New federal overtime rules may have some small businesses nervous as the date it takes effect looms.But Tri-City experts encourage smaller mom-and-pop businesses not to worry.“I really think the big focus here is to know what the law is and to know you have options,” said attorney Scott Boyce of...

By Wine News ServiceIf pre-harvest estimates hold up, Washington will crush a quarter-million tons of wine grapes this fall for the first time.And if that takes place, the Washington wine industry will have effectively doubled in size in a decade.Wine grape harvest kicked off in mid-August, making it one of...

By Jeff MorrowPlaying with rubber duckies isn’t just for little kids in the bathtub.For more than a quarter of a century, Tri-City adults have been racing the plastic yellow toys in the name of charity.Tri-City Rotarians’ 28th annual Mid-Columbia Duck Race is Saturday, Oct. 8, in Kennewick’s Columbia Park. The...

By John StangCascade Natural Gas’ Kennewick district has 53.34 miles of high-pressure pipeline.But it cannot provide documents to show that 22.12 of those miles — or about 40 percent of its pipelines in and around Kennewick — have been tested to confirm they can resist 60 pounds per square inch...

A Tri-City financial planner decided to rebrand and rename his Richland firm after his former employer was gobbled up by another company.He agonized over the name but came up with a winner in Invest Northwest Financial.In late February 2016, Ted Vause learned his company, MetLife, would be acquired by Massachusetts...

RJ Lee Group and TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering have formed a strategic partnership to prepare college students entering the science and engineering work force by offering opportunities right on campus.Richard Westberg of TerraGraphics is the lab director for the collaborative analytical laboratory on Columbia Basin College’s Pasco campus. With the baby...

A small Tri-City startup company wants to make the exchange of business cards a thing of the past with the launch of its new mobile app.The free Solo Connect app aims to streamline business-to-business referrals and the introduction process. It’s available for Apple and Android devices.Evauk Corp.’s CEO Thomas Feduk...

By Jeff MorrowIt’s been a journey of learning and change for the owners of a small Richland-based nuclear power consulting and technical services company.[blockquote quote="We knew the company could be successful. We had the employees and the resources." source="Karen Miller, managing director of Polestar Technical Services" align="right" max_width="300px"]Kathy Miller, Bill...

By Tom Rickey, Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryThe search for signs of ancient life on Mars has come to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where an expert on rock chemistry and microbial signatures is part of a team that is investigating whether there has ever been life on...