Business in brief: Sunshine Minting makes Inc. list

Coeur d’Alene-based Sunshine Minting Inc. ranked highest of several Inland Northwest companies listed on Inc. magazine’s new list of the 5,000 fastest-growing, private U.S. firms, growing about 266 percent from 2003 through 2006, according to the publication.

The firm, which supplies precious metal products for the minting industry, placed No. 1,350, with revenues last year of $188.3 million, according to the magazine. While no regional companies cracked the magazine’s top-500 list, Washington state had 23, placing it seventh among states.

Other Eastern Washington firms listed included outdoor telecommunications-cabinet maker Purcell Systems Inc., of Spokane Valley, with 199 percent growth and revenues of $62.4 million, and Banner Retail Marketing Group, of Liberty Lake, with 139 percent growth and $42.3 million in revenues.

In North Idaho, Coeur d’Alene-based Pita Pit USA Inc. had growth of 231 percent and revenues of $3.6 million. Higher-education consulting firm CCbenefits Inc., of Moscow, grew about 170 percent and had revenues of $2 million.

Companies applied to be included on the list, which was expanded to 5,000 for the first time this year.

Chicago

Doctors urge help for uninsured

The nation’s largest doctors group Thursday launched a multimillion-dollar media campaign to promote its proposals for helping uninsured Americans get health insurance.

The American Medical Association placed full-page color ads promoting its “Voices for the Uninsured” campaign in Thursday’s editions of the New York Times and USA Today.

The AMA’s solution includes tax credits and increasing federal funds to expand government programs, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.

The group’s president-elect, Dr. Nancy Nielsen, said some people assume the uninsured all are homeless or unemployed.

But today, they’re “your own families or your working neighbors,” she said at a Washington, D.C., news conference.

Nielsen, the mother of five, said she was uninsured while in graduate school. She recalled lacking money to feed her young children after paying for emergency care when one of them got sick.

Washington

SoundExchange will limit fees

A music industry group Thursday said it would cap “per channel” fees for major Internet radio companies streaming music on multiple channels.

SoundExchange, which collects royalties from Webcasters and distributes them to artists and record labels, said it would limit fees – at $50,000 a year – for online radio station companies that offer more than 100 channels.

A panel of three copyright judges earlier this year mandated that Webcasters had to pay higher royalty fees.

The ruling meant that large Webcasters, such as Pandora Media Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, that stream hundreds of channels faced much higher payments to SoundExchange than in the past.

From staff and wire reports