Miller buys WhiteRunkle agency
Ed. Miller, the managing partner of Spokane-based advertising agency WhiteRunkle, said he bought the company on Oct. 1.
Miller said he paid an undisclosed amount to buy the agency from longtime owners Jack White and Bob Runkle, who have retired. Miller is now WhiteRunkle’s president and CEO.
WhiteRunkle was founded 25 years ago as Clark-White-Saugen, and has changed names several times through the years. Miller said he’s discussing changing the firm’s name again, adding that if he decides in favor of that approach, “it would probably happen within a few months.”
The agency, located at 518 W. Riverside, employs 50 and has branch offices in Seattle and Atlanta.
Miller joined WhiteRunkle 20 years ago and has been a partner there for 15 years. He led the agency’s work for one of its major clients, AT&T Wireless, for 15 years. That company’s successor, Cingular Wireless, still is a client, the agency said in a press release. Other clients include Netflix, Motorola, Albertson’s and Hoopfest.
Miller was named managing partner of WhiteRunkle a year ago.
NIC to host workshop on Avista rates
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission will hold a “public workshop” on Oct. 11 to answer questions and provide information on Avista Utilities’ proposed 23.8 percent increase in natural gas rates.
The increase, which is the same for Idaho and Washington customers, is a pass-through of higher wholesale rates for natural gas. Utilities aren’t permitted to profit from such pass-throughs, unlike general rate-case requests that come before state utilities commissions.
The pass-through would boost the average residential customer’s natural-gas bill by about $16 a month, to $86 a month.
The Idaho PUC notes that “the effects of the recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast are not reflected in this year’s (pass-through).”
Avista would like the pass-through price hike to take effect Nov. 1.
The Oct. 11 workshop will be held in the Driftwood Bay Room of the Student Union Building on the North Idaho College campus, at 1000 W. Garden Ave. It starts at 7 p.m.
Written comments also will be accepted until Oct. 20 at P.O. Box 83720, Boise, Idaho, 83720-0074; by fax at (208) 334-3762, or by e-mail at www.puc.idaho.gov and clicking on “comments & questions.” The case number to fill in is AVU-G-05-02.
Connect Northwest moves to new office
After incorporating this summer as a stand-alone agency, Spokane-based Connect Northwest has moved its offices to Suite 1012 at the Washington Mutual Bank Building.
Until this year, Connect Northwest was a project sponsored by the Inland Northwest Technology Education Center (INTEC), a state-supported economic development organization. Until the move, Connect Northwest worked from INTEC’s office in the Steam Plant Square building in downtown Spokane.
Based on a similar program in San Diego, Connect Northwest works to help young technology companies grow and expand.
Chief Executive Officer Bill Kalivas said the nonprofit’s 2005 budget will come to about $300,000. Most of that is provided as a grant from Spokane County.
McDonald’s launches new Monopoly game
Oak Brook, Ill. McDonald’s Corp. launched what it called its biggest promotion ever Tuesday, reprising a version of its Monopoly game for a third straight year with partner Best Buy Co. Inc.
The Monopoly Best Chance Game 3.0 runs through Oct. 31 or while distribution supplies last at participating U.S. McDonald’s.
McDonald’s said it is giving away $1 million cash and customers also can win a car, a chance to be in an upcoming Hollywood movie, a home electronics makeover and other prizes. All told, the fast-food company said it will give away $200 million in total available winnings.
Strike hurts Boeing deliveries
Chicago Boeing Co. said Tuesday it delivered 62 commercial airplanes in the third quarter, its lowest total for the period in a decade due to the strike by assembly workers that ended last week.
Boeing has been working with its airline customers to reschedule the 25 to 30 airplane deliveries that originally were scheduled for September but were delayed because of the four-week strike. The company is expected to make them up in the coming months with overtime work, although it has not disclosed details.
The 62 planes delivered in the July-through-September period were five fewer than a year earlier and left Boeing with a total of 217 deliveries this year going into the fourth quarter. Before the strike, it had expected to deliver 320 airplanes in 2005.