West Coast Paper building new site
West Coast Paper announced this week that the company will build a 75,000-square-foot facility at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park and expects to move in next year.
Walker Construction will head up the project, which is being designed by Integrus Architecture and J-U-B Engineers Inc.
West Coast Paper has been located in its current facility, at 3420 E. Ferry Ave., since about 1995, said Milton Cardle, general manger of the company’s Spokane division. The Seattle-based company bought McGinnis Independent Paper here in 1997. West Coast Paper’s Spokane division currently employs 34, Cardle said.
West Coast Paper distributes fine and industrial papers, packaging and cleaning chemicals.
New Orleans
Vioxx maker hit by legal setbacks
Merck & Co. was stung with two major legal setbacks over the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx on Thursday when a federal jury ordered the drugmaker to pay $51 million to a heart attack victim, and a state judge in New Jersey overturned a November verdict favoring the company.
In New Orleans, the jury found that Merck “knowingly misrepresented or failed to disclose” information about Vioxx to retired FBI agent Gerald Barnett’s doctors. It said Barnett, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., should get $50 million in compensatory damages. And it added $1 million in punitive damages, saying Merck “acted in wanton, malicious, willful or reckless disregard for the plaintiff’s rights.”
In New Jersey, state Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee ruled evidence uncovered since the November verdict showed that Merck withheld information showing heart attacks could come with use of Vioxx for less than 18 months, said attorney Christopher Seeger.
Seeger represents Frederick “Mike” Humeston, of Boise, Idaho, who had a heart attack in September 2001.
Washington
Oscar gift bags subject to taxes
Movie stars enjoying the lavish gift bags handed out at this year’s Oscars will get some decidedly unglamorous notices: don’t forget to pay tax on the windfall.
“There’s no special red-carpet tax loophole for the stars,” Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said Thursday.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in an accord with the IRS, agreed to pay taxes due on gift bags handed out through 2005.
But responsibility for paying taxes on this year’s swag falls on the recipients.
The agreement marks the beginning of an IRS effort to reach out to the entertainment industry with reminders that award show gifts and promotional giveaways are considered taxable income.
The value of the gifts must be reported on a celebrity’s tax return. That includes gift certificates or vouchers if they’ve been redeemed. The gifts count as income because the IRS does not believe they were given “solely out of affection, respect or similar impulses.”
Celebrity gifting has become more lavish as marketers try to harness some star power to advertise their goods.