Idaho joins HireVetsFirst program

The state of Idaho is gearing up to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan find new jobs through HireVetsFirst, a national effort to increase job opportunities for vets.

Since the program started in December, 2004, the nationwide unemployment rate for veterans has gone from 4.8 percent to 3.7 percent. HireVetsFirst gives veterans access to training and help with job searches. It also encourages companies to hire vets.

About 130,000 Idaho residents are military veterans and more than 15,000 are looking for work, according to state figures. However, those numbers don’t include recent Idaho Reserve and Guard members who are coming home after overseas deployments.

By Thanksgiving, 1,800 Idaho Army National Guard soldiers from the 116th Cavalry Brigade will have returned after 18 months of deployment, including nearly a year in Iraq. Last month, nearly 100 Idaho Marines from the Boise Marine Corps Reserve unit returned from duty in Iraq.

According to the Idaho National Guard, 10 percent of returning soldiers are unemployed and others may be looking for new jobs.

HireVetsFirst provides a variety of assistance, including job search skills, help applying for GI Bill benefits or apprenticeship training, identifying employers who want workers with military experience, and locating counseling services or medical care. The services are available at 24 Idaho Commerce & Labor offices, including the Coeur d’Alene office at 1221 W. Ironwood Drive, Suite 200.

Avista Advantage adds consulting firm

Avista Corp.’s expense management subsidiary, Avista Advantage, has acquired TelAssess, a small telecommunications consulting firm in Colorado.

Avista Advantage bought the four-person company in the first quarter of 2005 for an undisclosed sum, Avista announced in a news release Thursday.

Advantage will keep the TelAssess’s Westminster, Colo., office open as a satellite location and will retain the staff, said Kelly Conley, a spokesperson for Avista Advantage.

“Telecom has been the fastest growing area for us as far as the opportunity to save clients dollars on their invoices,” Conley said. Acquiring a company with expertise within the field will enhance Advantage’s ability to save customers money, she said.

Through auditing of invoices and services, Avista Advantages searches for ways its clients can save money in utilities, telecommunications and waste services. Founded in 1995, Avista Advantage has more than 350 corporate clients, representing 160,000 locations nationwide. The company has experienced a growth rate of 38 percent over the past year, the news release said.

Mining firm applies to Toronto exchange

Mines Management Inc. of Spokane has filed an application to list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also known as TSX.

The company already trades on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “MGN,” but wants to expand investment opportunities for Canadians, said Glenn Dobbs, Mines Management’s president and chief executive officer.

“Toronto is the leading mining venture capital market in the world,” Dobbs said. “If one wants to attract the attention of serious mining stock investors, it is imperative our shares are available in the world’s premier mining stock market.”

Mines Management owns the Montanore silver-copper project in northwestern Montana. The project is in the midst of permitting and a pre-feasibility study. A company consultant recently completed an independent review and assessment of the project, which will be part of a technical report required by regulators as part of the TSX listing review, Dobbs said.

Overhaul begins on accounting rules

New York U.S. accounting-rule makers Thursday approved a project to begin overhauling the standards for pension plans and other employee-retirement benefits.

For the time being, however, the Financial Accounting Standards Board won’t do away with any of the widely criticized “smoothing” mechanisms that allow companies to obscure the values of their financial obligations and mask volatility in their earnings.

In a unanimous vote, the FASB approved a recommendation by its staff to split the project into two parts, including an initial set of revisions by the end of 2006.

Among the staff’s suggested, initial revisions: Companies would be required to include an asset or liability on their balance sheets, to reflect the amounts by which their pension and other post-retirement benefits plans are overfunded or underfunded.

Essentially, the board would take numbers that now are relegated to obscure footnote disclosures and move them onto companies’ balance sheets.

The board wouldn’t initially change the way those numbers are calculated. Smoothing devices would remain in place for the time being.

Nissan headquarters moving to Tennessee

Nashville, Tenn. Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday it is moving its North American headquarters and nearly 1,300 jobs from California to the Nashville area to take advantage of the lower cost of doing business in the Southeast.

“The board of Nissan decided to relocate our North American headquarters, and we’re coming to Tennessee,” Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said at a news conference at the state Capitol attended by Gov. Phil Bredesen and other top state officials.

The headquarters, which has been based in Gardena, Calif., will relocate to Williamson County, a suburban area south of Nashville.

Industry analysts say the move could threaten Southern California’s dominance as a hub for Japanese automakers and strengthen the Southeast’s standing as a major manufacturing center for automakers.