Local business

The building at the center of the local winning bid to establish a Tech Hub, started as an eastward expansion of Boeing that took advantage of another influential perk: the Lilac City being home to a rather influential politician at the time.  

Asian, Black and Hispanic small-business owners pay higher interest rates on loans than their white counterparts, a new University of Washington report found.

The holding company for Wheatland Bank, which has two branches in Spokane and several in Eastern Washington, has signed an agreement to acquire the Idaho Falls-based Bank of Idaho. 

Pam Senske came back to the Spokane-based company, that her father founded, as a non-paid advisor in the early 1980s. It led to a decades-long run that ended when she finally stepped down last February from serving on its board of directors.

Heralding itself as a “fancy dive bar,” June & Co operated in a quaint building near the intersection of Browne Street and Main Avenue until it closed in September of last year, according to its website.

REI is eliminating its outdoor classes, events and tours this month as it looks to prune unprofitable parts of its business while struggling to break even.

Rising costs and dwindling patronage mean a longtime South Hill favorite is shuttering.

One year after a near-catastrophic accident tipped Boeing Co. into a state of continuous crisis, the top US air-safety regulator cautioned that the planemaker’s efforts to improve its manufacturing quality are still in the early stages.

Boeing was supposed to soar again in 2024. Airplane deliveries were up, sales revenue was rising, and the storied aerospace company’s top executive declared it was “making progress in our recovery” after severe economic headwinds and investigations of two 737 Max air disasters five years earlier.

Providence Health & Services in Oregon has been dropped from Aetna’s health insurance network after the two sides failed to reach a new agreement by the end of 2024. Providence’s contract with Aetna expired Dec. 31, both the not-for-profit Catholic health system and insurance giant said.

Seattle's lowest-paid workers will be ringing in the new year with a raise. Minimum wage in the city will rise to $20.76 per hour beginning midnight on New Year's Day, one of the highest rates in the country.

As Amazon prepared for its workers to be back in the office five days a week, Christian Carron decided to quit. Carron, 33, thought virtual work was here to stay. In 2022, when Amazon was still allowing employees to work entirely from home, he moved into a van, hoping to live out his dream of a nomadic lifestyle. 

A brand of natural cat food sold in California is being pulled from store shelves after reports that a cat in Oregon who ate the pet food contracted bird flu and died.

The tangy smell of Buffalo wings filled Side Chicks Sport Bar, as a dozen electricians crammed their big frames into booths. It was Tuesday night in East Wenatchee, Washington, and "brotherhood night" for the electrical union. Out-of-towners and locals swapped notes on who was coming and going, when new jobs were starting and what drama had gone down with a foreman.

The Nordstrom family is joining forces with a Mexican retailer to take its namesake department store private in an all-cash transaction valued at about $6.25 billion, including debt.

Spokane coffee roaster Deborah Di Bernardo dreamed of a sustainable industry supported by organic beans, living wages and practices that enhanced the natural world rather than profits built off plundering it.

For the better part of the past century, Alaska Airlines has focused on ferrying travelers across a relatively narrow slice of the US. It’s now thinking much bigger.

Tukwila-based BECU announced Monday that it has awarded $15,000 to Spokane's Feast World Kitchen as part of annual effort to boost nonprofits in the state.