Coeur dAlene-based Mountain West Banks small-business lending department here and many of its customers share a common history. Like the small-time entrepreneur who starts out with big dreams and little money, the banks small-business in

We knew the numbers would be big, and now we know just how big.Last year, real estate-backed loans in Spokane County shot up by 24.1 percent, to $5.38 billion from $4.19 billion in 2002, says RMS Information Services, of Kaysville, Utah, which

CLC Restaurants Inc., of Missoula, Mont., has bought the five remaining corporate-owned Taco Bell outlets in the Spokane area from Taco Bell Corp., of Irvine, Calif., in a transaction that closed in December.The franchisee bought a total of six

A McCall, Idaho-based air-charter and cargo service plans to initiate in May regular flights between Sandpoint and the cities of Boise and Seattle, launching the first-ever regular air-passenger service for the Bonner County town. The company,

Atlanta-based Equifax Inc., one of the three large, national credit-reporting companies, has bought the credit-reporting files of Credit Bureau Services Inc., of Spokane, for an undisclosed sum. In the transaction completed last month, Equifax

Telco Credit Union, of Spokane, has bought 1 1/2 acres of bare land on Spokanes North Side and plans to construct a building there to house a full-service branch and its headquarters.The recently purchased land is located at 9707 N. Nevada, a

Visiontec Inc., a high-tech contract manufacturer in Spokane Valley that once employed nearly 50 people, shut down its operation last month, according to a letter the company sent to its suppliers. This has been brought on by the excess in 9.

Spokane restaurateurs Mike and Cheryl Didier plan to open a secondand even largerProspectors Bar & Grill, the big West Plains restaurant that opened last spring.The couples company, Prospectors Inc., has agreed to lease a planned building

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians, in what appears to be an escalating competition with the Coeur dAlene Tribes growing hotel and casino complex near Worley, Idaho, this week launched a multimillion-dollar expansion of its Northern Quest Casino in

Steve Ahler is a longtime fixed-wing pilot, but he always had a desire to build a helicopter. He finally did so in the late 1990s, taking three years to assemble an experimental Glasair two-seater from a kit.Little did he know that the of that