Aug. 20 / Sterling surpasses capital-raising goal
Sterling Financial Corp. said it has reached agreements with about 30 accredited investors to raise additional capital, now totaling about $730 million, which is $10 million more than its goal of $720 million. In the latest agreements, Sterling said the investors committed to buy 155 million shares of common stock and 3.9 million shares of preferred stock, which would give the corporation about $388 million in cash proceeds.

Aug. 18 / Mobius Science Center selects downtown location
Mobius Science Center announced it will lease a 25,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of 809 W. Main for its long-planned educational center. Mobius also appointed as its CEO Christopher Cable, who most recently headed the Imaginarium Discovery Center, in Anchorage, Alaska. To date, about $11.5 million in funding has been received to construct the center, which is expected to open in the summer of 2012.

Aug. 18 / County votes not to oppose Spokanes' casino plan
Spokane County commissioners voted 2-1 not to oppose the Spokane Tribe's proposal to construct a gaming casino on 145 acres of tribal land adjacent to the city of Airway Heights. Until the casino is federally approved, Airway Heights will receive annual payments from the tribe in lieu of taxes, starting at $14,500 and increasing an additional $14,500 a year, topping out at around $245,000 a year after 15 years. Spokane County will receive 20 percent of each annual payment. Plans for the casino have been in the works for several years.

Aug. 17 / Employment here falls
Some 201,900 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in July, down by 5,300 from the July 2009 level, preliminary state figures showed. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate in July at 8.6 percent, which was unchanged from the year-earlier month.

Aug. 17 / Mager wins nomination in primary; French leads Holy
Spokane County Commissioner Bonnie Mager won the Democratic nomination in the Aug. 17 primary to run for re-election this November, while former Spokane City Councilman Al French led Jeff Holy in vote counting for the Republican nomination to challenge Mager. Voters picked nominees in other county, federal, and legislative races in the primary here, and Spokane County Library District patrons restored the district's property tax levy to the state maximum of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which the district said would enable it to maintain its current level of operations and maintenance for the next three years.

Aug. 11 / Deaconess, Valley Hospital strike averted
Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center reached a tentative agreement with the Service Employees International Union Local 1199NW to stave off a one-day strike at those facilities. Union members voted later in the week to accept a contract with the hospital's owner, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Inc. Union members at the hospitals had worked without a contract since December 2008.

Aug. 11 / Chesrown transfers Club at Black Rock to bank
Coeur d'Alene developer Marshall Chesrown transferred all assets of the Club at Black Rock LLC, a luxury lakeside golf community he developed south of Coeur d'Alene, to Washington Trust Bank to avoid foreclosure on four loans totaling $12.5 million. Chesrown said a committee has been formed for club members to seek ownership of the development by the end of the year.

Corrections & Amplifications
Scott Miller is Spokane Public Radio's board chairman. That was reported incorrectly in the Journal's Aug. 26 issue.