March 26 / Employment here rises

About 208,200 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in February, up by 4,600 from the February 2012 level and up by 2,100 from January of this year, preliminary state figures said. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate at 10 percent during February, down only slightly from 10.1 percent in the year-earlier month and up from 9.7 percent in January.

March 25 / Southwest adds Spokane-Chicago service

Spokane International Airport said Southwest Airlines will begin providing daily service to Chicago's Midway International Airport on June 2 with a 143-passener Boeing 737-700. The route will provide same-plane service from Chicago to Jacksonville, Fla. For now, the airport said, the service is expected to operate seasonally through the summer months and conclude Sept. 7. Southwest, which has served the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene market since 1994, also provides daily nonstop service from Spokane to Boise, Oakland, Las Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix, with a total of nearly 1,300 available seats.

March 20 / Hecla avoids tougher oversight

Hecla Mining Co., of Coeur d'Alene, said federal mine safety officials notified the company that they won't impose tighter enforcement on the Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho's Shoshone County after Hecla demonstrated it has made safety improvements there. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration had warned Hecla last November it would come under enhanced scrutiny if it didn't reduce violations significantly. The company recently resumed operations at the Lucky Friday, which had been shut for about a year for rehabilitation, and said it expects the mine to be back up to normal production levels by mid-year.

March 19 / Panel upholds city worker layoffs

The Spokane Civil Service Commission upheld the layoffs of 10 city workers last year from the East Central Community Center, at 500 S. Stone, denying a claim filed by the union that represented the workers. Local 270 of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees had argued that its members lost their jobs due to the city improperly outsourcing services to a nonprofit. The commission held, though, that the union failed to show city administrators violated any civil service rules in the way they handled the layoffs.

March 14 / Huppin's to close downtown store

Huppin's Hi-Fi, Photo & Video, the longtime Spokane-based electronics retailer, said it plans to close its downtown store, at 421 W. Main, and consolidate brick-and-mortar retail operations here at its outlet on the North Side, at 8016 N. Division. Murray Huppin, president of Huppin's, said the store, which has seen its customer base shift northward, likely will close by mid-April, following an inventory sale. The Huppin family owns the downtown structure where the electronics store has been located for decades, but Murray Huppin said he and relatives haven't decided what they will do with the property.

March 13 / Coldwater Creek reports big loss

Coldwater Creek Inc., the Sandpoint-based specialty women's apparel and accessories retailer, reported a loss of $19.9 million, or 66 cents a share, for its 2012 fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 2, which compared with a loss of $12 million, or 42 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. For all of last year, Coldwater Creek reported a net loss of $81.8 million, or $2.69 a share, compared with a loss of $99.7 million, or $3.98 a share, the prior year. Despite the continuing losses, President and CEO Jill Dean said the company last year began to see positive impacts from significant changes it has made throughout its organization.