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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Bert Caldwell

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News >  Business

Grocery workers approve pact

Safeway and Albertsons workers this week approved a contract that includes slight increases in wages and benefits. The agreement also ends an advertising and yard sign campaign that compared the two chains and Fred Meyer unfavorably with Rosauers, which signed a contract with United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1439 in November, said President Larry Hall.
News >  Business

AmericanWest to pull request for federal aid

AmericanWest Bancorporation plans to withdraw an application for $57 million in federal assistance, the Spokane institution said Thursday in its first-quarter earnings release. AmericanWest, which reported a net loss of $14.5 million, or 84 cents per share, said efforts to raise an equal amount of private-sector capital have fallen short, but added that discussions with investors continue.
News >  Business

Court rules against airport

Spokane Airways won a victory Tuesday in the Washington Court of Appeals, which ruled that Spokane International Airport improperly condemned and removed buildings the company had occupied for almost 20 years. The city of Spokane and Spokane County, which jointly own Spokane International Airport, have condemnation powers, the three-judge panel ruled, but the airport itself does not.
News >  Business

Golfers, private clubs retrench during economic downturn

The Spokane Country Club has an unusual spring sale going on. A few of its golfers are willing to part with their memberships for $2,000. That, and a $6,000 initiation fee, will get the buyer onto one of the Northwest’s oldest private courses, one that hosted the first Women’s U.S. Open in 1948.
News >  Business

Smaller group has big plans as it readies for its D.C. mission

Area business and government leaders head for Washington, D.C., this week on what will be a tour de petite force. Greater Spokane Incorporated President Rich Hadley says hard times halved the number of delegates to about 30 this year, the 10th consecutive in which GSI or its predecessors have marched on the national capital. It’s a long trip for a very intense effort.
News >  Business

Sterling Financial reports quarterly loss

Sterling Financial Corp. on Thursday reported a $20.4 million loss for the first quarter as substantial credit write-offs continued to take a toll. For holders of Sterling common shares, the loss widened to $24.8 million, or 48 cents per share, reflecting $4.3 million in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. The Spokane bank received $303 million from the Treasury late last year to strengthen its balance sheet.
News >  Business

Hotel project could resume in June

The co-owner of a stalled hotel project in downtown Spokane said Wednesday she hopes work can resume by June on the corner of Third Avenue and Division Street. Rita Santillanes said construction of a 115-room Best Western Peppertree Inn stopped because the project lost its financing while Spokane officials processed a demolition permit for St. John’s Lutheran Church, which had occupied the site since the early 1900s. The church was severely damaged by fire in the 1960s and rebuilt, she said.
News >  Business

Idaho wants Apply 2 Save shut down

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden wants to shut down Apply 2 Save Inc., the Coeur d’Alene-based mortgage modification company. His office Tuesday filed suit against the company in Kootenai County District Court, alleging violations of state consumer protection laws.
News >  Business

INHS wants to buy office space

Inland Northwest Health Services has asked the Washington Health Care Facilities Authority to approve $9 million in tax-free bonds that would allow the Spokane company to buy space it now leases in the Wells Fargo Building.
News >  Business

Private data seen on state Web site

A Washington Department of Labor and Industries Web site that allows consumers to check contractor licenses was shut down for several hours Tuesday after a Spokane electrical contractor realized his Social Security number was exposed. L&I spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said the problem was apparently a side effect of recent software upgrades. Internet robots were continually accessing the site searching for information, she said, frequently crashing the system in the process.
News >  Business

Despite economic downturn, upswing is in the works

A ghost of bygone community hardship appeared in Spokane last month. The 10.6 percent unemployment rate was the first in double digits since February 1987. For those who can remember the mid-1980s in Spokane, the sequel is disturbing.
News >  Business

Gonzaga names interim president

Thayne M. McCulloh may be only the interim president of Gonzaga University, but he’s more than a placeholder, the newly appointed successor to the Rev. Robert J. Spitzer said Friday. McCulloh, 44, has been at Gonzaga since 1993 as a teacher and administrator. He had been a student, graduating as student body president in 1990. His time off-campus was spent at Oxford University, where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology.
News >  Business

Ranks of jobless still growing

Spokane County unemployment surged to 10.6 percent in March – almost double the rate of a year ago – as the number of jobless workers climbed to more than 26,000. Unemployment in the county had not reached 10 percent since February 1987, said Doug Tweedy, regional economist for the state Employment Security Department.
News >  Spokane

Spokane-area jobless claims soar

Spokane County unemployment surged to 10.6 percent in March – almost double the rate of a year ago – as the number of jobless workers climbed to more that 26,000.
News >  Business

Contractor failed to pay for workers’ compensation

Former painting contractor Dale Koohns pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanor counts of third-degree theft for failing to pay $132,418 in workers’ compensation premiums. Koohns, 61, may have run as many as 10 painting crews at a time, according to court documents. He paid workers in cash while claiming not to have any employees in reports to the Washington Department of Labor and Industries.
News >  Business

Sold-home prices inch higher in county

Average and median prices for homes sold in Spokane County last month crept above prior-year levels for the first time since last June, Rob Higgins, the executive officer of the Spokane Association of Realtors, said Friday. The number of homes sold continues to trail last year’s pace, he said, but if the volume keeps growing month over month as it has so far this year, that number could be higher in April as well.
News >  Spokane

Prices on Spokane homes inch upward

Average and median prices for homes sold in Spokane County last month crept above prior-year levels for the first time since last June, Spokane Association of Realtors Executive Officer Rob Higgins said Friday.
News >  Business

Stimulus funds aid weatherization effort

Federal stimulus money will double the pace of home weatherization in Spokane, creating jobs and reducing dependence on imported oil in the process, officials said Tuesday. Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, which administers the federal Weatherization Action Program in the community, will get $1.73 million annually over the next three years, on top of the $465,000 received currently, said Chris Davis, the organization’s director of housing improvement.
News >  Spokane

Weatherization gets a federal boost

Federal stimulus money will double the pace of home weatherization in Spokane, creating jobs and reducing dependence on imported oil in the process, officials said Tuesday.
News >  Business

Area retail sales dip slightly from late 2007

Retail sales in the city of Spokane and Spokane County fell during the fourth quarter of 2008, but both did better than Washington’s other major urban areas as the state began to feel the bite of the national recession. The figures were obtained Monday from the Department of Revenue.