Bert Caldwell

A Spokane Valley company that built its business on attracting bugs has received a $730,000 grant to find ways of repelling them. The money from the U.S. Department of Defense will allow Sterling International to expand on preliminary development, also government-funded, of a device that will discourage insects from harassing soldiers, said spokeswoman Stephanie Herrmann.

Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker has been asked to investigate an allegedly illegal transfer of money from a Building and Planning Department account to the county's general fund. In a "whistleblower" letter delivered to Tucker's office Tuesday, attorney Aaron Lowe says at least $1 million was "supposedly" appropriated from the department to help balance the 2008 county budget. The transfer was initially called a borrowing, he says.

Order a BLT sandwich this week, and the toasted triangles likely will arrive with the "B" and the "L," but no "T." Restaurant owners say they are keeping tomatoes in their refrigerators until told they pose no risk of spreading salmonella, which is suspected in perhaps 200 illnesses in at least 17 states, including Washington.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. announced Monday a 33 percent dividend increase and a $75 million stock repurchase program. The higher payout and buyback are another signal Kaiser, which emerged from bankruptcy in July 2006, continues to thrive financially thanks in large part to aerospace products produced at the Trentwood rolling mill.

A United Way-funded initiative that will match savings carved out of federal income tax rebates is fully subscribed, but applications are still being accepted, program overseer Kerri Rodkey said Wednesday. Rodkey, who heads the micro-enterprise program at Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, said some who apply do not qualify, or do not show up for the classes or counseling sessions participants must attend.

Employment growth in Spokane County may have slowed in recent months, but local economists and executives Friday forecast massive retirements over the next decade that will open up jobs in professions from mining to public administration, education to utilities, and agriculture to real estate. Already, said Inland Northwest Health Services President Tom Fritz, it takes 44 days to fill a nursing position, up from 29 days last year. The national average is 60 days.

A recent letter from the Federal Aviation Administration has renewed concerns residential development on the West Plains could jeopardize the futures of Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane International Airport. Inappropriate land use could expose Fairchild to closure during future U.S. Air Force base reviews, officials said, and the airport could lose access to federal dollars that have financed many improvements, including the $30 million control tower completed last summer.

Expect Washington's other WorkSource centers to borrow from Spokane's award-winning model, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Tuesday. Gregoire said the center, which earlier this month was named the best among 1,800 in the United States, has established best practices she wants other state work force training and placement centers to adopt. But, she added, Spokane succeeded on the basis of partnerships and personalities that will not be the same elsewhere.

Several Eastern Washington railroad rehabilitation projects, including a reconfigured Geiger Spur on the West Plains, could be under way within weeks, officials said Wednesday. More than $17 million has been budgeted for construction to improve or preserve rail service to farms and factories in four Washington counties and one Idaho sawmill.

If the economy looks a little soft in the Inland Northwest, remember how far the region has come, two economists said Friday. Employment registered a normal winter downturn, said Washington Trust Senior Vice President Steve Scranton, but weigh those losses – some of which were recovered in March – against the 22,000 jobs added in the last five years.

A coalition including AARP and securities industry regulators is testing an investment-fraud awareness program in Spokane that, if successful, will be rolled out nationally. The kickoff for the Investor Protection Program will be held Tuesday at the Southside Senior Activity and Community Center, 3151 E. 27th Ave. The two-hour program begins at 6:30 p.m., following a buffet dinner that begins at 5:30 p.m. The event and dinner are free.

Windmills five miles south of Reardan will be generating electricity for Avista Utility customers by the end of 2011, the Spokane company announced Thursday. The $120 million project will be a first for Avista, which has been buying wind energy from third-party suppliers for several years.

Nighthawk Radiology Holdings Inc. announced Wednesday it will buy back $50 million of its shares in a "Dutch auction" expected to start within the next two weeks. The news, plus disappointing first-quarter earnings and a lowered outlook for the rest of 2008, dragged Nighthawk shares 10 percent lower in after-hours trading.

With Congress unlikely to pass any appropriations bills until a change of presidents, a delegation of Eastern Washington and North Idaho business leaders who visited Washington, D.C., last week was told not to expect any immediate funding for local projects. Greater Spokane Incorporated President Rich Hadley said the group was told a looming squeeze on spending triggered by entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare will crimp discretionary spending. But the trip built on an understanding of Capitol ways – accumulated during 18 prior visits – and sustained the Inland Northwest's reputation for working together on regional priorities, he said.

Jobs Plus Inc. on Wednesday celebrated another successful year of company recruitment that kept the Kootenai County economy moving against headwinds created by the national slowdown. The economic development organization attracted companies that added 238 jobs, said Jobs Plus President Steve Griffitts, including a Denmark-based maker of allergy products he hopes will encourage more biotechnology companies to consider the county.

The Institute for Systems Medicine has laid off all but one employee in a bid to keep the organization viable until new funding arrives and a scaled-down business plan can be implemented. Tom Paine, a member of the Institute for Systems Medicine Planning Authority, said institute supporters believe development of an organization on the scale of the $170 million Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, an early model for the Spokane venture, will take more time than was hoped.

AmericanWest Bank on Thursday reported a $31.6 million first-quarter loss and suspended its dividend, triggering a 28 percent plunge in the price of its stock. The loss per share at the Spokane-based institution was $1.83, compared with a profit of 19 cents per share based on net income of $2.2 million for the first quarter of 2007.

Merchants must change the way they determine sales taxes July 1. The Washington State Department of Revenue will hold a workshop in Spokane on Tuesday to review the changes and explain the tools and subsidies that are available to help smooth the transition. Sales tax "streamlining" approved by the Legislature last year will distribute sales tax revenues to the government jurisdictions where they are delivered. Traditionally, the revenues have been divvied up among the jurisdictions where the goods are sold.

Attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice have notified the U.S. Court of Federal Appeals they will appeal a Feb. 19 decision that awarded Sterling Financial Corp. barely $1 million of a claim for more than $58 million. The filing Friday in Washington, D.C., did not specify the grounds for challenging the ruling by Judge Thomas Wheeler. But the appeal will also address 2002 and 2003 rulings that set up a two-week damages hearing in Spokane last July.