Oct. 13 / Employment dips further here
Nonagricultural wage and salary employment in the Spokane metropolitan area fell to 204,700 in September, down 15,100 jobs from the September 2008 level, according to preliminary Washington state Employment Security Department figures. Preliminary figures from another survey put the unemployment rate here at 8.4 percent in September, up steeply from 5 percent in the year-earlier month.

Oct. 7 / INHS sues over medical records dispute
Inland Northwest Health Services filed suit in Spokane County Superior Court against arms of Community Health Systems Inc., claiming they've been charging INHS for use of its electronic medical services license and owe INHS for electronic medical records services they received between October 2008 and June 2009. INHS further claims that the entities acted improperly by sending termination notices to some small rural hospitals that use INHS's electronic records system, forcing those hospitals to look at other options and putting the future of the system at risk. In the suit, INHS asserts that Empire Health Services, which owned Deaconess and Valley Hospital before CHS, transferred its interest in the electronic health records license to INHS in 1996.

Oct. 5 / Gary Livingston to retire from CCS
Community Colleges of Spokane said Chancellor Gary A. Livingston will retire next summer, after serving in his post since July 2002. Livingston served as superintendent of Spokane Public Schools from 1993 to 2001 and became CCS chancellor after serving one year as superintendent of Olympia-based Educational Service District 113. CCS said Livingston and his wife, Amanda, plan to continue living in Spokane.

Oct. 2 / United Coatings to move
Seabrook, N.H.-based Quest Specialty Chemicals Inc., said it will move its United Coatings Manufacturing Co. operations in Spokane Valley to Phoenix, Ariz., where it will consolidate them with another Quest operation. United Coatings, which began making paint here in the 1920s, has about 30 employees here, some of whom will have the opportunity to relocate to the Phoenix operation. United Coating's facility in Spokane Valley will remain open for the rest of the year during the transition.

Oct. 1 / KMC plans medical residency program
Kootenai Health, of Coeur d'Alene, which operates Kootenai Medical Center there, said it will work with Family Medicine Residency of Idaho Inc., a nonprofit affiliate of the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network, to start a program to bring medical residents to KMC starting in 2012. The program, which will aim to attract physicians to Kootenai County and retain them, initially will accept two residents a year to serve the final two years of three-year residencies, and might expand later to accept four residents a year.

Oct. 1 / Chesrown surrenders Liberty Lake property
AmericanWest Bancorp., of Spokane, assumed ownership of 102 acres of land at Liberty Lake intended for further construction at the upscale Legacy Ridge housing development, where some homes have been built already. Developer Marshall Chesrown, who had a $17.8 million line of credit with the bank, decided to turn the land over in lieu of making further debt payments. AmericanWest, the parent of AmericanWest Bank, wrote down the debt in previous quarters and therefore doesn't expect to realize a significant amount of additional loss, a bank spokeswoman said.

Sept. 29 / L&I says no minimum wage increase in 2010
The Washington state Department of Labor & Industries said the state's minimum wage will remain at $8.55 an hour for 2010 because a federal Consumer Price Index yardstick didn't increase in the 12 months ending in August. An initiative approved by voters in 1998 requires L&I to recalculate the minimum wage annually, and this is the first time since then that the minimum wage hasn't increased.