Red Lion Hotels Corp.s expansion strategy announced last week calls for it to enter some of the biggest markets in the West, along with Chicago and Dallas, as it seeks to strengthen the brand of its hotel chain.The Spokane company, which now

Regence Blue Shield of Idaho has launched a new service that will give its members online access to information about their claims.Separately, the Lewiston, Idaho-based health insurer, which has almost 10,600 members in Kootenai County, has up

Certain sectors of Kootenai Countys economy are racking up particularly strong job growth as the county continues to enjoy good times.Employment in education and health services jumped 8.1 percent in June over the year-earlier month for a of

Things have gone far better down on the farm so far this year than many observers expected earlier, judging by the most recent quarterly report from Northwest Farm Credit Services, the big federally chartered, Spokane-based ag lending cooperative,

The Spokane-area economy added jobs at a much faster pace through the first four months of this year than it did in the year-earlier period.In monthly reports from the Washington state Employment Security Department for January through April, a

Slight upward pressure appears to be building on the amounts Spokane-area employers pay both to lower-paid workers and to more highly paid technology workers.Jeff Zahir, the Washington state Employment Security Departments Spokane-based labor

D.A. Davidson & Co. has increased its forecast of the earnings of Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc. for this year and 2006 and has raised its 12- to 18-month target price for the travel companys stock.D.A. Davidson, the Great Falls, says a

Coldwater Creek Inc. is working to boost its operating margin by buying more of its womens apparel from overseas garment makers directly and is taking steps to keep tabs on conditions at its suppliers factories. Separately, it plans to launch a

Group Health Cooperative says it will begin offering a preferred-provider health plan to employers in Spokane County this summer.The plan, called a PPO, or preferred-provider organization, will be a new option here from Group Health, which has

Spokane-area developers say the downtown-area housing market here is strong despite comments from a partner in a Los Angeles-based company that pulled out of a proposed mixed-use project in Spokanes city center recently.Marshall Chesrown, the