The bar is rising.Executives of publicly traded companies here enjoyed big pay hikes on average during their employers most recent fiscal yearevidence, some say, that Spokane-area companies increasingly must open their coffers wider to top a

Collection agencies here are coming under fire from two Spokane attorneys who accuse them of violating federal and state laws pertaining to garnishments, the legal procedure by which debtors wages or other money or property can be attached for of

The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute has unveiled a new strategic plan that includes marked changes in focus and strategy.While before the Spokane-based state agency concentrated on helping to develop new technologies, a

Fred Meyer Inc. says it hopes to begin work early next year on a planned store at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Thor Street in east central Spokane.Marilyn Coffel, a spokeswoman for the Portland, Ore.-based retail chain, says the is a

Seattle-based Real Property Investors LLC says it plans to buy a 10.5-acre site at the northwest corner of Market Street and Garland Avenue in Hillyard and to develop a $9 million neighborhood retail center there.Mike McKernan, a partner in Real

Bodell Construction Co., of Missoula, Mont., is the apparent low bidder for an expansion project at Cheney Cowles Museum here. Bodell Construction bid about $15.1 million to add more than 45,000 square feet of display and storage space at the of

Hanson Industries Inc., of Spokane, plans a mixed-use development on 113 acres of land it acquired earlier this year along Interstate 90 on the Idaho side of the Washington-Idaho border, according to a master plan submitted to the City of Post vice

Olympic Foods Inc., a Spokane-based company that makes juices, bottles juices, and manufactures plastic beverage bottles has started a warehouse expansion and expects to break ground soon on an office addition at its West Plains facility. Both a

Visiontec LLC, a Spokane contract manufacturer, is seeking investors and hopes to raise at least $5 million to buy new equipment and buy or lease additional manufacturing space here.The 3-year-old company initially specialized in assembling used

Imagine driving a wide-bodied Hummer more than nine miles down a dark, 24-foot-diameter yet-to-be-flooded sewer discharge pipe thats buried under the Atlantic Ocean floor near Boston Harbor. The purpose is to remove 55 water-tight bulkheads at of