Week in review

TUESDAY

Mom-and-pop service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon: Thousands of pumps can’t register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials.

•Tribune Co.’s $650 million sale of Newsday is an important step toward alleviating its debt burden – for this year. Now the Chicago company needs to move on its next big asset sales, including the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Wrigley Field.

WEDNESDAY

Home sales slowed and average sale prices dropped across much of North Idaho during the six months ending in April, compared with the same period a year earlier, new data shows. The Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service recorded 808 sales of houses on less than an acre in Kootenai and other North Idaho counties, a 21 percent decrease.

•Consumers cut back on car-buying in April but boosted spending in a number of other areas, evidence of the economy’s staying power in spite of soaring gasoline prices. The Commerce Department said retail sales overall dipped only by 0.2 percent last month.

•Riding a hot streak that has doubled its stock price in the past three years, Hewlett-Packard Co. is rolling the dice on a $13.2 billion acquisition of technology services provider Electronic Data Systems Corp. The all-cash deal announced Tuesday represents HP’s biggest gamble under the leadership of Mark Hurd.

THURSDAY

Several Eastern Washington railroad rehabilitation projects, including a reconfigured Geiger Spur on the West Plains, could be under way within weeks, officials said. More than $17 million has been budgeted for construction to improve or preserve rail service to farms and factories in four Washington counties.

•The steady growth of commercial casinos in the past decade could take a hit next year because of a slumping economy and setbacks in building new places to play.

FRIDAY

Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang spent months fending off Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited takeover bid. Now he may only have a few weeks to persuade the software maker to revive its last offer of $47.5 billion or risk being fired in a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor Carl Icahn.

•Inland Power & Light Co. will shoot for LEED Gold – the second-highest level of sustainability certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council – for a headquarters building it’s constructing on the West Plains.