April 7 / Retail sales fall here in fourth quarter
Taxable retail sales in Spokane County fell 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter to $1.86 billion, down from $2.01 billion in the year-earlier quarter, the Washington state Department of Revenue said. In the city of Spokane, taxable retail sales dipped 3.4 percent to $1.02 billion, from $1.06 billion in the year-earlier period. Statewide, retail sales in the fourth quarter fell 10.8 percent.

April 1 / Sherwin-Williams to close Columbia Paint plant here
The Sherwin-Williams Co., of Cleveland, announced it will close its Columbia Paint & Coatings plant at 112 N. Haven here, likely by the end of this summer. The company said 37 management and hourly workers will lose their jobs because of the closure, but it will provide them with severance packages and outplacement services and will allow them to apply for other positions in the company. Nine sales and marketing employees here will be retained, and all 42 Columbia Paint stores and all 120 Sherwin-Williams stores in the Pacific Northwest will remain open.

March 31 / AmericanWest reports $192.4 million loss for 2008
AmericanWest Bank, of Spokane, reported in its annual 10-K filing that it lost $192.4 million, or $11.18 a common share, for all of 2008, compared with net income of $8.5 million, or 54 cents a share, in 2007. The loss included a goodwill impairment charge of $109 million. Additionally, the company said it is continuing efforts to obtain at least $57 million in private capital commitments that it needs if it is to obtain an equal amount of federal funding through the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

March 30 / Shriners children's hospital here might close
Shriners International, the Tampa Bay, Fla.-based charitable fraternity, said the Shriners Hospital for Children here is one of six Shriners hospitals that might close due to operating losses and a decline in the hospital network's endowment fund of $3 billion, or 37 percent. The Spokane hospital employs 172 people and treats about 8,500 children with orthopedic problems annually at no charge to patients or their families. Shriners said it will make a final decision on facility closures in July.

March 30 / SEL becomes fully employee owned
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc., the Pullman-based maker of electrical-system protection, monitoring, and control equipment, announced it now is owned entirely by its employees. The 25-year-old company, which has 1,800 employees worldwide, said employee ownership will improve competitiveness and increase productivity.

March 27 / Providence decides to cut jobs at Spokane hospitals
Providence Health Care said it plans staff reductions at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital and Providence Holy Family Hospital here in April and May, though the number of jobs that will be cut is undecided. Providence said the reductions will be the result of state budget cuts, the recession, and the inevitability of treating more uninsured and underinsured patients in the months ahead. It also said Providence had a $9 million budget deficit that's growing.

March 24 / County takes tax, parkland actions
The Spokane County commissioners asked voters to renew in the Aug. 18 primary election a 0.1 percent sales and use tax for 10 years to meet criminal justice and public safety expenses. The tax raises more than $7 million annually. The commissioners also added the YMCA property in Riverfront Park downtown to the list of sites to be acquired with funds from the voter-approved conservation futures tax, subject to certain actions by the city of Spokane.