Business in brief: Order slowdown prompts Buck Knives to lay off 23

Post Falls knife manufacturer Buck Knives said it laid off 23 workers this week in response to declining orders from retail customers.

The announcement came from company Chief Operating Officer Phil Duckett. “We view layoffs as the very last resort and made every effort to reduce costs before having to initiate the layoff,” he said in a press release.

Another 20 workers were let go by Buck during the holiday season.

The company still has more than 200 workers at its production facility.

Company Chairman Chuck Buck said the dropoff in orders reflects the slowing national economy. “Knives are somewhat discretionary,” Buck said.

He expected sales to rebound in the second half of the year.

Tom Sowa

Spokane

Legal dispute not a threat, CenterStage chief says

Though it’s located in one of two downtown buildings threatened with foreclosure, nonprofit CenterStage won’t be endangered, the organization’s president said Friday in a statement.

CenterStage, which houses ella’s Supper Club, a dinner theater and a catering and events business, leases the three-story building at 1017 W. First Ave. from Spokane Partners LLC. A legal dispute between Spokane Partners and Spokane contractor RenCorp LLC “does not affect CenterStage’s leasehold interest or rights to occupy the Odd Girls Building,” President John Langenheim said.

CenterStage earlier this month kicked off a $225,000 fundraising drive.

RenCorp alleges Spokane Partners must pay more than $507,000 to avoid foreclosure on the CenterStage building and the adjacent former Music City structure.

Parker Howell

WASHINGTON

Stimulus checks sustain personal incomes

The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat?

The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending barely budged in April, rising a tiny 0.2 percent, and income growth was just as weak, increasing a similar 0.2 percent.

The growth in incomes, held back by four straight months of jobs losses, would have been just 0.1 percent had it not been for the first wave of economic stimulus payments that the government started sending out April 28.

The impact on incomes should be even larger in the May and June reports, reflecting the bulk of the payments. The Treasury Department reported Friday that so far 57.4 million payments have been made totaling $50.04 billion, nearly half of the $106.7 billion that will be disbursed this year to 130 million households.

Associated Press

SEATTLE

Horizon Air founder Milton Kuolt dies at 79

Milton Kuolt, a driven Washington state entrepreneur who founded Horizon Air, died Friday. He was 79.

Kuolt’s family says he died at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle from complications related to emphysema.

Kuolt, who was born in India to missionary parents, graduated in 1951 from the then-Central Washington College of Education. He worked his way up from janitor to manager at The Boeing Co., founded the Thousand Trails campground company and started Horizon Air, a regional carrier that was later bought by Alaska Airlines.

Associated Press