Bert Caldwell

Laws governing fish and wildlife recovery efforts in the Northwest are not broken, but need repairs, environmental and utility officials said Tuesday in Spokane. Witnesses before the Northwest Power Planning Council almost unanimously supported preservation of the Northwest Power Act, Endangered Species Act, and tribal and Canadian treaties that regulate water, energy and fish resources. But there was plenty of disagreement about how well the region was managing those resources under the various legal authorities.

A newly formed subsidiary of Spokane-based Itron Inc. Thursday announced the formation of a joint venture with Portland General Corp. SI3 - for service, information, imagination and integration - will market automatic meterreading and related services to utilities around the country, according to a joint statement from the companies.

Industry officials in the Northwest expect a slow start to trading in energy futures, but quick growth as utilities and their customers become comfortable with the new market's possibilities. Activity in pits at the New York Mercantile Exchange, they say, will be another step toward complete deregulation of electricity markets, a trend that should ultimately lower energy prices for the consumer. Officials at Washington Water Power Co. and Kaiser Aluminum Corp. said they already make use of similar contracts for natural gas.

Spokane business and government leaders Tuesday launched a new partnership they say will expand increasingly vital commercial and cultural ties to other communities around the world. The Spokane Area International Trade Alliance, President John Wagner said, will enhance the area's reputation as a hub not just with potential trading partners, but with residents as well. For example, the organization will produce brochures, videos and a CD-ROM for businesses that want to show potential customers what the Spokane community looks like.

The Northwest Power Planning Council may help break an impasse between the Bonneville Power Administration and its customers, Administrator Randy Hardy said Friday. In a letter Bonneville received Wednesday, he said, the council offers to release the agency from some of its commitments to acquire conservation measures in return for less specific agreements to honor and expand already on-going efforts. Bonneville is required to pursue conservation measures as a way to reduce the Northwest's need for new generating resources.

Long-distance giant AT&T; Thursday notified regulators across the West that it plans to enter the market for local telephone service. Filings in the 14 states served by US West Communications are the precursors to negotiations between the two companies for access to local phone networks. Areas served by GTE and other carriers also are affected.

Group Health Northwest ranks fifth among all health maintenance organizations in quality of care, according to a survey by a national personal finance magazine. A survey conducted late last year by Bloomberg Personal rated 591 health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, according to the care members received. HMOs provide services using staff doctors and others, notably specialists, who are under contract.

Ron Wells stands inside the WWP steam plant he plans to convert into a retail development. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Distributors of memberships in a Bellevue-based travel services company have irked some consumers by offering free air fare to Mexico to those who attend sales presentations, then backing off. But a spokeswoman for Platinum Passports Ltd. said the come-ons are not services offered through the company. They should be scrutinized like any contract, she said. The Platinum Passport distributor in Spokane is Royal Holidays.

Local and state business leaders plan to form a Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance. The new organization will be launched formally on March 5 at a luncheon at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute. Chairman John Wagner said the group will encourage increased development and awareness of international trade by building on existing relationships with local businesses and government as well as ties to West Coast ports and trade groups.

Bruce Winer was hired as construction manager of the STA Plaza after a multitude of problems threatened the project. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The U.S. embargo of Cuba costs American business as much as $2 billion a year, and defeats its own purpose - liberalization of the island country, a recent visitor said Thursday. Chris Haralam, an English instructor at Mukogawa Ft. Wright Institute, called the embargo a "dinosaur policy" pushed by Cuban refugees with influence disproportionate to their numbers. Congress, for example, has enacted legislation that would attempt to tighten the screws further, in part by punishing other countries that trade with Cuba, he said.

Tel-West Communications Inc. Friday became Nextlink, just in time to ride the wave of change in telecommunications that legislation signed Thursday by President Clinton will unleash, the head of the renamed company said. Greg Green said the company, which was acquired by Craig McCaw last year, will have its own central switch and much of its downtown fiber-optic cable system in place by late summer. The equipment, worth $10 million, will enable the company to compete with US West Communications as an independent provider of dial-tone service, he said.

The historic overhaul of U.S. telecommunications law codifies many reforms already in place in Washington state, regulators and telephone company officials said. But the pace of change will likely accelerate as competitors push into new markets with more services at prices that should, all services considered, offer a better deal for consumers. "The customers are the winners," US West Communications spokesman Harry Grandstrom said.

Would-be merger partners Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources are not letting a rebuff from federal regulators change the fundamentals of their proposed business. In a small mountain of supplemental testimony filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week, the companies chose to explain, not alter, the unique characteristics of the interstate combination. FERC nearly scotched the deal last month. Commission members questioned the $450 million in savings the companies estimate the merger would produce over the next 10 years.

Signs of the times. Jim Baggett manages the Spokane branch of Labor Ready, a thriving employment company that evolved from an unsuccessful restaurant venture. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review <

Bankruptcy filings in Spokane soared 31 percent in 1995, reaching levels not seen since the economic dog days of the 1980s. The figures are another sign, along with declining construction permits and sluggish retail sales, that the feverish economic growth of the early 1990s has caught a chill. But, noted local economic commentator Phil Kuharski, the information may also reflect changing attitudes about debt, and in the nature of the debt itself.

A tiny Odessa, Wash., company may build a unique engine for ultralight aircraft in Spokane, according to company officials. 4-Cycle Inc. holds three patents on a system that uses crankcase pressure to supercharge small engines, both gasoline and diesel, said Senior Vice President James Canode. The result is a near doubling of horsepower, he said, and an impressive weight-to-horsepower ratio of almost one-to-one.

D. Michael Jones, former president of Old National Bancorp, will return to Spokane next week as president of Source Capital Corp. The company, which specializes in commercial loans secured by real estate, also said incumbent President Alvin J. Wolff Jr. would continue as board chairman. Wolff has headed Source since it was organized out of the bankruptcy of Selectors Inc. in 1991.

With $18,900, you can buy a midsized car or a very compact, one-year existence for a family of four in Spokane or Coeur d'Alene. And that sum leaves little room for a breakdown that could leave a family destitute by the side of the road. It also assumes the family's only debt is a small car payment. "We see this sort of scenario quite a bit, except they all have credit card debt," said Mark Harnishfeger, head of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. "They have a slew of them."

One of the nation's largest insurance companies is contesting an appraisal of damage caused by a sprinkler system at a Spokane building used for college classes. In a U.S. District Court complaint filed last week, Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. also says retired Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Williams was not competent to serve as umpire in the dispute.

Yellowstone Pipe Line Co. owners do not yet know if a segment of petroleum pipeline closed last spring will be replaced, an official for the partnership said this week. David Vanderpool, a pipeline engineering expert, said the oil companies that deliver petroleum products from Montana to Spokane and Moses Lake through the Yellowstone conduit are studying the costs of adding new pipe between Missoula and Plains. The new route would replace a portion that has been closed since last April, when a 40-year right-of-way agreement with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation expired.

A plan that would have tripled the cost of high-speed telephone lines to some users was shelved by Washington regulators Monday, but a spokesman for US West Communications said the proposal will likely be resubmitted later this year. Harry Grandstrom said the company will leave its existing rates for Integrated Service Digital Network service in place until the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission completes deliberations on the company's request for a general rate overhaul. Refiling will probably push implementation of any new ISDN rates into 1997.

Getting re-energized. WWP Chairman Paul Redmond, shown in WWP's system operations room, has had to shift gears while regulators continue to consider its proposed merger with Sierra Pacific Resources. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review