Bert Caldwell

The just completed purchase of Olsy North American by Wang Laboratories Inc. portends a shake-up at Olsy's Liberty Lake operations, but how sweeping the changes is not yet known, spokesman Leonard Salvaggio said Tuesday. Wang and Olsy officials met with workers last week to discuss the $390 million deal's implications, he said. Although the review of the combined companies is ongoing, Salvaggio said, "The company is committed to having a significant Spokane presence."

Colville residents and businesses that had their long-distance service switched to another carrier without their consent March 11 started getting calls Tuesday afternoon advising them how to switch back, an official for the company responsible said. Mark Cobb, chief operating officer of Telecommunication Service Center Inc., said representatives will tell customers the switch has occurred - many are unaware - and how to correct it. If they want to stay with TSC despite the mix-up, he said, they will have that option.

The mass conversion of long-distance carriers serving Colville residents was a mistake and will be reversed at no cost to customers, an official for the company responsible said Monday. Mark Cobb, chief operating officer of Telecommunication Service Center Inc., said the error was made by a company acting as a TSC agent. That company, 1 Bill Plan, said it mistook an authorization to switch all the extensions for one number as authorization to change all phone numbers in Colville with those suffixes, he said.

Barry Baker spreads out plans for his next project. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Colville has been slammed. US West Communications officials said Friday that a company they declined to identify attempted to switch the long-distance service of more than 70 percent of the telephone lines in the Stevens County community. The unauthorized changes, or "slams," affected 4,647 lines, said spokeswoman Dana Smith.

Michael Boskin's image is projected onto a screen as he delivers his address Thursday at the Gonzaga University '98 Economics Symposium at the Ag Trade Center. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Avista Energy will be on the sidelines when California deregulates its vast energy market next week. Vice President Dana Zentz said the subsidiary of Washington Water Power Co. decided in January to back away from an aggressive attempt to sell electricity directly to buyers like department store chains. Although the California market will be open to all comers, he said, rules that were established to assure that traditional utilities have time to recover their investment in expensive generating plants will give small business customers little rate relief until 2001.