Sept. 25 / Inland Imaging, Seattle groups to merge

Inland Imaging Associates PS and Seattle Radiologists APC said they plan to combine their two professional radiology groups effective Jan. 1, 2013. With their merging, the new company will have 97 radiologists and 20 non-physician staff members, creating what they claim will be one of the largest radiology practices in the western United States. Each group will retain its local brand identities, and Inland Imaging LLC will continue its imaging center operations under the direction of CEO Steve Duvoisin.

Sept. 25 / Anthony's high bidder for Spokane site

The city of Spokane announced that Mad Anthony's Restaurants, the Seattle-area company that operates Anthony's seafood restaurants, is the apparent winning bidder for the site of its Spokane restaurant, at 510 N. Lincoln, overlooking the Spokane River and Upper Falls. The company bid $3.9 million for the property, which includes an 11,000-square-foot building and 34,000 square feet of land. The city, which owns the restaurant building, received two bids for the property, both of which were above the site's $3 million appraised value. The Spokane City Council still needs to decide whether to approve the sale.

Sept. 25 / Employment here rises

About 205,700 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in August, up by 2,700 from the August 2011 level and up by 400 from July of this year, preliminary state figures said. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate at 9 percent during August, down from 9.5 percent in the year-earlier month, but up from 8.7 percent in the prior month.

Sept. 19 / Avista rate proposal challenged

The Public Counsel Unit of the Washington state Attorney General's Office and staff members of the state Utilities and Transportation Commission both recommended slashing millions of dollars from Spokane-based Avista Corp.'s latest electric and natural gas rate increase requests. Avista is seeking rate hikes that would generate an additional $40.9 million in revenue from its electric customers and an additional $10.1 million from its natural gas customers. If the three-member UTC accepts Public Counsel's adjustment, Avista's electric rate request would be reduced by more than $30 million; the UTC staff proposed rejecting that request entirely and reducing the company's electric revenues by $1.3 million.

Sept. 19 / Downtown business group fires president

The Downtown Spokane Partnership's board fired the organization's president, Mike Tedesco, less than a year after he was hired following a national search to replace Marty Dickinson. Dickinson left after six years in that post to take a corporate marketing communications position at Sterling Bank. Board Vice President Todd Woodard said Tedesco was terminated "without cause," and declined to elaborate on why he was removed. Marla Nunberg, who had been vice president of the group, will serve as interim president.

Sept. 19 / NSC project to mark halfway point

The Washington state Department of Transportation said the new Parksmith Road interchange will open to traffic on Oct. 2, marking the completion of the first half of the multiyear North Spokane Corridor project just north of Spokane. In late August, the Francis to Farwell/Southbound Lanes project also wrapped up, meaning more than five miles of the planned 10-mile corridor now are open to traffic. Completing the northern half of the NSC, or north-south freeway as it also is called, will help speed up north-south freight traffic in the Spokane metro area, DOT says.


Corrections & Amplifications

Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners serves about 19,000 families annually through all of its available programs. That number was stated incorrectly in the Journal's Sept. 13 edition.