Oct. 27 / Avista to receive $20 million for feeder upgrade
Avista Utilities said it will receive a $20 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for an upgrade of 58 of its feeder lines that serve highly populated areas of south and north Spokane. The company, which will contribute an additional $22 million to the project, said the 36-month effort will reduce energy losses from electric lines, improve reliability, increase efficiency, and prepare its system for smart grid capabilities that will enable customers to control more of their energy usage. The project will create 45 jobs.

Oct. 24 / Truck body maker adds new-truck sales
Washington Auto Carriage, of Spokane, said it has become an authorized dealer for Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America Inc., and will move into the new-truck sales business. Washington Auto Carriage, founded in 1906, sells truck equipment, offers repairs, and customizes and manufactures truck bodies. It plans to use the time made available by the slower economy to train its staff so it will be ready when truck sales rebound.

Oct. 22 / Sterling suffers $463.7 million quarterly loss
Sterling Financial Corp., of Spokane, reported a third-quarter net loss of $463.7 million, or $8.93 a share, compared with net income in the year-earlier quarter of $5 million, or 10 cents a share. The net loss reflected a $227.6 million charge to account for the impairment of goodwill, a provision of $195.5 million for loan losses, and a noncash valuation allowance of $143 million against deferred taxes, which the company won't be able to realize the benefit of if it doesn't generate sufficient taxable income.

Oct. 22 / Airport Board advances hangar project
The Spokane Airport Board approved the lease of a 2.5-acre site at Spokane International Airport by aircraft painter Associated Painters Inc. for a $6.5 million, 41,400-square-foot maintenance and painting hangar. Associated Painters will lease the building, for which construction bids haven't been sought yet, and will share space there with Cascade Aerospace, an aircraft maintenance and modification company. A larger structure originally had been envisioned there, but the project was scaled back after the Washington state Community Economic Revitalization Board approved a $4 million loan for the project instead of the $6.8 million loan sought by airport officials.

Oct. 21 / Ambassadors' income slips
Ambassadors Group Inc., a Spokane-based provider of educational travel services, reported third-quarter net income of $12.5 million, or 64 cents a diluted share, down from $13.3 million, or 68 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Ambassadors Group said it served about 13,000 delegates in the quarter, down 27 percent from about 17,700 in the year-earlier period.

Oct. 20 / Rockwood reaches sale agreement with CHS
Spokane-based Rockwood Clinic PS, which has 32 specialty medical clinics in the Inland Northwest, announced it entered into a preliminary agreement to sell the practice to Community Health Systems Inc., the Franklin, Tenn.-based care provider that owns Deaconess Medical Center and Spokane Valley Hospital & Medical Center. The agreement, which still is subject to approval by Rockwood's 77 partner physicians, would lead to an integrated health-care delivery system that would include inpatient hospital care, primary care, specialty medicine practices, outpatient surgery centers, urgent-care facilities, and imaging and other services, CHS and Rockwood said.

Oct. 15 / Sterling changes management, agrees to actions
Sterling Financial Corp. announced that its Sterling Savings Bank subsidiary agreed with state and federal regulators to take a sweeping range of 14 actions, as enumerated in an order to cease and desist, to strengthen its financial condition and operations. The announcement came a day after it announced a new acting management team and said longtime Chairman, President, and CEO Harold Gilkey and Sterling Savings Bank Chairwoman and CEO Heidi Stanley had departed.