Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne dedicated a portion of Monday's State of the State and Budget Address to describing how tight the 2005 fiscal environment would be for his state. The temporary sales tax will lapse, costing the state $170 million in foregone revenue. The one-time $83 million in federal bailout funds are depleted. State employees will get a 27th biweekly paycheck this calendar year, resulting in an additional budgetary burden of approximately $20 million.

The Acting Director for the Idaho Department of Commerce is Roger Madsen. Madsen also is serving as director of the state Department of Labor.

The Idaho Economic Development Association has named Jan Rogers as new president.

John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Mike Leavitt of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been appointed the Co-chair of the Federal Laboratories Consortium State and Local Government Committee.

Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns has appointed Richard Baier as the state's first rural development director. Baier will work closely with the new Nebraska Rural Development Commission.

The University of Nebraska Technology Park has named Steve Frayser as president.

Idaho Falls businessman LaMoyne Hyde was appointed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to serve as Director of the Idaho Department of Commerce.

Elizabeth Sellars is the new manager of Idaho Operations for the Department of Energy.

Laurence Gebhardt has been selected to serve as the first director of Idaho's TechConnect East.

Chuck Henderson has announced he will retire as president of the University of Nebraska's 130-acre Technology Park next June.

Gary Mahn, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, has announced he will resign from the position at the end of the year.

Carla Patterson is the new director of the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

Dan Curran is the new director of the Business Development Division of the Nebraska Department of Development.

Governor Dirk Kempthorne has announced the creation of TechConnect East, a regional science and technology office to be located at the Idaho State University Incubation Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

A wake-up call. That's what the final report of the Lincoln Technology Council said the city received after learning one of its top employers was expanding its operations in a nearby city instead of Lincoln because of perceived weaknesses in Lincoln's telecommunications infrastructure.

John Glerum, former president and CEO of Ore-Ida Foods, has been named science and technology coordinator for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Glerum also will serve as director of the new Technology and Entrepreneurial Center, to be built on the campus of Boise State University West.

Bill Shipp, president of Bechtel BWXT Idaho and lab director of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, is retiring effective Oct. 25. Paul Divjak will be his replacement.

LaMoyne Hyde, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, also announced he will resign his position by the end of the year.

Science policy and tech-based economic development have taken center stage in Idaho with last week’s release of the Idaho Science and Technology Strategy and the supporting new initiatives included in Governor Dirk Kempthorne’s recent budget message.

The Idaho Falls-based Partnership for Science and Technology selected M. Lane Allgood as its new executive director.