs.

Idaho Tactical Games hosting end of the world raffle

Zombie apocalypses notwithstanding, Mike DeFord of Idaho Tactical Games in Idaho Falls is looking to the Mayan New Year as another opportunity for giving back to the community.

“Everyone is talking about the world ending or not ending in a few days, we are taking everyone’s fear and making fun of it” said DeFord, who runs the area’s only indoor airsoft and paintball field and pro shop, at 546 W. 21st Street.

Assuming the world has survived, on Dec 22 will be holding raffles all day for differentt guns and gear. Proceeds as well as half the profits from the day will be used to purchase Christmas gifts and candy for local needy families.

The crew from Idaho Tactical Games plans to head out on Christmas Eve and deliver those gifts in a Secret Santa sort of way.

Raffle tickets are $5 each; prizes being given away will range in value from $50 to $200. Raffle tickets will be on sale from today until 4 p.m. Dec. 22, when the drawing takes place. Entrants do not have to be present to win.

For further information visit www.idahotacticalgames.com, or visit them at their location, right off Rollandet.

Melaleuca unveils plans for $50 million office complex

An artist's rendering of the new Melaleuca office building

Despite generous offers to relocate, Melaleuca is in eastern Idaho to stay, company president and CEO Frank VanderSloot said Tuesday.

VanderSloot announced the company is breaking ground on a $50 million, 371,000-square-foot corporate headquarters south of Idaho Falls, scheduled to be completed in spring 2014. Melaleuca, which sells vitamins, personal care and household items worldwide through a person-to-person network of "marketing executives," has been steadily growing for the past 12 years on land near Interstate 15 Exit 113. The new building will be triple in size the amount of office space the company has.

The company also has research and development, manufacturing and a large distribution warehouse in and around Idaho Falls, as well as a 600-person call center in Rexburg. While he conceded that distance and transportation expenses put eastern Idaho at a disadvantage for large scale manufacturing, VanderSloot said the region's business climate and work force are pluses that kept the company here.

Situated on 43 acres, the new office will be home to Melaleuca's international and domestic business offices. It will include a 500-person call center, a 17,000-square-foot events area and a state-of-the-art video production studio.

The stage for expansion was set in July with the announcement of a $399,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Bonneville County for sewer line extensions, a lift station and roadway widening. Melaleuca contributed $1 million of its own money to the project, bringing its total infrastructure investment in the area to $2.3 million.

Bonneville County Commissioner Roger Christensen hailed the arrangement between the county and Melaleuca as "what a public-private partnership should look like. Other company a looking at coming in here. It's a bright spot for economic development in the county."

The general contractor on the new office project is Bateman-Hall and Harper-Leavitt is the engineering company. "We want to use local contractors whenever possible," VanderSloot said.

He said he expected new jobs to result from the new project, but declined to say how many. The company, which passed the $1 billion sales mark in 2011, comes up with seven or eight new products a year.