Posted by Tom

May 15, 2012 5:34 p.m. - Updated: 8:26 p.m.

A number of Washington Congressional representatives spent time Tuesday pushing forward the Senate bill that reauthorized the Export-Import Bank. The final vote of 78-20 was a victory for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who's been a major proponent of the bill.

If not passed, the the Ex-Im authorization would have expired on May 31.

The bill also increased the bank's financing authority to $140 billion by 2014.

Cantwell, who is running for another six-year term, toured Eastern Washington last month and spent time speaking about the value of the bank, which underwrites U.S. companiesexports to foreign customers. 

We covered that visit with this report.

In the Senate vote, Idaho's two Republican senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo voted against.

The next step is having the bill signed by President Obama.

The Senate vote followed last week's passage in the House of HR 2072, the formal reauthorization bill.

The House vote was a whopping 330 in favor, 93 opposed. Only one Northwest House member voted “nay” on the reauthorization.

And that was Idaho's Rep. Raul Labrador.  Every other Northwest Republican voted in favor.

Posted by Tom

May 15, 2012 4:10 p.m. - Updated: 4:23 p.m.

Barton Auto Group gets back into selling new cars in downtown Spokane this week, launching the area's only Fiat dealership.

Fiat, the longtime Italian carmaker, joined forces with Chrysler in 2009 and ended up taking a 58 percent stake in the company. It's been more than two years since the Bartons used their dealership at Monroe and Second to sell new vehicles.

Starting Wednesday, Barton Fiat, at 1002 W. Second, will sell the Fiat 500, the Italian-made subcompact that is aimed at drivers wanting a small but sporty vehicle.

It comes in five models. Later this year, the higher-end, turbocharged version, the Fiat Abarth, will be added to the mix, said Jeff Barton, president of Barton Auto Group.

The locally owned dealership also operates Barton Jeep in the Spokane Valley and is building a Barton dealership on Newport Highway. It will open later this year.

In 2010 the Barton Saturn dealership sold its last Saturn, after parent automaker GM decided to shut down the brand.

Since then the Bartons have kept open the downtown dealership selling used cars and managing costs carefully. Jeff Barton said the family hoped to get the first Fiats in 2011 but the Italian company only released them to major U.S. cities last year.

The only other Fiat dealers nearby are in Boise and Seattle.

Wire photo: The Fiat Abarth, sport class

May 15, 2012 12:04 p.m. - Updated: 12:06 p.m.

Spokane Home Builders Association (SHBA) has hired Michael Cathcart as its director of government affairs.

Posted by Scott

May 15, 2012 11:23 a.m. - Updated: 11:25 a.m.

Washington and other West Coast states have the highest gas prices in the nation – in some case 50 cents higher than the national average.

In the Spokane area, average prices remain below $4 a gallon, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Guage Report.

On the state’s west side, average prices for a gallon of regular gasoline are $4.25 in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett market, $4.26 in Tacoma and $4.34 in Bellingham, AAA reports.

Statewide the average is $4.21, up 13 cents since last week. Meanwhile, the national average price dropped 5 cents to $3.73.

“The West Coast is zigging while the rest of the country is zagging,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

A shortage of gasoline tied to issues at the region’s refineries has caused prices to spike in the wholesale market, analysts said.

Posted by Tom

May 14, 2012 5:21 p.m. - Updated: 5:29 p.m.

Some good business news for a change:  Three area folks have won big in this years's Washington Manufacturing Awards, sponsored by Seattle Business magazine.

The awards were announced two weeks ago in Seattle.

Manufacturer of the Year: (midsized company (tie): MacKay Manufacturing, Spokane,  and Watson Furniture Group of Poulsbo.

Executive of the Year:  (midsized company) Craig Dias, Haskins Steel Company, Spokane.

And in the Silver category,

Manufacturing Innovation of the Year: Leisure Concepts of Spokane.

Posted by Tom

May 11, 2012 5:40 p.m. - Updated: 5:50 p.m.

BNBuilders Inc. is opening a larger office at 15920 E. Indiana Ave., Suite 202, in Spokane Valley. It will serve clients throughout Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana.

BNBuilders offers preconstruction and construction services for complex, management-intensive projects. Those include ground-up construction and tenant improvements for higher education, health care, biotechnology, retail, mixed-use and corporate/commercial.

Before the relocation, the Seattle-headquartered construction firm had its offices in downtown Spokane. The new space provides more room for expansion, said a comany press release.

Among other awards, BNBuilders was recognized as one of Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Top 100 Green Contractors.

Joe Bash, a principal in the company, will head the office. Co-founders are Brad Bastian and Jeff Nielsen.

Photo: By Cheryl Click, BNBuilders

May 11, 2012 3:42 p.m. - Updated: 3:48 p.m.

The Spokane region remains in the grips of a stubborn recession even as the Seattle area and other leading cities across the country rev up economic activity and new jobs, said Shaun O’L. Higgins, a marketing executive and consultant who for years has delivered financial outlooks for the Inland Northwest.

May 11, 2012 11:32 a.m. - Updated: 1:39 p.m.

News from our SR West Plains bureau: the City of Airway Heights announced on Friday it's formally annexed the 145 acres the Spokane Tribe hopes to use to develop its  Spokane Tribe of Indians Economic Project (STEP).

Posted by Tom

May 10, 2012 5:17 p.m. - Updated: May 11, 12:03 p.m.

Among the pleasant discoveries inside the new and restored Mary Lou's Milk Bottle, the fire-damaged food place on West Garland, was the open ceiling area near the main door.

Owners Ed and Kris Ritchie found that the ceiling of the building, before the fire, hid the bottle's interior open “neck” — the 15-foot cylindrical opening that is distinctive to this type of architecture.

When working with Compass Contruction of Spokane to reopen, they all agreed to restore the neck's open space.

Nicely, Compass owner Fred Anderson decided to add one non-authentic but fun detail. He took four old milk bottles purchased on Craigslist and converted them into lights that hang inside the ceiling opening.

He made the fixtures himself and donated them to the Ritchies, in time for tomorrow's public opening of the Milk Bottle, at 802 W. Garland.

Fun fact: he bought eight, but broke four in the process of making the lights. Luckily, he only needed four.

May 10, 2012 11:21 a.m. - Updated: 11:33 a.m.

Wednesday's announcement that the US Postal Service is considering reductions in hours for 13,700 rural post offices doesn't impact other plans that would close urban post offices, including three in the Spokane area. Those are in Hillyard, Parkwater and Dishman.

That's the view of Ernie Swanson, the USPS spokesman for Washington.

Swanson said the new plan also doesn't change earlier plans by the USPS to shut down some postal processing centers.

That plan, released earlier this year, would close processing centers in the TriCities, Yakima and Wenatchee, as well as one in Missoula.

Those closures would mean additional workers at Spokane's West Plains mail processing center. But a final decision on all those closures will wait until later this year, the USPS has said.