Spokane is turning into a test bed of competition for digital wireless communications as the latest in a string of national and regional service providers scurry to set up networks and establish customer bases here.Five carriersAT&T Wireless,

The long-proposedand oft-dismissedidea of developing a light-rail system here is gathering momentum.The amount to be spent next year on design, engineering, and right of way for the Spokane areas envisioned system is likely to jump to $5 a

Eight Spokane employees of Providence Health Plans are among the 170 Providence workers expected to be laid off because of the planned sale of Sisters of Providence Health Systems Washington insurance operations to Regence BlueShield on Jan. 1, a

The sale of Spokanes Camp Automotive Inc. to rapidly growing, publicly owned Lithia Motors Inc., of Medford, Ore., wrapped up in mid-October, but Phil Camp, who remains at the head of the Camp dealerships here, says changes wont be evident in a

The city of Spokane plans to take a look at the potential to encourage property owners to assemble adjacent vacant pieces of land into parcels of 10 to 25 acreslarge enough to attract new and expanding businesses.The idea is for the city to an

Rosauers Supermarkets Inc., of Spokane, is completing a market study along the busy U.S. 2 corridor in the Mead area to help it decide whether the area can support a new Super 1 Foods store.Bill Haraldson, executive vice president at Rosauers, a

Obie Media Corp., the Eugene, Ore.-based company that earlier this year went on a wall mural painting spree in and around downtown Spokane, has been selected by Spokane Transit Authority to provide transit advertising services here.Obie says it

Thoen Publishing Co., a longtime Spokane commercial printing company, plans to move its production department to Airway Heights from its main Spokane building at 1409 N. Maple. The company, which was acquired by Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Inc. a

The products that come out of a nondescript brick building in Spokanes Logan neighborhood are full of holes, but the business that makes them is solid. Its focus is producing one perfectly palatable pastrythe doughnut.Sue Teague and her in a

SeaMed Corp., a big Redmond-based contract manufacturer of medical devices that disclosed last summer it was considering Spokane for a new plant, now says such a plant could employ as many as 300 people.W. Robert Berg, SeaMeds president and it