Retailers see slow start to back-to-school season

NEW YORK - Shoppers are holding off on back-to-school shopping, and those who delay long enough might be rewarded with some steep discounts from desperate retailers.

Facing an uphill battle

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell's board rejected CEO Michael Dell's attempt to change the voting rules for his bid to buy the slumping personal computer maker, a decision that is likely to doom the deal.

Musk abandons deal to buy Twitter; company says it will sue

Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances

Could it really happen two vintages in a row?

The headline for this week was a question posed by a winemaker we know in California at the beginning of September when he was lamenting that fruit from one of his most prized vineyard sources had not yet begun to turn from green to purple. After the disastrous vintage of 2010 and a very cool and wet spring of 2011, growers and winemakers from the Northwest and California went into the start of harvest hoping for a warm dry fall to get their grapes ripe.

Tale of a teapot

Collectable is stolen, found, needed as evidence

COEUR d'ALENE - Carolyn Berry loves to tell the history behind the items for sale at her Wiggett's Antiques store.

REFORM: Picture perfect? Not quite

At Luke Malek’s invitation, I visited http://studentscomefirst.org. The website, created by the Idaho State Department of Education, is a slick presentation. Professionally done, all the people pictured are flawless, smiling with perfect teeth, girls in pink, boys in blue, mom, dad and two children. What’s not to like?

Spirit Lake Police joins Safe Trade initiative

SPIRIT LAKE — The Spirit Lake Police Department has joined the Safe Trade initiative for safer completion of online transactions.

ADVERTISING: Advertorial — My 2021 wine wish list

Well, the new year is here! Like most of us I always look forward to the start of the year with hopes for things to be good this year and better than the previous.

Earnings reports push stocks higher, Dow up 76

NEW YORK - Better than expected earnings reports from three corporate bellwethers helped push stocks to their fourth day of gains on Wednesday, even though the companies themselves didn't get to enjoy the rally.

Pfizer maneuvers to protect Lipitor from generics

TRENTON, N.J. - Lipitor is so valuable that Pfizer is practically paying people to keep taking its blockbuster cholesterol medicine after generic competition hits the U.S. market this week.

Mary Jean Price, 86

Mary Jean Price, 86, was born Nov. 11, 1924, to Leslie H. and Mary (Sloan) Lee in Kellogg. She died Dec. 20, 2010, in St. Maries. She attended schools in Lewiston and graduated from Lewiston High School in 1942. She also attended Lewiston Sate Normal School for two years where she majored in education.

Higher prices: the big trend for back-to-school

Retailers are raising prices on merchandise an average of 10 percent

NEW YORK - Stores are trying everything they can think of to disguise the fact that you're going to pay more for clothes this fall.

No trick-or-treaters?

Buy Halloween candy anyway!

Price gouging? Better believe it

Reports of price gouging have increased 279% since January, according to the latest statistics from the International Association of Better Business Bureaus.

Rates low, lenders slow

Many are enjoying the newer, lower mortgage rates it seems, but now borrowers are vying for lenders' time as they compete with those refinancing to take advantage of the lowest rates in history. A quick search of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association website on Friday shows them proudly displaying a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 3.09 percent with an APR of just 3.2 percent. This is the rate for IHFA loans which follow the rates set by the Federal Housing Administration and are not available to everyone.

Growth vs. value: What's the difference?

You can define individual stocks in many ways. Some stocks are defined by the industry in which they operate: banking stocks, utility stocks, technology stocks, and so on. Stocks are also measured by their size or market capitalization: large-cap, small-cap, or mid-cap.

Up or down

Depending on how you read this past week's news, home sales are both up and down. A headline on Thursday from the Associated Press reads; "Sales of new homes rebound in January." A press release from the National Association of Realtors on Friday reads; "Existing-home sales drop in January while prices continue to grow." If you are confused re-read each headline and you will notice the difference. "New" homes sales are up, "Existing" home sales are down.

Housing market unkind to Millennials

COEUR d’ALENE — Chad Mitchell is seeing the problem right up close.

Builders start work on fewer homes in June

WASHINGTON - U.S. builders started work on fewer homes in June, mostly because apartment construction fell sharply. But applications for permits to build single-family houses rose to the highest level in five years, suggesting the housing recovery will continue.

Confusion about tax credit still prevalent.

An offhand comment from a young lady last week caused us to realize that we have not been complete in our explanations of the Federal housing tax credits. Perhaps we assumed that it was as important to consumers as it is to us.