John Stucke

Police are investigating the death of a woman suspected of embezzling $500,000 from a Spokane nonprofit that links people with developmental disabilities to employers. The apparent suicide of Shannon Patterson has shaken the organization, Skils’kin, amid investigations and audits of its finances, and has prompted grief among its employees and clients.

The former employee-owners of Tidyman’s have won a $29 million judgment against the defunct grocery chain’s insurer. It’s a major victory and could restore at least some lost retirement savings for perhaps as many as 1,000 people who worked for the Spokane-based grocer until it went out of business in 2006. As Tidyman’s failed, the value of its employee-held stock plummeted until executives declared it worthless. That stock was the largest source of retirement savings for most employees. Accusations of mismanagement were made, and the employees sued in 2007.

A multimillion-dollar legal fight pitting The Scotts Company LLC, one of the world’s leading lawn companies and the maker of Miracle-Gro fertilizer, against Northwest farmers and two grass seed dealers has been settled. The case erupted in late 2010 after Scotts refused a contractual obligation to pay millions of dollars for Kentucky bluegrass seed. The company suspected that farmers and two local seed dealers were juicing their harvest numbers to collect more money.

AmericanWest Bank completed a blockbuster week that saw the Spokane-based lender finish the purchase of a small California bank and strike a deal to buy an Oregon bank that will increase its assets by 50 percent. AmericanWest has been aggressive after shaking off financial troubles from several years ago and is now broadening its lending reach along the West Coast.

Austin Rehkow is an overnight sensation. He’s on ESPN. The Today Show came calling. His name was served up with breakfast on Friday morning across the football-loving world. The Central Valley High School Bears senior place kicker nailed a 67-yard record-breaking field goal Thursday night to send his team into overtime. It’s a game the Bears eventually won – a 62-55 defensive contest against the Shadle Park Highlanders.

A Washington State University student has been hospitalized with what health officials say is bacterial meningitis.

Spokane County’s Public Health Clinic is a candidate for closure next year, as fewer patients rely on the services it provides and budget cuts loom. The proposed closure is yet another example of the changing mission of public health in Spokane County, said Health Officer Dr. Joel McCullough. Rather than the hands-on, high-profile help public health workers historically have provided to the public, the Spokane Regional Health District is morphing into an agency focused more on disease prevention and health risk management and policy, McCullough said.

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane has accused its own lawyers of mishandling its historic bankruptcy, which exposed decades of clergy sex abuse and cost parishioners and insurers $50 million. A malpractice lawsuit filed this week by the diocese seeks more than $12 million from the venerable Spokane law firm Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke and Miller.

Fred Meyer will close its store on East Francis Avenue early next year after failing to renegotiate its lease. Fred Meyer, a division of The Kroger Co., told its 167 employees Wednesday morning of the decision to close on Jan. 31.

Pyrotek Inc. has paid $1.2 million to Eastern Washington University for a downtown Spokane building. The deal for the building at 705 W. First Ave. has been anticipated for months and brings Pyrotek higher visibility. It will relocate its headquarters to the 70,000-square-foot building.

Disease investigators have sent a brain tissue sample of a deceased 32-year-old Spokane woman to a national research lab to be tested for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable condition that has multiple variants, including one called mad cow. An autopsy of Amanda Greenwalt Wheaton noted that CJD was a potential diagnosis. She died Aug. 24.

A Spokane teenager was among 30 people sickened with salmonella connected to peanut butter sold by Trader Joe’s. Spokane health officials said the boy became ill about six weeks ago, as did another boy, from Thurston County.

A Spokane teen was among 30 people who were sickened with salmonella connected to a peanut butter sold by grocer Trader Joe’s.

Providence Health Care has staked a claim in Spokane Valley with plans to open a $58 million medical campus. The region’s largest health care company, with 275 doctors on the payroll and more than 7,000 employees across Eastern Washington, decided the time is right to build on 11 acres along Interstate 90 east of Sullivan Road.

Foreclosure activity in Spokane decreased by 27 percent in the first half of 2012, an encouraging sign for the local housing market. The midyear foreclosure report released by RealtyTrac on Thursday put Spokane’s rate at one in every 389 homes – 178th out of the 212 metropolitan areas listed.

Foreclosure activity in Spokane decreased by 27 percent in the first half of 2012, an encouraging sign for the local housing market amidst continuing struggles across the country.

Federal investigators are blaming the November death of a worker in the Lucky Friday Mine on company management. “The accident occurred due to management’s failure to provide the miners with the proper personal protective equipment,” investigators with the Mine Safety and Health Administration concluded in their report.