Briefcase

Rates for workers’ compensation will rise 12 percent on average

OLYMPIA – The state Department of Labor and Industries says workers’ compensation rates are going up an average of 12 percent next year, or about 6.5 cents per hour worked.

Judy Schurke, the department’s director, says the slow economy has increased workers’ comp costs. But she says the state has been able to hold the rate down through cost-cutting measures.

Monday’s rate announcement is months later than usual because of the campaign over Initiative 1082, which would have allowed private insurers to sell workers’ comp and changed the way rates are calculated.

The department didn’t propose new rates before the election, saying it would have been too confusing to change them if I-1082 was approved. Voters defeated I-1082 last week.

October home sales down sharply compared to market a year ago

Home sales plunged 40 percent in October compared with the same month last year, when a federal income tax credit boosted sales.

The Spokane Association of Realtors reported 304 sales, down from 509 in October 2009, and 317 in September.

Average and median prices were up substantially, to $189,541 and $166,250, respectively.

The tax credits targeted at first-time homebuyers tended to increase the sale of lower-priced homes. Originally scheduled to expire Nov. 1, 2009, they were extended through the end of April.

So far in 2010, 3,634 homes and condominiums have been sold, down 6 percent from the first 10 months of 2009.

There were 3,179 homes on sale as of Wednesday.

New head of distribution, audience development at S-R

Tina Sanborn, a longtime employee of The Spokesman-Review’s circulation department, will become the company’s director of distribution and audience development in January.

She succeeds Dan Johnson, who will become The Spokesman-Review’s director of sales and marketing on Jan. 10.

Sanborn joined the newspaper’s circulation department in 1983 as an office clerk. She became home delivery manager in 2007, where she has launched programs that have “significantly reduced delivery errors and has created an efficient, streamlined operation,” according to a news release.

In her new role, she will direct all circulation functions of the newspaper, including home delivery, news-rack and digital-product sales, and nonsubscriber products such as Pinch.

Notes

• Bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. said Monday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it failed to raise additional capital.

• Chrysler said Monday it cut its losses in half between the second and third quarters, to $84 million.

• A Monopoly promotion and strong sales of basic menu items such as the Big Mac helped push sales at stores open at least 13 months up 5.6 percent in the U.S. for McDonald’s during October.

• Hasbro Inc. is betting that iPod and iPhone users want 3-D viewing on the go. The nation’s second-largest toy maker will be unveiling today a handheld device called My3D that attaches to the two Apple Inc. devices.