Spokane-based WTB Financial Corp. posted record net income of $15.6 million for 1997, up 6.9 percent from 1996.The financial services holding company, the parent of Washington Trust Bank, of Spokane, also reported solid gains in assets, loans, a

Rite Aid Corp., the Camp Hill, Pa.-based drug-store chain, is having a store constructed at the northwest corner of Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road in the Spokane Valley and plans to open one of its drug stores there in August.The planned store

Ponderay Newsprint Co., which owns the big paper mill at Usk, Wash., about 60 miles north of Spokane, could have a new managing partner by this summer.Avenor Inc., the Montreal-based current managing partner and 40 percent owner of the plant, a

A modest boost in the local sales-tax rate could raise enough money to pay the local share of a $300 million light-rail system here, but Spokane-area voters would have to approve the tax hike, an official here says.The U.S. House of included of

The Spokane-area office market is strengthening, due to continuing business expansions here and the arrival of some new companies, analysts say.Recently released results of an office market survey conducted earlier this year by Kiemle & Hagood a

Employment in the Spokane area rose 4 percent in 1997the biggest year-to-year gain in jobs in the 1990s, according to the latest full-year figures from the state of Washington.Last year, the number of people employed in the Spokane area rose

Layrite Products Co., the longtime Spokane block maker that shut its doors last year, allegedly is in default on four major loans, and property on Trent Avenue where its plant operated for decades is slated to be sold in a trustees sale to the on

So far this year, HealthSouth Corp., a Birmingham, Ala.-based health-care provider that owns 12 physical therapy clinics and a surgery center here, has added to its growing empire three Spokane urgent-care clinics and a Post Falls physical therapy

A Spokane company says it plans to develop a $7 million to $8 million complex near the Interstate 90-Cheney-Four Lakes interchange that is to include a motel, possibly two restaurants, a convenience store-gas station, and a car dealership.The is

Investors say a new medical complex they plan to develop at Liberty Lake will offer everything from urgent care, X-ray, and specialty services, to dentistry and physical and occupational therapy. It even will include an Ultrafit wellness center a a