"Home Depot still planning move into Moscow market"

From today's Daily News:

Home Depot still hopes to open a store in the Moscow area, despite rumors to the contrary.

Kathryn Gallagher, spokeswoman for Home Depot, said Monday that the company’s plans to move into the Moscow market have not changed.

Home Depot is working with the University of Idaho to obtain the land for a store in Moscow, according to Gerard Billington, real estate official for the UI.

Billington also had heard that Home Depot was reconsidering.

“I heard rumors about the rumors,” he said on Friday. “I became curious and decided to find out.”

The rumor blossomed on Wednesday, when Moscow developer Shelley Bennett said at a Moscow Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the home improvement store had decided not to come because Wal-Mart backed off its pursuit of a super center in Moscow.

The UI owns the land behind the Palouse Mall where the proposed store would be located. The university is working on a proposal to present to the State Board of Education and officials at Home Depot.

“We are still fully engaged,” Billington said. “I think the rumors started because the deal hasn’t been cleared yet. We have no deadline.”

Riiiight. "Moscow area" and "Moscow market" are not the same as "inside Moscow city limits."