Tom Paine’s blog on the 43rd State Blues: Democracy for Idaho Web site had an interesting post this week claiming that Gov. Butch Otter was planning a secret meeting Wednesday with Micron executives.

The blog implied that Otter was looking at a way to bail out the financially troubled company.

Paine cites a conversation supposedly overheard at a Boise bar between Mark Warbis, Otter’s communications’ chief, and others that the governor was shaken by a “blunt” assessment from investment bankers about Micron’s future.

I’ve been taking quite a beating today about my Micron story pointing out the concerns of analysts that pricing for Micron’s memory products aren’t expected to improve in the near future.

One reader — a long-time Micron employee — even addressed me as Mr. Grinch in a e-mail saying I ruined their Christmas with the bad news.

Others felt the Statesman wasn’t supporting Micron like it should by reporting the bad news. I’ve been covering business long enough to know that these type of stories stir the emotions especially when there’s a string of bad news for a company, so I don’t take the comments personally.

The big story this week was that Boise lost out on being a finalist for a manufacturing plant that could have brought 1,000 new jobs.

It turns out that Idaho Power Co. didn’t have enough electricity to provide to the two companies that were considering Boise.

The electricity requirement for one of the proposals was massive. It needed three times the power now used by Micron Technology.

The Boise Valley Economic Partnership (BVEP) says the two companies looked at locating an operation at the site of the former Tyson Foods plants in south Boise.

My editor asked me to pull up my crystal ball and write a little something for our annual legislative preview about what technology issues might come before the Idaho Legislature this year.

I’m really not sure what the issues will be, but I have to say I’m not expecting a lot of good news for technology to come out of this session.

Last year’s session looked promising after the Governor’s Science and Technology Advisory Council came forward with an aggressive $50 million package of funding and incentives.

But after that effort crashed and burned, and Gov. Butch Otter chastised the council for advocating and not advising, I don’t see anyone coming forward to carry the tech banner this year.

If you’ve been following my coverage of Micron Technology, you might notice the company doesn’t talk to me.

It all stems from a story I did back in August of 2006 about how Micron CEO Steve Appleton’s injuries from crashing his stunt plane in 2004 were worse then the company initially reported.

I still think it was a valid story, but the company threatened that they wouldn’t talk to me if we ran the story.

We ran the story. Micron no longer returns my calls. But last December, they did call me once just to make sure that I knew I wasn’t invited to the company’s annual meeting.

The proposal to build a trade association that would represent Idaho’s small and medium companies involved in technology and innovation took another step forward last Friday at the group’s first meeting of its advisory group.

Idaho’s tech industry has long needed a voice especially in the state legislature. But this group dubbed — the Idaho Innovation Alliance — has decided it doesn’t want to focus solely on tech companies. Instead it’s going after companies that are innovative and growing.

It’s a good strategy. Trying to define a technology company is a difficult task, but defining a growing company is much easier.

If you were Boise six years ago, the big news swirling around the tech industry in November and December of 2001 were discussions between Micron Technology and Hynix Semiconductor about a potential merger.

The two companies were reported to be “aggressively” negotiating on a merger that would make the world’s largest memory company.

Talks and speculation continued on the proposed $3 billion deal well into the spring of 2002.

Several times it was reported the deal was close to being finalized, but in May 2002, the board of directors at Hynix called it off saying the terms offered by Micron were too cheap.

It has been another tough week for Micron’s stock.

Shares have dipped below $8 and analysts haven’t had much nice to say about the Boise-based company.

But on Wednesday, Micron executives will try for a little more positive press by hosting a media and analyst reception in San Francisco.

The company is offering up a free breakfast followed by a presentation from its executives where we’re told that they will “share their vision for the evolving NAND (flash) landscape.”

Micron CEO Steve Appleton isn’t on the agenda, but Brian Shirley, the company’s vice president of memory, and three other vice presidents in the memory and NAND businesses are attending. The executives also plan to unveil some new products. The event starts at 10 a.m. our time and will be webcast on Micron’s Web site.

It’s that time of year again when I try to figure out what the biggest challenges for the tech industry will be in 2008.

For the last five years, the Idaho Statesman has published its annual guide to Idaho’s high tech industries. This January, we will publish the sixth edition.

The guide used to be a separate publication that was inserted into the paper. This year, we’ll be doing it in the paper, but the focus will remain the same.

The goal is to take a look at the health of the industry based on employment levels and surveys of the state’s top tech companies. At the same time we like to look at what the biggest challenges are and what our state leaders or others in the industry can do to help tech thrive in Idaho.

I have to give Jason Crawforth credit.

The founder and chairman of Boise-based Treetop Technologies has long been one of the loudest voices speaking out about the state’s reluctance to support the tech industry.

Over the last few years, Jason has kept talking even though it appeared few were listening.

On Tuesday, he was the only panelist at the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Outlook Forum who painted a less than positive future for Idaho’s economy.

While others stayed on message and reassured the audience that the economy isn’t so bad. Jason had a different story. Without better support of Idaho’s emerging tech industry, Idaho’s economic health was at risk, Jason said.