Briefly

Grant approved for University District

Spokane city officials learned Wednesday the federal Economic Development Administration has approved a $175,000 grant to complete planning of a proposed university district.

Formal presentation of the grant will occur next week when EDA officials visit Spokane.

Civic leaders and economic development groups applied for the money nearly a year ago. The funds will help set in motion more specific planning for the next phase of the University District, said Tom Reese, the City of Spokane’s Economic Development adviser.

The 12-month grant will pay for economic development consulting work and for hosting several workshops to advance the plan, he said.

Proponents believe the district at the east end of the downtown core will generate significant numbers of new jobs by becoming a magnet for higher education, business, residential use and health care industry growth. The name Univeristy District is taken from the proximity of the three schools in that area, Eastern Washington University, Washington State University and Gonzaga University.

Housing agency helps finance apartments

Ponderay

The Idaho Housing and Finance Association helped finance the recent construction of the 40-unit Woodland Crossing apartment complex at 839 Kootenai Cutoff Road.

Eighty percent of the units in the senior development are designated for low- to moderate-income renters.

“With the support of IHFA, we have been able to bring affordable housing to the seniors of North Idaho,” developer Todd Prescott, vice president of Whitewater Creek Inc., said in a statement. “The aging population in the area now has a viable affordable housing option that enables them to reside in an area that is experiencing huge price increases in property and cost of living.”

Idaho’s senior population increased by 25 percent from 1990 to 2000, and is expected to grow to 350,000 by 2020. The number of Idaho residents 85 and older is growing five times faster than the state’s overall population, according to the Idaho Commission on Aging.

Whitewater Creek and NCR of Idaho were the developers for Woodland Crossing, and Whitewater Creek was also the general contractor.

Bank of America provided a $2.1 million construction loan for the project; Idaho Community Reinvestment Corp. provided an $843,000 loan; and the Affordable Housing program chipped in $160,000 in federal loan dollars. IHFA provided low-income housing tax credits worth about $1.7 million. Housing tax credits reduce federal tax liability, lowering the developers’ debt and bringing rents within the reach of more families.

Danish ban some Kellogg products

Copenhagen, Denmark Danish health officials said Wednesday they have banned several vitamin-enriched products of U.S. breakfast cereal maker Kellogg, saying they could be harmful if eaten regularly.

The 18 products, which include enriched versions of popular brands already on the Danish market like Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Special K, were to be launched in Denmark soon.

“We’ve turned down applications for a number of enriched products which will have toxic effects in the doses Kellogg uses,” said Paolo Drotsby of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.

Drotsby said that if eaten regularly, the products could damage children’s livers and kidneys, as well as the fetuses of pregnant women.

Kellogg said it was puzzled by the rejection, as many of the products are being sold already in several other European countries.

“We’re extremely concerned and mystified, as we never have had such problems with health authorities before in Kellogg’s history,” said John Buckles, managing director for Kellogg in the Nordic region.

The 18 products include 12 types of cereal brands and six types of snack or breakfast bars. Buckles said the European enrichment recipes were slightly different from the ones used in the United States, although Kellogg’s products are fortified there as well and have been since the 1930s.

Pentagon audit questions Halliburton billing

Washington Halliburton Co. did not adequately account for more than $1.8 billion it billed the government for work in Iraq and Kuwait, a published report on the findings of Pentagon auditors said Wednesday.

The results of the audit, reported by The Wall Street Journal, were the latest financial headache for Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year to resolve billions of dollars in pending asbestos claims.

The $1.8 billion amounts to 40 percent of the $4.18 billion KBR has already billed the Pentagon for its work feeding and housing military troops. The Pentagon could begin withholding payments from KBR if it determines it is owed money – though it has yet to do so.

KBR officials told the newspaper the company has done nothing wrong, and expressed confidence the issue would be resolved without such action.

Youth jobless rate worldwide hits 88 million

Geneva The number of jobless young people worldwide has reached an all-time high of 88 million, fueling frustration and possibly boosting crime and even terrorism in hard-hit poor nations, the United Nations labor agency said Wednesday.

In 2003, total global unemployment reached 186 million, said the International Labor Organization, which bases its calculations on statistics from governments. Some 47 percent of the jobless were aged 15-24.

Young people are among the hardest hit when the world economy is in the doldrums, the ILO said. But spiraling population growth in poor countries means a future economic upturn may do little more than dent youth unemployment, prolonging political instability and social problems.