U.S. Army officials have re-upped their commitment to Sgt. STAR, the tech "virtual assistant" developed by Spokane's Next IT. The Sgt. STAR tool on GoArmy.com provides an automated, conversational set of answers to many questions raised by people looking at joining the service. The Army…
Today's major announcement has been the one by Boeing to base future production of the 737 MAX in Washington state. It will be in Renton, where Boeing already makes the 737. The new MAX is more fuel efficient. Area officials believe Spokane can get a…
Spokane's role in building the regional aerospace industry will be discussed Wednesday morning at an event sponsored by Greater Spokane Incorporated. Members of the Washington Aerospace Partnership and the Spokane Aerospace Initiative for Recruitment Team also will present information from the recent Washington State Competitiveness…
Idaho's latest job vacancy survey confirms the state’s current labor market is still tight, but there are more new jobs being created now than a year ago, the Idaho Department of Labor said today. The Idaho 2011 Job Vacancy Survey found 1.7 vacant jobs for…
Clearwater Paper Corp. has completed the sale of its Lewiston sawmill to Idaho Forest Group of Coeur d'Alene. The $30 million transaction included the sawmill, planer mill, dry kilns, and related assets along with log and finished goods inventories and timber under contract. As part…
Seasonal hiring of educators and retail workers helped push Spokane County’s unemployment rate down last month. It fell to 8.3 percent in October, down from September’s revised rate of 8.4 percent. It’s the lowest rate so far this year but remains high than in October…
Banks netted a $35.3 billion profit during the third quarter of this year, the FDIC noted today. Better loans and fewer losses from struggling borrowers helped the commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the FDIC. The third-quarter profits were an $11.5 billion improvement over…
Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed half-penny sales tax increase got plenty of attention Monday, but she also rolled out more than $340 million in additional tax plans she wants lawmakers to consider. Among them are increased business and occupation tax rates on windfall profits earned in…
Spokane-based King Beverage will expand to Seattle-area markets with the acquisition of longtime Renton, Wash., distributorship K&L Beverage in January, according to a story by Melissa Allison in The Seattle Times today. K&L employs about 215, the story says. King Beverage CEO Ted Rusnak couldn't…
Walmart plans to hire about 170 people to work at a new store opening this fall in Moscow. The retailer has opened a temporary hiring center at 672 W. Pullman Road in Moscow. The hiring center will take applications 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday…
You like Twitter streams, right? So we're going to run this stream over the weekend: the David Condon stream. Anyone tweeting about Mayor-Elect David will land on the stream and you'll get a chance to comment, reply, do nothing if that's your choice. Have a…
Freebie Friday has just landed: Today's free ebook download is a copy of "Cloud Computing For Startups." It's provided by the web services consulting group LaunchAny. Download the 25-pager for free here.
Starting this week and running through Jan. 1, Eastern Washington University Foundation is running a kiosk in River Park Square to sell Eagles items. The third floor kiosk features sweatshirts, sweatpants, youth T-shirts, infant items, license plate frames, and other items. "Our alumni and fans…
Employers across Idaho’s economy maintained payrolls at higher levels than typical for October, pushing Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate down another two-tenths of a point to 8.8 percent, the lowest level in nearly two years. It was the second straight month that Idaho’s jobless rate…
OLYMPIA — Washington’s jobless rate has dropped to 9 percent — the lowest since March 2009, according to figures released today by the state Employment Security Department. The October rate compares with a revised figure of 9.2 percent for September and 9.4 percent in October…
Spokane based tech company Next IT announced Thursday United Airlines will start using its virtual customer agent online next year. The company has developed similar products for Alaska Airlines and for Continental Airlines. Alaska's personalized question-answer agent lets fliers and passengers query "Jenn" which then…
Presentations by Microsoft and a well-known how-to author are part of a Dec. 1 session in Spokane on how seniors can use the Web more safely and explore social networking. Washington state AARP and Microsoft Corp. are hosting the Get Connected session that runs from…
Starbucks is a very generous company, even during the holiday season (especially in the holiday season). But generosity has its limits. The Seattle-based coffee retailer said it's closing some of its bathrooms in many of its Manhattan stores. The New York Post flushed out the…
Economists told some 700 people attending Greater Spokane Inc.’s regional economic forecast Tuesday morning that this year has been worse than they initially anticipated and that next year holds little promise of a roaring comeback. In other words, hang on for another very tepid 2012,…
Postal Service employees have been given the word: No more free tape left on retail counters. Certainly you have to hope even this little bit of savings will make a difference, at a time when the U.S. Postal Service is looking at losses of at…
There's another major business event happening Tuesday in downtown Spokane: the third annual Northwest Investment Forum hosted by the Spokane chapter of Certified Public Accountants. The afternoon lineup at The Davenport Hotel features: Noon: Keynoter Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management. 1:45…
Greater Spokane Incorporated (GSI) will host its annual Economic Forecast on Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. at the Spokane Convention Center's Integra Telecom Ballroom. The poet-prognosticator John W. Mitchell will be hand, as well as Dr. Grant Forsyth, professor of economics at Eastern…
A new book on entrepreneurs by Gonzaga University's Todd Finkle includes lessons drawn from Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin and Warren Buffett. Finkle is GU's Pigott Professor in Entrepreneurship. He recently arranged a trip by GU business and Hogan Program students to meet with Buffeet in…
Small businesses who are trying to gain advantages during the coming holiday season are being urged to reate a party atmosphere, especially during the Black Friday weekend. A number of retail experts are making their suggestions known, advising small business owners to think creative, think…
View Larger Map The downtown Spokane (Riverside Avenue) post office will not relocate in 2012. We have the story at Spokesman.com, and we're still trying to nail down suggested reasons for the about-face. In August the USPS announced the station, at 801 W. Riverside, would…