Apple's retail stores seem a happy place. Unless you believe in unionizing the workers who toil there, in which case Apple may not be "liking" your Facebook page. In response to at least one serious effort to create a union for Apple store workers, the…
Despite the dour forecasts for the U.S. Postal Service, they still do a solid job during the holiday season. They helpfully notified us of their recommended shipping deadlines for customers sending items domestically; so here they are: First class mail, cut off date Dec. 20…
Sterling Financial Corporation of Spokane announced this morning that Sterling Savings Bank plans to buy First Independent Bank of Vancouver, Wash., including all deposits and banking operations, 14 branches in southeastern Washington and two offices in Portland. The purchase is expected to be completed early…
In addition to the story we ran this week, plus a great slideshow by SR photographer Jesse Tinsley, we produced a quick two-minute video tour of the renovated McKinstry building along the Spokane River. Colin Mulvany provided additional production tweaking to this video.
Intrinium Networks' brand new office celebrated an opening open house on Thursday. Kevin Dudley of GSI came back with a photo of the ceremonial ribbon cutting. We certainly salute Intrinium and CEO Nolan Garrett for growing to nearly a dozen workers. They've located at new…
Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s largest farm lending cooperative, reported a $45.8 million third quarter profit. Good crop yields and high prices continued to make agriculture a bright spot in an otherwise dull economy. The results compared to a $41 million profit for the…
A merger between Horizon Credit Union and Montana First Credit Union has been approved by both credit unions’ boards. The deal should be closed by the end of the year and give the credit unions extended reach across three states. Horizon has 38,000 members, 16…
This is the first third of our SR business story running tomorrow at Spokesman.com. Along with it will be a photo slideshow by Jesse Tinsley (whose shot is featured here), and a video. The print version will appear in Friday's daily editions of The Spokesman-Review.…
A $600,000 federal grant to Spokane’s Health For All program will be used to find and enroll teens who don’t have health insurance. There are an estimated 40,000 teens in Washington who don’t have health insurance and thus don’t go to the doctor for regular…
View Larger Map Spokane-based IT company Intrinium Networks (not Itrinium) has moved to new offices in Spokane Valley. It's hosting an open house today -- Thursday -- at the new digs, at 505 N. Argonne Road, Building B. It starts at 4 p.m. and runs…
Sleep Country USA has acquired more than 10 Mattress Outlet locations across Eastern Washington and North Idaho, the company announced on Wednesday. The news announcement, at http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release-service/243206, explains that the acquisition means 14 stores in Ellensburg, Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, Richland, Kennewick, Moses Lake, Lewiston and…
BOISE – Idaho's Department of Labor will start intercepting federal tax refunds headed to more than 5,000 Idahoans next year, to recover nearly $10 million in unemployment benefit overpayments due to fraud or misreported earnings. To avoid the move, the people involved, who all are…
Avista Corp. reported slightly lower third quarter earnings of $10.7 million, or 18 cents per share, this morning, compared to $12.3 million, or 22 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2010. Through the first nine months of the year, Avista’s income was $75.6…
Key Tronic, the Spokane Valley contract manufacturer, reported earnings of $1.2 million or 12 cents a share for 1Q of 2012. That's compared with $1.7 million or 17 cents a share one year earlier. Company executives on Tuesday saluted a very decent quarter, despite the…
We should have noted, when posting earlier (Washington and Idaho both fall short...) that area economic development folks know full well that Washington has to compete hard for new businesses. As the earlier post notes, Texas is the state to beat, and its busy recruiters…
Both the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls school districts are ramping up their broadband connections, installing 2-gigabit fiber connections provided by Fatbeam Inc. Fatbeam, based in Post Falls, signed contracts that average 7.5 years in length and that will total more than $2 million in…
Washington government officials sometimes claim they have promoted a favorable business climate. That assertion hasn't always rung true to some business owners, who contend Washington isn't all that friendly for companies considering moving here. The same assertion can even be made by Idaho business leaders,…
The Rypien Foundation is giving $3 million to help establish a children’s emergency room within Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center’s emergency department expansion. The $18.6 million project will add 24,000 square feet. It serves about 80,000 people a year. Sacred Heart officials held a groundbreaking…
We asked recently when Walmart would get around to breaking ground on a new store in Spokane Valley. In March 2010 the company first announced it had plans for the store, west of the Costco at 5200 E. Sprague. Our first story said: Walmart says…
Are you ready to talk Dodd-Frank? Do you want to? Former Gonzaga Law School Dean, current GU Professor Daniel Morrissey will deliver the keynote speech for “The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act Symposium,” a daylong event starting at 8 a.m., Friday at…
The City of Spokane this week launched a new Spokane Business Center on the main floor of City Hall. It came about after a survey of area small businesses learned many wanted a simpler system for interaction with city staff and city agencies. The main…
Friday was Day One of Life with Trader Joe's, in Spokane. The word from those at Lincoln Heights Shopping Center was that the first few hours were busy and ebullient. People actually seemed happy to be spending money, was the word we heard. Here's an…
Netflix recently raised its video rental prices. And now, so has Redbox, the Washington-based rental kiosk entertainment provider. The company said it's raising the basic rental fee for most videos from $1 to $1.20. The price increase goes into effect now. Blu-Ray disks will remain…
Today's' Spokesman Review business story of note was the one (by Tom Sowa) on the newly developed software tool called the Anomalator which is being used to analyze complex financial market data. Spokane-based V-Indicator Analytics LLC licensed advanced visualization and sorting software developed by Battelle…
Itron Inc.'s board brought back retired CEO LeRoy Nosbaum this year in part to help correct the company's plunging stock price over the past 14 months. Despite kinda scary 3Q earnings (see below for details), Nosbaum has begun to fix that issue. The publicly traded…
The Spokesman-Review business team follows economic development in Spokane and the Inland Northwest.
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