Week in review

MONDAY

Sandpoint-based winoworld.com offers an online selection of about 1,400 Northwest wines. Annual sales add up to about 1,200 cases of wine, with sales growing 15 percent per year.

TUESDAY

A pair of businessmen plan to pour $600,000 into a new downtown Spokane distillery, which they say will be the state’s first grain-alcohol producer since Prohibition. Dry Fly Distilling Inc. will make vodka, gin and whiskey.

“ A Colfax farmer won a legal fight with Avista Utilities, convincing a state judge that the massive power poles and transmission lines above his wheat fields violate a decades-old easement, costing his farm money.

“ The locally grown company Fred’s Appliance is preparing to open a 20,000-square-foot store in Spokane Valley while expanding its “scratch and dent” offerings at other stores.

WEDNESDAY

Avista Corp. is selling most of its energy trading subsidiary, Avista Energy, to Coral Energy Holding L.P., a company controlled by the Shell Group. Avista Energy’s book value is $202 million, but the sale price was not disclosed.

THURSDAY

More than 200 attendees learned how statistics can be used more effectively to identify and track trends at a Spokane conference on “community indicators.” The conference was put on by Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy & Economic Analysis.

“ Avista Corp.’s energy trading subsidiary lost money during the first quarter due to volatile natural gas and energy prices, dragging down corporate profits. The news came a day after Avista’s announcement it will sell that subsidiary.

FRIDAY

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Sandpoint is building a $7.3 million parish center to accommodate a growing congregation. The expansion will add about 28,500 square feet.