Inland Northwest businesses will find no relief this year from the now seemingly relentless rise in health-plan rate increases, with many employers here once again feeling the sting of double-digit premium hikes after a number of years in which of

Vending machines, which came on the scene in the 1920s to sell candy bars and tobacco products, now dispense everything from freshly brewed coffee to just-cookedand brownedfrench fries.The technology already exists to make vending machines a

To put a reverse, business-oriented spin on a familiar sports clich, the best defense sometimes is a good offense.Thats what longtime Spokane retailer Huppins Hi-Fi Photo & Video Inc. has discovered with a mail-order division, dubbed One it

Plans for a proposed new office tower in downtown Spokane appear to be gaining momentum.A couple of Spokane investors who envision developing such a high-rise structure at the southeast corner of Howard Street and Riverside Avenue expect to an 1

BFGoodrich Aerospace, a division of the big Charlotte, N.C.-based BFGoodrich Co. that began making carbon brake disks for aircraft brakes at a new West Plains plant last summer, has made a smooth landing here and is on schedule to meet its growth a

A Tri-Cities truck dealer called Jims Pacific Garages Inc. plans to open a new dealership here in a West Plains building that the now-defunct Godwin Equipment Co. formerly occupied.Karl Rehwalt, controller of Jims Pacific Garages and son of

URM Cash & Carry, a division of URM Stores Inc., the Spokane-based grocery cooperative, plans to open a second store in the Spokane area this spring, at 16808 E. Sprague, says Rick Jensen, director of URMs Cash & Carry.URM Cash & Carry has of

Technology entrepreneur Bernard Daines is considering launching a glossy new Spokane magazine that would be part of a multifaceted, electronic-and-print media enterprise here doing business as New River Communications.Daines says plans for the a

A Spokane-based company called Pacific Rim Ethanol LLC hopes to start building a $122 million ethanol plant at Moses Lake, Wash., this year, says Douglas MacKenzie, the companys president and chief executive officer.The plant essentially will

Walgreens Co., of Deerfield, Ill., has leased part of the former Huckleberrys Fresh Market building in the Spokane Valley and plans to open a Walgreens Pharmacy there, says a real estate executive whos involved in the transaction.The Jim an