Spokane-area educators and business leaders say they're gaining more traction as they create more STEM-science, technology, engineering, and math-opportunities for students as young as kindergarten age. Lisa White, director of Spokane Public School

The Construction Industry Training Council of Washington is helping more than 100 mostly Spokane-area workers start careers in construction trades with classroom and lab courses at its new Eastern Washington Region facility on the West Plains. CITC, the

CenterPlace Regional Event Center, in Spokane Valley, celebrated its 10th year of operations last year by hosting a record 920 events, and the busy facility hopes to exceed that number by at least 5 percent this year. Owned by the city of Spokane Valley

Coeur d'Alene businessman Ron Ayers says the hotel he's planning would be the engine that drives an economic development campus, in addition to increasing lodging capacity near downtown Coeur d'Alene. Ayers proposes to develop a $10 million, 112-ro

Though the year is still young, the Spokane Convention Center already has generated $61.9 million in estimated economic impact for Spokane-area businesses, says Spokane Public Facilities District CEO Kevin Twohig. That's far ahead of the 2015 pace in w

SNAP Financial Access, a community development financial institution here, saw a 26 percent increase in loan volume last year and hopes to continue its goal of providing small business development resources through new programs and partnerships, a program

U.S. Small Business Administration loan incentives are helping a growing number of businesses start up or expand, some lenders here say. In 2015, lenders in the Spokane branch of SBA's Seattle district issued 522 SBA-backed loans totaling $183 million,

Spokane-area credit unions say they experienced an uptick in overall loan originations from 2014 to 2015, sparked in part by robust demand for auto loans. The demand for autos here mimicked what was a national trend in 2015. Experian Automotive, operat

The number of identity fraud victims in the U.S. increased by 3 percent, to 13.1 million consumers, last year, but the amount stolen decreased by 6 percent, to $15 billion, says a study released earlier this month by San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy

The University of Idaho has launched its Cybersecurity Training and Operations Center, in Post Falls, where it hopes to educate and certify 350 information technology security specialists through hands-on simulated cyberattack response training in the nex