First, the good news.

The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis has begun releasing Gross Domestic Product data broken down to the metro-area level, notes the Spokane Journal of Business. They didn't do the math, but I did, and guess what - Spokane's GDP is growing faster (7.97 percent) than the GDP for the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metro area (7.25) percent.

OK, so the metro Puget Sound economy ($182 billion) is just about 10 times larger than that of Spokane and Coeur d'Alene combined ($18.3 billion).  And the numbers themselves are two years old, comparing 2005 with 2004. It's still very interesting to look at things like Spokane's 10.3 percent growth in construction activity, perhaps fueled by 6.3 percent growth in Spokane's $1.7 billion health care sector.

ONE OF THE SIGNS of all that growth is the re-development of Spokane's downtown. Spokane Eye Clinic is the latest concern to announce plans for a new central-city building. It plans to put a $9 million, 44,000-square-foot structure on the site of its current parking lot.

TO KEEP UP with all that construction, Spokane Valley is trying to overhaul its building permit process. The city has hired more employees and streamlined its procedures, the JoB reports. That has "helped significantly," one developer told the paper. "Is it perfect? No."

SOME SPOKANE BUSINESSES are doing quite well. Potlatch Corp., for example, reported this week its earnings from continuing operations were up 32 percent for the third quarter. A portion of that is due to the fact that Potlatch is selling off some of its "non-strategic" land holdings.

AMERICANWEST BANK also is growing, with plans to consolidate scattered operations into one large Spokane Valley site. Earlier this year, AmericanWest bought Far West Bank of Provo, giving it a foothold in Utah.

BUT THINGS AREN'T SO GOOD for everyone. Sterling Financial, for instance, reported that earnings per share fell a penny in the third quarter. "The disruptions in the mortgage market have affected our business in several ways, particularly in relation to loan originations, the volume and price of loan sales into the secondary market, and credit quality," CEO Harold Gilkey told investors.

Shares of Ambassadors Group were pummelled, falling 44 percent after the company announced a sharp fall-off in the number of students booking overseas tours for next year. A weak dollar and rising fuel costs are pushing up costs, and that's the reason why, according to CEO Jeff Thomas.

And bad news for my friends at the Spokesman-Review, where this week publisher Stacey Cowles (yes, that's him on the cover of this month's Washington CEO) announced plans to eliminate about 40 jobs, including 10 to 15 in the newsroom - about 10 percent of the news stafff. The move came a day before management started contract talks with the union representing news people.

The newspaper's best advertisers are losing the competition against companies that do not buy newspaper ads, Cowles told staffers. "We're in a transition," he said. "We're unsure where it is to."