After almost 20 years as executive director of the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority Executive Director Norm McLoughlin has announced he will retire effective at the close of business today. KCCHA’s Finance Director Debbie Broughton has agreed to take the helm of the agency in the interim, and a committee has been appointed to initiate the search for new executive director.

“Norm has spent a lot of time with the Housing Authority, and over the years many people have benefited because of it,” stated KCCHA Board Chair Commissioner Jan Angel. read more »

Christopher Mutchler, a CPA financial forensics expert with Southard, Beckham, Atwater & Berry, CPAs, PS, in Port Orchard, has recently been awarded the Certified in Financial Forensics Credential by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants . The CFF Credential, established in 2008 by the AICPA, is granted to qualified CPAs with considerable professional experience in financial forensics. read more »

1st Security Bank recently named Brent Stenman as Senior Vice President and Branch Manager of its Poulsbo branch. Stenman brings more than 19 years of experience in financial services and community involvement to 1st Security’s new Poulsbo office located in College Place.

He will be taking over for Clay Williams, who will be retiring this month following nine years of service to 1st Security and its customers. read more »

Investors who make decisions based on current news have had quite a few headaches lately. Not a day has gone by in the past few months of financial news going from bad to worse, but the last few weeks have been especially troubling as some large and familiar financial institutions have gone up in smoke or required a bailout from the government, while others have been starting to show obvious signs of crippling.

On Wall Street, mid-September saw the worse trading day since Sept. 11, 2001. read more »

More than one in five job vacancies in Washington in April were in the health-care industry, according to the newest job-vacancy report published by the Employment Security Department.

The Spring Washington Job Vacancy Survey report is based on a survey taken in April, which found that there were more than 16,000 health-care job openings out of an estimated 74,744 unfilled jobs statewide.

Among the health-care vacancies, 4,312 were for registered nurses. There also were a lot of openings for licensed practical and vocational nurses, nursing aides, orderlies and attendants. read more »