Bert Caldwell

Consumers finally got some relief from abusive credit card practices last week. Not so small businesses, who continue to pay fees they cannot negotiate and cannot elude if they want to remain in business. Visa, MasterCard, and the banks that issue their cards take as much as 3 percent off the top of every transaction in the form of interchange fees. For retailers, restaurant owners and others squeezed by the recession, the fees turn the screws a little bit tighter.

Eastern Washington will need almost 1,000 new doctors by 2025, and to fill that prescription the University of Washington School of Medicine should quadruple, if not quintuple, the number of students on its Spokane campus, according to a report issued this week. Even if the school immediately began ramping up the present enrollment of 20, the report says, additional graduates would not be practicing medicine until 2017. It will take another seven years to get the optimal output of 100 students into clinics and hospitals.

The large number of unsold homes in Spokane and Kootenai counties will keep the pressure on home prices this year, real estate industry officials said Thursday at an annual real estate market forum. The inventory in Spokane County – 2,828 units in January – equals a seven- or eight-month supply, twice the preferred level, said Rob Higgins, president of the Spokane Association of Realtors.

Author and mutual fund executive Paul Dietrich on Wednesday advised investors to put much of their money into commodities and Pacific Rim markets where explosive growth is lifting demand for everything from steel to doughnuts. Speaking in Spokane, he said the U.S. economic recovery will be mediocre, with higher inflation adding to the challenges Americans face by the end of 2011.

The operator of an alleged Ponzi scheme has requested a hearing to respond to state charges she misled investors and sold securities without a license. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions is seeking a $150,000 fine from Colbert resident Doris Nelson, manager of Little Loan Shoppe and several related entities. The department also wants to impose a $30,000 fine on Paul Cooper, “believed to reside in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.”

With President Barack Obama refocusing on the plight of small business, how ironic that one of the administration’s most successful initiatives will expire this week for lack of funding. And how frustrating for Bob Beck, Mountain West Bank senior vice president and the area’s pre-eminent U.S. Small Business Administration lender.

Garco Construction will begin work next month on a hangar at Spokane International Airport big enough to accommodate two 737 aircraft in need of a tune-up and paint job. The airport board approved the $4.9 million contract Wednesday. Associated Painters Inc. of Everett had signed a 20-year lease for the 41,000-square-foot facility in October.

Red Lion Hotels Corp. Tuesday reported losses for the fourth quarter and full-year 2009 as an industry-wide downturn took its toll. The Spokane-based chain of 45 hotels and its entertainment ticketing business lost $3.1 million, or 16 cents per share. That figure excludes an $8.5 million impairment taken on its hotel in southeastern Denver, which the company purchased and remodeled in 2008, just as demand for hotel rooms began to fall. A second impairment of $200,000 was taken on another property in Astoria, Ore.

Red Lion Hotels Corp. today reported losses for the fourth quarter and full-year 2009 as an industry-wide downturn took its toll.

Home sales exceeded year-ago levels for the fourth consecutive month in January, but prices continued to weaken and inventory increased. There were 177 closed sales for the month, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors. Only 121 homes sold in January 2009, when snow brought the market to a near standstill. In December, 346 homes sold.

Potlatch Corp. Tuesday reported higher earnings for 2009, and the fourth quarter. Net earnings for the quarter were $2.9 million, or seven cents per share, on revenues of $104.1 million. The Spokane-based timber and real estate company lost $4.3 million, or 11 cents per share, or revenues of $93.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Six Spokane-area businesses and nonprofits were among 18 saluted last week by the Association for Washington Business for their outstanding commitment to employees. Companies were nominated for training, safety and compensation programs that effectively fostered innovation, met the needs of employees and their families, and showed commitment on the part of employers.

Papa John’s, official pizza sponsor of Super Bowl XLIV, will be on the sidelines today in Spokane, but many of its former employees won’t be. The franchisee for Eastern Washington and North Idaho locked the doors on 12 stores Jan. 25, tossing dozens of unpaid workers to the curb.

Tomlinson Real Estate Group Spokane offices Wednesday became affiliates of Coldwell Banker, in the process becoming the national company’s third-largest member. The four offices – in Cheney, Spokane Valley, and the north and south sides of Spokane – join 12 Tomlinson offices in Eastern Washington and Idaho that already carry the Coldwell Banker brand, Tomlinson Chairman Bob Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson Real Estate Group Spokane offices Wednesday became affiliates of Coldwell Banker, in the process becoming the national company’s third largest member.

Sterling Financial Corp. will have a recapitalization plan in place, or nearly so, by the end of March, bank executives said Monday. The clock started Monday on a key step in the process, a repurchase of $238 million in bank securities, said President Ezra Eckhardt. Holders have 20 business days to respond.

Writedowns on its loan portfolio resulted in large losses for Sterling Financial Corp. in the fourth quarter and all of 2009.

Corey Deter sued Sterling Financial Corp. on Jan. 11. The suit was dismissed Jan. 21.

A first-grade teacher in Hayden Lake is among hundreds of consumers overcharged by an Illinois company that continues tapping their checking accounts long after they have paid for products ordered over the Internet. Sarah King, who teaches at Hayden Meadows Elementary School, said she found a set of four posters she liked on Facebook last fall and placed her order with PosterPass.com. The price was $14.95, which was an introductory offer for a $32.95 per-month subscription service that would deliver a new poster each month if she did not cancel within 30 days.

The foreclosure rate last year in Spokane County ranked among the lowest in the United States, according to statistics released Thursday by RealtyTrac, which markets foreclosed properties nationally.

A first-grade teacher in Hayden Lake is among hundreds of consumers scammed by an Illinois company that continues tapping their checking accounts long after they have paid for products ordered over the Internet.