A bear market officially has descended upon Wall Street, but rather than play dead or flee in panic, the key to survival for many investors will be to have patience with their portfolios and take advantage of discounts on stocks, financial advisers

The greatest risk to financial security during retirement may be the debt consumers dont see today.An online survey of consumers conducted earlier this year found that 46 percent declined to classify as debt at least one common financial such

As automakers try to entice consumers with low- and no-interest financing on new vehicles amid a slow economy and rising fuel prices, some small banks appear to be backing away from the auto-loan market, while credit unions and some larger banks a

As natural and organic products grow in popularity with Spokane-area consumers, food distributors and supermarkets here are stocking more of those items on their shelves and are seeking avenues for growth in that increasingly important niche.In

Commercial Creamery Co. hopes to take advantage of a stagnant economy that it believes will cause people to stay home and snack rather than dine out. The 100-year-old Spokane-based producer of largely cheese-based dried sauces and seasonings in

Avista Corp. has agreed to buy the former Horizon Credit Union headquarters building, at 14523 E. Trent, from Horizon, and plans to move its Spokane-area call center there from its own headquarters office building at 1411 E. Mission.The Spokane

Mitchells Harvest Foods, which has operated a grocery store in Cheney for nearly 30 years, says it plans to build a grocery store in the Suncrest area. It said its purchase of land for the store included a buyout of the Suncrest Supermart, the a

Retail sales fell sharply in the city of Spokane in the first quarter of 2008, dropping 5.1 percent from the year-earlier period while slipping a less dramatic 2.6 percent in Spokane County.The citys drop in taxable retail sales, the biggest

Never mind the soft economy, for Brandon Brown and Skip Mayhew, business is bubbling, and as rising travel costs drive consumers to look to their back yards as recreational destinations, the prospects for jetted revenues grow.Brown and Mayhew a

Itron Inc., of Liberty Lake, has received three recent orders from utilities in New York state, Detroit, and Portland, Ore., the latter of which likely will be worth $20 million to $25 million in business.In the biggest of the orders, Itron it