A franchisee of Minneapolis-based barbecue restaurant-chain operator Famous Daves of America Inc. hopes to enter the Spokane market. Pat Courtemanche, a Minneapolis-based spokesman for Famous Daves, says the franchisee, StarRibs WashPac LP,

As dismal news continues to emerge nationally from a struggling U.S. auto industry, dealers here say that sales have been sluggish, but that theyre optimistic about the future.Sagging auto sales and growing consumer preferences for cars have

Research is under way to come up with new drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, of which the Inland Northwest has one of the highest incidence rates in the world, say medical professionals here who specialize in the disease.Already, inroads have a

Avista Corp., of Spokane, has begun the final phase of a multiyear, $35 million upgrade at its 52-year-old Cabinet Gorge Dam, located on the Clark Fork River near the Idaho-Montana state line. The upgrade project enters its final stage as the a

A Hayden, Idaho, company has launched a large single-family housing development and is in the planning stages on a mixed-use development, both in North Idaho, that together would have an estimated value of more than $375 million if built out as is

Sacred Heart Medical Center says its robotic heart-surgery program has become the busiest on the West Coast, and with the purchase of a second robotic system earlier this year, the Spokane hospital now believes its positioned itself to become a a

A tiny clot-removing surgical device that looks like a corkscrew is said to be saving lives at Sacred Heart Medical Center and reducing the level of disability experienced by some stroke victims.The device, formally called the Merci Retriever,

Lives are being saved at hospitals here thanks to the pairing of medical professionals into new crisis teams, Spokane-area nurse managers assert.Three of the Spokane-areas four major hospitalsSacred Heart Medical Center, Holy Family and & a

Near the sleepy town of Spangle south of Spokane, in a building across the road from a 3,000-acre cattle ranch, is the main office of Gregory I.P. Law, a one-person law firm owned and staffed by patent attorney Randy Gregory. The bucolic might

Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole PS, a longtime Spokane law firm that has weathered more than a centurys worth of changing tides in the economy, says its currently on an upswing.The firm, which was established here in 1884, claims to