Bert Caldwell

The last major piece of litigation generated by Washington Public Power Supply System plants Nos. 4 & 5 has been resolved. The settlement, disclosed in a memorandum of understanding announced Wednesday, will cost Washington Water Power Co. $500,000.

December home sales in Spokane dropped 11 percent below year-ago levels, but the total for the month was still the highest since December 1993, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors. Also, prices continued to increase - by 11 percent over December 1993 and 3 percent over November. The association's Multiple Listing Service reported 607 homes sold during the month, down from 682 the year before.

Mark Harnishfeger says the success of his consumer counseling is due to his religious studies. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Earthquake-caused destruction at the port of Kobe has jarred shipment of Jacklin Seed Co. containers to Japan. Vice President Hiromi Yanagisawa said the Post Falls company was notified Thursday the port will be closed for six months. The port in nearby Osaka, to which many ships have been redirected, will close for a week while officials decide how to handle the backlog, he said. Meanwhile, Jacklin has eight containers of seed sitting on a Seattle dock. Those must be loaded by 5 p.m. today in order to be accepted at Osaka, Yanagisawa said.

Efforts to boost salmon survival have driven up BPA's energy costs and made the agency less competitive. File/Associated Press

Ed Cassens

Starting Sunday, dialing parts of Western Washington will take a 360-degree turn. That - 360 - is the new longdistance code for the area outside a corridor that stretches from Everett to Tacoma, with a tentacle reaching up the Green River Valley. For the next four months, callers into Vancouver, Olympia, Bellingham and non-metropolitan areas of Western Washington who continue to use 206 will get a message informing them of the new 360 area code, but their calls will go through.