In her first address to the Spokane business community recently, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner announced she would be holding a series of three roundtable discussions to talk about topics of keen interest to businesses here.During her State of the

Spokane-based Northwest Farm Credit Services has posted net income of $114.1 million for 2007, up from $109.4 million in 2006. The federally chartered ag-lending cooperative also says that as of Dec. 31, its net loans had climbed to $6.5 billion, a

Jaguar Manufacturing Inc., a contract manufacturer of custom wiring harnesses and cables for electronic devices, has opened a plant in Hayden, Idaho, and has moved its headquarters there from Bend, Ore.In January, the 10-year-old company bought

The principal owner of the two Keller Williams Realty agencies here says he and his partners are merging the two brokerages and consolidating them in a building just north of downtown, with plans to ultimately have more than 300 agents Williams has

Advocates for Washington state employers say theres little hope the Legislature will act this session on proposals to ease the growing cost and complexity of providing employee benefits. Instead, they say, theyll be mostly playing defense as to

Avista Corp., of Spokane, is joining with two other Northwest investor-owned utilities to challenge a federal appellate court finding that the Bonneville Power Administration erred in the method it used to make big payments to the utilities.The

What began here as a single meal-preparation store on the North Side in 2004 has quietly become a fast-growing franchisor with 23 outlets in 17 U.S. states and one Canadian province.Tami Badinger, who owns the company, called Cena Franchising a

One year after a group of civic leaders launched Greater Spokane Incorporatedamid a mix of high expectations and some skepticismorganizers now say the job of combining the regions top two business groups has been difficult and mistakes were

Apollo West LLC, of Tukwila, Wash., has bought Spokane-based Apollo Plastics Inc., thereby largely resolving a lawsuit and bankruptcy filing involving the latter company, says Kevin ORourke, Apollo Plastics bankruptcy attorney. ORourke to

The city of Spokanes taxable retail sales growth slowed dramatically in the third quarter of 2007, with sales rising just 2.7 percent over the year-earlier period, the latest available figures show. That compares with growth of 11.7 percent 5