ATK’s expansion in Lewiston that has brought the number of employees in Lewiston to 1,075 is a topic of a recent story that appear is on the web site of Site Selection magazine.

The article talks about Idaho’s business climate and how the state’s amazing outdoor opportunities enhance economic development. You can read the story here.

Site Selection magazine publishes information for expansion plannning decision makers around the world, according to its Web site.

Statistics like the ones I’m sharing here make a strong case for donating to your local food bank, no matter how much you believe that families should take responsibility for themselves.

The average wage for jobs in north central Idaho is $16.23 per hour, or $22,722 a year. That falls about $5 per hour or $6,700 a year short of a what a recent report by the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations indicates is a living wage in Nez Perce, Latah,  Lewis, Idaho and Clearwater counties for a family of one adult and a school age child who no longer needs full-time day care. Add more children or a younger child to the mix and the gap gets even wider. View the report here. 

And that means that plenty of families where an adult works in our region are likely stretched thin to pay for groceries and other necessities. Read a recent story in the Tribune about the prevalance of hunger here.

For $36 and gas  my husband, daughter, her friend and myself spent an afternoon tubing at Snowhaven near Grangeville on Sunday.

It was thrilling, safe fun. All of us were intimidated by the height of the slope  our first time.  But even my eight-year-old daughter and her friend quickly overcame their fears.

 Yes, you do go exceedingly fast, enough to get your adrenaline thumping. But the snow on the mountain side has been sculpted like a water slide so it’s next to impossible to glide into the trees. At the bottom, the run goes up in case you can’t stop.

And you get a ride two ways because a rope tow pulls you and your rented tube, which is included in the charge, up the mountain.

 If you go, wear super warm clothes (My polar fleece gloves soaked through.), have snow tires on your car and keep your keys in a zippered pocket. The staff at Snowhaven warned us that keys, cameras and other valuables have flown out on the tubing hill never to be found again. It was easy to tell how that could happen.

Be prepared for everyone to get really tired even though it really doesn’t feel as if you’re using much energy. My daughter fell asleep at 7 p.m. and barely awakened in time for school on Monday.

To get to Snowhaven from Lewiston, take Highway 95 south to Grangeville, turn onto the town’s main street and follow it through town. From there the route is pretty well marked with signs.

I got a news release from Floor Coverings International literally about five minutes after I had finished scheduling interviews for a piece  last year about companies doing well in the down economy.  Its Lewiston location was thriving, according to the news release.

Much as Floor Coverings International would have been spot on for the piece,  I stuck with the three businesses I had already chosen since I didn’t want to break promises to them. We ran the news release in Business Profile where the Tribune features in-house awards.

The owners of Floor Coverings International appreciated the coverage in Business Profile and didn’t complain I hadn’t chosen them for the Sunday story.

Fast forward to last week. I decided to do another article on the same theme because of what had landed on my desk in January. The Moscow Food  Co-op had issued a news release about its strong performance. Tim Lynch at My Architect had called to tell me about his success. Read more about one of his projects here.  

But for the story to have enough depth I needed a third and Floor Coverings International was the first call I made. And yes they had had another good year.  Read about the success stories that ran Sunday here. Read the success stories from last year here.

The way the Jan. 31 article evolved is pretty typical of the main stories for the Sunday Business Section Front.  One person tells me something interesting about the business he or she runs. Then I wait to see if I can find at least two other examples of it to make a story stronger.  It can be a frustrating wait for the business owners, but the Tribune tries to provide as many businesses as possible good exposure.

Some of the most user-friendly information about the recent Toyota recall I found was at the company’s Web site in the form of a question and answer page. Read it here.

My attempts to get up-to-date comments from Toyota dealers Friday in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington were not successful. By midafternoon the owners of Rogers Toyota in Lewiston were not available for the rest of the day. A manager at James Toyota on the Palouse declined to comment.