July 25 / Potlatch reports lower net income

Potlatch Corp., the Spokane-based wood-products company, announced second-quarter net income of $8.4 million, or 21 cents a diluted share, down from earnings of $11.7 million, or 29 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Potlatch Chairman, President and CEO Michael Covey said, "Industry conditions for our resource and wood products divisions remained challenging during the second quarter, but our real estate segment exceeded our expectations."

July 20 / Sunshine Silver Mines files for IPO

Denver-based Sunshine Silver Mines Corp., which owns the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, disclosed plans in regulatory filings to raise up to $250 million through an initial public offering of its shares to study the cost of reopening the mine and for work at other properties it owns. It said it intends to list its share on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AGS.

July 20 / West Plains to get recycling service

Spokane County commissioners voted to add curbside recycling to its garbage service on part of the West Plains for an added fee.

Sunshine Disposal Inc., the county's contracted waste-management company, will expand the service to about 1,450 customers, a company representative said. Participants will be given a 96-gallon recycling cart that will be picked up every other week.

July 18 / Sierra Club calls for cleanup plan

Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy, both of Spokane, filed a 60-day notice to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failure to require the Washington Department of Ecology to prepare a water quality cleanup plan for pollutants in the Spokane River. If the EPA fails to act within 60 days, Sierra and CELP said they will file a federal lawsuit. The federal Clean Water Act requires a cleanup plan before issuing any permits that would add more pollutants to the river.

July 15 / Cd'A Mines names new leaders

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. announced that it named Mitchell J. Krebs as its new president and CEO and Robert E. Mellor as its board chairman. Dennis Wheeler, the Coeur d'Alene-based company's CEO for the past 25 years, resigned July 11. He will continue to service the company as a consultant through July 2012. Krebs previously served as senior vice president and CFO at Coeur, and has been with the company since 1995. Mellor has been a company director since 1998 and previously was the independent lead director for the company.

July 14 / Numerica names new CEO

Numerica Credit Union, one of Spokane's largest credit unions, hired Carla Altepeter as its new CEO. Altepeter, who has served as CEO of CitizensFirst Credit Union in Oshkosh, Wis., since 1992, succeeds Dennis Cutter, who is retiring after serving 40 years as Numerica's president and CEO at the end of August.