Small Business WatchFour women open Liberty Lake storeLollipop Lemondrop, a women's and children's used clothing outlet, has opened in 1,600 square feet of space at 23129 E. Mission, in Liberty Lake.Kelsy McHenry, who co-owns Lollipop with an

The global energy picture has become more complicated in 2011, but investors are making some sense of it.The nuclear outage in Japan and turbulence in oil-producing nations is prompting increased demand for alternative electricity sources such a

Washington's economy always has been based on making the things the rest of the world needs. Whether it's airplanes at Boeing or software at Microsoft, the products we make in the Northwest have made us a living. Increasingly, our region is getting

Pathogen levels in wastewater have dropped since the implementation in 1993 of federal regulations on treating sewage, research conducted at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, Ariz., has found.A recently released study conducted by tracked a

Central Valley School District and the Spokane office of McKinstry Co. are in the final stages of making $2.6 million in energy-efficiency upgrades to 12 of the district's school buildings.Altogether, the district expects the improvements to in

Many states would face substantial primary-care capacity challenges if Medicaid eligibility expands in 2014, as called for under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, says a new article released online recently in the New England Journal

Data released late last month by S&P Indices indicate that the average per-capita cost of health care services covered by commercial insurance and Medicare programs increased by 6.2 percent during the 12 months ending in February. This is a slight

East Adams Rural Hospital, in Ritzville, has installed a $372,000 advanced computed-tomography (CT) scanner for speedier diagnosis at its 20-bed facility.The Toshiba Aquilion 16 scanner, which was installed in April, has replaced an outdated and