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

Dick’s sports store hiring, opening

From Staff And Wire Reports

Dick’s Sporting Goods will open its first store in Eastern Washington on Nov. 9, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The Pittsburgh-based sporting goods retailer is remodeling just over 45,000 square feet of space next to Nordstrom Rack, near Spokane Valley Mall, said Community Marketing Manager Kate Buckner.

There will be a hiring fair at the store on Monday, she said. The address is 14014 E. Indiana Ave.

Dick’s stores typically hire between 60 and 75 people when they open, Buckner said.

The stores sell equipment for team sports, fitness, golf, camping, hunting and fishing, and they offer services such as custom-fitting golf clubs and selling hunting and fishing licenses, she said.

Dick’s has two stores in Western Washington and two in Southern Idaho.

T-Mobile, MetroPCS combine to compete

NEW YORK – T-Mobile and MetroPCS have agreed to combine their struggling cellphone businesses in a deal aimed at letting them compete better with their three larger rivals.

The combined company will use the T-Mobile brand and have about 42.5 million subscribers. Although T-Mobile will stay No. 4 among U.S. wireless companies, it will get access to more space on the airwaves, a critical factor as cellphone carriers try to expand their capacity for wireless broadband.

That could ultimately mean more choices and better services for customers, though Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin doesn’t believe the deal will make a “revolutionary difference” for U.S. cellphone customers. That said, MetroPCS customers will probably have to buy new phones at some point over the next three years as they are moved over to T-Mobile’s network.

Review warns of supplement labels

SAN FRANCISCO – Dozens of weight loss and immune system supplements on the market are illegally labeled and lack the recommended type of scientific evidence to back up their health claims, government investigators warn in a new review of the $20 billion supplement industry.

The report, released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, found that 20 percent of the 127 weight loss and immune-boosting supplements investigators purchased online and in retail stores across the country carried labels that made illegal claims to cure or treat disease.

In addition, many of those and other supplements lacked the scientific studies recommended to support their suggested uses.

Some products went so far as to state that the supplements could cure or prevent diabetes or cancer, or that they could help people with HIV or AIDS, which is strictly prohibited under federal law.

Consumers may not just be wasting their money on pills or tablets, but they could be endangering their health if they take a supplement in place of a drug thinking it will have the same effect, the report concluded.