Re: “Mixed Messages on Local Economy [updated]”

@Name March 9 2:45 pm:

You refer to the HSU folks who prepare the Humboldt Economic Index has hacks. Pretty strong stuff. You also claim that the report “digs up a bunch of someone else’s info and then wraps it up all pretty in a PDF.”

The name-calling is mean-spirited, and in fact is wrong on the plain language meaning of the word hack.

More importantly, the claim that the report is just a bunch of someone else's information is plain wrong.

While the Humboldt Econ Index does in fact use some secondary data from EDD (empl) and HAR (home prices), much of the report is derived from monthly primary data gathering by the Index staff.

Each month they use surveys to gather data on lumber manufacturing, on lumber orders, on help-wanted ads, on occupancy rates at a sample of hotels/motels/inns, and on retail sales at a sample of retailers. Nobody else is able to provide monthly information on electricity consumption in Humboldt, thanks to a long-standing arrangement with PG&E.

So, “name,” your hack comment is revealing of a mean-spiritedness, and your statement about the data is wrong.

Re: “Ballon Track: It's On”

Pacific Legal Foundation is about as much an advocate for a "balanced approach to environmental regulations" as Fox News is for "fair and balanced" news coverage. Speak the lie often enough and it becomes truth.