Kootenai ranked 10th for new jobs
The Milken Institute’s Best Performing Cities Index ranked Kootenai County 10th in the nation in 2005 for sustainable job growth among 179 small metro areas.
The top spot went to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., followed by Bend, Ore., in second place. Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, Wash., ranked seventh.
On the institute’s index of 200 large metro areas, the greater Spokane area ranked 93rd.
The index measures job growth, increases in wages and salaries, and technology growth over one year and five-year periods. In 2005, the best-performing metro areas had similar characteristics: strong and growing service sectors, a robust recovery in tourism, growing populations and an increase in the number of retirees.
Coeur d’Alene
CdA Mines restates loss
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. has restated its earnings for the first quarter of 2005.
The company actually lost $1.1 million during the quarter, or $625,000 less than previously reported. The error stemmed from an underreporting of ore at the company’s Rochester Mine in Nevada.
Coeur d’Alene Mines will release its 2005 year-end financial statements on or before March 16.
Washington
Katrina jobless aid extended
The House acted Thursday to give people thrown out of work by hurricanes Katrina and Rita an extra 13 weeks of disaster unemployment benefits.
House lawmakers passed the bill as a bipartisan group headed to the Gulf Coast to inspect ongoing cleanup and rebuilding efforts. The delegation also plans to study the effectiveness of recovery aid.
The bill extends unemployment benefits scheduled to end on Saturday for 165,000 people who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for the assistance. The measure still needs Senate approval.
“Unfortunately, the economy in the Gulf Coast area remains devastated, and reemployment opportunities are greatly limited,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa.
Newark, N.J.
Toys R Us splits with Amazon.com
Amazon.com Inc. breached a deal with Toys R Us that was supposed to give the toy seller exclusive rights to supply some products on the Seattle-based Web site, a New Jersey judge ruled Thursday as she allowed the companies to sever their online partnership.
Superior Court Judge Margaret M. McVeigh, who sits in Paterson, did not award any damages.
Wayne-based Toys R Us sued Amazon.com in May 2004, saying the company violated exclusivity rights by allowing others to sell some items — toy, games and baby products — on Amazon’s site.
Toys R Us had maintained that Amazon violated a 2000 agreement in which Amazon, in exchange for $200 million, wouldn’t let others sell the Toys R Us products being offered on Amazon.com. Toys R Us contended that Amazon added its competitors to the Web site.