Bert Caldwell

Three Spokane-area Papa John’s restaurants that closed in January will reopen, starting today. Preston House, owner of six Boise-area Papa John’s, said relaunch of the 101 N. Argonne Road store will be followed by reopenings Thursday at 920 W. Indiana Ave. and Monday at 2023 E. Wellesley Ave.

Papa John's returning to Spokane

Lee Tate founded Tate Technology Inc. in 1992 after decades with Texas Instruments, Univac and Key Tronic Corp. With his children grown, he says, he could risk starting his own electronics assembly company, heeding a father who had long ago advised his six children to work for themselves.

The Idaho Department of Finance has ordered a California company to stop using false claims of possible predatory lending to entice homeowners into a mortgage modification program with a $1,250 up-front fee. The Relief Law Center, also doing business as USA Loan Auditors, is not licensed to provide mortgage modification services in Idaho, said department Director Gavin Gee, who called the bogus claims of predatory lending “reprehensible.”

Washington’s unemployment compensation fund is among the healthiest in the nation, according to a study by the National Employment Law Project. With $2.1 billion in reserves as of March 31, the Washington system ranked ninth strongest among the 13 still solvent after more than two years of heavy job losses around the United States, according to the study.

Washington’s unemployment compensation fund is among the healthiest in the nation, according to a study by the National Employment Law Project.

Washington unemployment fund among healthiest

Order issued against mortgage modifier

The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society will close its Fairfield nursing home in June. Spokesman Mark Dickerson said the facility was losing about $300,000 a year because occupancy was low. The facility has 43 skilled nursing beds, 10 assisted-living apartments and 16 senior-living apartments, but typically had fewer than 30 residents, he said.

Fairfield nursing home to close in June

Agents of the FBI and IRS Tuesday searched the offices of Team Spirit America, the operating affiliate of a payday loan business that investors allege was a Ponzi scheme. An agent posted inside the door of the offices at 1801 W. Broadway Ave. declined to comment on the activity, or whether a search warrant had been issued.

Energy Northwest has joined other utilities in a lawsuit challenging continued imposition of a surcharge on electricity generated using nuclear energy. The fee, one-tenth cent per kilowatt-hour, has cost Washington electricity ratepayers almost $290 million since 1984, when Energy Northwest started delivering power from its Columbia Generating Station near Richland, said spokeswoman Rochelle Olson.

Tate Technology wins small business award

Fewer Washington employers cover health care

Energy Northwest has joined other utilities in a lawsuit challenging continued imposition of a surcharge on electricity generated from nuclear power plants.

Energy Northwest joins nuclear waste lawsuit

An Interstate 90 rollover accident triggered by the loss of a vehicle’s right rear wheel killed a Grandview woman Saturday evening. Donita Kay Sandberg, 63, was a passenger in an eastbound 1986 Chevrolet Suburban driven by her husband, David Charles Sandberg, also 63, who lost control when the wheel came off near the Geiger interchange. The vehicle veered into the ditch and rolled at least twice, the Washington State Patrol said.

An op-ed in last Sunday’s newspaper has triggered house-to-house skirmishing between author Paul Guppy and the Spokane Association of Realtors. Guppy, vice president for research at the conservative Washington Policy Center, summarized some of the downsides to health care reform, namely its costs. In his recitation, he said middle-class real estate owners will pay a 3.8 percent tax when they sell “even if they are ‘rich’ for only one day – the day they sell their house and buy a new one.”

A blast of wind overturned a sailboat on Coeur d’Alene Lake Saturday afternoon, but the lone occupant swam to safety at Higgens Point.

Idaho employers boosted employment by 2,700 in March, the best monthly gain in six years. The increase was enough to trim the state unemployment rate by 0.1 percentage points, to 9.4 percent. The number had not fallen for 32 months.

Idaho employment gain best in six years