The 509 Report

Angelos Angelou may be a leading thinker on urban development and all, but really, what does he know about the Tri-Cities?

That was kind of the gist of an interesting chat with Ken Nelson, the economic development director for...

There's not much room at the inns in Spokane. Hotel occupancy rates last year grew by 14 percent - the fastest rate in 16 years, the Spokane Journal of Business reports. That's more than four times the growth rate in...

Snow continues to mess with shipping across The 509. The Cascade passes have been blocked, of course, and on the Palouse, U.S. 195 and some of the secondary highways have been closed off and on for several days, due to...

IT'S BACK!

Yakima's landmark "Welcome to the Palm Springs of Washington" sign was erected anew alongside Interstate 82 this past week, about a mile north of its former location.

The sign, first put up in 1985, was taken down...

There's a blip in Spokane's housing market: Foreclosures jumped up 12 percent last year.

Still, it was the second-lowest foreclosure total in a decade, roughly 75 percent below the peak of 1,152 set back in 2002. As the Spokane...

The Tri Cities may not need President Bush's proposed economic stimulus package.

Dean Schau - the most quotable labor analyst of all time - reports that employment in Benton and Franklin counties grew by 5.9 percent last year,...

Spokane's Wheatland Bank is expanding across The 509. The bank's nine branches include Moses Lake and Quincy, and it's moving into Wenatchee and Yakima as well. In fact, Moses Lake has become kind of a regional training center...

Life comes at you pretty fast, noted '80s management guru Ferris Bueller once said. That's certainly the case for Sterling Financial. Spokane-based Sterling announced Thursday that it's lowering its fourth-quarter earnings...

Break out your Bing Crosby records - with snow showers in the forecast for Christmas Eve, and highs expected below freezing, Spokane's looking at a white Christmas. But before we get into the holiday spirit, we've got some work...

Apple growers are enjoying some of the best prices in a decade. Long-time WSU food exports guru Des O'Rourke - now with his own consulting business - outlined some of the changes in the industry in a recent Tri-Cities lecture....

Health care is big business is Spokane - accounting for about one in six jobs in the Lilac City - and it's going to get bigger.

The recent purchase of Empire Health Systems, which operates Deaconess and Valley medical centers,...

What do farmers in New Zealand, England and Mattawa have in common? Soaring farmland prices.

These are boom times for agriculture. The growing middle class in China and India can afford to eat better. They want dairy products....

The evolution of downtown Spokane continues. This week, the historic Fox Theater reopened after a $31 million make-over.

The theater, which had been targeted for demolition to make way for a new parking lot, is now "part of a...

Gonzaga University plans $50 million in new construction, reports the Spokane Journal of Business. Part of that money will pay for building a new 300-car parking garage to ease the crunch around the McCarthey Center when the Zags...

Inside the corridors of power in Washington's second city

First, the good news.

The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis has begun releasing Gross Domestic Product data broken down to the metro-area level, notes the Spokane Journal of Business. They didn't do the math, but I did, and...

Stop me if you've heard this one before - unemployment in the Tri-Cities is down at record low levels, falling to 4.4 percent in September. Regional labor economist Dean Schau told the Tri-City Herald that construction at Hanford...

One of Spokane's largest employers, Empire Healthcare Service, announced Wednesday that it's selling its two Spokane hospitals - Deaconess and Valley - to a Tennessee company.

As part of the deal, new...

Pullman, Spokane and Walla Walla will each receive state grants worth about $1 million under the state's Innovation Zone program.

The three Eastern Washington cities are among five statewide to get the funding. Six more regions,...

One of the founders of Sterling Savings, William Zuppe, will retire as chairman and CEO of the Spokane-based bank at year's end.

The 66-year-old Zuppe will be replaced by current vice chairwoman and COO Heidi Stanley, the...

Looking for labor? You're not alone, according to this week's state unemployment update. In Yakima, the jobless rate is down around historic low levels, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports, and in the Tri-Cities, businesses are...

RICHLAND - The Washington Wine Commission today is preparing to launch a newly revised web site, as it gears up for a marketing blitz targeting Boston and Austin, Tex., commission CEO Robin Pollard said here Thursday.

This...

I spent a lovely Labor Day weekend on the dry side of the Cascades. I camped with my girlfriend, the lovely Miss 206, near Goldendale: We slept under the pines, spent a day lounging along the Columbia River at Maryhill State Park...

Wheat harvest's over, grape and apple picking is not yet begun, and in a lot of communities, everyone who hasn't left town for Labor Day is headed to the county fair. But here at the 509 Report, we soldier on, because some of you...