Northwest Farm Credit Services, of Spokane, has announced first-quarter earnings of $25.2 million, up sharply from $20 million in the year-earlier quarter.The federally-chartered ag-lending cooperative says its 2006 first-quarter net income far

Avista Utilities will begin boring underneath the Spokane River near the mouth of Lake Coeur dAlene next week to install a 6-inch diameter natural gas pipe for nearly 1,000 feet to extend gas service to the south side of the river.The Spokane

Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank is expanding its correspondent banking department, which lends money to other banks and provides services to them.Sterling recently opened the departments third office, in Portland, says Sid Bennett, a vice

Avista Corp. is considering participating in an expansion of delivery infrastructure at its one-third owned Jackson Prairie underground natural-gas storage facility in Western Washington.The multimillion-dollar expansion likely would be in the

Bankers here expect solid loan demand during 2006, which Sterling Financial Corp. is particularly glad about.At the end of the third quarter last year, Spokane-based Sterling warned investors that loan balances were growing more slowly than and

A small group of medical professionals here is planning to survey health-care providers to ask for examples of unnecessary tests and procedures, then urge the community to avoid them to improve the Spokane areas health-care system.The group,

D.A. Davidson & Co. has increased its estimate of Potlatch Corp.s fourth-quarter earnings, to 28 cents a share from 21 cents, and also has boosted its estimate of the Spokane wood-products companys annual earnings for 2006.In addition, D.A.

The Portland-based Western Wood Products Association anticipates that demand for wood products will decline modestly next year, but even if it falls as much as the association projects, 2006 still wouldnt be a bad year.Its a matter of Butch

The Spokane City Council is launching a review of an ordinance that for the last five years has enabled developers to obtain 10-year property-tax exemptions for residents who buy new multifamily housing units from them in certain areas of the this

Ever see a working scale model of a 600-foot-long dam and more than a half-mile of river through which water flows just as it would in real life as the dams infrastructure is altered?Avista Corp. has had an engineering company build such a of