Bert Caldwell

Spokane unempoyment rate climbs

Marv Reguindin is triple-certified. The president, creative director and owner of Thinking Cap Communications & Graphics has been blessed by the Northwest Minority Supplier Development Council, the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and the Washington Office of Minority and Women Enterprises.

The Idaho Department of Finance has sued a Coeur d’Alene man for promoting a commodities trading scheme that cost investors $1.3 million. Keith E. Mitchell, according to a complaint filed in Kootenai County District Court, did not tell investors the department had ordered him to stop violating security laws in 2003, when a $25,000 civil penalty was imposed. Nor did Mitchell tell them he is not licensed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

State sues Coeur d'Alene man for commodity trading

Debt relief company to return almost $800,000

Spokane residents are among the nation’s most indebted users of credit cards, according to a report released Wednesday by Experian. The company said the average Spokane credit card user had a balance of $4,572 at the end of 2010, compared with a national average of $4,200.

Spokane residents among most indebted card users

Union workers at the Ponderay Newsprint plant walked off the job at 6 a.m. Tuesday, halting production at the mill near Usk in Pend Oreille County. Greg Jones, representative for the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, said the 92 members of Local 422 voted to strike Monday night.

The unemployment rate in Washington fell to 9.1 percent in January as businesses added 11,000 workers, the state Employment Security Department reported Tuesday. But the gain was the result of a seasonal adjustment, said department labor economist Dave Wallace. Unadjusted, he said, employers shed 47,100 jobs. The decline is typical – particularly in retailing – after Christmas, he said.

Union workers at the Ponderay Newsprint plant walked out of the plant at 6 a.m. today, halting production at the mill near Usk in Pend Oreille County.

Workers on strike at Ponderay Newprint

Washington unemployment fell in January

Premera accused of "stonewalling"

Thousands of Boeing Co. employees and suppliers, and only a touch fewer politicians, took a collective victory lap Thursday after the Pentagon made the 767 its choice for a new generation of U.S. Air Force tankers. The decision was a surprise to many, including partisans of the competing bid from the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. – EADS.

The damage done the U.S. economy by reckless bankers has nothing on the wreckage wrought in Ireland, that nation’s San Francisco-based consul general said Friday. Gerry Staunton, in Spokane to meet with the Spokane-Limerick Sister City Society, said barely regulated banks in Ireland went on a lending spree that lifted some Dublin property values above those in New York City.

Homes sales in Spokane and Kootenai counties will lag until prices return to averages established before the mid-decade housing bubble pushed them to unsustainable levels, Coeur d’Alene real estate broker John Beutler said Thursday. Sales in Bonner, Kootenai and Spokane counties have fallen because homes became unaffordable, the principal of Century 21 Beutler & Assoc. told Realtors gathered for their annual Real Estate Market Forum.

The Spokane County economy eked out a tiny gain in 2009, but Kootenai County’s economy was one of the hardest hit in the country as the recession retained its grip, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Spokane produced goods and services valued at $17.7 billion. Kootenai County yielded $4.2 billion.

State and local taxes in 2009 claimed 9.3 percent of Washington incomes, and 9.4 percent in Idaho, according to figures released Wednesday by the Tax Foundation. The nonpartisan foundation’s calculation of “tax burden” earned Idaho a ranking of 28th, and Washington 29th among the 50 states.

State and local taxes in 2009 took 9.3 percent of resident incomes in Washington, and 9.4 percent in Idaho, according to figures released today by the Tax Foundation.

Idaho, Washington tax burdens fall

Wheatland Bank earned a profit last quarter, as it has for every quarter since it was founded in Davenport 32 years ago. The holding company, Community Financial Group Inc., raised $3.7 million in mid-summer without any prompting from regulators who have been, let us say, emphatic in the case of other area institutions.

Jason and Lanae Lindh and their seven children live in a rented home outside Reno, Nev., where they moved in December. They still own a hillside rancher in the Ponderosa area of Spokane Valley, but lender MetLife Home Loans wants $8,000 cash by Monday, or will sell the house in 90 days. Lanae said they have little hope of keeping the property, which the couple purchased in March 2007 for $265,000.

The Bank of Whitman has been given 90 days to raise more capital or merge with another bank. A directive issued Tuesday by the Federal Reserve also forbids the Colfax-based bank from accepting more brokered deposits, which is short-term money that follows the highest available interest rates.