Bert Caldwell

Michihiro Matsumoto, of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, addresses a meeting of the Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance on Friday. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. Kelly 2. Jewell

Money talks, and next Saturday you can hear all about it at a first-time personal finance expo, "MoneyTalk '97." The day-long event at the Spokane Convention Center will feature Andrew Tobias, noted commentator and author of the best-seller, "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need."

Strategic Resources, a Spokane consulting firm, will survey 350 companies in the next few weeks to determine what they need to start or grow their export sales operations. The Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance is sponsoring the project, which will cover nine counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Health insurance executives in Eastern Washington earn considerably less than their counterparts on the West Side of the state, according to figures released Friday by Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn. Dr. Henry Berman, chief executive officer of Group Health Northwest, earned $244,410 in 1996. He received $295,000 in 1995, when his compensation package was boosted by a $60,500 bonus.

A new caucus of U.S. House of Representatives members has told Northwest governors they must quickly recommend changes in federal law that will help maintain the region's energy system. Legislation that will restructure the nation's electricity industry could be out of committee by year-end, they say in a letter dated Monday.

Residents of Odessa and Harrington may soon have a choice of electricity providers, but dinner-time calls from kilowatt salesmen are a less-than-glowing prospect to some. Washington Water Power Co. has added the two Lincoln County communities to a proposed test of deregulated energy markets. When announced last month, the plan called for participation by 2,500 randomly selected homeowners in Washington and Idaho, plus another 300 small-business customers.

You know what a kilowatt costs the amount is on your monthly electricity bill but you don't know how much of that is the juice, the wire to bring it to your home, or administrative expense. By October of next year, you could have that information, if a bill before the state Senate survives review by the House and Gov. Gary Locke.

The Washington Senate Monday passed a measure that would bar the state's largest banks from imposing surcharges on automatic teller machine transactions until next April 1. The 32-15 vote follows a month of intense debate on the issue, which has split the state's financial community and put a Republican, Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, in the unlikely role of consumer advocate. The McDonald-sponsored measure applies only to banks with more than $1 billion in deposits and ATM numbers out of proportion to their share of deposits.

A stock portfolio managed by two Washington State University classes last year earned an eye-popping 71 percent rate of return. The performance was the best ever recorded in a 12-year-old program sponsored by the Great Falls, Mont., -based D.A. Davidson & Co. brokerage firm.

A proposal to integrate much of the West's vast transmission grid could be submitted to federal regulators by mid-July, but the plan may have a sizeable hole. Randy Hardy, administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, said Thursday several legal and policy considerations may prevent the agency from immediately joining a new entity that would coordinate control of wires stretching from Colorado to Canada.

Prudential Insurance Co. of America has agreed to pay in full a $700,000 fine to Washington, in the process ending a standoff between the state's insurance commissioner and a leading legislator from Spokane. Commissioner Deborah Senn announced the settlement Wednesday, three weeks after an earlier version provoked a dust-up with Sen. Jim West that eventually involved Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

Two of the Inland Northwest's independent banks have reported significantly higher earnings for 1996. Net income at Spokane-based Inland Northwest Bank rose 16 percent to $568,000, or $1.12 per share, compared with 1995 results. Loans receivable also were up 16 percent. Assets rose 18 percent to $99.5 million.

United Security Bancorporation Friday announced the proposed purchase of five Eastern Washington branches from Wells Fargo Bank. If the deal is completed this summer, as expected, Spokane-based United Security will have increased its branch network by 50 percent in one stroke.

Federal regulators have spiked a Washington Water Power Co. program that allows its 30 largest customers to buy a portion of their power from other suppliers. But company officials said Thursday they hope to submit a modified plan by the end of next week that would allow Direct Access Delivery Service ("DADS") to continue.

CompuTech, the oldest and one of the largest providers of Internet service in Spokane, has become part of a national network launched Wednesday by Denver-based Verio Inc. Verio also made a substantial equity investment in CompuTech, said Jeff Presley, president of the Spokane company.

Omak Wood Products Inc., Okanogan County's largest employer, Monday filed for reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The action follows a union vote last Thursday rejecting a package of wage, vacation, and pension concessions that, along with cuts to salaried employees, would have reduced the company's annual operating expenses by $3 million.

Oh, what a tangled web. More than 30 million Americans now use the Internet, a three-fold increase in just the last year.

The city of Seattle wants no part of a $3.2 million judgment rendered against the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District in 1995. The PUD last month asked the Superior Court in Pend Oreille County to hold Seattle responsible for 76 percent of the judgment imposed in a case won by the Kalispel Tribe. The tribe sued the PUD in 1980 for trespass of land inundated by Box Canyon Dam on the Pend Oreille River.

Spokane Sen. Jim West said Friday the Ways and Means Committee he chairs will try to deduct $600,000 from the budget of Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn to offset fine money she did not deposit in the general fund. Senn said that deduction would hamper a department already working with limited resources compared with those enjoyed by insurance commissioners in other states.

Spokane Sen. Jim West has questioned the propriety of a settlement Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn negotiated in a case that could affect 100,000 Washington consumers. The agreement with Prudential Insurance Co. of America called for a $700,000 fine, of which $600,000 was suspended pending fulfillment of other conditions.

Two local banks Washington Trust and United Security - have reported solid financial results for 1996. United Security Bancorporation will reward investors with a 10 percent stock dividend. United will issue the stock Feb. 25 to holders of record Feb. 10. A similar dividend was paid last February.

Major users of natural gas in the Inland Northwest are scrambling a bit, but getting by, in the aftermath of two pipeline explosions in Western Washington. As a result of the blasts at Everson and Kalama, the Northwest Pipeline Co. shut down its 26-inch line late Wednesday.

Members of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission listen to testimony Thursday night in Spokane about response to last year's ice storm. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review