Week in review

TUESDAY

Construction has started on a 100-acre, mixed-use development in east Liberty Lake where developers plan to provide work force apartments and senior living. Framing is under way on the 75-unit First Liberty Apartments, the first phase of a master-planned community by Hayden-based Whitewater Creek Inc.

Renamed Hawkstone, the development on land southeast of Appleway Avenue and Simpson Road is authorized to have more than 800 residences, several acres of parks and a commercial hub.

WEDNESDAY

American consumers are gloomier about the economy than at any point since just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as slumping housing prices and soaring fuel costs depress consumer confidence to its lowest level in five years.

•Some taxpayers, frantic that they are going to miss out on economic stimulus payments, are falling victim to inaccurate information and identity theft scams.

Thursday

If big Wall Street investment houses are allowed to run to the Federal Reserve for emergency lending, they must face stepped-up regulation, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson declared.

•Motorola is banking on a plan to separate its foundering cell phone unit from the rest of the company, yet analysts are mixed on whether the gamble will actually yield big dividends. The plan to split the company in two, announced Wednesday, comes after months of speculation, shareholder pressure and hand-wringing.

Friday

Thanks to the weakened dollar, the U.S. has leapfrogged France, Britain and other European countries as a cheaper place to do business. A study released by the auditing and consulting firm KPMG shows that the U.S. moved up on the list of most cost-efficient places around the world.

•Comcast Corp., cast in cyberspace as an enemy of Internet users who avidly share music, video and other large files, has extended an olive branch to the creator of a popular file-sharing technology. Its deal with BitTorrent Inc., which invented a more efficient successor to such online file-sharing services as Napster and Kazaa, calls for the Internet service provider to find alternatives to delaying transfers.