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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Week in review

A cart full of beef products imported from Australia is pushed through a market run by Hanamasa Co., a Tokyo-based operator of supermarkets and restaurants. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Week in Review The Spokesman-Review
A cart full of beef products imported from Australia is pushed through a market run by Hanamasa Co., a Tokyo-based operator of supermarkets and restaurants. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Tuesday

Eastern Washington grain growers have resumed shipping wheat by railroad, using the 108-mile CW Line between Coulee City and Cheney that was shut down last winter by its owner. The state of Washington is working to resolve a dispute with the railroad’s owner, Watco Cos., Inc., and while final agreements still are pending, the two sides made enough progress that Watco reopened the line in late July.

Weeks after Japan ditched its import ban on U.S. beef, American beef still is nowhere to be seen except in that nation’s five Costco Wholesale stores. Japan was once a top destination for U.S. beef, importing $1.4 billion worth a year. Tokyo banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state, and Australian beef producers rushed to fill the void.

Wednesday

A regional and international construction boom has created a shortage of tower cranes, the more than 100-foot-tall construction-site workhorses. There currently are half a dozen tower cranes in use in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, about double the usual number. Ordering a tower crane for a construction project is a “take a number” proposition these days.

Fuel economy is just about neck and neck with reliability as the top factors people look for when buying a vehicle, a Consumer Reports survey found.

Thursday

Federal Way, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser Co. agreed to combine its fine paper business with the Canadian paper maker Domtar Inc. in a deal it valued at about $3.3 billion. The new company will have 14,000 employees and will be led by Raymond Royer, Domtar’s president and chief executive officer. Royer said he did not expect any job cuts or mill closures as a result of the transaction.

Friday

The Spokane Shock arenafootball2 team had a winning season both on the field and on the books. Majority owner Brady Nelson spent a half -million dollars on franchise rights to start the Spokane Shock; in its first season, the team surpassed expectations for ticket, concession and merchandise sales and earned a “six figure” profit, he said. The Shock has already sold 4,500 season tickets for 2007.