Bert Caldwell

Altus Corp. is dead. Long live ... Washington Water Power Co.? When the Spokane utility called off its proposed marriage to Sierra Pacific Resources a week ago, the search for a path into the future did not end. Even as he discussed the reasons WWP directors decided not to go through

Pacific Gas Transmission Co. has finished the first phase of $400,000 in repairs to its pipeline right-of-way near Valleyford. Spokeswoman Susan Meyers said soil around the 36-inch and 42-inch pipelines was eroded when Rock Creek flooded last winter. The stream channel shifted, exposing some pipe that had been underground, she said. The lines cross the creek downstream from Cottonwood Creek.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday clears the way for Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane to seek $90 million in damages from the federal government. The 7-2 decision by the nation's highest court in a case involving three other savings and loans could ultimately cost the Treasury as much as $20 billion. More than 100 thrifts have sued the government for changing the way they could account for assets taken over from failed institutions with the assistance of federal regulators.

Paul Redmond, chairman of WWP, offers details of the utility company's decision to abandon merger plans. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Bankruptcy filings in the Inland Northwest have reached record levels, and many experts blame easy credit for the problem. New cases in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eastern Washington for the first five months of this year ran 53 percent ahead of last year's pace, said data quality analyst Jo Jennings.

Washington Water Power Co., in a stunning turnabout, late Friday terminated its merger agreement with Sierra Pacific Resources. The announcement came after a meeting of WWP directors on the second anniversary of the merger agreement between the Spokane- and Reno-based utilities.

A proposed Washington Water Power Co. test of new rates for its largest customers has drawn a passing grade in Washington, an incomplete in Idaho. The staff of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission Monday recommended the plan be approved. But in Idaho, questions raised by Potlatch Corp. and Idaho Power Co. may delay implementation until hearings can be held.

Ever pull out an extension cord, only to find you're still six inches short of the socket? That should give you a pretty good feel for the position Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources find themselves in on the eve of a critical hearing before an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C. The Spokane- and Reno-based companies have tried for two years to merge as a new company - Altus Corp. Each would retain its identity as an operating division of the new corporation. Altus would sell electricity, natural gas and water to roughly 500,000 customers.

A proposed natural gas-fired generating plant at Creston cleared critical state and federal hurdles this week, but construction of the huge facility is unlikely anytime soon. The Northwest Regional Power Facility would produce 838 mega-watts of electricity for sale to utilities and other large customers around the West. Alan Fiksdal, an official with the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, said a surplus of power has delayed the development of other projects like Creston.

Northern Technologies Inc. of Liberty Lake has landed a contract with Sprint Spectrum that will generate "tens of millions" in sales, Vice President Steve Smith said Tuesday. The company will supply what Smith described as mini-power protection cabinets at every site where Sprint Spectrum locates a personal communications system antenna. PCS is a second-generation cellular telephone technology capable of carrying more traffic on smaller but more closely-spaced antennas.

Competition has drained The Intercompany Pool. Once a planning and trading mechanism sponsored by seven private utilities in the Northwest, the pool will be disbanded in part because members are ever more frequently trying to sell power to the same customers.

It would take a giant showroom to accommodate every customer of the defunct Smith's Home Furnishings chain who could recover money spent on warranties as a result of a ruling in Spokane Superior Court Friday. Judge Harold Clarke converted a lawsuit filed by a handful of shoppers last November into a class action on behalf of 27,000 people who purchased $9 million worth of warranties on a wide range of appliances. The retired jurist said he has never handled a case covering so many plaintiffs.

Washington regulators have been asked to mediate a dispute between AT&T; and US West Communications over access to local telephone markets in eight Western and Midwestern states. AT&T;'s request, filed Friday with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, triggered a "put-up-or-shut up" response from US West Monday.

Dennis Halsey is the regional vice president of Trinity Universal Insurance Companies. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Mima Scarpelli has held a lot of hands this week. The treasurer of Itron Inc. said she has talked to more than 100 investors since last Thursday, when the Spokane maker of automatic meter-reading equipment disclosed flat earnings projections for the second and third quarters of this year. Last Friday, Itron's stock plummeted in response to the news. A share worth $50.25 at the close of trading on Thursday fetched only $34 at the end of Friday.

Sara Wardrip, background in apron and gloves, talks with a Polish delegation touring the Airport Business Park Kitchen Center to learn about business incubators. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Dan Murray, left, president of United Security Bank, and Bud Dashiell, CEO, have turned a small-town bank into a $200 million holding compnay. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Bob Flory - unplugged - is singing the blues. The project manager for a Valley apartment complex wants to tie into Inland Power & Light Co. power lines about 200 feet away across North Argonne. But his 66-unit project, Pasadena Ridge Phase 2, is within Washington Water Power's service territory.

Residents of seven outlying Spokane and Whitman county communities will continue dialing long-distance to Spokane for at least two more months as a result of a ruling Wednesday by Washington regulators. GTE had asked the Utilities and Transportation Commission to extend toll-free calling into the city by its customers in return for increases in monthly phone bills.

Half of the Smith's Home Furnishing customers who bought extended warranties from the defunct company will not benefit from a settlement announced Wednesday by the Idaho Attorney General's office, a Spokane attorney said Thursday. Nor will they get their money returned, as proposed in a lawsuit filed against General Electric Capital Corp. last November, said attorney John Giesa. Giesa represents four Washington residents who claim GECC refuses to honor the warranties.

Would you bank with the Costanza family, the dysfunctional television tribe of "Seinfeld" fame? Of course you wouldn't, and that's why Sterling Savings Bank's newest radio and television ads feature Jerry Stiller, who plays Frank Costanza on the top-rated comedy.

A newly formed Washington Water Power Co. subsidiary will analyze energy use at 50 U.S. Bank of Washington branches in the first of what could be many deals expanding the Spokane utility's businesses. The value of the contract will depend on how much energy WWP Energy Solutions can help the branches save, and whether U.S. Bank decides to extend the evaluation to all of its 165 Washington branches, account executive Dave Miller said Monday. U.S. Bancorp, U.S. Bank's parent, could also use Energy Solutions at its bank subsidiaries in Nevada, Idaho, California and Oregon, he said.

Term limits are not just a political issue. The insurance industry and its state overseers are pondering the adoption of regulations that would change the way many term life insurance policies are priced. And pending that change, some companies are discounting their policies to grab as much of the market as they can.

Spokane inventor Stephen McGrew has sued The Upper Deck Co. alleging the maker of deluxe trading cards infringed on his patents for producing stereograms, a form of hologram. Upper Deck, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Spokane, contracted with McGrew in the early 1990s to produce the shimmering silver images that have made its cards among the most distinctive in the industry. McGrew had obtained the first of several holography patents while living in Spokane in 1976.