Litehouse Inc., the Sandpoint manufacturer of salad dressings and dips, has been family-owned for more than 50 years. That ended last month when Litehouse sold 100 percent of company stock to employees.
Silverwood Theme Park north of Coeur d’Alene is expanding again with more rides for younger children and families. The park will spend more than $1.2 million to nearly double its family entertainment area with three new rides – a kite glider, a giant puppy ride…
Schweitzer Mountain Resort will add 20 new residences to White Pine Lodge. The four-story addition will add 16 two-bedroom/two-bathroom homes and four three-bedroom/three-bathroom homes, the resort says. The three-bedroom homes will be designed as lock-off units, allowing for varied configurations for owner rental and use.…
The minimum wage in Washington will go up to $9.19 an hour on Jan. 1, keeping the state ahead of all others and nearly $2 above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Idaho’s minimum wage will remain unchanged at $7.25 an hour, which is just…
The unemployment rate in Idaho fell to 7.1 percent in September, the lowest rate since May 2009 and down from 7.4 percent in August. But the state also has seen its labor force shrink four straight months, including the first August-September decline since the 1986…
The unemployment rate fell in August across North Idaho and statewide, due in part to fewer people seeking jobs. The Idaho rate fell to 7.4 percent, down slightly from July. In Kootenai County, the August jobless rate was 9 percent, down from 9.3 percent the…
Washington and other West Coast states have the highest gas prices in the nation – in some case 50 cents higher than the national average. In the Spokane area, average prices remain below $4 a gallon, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Guage Report. On the…
Pacific Steel & Recycling, based in Great Falls, Mont., has purchased Forest Steel Inc. in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is effective today. The facility will operate under the Pacific Steel name. Pacific is retaining all 37 employees of Forest Steel,…
Itron, Inc. has finished buying SmartSynch for $100 million. The Liberty Lake company said today the acquisition strengthens its cellular communications offering and will bring greater choice to utility customers across the spectrum of smart metering deployments. Jackson, Miss.-based SmartSynch is the leading provider of…
The wind power farm to be built on the Palouse this summer will include 58 windmills between the town of Oakesdale and State Route 195. That's a little larger than previously announced. Boston-based First Wind had said the wind farm would include 46 turbines. The…
Sam P. Wood’s career has revolved around the local real-estate market for more than two decades, first as an agent and, since 1996, also as an appraiser. The Lewis and Clark High School and Eastern Washington University graduate describes Spokane as “an island unto itself”…
Taxable retail sales as well as retail trade fell in Spokane last year, unlike most other metro areas, including its plucky offspring, Spokane Valley. Taxable sales totaled $3.6 billion in Spokane in 2011, a 1.2 percent dip over 2010, the state Department of Revenue said…
It's "open house" weekend in Spokane, with Realtors hosting open house events Saturday and Sunday at more than 500 homes on the market. The event sponsor is Greenstone Homes, which has the "headquarters house" at the development company's Kendall Yards project on the north bank…
Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation’s Kensington gold mine in Alaska will resume full production ahead of schedule, the Coeur d’Alene-based company announced today. The company in November announced a temporary reduction in mining and milling activities to allow for completion of several underground and surface projects…
Marketing efforts for a farmers market, an Advent calendar, Gonzaga University and a stink bug trap won top prizes in this year’s Spark Awards presented by Spokane MarCom, the regional marketing and communications association. The awards recognize the best work by local marketing, communications and…
Spokane's Northern Lights Brewing Company has been renamed No-Li Brewhouse. The new venture is headed by Northern Lights founder and head brewmaster Mark Irvin and craft beer industry veteran John Bryant, both of whom have deep roots in Spokane. The distribution plan for No-Li Brewhouse…
Ambassadors Group is putting up for sale its Spokane headquarters, a 133,000-square-foot building and surrounding property near the Spokane International Airport. The building and 11 acres of land are listed for $13.3 million. Ambassadors, which promotes cultural-immersion trips for students, said today it would move…
Population decline in rural Idaho intensified in 2011, new U.S. Census Bureau estimates show. More people left the state’s rural areas between mid-2010 and mid-2011, and more counties lost population than at any other time since the 1980s. Eighteen of the 33 rural counties saw…
James Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will be the keynote speaker at Greater Spokane Incorporated's annual meeting Sept. 12. Albaugh was president and CEO of Boeing Space and Communications from 1998 to 2002. In 2002 he became president and CEO of Boeing…
Inland Power and Light of Spokane has selected Chad Jensen to be CEO of the cooperative starting May 21. Jensen is vice president at Lower Valley Energy, an electric cooperative in Afton, Wyo. He has been with Lower Valley Energy for 22 years and has…
U.S. builders started work on slightly fewer homes in February. But they began laying the ground work for a turnaround later this year by requesting the most building permits in any month since October 2008, the Associated Press reports. The Commerce Department said today that…
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is taking a break from his day job this afternoon to revisit the academic life he led before coming to Washington a decade ago. He’ll stand before a class of George Washington University undergraduates and give the first of four…
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory plans to lay off 45 employees this week. The cutbacks are in order to adjust to the latest federal budget approved in December, the Associated Press reports. The Department of Energy national lab based in Richland employs 4,758 people and…
The Supreme Court says a state can’t be sued under the Family and Medical Leave Act for refusing to give an employee time off to recover from an illness, the Associated Press reports. The high court on today refused to let Daniel Coleman sue the…
If you own a small business and have yet to do your taxes, the U.S. Small Business Administration has some good news.There are 17 small-business tax cuts already signed into law and an additional five are proposed for 2013, the Tri-City Herald reports. "These tax…
