The shortage of available pharmacists that has plagued hospitals, home-health agencies, community clinics, and retail pharmacies here for years hasnt run its course yet, but steps are being taken to ease the pain.Larry Bettesworth, director of

Post Falls-based Medinex Systems Inc. has spent nearly all of the $21 million it raised two years ago in an initial public offering, has posted a $30 million net loss for 2000, and has trimmed roughly 80 percent of the about 180 employees it had on

The Washington state Department of Transportation wants to exchange a parcel of land on Spokanes North Side that has strong development potential for construction of a building in the Spokane Valley and for a project north of Spokane.The swap

Stoneridge Golf Course, just north of Spirit Lake, Idaho, closed last weekend for a yearlong, $2.5 million renovation.The project includes rebuilding all of the greens on the 18-hole golf course, adding new tee boxes and rebuilding older tee a a

MSC/Premera Blue Cross, one of Eastern Washingtons largest health insurers, has started work on a $1.7 million remodeling project at its main office complex.The complex, which is located at 3900 E. Sprague, includes two buildings with a total

Farmers & Merchants Bank, of Spokane, posted healthy gains in loans, assets, deposits, and net income in 2000.We had a good year, says John Tombari, the banks chief operating officer.The banks net income soared 28.7 percent to $2.8 up

GranTree Furniture, of Portland, has re-entered the Spokane market, opening a store at the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Bernard Street, and plans to open two more stores here within the next 12 months.Once GranTree has opened three it a

Spokane businessman Kert Carlson has formed a nonprofit corporation named Sports USA through which he hopes to develop and operate an $8 million-to-$10 million sports complex in the Spokane Valley. The project is in the predesign stage, and the

Innuity Inc., a Web-based services provider that opened a telemarketing center here last August, already employs 140 people here, and true to promise, expects to employ 200 by years end.The Minneapolis-based companys Spokane operation, at N.

B-4 Properties LLC, a company here owned by Spokane contractor Eric Brown and his wife, Lisa, plans to develop a business park on five acres in the Spokane Valley.The development, which is to be named Woodruff Business Park, will be located at &