Briefly
Marilyn’s casino closed permanently
The Marilyn’s on Monroe casino has closed permanently, a part-owner in the venture confirmed on Friday.
“That’s my only comment,” said Mike Kuhn, CEO and president of Digideal, a Spokane Valley digital gaming table company that opened the casino with some California partners.
The casino opened in March in a splashy fashion at 900 W. Sprague, on the ground floor of the Big Easy concert house building. It featured a life-size model of Marilyn Monroe in the window, impersonators of the movie star serving drinks and digital gaming tables. But it never appeared to take off and, in June, closed temporarily with the owners saying they planned to install some more games using real playing cards. However, it never reopened.
Kiemle and Hagood, a Spokane real estate company, is marketing the 4,200-square-foot space at $14 per square foot, said Doug Dittamore, a commercial real estate agent. He said the casino’s lease was terminated effective Sept. 1.
Nethercutt joins Spokane law firm
Former Republican Rep. George Nethercutt has joined Spokane’s largest law firm, Paine, Hamblen, Coffin, Brooke & Miller, the firm announced Friday.
Nethercutt, 61, served five terms in Congress after unseating former House Speaker Thomas Foley in 1994. Nethercutt stepped down in 2004 to make an unsuccessful run to unseat U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
A 1971 graduate of the Gonzaga University School of Law, Nethercutt practiced law in Spokane, specializing in estate planning and adoption law, for 18 years before running for the 5th District seat.
Economy performing better than forecast
Washington Hurricanes Katrina and Rita haven’t blown the economy off course. Economic growth clocked in at a surprisingly strong 3.8 percent pace in the third quarter, reflecting brisk spending by consumers and businesses despite high energy prices.
The latest picture of the country’s economic standing, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, showed a performance even better than the 3.3 percent growth rate from April through June.
The GDP expansion from July through September topped the 3.6 percent growth rate that many analysts had forecast. GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States, is the best gauge of economic fitness.
Realtors plan to fight sharing listings online
San Francisco
Typically cheery real estate agents were seething Friday as they discussed the government’s attempts to force them to share home listings – the bread and butter of the realty business – with Web-based competitors.
At their annual conference, executives from the National Association of Realtors, which claims to be the largest trade association in the U.S., said they are planning a vigorous fight against a lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The department says the association would stifle competition if it goes ahead with a plan to allow members the option of withholding home listings from competitors’ Web sites. Many of those competitors are nontraditional online services, which may “offer better services and lower costs,” the agency said in a statement.
Most of the government’s complaints with the association are focused on the rules governing Multiple Listing Services, which are groups of competing brokers who agree to share real estate listings. Participation allows a real estate agent to show customers all the homes for sale in a given market.
IRS ordered to pay Buffett taxes, interest
Lincoln, Neb. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment company more than $23 million in taxes and interest for disallowing certain deductions.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom ended some three years of legal wrangling between Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and the IRS.
The case stemmed from two lawsuits that alleged the IRS made an “erroneous, wrongful and illegal” interpretation of the U.S. Tax Code when it denied the deductions.