Briefcase: Leone & Keeble wins bidding for NIC career-technical facility

Spokane-based general contractor Leone & Keeble Inc. is the apparent bid winner to build the $20 million North Idaho College Career Technical Education Facility in Rathdrum.

The firm’s bid was the lowest of five submitted for the 110,960-square-foot project. Work is expected to begin within a month and is scheduled to be finished by July 2016.

The facility will house career-technical programs that are in temporary or tight quarters, including automotive, collision repair, computer-aided design, diesel, industrial mechanic and millwright, machining and welding.

The building will rise on a 40-acre site owned by the college next to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, a professional and technical education school owned and operated by the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts.

Architects West is designing the new NIC facility.

Starbucks offering opportunity

SEATTLE – Starbucks said Thursday it’s opening stores in 15 poor and middle-class inner city locations across the U.S., including one in Ferguson, Missouri, as part of its bid to integrate more disadvantaged youths into the workforce.

Other than the West Florissant neighborhood of Ferguson, stores will open next year in Queens, New York, the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, and in Milwaukee.

There will also be a big remodel of a store in Phoenix.

Ten other stores are expected to open by 2018, a date by which the coffee giant has promised to hire 10,000 youths who are neither employed nor at school and are at risk of never achieving economic self-sufficiency.

Starbucks this week announced a pact with several other companies to collectively hire or train 100,000 at-risk youth.

UnitedHealth growth strong

UnitedHealth, nation’s largest health insurer, said Thursday that operating earnings climbed about 19 percent to $864 million for its Optum business segment, which provides pharmacy benefits management and technology services.

That contributed to 13 percent overall profit growth in the quarter and another earnings projection hike.

UnitedHealth raised its 2015 revenue forecast by $11 billion to about $154 billion with that deal pending. It also hiked its earnings forecast for the second time this year, to a range of $6.25 to $6.35 per share.

Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $6.26 per share on $143.48 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

30-year rate rises to 4.09

WASHINGTON – Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week, reaching highs for the year as investor anxiety over economic turbulence abroad moderated.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 4.09 percent from 4.04 percent a week earlier. The new level is the highest since last October.

The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 3.25 percent from 3.20 percent. That matched its high for the year set last month.

Investors recently had been seeking safety in U.S. Treasury bonds amid economic tumult in China and Greece.

Bond yields for Treasurys have been pushed higher by the decline in bond prices. The yield on the key 10-year Treasury note jumped to 2.36 percent Wednesday from 2.20 percent a week earlier. Mortgage rates often follow the yield on the 10-year note. It traded at 2.39 percent Thursday morning.