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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Becky Kramer

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News >  Business

Coldwater Creek to add 60 workers

Coldwater Creek will hire 60 new employees at its corporate headquarters in Sandpoint this year to keep up with rapid retail expansion. The company plans to add 60 new women's clothing stores in 2005, with an eventual goal of 450 or 500 nationwide. The chain operates 114 stores at this time.
News >  Idaho

This isn’t just puppy love

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho – Some of the athletes howled with impatience as they waited for their turn through the starting gate. Teams of Alaskan huskies lined up three and four deep for the Priest Lake Sled Dog Race on Saturday. Frantic lunges testified to their eagerness to run.
News >  Spokane

Young workers have little faith in system

To Teairah Walters, Social Security is that sucking sound draining money from her paycheck. The 18-year-old works full time at Walgreens in Post Falls. She's also a pre-med student at North Idaho College. After rent and tuition, money for basics – like food and shampoo – is scarce.
News >  Business

Gold Reserve plans large Venezuelan mine

Gold Reserve Inc. has ambitious plans to build one of Venezuela's largest gold mines. The Spokane company is counting on favorable gold prices to help raise $552 million to construct the Brisas Mine, an open-pit gold and copper operation in southeast Venezuela, said Doug Belanger, Gold Reserve's president.
News >  Business

Magazine feels right at home

COEUR d'ALENE — Marital discord erupted when Brandon Lee tried to throw out his wife's stash of home decorating magazines. As his sputtering spouse plucked the magazines out of the recycling bin, Lee protested, "But honey, you've had these for more than a year."
News >  Business

Post Falls project outlined

A four-story condo building will be the first phase of a downtown-style development along the banks of the Spokane River in Post Falls. Developer Harry Green said he plans to build 20 luxury condominium units. The building will be the first constructed in Post Falls Landing, a 33-acre former sawmill site.
News >  Business

Company buys land for rehab hospital

A New Mexico company hopes to break ground this spring on a $15 million rehabilitation hospital in Post Falls. Last week, Ernst Health Inc. purchased a 6-acre parcel of land east of Wal-Mart. The Albuquerque-based chain is working with city officials on permits and zoning issues and expects to break ground within 60 days, said Darby Brockette, chief executive officer.
News >  Business

Unusual Potlatch stock voting system under fire

Potlatch Corp. shareholders get a subtle reward for buying and holding stock. In corporate-speak, it's called "time-phased voting" or "super-voting" status. In practical terms, it means that Potlatch's long-term shareholders – those who've owned their stock four years or more – get four votes per share at the company's annual meetings. Newcomers get just one vote per share.
News >  Idaho

Evicted float homes are a tough sell

Chuck Strickell was swamped with calls when a "For Sale" sign went up on his Blackwell Island float home. Would-be buyers gushed over the $32,000 cabin on floats, with its promise of fishing off the back porch. But every showing ended with a deal breaker.
News >  Business

Two Bayview marinas to see ownership changes

BAYVIEW, Idaho – Bayview, a picturesque resort town at the foot of Lake Pend Oreille, is home to hundreds of boats and about a half dozen marinas. Two marinas are in the midst of ownership changes.
News >  Business

Mine backers move forward

Seventeen years ago, Christopher Herald struck gold at Buckhorn Mountain, a remote ridge in Washington's Okanogan Highlands. The geologist drilled 11 test holes near an old prospector's cabin – a remnant of an earlier gold rush. Seven of the test holes turned up golden.
News >  Idaho

Communities still at odds over marina

During the summer months, power boats speed past Darwin Berg's family farm on the Pend Oreille River. The river tapers there, creating a natural congestion point, according to Berg. Flotillas of boats headed downstream from Lake Pend Oreille encounter upstream traffic from the Idaho river communities of Laclede and Priest River.
News >  Idaho

Hundreds go for ‘Plunge’

COEUR d'ALENE – The crowd on the beach chanted, "Five, four, three, two, one … " As the second hand on the official "Polar Bear Plunge" clock neared noon, women in red bathrobes tossed back shots to fortify themselves. Men's bare chests, women's bikinis and a mass of legs emerged from underneath coats and blankets.
News >  Business

Accounting leader Roger Fruci dies

Anti-Italian sentiment was so strong during the 1930s that when Roger Fruci showed up for a pre-arranged internship at a Spokane law firm, the firm wouldn't hire him. "Are you not hiring me because I'm Italian?" a baffled Fruci asked the managing partner.
News >  Business

Staying the course

COEUR d'ALENE – Yvonne Ellis would pose one question to eager, young entrepreneurs: How's your risk tolerance? Seven years ago, Ellis founded The Backup Training Corp., a company that produces CD-ROM training courses used by 30,000 police officers each year.
News >  Business

Brewer steps down as president of regional CVB

John Brewer has resigned as president of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau to take a job in his home state of Montana. "The decision was a very tough one for us, because we immediately fell in love with Spokane when we moved there four years ago," Brewer said Wednesday.
News >  Business

CdA Mines sees future in old area

A historic Bolivian mining district is the backdrop for Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp.'s new silver project. The company will build a $135 million open-pit mine at the base of Cerro Rico, the "rich hill" that was the site of a 1545 silver strike. The strike led to the Spanish colonial settlement of Potosi, a mining center high in the Andes Mountains.
News >  Spokane

Silver gets new luster

Got a teenager with unbearably smelly socks? A shower wall that molds? A cut that won't heal? Try adding a little silver. The versatile metal shows up in more than jewelry these days. Clothing companies add silver threads to athletic socks as antibacterial agents. Silver is woven into bandages and added to refrigerators and water filtration systems to kill germs. It's also found in most electronics. "If you drive a high-end car, there's probably 10 ounces of silver driving around with you," said Ron Davies of the Silver Users Association in Fairfax, Va.
News >  Business

Regional economy in a building phase

All those new subdivisions are pumping up the Inland Northwest's economy. Prolific construction of new homes and commercial buildings drove job growth on both sides of the Idaho-Washington border during the past year.
News >  Business

Mine Games

Five years ago, Steve Goss washed out of the mining industry like a piece of iron pyrite falling from a prospector's pan. His firm, a penny mining stock, failed for lack of financing. Speculative investors – the traditional funding source for high-risk mining ventures – had abandoned the industry to chase after dot-coms.
News >  Business

Spokane ready to host mining event as industry experiences a revival

The Northwest Mining Association kicks off its 110th annual meeting in Spokane on Monday, at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park. Between 1,500 and 1,800 miners, geologists and investors are expected for the event. Registration is up about 25 percent over last year, a sign of rising metals prices and financial strength in the mining industry, said Laura Skaer, NWMA director.
News >  Business

Riley Creek cuts 31 jobs

Thirty-one sawmill workers lost their jobs this week when Riley Creek Lumber Co. eliminated a shift at its Moyie Springs plant. The mill wasn't getting enough logs to continue all three shifts, said Julie Shifflet, Riley Creek's chief financial officer.
News >  Idaho

All downhill from here

LOOKOUT PASS, Idaho – In skier logic, even a thin layer of snow on the slopes is better than no snow at all. Hundreds of people showed up at Lookout Pass Ski Area Saturday, toasting the launch of the Inland Northwest's ski season.
News >  Idaho

Store registers light up

Navigating Wal-Mart's crowded aisles isn't easy the day after Thanksgiving, particularly when you're part of a three-shopping-cart caravan. But Joanne McCoy of Wallace and her two daughters were women of purpose Friday.
News >  Business

Burger King franchisee files for bankruptcy

One of the region's largest Burger King franchisees filed for bankruptcy last week, citing weak sales caused by the chain's slumping national market share. Garliz Investments LLC of Post Falls employs about 500 people at 25 Burger Kings in three states. Its restaurants include six Burger Kings in Spokane, along with operations in Airway Heights, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Cheney, Colville and other locations in Washington, Idaho and Oregon