Bert Caldwell

Not the what, but the when surprised two local economists reacting to a conclusion the United States is in a recession that began last December. Avista Corp. economist Randy Barcus and Eastern Washington University professor Grant Forsyth said they would have said the slowdown started last spring. Forsyth said he accepted the finding of the National Bureau of Economic Research after reviewing the analysis of its “business cycle dating committee,” but Barcus was less convinced.

Area grocery workers are putting up yard signs, renting billboards and running radio and television ads in an unprecedented effort to convince consumers they should shop at Rosauers, and not Albertsons, Safeway or Fred Meyer. Larry Hall, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1439, said the union decided to launch its “contract campaign” because negotiations have failed to resolve wage and benefit issues, as well as disputes over hours and the firings of workers for what he characterized as “inadvertent” mistakes handling money.

Spokane County shoppers have a reputation to live up to when they hit stores Friday. Spokane leads all 39 Washington counties in per capita retail-sales growth over the past five years, according to a survey prepared by the Eureka Group, an independent economic research firm based in Pollock Pines, Calif.

Spokane’s Sterling Financial Corp. will receive $303 million from the U.S. Treasury if a tentative deal announced Monday closes. The investment, one of dozens approved or pending as the Treasury tries to shore up the nation’s financial system, would be the largest involving a Northwest-based financial institution.

’Tis not the season to be hiring by Washington storekeepers, a sign Christmas may not be so jolly for workers hoping for temporary employment through the holidays, state officials said Tuesday. Although this is the time of year retailers would normally hire extra help, figures released Tuesday by the Washington Employment Security Department show a loss of 1,700 positions since September and 2,700 from last October. And unlike reductions in other service industries where job reductions have been steady since earlier in the year, most of the positions in retail have been pared in the past few months, said Chief Labor Economist Mary Ayala.

Dr. Paul Berger and son Jon Berger have stepped down from their executive positions with the company they co-founded, Nighthawk Radiology Holdings Inc. Paul Berger will remain with Nighthawk as chairman of the board of directors. With about 12 percent of Nighthawk shares, he is the company’s largest stockholder.

The 2009 outlook for the Spokane-Kootenai County economy is more of the same marginal growth that has characterized most of 2008, Eastern Washington University professor Grant Forsyth said Thursday. Speaking at the Greater Spokane Inc. annual economic forecast breakfast Thursday, Forsyth said he expects the region to continue to outperform the national economy, but not without potential contraction by several measures.

The successful pursuit of ever larger conventions already has Spokane officials thinking about what new facilities might be needed to accommodate visitor traffic in 10 years. Spokane Convention Center General Manager Johnna Boxley said representatives from the Public Facilities District and Convention and Visitors Bureau will meet with a consultant, architect and others next month to renew a planning process that led to the July 2006 opening of the Group Health Exhibit Hall and other facility improvements.

General Growth Properties Inc., owner of three of the area’s largest retail malls, says it may file for bankruptcy if efforts to refinance debt or attract more capital fail. General Growth has owned the NorthTown mall in Spokane, Spokane Valley Mall and Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene since 2004, when it acquired Rouse Co. The company also owns Spokane Valley Plaza, as well as three other Idaho malls and five in Washington.

Unemployment in Idaho jumped to its highest level in more than five years last month, with the likelihood the numbers will get worse, the state Department of Labor said Friday. At 5.4 percent, the statewide rate was double that of October 2007. Rural counties were particularly hard hit, with six — three in North Idaho — reporting rates above 10 percent, but rates climbed in every county.

An outage at its smelter in Wales and non-cash markdowns dragged Kaiser Aluminum Corp. third-quarter earnings into the red, the company announced Wednesday. Kaiser also said it would suspend stock buybacks to conserve cash, even though its shares are trading at the low end of their 52-week price range and the company’s balance sheet remains strong. Kaiser shares closed Wednesday at $34.73, off $1.95.

A defiant Patrick Rusnak, newly confirmed as president and chief executive officer of AmericanWest Bancorporation, Friday repudiated what he called “malicious rumors” about the standing of the Spokane-based institution, even as he announced major losses and the closure of six branches in the area. “Many have already written the AmericanWest Bancorporation epitaph,” he said at the conclusion of a conference call on company earnings. “Standing on the outside looking in, that may be understandable.”

Utility metering company Itron Inc. on Wednesday reported strong earnings and revenue growth for the third quarter and first nine months of the year, and reduced by pennies the top end of its outlook for the rest of 2008. Orders nearly doubled for both periods, and the total backlog at Sept. 30 was $1 billion, up from $668 million a year earlier. A $470 million order from Southern California Edison accounted for much of the increase.

Jubilant Organosys Ltd. announced on Wednesday a new leadership team for its Canadian and U.S. subsidiaries, including Spokane-based Hollister-Stier Laboratories. Marcelo Morales becomes chief executive officer for Contract Manufacturing, much of which is done in the Hollister-Stier plant on North Regal. He will move to Spokane from Montreal.

Kimberly Nybo says an empty one-gallon Gallo wine bottle holds about $500 in quarters. Years ago, she filled two, hoping to pay for a trip to New Orleans. Instead, when she fell behind on car payments, the change kept her in the driver’s seat.

Tutoring, family counseling, even backpacks full of groceries will be provided to area middle school students by a new business organization trying to reduce a dropout rate estimated at 30 percent. Communities in Schools has launched a program called Strengthening Families at Glover Middle School, said the organization’s executive director, Ben Stuckart, and Chase and Cheney middle schools will be added soon.

Unemployment numbers dipped for Washington and Spokane County in September, bucking a trend toward increased joblessness. Figures released Tuesday by the Department of Employment Security pegged the state rate at 5.8 percent, compared with 6 percent in August.

Problems with residential construction loans continue to sap earnings at Sterling Financial Corp. The Spokane-based bank Tuesday reported a third-quarter profit of $5 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with $26.5 million, or 51 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2007.

A new nonprofit selling mostly Liberian-made goods will debut today at the Everybody’s Bazaar & Yard Sale. The Four Corners Market is owned by Amber and Peter Glanville, who admired the handmade baskets, carvings and other goods they saw in Liberia last November, where they adopted Henry, now 2 years old.

Americans are returning to the nation’s downtowns, reversing a century of migration to the suburbs and challenging planners who grew up in an automobile-dominated society, prominent planner and author Christopher Leinberger said Wednesday. Speaking to a regional conference of planners at the Davenport Hotel, Leinberger said walkable urban spaces became all but “illegal” in the post-World War II era, but shrinking households, higher transportation costs and the desire for more amenities are bringing people back into cities.

Inland Northwest bankers Tuesday praised a new federal initiative to restore confidence in the banking system with expanded deposit guarantees and new capital. They said the programs developed by the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should ease customer concerns that their money, or their bank, was at risk because of the global credit crunch.