Spokane's Wheatland Bank is expanding across The 509. The bank's nine branches include Moses Lake and Quincy, and it's moving into Wenatchee and Yakima as well. In fact, Moses Lake has become kind of a regional training center for the bank, CEO Sue Horton told the Columbia Basin Herald.

Yakima in particular is fertile banking territory. There's just more money there these days. The Yakima Herald-Republic reports that bank deposits held by Yakima County banks grew by 21.6 percent in the past year, while the population grew only 4.1 percent. A strong market and good prices for apples are part of the reason. A solid housing market is another.

But not all is well in Yakima. A new survey found that the city has an image problem - particularly among its own residents. Forty-five percent reported having "a general negative perception of Yakima County," the H-R reported. While they tended to like the climate, the low cost of living, the natural environment and the arts scene, respondents "were generally dissatisfied with job availability, advancement opportunities, and the numbers of high-paying jobs and high-tech jobs," the paper said. They also criticized the schools.

And there's bad news from the Herald-Republic itself. My old Cougar classmate, Publisher Mike Shepherd, announced he is closing the paper's Sunnyside bureau and laying off a handful of employees as part of a series of cost-saving moves. The paper is facing increased costs and declining ad revenue, Mike said. "Like any business, we can try and do as much or more with a few less folks."

In one of the more-creative moves, the H-R is outsourcing some of the production of its weekly Spanish-language supplement to Mexico.

The paper is owned by The Seattle Times Co., which also is hinting at job cuts.

But as a refreshing counterpoint, the Columbia Basin Herald reports that its first-ever attempt at a Sunday edition came off successfully. The 68-page paper was delivered Dec. 23. Managers said this week they are studying making Sunday papers a regular thing: "As with any business expansion, it takes careful planning before starting. Right now, we are doing just that."

Finally, in Pullman, developers are trying to convince the Whitman County commission to extend utilities out to a site along the state line where they plan a 700,000-square-foot retail project. Lowe's would be one of the anchor tenants for the project, which would in one sense extend the big box retail strip along the west side of Moscow, Idaho, across the border into Washington.

The project has been opposed by environmental activists on the Idaho side, who feared that the original proposal - to use wells to supply water to the site - would deplete a key underground source of Moscow's drinking water. That's drawn an indignant response from some on the Pullman side, who accuse the Moscow contingent of meddling in Washington state affairs.