Many companies train their employees to be better managers; nowadays, more and more are training their top managers to be better leaders. Itron Inc., for example, instituted an advanced leadership training program last year that it views as

You dont have to go to college to learn your way around a kitchen.Nikki Sutton knew that. Since she always had wanted to be a chef and already was a pretty good cook, she didnt figure to go on in school after she completed high school. just

Cooks Dream, a cookware shop on the South Hill, has bought Jays Bosch Kitchen Center, in the Spokane Valley, and has renamed both businesses Cooks Dream, an Authorized Bosch Dealer.Rick Wilcox, president of Cooks Dream Inc., the parent

D.A. Davidson & Co., a Great Falls, Mont.-based stock brokerage, has lowered its estimate for Avista Corp.s earnings for 2002, based on a recent court judgment against the Spokane energy company.In a report on Avista released last week, D.A.

Cantu Investments LLC, of Spokane, has bought just over an acre of vacant land along Mullan Road in the Spokane Valley and is considering developing of a new office building there.Commercial real estate broker Dan Cantu, who is part-owner of on

Interface Computer School plans to close its Spokane Valley training center, one of three it operates here, due to a downturn in enrollment.Dave Wilson, who owns the Spokane-based business with his wife, Linda, says the school plans to vacate a

United Furniture Warehouse, a Canadian-based 155-store discount chain, has decided to close its two Spokane stores and one in Moses Lake as part of a big consolidation of its struggling U.S. operations, company President John Volken says.The at

Vehrs Inc., a Spokane wholesale wine distributor, has leased 50,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park and plans to move its operations there from smaller quarters in the Valley. Vehrs President

Logan Industries Inc., the Spokane contract electronics manufacturer that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last spring, has emerged from that reorganization filing after resolving a dispute with a key lender.U.S. Bankruptcy Court John

You know that shop at the corner of Ruby and Mission? The one with antique dressers on the sidewalk, along with the Statue of Liberty, a big green alligator, and 13-foot tall Grecian urns? It gets a lot of attention from people stopped at the a