The lineup of columnists and cartoonists featured on The Spokesman-Review editorial pages has changed very little for at least three years. It will change a little more this week.
Smart Bomber Gary Crooks is off reloading, which gives me an opportunity to revisit our letters policy. Didn’t see any in The Spokesman-Review on Wednesday, did you?
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduates about 1,000 second lieutenants each year. Although trained to command men and women in combat, many leave the Army when their hitch is up and look for opportunities to use their leadership skills in civilian arenas.
Officials at 49 Degrees North on Tuesday said the resort near Chewelah will add another chairlift and a mid-mountain lodge, but construction will likely not begin until next year. Spokesman Brad Northrup said the lift purchased from Copper Mountain in Colorado will be delivered Thursday. When in place, the lift will move 1,100 skiers per hour to the summit of Angel Peak, bringing the area’s total lift capacity to 7,700 per hour, he said.
The owner of the Spokane-area Perkins franchises said the Monday bankruptcy filing of the chain’s corporate parent will not affect local operations, but added that news reports and the closure of the Spokane Valley Marie Callender’s are creating some heartburn. Perkins & Marie Callender’s Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, brought down by tough competition, the weak economy and rising food costs.
If you want to thank anyone for enactment of President Obama’s health care reforms, those anyones would be Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. That state’s two biggest health insurance providers announced huge premium increases — 39 percent for Anthem — as debate on the reforms reached its final, fevered pitch last spring. Apparently, they took California’s nickname “Golden State” literally.
WOODINVILLE, Wash. – At the receiving end of the Waste Management recycling facility here, unsorted mounds of cans, bottles, cardboard and paper climb 15 feet up the walls. Front loaders dump the material into a hopper feeding conveyors that, in the space of a few minutes, dump the separated material into bunkers, where it awaits baling for shipment.
AmericanWest Bank has agreed to buy a Southern California bank for $18.5 million, the Spokane-based institution announced Thursday. Sunrise Bank, with branches in Point Loma, Escondido, Palm Desert and San Diego, has $232 million in assets and $212 million in deposits.
AmericanWest Bank has agreed to buy a Southern California bank for $18.5 million, the Spokane-based institution announced today. Sunrise Bank, with branches in Point Loma, Escondido, Palm Desert and San Diego, has $232 million in assets and $212 million in deposits. AmericanWest assets total $1.6 billion, deposits $1.4 billion.
Spokane County home sales increased for the fourth consecutive month in May, but prices remain below year-ago levels. The Spokane Association of Realtors reported 382 closed sales for the month, compared with 332 in April.
When the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds spun, rolled and shrieked through two days of performances at Andrews Air Force Base a week ago, the demonstration was not just about aeronautic stunts. Two of the six F-16s were burning a 50-50 mix of regular jet fuel and biofuel. Could anything more strongly illustrate the service’s confidence in what many in military and civil aviation hope will be the fuel of the not-so-distant future?
Larry Krauter became director of Spokane International Airport and Felts Field on March 28. The 45-year-old Ohio native had been interim executive of the Lehigh-Northhampton Airport Authority in eastern Pennsylvania.
Bank of America recently notified 2,500 customers with mortgage problems they could meet face-to-face with bank representatives who might be able to fast-track modifications that would keep them in their homes. Ethan Churchill threw his away.
The holding company for AmericanWest Bank has agreed to purchase Bank of the Northwest, which operates four branches in the Puget Sound area. The $17 million transaction is expected to close during the third quarter.
The dirt is flying at Spokane International Airport. Graders are preparing the ground for the 300,000 cubic yards of pavement and sub-surface that will raise the northeast end of the main runway by six feet.
Private employers in Spokane County hired 2,100 workers in April, a gain only slightly offset by a cutback in government jobs. The new hires, the Washington Employment Security Department said Tuesday, rolled the county unemployment rate back to 9.1 percent from 10.3 percent in March, and 9.7 percent in April 2010.
April was a good month for Washington’s unemployed: 5,800 of them went back to work. The gain raised the 12-month improvement to 41,500, a good-news story even if those still not drawing a paycheck number more than 300,000. Almost 100,000 of that group are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.
Washington employers added jobs for the eighth consecutive month in April, bringing the total gain over the last year to 41,500, a Department of Employment Security report said Wednesday. The gain for April was 5,800, enough to drop the state’s unemployment rate to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in March.
The Washington Supreme Court stripped away more of the camouflage the debt management and debt adjustment industry uses to conceal its predatory activity. With no dissenting vote, and one blistering assent, the justices ruled that a pair of Oklahoma companies is not a mere facilitator and banker for the distribution of money from borrower to debt resolution company to lender, a service provided by many profit and nonprofit entities like Consumer Credit Counseling of the Inland Northwest.
Columbia Tractor will uproot its Spokane operations this summer and move to the former Bonanza Ford dealership site on state Route 904, just south of the Four Lakes/Cheney exit (exit 270) on Interstate 90. General Manager Darrell Moseley said the new location will put the John Deere dealership closer to its farm customers and improve its visibility.
An Oklahoma-based company that held consumer money for subsequent distribution to creditors is engaged in “debt adjustment” as defined by Washington law, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The ruling could expose the company and its owners to criminal charges, said attorney Tim Durkop, who is representing two Spokane couples in a civil class action lawsuit filed in 2009 against Global Client Solutions, Global Holding LLC and their owners.
Spokane County homeowners took a loss on almost one-third of home sales in March, according to online real estate database Zillow. In figures released Monday, Zillow also said the median sales price was $162,800.
Two rivers run through the Rathdrum Prairie and Spokane Valley: one spilling from Lake Coeur d’Alene, one seeping from Pend Oreille, Hayden, Newman and other lakes. Each refreshes the other until all the waters combine downstream from Spokane. All that is left, that is.
