Nov. 6 / Avista reports decline in net income

Avista Corp., of Spokane, posted third-quarter net income of $5.8 million, or 10 cents a diluted share, down from $10.7 million, or 18 cents a share, during the 2011 third quarter. Avista had disclosed last month that its earnings would be less than expected due partly to weak results at Ecova Inc., its utility-bill management subsidiary, and losses at other non-utility businesses.


Nov. 5 / Northwest Farm Credit's earnings dip

Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Spokane-based agricultural financial services cooperative, reported third-quarter net income of $43.6 million, down from $45.8 million in the 2011 third quarter. For the first nine months of 2012, though, Northwest Farm Credit has posted total net income of $144.6 million, up from $117.4 million in the year-earlier period. Phil DiPofi, Northwest Farm Credit's president and CEO, says the cooperative is seeing strong growth in loan volume and improved credit quality, though drought conditions are forcing livestock producers to pay more for feed.


Nov. 1 / County bond rating reaffirmed

Spokane County officials said Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's have reaffirmed the county's AA bond rating for the sale of more than $35.8 million in limited tax general obligation bonds later this month. The two big bond-rating companies said they were impressed with how the county coped with the effects of the recession and reduced expenditures. Money raised through the bond sale will provide $15 million to the Public Facilities District for expansion of the Spokane Convention Center, and the rest of the money will be used to refinance outstanding debt for various road and sewer projects, as well as for projects at the county Fair & Expo Center.


Nov. 1 / Itron's net income rebounds

Itron Inc., of Liberty Lake, reported third-quarter net income of $35.3 million, or 89 cents a diluted share, up from a net loss of $517.1 million, or $12.70 a share, in the 2011 third quarter. Despite the improvement earnings, the company's revenue dropped to $504 million in the latest quarter from $616 million in the year-earlier period. Itron President and CEO LeRoy Nosbaum said the drop in revenue was due to the completion of several large projects in North America.


Oct. 30 / AmericanWest to acquire Oregon bank

AmericanWest Bank, of Spokane, said it has agreed to acquire Medford, Ore.-based PremierWest Bank. The transaction is valued at about $16.6 million and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013. AmericanWest spokeswoman Kelly McPhee said PremierWest is the fifth largest bank in Oregon, and the acquisition is the largest that the Spokane-based institution has undertaken to date. PremierWest had a total of $1.2 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, and AmericanWest's $2.4 billion in assets as of July 2.


Oct. 29 / Employment here rises

About 208,500 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in September, up by 2,800 from the September 2011 level and by 3,400 from August of this year, preliminary state figures said. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate here at 8.2 percent in September, down from 8.7 percent in the year-earlier month.


Corrections & Amplifications

Philip Lazarus has joined the Washington State University Pharmaceutical Sciences Department as department chairman. The department was reported incorrectly in the Journal's Oct. 11 edition.