Taxable retail-trade sales rose 5.3 percent in Spokane County and 5.1 percent in the city of Spokane during the third quarter of 2002.The county logged retail-trade sales of $823 million, up from $782 million in the third quarter of 2001, and 5

A Massachusetts company has bought certain assets of Spoval Fiber Optics Inc., a Spokane maker of fiber-optic distribution panels, resulting in the elimination of 20 jobs here and the closure of Spovals plant, which is being shuttered now. Spoval

Luigi Lou Reillo arguably enjoyed an advantage because of his heritage when he journeyed to Italy, where some of the worlds finest tile is made, on several occasions before starting an imported-tile wholesale business here about 17 months the

North Idaho real estate executive Brad Jordan is making plans for a high-rise condominium-and-office project near Coeur dAlenes city center.Current plans call for a 10-story project that would include 42 mid-priced condominium units, three

If you want to make a small fortune in the wine business, the old saying goes, invest a large fortune. Winery owners in the Inland Northwest say thats not too far from the truth, yet the attraction of making and bottling fine wines keeps

Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., the big Spokane-based financial-services company, is being challenged by the Internal Revenue Service over a $28 million tax benefit it claimed on an investment loss.The company disclosed in its most in a

When Nova Services, a nonprofit corporation that provides job training and placement to disadvantaged and developmentally disabled people, approached John Crow eight months ago about contracting with it, Crow hesitated. Hed employed disabled as a

Dan Morris doesnt know exactly where he wants to be in the future, but thinks he knows precisely what he needs to have to get there.The 32-year-old is working full time as a project manager at Spokane-based Itron Inc. and is attending Gonzaga

COEUR DALENEA new company is building an assisted-living facility here that it hopes will be the first in a chain of five such operations in the Northwest.The company, Four Seasons Assisted Living LLC, already has completed the first of at

As many Americans retirement wealth has fallen during the last two years, some older residents here have curbed plans theyd made for their sunset years.Retirement-industry and elder-service experts here say the sour investment market among