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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Bert Caldwell

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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News >  Business

Scam uses Craigslist to post fake home rentals

A scammer, apparently based in Africa, is posting bogus Spokane house rentals on Craigslist. Realtor Jessica Howerton said she was inundated with calls from potential renters of a home at 217 W. 21st Ave.
News >  Business

SFCC dedicates music facility

Spokane Falls Community College on Wednesday dedicated a $14.9 million Music Building that wraps new state-of-the-art studios and laboratories around a 40-year-old auditorium, and band and choir rooms. The now 47,571-square-foot building qualified for silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification in part because of the novel construction process, as well as the recycling of 75 percent of the construction materials.
News >  Business

Bonneville Power Administration seeks efficiency gains

HANFORD – The Columbia Generating Station is undergoing its most expensive refueling and maintenance shutdown ever as the owner of the nuclear plant tries to improve its reliability and costs. More than 1,700 electricians, steamfitters and other skilled-trade workers have swarmed this site 10 miles north of Richland. Besides the refueling done every two years to refresh and reposition rods containing uranium, they are replacing the generator rotor and a huge steam condenser that has caused repeated shutdowns.
News

Reactor undergoes refueling, upgrades

HANFORD — The Columbia Generating Station here is undergoing its most expensive refueling and maintenance shutdown ever as the owner of the nuclear plant tries to improve its reliability and costs. More than 1,700 electricians, steamfitters and other skilled-trade workers have swarmed this site 10 miles north of Richland. Besides the refueling done every two years to refresh and reposition rods containing uranium, they are replacing the generator rotor and a huge steam condenser that has caused repeated shutdowns.
News >  Business

Spokane family relocates to globalize hotel business

Like many other Inland Northwest families, the Magnusons were planning to watch this morning’s wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William from their couch. But their couch is in London, just 10 minutes up the Thames River from the epicenter of the day’s pageantry at Westminster. The Magnusons – Tom, Melissa and son Frankie – moved to the United Kingdom last August to establish a foothold for Magnuson Hotels, which provides reservation services to independent hoteliers.
News >  Business

Caldwell: All those fingers in the pie left a financial mess

Brian “Duff” Bergquist was not aboard what he calls the Financial Crisis Express, but he was on the platform as the train approached. Now executive-in-residence at Whitworth University, Bergquist was an equities trader in Germany and Great Britain for Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse-First Boston, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers – the locomotives that wrecked the global economy when the express left the tracks in 2008.
News >  Business

Home show vendor offers remodeling prize

The Premier Home Improvement Show opens today at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center. Katherine Morgan, spokeswoman for the Spokane Home Builders Association, said there will be more than 200 exhibitors at the 12th annual event, which is sponsored by Pro-Build.
News >  Business

Washington jobless rate climbs

Washington’s unemployment rate climbed in March despite a gain of 1,110 jobs, the Employment Security Department said Wednesday. The March unemployment rate was 9.2 percent, a notch higher than the 9.1 percent reported for February.
News >  Business

Caldwell: Bonneville power plan creates buzz in industry

Moan as we might, and do, about the windy, wet spring weather, our troubles are small compared with those facing the Bonneville Power Administration. Last June, an unexpected confluence of high winds and high water almost forced Bonneville to pay for power.
News >  Business

Here’s the Dirt: Williams Seafood makes a big move

Williams Seafood soon will be fishing in a bigger pond. Owner Mike Offield said the 30-year-old business will move from its longtime location at 10627 E. Sprague Ave. to 2116 N. Ruby St., where he will have double the space and co-tenants also selling food.
News >  Business

Auto sales help boost state revenue

A strong rebound in car and truck sales boosted fourth-quarter sales tax revenues in Washington and the five most populous counties, the state Department of Revenue reported Wednesday. Retail sales for the October-December period rose 5.7 percent compared with 2009, to $12.9 billion.
News >  Business

State probe uncovers foreclosure violations

Some of the foreclosure trustees most active in Washington are violating a requirement they have an office in the state, Attorney General Rob McKenna said Wednesday. His office has been mailing reminders to the trustees, whose offices must be staffed by someone knowledgeable about Washington law. The offices must also have a local phone number.
News >  Business

Caldwell: AARP has self-interest in health care reform

Republicans are shocked the AARP and its licensed insurance plans stand to benefit from a health care reform bill, and will sacrifice the best interest of its members to make a buck. Democrats are shocked the AARP and its licensed insurance plans stand to benefit from a health care reform bill, and will sacrifice the best interest of its members to make a buck.
News >  Business

ISM to open clinical database

The Institute for Systems Medicine in Spokane could open a clinical data repository by the end of April, Chief Operating Officer Amy Johnson said Monday. A second institute initiative, a tissue bank, may be ready by the fall of next year, she said.
News >  Business

River locks reopen

Navigation on the Columbia and Snake rivers resumed Saturday after three months of repairs to three locks and extended maintenance on others. Kristin Meira, spokeswoman for the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said several barge tows were lined up below Bonneville Dam for passage upstream when U.S. Corps of Engineers reopened the Columbia Snake River System at 11 p.m.
News >  Business

Caldwell: Roof-raising, smart bets could be boon to West Plains

There’s nothing plain, or even new, about the economic potential of the West Plains. Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane International Airport have been mainstays for decades, their value constantly enhanced by upgrades like the runway improvements under way at both facilities. With companies like Triumph Composites, Associated Painters, Jet Tech and Goodrich clustered around the airport, aerospace in Washington is not just about the Renton-Seattle-Everett axis anymore.
News >  Business

County’s jobless rate rises to 10.6

The unemployment rate in Spokane County climbed for the fourth consecutive month in February, to 10.6 percent. Statistics released Thursday by the Washington Employment Security Department show a modest increase in total employment, to 213,210, up 460 from 212,750 in January.
News >  Business

Here’s the Dirt: South Hill Zip Trip reopens after makeover

A remodeled and renamed Cenex Zip Trip No. 2 has reopened at 1523 W. 10th Ave. Ian Johnstone, area general manager for Cenex, said workers removed a wall that had separated the store from a kitchen area once used by a tenant, adding 1,200 square feet of sales space.
News >  Business

Coffee roasters feeling the pinch

Spokane coffee roasters are losing sleep, and it’s not the caffeine. Supplies of high-quality Arabica beans are tight. Prices have doubled in the last year.
News >  Business

Caldwell: Nuclear vision needn’t be clouded

The agonizing struggle of the Japanese to avoid further catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex necessarily has many rethinking the rethinking about nuclear energy’s future. Many hoped fission would be a cost-effective alternative to combustion that, no matter how “clean,” produces carbon dioxide, the primary cause of man-made global warming. President Barack Obama, like George W. Bush before him, is prepared to backstop loans for new plants with billions of dollars in federal guarantees.