John Stucke

A nationwide home-building slowdown has led to temporary layoffs and manufacturing cutbacks at a Hearth & Home Technologies factory in Colville. The slump forced the large employer to halt production for about a month beginning in mid-December and furlough its 380 employees, according to company vice president and general manager Jason Olmstead.

Avista Corp. is ready to comply with new state laws mandating that large utilities procure 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources. The problem, according to Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof, is that the price of those megawatts is rising fast and will ultimately dig a deeper hole into the pockets of ratepayers.

Avista Corp. is selling shares of common stock out of the corporate treasury for the first time in 23 years as part of a financing plan that raised about $220 million. Most of the cash — about $150 million — will come from the sale of bonds. The rest, perhaps up to $70 million, will be raised from the common stock sales.

F&M Bank, a Spokane institution that celebrated its 100th year in business this year, will be sold to Banner Bank in a cash and stock deal valued at $98.8 million. The bank was long-known as Farmers and Merchants Bank. It has 14 branches, thousands of accounts and deep experience in the Spokane market, which made it an attractive merger candidate.

Annuities are big business in Washington. Insurance companies sold annuity contracts worth about $3.6 billion in 2004, according the most recent available government statistics and private research.

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane bankruptcy case will continue past Christmas and spill into its third year. Two days of mediation in Reno last week marked progress, pushing back court deadlines and hearings another month to early January.

Soaring costs for steel and concrete have pushed the price tag of retooling an Avista Utilities dam near Sandpoint too high, according to company officials. The Spokane utility is trying to find a fix to a vexing fish problem: its large Cabinet Gorge Dam on the Clark Fork River on the border of Idaho and Montana is blamed for making river conditions deadly for endangered bull trout and other fish.

Avista Utilities and a federal agency representing the Coeur d'Alene Tribe will argue next week about how to manage the dam that regulates the level of Lake Coeur d'Alene. An administrative law judge will hear testimony next week and rule in January whether tribal demands must be met for the Spokane company to renew its license for Post Falls Dam

A satellite television service and an affiliated cancer charity must pay almost $20,000 in state fines and fees for violating telemarketing laws. Regal Satellite and its owner Brady K. Nelson settled allegations from the Washington Attorney General's Office that the company used automated dialers to solicit business in Spokane earlier this year.

A defamation lawsuit against Catholic Bishop William Skylstad and a priest is frivolous and so improper that the attorney who filed it should be fined, a defense lawyer said in court filings Thursday. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Beth Bollinger this week, is rooted in whether a priest now serving two small parishes in the Palouse possessed child pornography 10 years ago when he was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Wilbur.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expanded its cheap prescription drugs program to stores in 11 more states Thursday, including its pharmacies in Washington and Idaho. People can pay $4 for a 30-day supply covering 331 commonly prescribed drugs.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expected to announce today that it is rolling out its popular $4 prescription drug program in Washington and Idaho. The company has scheduled simultaneous news conferences at its Shadle Park store and others in Seattle and Boise beginning today at 10 a.m.

A woman has sued Bishop William Skylstad and a Catholic priest serving small towns south of Pullman over allegations that the priest possessed child pornography. The lawsuit filed by Katherine Muzzall accuses Skylstad of defaming her two years ago in a strongly worded news release defending the Rev. Edward Marier. Muzzall claims Skylstad questioned her motives and bullied her and others from talking about Marier's pornography problems of a decade ago.

C. Paul Sandifur Jr. Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co.'s former chairman and CEO is fighting accounting-fraud lawsuits filed by investors and by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Now living in El Centro, Calif., Sandifur has not been charged with any crimes. He reportedly lost his personal fortune when the common stock of Metropolitan Mortgage and sister firm Summit Securities Inc. was rendered worthless in bankruptcy. A creditors' trust, established in bankruptcy court to pursue any possible cash recoveries on behalf of investors, has sued Sandifur and members of his family to recover what they consider to be improper payments such as performance bonuses, special dividends and a company-financed divorce settlement.

A year ago, federal authorities struck against former executives of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed sweeping lawsuits alleging accounting fraud. A federal grand jury in Seattle indicted an executive on seven criminal counts, and a Portland grand jury indicted a pair of brokers on 35 charges.

More people are paying debts once considered insurmountable, or sinking further into financial despair across the Inland Northwest because of new federal bankruptcy laws enacted a year ago that make it tougher to wriggle out of financial obligations. The law was hailed by some for reining in credit abuse and encouraging personal responsibility, but has been criticized by others as a way to reward banks, credit card companies and predatory lenders while squeezing the poor and vulnerable.

Catholic Charities of Spokane says it is being forced to move out of the Chancery by Dec. 1 after the stately white building on West Riverside Avenue was sold this month to satisfy church bankruptcy debts. "It's not great timing but it is what it is," Rob McCann, executive director of Catholic Charities, said of the pending move just before the crush of Christmas charity work.

Hundreds of former employee-owners of Tidyman's LLC have had their retirement funds zeroed out as the company dissolved. In an Oct. 9 letter sent to for Tidyman's employees, Mike Davis, former CEO and the trustee of the Tidyman's Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), wrote that the company has more debts than assets.

Lawyers and other professionals unraveling the tangled business dealings of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. have collected $19.4 million in fees and expenses during the past 21/2 years, according to company records and court filings. At least 28 law firms, outside accountants, tax consultants, public relations companies, insurance actuaries, turnaround specialists, expert witnesses, property appraisers and other companies were hired. It has been the largest and most expensive Eastern Washington bankruptcy. And the work isn't done.

Coeur d'Alene bankruptcy attorney Craig D. Odegaard filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Well-versed in the law, he sought to apply his 16 years of expertise to his own problems and shed debts, including $39,150 owed on 14 credit cards and $34,800 for telephone book advertisements.

Wheat prices are on the rise and lifting hopes among Eastern Washington farmers that tough agricultural economics are turning around. A bushel of soft white wheat fetched more than $5 this week from Portland grain buyers, the first time in 10 years the dominant crop grown in this region has been so valuable.