The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
46°F
Current Conditions
Few clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Becky Kramer

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

All Stories

News >  Business

They’re the roast of the town

PONDERAY, Idaho – Farmers sink years into growing choice coffee beans. Roasters get approximately 15 minutes to execute their craft. Whether the bean is an evenly roasted specimen, full of flavor, or a half-charred, half-green reject, depends on the skill of the coffee roaster – and the machine itself, of course.
News >  Idaho

CdA Mines land swap blocked

A federal land swap benefiting an Alaska gold mine proposed by Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. created a fracas last week at the nation's capital. Senate Democrats walked out of an Energy Committee hearing to keep the Cape Fox Land Exchange from coming to a vote. While environmentalists hailed the move, the bill's sponsor – Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski – was livid.
News >  Idaho

Air-service hopes nosedive in Sandpoint

Sandpoint's dreams of commercial air service were dashed last week, when McCall Aviation announced it would cease flights to Boise and Seattle's Boeing Field on Oct. 15. The fledgling air service was barely three months old.
News >  Idaho

Right on target

ST. MARIES – Cowgirl Pinto Annie stepped into the fray with steely resolve. The day before, self-righteous town folk had run all the prostitutes out of Dodge. Now, the girls were back, claiming vengeance. The entire saloon was in an uproar, and the fighting spilled onto the street.
News >  Business

Visitors Welcome

Bill Percival exhibited the tell-tale signs of a tourist as he strolled through downtown Coeur d'Alene last week — a Nikon camera bumping against his chest and a shopping bag clutched under his arm. The 46-year-old architect from North Carolina was midway into a 19-day jaunt around the West. He spent six months researching the trip, including places to visit in the Inland Northwest. Historic homes by Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter were on his list. So were other local icons.
News >  Idaho

McCall Air will cut flights to Sandpoint

McCall Air will discontinue commercial flights to Sandpoint in October – a blow to local backers who spent several years recruiting an airline to provide direct flights to Boise and Seattle. "It wasn't working financially. There wasn't enough ridership," said Ron Nova, chairman of the Sandpoint Air Service Committee.
News >  Business

Idaho getting more selective about call center funding

Gordon Kendall spent five weeks in training after he was hired by Center Partners. The classes prepared him for life as a call center agent, answering 100 or more calls per day from Los Angeles residents with questions about their phone service. "It's very fast-paced," he said. "They want it now. Hurry up."
News >  Business

NAFTA timber ruling called ‘devastating’

The U.S. government has failed to show that Canadian lumber imports pose a threat to domestic producers, a North American Free Trade Agreement panel ruled this week. The unanimous ruling – made Tuesday by a panel of three American judges and two Canadians – could have significant ramifications for Inland Northwest mills.
News >  Idaho

CdA chamber wants new visitors’ center

Annoyed tourists sometimes huff their way into the Coeur d'Alene Area Chamber of Commerce's office. They've cruised up and down midtown searching for the chamber's obscure location on North Third Street, gotten lost and navigated their share of one-way streets.
News >  Business

Kootenai County call center to add 300 agents

Center Partners will hire more than 300 call center agents over the next month as a result of new contracts with existing telecommunications clients. The hiring is part of a rebound for one of Kootenai County's most volatile employers. The Fort Collins, Co.-based company grew to 1,100 employees in less than 12 months, after it opened call centers in Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls in 2001.
News >  Business

Potlatch hails sale of plants

Potlatch Corp. will generate enough cash from the sale of three Minnesota oriented strand board plants to pay off $600 million in debt, lifting a financial cloud that settled on the company during a costly pulp mill renovation in the 1990s. Potlatch won't pay off the debt immediately, because it doesn't want to get socked with penalties for early repayment, company spokesman Mike Sullivan said Thursday. But for the first time in years, Spokane-based Potlatch will have enough cash on hand to cover the debt.
News >  Business

Setting others free

HAYDEN — Miles Moore watched people with disabilities regain their sense of adventure on modified bikes and sailboats. It happened every time he arranged a group outing. Students with spinal cord injuries learned to steer sailboats with their chins, and to savor blustery days on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Amputees sped down hills on specially designed skis and hand-powered bikes.
News >  Business

Potlatch to sell Minnesota plants

Potlatch Corp. will sell its three oriented strand board plants in Minnesota to a Canadian firm for $457.5 million cash, company officials announced late Wednesday. The sale of the oriented strand board plants to Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C., is expected to close in the third quarter. Potlatch will use the money to pay down debt, and make other strategic investments, said company Chairman Penn Siegel in a statement.
News >  Idaho

Downtown CdA to get $15 million building

The architects who designed McEuen Terrace are back with plans for a second mixed-use development in downtown Coeur d'Alene. Miller Stauffer Architects plans to start construction in April on the Parkside, a $15 million brick structure with retail and office space and 12 condominium units.
News >  Business

Floating holiday

BAYVIEW, Idaho – Jess and Laura Brown's lake getaway is small, stylish and surrounded by water. Ten years ago, the California couple bought the first of two float homes on Lake Pend Oreille for about $44,000, acquiring waterfront living without the hefty price tag.
News >  Idaho

Man drowns in daredevil leap

A man drowned in the Spokane River Tuesday evening, after jumping off a rocky cliff near the Post Falls Dam. Aaron L. Hayes, a 25-year-old Post Falls resident, was pulled from the bottom of the river shortly before 7 p.m. He was pronounced dead at Kootenai Medical Center.
News >  Idaho

Clearing the haze for diners

Idaho restaurants went smoke-free on July 1, a change supported by Tom Robb, owner of the Iron Horse Bar & Grill. But he thinks his bar patrons should still be able to light up, even though a doorway connects the Coeur d'Alene restaurant and bar. The law allows smoking in Idaho bars, but only if the bar is completely walled off from an adjoining restaurant. That presents a challenge for the Iron Horse, and numerous other bar-restaurant combinations that share hallways and restroom facilities, Robb said.
News >  Business

U.S. Bank to begin hiring for call center

COEUR d'ALENE – Have a question about your credit card statement? Wondering about an ATM withdrawal? If you're one of U.S. Bank's 11 million customers, the answers to your questions could eventually come from a call center on Seltice Way.
News >  Business

Parlez vous Coeur d’Alene?

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. needs a tender offer in French to woo shareholders of a Canadian mining firm. Translation of the documents, required by regulators in bilingual Canada, is holding up a formal offer to Wheaton River Minerals Ltd.'s shareholders, said Dennis Wheeler, Coeur d'Alene Mines' chairman, in a Monday conference call with analysts.
News >  Business

North Idaho job growth ‘amazing’ this year

North Idaho's economy grew rapidly during the first seven months of the year, adding more than 7,000 jobs in a wide array of occupations. The growth was reflected in July's low unemployment rates. Kootenai County posted a 6.5 percent jobless rate last month, compared with 7.1 percent a year ago.
News >  Idaho

Firm revives Cabinet mine

A second Spokane mining company plans to extract silver and copper from beneath the rugged Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area. On Wednesday, officials at Mines Management Inc. said the company will embark on a 20- to 24-month permitting process for the proposed Montanore Mine. The $236 million project would be a neighbor of the controversial Rock Creek Mine. Both would tunnel underneath the remote wilderness on the Idaho-Montana border to extract minerals from deep in the mountains.
News >  Business

Seized gold shipment returned to Hecla

A $2 million gold shipment seized by Venezuelan government officials in March has been returned to Hecla Mining Co., the company reported Tuesday. "While it took some patience, we were successful in getting the gold back," Hecla CEO Phil Baker told analysts during a conference call.
News >  Business

CdA district back in gear

COEUR d'ALENE — Once, Fourth Street was the place to buy a new car, a glitzy auto row sporting the latest in Chevy sedans and Ford SUVs. Then, it became a strip of vacant lots and budding knapweed, abandoned by car dealers for higher visibility locations on I-90 and U.S. Highway 95.
News >  Idaho

KMC sees surgeries rise despite rival

When local doctors announced their intent to open a for-profit surgical hospital in Post Falls, administrators at Kootenai Medical Center immediately voiced concerns. They feared that Northwest Specialty Surgical Center would bleed their most profitable surgeries, leaving KMC – a nonprofit community hospital – with the poorest, sickest patients.
News >  Business

Advanced Input Devices readies Shanghai plant

COEUR d'ALENE – Advanced Input Devices will open a plant in Shanghai next month, building low-cost ultrasound equipment for distribution in Asia. The plant in the bustling port city of 20 million people is part of the Coeur d'Alene manufacturer's new profile.