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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Valley publisher adds publication

Spokane Valley publisher Vince Bozzi has purchased Spokane Family Magazine, a Liberty Lake-based publication devoted to family activities, health and education. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The bimonthly magazine joins other Bozzi Media publications – Washington Magazine, Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living, Inland Business Catalyst and Prime.

Bozzi purchased Prime and Inland Business Catalyst in January 2009 from previous owner Greg Green, who left the publishing business.

Bozzi said he intends to increase Spokane Family Living’s circulation from 10,000 to about 15,000.

The magazine’s founders, Carol and Brad Leggett, approached Bozzi about a sale after they decided to move to the Midwest.

Spokane Family Living’s next issue will come out in May.

Tom Sowa

Tacoma bank fails; branches to reopen

New York – Regulators shut down banks in Washington state and Nevada on Friday, marking the 21st and 22nd failures this year of federally insured banks.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Rainier Pacific Bank in Tacoma and Carson River Community Bank, based in Carson City, Nev.

Rainier Pacific Bank had $717.8 million in assets and $446.2 million in deposits as of Dec. 31.

Rainier Pacific’s deposits will be assumed by Umpqua Bank in Roseburg, Ore. Rainier Pacific’s 14 branches will reopen during normal business hours as offices of Umpqua Bank.

Associated Press

Home sales increase slightly in West

Los Angeles – Home sales inched about 3 percent higher in the Western region of the country last month, as homebuyers set out to take advantage of temporary government tax incentives and lock in still-low mortgage interest rates.

The modest annual increase benefited from an easy comparison to January 2009 sales, which cratered in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis.

Nationally, sales rose 7 percent from January last year, without adjusting for seasonal factors, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. The median price was flat at $164,700.

In the West, the median price fell by nearly 6 percent to $203,400.

Associated Press

ABC shutting most U.S. news bureaus

New York – As part of the deep cuts announced this week at ABC News, the network plans to close all of its physical bureaus around the country except Washington and halve the number of its domestic correspondents.

ABC News President David Westin confirmed in an interview Friday that the network’s ranks of bureau correspondents, which currently number several dozen, would be cut in half and be replaced with “digital” journalists who would be expected to shoot and edit their own stories.

“We will have as many total journalists as we do now,” he said.

Although the network will keep a minimal staff presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston, it will shut down its bricks-and-mortar bureaus there and ask its remaining employees to work from the local affiliates. The Washington bureau will remain open, but its size will be substantially reduced.

Los Angeles Times