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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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John Stucke

John Stucke

Current Position: Asst. Managing Editor (Front Page)

John Stucke joined The Spokesman-Review in 2000. As Metro Editor, he directs local news coverage and oversees newsroom reporters. He has reported on business, health care, bankruptcy and agriculture for the paper.

Email
johnst@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 459-5419

All Stories

News >  Business

Judge limits new Met investigation

A court-appointed examiner investigating Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities will now focus on business dealings between the company and its many affiliates. Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Patricia Williams said Monday that inter-company transactions should be studied to ensure fairness to different creditor groups.
News >  Business

Met creditors want to sue accounting firm

Creditors in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. bankruptcy case want to hire a law firm by next month to sue the big accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, the creditors' lawyer said in a hearing Friday. Stung by the realization that assets such as property and notes might only be enough to return 15 cents on the dollar, creditors have pinned their hopes on a legal theory that Ernst & Young failed in its watchdog role as Metropolitan's auditor.
News >  Business

Small Met recovery possible

Investors in bankrupt Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. could recover as little as 15 cents on the dollar, a devastating loss of wealth for the thousands of people who entrusted their savings to a company that's now plagued by accounting scandals and federal investigations. The executive hired from outside to run Metropolitan after it filed for bankruptcy protection said Thursday the recovery depends on the successful sale of notes and property, especially beachfront lots in Hawaii that could be worth tens of millions.
News >  Business

Servatron expects rebound

In the midst of a difficult year, Spokane Valley electronics manufacturer Servatron Inc. is looking ahead to a better 2005. A new contract should help ease the troubles that beset Servatron during 2004, said company President Larry Panattoni.
News >  Spokane

LPNs face tough choices with layoffs

Judy Hurt will lose her job in October. It's a startling situation to be in. She has been a licensed practical nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center for 23 years, and never dreamed she and her co-workers would be laid off by the hospital in a targeted cost-cutting move.
News >  Business

Kaiser posts profit in second quarter

Kaiser Aluminum posted a $24.2 million profit during the second quarter of 2004, its first since filing for bankruptcy protection in February 2002. However, the company also pushed back its deadline to emerge from Chapter 11 until mid-2005 — an ominous sign for Trentwood Steelworkers, who point to a labor contract that expires next year. Steelworkers aren't anxious to negotiate a new pact while the company's still under Bankruptcy Court protection.
News >  Business

Investors worry as Met faces millions in legal fees

Costs in the Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. Inc. bankruptcy are piling up, even as creditors worry about recovering at least some of their investments. In the first part of the year, lawyers, accountants and advisers who are working to unravel the financial mess have charged the company about $4 million, according to records filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane. And they will get paid before anyone else.
News >  Business

Kaiser refinery sale stalls

The $525 million asking price for Kaiser Aluminum Corp.'s stake in an Australian refinery apparently is too rich. The company received no qualified bids for its 20 percent interest in the Queensland Alumina Ltd. refinery. Without a bid, Kaiser canceled its Aug. 16 auction and is rethinking its sales strategy for the prized asset, the company said Wednesday.
News >  Spokane

Murray touts health program

With the number of people without health insurance on the rise, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called on the White House to back a program that steers patients toward help. Seeking re-election this fall, Murray was in Spokane on Wednesday to tout her work funding the federal Healthy Communities Access Program, or HCAP.
News >  Business

Area hospitals feeling pain of cash crunch

The region's five major hospitals labored through the first six months of 2004. Three lost money and the only two profitable hospitals, Sacred Heart Medical Center and Kootenai Medical Center, had significantly poorer results than they did in the first six months of 2003.
News >  Business

Trade talks seen as give-and-take

Global trade talks designed to halt subsidy payments to American farmers while lifting tariffs in other countries could be a positive, albeit risky, move for Washington and Idaho wheat farmers. The World Trade Organization's 147 member nations recently agreed upon a framework that restarts negotiations after last year's calamitous meeting in Cancun, when sharp divisions between developing and rich countries stalled talks. The dissent was led by Brazil and India, which blamed subsidies in the United States and Europe for a global food glut that suppresses prices.
News >  Idaho

7 people hurt in boat crash

A fiery boat crash Saturday evening along the Coeur d'Alene River left seven people hurt. Several passengers suffered burns and had to jump from the burning boat into the water. None of the passengers has been identified.
News >  Spokane

Mother pleads for kids’ return

Coeur d'Alene police are investigating scores of tips concerning the whereabouts of two children feared abucted by a fugitive sought by authorities in six states. An Amber Alert has been issued and the mother of one of the children issued a plea Sunday for her daughter's safe return.
News >  Idaho

Thousands head to NIC for art fair

Aaron Anstett plans to carve, cut and saw the way to his first car. By turning discarded blocks of hickory, pine and maple into whimsical fish puzzles, he has discovered that art might just pay after all.
News >  Spokane

Ailing system

In a moment of financial panic, Philip Marlatt pulled off his patient identification bracelet and walked out of Holy Family Hospital's bustling emergency room. "I don't have insurance, and I knew it would be too expensive," he said.
News >  Business

A business frozen in time

When the huckleberry harvest begins later this month, Jerry Gill will spend hour after hour making local favorites. There are milkshakes and sundaes, single-scoop dishes and double-header ice cream cones.
News >  Business

Deaconess, Valley may see layoffs

Empire Health Services may lay off several dozen registered nurses and technicians at its two hospitals. Details are vague, but evolving cost-control efforts have newly unionized nurses and technicians worried that 30 to 40 full-time positions could be lost, said Carter Wright, a spokesman for the Service Employees Union International 1199NW representing the employees.
News >  Business

Met Mortgage to abandon Pasco project

Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. will abandon a multimillion-dollar mall project in the Tri-Cities. The bankrupt Spokane firm owes more money on the factory outlet mall than what appraisers say the entire project is worth.
News >  Business

Local 24-Hour Fitness gyms sold to Oz Fitness

The 24-Hour Fitness gyms in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene have been sold to Ian Riley, a former competitive bodybuilder-turned-businessman. Riley, of Sun Valley, Idaho, said members will notice few changes at first. There are no plans to tinker with rates and Riley won't even change the name of the gyms – at least for now.
News >  Spokane

City Hall won’t be in Met tower

Spokane Mayor Jim West said Thursday that the city is no longer interested in buying the Metropolitan Financial Center. Facing a budget crunch and skeptical voters, the city is just not ready to embark on such a bold proposal as buying the 17-story white high-rise in downtown Spokane and moving City Hall there, he said.
News >  Business

Local Planet ends publication

Publisher Matt Spaur said Thursday he is closing The Local Planet, ending a feisty four-year newspaper run that poked at Spokane's conservative establishment and took readers on irreverent romps through the region's political, music and dating scenes. "I no longer have the interest and energy to do it," Spaur said.
News >  Spokane

Examiner wants closer look at Metropolitan’s auditors

A court-appointed examiner wants to continue investigating Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc.'s collapse. Specifically, examiner Samuel Maizel wants to scrutinize the work of Ernst & Young LLP, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP – deep-pocketed accounting firms that for years signed off on questionable bookkeeping at Metropolitan.
News >  Business

Pottery shop to close its doors

Art By Yourself, a small shop where customers paint pottery pieces, will close later this month. Owner Andrew Baucom said the store's eight-year run at 122 S. Monroe will end because of diminished traffic from the Monroe Street bridge rebuilding project, inadequate parking and rising business costs, such as rent.
News >  Business

Providing the colors

As Eric Penney unfurls a Kenyan flag, he just grins about his first international business opportunity. Penney is supplying about 600 flags to the 2004 Olympics. That's three flags for every competing nation.
News >  Business

Luminaria sold to Portland firm

Downtown Spokane's shopping scene will dim next week when Luminaria closes and moves to Portland. Owner Mark Mansfield has sold the business to Schoolhouse Electric Co. as part of an ambitious plan to give the Luminaria brand national exposure.