Bert Caldwell

Former hospital CEO to manage airport

Cascade Aerospace is selling its Spokane International Airport operation less than two years after opening the hangar doors with the help of $2 million in state loans and grants. The new owner will be Bret Burnside, who has been managing the maintenance facility since its February 2009 debut. The new company will be Jet Tech Aerospace LLC.

More “Help Wanted” signs popped up around Washington this spring, the first increase since fall 2006. A Washington Employment Security Department survey indicated employers were looking for 38,732 workers, up 21 percent since fall 2009, and up 19 percent from spring 2009.

Cascade Aerospace is selling its Spokane International Airport operation less than two years after opening the hangar doors with the help of $2 million in state loans and grants.

Job vacancy increase first since 2006

The newly enacted financial reform bill does not break the tyranny of the credit-rating agencies, despite a last-minute plea by Washington state Treasurer James McIntire to the chairman of the Senate banking committee. Along with the plea: Exhibit A regarding carelessness that might injure perfectly good credit, whether that of an individual, a business or a state.

Foreclosures in Spokane County almost tripled in June compared with 2009, but the rate remained well below that for Washington and for the United States, according to online foreclosure monitor RealtyTrak. The numbers in Kootenai County and Idaho have stabilized at levels above the national average.

Spokane County employers added 820 jobs in June, with new private-sector hires more than offsetting the loss of 200 government jobs, according to the Washington Employment Security Department. The result was an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, compared with 9.1 percent in May, and 8.9 percent in June 2009. Those numbers are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Bank of Whitman and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have reached an agreement that imposes a multitude of requirements on the Colfax-based institution, including some that must be met within 10 days of its signing on July 8. The Federal Reserve disclosed the agreement Wednesday. It is one of many – 17 in July alone – the regulator has reached with banks around the country struggling to recover from significant loan losses.

An index of Inland Northwest stocks fell 8.9 percent during the second quarter, but nevertheless outperformed the S&P 500 Index, according to Hart Capital Management. The Spokane investment firm said a rebound in the value of two Spokane banks – Northwest Bancorporation, up 30.5 percent, and W.T.B. Financial Corp., up 25 percent – helped offset setbacks for Coldwater Creek, down 51.4 percent, and Idaho Independent Bank, down 30.8 percent.

Index of area stocks down nearly 9 percent

Last Aug. 28, Bank of America’s mortgage- servicing subsidiary sent Karla Morrison a letter. “You need someone on your side,” it said, adding that she might be eligible for relief under the Home Affordability Modification Program included in the October 2008 bank bailout bill.

Slightly more than one out of three homes sold in Kootenai County during the first quarter of 2010 was in foreclosure or already bank-owned, according to RealtyTrac. The 182 homes sold was more than triple the number sold out of or after foreclosure in the first quarter of 2009, and 50 percent more than the fourth-quarter 2009 sales, said RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure activity nationally.

Slightly more than one out of three homes sold in Kootenai County during the first quarter of 2010 was in foreclosure or already bank-owned, according to RealtyTrac.

Maryland regulators are not buying one of the nation’s most ambitious plans for implementing smart meter technology like that made by Itron Corp. In a move that surprised the industry, the Public Service Commission two weeks ago rejected an $835 million Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. program that would have installed smart meters across a system with 1.2 million customers. The proposal came with $200 million in federal stimulus money attached, a sizable chunk of $4.5 billion the Obama administration has ticketed for smart grid technology.

Spokane International Airport Director Neal Sealock has submitted his resignation, effective July 21. Sealock said he wants to spend more time with his family and pursue a doctoral degree.

An effort to improve Hangman Creek water quality received a $221,500 boost Friday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Officials at the Washington Department of Ecology and Spokane County Conservation District said the money, along with other state and local funds, will be used to work with farmers, ranchers and other landowners willing to adopt land-use practices that reduce stream temperature, sediment and phosphates.

Airport director resigns

Lucky is the unemployed loan officer in Spokane who can find work. There were more than 800 in 2007, right before the credit implosion. Now, according to the Spokane Workforce Development Council, there may be job openings for just 12 per year through 2017.

SPEEA, Triumph reach tentative deal

Spokane International Airport will pay almost one-third of the cost of settling a lawsuit brought by the owners of Spokane Airways. The $1.8 million deal was approved Tuesday by Spokane County commissioners Todd Mielke and Bonnie Mager. Mielke sits on the airport board of directors, which signed off on the settlement last week.