June 18 / Employment here dips

About 204,800 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in May, down 700 jobs from the May 2011 level, but up 400 from this April, preliminary state figures show. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate here at 9.1 percent during May, unchanged from the year-earlier month and up from 8.7 percent last month.

June 18 / North Spokane Corridor getting big grant

U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, all of Washington, announced jointly that the U.S. Department of Transportation will award a $10 million competitive grant to the North Spokane Corridor project. Work that's to be funded with the grant money includes relocation of 7.5 miles of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. track and the extension of a current 5.5-mile bicycle/pedestrian trail for more than a mile to serve the Hillyard neighborhood.

June 12 / Physicians Clinic joins Providence

Providence Medical Group, the physician division of Providence Health Care, announced that Physicians Clinic of Spokane joined it June 1. Physicians Clinic's 17 board-certified internal medicine doctors and its three nurse practitioners continue to see patients at offices at 910 W. Fifth and 820 S. McClellan. Providence Medical Group currently includes 243 physicians in Spokane and Stevens counties, along with 48 advanced practitioners, including physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners, and about 400 support-staff employees.

June 12 / City, bargaining group reach agreement

Spokane Mayor David Condon said the city has reached a new proposed three-year agreement with the Managerial and Professional Association employee group that would reduce overall compensation for about 260 workers. The agreement calls for wages to be frozen through 2014, caps on the increases the city would pay toward medical insurance, and other benefit changes that would result in a 0.14 percent reduction in total compensation over the three years. The agreement still must be approved by the City Council.

June 7 / Kendall Yards to get first restaurant

Spokane chef David Blaine, who has been head chef for seven years at Latah Bistro, said he will open the first restaurant in the big new Kendall Yards mixed-use development just northwest of downtown. The restaurant, named Central Food, will occupy 3,000 square feet of space in the Cedar Plaza Building, an office-retail structure that's being erected just south of the Washington state Court of Appeals building and is expected to be completed later this year.

June 6 / Sterling issues layoffs in Vancouver

Sterling Bank informed the Washington state Department of Employment Security that its takeover of First Independent Bank in Vancouver will result in the permanent layoff of 63 employees. Sterling bought most of the assets of First Independent in late February. First Independent operated more than a dozen bank branches in Clark and Skamania counties, and two offices in Oregon.

June 6 / Airport boardings fall

Spokane International Airport reported that about 122,400 passengers boarded planes there during May, a 1.5 percent decrease compared with May 2011. Through the first five months of 2012, the airport handled about 580,300 passengers, also a 1.5 percent decline from the year-earlier period.