The city of Spokane wants to turn its temporary, voluntary transportation-impact fee into a permanent, mandatory fee on new development, an idea thats dusting up debate in business circles. Proponents say impact fees, also known as mitigation

With big new contracts in hand to provide concrete railroad ties for Union Pacific Railroad lines across the country, Spokane Valley-based CXT Inc. is spending $18 million to expand its plant in Nebraska and to build a new plant in Arizona.The

The shuttered Garden Terrace Manor Nursing Home, on Spokanes lower South Hill, will be redeveloped into medical-office condominiums as part of a $3 million project there.The four-story structure, to be renamed the Northview Medical Arts is at

Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, says it has been awarded contracts for, or is the apparent low bidder on, projects worth more than $20 million scattered across the Northwest.Projects for which it recently has been named the a

Two and a half years ago, a three-bedroom waterfront home on the east side of Lake Coeur dAlene sold for $195,000, says Coeur dAlene real estate agent Richard Kohles. Earlier this month, Kohles says, the same 1,400-square-foot housewith a

More employers are showing interest in customized training through Inland Northwest community colleges, something officials from both North Idaho College and Community Colleges of Spokane point to as proof of a thriving economy. At North Idaho

About 60 North Central High School sophomores, with the help of their science teacher, two sizable grants, and publication funding from Spokane Valley-based Itron Inc., have produced the first-ever Journal of Science at the Spokane high the highly

Bigelow Gulch Road, various bridge construction projects, and initial plans to create a northwest connector between the West Plains, Nine Mile Road, and eventually to U.S. 395 are the big-ticket items in Spokane Countys recently adopted plan.

Things have gone far better down on the farm so far this year than many observers expected earlier, judging by the most recent quarterly report from Northwest Farm Credit Services, the big federally chartered, Spokane-based ag lending cooperative,

F5 Networks Inc., the Seattle-based maker of computer networking equipment, says its expanding its Liberty Lake plant by about 5,000 square feet, and is adding employees there.The company, which opened a facility here in 2000 in the Liberty &