As egg prices surge, baby chicks have been selling out across the region — and the country. (Credit: Susan Shain / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 3:59) Read The first person showed […]Read More
People stand in RoseMary’s Place, a child care agency on the Columbia County Health System campus in Dayton, Washington. (Credit: Columbia County Health System) Listen (Runtime 1:01) Read This year, […]Read More
Tours of an allegedly haunted hospital first helped to breathe new life into Colfax’s downtown nine years ago. Now, ghost hunters’ curiosity about the hospital’s residents beyond the grave are helping to save the historic building Read More
Summer is here, and that means farmers markets. NWPB’s Rachel Sun visited one market in Lewiston, Idaho and talked to vendors about their goods.Read More
Markeeta Little Wolf and her husband Mike Hubbard come to American 35 every Saturday. Mike Hubbard has a pizza named after him, called “Mr. Hubbard’s Saturday” (Credit: Courtney Flatt / […]Read More
Non-alcoholic beer, wine, and ‘zero-proof’ spirit sales are going up as people look for alternatives to traditional forms of alcohol. (Credit: Lauren Paterson) Listen As the Dry January trend continues […]Read More
Companies large and small around the Pacific Northwest say they are excited by growth opportunities that may flow from the climate, healthcare and tax package signed by President Biden on Tuesday. Turbocharged federal spending could benefit the region’s green energy sector in particular, although congressional Republicans remain dubious that Americans on the whole will Read More
San Francisco Bay area company Sila Nanotechnologies purchased a vacant factory in Moses Lake, Washington, and announced plans Tuesday to open a big operation there to produce advanced battery materials to power electric cars.Read More
More Murrow News Stories PULLMAN, WASH – A new Starbucks may be heading to downtown Pullman soon, but some locals aren’t so happy about it. The Pullman City Council is […]Read More
A complex deal is taking shape to revive the Pacific Northwest's last remaining aluminum smelter. Alcoa idled its Intalco Works smelter near Ferndale, Washington, a year-and-a-half ago and laid off virtually all the workers there. The plan to bring this industry back involves a new owner, cash from taxpayers and an uncertain new contract for cut-rate wholesale power.Read More
It was almost a year ago that Athena Fitness in Olympia was facing financial doom. The women-owned business had opened just before the pandemic struck. In August of last year, new COVID restrictions threatened to put the owners out of business. So, what’s happened since?Read More
President Biden unveiled a new plan on Friday taking aim at powerful industries where a handful of players have so much market clout that they can drive up prices, depress wages and make it hard for small companies to break in.Read More
With a record 9.3 million jobs open in the U.S. as of April, and a workforce in no hurry to get back to work, a growing number of employers are looking to hiring bonuses to fill their ranks. Long a tradition on Wall Street, sign-on bonuses are rare in low-wage work such as fast food, warehousing and food delivery. Now, as the economy has picked up, hiring bonuses are everywhere.Read More
Fifteen months after Washington state's first “stay at home” order was issued in response to the coronavirus, businesses across the state are now allowed to return to pre-pandemic operations.Read More
An online lending platform called Kabbage sent 378 pandemic loans worth $7 million to fake companies (mostly farms) with names like “Deely Nuts” and “Beefy King.”Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday said all of the state’s counties will remain in their current phase of the state’s economic reopening plan and won’t face more restrictions because new COVID cases are levelling off after a recent spike.Read More
Signs of an economic boom are emerging as Americans open up their wallets to spend freely. Retail sales soared 9.8% in March, according to a report Thursday from the Commerce Department. The increase follows a 2.7% slump in February, which analysts blamed partly on severe winter weather.Read More
The vast majority of votes cast by Amazon's workers in Bessemer, Ala., were against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in a stinging defeat of the union drive. The final tally showed 1,798 votes against unionizing and 738 votes in favor of the union.Read More
General Motors will temporarily shut down two more plants as automakers continue to struggle with major supply chain disruptions, particularly in computer chips.Read More
Hiring picked up steam in February as a winter wave of coronavirus infections eased and consumers spent more freely. U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate dipped to 6.2%.Read More
Costco plans to edge up its starting wage to $16 an hour starting next week, CEO W. Craig Jelinek said on Thursday, revealing plans that would propel his company ahead of most of its retail competitors.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says he looks forward to signing a $2.2 billion COVID relief bill in the coming days. The measure cleared the Legislature Wednesday after a bipartisan vote in the state Senate. Read More
Boeing is trying to close the books on a dismal year. The aircraft manufacturer Wednesday reported that the company lost close to $12 billion in 2020, a record loss, as the pandemic depressed demand for new airplanes and the company continued to reel from its 737 Max debacle.Read More
A major Washington cattle operator allegedly “fed” over 200,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist for years. Now Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc is suing. Tyson says in a lawsuit filed in Franklin County Superior Court this week that its losses are more than $225 million. The losses are from false cattle sales and feed costs. Read More
The plan includes $618 million to boost vaccination efforts and contact tracing. It also includes $668 million for school assistance, $365 million to aid renters and landlords and $240 million for grants to businesses.Read More
Even as people continue to splurge on shopping, they cut back on going out to eat and shop. Plus, the earlier-than-usual holiday shopping season meant online shopping as well sales of electronics and appliances dipped in December. Gas stations saw the biggest jump in spending last month, up 6.6%, as people traveled for holiday visits despite health warnings.Read More
The aid, delivered in two separate packages over the course of the year, went to a wide variety of people in agriculture, including corn and soybean farmers, cattle ranchers, and fruit and vegetable producers. The $46 billion in direct government payments to farmers in 2020 broke the previous annual record by about $10 billion, even after accounting for inflation.Read More
Shaquille O'Neal's got a SPAC. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan's got a SPAC. Famed investor Bill Ackman launched a $4 billion SPAC. And a 25-year-old became the youngest self-made billionaire thanks to — you guessed it — a SPAC. So what is a SPAC? A "special purpose acquisition company" is a way for a company to go public without all the paperwork of a traditional IPO, or Read More
Terence Jackson Jr., 34, runs Luxury Strike Bowling, a rentable, private mobile bowling alley that offers a unique entertainment alternative to Zoom parties as the city remains on lockdown. Read More
Two-thirds of Americans say the federal government has not done enough to ease the economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.Read More
U.S. employers added just 245,000 jobs last month as the runaway pandemic continued to weigh on hiring. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7% from 6.9% in October.Read More
Earlier this year, Yakima County was among the worst-hit places for COVID-19 in Washington and the West Coast. It and the Tri-Cities region were among the last counties to open for indoor bar and restaurant service. Now, with another statewide closure, some restaurant operators are pushing back and refusing to close. Read More
The auto industry was devastated this spring by coronavirus shutdowns. But the recovery has been much faster and stronger than anyone anticipated as demand for new trucks and SUVs continues.Read More
The Small Business Administration had to quickly disburse coronavirus relief loans. But some of that may have been handed out to fraudsters, an agency report says.Read More
Many unemployed Americans have been tapping into their savings to pay bills. But those savings are going fast, and hopes for a new round of pandemic relief before the election are fading.Read More
"To our departing 13,000 family members: thank you for your dedication and we look forward to welcoming you back," United told employees, as CARES Act payroll aid was set to expire.Read More
Online classes and no fall college sports spell trouble for Washington college towns like Pullman, Ellensburg and Bellingham that lean on a higher education-fueled economy.Read More
The four-year-old startup Nomad Go in Kirkland, Washington, sells software for building management -- to monitor lines and speed of service, for example. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, co-founder and CEO David Greschler realized his company's image analysis tools could be enhanced to show not only percent occupancy, but also mask compliance and if people are properly Read More
On Aug. 3, Gov. Inslee announced new rules for indoor fitness studios and gyms that nearly tripled the required spacing between class participants from six feet to 17 feet. Krueger expressed her frustration in a 4-minute video she posted to Instagram. “I have to say that I am freaking pissed,” she said in the video. “We’re unable to pay our bills with these mandates; that Read More
President Trump has directed the Treasury Department to stop collecting payroll taxes this fall in an effort to boost workers' paychecks. But the move is temporary, and could spark headaches in 2021.Read More
Thousands of foreign workers who entered the U.S. on temporary work visas received $1,200 pandemic stimulus checks in error, and many of them are spending the money in their home countries.Read More
The parent company Tailored Brands earlier said it would close up to 500 stores and cut 20% of corporate jobs. It's joined in pandemic bankruptcy by rival Brooks Brothers and a growing list of others.Read More
The coronavirus triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern history in the second quarter as the pandemic hammered the economy, the Commerce Department said Thursday.Read More
After days of delays, congressional Republicans unveiled their $1 trillion proposal for a fifth wave of pandemic relief. Democrats are not on board — signaling tough negotiations ahead.Read More
Spending is still nowhere near last year's. But as more states and cities allowed restaurants and shopping centers to reopen, May saw a big swing from a historic collapse in March and April.Read More
The Fed leaves interest rates near zero as expected, and promises to use all of its tools to support the economy. Officials project unemployment above 9% at the end of this year.Read More
The committee tasked with marking U.S. business cycles says the economy peaked in February and has since been in a recession triggered by the pandemic. But it says the recession could be short-lived.Read More
Frustration with long delays in getting jobless benefits is boiling over into a lawsuit against the Washington State Employment Security Department. Attorneys representing two laid off workers and the nonprofit Unemployment Law Project filed the case directly with the state Supreme Court on Friday.Read More
More than 1 in 4 U.S. workers have lost their jobs since coronavirus shutdowns began. Last week, an additional 2.1 million people filed for unemployment benefits.Read More
The number of people traveling by air has plummeted more than 90% since the beginning of March. More than half of the employees losing their jobs are being laid off involuntarily.Read More
