advertising
IT'S BACK!
Yakima's landmark "Welcome to the Palm Springs of Washington" sign was erected anew alongside Interstate 82 this past week, about a mile north of its former location.
The sign, first put up in 1985, was taken down last year when developers bought the land it had sat upon, which is the site of a proposed new hotel. It was down about 12 months.
"We thought it was off on vacation," wrote Jane Gargas of the Yakima Herald-Republic. "Probably down in the desert lands of Southern California, playing a little golf."
As bad as the weather's been, a lot of Eastsiders - golfers or not - are wishing they were somewhere else.
Snow, of course, is the other big news this week across The 509. With Snoqualmie Pass shut down, many other Eastern Washington highways closed by drifting snow, and jets skidding off airport runways, it's not been a good week for travel or business - unless you've got snow-removal equipment for rent or run an Ellensburg truck stop. Trucks have been stuck on most of the Cascade passes, and some businesses are likely running short on inventory.
But there's still a little business news to talk about.
In Spokane, the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against the former president of an Internet broadcasting company and one of his agents. It alleges the two of them engaged in pretty much a pump-and-dump scheme. It's accusing them of falsely claiming that their company, International Broadcasting Co., had bought three Florida radio stations, and even going as far as to file false SEC documents about the deals, which had never taken place.
Two fake reports pushed IBC stock up first 50, then 60 percent, the SEC alleges, at which point the former executive sold large chunks of stock. He's since left the company, and current IBC management has not been implicated in any wrong-doing, according to the Spokesman-Review.
Meanwhile, the Lilac City may be snowbound today, but it's still a livelier place than it was during the '90s, when the big old Davenport Hotel was an empty mausoleum where downtown Spokane's dreams were buried.
These days, the Davenport's "the center of downtown activity," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. A travel writer for the paper talked to Spokane historian Tom McArthur, who said it's a fluke that the Davenport survived to become part of Spokane's rebirth. "What saved it was asbestos," according to McArthur. "They couldn't blow it up because of the asbestos. It was too expensive to tear down. So they closed the doors and walked away."
Fifteen years later, new owners Walt and Karen Worthy bought the hotel - site of their first date in 1970 - and invested $38 million in restoring it to its reborn glory.
By the way, McArthur claims that crab louis were invented by Davenport founder Louis Davenport in 1914. Take that, you Coastal seafood snobs.
In Yakima, the regional labor shortage has got more fruit growers looking to import workers from Mexico, the Associated Press reports. There's plenty of work to be had in the Apple Country, but not everyone is happy with the conditions they find here: Nine Mexican workers are suing a Selah fruit company for not disclosing changes in work rules last year, which they say made it impossible for them to make minimum wage.
And snow aside, the Mid-Columbia has a warm and bright future, local elected officials proclaimed this past week. Mayors and city managers from Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, West Richland and Walla Walla all discussed growth and development at a joint chamber of commerce event. Among the highlights:
