Bert Caldwell

Pipes freezing. Strangers changing the locks. These are difficult times at Wingate Place on the South Hill. Two of 10 units at the condominium have been vacated by owners who could no longer make payments.

Alicia Eunice Napier, an office manager for Palouse Urology, has been charged with embezzling more than $500,000 from the practice. Napier was indicted by a federal grand jury last Wednesday on 48 counts of mail and bank fraud. She was arrested Friday and released on her own recognizance Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno.

Sens. Maria Cantwell and John McCain, who as Westerners know good fences make good neighbors, have set about repairing a barrier rashly torn down 10 years ago. The Washington Democrat and Arizona Republican have proposed the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, which Congress overwhelm- ingly repealed in 1999. McCain joined in the demolition then.

A lawsuit filed Friday accuses Sterling Financial Corp. and two officers of concealing the Spokane company’s vulnerability to the downturn in residential and real estate markets, which when disclosed a year ago devastated the price of its stock. Shares tumbled 47 percent Jan. 14, the day after Sterling reported more than $500 million in operating losses and accounting charges, and the suspension of its quarterly dividend.

Spokane County’s unemployment rate rose to 8.7 percent in November, but job losses were below the seasonal norm, the Department of Employment Security’s regional economist said Tuesday. Doug Tweedy said workers in construction and recreation typically join the unemployment lines as harsher weather slows down those businesses.

The loss of nearly 400 jobs lifted Spokane County's unemployment rate to 8.7 percent in November from a revised rate for October of 8 percent, Washington's Employment Security Department said today.

With a near-halt to commercial construction, a longstanding feud between Washington’s civil engineering consultants and government public works departments has gotten down and dirty. In non-cordial letters and meetings, officials from the private and public sectors have tangled over who should be designing roads, sewers and other projects that represent much of the engineering work available during the severe downturn in private construction.

The pending demise of an $8,000 tax credit may have motivated would-be Spokane County homebuyers to close on almost twice as many properties in November compared with a year ago. The Spokane Association of Realtors reported 471 sales of single-family homes and condominiums, up 87 percent from the 252 sold in November 2008.

Passenger boardings at Spokane International Airport fell 6.3 percent in October compared with a year earlier, continuing a downturn triggered by the soft economy.

The Scot in Morag Stewart was taken aback by the speculation rampant in Dubai. During a four-year term at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, two of those years as dean, she lived in a bubble of sand, with speculators buying and selling apartments that had not yet been built.

Payday lenders in Washington have ridden out limits on lending to military personnel, but industry officials and regulators say the pending implementation of new state restrictions will push consumers into other types of loans that may be as expensive, or worse. A 2007 federal law capping interest rates on payday loans to members of the military has suppressed almost all such borrowing, according to a report released in October by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions.

South Carolina’s successful courtship of Boeing Co. would be the talk of Olympia come January if Washington were not facing yet another budget shortfall. Losing the second 787 production line to Charleston was as sobering an economic message as the state has received since J.P. Morgan Chase last fall scooped up the mess that was Washington Mutual. Boeing, the Chicago company, got a $450 million handshake from South Carolina, compliant labor and more political support for its defense businesses. That’s no small attribute with bids for a new U.S. Air Force tanker likely to be let next year, and nearby Alabama would be the assembly site for EADS, Boeing’s competitor.

Spokane took a giant leap backward last month, and that was a good thing. After months of sagging employment figures, the county registered 3,000 new jobs. That was enough to offset losses going back to February, but at 222,420 the total remains 7,000 jobs shy of the peak reached in November 2008.

Median prices for Spokane County homes sold in October increased 3 percent over September, the first upturn since March, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors. The number of sales jumped 15 percent compared with September, and also was up 15 percent from October 2008, an association release said. The gains were aided in part by the first-time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000 that some lenders will credit toward the down payment.

Median prices for Spokane County homes sold in October increased 3 percent over September, the first upturn since March, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors.

New Horizon Air service will connect Spokane directly to the Silicon Valley for the first time, Spokane International Airport officials said Wednesday. The twice-daily flights to San Jose, which will also connect to Sacramento, will strengthen Spokane ties to the high-tech industry and its financiers when it launches on March 26, airport Director Neal Sealock said.

Spokane County employers hired more than 3,000 workers in October, lifting total employment numbers to the highest level since February, and pushing the unemployment rate to the lowest level since December 2008. The October rate fell to 7.9 percent. Statewide, according to the Washington Department of Employment Security, the rate climbed from 9.1 percent in September to 9.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, and 8.8 percent unadjusted. The Spokane figure is also unadjusted.