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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: JPMorgan Chase donates to job-training efforts in Spokane

From Staff And Wire Reports

JPMorgan Chase has donated $175,000 to the Community Colleges of Spokane and the Spokane Area Workforce Development Council to improve job training for young adults and teens.

Of that amount, $100,000 was granted to the Workforce Development Council. The nonprofit job training program will use $56,000 on a number of efforts to help younger workers find good jobs, CEO Mark Mattke said.

The main focus will be Spokane’s Next Generation Zone, a career training and education center for residents 16 to 21 years old. The $56,000 grant will help the center acquire new technology as well as fund scholarships, training and job certification for teens and young adults.

The remaining $44,000 will develop a health care workforce roadmap, Mattke said. The roadmap will identify workplace needs and critical occupations for filling future positions in the regional health care marketplace.

A separate JPMorgan Chase grant of $75,000 goes to the Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation for program development to support Workforce Spokane in these initiatives. The goal is to help the colleges plan courses that assist in meeting health care training programs.

Google offers ad-free song-search service

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is remixing the music on its YouTube video site with the addition of ad-free subscription service “Music Key” and a new format designed to make it easier to find millions of songs that can still be played for free.

The subscription service is part of Google’s effort to mine more revenue from YouTube as the video site approaches its 10th anniversary. Music Key has been speculated about for months while Google Inc. wrangled over the licensing terms with recording labels. The service, priced initially at $8 a month, is comparable in cost to other digital music subscription services sold by Spotify, Apple Inc.’s Beats and Google’s own 18-month-old streaming service tied to its Android “Play” store.

J.C. Penney says 3Q flat but eager for holidays

PLANO, Texas – J.C. Penney Co. narrowed its third-quarter loss, but sales slowed as warm weather curbed demand for fall merchandise.

The department store chain said late Wednesday that revenue from its stores open at least a year, a key retail metric, was flat, following gains in the three prior quarters. Still, Penney’s executives said they’re pleased with November sales and they are counting on that measure to rise 2 to 4 percent in the critical holiday quarter.

The retailer still faces difficulties as it heads into the holiday shopping season: Traffic is down and Penney needs to bring in more shoppers to boost sales.