Week in review
Tuesday
Empire Health Services intends to bring its housekeeping, laundry, food services and clinical engineering departments back under hospital management after the company it outsourced the jobs to four years ago announced Friday it was terminating its contract. The move affects about 245 employees.
“Skippers Seafood ‘n Chowder House eateries in Eastern Washington and North Idaho served their last fish-and-chips baskets last week, closing as a part of the chain’s bankruptcy settlement approved Friday.
Wednesday
Radio giant Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which owns about 25 percent of Spokane’s radio stations, is leaving the city’s market, agreeing to sell its seven stations to a California-based operator. Mapleton Communications of Los Angeles has agreed to acquire the stations, but it is waiting for Federal Communications Commission approval of the sale, which is expected in October.
“Has Bill Gates been knocked off the world’s pinnacle of wealth? A respected Mexican journalist says magnate Carlos Slim may have supplanted Bill Gates as the world’s richest man, thanks to a healthy bump in the stock price for a mobile phone company Slim controls. According to the calculations by Eduardo Garcia, Slim’s worth climbed to $67.8 billion at the end of June. He calculated Microsoft Corp. founder Gates’ worth at $59 billion in June.
“Summertime in Hollywood is not as hot as it looked at the beginning.
While the three May blockbusters — Sony’s “Spider-Man 3,” DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third” and Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” — have combined for nearly $1 billion in domestic revenue, overall business and movie attendance are well below the record pace many show business types had expected.
Thursday
Two Moscow, Idaho, engineers think a rapidly rechargeable flashlight they’ve developed will electrify law enforcement agencies.
With a recommended retail price of $229, the flashlight, created by University of Idaho graduates David Alexander and Erik Cegnar, will cost nearly twice as much as other rechargeable, heavy-duty lights used by police officers and emergency workers.
Friday
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently approved the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s request to expand an “Indian area” to include the entire state of Idaho. The expansion allows Native Americans affiliated with any federally recognized tribe to access the loan program to purchase homes anywhere inside the state.