Bert Caldwell

Although interstate jostling could disrupt the timetable for approval of the proposed merger between Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources, WWP Chairman Paul Redmond said completion by midfall still appears likely. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will hold a hearing on the merger tonight beginning at 6 p.m. in the Farm Credit Building, Room B-103. Sierra Chairman Walter Higgins said a political blowup last week between Nevada's Public Service Commission and the Attorney General's Office should not lead to any significant delay in that state.

An angry Nevada Public Service Commission this week spiked a scheduled hearing on the proposed Washington Water Power Co.-Sierra Pacific Resources merger. Commissioner Judy Sheldrew said postponement of the Aug. 7 hearing was provoked because conditions that might be imposed on the deal, which has been pending for more than a year, were disclosed prematurely. "Since the commission and many of the other parties have not had an opportunity to analyze or respond to the contents of the press release, we must allow additional time for all parties to review and comment," she said.

The Bonneville Power Administration Monday announced the largest rate cut in its 58-year history, but the impact in the Inland Northwest may be minor. Bonneville proposed an 8.2 percent price cut to the region's 125 public utilities, most of which buy all their electricity from the federal power-marketing agency. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemcial Corp and the region's other aluminum smelters, consumers of vast quantities of electricity, would get a rate cut of almost 13 percent.

The Bonneville Power Administration, confronted by the most intense competition in its 62-year history, will announce a rate cut Monday, Deputy Administrator Jack Robertson said Friday. Although the extent of the reduction will not be known until computer runs are completed over the weekend, he said the action is intended to assure the federal power-marketing agency maintains market share. Bonneville delivers half the energy consumed in the Northwest, but costly efforts to preserve salmon runs and the advent of cheap natural gas turbines that compete with electricity from the agency's massive dams have put the agency in a squeeze, Robertson said.

Peter Stanton, newly elected president of the Washington Bankers Association, said he wants to boost the industry's tattered image. Noting a survey released last month showing only 36 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of banks, Stanton stressed the vital role the institutions play in their communities.

First the good news: The stocks of two companies with significant Spokane operations ranked in the top 10 of 100 tracked by a regional index. The bad news? Two others were in the bottom 10.

The Kensington gold mine project near Juneau, Alaska, Friday became a wholly owned and operated property of Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. The Coeur d'Alene-based company completed a previously announced purchase from Echo Bay Mines Ltd. of the half-interest in the project it did not already control. Kensington reserves are estimated at 2 million ounces of gold.

Workers' compensation benefits will get a 2.2 percent boost Saturday, when an annual adjustment authorized by the Washington Legislature kicks in. The increase last July 1 was only 0.7 percent. The maximum monthly payment, which will be available to those injured after Friday, will be $2,497.32, or 115 percent of the average wage of $2,171.50.

Community banking in the Inland Northwest may not fit the mold regulators are shaping for bigger, more complex markets, area bankers said Wednesday. Yet the cost of compliance with new federal regulations will be particularly burdensome for small local banks, which must hire extra staff to compile required paperwork, they said.

Remember the brick house built by the third little pig? The big, bad wolf huffed and puffed, but he could not blow it down. At least that's how the story goes.

John Wagner

Idaho customers of Washington Water Power Co. would likely be asked to pay rate increases of as much as 8 percent within the next few years if a proposed merger with Sierra Pacific Resources were rejected, company officials said Monday. But in seeking approval of the deal from Idaho regulators, WWP has agreed to freeze rates until the year 2001.

A Western Washington man who bilked Sons of Norway members around the Northwest out of more than $9 million pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to money laundering and mail, wire and bank fraud. Many of Mike Calozza's 150 victims live in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area.

Don't block the exits at Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources. Workers at both utilities, which will combine this fall to become Resources West Energy, have snapped at severance packages in twice the numbers projected earlier this year, said Don Kopczynski, WWP transition manager. Some workers facing relocation want to remain in Spokane, he said, while others have become weary of the rapid pace of change in the utilities industry.

Ken Kido is in charge of the Seafirst Bankcard Services operation in Spokane at Garden Springs. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Davenp[ort Hotel owner Wai Choi Ng presides Thursday at the reopening of the Elizabethan Room. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

The Washington Water Power Co. has agreed to freeze base rates until the year 2001 in proposed agreements with Idaho and Washington regulators who are reviewing a proposed merger with Sierra Pacific Resources. The agreement would allow adjustments under certain circumstances, such as lower natural gas prices or a loss of cheap hydropower because of reduced streamflows. The company also would be allowed to rebalance the costs imposed on a specific class of customers such as industry. The freeze and other conditions are outlined in so-called stipulations negotiated by representatives of the two companies and staff members of the Idaho and Washington utilities commissions.

1. Shanni Burnette, right, and Jack Sackville-West work on diagnostic tests in an automotive technology course at Community Colleges of Spokane. Trained mechanics are in short supply. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Tom Connors of TDC Auto Repair says it's tough to recruit good mechanics, even though the pay and job security are attractive. He's been trying to fill a job since October. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Kaiser Aluminum Corp., acting in the wake of a bitter February strike, has canceled the lease of a Northland Federal Credit Union branch that has been on the grounds of the company's Mead smelter for almost 50 years. Northland President Bill Roberts said the move probably stems from his refusal to let the company house temporary workers in the branch during the weeklong strike by the United Steelworkers of America.

More and more would-be tenants in Spokane find their way blocked by screen doors. An eight-year-old business, Tenant Information Systems Inc., examines rental applications submitted to more than 80 percent of the landlords in the community. It's a test many applicants don't pass.

Olivetti North America will supply a new generation of branch-office computers to the nation's largest bank. The Liberty Lake-based subsidiary of Ing. C. Olivetti S.p.A. will begin pilot installations at Citibank branches within the next few months, said spokesman Leonard Selvaggio. Full-scale rollout should begin by the fourth quarter, he said, with completion within a year.

At what will likely be their last annual meeting, Washington Water Power Co. shareholders were given a vision for the future and a judgment of the recent past. Chairman Paul Redmond said officials expect regulators to approve the company's merger with Sierra Pacific Resources by the fall. The new company, Resources Energy West, will supply electricity, natural gas and water to customers in six states across a total area almost the size of Oregon.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. could chop $100 million off its electricity bill in the next five years if the company shut off the Bonneville Power Administration, regional Power Manager Pete Forsyth said Wednesday. But a variety of factors, including the possibility power may become cheaper still, have so far stayed Kaiser's hand, he told the Northwest Power Planning Council. Wednesday was the second day of the council's monthly meeting, which will conclude today in Post Falls.

U.S. Bancorp and West One Bancorp have agreed to merge in a transaction that will create one of the 30 largest bank holding companies in the country. It will also assure, at least for a while, the continued independence of Portland-based U.S. Bancorp, the largest bank based in the Northwest.