Bert Caldwell

Jim Hunter and his company are 100 percent behind their clients. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Pacific Gas Transmission Co. crews fuse part of the 2,000 feet of high-pressure gas line that the company is replacing above Westmond, Idaho. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Murphey Favre Inc., a name with a history that dates back almost to the founding of Spokane, will disappear next month. The broker-dealer for the Composite Group of Funds will become Washington Mutual Financial Services Inc.

Inland Northwest businesses that have focused their export efforts on Pacific Rim countries should look next toward South America, two U.S. trade officials suggested Thursday. Michael Liikala and Miquel Pardo de Zela said the economic and political changes where they are posted, Argentina and Brazil, respectively, are indicative of reforms sweeping the region. The shift from dictatorial, closed systems to democratic and open environments has created huge export opportunities, Liikala said.

Williams

Users of AT&T; calling cards are no longer automatically connected with that carrier when they pick up a pay phone. As of Sunday, AT&T; cardholders must dial a special access number, 1-800-CALL-ATT, to get to a company operator. Previously, dialing 0 reached an operator who would connect the caller with AT&T.; No more.

McKean

Residents of far northwestern Montana may not get their lights back on until Friday as crews rebuild transmission lines smashed by Saturday's powerful winds. Power in most other areas of the Inland Northwest was restored by late Monday, but utility officials predicted scattered outages would keep isolated homes in the dark until today. As many as 30,000 people may have been without electricity in the hours immediately following Saturday's brief but intense storm, which the National Weather Service on Monday said included one official sighting of a tornado.

Some of the answers to the Northwest's energy future may lie in its past, former Sen. Mark Hatfield told regional planners Friday. Many of the issues now on the table were vehemently debated at the dawn of the federal power system in the 1930s, Hatfield said at a conference on energy deregulation.

The Snohomish County Public Utility District and Idaho Power Co. have signed an agreement that calls for joint efforts to develop and market energy and energy services. The deal, said Idaho Power Chairman Joseph Marshall, will help both utilities maintain their independence as competition reshapes the industry. He said the alliance between the PUD and Idaho Power also will allow both to spread costs of new services over a broader customer base.

Consumer groups Wednesday condemned a litany of tactics they said US West Communications uses to foil competitors and confound consumers more than a year after passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to deregulate the industry. From access fees to the Yellow Pages, they said, the provider of local telephone service in 14 Western states has tried to maintain its monopoly and squeeze more revenues from captive consumers. "This is the strongest indictment yet that US West has been blocking competition," said Judy Krebs, associate director of Washington Citizen Action and one of the authors of a 16-page report entitled "US West's Monopoly Game."

A Washington, D.C., investor Friday filed a class-action suit against Itron Inc., alleging the Spokane company misrepresented its technology and the reasons sales were below expectations. The result, says the U.S. District Court complaint, was a wild climb for Itron stock, which peaked at $60 on April 30, 1996, followed by a free-fall to $15 Oct. 23, 1996. Investor losses, according to attorney Steve Toll, total millions of dollars. Plaintiff Mark Epstein bought 100 shares at $32.50 apiece in January 1996.

Ron Stokes, left, and Greg Somers flank "Buddy", the only member of the staff to wear a tie. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Second of two parts Break up the monopoly game. Although Northwest residents can't pick their power company yet, the day is coming when utilities that once had an unchallenged grip on their customers will have to compete for every household. Many companies that never before sold electricity in the region are moving into position. Familiar names such as Bonneville Power Administration, Portland General Electric and Washington Water Power Co. soon will be joined by the likes of Enron, Cinergy, even Southern.

The gist of Ronald Reuss' message is simple - go long. The senior vice president for Piper Jaffray Companies said money placed in overseas markets or 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds may yield the best returns in the coming months. By historic standards, he said, U.S. stocks are fully valued. With inflation around 2 percent, as it is now, the 7 percent yields on bonds are very attractive, Reuss said. And the slowdown already gripping the economy could drop rates below 6 percent by the end of the year, which will increase the value of bonds bought now.

Area electric cooperatives will receive government compensation for some costs stemming from the November ice storm. Kootenai Electric Cooperative Inc. collected $1.7 million Tuesday from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Idaho Department of Disaster Services. About 75 percent of the money was provided by FEMA, said Kootenai spokeswoman Catherine Parochetti. The cooperative spent $2 million repairing damage from the storm, which knocked out power for more than two weeks in some areas.

Washington Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn Tuesday warned Prudential Life Insurance Co. policyholders they must decide by June 1 if they want to participate in a multibillion-dollar settlement against the insurer. If a yellow "election form" is not signed and postmarked by that date, policyholders will forfeit their right to no- or low-interest loans to pay policy premiums, enhanced policies or other forms of relief.

Washington Water Power Co. has not changed residential electricity rates in 10 years, and will try to extend that stretch by lowering its power costs by 10 percent over the next two years, President Les Bryan said. WWP, with its hydropower resources, already has the lowest generating costs of any private utility in the country, he told company shareholders Tuesday.

A year ago, Diana Gissel was driving from town to town in the Inland Northwest selling linens, furnishings and other goods to hotels. Now, said the owner of Northwest Hospitality Inc., she does not leave her Coeur d'Alene home to make sales.

The future of the Columbia River and the wildlife and industry that depend upon it get too little consideration from some key Northwest decision-makers, representatives from more than two dozen regional groups said Friday. The result has been a near breakdown of the few efforts to reach consensus, some said, with the decision Thursday by four basin tribes to withdraw from a salmon restoration review just the latest example. The state of Montana had pulled our earlier.

Avista Energy, a newly formed business of Washington Water Power Co., will open an energy trading office in Houston this July. The operation, with its state-of-the-art trading floor, will enable Avista to reach every corner of the lower 48 states with electricity, natural gas and other energy services, said Vice President Alan Meyers. It also places the company in the center of the natural gas market among some of the giants in the energy industry. Meyers said the competition, rather than causing concern, assures a pool of industry veterans that a newcomer like Avista can tap into.

Group Health Northwest and its Puget Sound parent will soon be affiliates of Kaiser Permanente, the largest health maintenance organization in the United States. Members of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, by an 80 percent majority, approved bylaw changes that authorized formation of Kaiser/ Group Health.

MPM Technologies Inc. of Spokane has purchased U.S. Filter/Engineered Systems' Oxidation Group from U.S. Filter Corp. The group, based in Schaumburg, Ill., designs, installs and services air-treatment systems for major industry worldwide, MPM President Charles Romberg said.

Window of opportunity Ken Johnson removes the cracked windshield from a minivan at the home of a North Side customer. His employer, American Auto Glass, uses factoring to help finance its business. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review