WASHINGTON STATE

Brian Smith, spokesman for the state Department of Personnel, said 141 job classifications are included in the lawsuit settlement. He and Garfinkel said they includes nurses, custodians, paralegals, dietitians, cardiologists and a wide range of other occupations.

Anil Pereira, president and chief executive, said Monday that the company will link individuals from two groups with certain businesses.

Their data centers — air-conditioned warehouses filled with thousands upon thousands of computer servers that talk to Internet users around the globe — are extraordinary power hogs. Microsoft says electricity consumption at its data centers doubled over the past four years and will triple over the next five.

The fund, called the Technology Growth Fund, will provide short-term loans to tech companies that don’t qualify for loans from commercial banks or the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), says John Overby, client services director at SIRTI.

Typically, early-stage biotechnology companies like VLST don’t raise rounds of this size. But Chief Executive Martin Simonetti, a former Dendreon executive who joined VLST in January, said the money will allow the company to focus on cutting-edge science rather than fundraising.

The event, which lets startup companies give their pitches to investors and potential customers, widened its focus this year to create more opportunities for discussion among participants.

"It’s very gratifying to be selected for what’s probably the largest new project in the state this year, and the Pacific Northwest region, for that matter," said Grant County Economic Development Council Executive Director Terry Brewer. "It just puts us on the map even further in the high-tech sector. A growing industry like this is going to be here for a long time, and I think there are chances for further value-added processing related to this as we go forward."

Twelve state regions were reviewed: Bellingham, Bremerton, Ellensburg, North Central, Olympia, Pullman, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Tri-Cities, Vancouver and Yakima.

The centerpiece of The Virtual Frontier is http://www.shopthefrontier.org It’s one of many Web sites from rural areas. What makes this one different, Caudell said, is that plenty of money is poured into promotion, to raise the profile and get more hits.

"The growth outlook for NetIQ on a stand-alone basis was relatively bleak," Weller wrote in a research note Thursday. "The company’s decision to be acquired is the right move and in the best interests of shareholders."