One of our items below looks at general trends in Washington and in Spokane County for the number of patents issued to companies or inventors. At the time, we didn't have the comparable numbers for Idaho. Here they are: in 2005 the U.S. Patent Office…
Andrew Schultheis has been appointed executive vice president and general counsel at Sterling Financial Corp. Schultheis, 40, has been outside counsel to Sterling, the parent of Sterling Savings Bank, while with Witherspoon Kelley. Before joining the Spokane law firm in 2005, Schultheis practiced with a…
The Washington Employment Security Department wants $1,400 back from a bride who said she applied for work on her way to the altar. The unidentified woman was collecting unemployment benefits while in Texas for her wedding, according to a department news release. She claimed she…
The Eastern Washington University-sponsored Community Indicators Initiative recently posted a summary of how Spokane and the area are doing in numbers of patents awarded. The partents-awarded indicator shows Spokane is doing less well than the rest of the state (forget comparing Spokane with Seattle, as…
Can this really be the 26th year for the annual Agora Awards? That long, really? This year's winners will be announced Wednesday by Greater Spokane Inc. in a ceremony starting at 7 a.m. at the Davenport Hotel. Agora Awards are annual recognitions of business excellence…
LaunchPad INW and Leadership Spokane are co-sponsoring a Tuesday afternoon session as part of an ongoing effort to nurture and support young professionals. The free event will include a keynote by Tyler Lafferty, founder of the Spokane companies Seven2 and 14Four. The two digital media…
The holding company for AmericanWest Bank has agreed to purchase Bank of the Northwest, which operates four branches in the Puget Sound area. The $17 million transaction is expected to close during the third quarter. The Bellevue, Everett, Tacoma and Issaquah offices of Bank of…
The Washington Department of Social and Health Services has launched a Website that will help workers with disabilities find employment. Pathways to Employment allows users to create resumes, find the names of businesses in their area, and view videos of success stories. A benefits calculator…
For the second year in a row, Spokane's Lee & Hayes was cited as the No. 1 patent law firm in the United States, based on patent quality. Intellectual Asset Management Magazine publishes the winners and uses a ranking system developed by Ocean Tomo. Ocean…
The proposed Palouse Wind Project has received a conditional use permit, moving it one step closer to generating as much as 195 megawatts of electricity sometime next year. An independent hearing examiner hired by Whitman County granted the permit one month after completion of a…
Tuesday's graphic/chart tries to identify the affinity between people who prefer one of the three main Internet browsers and that user's primary search engine. This graphic, produced by comscore and reproduced by SearchEngineWatch, suggests that people who use Google's browser really prefer Google.com. Enlarge the…
Private employers in Spokane County hired 2,100 workers in April, a gain only slightly offset by a cutback in government employment. The new hires, the Washington Employment Security Department said today, rolled the county unemployment rate back to 9.1 percent from 10.3 percent in March,…
Spokane International Airport will unveil its master plan Tuesday at a three-hour open house that begins at 4 p.m. in the Double Tree Hotel, Spokane City Center. Airport officials and consultants will be on hand to explain displays, maps and other information on short-, medium-,…
OK, so we went a little long in a Sunday story on Jon Eliassen, CEO of Red Lion Hotels Corp. He's probably, as one blog commenter noted, Spokane's "most interesting" exec. Or close, anway. Here's a little snapshot photo of Eliassen from some unknown date.…
Spokane Verizon customers can start using 4G service on June 16, the company announced Monday. Verizon's LTE (long term evolution) 4G service will come online and be available for those with enabled phones, hot spots and laptop modems. The service area is Spokane, Spokane Valley,…
Itron Inc. Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Unsworth and other officials from the Liberty Lake company will ring in the start of NASDSAQ trading Wednesday. The ceremony at the NASDAQ MarketSite Studio in Times Square, New York City, can be viewed at 6:15 a.m. at http://www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx…
Our whacky Friday contribution, to help you get into the weekend. The Texas legislature has had its share of tough topics to deal with. But they're one step from resolvingone of the state's longstanding battles between "anglers" and state regulators. The legislature in Texas this…
View Larger Map Spokane-based Red Lion Hotels Corp. announced Friday it's converted a Sacramento hotel into a Red Lion franchise. The change involves the 109-room Vagabond Inn Executive Sacramento-Rancho Cordova. It's now the more pleasingly named Red Lion Inn Rancho Cordova. The address is 10713…
Last week we spotted an item on First Quarter sales taxes for Spokane County. The item noted the county saw a very tiny uptick, of about 2.7% from the same period a year earlier. (Though listed as first quarter, that number is actually for November-January…
People who know Jon Eliassen say he's the busiest retired person they know. In Sunday's Business section of The Spokesman-Review, we take a look at how Eliassen, who retired in 2002 after 33 years at WWP and Avista, has become a very busy executive around…
Landis+Gyr is a Swiss company that does what Itron does, except in Europe: it develops and sells advanced utility meters. It's another company that is busy figuring out how to develop "grid" devices that can make the distribution and consumption of energy smarter and more…
The Lone Wolf and Timber Wolf Harley-Davidson dealerships are consolidating their Spokane and Coeur d’Alene locations into the former United Coatings building in Spokane Valley. Dealer Principal Beth Ernst said Lone Wolf, the surviving name, will occupy 70,000 square feet at 19011 E. Cataldo, where…
“Managing Relationships in Family Business: The Importance of Communication” will be this year's Gonzaga University Family Business Conference focus, which occurs on June 2. The now-annual conference will feature Andrew Keyt, executive director of the Loyola University Family Business Center. Keyt (in photo) is considered…
Two long-time companies selling business forms have merged under new ownership. Safeguard Business Systems and Business Forms Inc. have become BFI Safeguard, owned by Greg and Vicki Schob, who also own Safeguard franchises in California and Montana. General Manager Pete Michael said the merged businesses…
A lot of folks talk about green tech and its importance in the development of the new economy. One company that sometimes misses recognition for its green value is Spokane-based Advantage IQ. The firm, which spun out of Avista, provides detailed utility expense analysis and…