Several policy changes were included in the recently approved 2021 Omnibus spending bill that will ease the federal student aid application process and expand Pell Grant eligibility, industry observers here say.

The banking field hasn't lost its luster for Lorilei Bruggink, who has worked in the industry for 35 years and was named president of Spokane Valley-based State Bank Northwest earlier this month.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has released a third round of Paycheck Protection Program loan funds, and bankers here say they're prepared to handle changes made as a result of updates to the program.

Carla Cicero was born and raised in Los Angeles, where her credit union career began in her teenage years. In 2011, she came to Spokane from a Wisconsin credit union to become president and CEO at Spokane Valley-based Numerica Credit Union.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court trusts have issued what might be the final payments to investors who lost hundreds of millions of dollars when Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. and affiliate Summit Securities Inc. shut down nearly two decades ago

Despite the economic havoc COVID-19 brought on wide swaths of the economy last year, the pandemic's presence didn't halt the downward trend of bankruptcy filings in Eastern Washington.

Spokane accounting firm DeCoria, Maichel & Teague PS is splitting into two entities but will remain under the same roof. Jeff Maichel, who founded the firm in 1997, says it will be divided into Assure CPA LLC, which he'll

Dan Byrne is thoroughly a Spokane man. Born and raised in northwest Spokane, with a degree in accounting from Gonzaga University. Byrne started his career in the accounting world, at the now-defunct national firm Coopers & Lybrand LLP.