Word that the city of Spokane expects to face a $10 million shortfall in its 2011 general fund budget likely has evoked little shock from taxpayers who have grown numb to similar news from all levels of government. The scenario has become routine.

Tinman Too opens, sells more kids' books The Tinman Gallery is moving its children's book inventory to a new location next door, at 811 W. Garland. The new store, called Tinman Too, will occupy space previously used by the Ruby which

Softechnologies Co., a young Spokane-based software development company, says it has acquired a software product from a New Jersey-based concern that helps businesses organize and track field service workers.The software, called Mobile Command a

U.S. trade officials are working with eight jet boat builders and a boat trailer maker, all in the Lewiston-Clarkston area, to capture sales of the boats in Europe.Janet Bauermeister, director of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Spokane Export

Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, has been awarded a contract to build a new outlet valued at $750,000 for OCH International Inc., the Portland-based operator of the Oil Can Henry's chain of auto lube stores.The 1,400-square-foot will on

A Spokane-based real estate investment company says it has bought the 152,000-square-foot River Ridge Shopping Center, at the southwest corner of Wellesley Avenue and Assembly Street, for $1.3 million.The company, AJR LLC, which also has other

Itron Inc., of Liberty Lake, has been chosen by Iberdrola S.A., Spain's largest energy company and one of the world's biggest such concerns, to develop the first phase of the energy giant's smart utility-metering program in Spain.Iberdrola, in a

The downtown Spokane outlet of fast-food chain Pita Pit, located in the Crescent Court at 707 W. Main, has been chosen as the Coeur d'Alene-based corporation's test store for a planned expansion into financial districts across the U.S.The chain,

Blue Water Technologies Inc., of Hayden, Idaho, says it hopes to hear within a few months whether the South Korean government has decided to require that sewage-treatment plants in that country implement Blue Water's phosphorus-removal month, a