Banner Corp., the publicly-traded, Walla Walla-based holding company for Banner Bank and Islanders Bank, announced this afternoon that it has agreed to merge into its operations privately-held, Spokane-based AmericanWest Bank in a $702 million transaction

Eastern Washington can't support two medical schools because of a lack of capacity in clinics and residency programs, says a study released this morning by the University of Washington. The study, which UW commissioned Pittsburgh-based Tripp Umbach t

Providence Health Services-Washington announced this afternoon that it is moving forward with plans for an outpatient surgery center in the Providence Medical Park, in Spokane Valley, after receiving approval of its certificate-of-need application from th

Spokane-area businesses tend not to get a lot of public credit for it, and perhaps appropriately so in the spirit of anonymous charitable giving, but we at the Journal see examples daily of the different ways in which many of them are striving through phi

Patricia Butterfield, dean of Washington State University's College of Nursing, will leave the dean post and return to a faculty role next April. She currently directs nursing education at WSU's campuses in Spokane, Vancouver, Tri-Cities, and Yakima

Business tax return e-filing rose nearly 10 percent this year, continuing the growth that has seen the number of corporate and partnership returns filed electronically double in just four years, the Internal Revenue Service says in a news release issued e

Clearwater Paper Corp., of Spokane, reported this afternoon third-quarter net income of $6.3 million, or 31 cents a diluted share, compared with income of $13.3 million, or 60 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The company attributed the declin

Potlatch Corp., of Spokane, reported this afternoon that it has agreed to buy 201,000 acres of timberlands in Alabama and Mississippi for $384 million. The land, which Potlatch is acquiring from affiliates of Resource Management Service LLC, will expan

Northwest Bancorporation Inc., the Spokane-based parent of Inland Northwest Bank, reported today third-quarter net income available to common shareholders of $976,000, or 23 cents a diluted share, up from income of $708,000, or 22 cents a share, in the ye