The Puyallup Tribe of Indians and SSA Marine Inc. today announced an agreement to develop 180 acres into a new marine terminal at the Port of Tacoma. The terminal will be built along the Blair Waterway where the tribe once operated its original Emerald Queen Casino.

Other tribal land, which now stands empty, will be used along with SSA-owned land as as a marshaling yard and storage area for containers.

SSA Marine will transfer to the tribe 52 acres as part of the deal, and will operate the terminal under a lease agreement. The company will also bear the cost of development and any environmental remediation, said John Weymer, tribal spokesman.

The company will spend $300 million for initial development of the terminal, Weymer said. Details of a “long-term lease agreement” were not released. No public funds will be used in the development of the property.

The Puyallup Tribe originally received the port property as part of a land-claims settlement. SSA Marine is the largest U.S.-owned, and the largest privately held container terminal operator and cargo handling company in the world, and serves 120 locations around the globe.

Tacoma-based Labor Ready acquired Skilled Services Corporation, a skilled construction trades staffing company, the company announced today. SSC has 21 locations around the country.

Labor Ready paid about $25.5 million for the Florida-based company.

The Tacoma staffing company first entered the skilled construction trades market in 2005 with its purchase of CLP Resources.

CLP has since seen significant growth, adding 21 branches to the 51 that Labor Ready purchased.

Steve Cooper, Labor Ready CEO, said SSC's management team will stay in place. SSC President Mark Curtiss will head the SSC operations and report to Noel Wheeler, CEO of CLP Resources.

The preliminary groundbreaking date for a new boutique hotel on Tacoma's near-downtown Foss Waterway has now slipped from May to mid-June.

There's been no official announcement, but that's the best educated guess from Don Meyer, the head of the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority, which owns the land where the combination hotel and condominium project will be built.

The new hotel, repeatedly delayed while the potential developers redesigned the project to make it pencil out financially, will serve a higher end market than the existing major hotels downtown, the Sheraton and the Marriott Courtyard with its waterfront location.

Tacoma's other waterfront hotel, the Silver Cloud on Ruston Way, enjoys the highest occupancy rate of any major Tacoma hotel.

Bill Boyer, a former Alaska Airlines baggage handler and Lakewood espresso stand entrepreneur who now owns Hawaii's Mokulele Airlines, says his growing airline has a new financial angel.

Dorvin Leis, head of Hawaii's largest mechanical construction firm, has invested several million dollars in Boyer's commuter airline, the airline said Monday.

Boyer made his fortune by inventing and marketing a portable digital movie player for the transportation industry. Boyer sold his digEplayer to a Salt Lake City firm and bought Mokulele.

That airline, now has a deal to serve as a feeder airline for a new Hawaiian carrier go! owned by Mesa Airlines.

Mokulele is investing in four new single-engine, 9-passenger Cessna Caravans to fly its routes among the Hawaiian Islands. Service began earlier this month on go!Express' first route.

A new and improved Tacoma Mall is on the way. And it started today with the demolition of the former Mervyns store at the west side of the shopping center to make room for a new Nordstrom.

The demolition is projected to take about a month. Once the building is down, the mall will begin constructing a two-story, 144,000-square-foot Nordstrom that is scheduled to open in the fall of 2008.

The current Nordstrom store will be turned into a lifestyle center that will include restaurants and shops.

Tacoma's Downtown Merchants Group will introduce a new map of businesses at its meeting next week.

The map highlights 575 Tacoma businesses and enlarges the downtown footprint to include parts of the Stadium and Dome districts.

The Downtown Merchants Group has produced 160,000 of these maps, which will be available various stores and restaurants.

The merchants group will celebrate the map and unveil its new logo at its meeting from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday at the Pantages Theater.

The Foss Waterway Seaport has received a $50,000 grant from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Foundation and $25,000 from KeyBank in support of the Seaport’s waterfront education, cultural and activity center.

These grants kick off the second phase of the Seaport’s capital campaign that has a goal of raising $5 million in cash and pledges by the end of 2008. This follows a first phase effort that raised $3.7 million.

KeyBank’s contribution is the first major support for the Seaport from a major financial institution. The bank’s gift will be used to support the Seaport’s Balfour Boatworks, a boatbuilding shop that will feature a workforce development program.

The contribution from BNSF is especially notable given that the centerpiece of the Seaport project is the Balfour Dock Building constructed nearly a century ago by the Northern Pacific Railroad, a predecessor to the BNSF.

By now Century Tel's free Wi-Fi network in Steilacoom is officially open for business. Some of you may even be reading this blog over that network.

The Steilacoom network's ceremonial debut was scheduled for 11 a.m. today, though most of the network had been unofficially available for weeks.

The free wireless Internet cloud over the town is an experiment to test the technical and marketing possibilities of digital communication that eventually could expand to cover much of Pierce County.

The 60-day trial will offer residents and visitors a taste of wireless Internet access throughout the town. After that, the system will move to a subscription model. Prices have not yet been set. Next expansion site: Orting.

Sonja Hall, director of communications for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, will leave her job May 15 and begin anew a week later in the communications department at Tacoma Public Utilities.

Meanwhile, the chamber is looking for someone to fill Hall’s position. The specific job description is being revised. Pay is negotiable and comes in somewhere in the 40’s, Hall said.

Resumes, applications and expressions of interest should be addressed to Chamber President David Graybill, 950 Pacific Ave., Suite 300,
Tacoma, WA 98402.

The totals are now in, and the past week, which began so auspiciously for Boeing with news of a big order for 787 Dreamliners from Air Canada, has lived up to it's promise.

Orders at list prices for the week total $7.8 billion for 56 planes.

The customers range from leasing companies to an emerging African airline.

The customers and their orders:

• Air Canada: 23 787s.
• Arik Air of Nigeria: three 787-9s, two 777-200LRs, two 777-300ERs.
• Oak Hill Capital Partners: six 777 freighters.
• S7 Group of Russia: 10 737-800s.
• SpiceJet of India: 10 737-800s.

You need a license to give customers a shave, but not to prepare their taxes. That may change.

On Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced a bill (S. 1219) that would require the Treasury Department to set standards for commercial tax-return preparers and obligate professional preparers to pass a competency exam and take continuing education classes.

The National Association of Enrolled Agents (enrolled agents are licensed by the Treasury to represent taxpayers) supports the bill. Asks NAEA Immediate Past President Frank Degen, “When you assume your barber is licensed, you are probably right, but when you assume your tax preparer is licensed, you’re probably wrong. Given that the ramifications of a bad haircut pale in comparison to the ramifications of a poorly or fraudulently prepared return, shouldn’t preparers be required to earn a license?”

In the same food group, the IRS is looking for new members for its Advisory Council (IRSAC). Applications will be accepted from May 1, 2007, through June 15, 2007. The group’s purpose is to provide an organized public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss relevant tax administration issues. The committee presents an annual report to the IRS Commissioner.

Membership is balanced to include representation from the tax professional community, including, but not limited to, tax attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries and appraisers, as well as large and small business representatives and other tax practitioners.

Nominations are currently being accepted for five to seven appointments that will begin January 2008. Interested parties may nominate themselves and/or one other qualified person for membership. For information, visit http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/index.html .

From the Book of We-Told-You-So: Congratulations to those South Sound drivers who filled their tanks yesterday, when regular gasoline reached an all-time record of $3.209 per gallon.

Today, there’s a new record: $3.247. That’s up almost four cents per gallon in one day, or 80 cents per tank, or collectively enough to buy every driver in Pierce County a bus ticket to Spokane, where the state’s lowest price hit a mere $3.039. (Just be glad you’re not in Bellingham, where a gallon this morning goes for $3.289.)

And remember, these are average prices as compiled by AAA. You may find stations where prices are higher or lower.

In fact, let us know. If you find a South Sound station where gas is cheap, post a comment. Thanks. Happy driving!

Bill Casper, of Dupont, has announced he will run for the Port of Tacoma commission seat being vacated by longtime commissioner Jack Fabulich.

Casper is founder and a principal with the Tacoma engineering firm Casper, Phillips & Associates, which specializes in cargo container handling equipment. Casper has 40 years of structural engineering experience, with an emphasis in crane engineering, he said.

Three others have also announced they will run for the same commissioner position. Incumbent Clare Petrich is currently running unopposed.

Sweet ride.

More than 218,000 alternative fuel cars were on Washington's roads last year, according to information released today by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

That marks a 19 percent increase from 2005. The breakdown includes:

•18,736 hybrid electric cars
•64,453 enthanol-capable cars
•135,158 clean diesel autos

This is what it must have been like in the days of Weimar, when citizens needed wheelbarrows filled with currency when they went out grocery shopping. It was best to spend the money today because you didn’t know what it would be worth tomorrow.

It’s like that with the price of gas. Fill those tanks, brothers and sisters, because tomorrow may bring another record.

Just like the one reached on Thursday.

In Tacoma, the price of a gallon of regular hit a new high, marking $3.207 – up from $3.192 on Wednesday. Vancouver and Bremerton also saw records broken on Thursday, AAA reported.

If you’re looking for the state’s cheapest gas, try Spokane, at 3.004 per gallon. And the most expensive? It's in Bellingham at $3.264 – still two cents short of the all-time record posted last May.

Olympia-based Heritage Financial Corp., parent of Heritage Bank, has posted first-quarter earnings of $2.37 million compared to $2.56 million recorded for the first quarter in 2006. Per-share earnings were 36 cents versus 40 cents a year ago.

Return on average equity slipped to 11.92 percent compared to 15.20 parent for the quarter ended March 31, 2006. Average equity for the first quarter of this year increased to $80,708,000 from $68,435,000 for the first quarter of 2006, and the bank reported that $5.7 million of the increase is due to stock issued in connection with last June’s acquisition of Western Washington Bancorp.

Brian L. Vance, Heritage president and CEO, said the earnings performance "was primarily a result of the decline in net interest margin of 37 basis points over the same period in 2006. Our margin was impacted by a continuing flat yield curve, deposit mix changes and a highly competitive loan market. We believe the yield curve is likely to continue in its present holding pattern for most of this year.”

Heritage Financial Corporation is an $860 million bank holding company that operates operates two community banks, Heritage Bank and Central Valley Bank. Heritage serves Pierce, Thurston, Mason and King counties.

Shares of Weyerhaeuser Co. recorded the biggest one-day increase Thursday since December on speculation it may sell assets to satisfy investor demands for higher profits, Bloomberg News reports.

The shares rose $3.90, or 5 percent, to $81.25 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the highest closing price since March 9.

Weyerhaeuser “will be looking at all their assets,” Craig Campbell, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in an interview with the Vancouver Sun published today.

Campbell contributed to a study on mergers and acquisitions in the forest industry, the newspaper said.

Weyerhaeuser is under pressure from shareholders to transform its investments in timber into a real estate investment trust that would be taxed at a lower rate than a standard corporation. Some analysts have suggested Weyerhaeuser may sell assets to meet U.S. government rules to become a REIT.

“We don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” Weyerhaeuser spokesman Frank Mendizabal said today in a telephone interview.

The state's Employment Security Department honored two local businesses this morning for their efforts to employ veterans.

Comcast and General Plastics Manufacturing Company received awards at a Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce event as part of Employment Security's Hire-A-Vet challenge.

“Our troops shouldn’t have to worry about finding a job when they return from war,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee, who presented the awards today. “Washington businesses can welcome them home by making an active effort to recruit and hire veterans.”

General Plastics Manufacturing employs 35 veterans among its 180 employees, hiring eight veterans in the past year.

Comcast has more than 900 employees in Pierce County, 50 of whom are veterans, including seven Reservists.

Fuel costs, a softer air travel demand and brisker competition kept SeaTac-based Alaska Air Group in the red in this year's first quarter, the airline holding company reported today.

Alaska Air Group, which owns Alaska Airlines and its regional sister airline, Horizon Air, reported a net loss of the $10.3 million, or 26 cents a share in the first three months of 2007. That compares with a loss of $79.1 million or $2.36 cents a share in the same three months of 2006.

Removing extraordinary items such as an impairment charge for retiring the Alaska Airlines' MD-80 fleet in last year's first quarter and other one-time charges and gains in both years, the airline would have lost $15.8 million, or 39 cents a share, in the first three months of 2007 compared with $2.8 million, or 8 cents a share, in the comparable period in 2006.

That 2007 first quarter loss was higher than the average loss forecast by Wall Street analysts, 32 cents a share, for the first quarter.

=> Read more!

American Airlines is buying 58 sets of winglets, and they're not from KFC.

The blended winglets are 11-foot high vertical additions to ends of wings of American's fleet of Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.

The winglets, designed and built by Seattle-based Aviation Partners Boeing, improve the aerodynamics of the 767 saving at least 290,000 gallons of fuel a year per plane, improving it's range by some 415 mile, increasing it's payload by 12,000 pounds and bolstering the planes' takeoff performance.

American is the launch customer for the 767 winglet program. Aviation Partners in recent years has seen huge successes in selling winglets for Boeing 737s and 757s. Higher fuel prices have been the driver that has propelled sales upward.

Aviation Partners' blended winglets have almost become standard equipment on new 737s and are being retrofitted on many 737s that left the factory without them. Southwest and Alaska airlines have particularly ambitious refitting programs for their 737 fleets.

American expects to have all its long-range 767s fitted with the fuel-saving appendages by 2010.

A blended winglet on a Southwest Airlines 737

The Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission last night granted permission for the new owners of the former Elks Temple to demolish two small additions to the historic structure and to button up the building against the weather.

The two structures, one built in 1948 and the other in 1937, contain an annex to the building's kitchen and racquetball courts.

Jim Merritt, the Tacoma architect hired by the new owners, an affiliate of Portland developer Williams & Dame, said the additions weren't architecturally critical to the structure. The two additions, on the building's north side, provided transients and vandals easy entrance points to the four-story structure.

Demolition and temporary repairs to the building's roof, gutters and windows, could begin within a few weeks after the city grants other permits.

Merritt said that although the weather had taken its toll on the building, it remains structurally sound despite more than a decade of neglect.

Plans are still being formulated for the building's reuse and the construction of a new structure adjacent to the temple on the north.

In the category of informed speculation come these two reports from the UK media:

US Airways: The Arizona-based airline will soon turn its back on Airbus which loaned it $250 million to escape bankruptcy, to order 20-30 Boeing 787s. That order could be worth up to $4.9 billion. In the process, US Airways will cancel a previous order for 20 Airbus A350s, the European manufacturer's one-time rival to the 787. Airbus has replaced the A350 with the A350XWB, an improved version of the planned twin-jet. In the process, however, Airbus has lost five years in its race with Boeing. The XWB won't fly until at least 2013. The 787 flies this summer and enters commercial service next spring. US Airways will give Airbus a consolation prize by buying more A320s from the European manufacturer. The A320 is already the bread-and-butter single-aisle jet in US Airways fleet.

Virgin Atlantic: Among the routes Virgin majority owner Sir Richard Branson is pondering is a new route between London and Seattle. Sir Richard is preparing for the European open skies agreement to take effect next year, and like a lot of other carriers on both sides of the Atlantic is looking to lay an early claim on potentially lucrative routes. British Airways, Virgin's main rival, now flies to London twice daily from Sea-Tac.

Another grocery store planned for downtown Tacoma, as reported in Dan Voelpel’s column today, isn’t necessarily in downtown. At least according to The News Tribune’s style guide. Or the Tacoma Downtown Merchants Group. But it is if you consult the city’s generous and recently reconfigured boundaries, which include Port property across the Foss Waterway.

These wide-ranging interpretations of downtown boundaries got us talking about where exactly downtown starts and ends. The newspaper’s definition would put some supposedly downtown condo projects, such as City Steps and McCarver Village, in the Hilltop. Along with the grocery store at South 25th Street and Yakima Avenue planned by Metropolitan Real Estate Development.

What do you think? Your feedback could be used to redefine the paper’s definition of downtown.

Here's a look at the city's take on downtown boundaries:

And the TNT's take on the boundaries:

Frontier Financial Crop., Everett-based parent of Frontier Bank, has announced first-quarter earnings of $17.5 million, up 13.6 percent from the first quarter of 2006. Per-share income rose three cents to 38 cents, an increase of 8.6 percent.

President and CEO John Dickson said the company “achieved solid growth in both the the first quarter and year-over-year net income, loans and deposits.”

Loans have increased by 13 percent, or $346.6 million, since the first quarter of 2006. New loan originations for the quarter were $489.6 million, compared with $400.5 million in 2006, a 22.3 percent increase.
At the close of the quarter, nonperforming assets were.35 percent of total assets compared to .17 percent a year ago. total assets stood at $3.32 billion, an increase of 10.1 percent over the first quarter of 2006.

The bank’s efficiency ratio, at .38 percent one of the best in the industry, was down from .41 percent a year ago.

It just could be fashionable to be Amazon.com again after a surprisingly strong earnings announcement.

The Internet merchant's stock, a darling of the dot.com era, but a languid performer since the bust, surged $12.06, or 27 percent, to end at $56.81 on the Nasdaq Stock Market today after the company reported first quarter profits had more than doubled.

"They're getting their mojo back," David Garrity, research director at Dinosaur Securities, told the Associated Press.

Analysts said the company's $1 billion investment in new technology over the last two years was finally paying, and the company's controversial free shipping program, Amazon Prime, was generating new sales. Some of those same analysts had been critical in the past of that spending and the shipping program.

Amazon reported its first quarter 2007 profits rose to $111 million, or 26 cents a share, from $51 million, or 12 cents a share in last year's first quarter.

Helping those profits along was a $12 million reduction in the company's taxes and a further drop in the value of the dollar versus European currencies, a move that made U.S. goods cheaper for foreign consumers.

Revenues rose 32 percent to $3.02 billion. Wall Street had predicted revenues of $2.95 billion.

In its 26th annual Survey of Affluent Americans, released this week, U.S. Trust says 84 percent of high-net-worth individuals (those with more than $5 million of investable assets) say they built their wealth by starting from scratch.

In other findings from the survey:
• 80 percent of high-net-worth individuals agree that children should be taught that wealth is a responsibility.
• 53 percent are concerned about the negative impact of wealth on children.
• 55 percent view hedge funds as delivering a “very good” return on investment, but 76 percent said it is difficult to identify a good hedge fund.
• 68 percent say they will consider leaving money to academic institutions, while 66 percent name health-related institutions.
• Over the past fiscal year, 85 percent said their portfolios met (45 percent) or exceeded (40 percent) their expectations. A large majority said domestic stocks (81 percent) and real estate (80 percent) provided the greatest returns.
• 51 percent said U.S. stocks are becoming riskier, and 18 percent said they were planning to move away from the market – versus 8 percent who said they plan to move away from international stocks.
• 74 percent worry that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge in the world economy and 71 percent worry that high taxes will reduce the level of their estate.

As to high-net-worth individuals in the South Sound, U.S. Trust reports that of 284,788 households in Pierce County, 23,246 enjoy a net worth of over $1 million. Those over $5 million number 2,056. Fully 6,137 have investable assets of $2 million or more.

Wall Street was already bullish on Boeing, but the company this morning beat analysts' high expectations by a hefty margin.

The Chicago-based company reported first quarter earnings of $1.13 a share, up 28 percent from last year's first quarter. Earnings predictions from sixteen aerospace analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research had averaged $1.03 before the announcement.

Profits rose faster than revenues (up 8 percent) on strong sales of both commercial airplanes and military equipment.

Some numbers of note:

* Boeing delivered 106 airliners in the first quarter.

* Commercial backlog grew to a record $188 billion.

* Customers ordered 189 airliners in the first quarter.

* While commercial airplane revenues rose $500 million to $7.6 billion in the first quarter, the company's commercial airplane margins dropped to 9.3 percent from 10 percent.

* The same story was true on the defense side of the house where revenues rose $500 million to $7.7 billion, but profit margins eroded to 10.2 percent from 11.4 percent in the year earlier quarter.

* Earnings forecasts from Boeing held steady with predictions of earnings per share for 2007 at $4.55 to 4.75 and $5.55 to $5.75 next year.

Four people have announced their candidacy for Port of Tacoma commission positions.

Commissioner Clare Petrich is running for a fourth term. She was first elected to the commission in 1995. Petrich has been the managing partner of Petrick Marine Dock, a moorage and industrial facility on the Foss Waterway, for 17 years. She is also the founder and owner of Dockmandu, a import shop that sells home and garden products.

Three people have announced plans to run for the seat being vacated by longtime port commissioner Jack Fabulich.

=> Read more!

I wrote a story for today's paper – and a blog post yesterday – regarding Attorney General Rob McKenna's plans for investigating the factors that influence gas prices.

I received several e-mails and phone calls from readers on the topic, so I thought I'd post some additional information.

This is the first, comprehensive study done by the state since 1991.

For those interested here's the link to that study, which was commissioned by the Legislature.

Company employees met for a noon luncheon today to hear that PCS Structural Solutions – an engineering firm with offices in Tacoma and Seattle – has chosen a new leadership team.

Craig Stauffer, a 14-year employee and principal in the Seattle office, has been named president. Brian Phair, a 13-year Tacoma veteran who has served as principal-in-charge of the firm's educational, correction and health-care work, is now vice president. Dan Putnam will remain as CEO.

The promotions are a result of a "significant ownership transition plan" that has been in place for five years, PCS said in a release.

Founded in 1966 and originally known as Chalker Engineers, PCS employs 60 people and has seen revenues increase 52 percent over the past three years. The firm specializes in engineering health-care and educational markets, and has worked on such projects as The Tacoma Dome, Washington State History Museum, University of Washington Tacoma, Union Station and the structural design of over $12 billion in K-12 construction in the Puget Sound area.

It's where all the smart kids go.

In survey results posted today, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that 36 percent of American adult Internet users consult the citizen-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and fully eight percent consult the site on a typical day.

Wikipedia is"far more popular among the well-educated than it is among those with lower levels of education," the survey says, reporting that 50 percent of users have earned a college degree, while 22 percent boast a high school diploma.

For a full look at the report, including an analysis of the site's popularity, visit http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/212/report_display.asp.

Not Amazon, Best Buy or Target.

Toyota’s Scion is the most recognized brand among online shoppers 35 years old and younger, according to an annual survey as reported at Marketing Daily.

Just four years old, Scion.com promotes artists and concert info, allows users to build and save their own Scion and can send a customer’s preferences to a local dealership to set up a test drive.

Chalk up more orders for Boeing in a week that promises to pump up the backlog for the Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplane Group.

To wit:

* Fifteen 787s for Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways. Branson's airline took options for eight 787-9s and purchase rights for 20 more Dreamliners. If Virgin Atlantic exercises all of its options and purchase rights, the order would be worth about $8 billion to Boeing. The 787 is key to Branson's new "green" strategy because of their fuel efficiency. The billionaire adventurer and entrepreneur has delayed deliveries of Airbus' superjumbo A380 until at least 2013 and is putting on hold orders for Airbus' relatively thirsty, four-engine A340. Branson and Boeing on that same theme announced a test using biofuels to operate one of Virgin's 747s.

* Twenty-three more 787 Dreamliners for Air Canada. The Canadian carrier exercised options on the nearly two dozen planes today raising its total 787 orders to 37. In the process, the airline cancelled orders for two Boeing 777s. In converting the options to orders, Air Canada became the largest North American customer for the 787. The Toronto-based airline also expects to take delivery of 16 777s by the end of next year. The Air Canada order is significant because the airline is shedding its long-range Airbus jets in favor of Boeings.

* Fifteen new generation 737s and five 787s from leasing company Aviation Capital Group. The deal is worth about $1.6 billion at list prices. ACG has 138 Boeings in its fleet. This week's order was the leasing company's first for the Dreamliner.

Remember when commuting from cities such as Kalispell and Walla Walla meant duck-walking down the aisle of a 19-seat, cigar-shaped airliner?

Those planes were largely replaced in the '90s by the 37-seat Bombardier Q200 airliners, at least if your favored airline was Horizon.

Now, Horizon plans to phase out the Q200s in favor of 76-seat Bombardier Q400s. Target date to replace all of those smaller twin-engine Q200s is now 2009.

To accomplish that feat, SeaTac-based Horizon Air announced late Monday that it is ordering 15 more Q400s from Canadian plane maker Bombardier and taking options for 20 more.

By mid-2009, the Horizon fleet will consist of just two kinds of aircraft: 48 turboprop Q400s and 20 jet CRJ-700s.

=> Read more!

Washingtonians may soon know the answer to oft-asked question: What causes the changes – and, of more concern, the spikes – in gas prices?

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna announced today that he is working with the Governor's office and the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to investigate factors that influence gas prices in the state.

It will be the most comprehensive study of gas prices the state has done since 1991.

Kristin Alexander, spokeswomen for the Attorney General's office, said questions from consumes prompted the investigation.

"We consistently have questions from consumers asking why gas prices are higher than in Washington," Alexander said.

A gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline reached $3.18 in Tacoma today – the price is almost a record.

It matches the highest recorded price to date, which was on June 1, 2006, according to AAA of Washington. The average price in Washington today is $3.14.

=> Read more!

Ed Galligan, Port of Olympia executive director, stands by a fiberglass windmill blade delivered to the port last summer.

The Port of Olympia is once again receiving ships loaded with gigantic windmill blades headed for Northwest wind farms.

About 120 of the 125-foot long blades arrived in Olympia over the weekend. Manufactured in Brazil, the blades weigh 35,000 pounds each and will be stored in the port's cargo yard for a few weeks.

They are ultimately headed – via truck – for a wind farm in Oregon. The port handled its first windmill blades last year and has picked up more of the unusual cargo since. Another shipment of the blades is scheduled to arrive later this spring. They will go to a wind farm in Canada

The Motley Fool discusses today Amazon.com's quarterly earnings, which will be released on Tuesday. Here's part of the discussion:

In these few hours before we begin obsessing over a single bend, let's take a moment to review the whole length of the river. Our tool in this endeavor: Motley Fool CAPS, where we poll more than 27,000 investors for their views on well over 4,000 companies, Amazon.com among them. Here's what Fools have to say about the company.

Up or down?
More than 800 investors have submitted ratings on the company. The verdict: Amazon is all wet.

About six investors in 10 rate the company likely to outperform the market, a sentiment shared by both our best investors -- the CAPS All-Stars -- and the CAPS population at large. Seeing as most companies I've reviewed in this column score approval ratings upwards of 80%, it's little wonder that this less-favored firm gets just one star out of a possible five on CAPS.

A brand beloved by serious espresso drinkers has opened its first U.S. location, according to The Washington Post.

Illy chose to go inside the Marriott’s Renaissance M Street Hotel in D.C. (You can find Illy at other restaurants or coffee shops, but this is the company's first stand-alone store.) The Italian company set up the spot, called Caffe, much like you’d find it in Italy: a stand-up bar, no seating and sleek red-and-white décor, The Washington Post reported.

No word on subsequent Illy locations.

PC Magazine editors named the 10 most common passwords. If you recognize yours, you may as well hand over your wallet to the first person you see on the street.

And the winners are:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. 123abc
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

Airbus fired the first shot this week in the commercial airplane orderbook war with Boeing.

Malaysian budget airline AirAsiaX announced it is ordering 10 new Airbus A330-300 twin-jets with options for five more.

The airline said it expects delivery of the first of the popular wide-bodies beginning in the fall of 2008.

Meanwhile at Boeing, reports are circulating that Boeing and the airlines involved may reveal some of the names behind the 67 unidentified orders for Boeing 787 Dreamliners this week. Odds-on favorite is Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, which has deferred prior orders for four-engine Airbus A340-500s and Airbus superjumbo A380s.

The super-efficient 787 would well fit with Branson's new earth-friendly airline image.

In second place in the rumor mill is American Airlines, which badly needs new-generation long-haul jets if it is to remain competitive in long-haul markets.

Tacoma-based Pierce Commercial Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pierce County Bancorp, has reported earnings for the first quarter of $1,085,000, an increase of $471,000 or 77 percent, as compared to the first quarter of 2006.

Further, loans were up $54 million, or 34 percent, as compared to March 2006; deposits increased $48 million, or 28 percent; and total assets rose $53 million, or 26 percent.

President and CEO Gary Gahan attributed the earnings to a sound local economy and robust loan demand.

In January, the bank began construction of a new commercial office building located directly behind their main office on South Union Avenue. The building will house the bank's Tacoma residential team and other departments, freeing space in the current facility for additional personnel.

The Small Business Technology Council, a council of the National Small Business Association, is seeking nominations for the eighth Tibbetts Awards. The awards, named for Roland Tibbetts – the person acknowledged as the father of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program – honors small firms, projects, organizations and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in SBIR achievement.

SBTC seeks nominees who show the economic impact of their technological innovation, business achievement and effective collaborations, and a demonstrated state and regional impact and proven support.

Winners will be recognized in October in Washington, D.C. Nominations are due Sunday, July 15, and can be submitted online at www.tibbettsawards.org.

The SBIR program has developed more than $21 billion worth of research by more than 15,000 firms – resulting in more than 45,000 patents. SBIR companies employ more than 400,000 scientists and engineers, making the program the largest concentration of scientific and engineering talent in the United States

For more information visit the Web site above.

Some of you actually read all the way to the end of today's business column about the impact a 19-month street construction project is having on businesses around East D Street and Puyallup Avenue in Tacoma.

At the end of the column, I suggested that I would see you for lunch at Afred's Cafe, which sits at Ground Zero of the construction zone and has struggled to draw a crowd.

Owner Richard Bartolatz has laid off half his staff and is thinking about closing shop for the summer. He hasn't decided what to do just yet.
But if he drew lunch crowds like he did today on a consistent basis, he probably could stay open.

You packed the place. Thank you.

But I have a little mea culpa – I neglected to warn Bartolatz that I would make a plea for you to drop in for lunch. Consequently, the overwhelmed servers had a tough time keeping up with the unexpected business. If you had to wait awhile, my apologies.

Once again, thanks for eating at Alfred's – and thanks for reading!

The Associated Press reports that a lengthy outage in the BlackBerry e-mail service this week may have been caused by a minor software upgrade had crashed the system.

The reason cited by Research in Motion Ltd. Thursday night was highly technical:

The outage from Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning was triggered by “the introduction of a new, non-critical system routine” designed to optimize the cache, or temporary memory, on the computer servers that run the BlackBerry network.

RIM said “the pre-testing of the system routine proved to be insufficient.”

Carpenters from around the Northwest are scheduled to rally Sunday at the Tacoma Dome.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters is scheduled to negotiate a new contract with the Association of General Contractors later this spring.

The carpenters will be rallying Sunday for higher wages and affordable healthcare. The event will feature food, entertainment and leaders from the local and national carpenters union.

A carpenters rally last weekend in Oregon attracted 5,200 people. Organizers expect at least that many to attend the Tacoma Dome event.

The event starts at 12:00PM.

For more information on the union and its upcoming contract go to www.contract2007.org.

The broad market Russell 3000 Index hit a record for the fourth time in one week.

Today, at close of the market, the Russell 3000 broke its intraday high and also set a new record high close of 864.57. The index is up 4.72% year-to-date and 3.02% over the past seven years.

The Russell 3000 Index represents approximately 98% of the US Market, providing a comprehensive, unbiased and stable barometer of the market. The top performing sectors are “Health Care,” and “Auto & Transportation.”

You may have seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new record today closing up 153.35, or 1.20 percent, at 12,961.98.

Forza Coffee Company has opened four new locations in Washington. Forza purchased retail spots in two locations on Puyallup’s South Hill, one in Tacoma and one in Lakewood, totaling 15 coffee houses to date, with more Pierce County locations soon to come.

The new sites include Top Foods on South Hill at 201 37th Ave SE, as well as at South Hill’s Meridian Street at 129th. Forza has assumed the store at 11401 Steele Street in Tacoma, and completed the build out for the new Lakewood store at 8813 Edgewater Drive.

Gig Harbor-based Forza works with Phil Beattie, Roast Master of Dillanos Coffee Co. in Sumner to custom roast blends. Roast Magazine has named Beattie as one of three best specialty coffee roasters in North America.

Forza has another 16 shops in construction, including one opening in Denver, Colorado early this summer. Brad and Cindy Carpenter opened their first Forza Coffee Company coffee house in April 2005.

"Wary of rising disability retirement costs, the Department of Defense under then-secretary Caspar Weinberger quietly sought and received an internal legal opinion that, to this day, tamps down the number of wounded or ill service members awarded military disability retirement..."

That decision affects injured and disabled service personnel who are returning from the latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read a full report in Tom Philpott's "Military Update" column in Saturday's News Tribune Business Section.

As you may have read in this morning's News Tribune business section, the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel is changing its name and setting out on a $20 million remodel-and-rebrand centered around an art glass theme.
Here's more on the story:
What: New owners Provenance Hotels are remodeling and rebranding the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel
Opens: Name officially changes in November; renovations complete by early next year
Rates: Will likely start at $159 per night, with variations
Restaurants: A new fourth-floor restaurant is at the theme-and-cocept stage. The fine-dining facility on the top floor will be converted into a VIP lounge.
Other Provenance properties: Hotel Lucia and Hotel deLuxe in Portland; Hotel Max in Seattle; Hotel Preston in Nashville, Tenn.
Artists whose work will be on display at Hotel Murano include Mirian di Fiore, Martin Blank, Tobias Mohl, Steve Klein, Janusz Walentynowicz, Jessica Townsemd, Hiroshi Yamano, Peter Bremers, Cobi Cockburn, Dante Marioni, Susan Taylor Glasgow, Bruno Romanelli, Toots Zynsky, Bertil Vallien, Richard Whiteley, Preston Singletary, Masayo Odahashi, Peter Powning, Flo Perkins, William Morris, Davide Salvadore, Orfeo Quagliata, Anna Carlgren, Vibeke Skov, Lucio Bubacco, Brent Kee Young, Massimo Micheluzzi, Narcissus Quagliata, April Surgent, Rick Beco and Dale Chihuly.

Jessica Gaya, an owner and chief baker, of Corina Bakery.

Goods news for cake lovers. The owners of Corina Bakery are contemplating an expansion.

Jessica Gaya, who owns the bakery with her husband and a partner, said today that they are looking to double the bakery's current space in the Merlino Art Center.

They need more room for customers to sit and more space to bake.

The bakery owners were contemplating a new space altogether, but Gaya said the owners of the Merlino Art Center wanted them to stay. So now the bakery and building owners are awaiting contractor's estimates of how much such an expansion would cost.

In the meantime Gaya said the caramel macchiato cheesecake is a hit with customers. It's a coffee and vanilla cheesecake topped with caramel and coffee whip cream. Yum.

There you were, minding your own business, showing up to work every day, when your company announced a restructuring that will lead to layoffs.

The Associated Press gleaned a few tips to follow during those anxious weeks before the company identifies which departments will be targeted from John Challenger of employment consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas of Chicago:

• Postpone your vacation and keep a perfect attendance record. “You don’t want to be out of sight because you could be out of mind,” he said.
• Become an information sponge and be aware of trends in your industry.
• Work hard to develop strong relationships with the new leadership, and don’t complain about changes. “You don’t want to be seen as part of the old guard,” Challenger said.
• Avoid the temptation to fly under the radar. Keep your supervisor apprised of your achievements.

Three California-based businesses have reached a settlement with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna over allegations they installed software on people's computers that launched persistent pop-up screens.

Those pop-ups demanded payment for movie downloads the computer users allegedly had not ordered. The software was installed after users signed up for a seemingly anonymous free trial for the service.

“Under this settlement, Movieland.com and its associated companies agree to cease offering anonymous free trials to Washington consumers for their movie download service,” said McKenna. “Additionally, the defendants must receive express consent from Washington consumers before installing any billing software on the user’s computer, disclose whether the software will cause any pop-ups and clearly state all important contract terms in any advertisement.”

The state filed its original lawsuit last summer following an investigation by the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit. The suit accused the following of violating Washington’s Computer Spyware and Consumer Protection acts: Digital Enterprises of West Hills, doing business as Movieland.com; AccessMedia Networks of Los Angeles; Innovative Networks of Woodland Hills; and Alchemy Communications of Los Angeles.

A New York-based aircraft leasing company, CIT Aerospace, today ordered five single-aisle Boeing 737-700s. At list prices, those orders are valued at $295 million.

CIT already has 31 737s in its fleet and has 10 more on Boeing's order books. The company is also a 787 Dreamliner customer with orders for five.

Boeing also disclosed that an unidentified customer ordered two 737s in the last week, bringing total orders for the popular twin-jet to 45 for the year. Airlines in that same period canceled orders for four 737s, yielding net orders for the plane of 41 in 2007. Boeing doesn't disclose which airlines canceled orders.

For the year, the aircraft maker has recorded a net of 223 commercial airplane orders.

Weyerhaeuser Co. today announced that Patricia M. Bedient, 53, has been elected executive vice president and chief financial officer by the board of directors effective immediately.

Bedient succeeds Richard J. Taggart, 64, who will retire in June after reaching the company's mandatory retirement age. Taggart has served as CFO since April 2003.

=> Read more!

Hundreds of airport-related jobs are available today at Sea-Tac Airport's Spring Job Fair.

Those jobs range from pilots and airport managers to rental car shuttle drivers, cooks and ramp workers.

The fair will be held in the airport's arrival hall at the far south end of the baggage claim area. Booths staffed by employers looking for new workers will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Those employers are looking not only for seasonal and part-time workers but also for full-time employees.

If you park in the airport's garage, bring your ticket with you to the job fair for validation.

If you can't make it in person, go to the airport's Web job site at www.airportjobs.org for a complete list of jobs and how to apply for them.

That list is available year-round, not just during the job fair.

Tacoma-based Labor Ready witnessed a decrease in its first-quarter revenue and profit, the company reported today.

Labor Ready provides temporary workers for manual labor, light industrial and skilled construction trades.

The company's revenue dipped 2.3 percent from $297 million in the first quarter of last year to $290 million this year. Profit slipped by 9.8 percent to $10.3 million this year compared to $11.5 million last year.

While the numbers for quarter were down, they still exceeded the company's expectations, said Derrek Gafford, Labor Ready's executive vice president and chief financial officer. The company had anticipated revenue to slip by 5 percent.

=> Read more!

Taxpayers who were unable to e-file their tax returns Tuesday using Intuit Inc. software products have until midnight on April 19 to file their returns, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday.

Potentially up to several hundred thousand last-minute tax filers were affected by company server problems on Tuesday evening, and they or their accountants may have been unable to electronically file returns. Intuit confirmed Wednesday that those problems had been resolved, and the company was successfully accepting e-file returns on Wednesday.

The company said affected taxpayers and tax professionals include those using “TurboTax,” “ProSeries,” “Lacerte” and Intuit’s Free File offering, “TurboTax Freedom.”

The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem.

Just because they’re meeting strangers online, don’t think teenagers aren’t getting the heeby-jeebies. So go some results in a report on the online presence of teens – released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Among the findings:

• 63 percent of of teens who maintain online profiles believe that a motivated person could identify them by the information publicly provided.
• 55 percent of online teens have profiles at social networking sites, and 66 percent of them say their information is restricted in some way.
• Of those whose profiles can be accessed by anyone, 46 percent say they have given “at least some false information.”
• For those who have profiles, 82 percent have posted their first names; 79 percent have posted photos of themselves; 49 percent have provided the name of their schools; 29 percent have given an e-mail address; 2 percent have offered their cell-phone numbers.
• 23 percent of those with profiles say it would be”pretty easy” for someone to fully identify them from the profile; 36 percent say it would be “very difficult.”
• 32 percent of online teens (and 43 percent of social networkers) have been contacted online by strangers.
• 7 percent of online teens and 23 percent of those who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of an online encounter.

For more information on the Pew project visit www.pewinternet.org

It was a dark day for the Boeing Co. on March 12, 2003 that the company's stock closed at a 21st century low, $25.15.

Who would have guessed that a little more than four years later, the stock would be reaching all-time highs?

At the market's close today, Boeing was trading at 93.88 a share, up $3.43 a share from Tuesday's close and $1.64 more than its previous high water mark set in late February this year.

In 2003, the invasion of Iraq was just eight days away, and Boeing was still laying off hundreds of workers each month in an attempt to match its plane-building capacity to its dwindling order book.

Today, the company is buoyed by the record sales of its 787 twin-jet, a record 544 even before the plane makes its first flight and two years of record commercial aircraft orders.

Boeing is a strong favorite in the $40 billion contest to build a new generation of aerial tankers to equip the Air Force, and the company was the sole bidder for 20 new fighters for the South Korean Air Foce. That project could bring the company $2.5 billion in new sales.

Meanwhile, Airbus is in disarray laying off 10,000 workers, selling plants and attempting to solve wiring problems on its A380 jumbo jet.

Kudos to those with the foresight to buy Boeing when it sold in the mid-20s. Your faith is being rewarded.

Rainier Pacific Financial Group, parent of Tacoma-based Rainier Pacific Bank, on Wednesday posted first-quarter earnings nearly 39 percent above quarterly earnings a year ago. Net income for the first quarter was up 38.6 percent, to $890,000, while dividends rose from 11 cents per share to 15 cents.

Revenue was $8.6 million for the quarter, compared to $8.4 million in 2006. Assets rose $3.9 million from the end of December to $906.6 million, and total loans were $638.5 million compared to $595.7 million for the first quarter of 2006. Net charge-offs were $157,000 for the quarter, compared to $206,000 a year ago.

John Hall, Rainier president and CEO, said he was pleased at the progress toward improving earnings and with the continued “strong credit quality exhibited by our loan portfolio, and the growth of our core deposits during the first quarter.” He said the bank will focus on improving efficiency and profitability during the remainder of 2007.

Pierce County added 2,000 jobs from February to March and 4,800 over the year, according to Employment Security Department information released Tuesday.

The numbers are not adjusted for seasonal changes in employment such as holiday hiring.

Industries that witnessed growth including trade and transportation, construction and business and professional services.

To see the full report and numbers from around the state go here.

Average asking prices for Puget Sound-area office-space continued to climb in the first quarter, CB Richard Ellis reported late Monday. Overall, the market gained 63 cents per square foot to finish at $26.29, the highest asking rates in the region since 2001.

The downtown Seattle market led the region, gaining $1.35 per square foot to end at $29.81. Some 90,000 square feet of office space broke ground in the area, with most activity coming in downtown Seattle.

Pierce County saw 3.82 million square feet of rentable office space, with 337,869 square feet vacant, the quarterly report said. This marked a vacancy rate of 8.84 percent, well below the regional total of 11.54 percent.

For industrial properties in Pierce County, Sumner Corporate Park’s Snoqualmie Building added 503,534 square feet to the market, while Building 6 at Rainier Park of Industry added 250,100 square feet. The final two buildings at Valley Avenue Business Park in Puyallup accounted for more than 200,000 square feet, CB Richard Ellis said, while three other properties – Panattoni’s Portside Industrial Park in Tacoma, Opus’ second building at Pacific Coast Corporate Park in Fife, and AMB’s Valley Distribution Center in Auburn – will add more than 1.6 million square feet to the market this year.

Industrial vacancy in the Tacoma market closed the quarter at 7.2 percent, due mostly to new products. The market’s total industrial vacancy rate for the quarter was 6.14 percent.

Overall energy prices in the Puget Sound area were up 7 percent in March, led by an 11.8 percent increase in the cost of gasoline, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Gasoline prices were up 15 percent over the previous 12 months, while household energy prices (electricity and natural gas) were unchanged for the month and up 6.5 percent over the year.

Grocery prices rose 2.6 percent in March, and the cost of shelter was up 0.2 percent.

The World Trade Center Tacoma and the World Affairs Council will celebrate World Trade Center Association Day on June 13 with a gathering at the Bicentennial Pavilion at the Tacoma Sheraton Hotel.

The celebration will feature discussions and a keynote address, as well as an art and essay contest aimed at local high school students – with money and gift certificates as prizes.

Essays should answer the question, “Do you believe there are ways free trade can help alleviate global poverty?” Artwork, in whatever medium, should be created around the theme of globalization.

For more information, visit www.wtcta.org

All major federal financial regulatory agencies today issued a statement encouraging banks to work with home-loan borrowers who may be facing foreclosure.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision issued a joint statement acknowledging that “(M)any residential borrowers may face significant payment increases when their adjustable rate mortgage loans reset in the coming months. These borrowers may not have sufficient financial capacity to service a higher debt load, especially if they were qualified based on a low introductory payment.”

The agencies encouraged institutions “to consider prudent workout arrangements that increase the potential” that borrowers might keep their homes. Institutions could, the agencies said, “consider modifying loan terms, including converting loans with variable rates into fixed-rate products.”

Institutions that showed such flexibility “may receove favorable Community Reinvestment Act consideration,” the agencies said.

Counseling for troubled borrowers is available under the Homeownership Counseling Act. The Department of Housing and Urban Development maintains a list of approved counselors.

Kent's new downtown retail and entertainment gathering place, Kent Station, has moved closer to filling its available retail spaces with the addition of three new merchants.

* Road Runner Sports has recently opened a 7,015-square-foot store selling running shoes, apparel and gear. The national chain is occupying a key corner location at the center's entrance at Forth Avenue North and Ramsay Way across the street from the King County Regional Justice Center.

* See's Candies is selling more than 100 varieties of gourment chocolates and candies in a 1,200-square-foot space on Kent Station's north side.

* Just the Thing has opened its first retail location marketing clothing and premium denim. The store is locally owned.

Three years ago, The Boeing Co. lost its title as the world's largest commercial airplane maker after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Now Boeing is showing strong signals it will regain that title as early as next year.

First Boeing passed Airbus in commercial aircraft orders last year, and now the company is on the verge of passing its European rival in its total airliner backlog.

According to figures compiled by Flight International Magazine, Boeing's backlog of orders at the end of March was 2,534 aircraft. That's just shy of Airbus' reported backlog total of 2,540 aircraft.

Boeing may have already surpassed Airbus because it has reported several dozen orders from unidentified

orders from airlines already in April while Airbus has reported just a handful.

Boeing is also closing the gap on a third critical benchmark in the commercial airplane business. The company expects to produce just a few fewer airliners this year than Airbus and will likely surpass Airbus' production beginning in 2008.

The newest Fortune
500 list is out. Here's a look at some Washington companies
(with revenues and profits in millions):

Rank 		Company 		Revenues 			Profits
28 		Boeing 			61,530.0 			2,215.0
32 		Costco 			60,151.2 			1,103.2
49 		Microsoft 		44,282.0 			12,599.0
81 		WaMu 			26,561.0 			3,558.0
105 		Weyerhaeuser 	        22,250.0 			453.0
141 		Paccar 			16,454.1 			1,496.0
237 		Amazon.com 		10,711.0 			190.0
286 		Nordstrom 		8,560.7 			678.0
310 		Starbucks 		7,786.9 			564.3
363 		Safeco 			6,289.9 			880.0
477 		Expeditors 		4,626.0 			235.1

Costco Wholesale Corp.'s stock is worth more than people think because the warehouse retailer understates the value of its land and the market doesn't fully appreciate the value of the company's income stream, a Piper Jaffray analyst wrote today to clients.

Piper Jaffray analyst Mitchell A. Kaiser said he'd grown uncomfortable with the Issaquah-based discounter's stock, the Associated Press reports. The shares' price is almost 21 times his estimate for 2008 earnings per share, which is too high a price-to-earnings ratio for a company growing at Costco's pace, Kaiser said.

=> Read more!

Bloomberg News reports that U.S. lumber producers may suffer a decline in earnings during the next year because of a reduction in new home construction, ratings company Standard & Poor’s said.

Weyerhaeuser Co., the world’s biggest lumber producer, has been shutting mills and cutting jobs to offset higher costs and a slump in lumber and wood products as U.S. housing construction slows.

“Earnings for wood product manufacturers are likely to be weak this year,” S&P said, without saying which companies are vulnerable. “A longer, deeper downturn in housing than we now expect could put pressure on credit quality of those producers whose credit measures are just adequate for their ratings.”

Weyerhaeuser, which split off its paper assets in a merger with Montreal-based Domtar Inc., forecast “significant losses” in the first quarter for wood products and real estate. Domtar changed its name to Domtar Corp. after the merger.

Shares of Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser rose $3.08 to $79.10 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The shares have risen 6.9 percent in the past year, trailing a 14 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

East Pierce columnist Chanel Studebaker will report in her Tuesday column that DeCaterina’s Market Grill and Bar has opened in the former From the Bayou location in downtown Puyallup.

The restaurant is located in the Pioneer Park Pavilion. It is co-owned by Peter DeCaterina, former owner of DeCaterina’s Jewelry in downtown Puyallup, and Patricia Podrasky, former co-owner of Valley Orthopedic. DeCaterina also worked at the old E.R. Rogers restaurant in Steilacoom.

Read more in tomorrow's paper.

The Internal Revenue Service said today it learned late Friday of a new tax scam that lures taxpayers into filing tax information on an Internet site masquerading as a member of the Free File Alliance.

The only place to access the Free File program is through the agency’s Web site, IRS.gov.

The IRS is working with the Treasury Inspector General investigating allegations that the bogus Web sites accepted tax information from taxpayers, changed the taxpayers’ bank account numbers to their own and then filed the return through a legitimate Free File partner.

Taxpayers can avoid this problem by using the official Free File site on IRS.gov. Seventy percent of the nation’s taxpayers are eligible to use the free electronic filing system. To qualify for the program, taxpayers need to have an adjusted gross income of $52,000 or less.

The Associated Press reports that Seattle’s two daily newspapers have agreed to settle a legal dispute that threatened to close the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, lifting a cloud that has hung over the city’s journalism industry for four years.

The Seattle Times Co. and Hearst Corp., which publishes the P-I, announced the settlement in separate statements. The two had been headed for binding, closed-door arbitration to settle disagreements over their joint operating agreement, which The Times contended was no longer financially viable.

“It’s a new beginning for the P-I,” said Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer.

Under the agreement, which took effect in 1983 to save the P-I, The Times handles printing, circulation and advertising for both papers, and keeps 60 percent of their joint profits.

Hearst will pay The Times $25 million in exchange for not seeking to end the agreement before 2016. The Times, meanwhile, will pay Hearst $49 million to settle the litigation and buy Hearst’s right to collect 32 percent of their joint profits through 2083 if the P-I closes.

“Now no one can argue that Hearst might have a financial interest in seeing the P-I fold,” Luthringer said.

The new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Bonney Lake will open Wednesday.

The 207,338-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter store is 59,192 square feet larger than the former Wal-Mart discount store in the city.

The store had received more than 1,200 applications as of March 29, for the 250 new positions that will be available at the expanded store, Store Manager Chad Smith said. The store plans to employ a total of 450.

The grand opening ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, and the store will open for business immediately following the event.

Additional Wal-Mart Supercenters in Puyallup and Federal Way opened in January.

April 15 has come and gone. The 16th is winding down.

And this year, you’ve still got time to file your taxes with the IRS.

Precisely, you’ve got until midnight tomorrow. If you’re going to wait that long – and you’re in the Tacoma area – there’s a place where you can drop your mail.

Blue drop boxes will be collected through midnight, April 17, at the Evergreen Station, 4001 So. Pine St., according to Michelle Brooks, supervisor of customer service at the downtown branch.

Airbus' order book for its A350XWB, the European manufacturer's rival to Boeing's hyper-successful 787 widebody jet is likely to score a few substantial orders in the next few months.

Look for many of those orders to be announced at the Paris Air Show in June. The show gives aircraft makers a world stage on which to release their good news.

The most likely airlines to order the A350XWB are the airlines that had ordered its now-canceled predecessor, the A350, and airlines that had ordered the woefully-behind-schedule A380 superjumbo jet. Among those airlines are several Middle Eastern carriers and such early A380 customers as Singapore Airlines.

=> Read more!

Michael O'Leary, the bold Irishman who runs Europe's most popular budget airline, RyanAir, predicts trans-Atlantic airfares could drop as low as $12 each way when he opens service to the U.S. from Europe a couple of years from now.

In an interview with Flight International magazine, O'Leary says the new Europe-U.S. "open skies" agreement, effective next year, will open the door for major discounting on international flights.

O'Leary said he's thinking of starting a new airline devoted only to trans-Atlantic flying that would buy a fleet of either Boeing 787s or Airbus A350XWBs to operate between the lesser-popular European airports his RyanAir now uses to alternate airports in the United States.

=> Read more!

A dispute over rents between Los Angeles International Airport and its airline tenants has grown beyond an internal fracas and is now affecting passengers departing the airport.

United Airlines has announced – and American, US Airways, Northwest and Delta have matched – A $10 per passenger surcharge for their passengers departing from LAX.

United says the $10 fee added to its regular fares will offset the higher rents the airport is imposing.

The airport says it needs the money to pay for improvements. United's additional costs amount to about $10 million a year, the airport contends, but it will collect about $48 million with the $10 per passenger fee.

Still standing on the sidelines is SeaTac-based Alaska Airlines, whose own terminal costs will increase by several million dollars yearly, is still mulling over it's reaction, said Alaska spokeswoman Amanda Tobin-Bielawski.

Alaska has the largest share of business between Seattle and LAX. United is its main rival on that route. Not joining the surcharge parade would put Alaska's fares nominally below United's on that route and would put its flights first on computer screens that sorted available flights by fare costs.

But Alaska could end up losing money if it declined to impose a surcharge and didn't see its share of the business increase.

The new "gourmet" coffee at the Golden Arches is paying off for the restaurant. McDonald's reported today that sales of the beverage are up.

The company added premium coffee last year that reviewers say is far superior to the previous version. A Consumer Reports review ranked it higher than Starbucks for taste and value.

In the last few months, McDonald’s U.S. restaurants added a machine that automatically dispenses cream and sugar for coffee, boosting sales especially among drive-through customers who don’t want to add the flavoring themselves.

=> Read more!

The Eagles Aerie #3 – the downtown Tacoma building that was torn down last week after partially collapsing – is in foreclosure.

The owners of the building, listed as Tacoma real estate executive Eric Cederstrand and his father, owe taxes for the last three years to Pierce County.

The county is scheduled to begin the formal proceedings in June in court. The property's owner has until then to pay the oldest year's taxes to avoid legal action, said Billie O'Brien, administrative manager for the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer. Cederstrand could not be reached this week.

=> Read more!

The weekly order totals are in at Boeing, and the 787 continues to lead the order parade.

Boeing's order log reveals the company added 30 more orders for the Dreamliner last week to unidentified customers. That should put total 787 Dreamliner orders at 544 just 10 days after the company announced it had passed the 500-order level.

The Dreamliner was already the best-selling pre-production jet in airline history.

These new orders come in spite of the fact that Boeing is essentially booked up for almost the first five years of production. At some point, airlines looking for an efficient, new-tech jetliner will turn to Boeing rival Airbus only because the European aircraft maker can deliver its A350XWB more quickly than Boeing. The A350XWB is expected to enter service in 2013 or 2014.

Boeing also booked five orders for its popular 777 last week also to unindentified buyers.

Here are the up-to-date 2007 order totals for Boeing's line of jetliners:

737 - 38
747 - 5
767 - 36
777 - 45
787 - 96

Total to date: 220

Its not the usual airliners or fighters, but Boeing is testing the first of a generation of a new kind of equipment that could prove to be a lucrative part of its business in the future.

The company is putting a 98-foot-tall unmanned tower bristling with electronic sensors and communications devices to the test in the desert near the Mexican border.

The tower is part of what Boeing says will be a network of such towers designed to remotely detect attempted illegal border crossings and dispatch Border Patrol officers to intercept the offenders.

The federal government could spend as much as $30 billion securing the nation's Southwest border with such high-technology equipment.

Log truck drivers and owners took their cause for higher rates to the public today in Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Olympia blaring their horns to rally support for their cause.

The truckers contend they've not had an increase in their rates for more than 20 years despite increasing expenses and the rising cost of living.

In Grays Harbor, more than 75 log truck drivers have sidelined their vehicles for 11 days in hopes of forcing timber companies to come to the table to negotiate.

The truckers say they want at least a 12 percent rate increase in the rates the timber companies pay them to haul logs from the woods to the mills.

Comcast today announced it will increase customers’ broadband performance on upload speed, throughout Washington this month.

Some customers – those with 6 Mbps and 8 Mbps service plans – can now expect upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbps when uploading content such as photos and videos, or e-mailing larger files. There's no extra charge for the speed increase.

The company is deploying the second phase of its patent-pending "PowerBoost" technology.

Here's what the company says about PowerBoost:

Comcast first introduced the PowerBoost technology in June 2006 for downstream speed in response to customers’ increasing appetites for bandwidth-intensive activities such as downloading videos, photos, games and music. PowerBoost technology enables customers to download with speeds of up to 12 Mbps or 16 Mbps, depending on their service plan, for no additional charge. PowerBoost technology for downstream speed is now fully deployed across Comcast’s national footprint.

The Washington Supreme Court today rejected Ford Motor Co.'s legal challenge to some $1.7 million worth of business and occupation taxes collected from the auto company by the cities of Tacoma and Seattle.

The failure of its legal challenge came as the beleaguered auto company was recalling 527,000 defective sports utility vehicles, as its CEO, Alan Mulally, was apologizing for making a joke about President Bush almost blowing himself up at a hydrogen vehicle demonstration and as the company lays off thousands to reverse its $7.4 billion loss last year.

The court said both cities correctly apportioned the taxes based on the company's wholesale sales within the cities and that Tacoma didn't violate its own municipal code's limits when it reached back to 1990 to collect back taxes from Ford.

The court victory solidified the two city's legal basis for collecting B&O taxes on such national manufacturers such as Ford which do business within their communities.

Ford had contended the taxes were improperly imposed based on its wholesale sales in the two cities although the company did not design, build or even transfer the ownership of vehicles within the two cities.

The court held that where the sales happened and where the vehicles were built was not relevant because business and occupation taxes are not sales taxes but taxes imposed for the privilege of doing business within the cities.

Regarding the back tax issue, the court ruled Tacoma properly reached back to 1990 to collect the taxes in 2002 because the four-year limit on back tax collections had two exceptions. Ford had not filed B&O tax returns for the years in question, thus allowing the city to go beyond four years in auditing the company's books and collecting past due taxes.

Wal-Mart stores appear to not be stocking the number of organic products company (400) officials had said they would, according to Business Week. The story also points to drops in orders Wal-Mart previously placed with organic farmers as evidence that the world’s largest retailer is backing off its promise to offer low-cost organic goods.

Perhaps the organic shopper is not the Wal-Mart shopper.

An exceprt from the story:

"Is organic really compatible with the Wal-Mart approach? We're finding out that it's not," says Jim Riddle, organic outreach coordinator and guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota.

Consider the case of Organic Valley Family of Farms in La Farge, Wis., one of the country's largest cooperatives of organic farmers. When demand for organic milk soared two years ago, rival Horizon Organic Dairy offered to sell to Wal-Mart for 15% below Organic Valley's price. Wal-Mart expected a similar reduction from Organic Valley, but instead the cooperative pulled out. "Looking for ever-lower costs comes at a real cost to sustainability," says George Siemon, Organic Valley's chief executive. "To have consistent supply, you have to change the paradigm of thinking and think about long-term partnerships."

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman says the company has not fallen short of its goals and that it never intended to say all stores would stock 400 organic items. Instead, store managers can choose to stock more or less organic product.

Remember when Southwest Airlines said the high costs at Sea-Tac Airport were stifling it's growth, and it wanted to move to lower-cost Boeing Field?

Its now almost two years since airline exectives made that subsequently rejected proposal, and Southwest is still a major carrier at Sea-Tac.

The latest news from Southwest came today when the airline announced it would add a second daily non-stop flight from Sea-Tac to Albuquerque beginning June 4.

Figures compiled by the airport show that through February Southwest's traffic was up four percent over the same period last year.

The airline hasn't added the 20 daily flights it had promised when it proposed the Boeing Field deal, but its hardly seen its business dwindle either.

Americans with incomes of $52,000 or less are eligible for the Free File tax preparation service at www.irs.gov.

At the Web site, taxpayers will find the offers made by tax software companies and choose the one that fits their needs. The taxpayer is then transferred to the company's website to prepare and electronically file their taxes.

According to the the IRS, the system is safe, secure – and free. April 17 is the last day to file.

Chevron Corp. and Weyerhaeuser Co. today announced they will jointly study producing biofuels from cellulose-based sources.

The companies will focus on researching and developing technology that can transform wood fiber and other nonfood sources of cellulose into economical, clean-burning biofuels for cars and trucks.

=> Read more!

Boeing's bid, all 7,000 pages of it, for the Air Force's new airborne tanker was submitted to the Pentagon today.

Now the waiting and the lobbying begin in earnest.

At stake is a program that ultimately could generate more than $50 billion in business for the winner.

Nominally, Boeing's opponent is Northrop Grumman. In reality its Airbus, the maker of the basic airframe, a version of the Airbus A330 commercial jetliner. Northrop Grumman will modify that bare bones commercial airliner at a new factory in Mobile, Ala., if they win the bid.

Boeing was on the verge of winning the contract for the tankers three years ago, when the Pentagon called off the contest because of evidence Boeing was cheating.

Subsequently, Boeing fired its CFO Mike Sears and a former Pentagon procurement officer, Darlene Druyun, after an investigation revealed Boeing had offered her a post-retirement executive position while she was presiding over the procurement award for the new tanker.

Both Sears and Druyun went to prison, and Boeing spent the last three years in the governmental purgatory.

Boeing is bidding a version of its 767 twin jet built in Everett to fill the Air Force's requirements.

The airbus craft is a newer design than the early-'80s-vintage 767, and its larger than the Boeing plane. The 767 is a proven aircraft and potentially could be less expensive to buy than the A330, but Airbus is desperate to cure its recent construction flaps by winning a big contract like the tanker.

The Pentagon has said it will decide the winner by October.

By the time you read this, Washington's own official quarter, featuring an illustration of a leaping salmon and Mount Rainier, will be in circulation.

The new quarter, part of a series of state quarters issued by the U.S. Mint, was officially launched in ceremonies in Seattle today by Gov. Chris Gregoire and her husband, "first gentleman" Mike Gregoire, Peter the Mint Eagle and U.S. Mint director Edmund Moy.

States typically cling to a familiar theme in designing their quarters: iconic landmarks, animals and familiar mottos. Washington's quarter includes the moniker, The Evergreen State.

Bison seem to be the safest bet to portray a state's identity, Three western states, Kansas, North Dakota and Montana, already incorporate one on their quarters.

The new quarter is in addition to the millions of "Washington quarters" already circulating with the profile of our state's namesake, George Washington, featured on its face.

CareerBuilder.com reports today that job prospects and starting salaries are looking up for recent, college grads.

The site's annual survey shows that 79 percent of hiring managers say they plan to hire recent college grads this year, up from 70 percent last year. Almost half of those said they also plan to increase starting salaries.

What do those salaries look like?

- 36 percent of hiring managers expect to offer between $30,000 and $40,000 per year.

- 16 percent will offer between $40,000 and $50,000.

- 12 percent will offer more than $50,000.

The survey didn't say what these jobs would be.

Tired of paying to have someone look up a phone number for you? Well, now you don't have to.

Business Week published today a list of companies that offer free directory assistance. The story also provides reviews of the service and a look at what's going on in the market. A quick call to each to get the phone number of The News Tribune yielded mixed results.

Here are the numbers:
Google: 1-800 GOOG 411 or labs.google.com/goog411 (Results: Got the main number with no trouble.)

Tellme: 1-800-555-TELL or www.tellme.com (Results: Got two options including the free 1-800 number for the paper.)

Jingle: 1-800-FREE-411 or www.free411.com (Results: Got a 206 number that works.)

AT&T: 1-800-YellowPages or www.yellowpages.com (Results: Not yet available in our area.)

It’s been a good spring for state tax collections. Chang Mook Sohn, director of the State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, reported this morning that tax collections between March 11 and April 10 were “very strong and higher than expected.”

A weakening housing market has had “minimal effect on overall spending,” Sohn said. General fund collections totaled $937.7 million for the period, exceeding the estimate by $47.2 million, or 5.3 percent. Sales, use, business and occupation, and public utilities taxes, combined with real estate excise tax payments, accounted for most of the upward bound variance.

Collections were 11 percent above the total collected in the same period of 2006, and the latest monthly figure was up from a 9.9 percent gain recorded a month ago. The 11 percent gain was the strongest monthly year-over-year gain since a 12.4 percent jump last August.

The Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum released its air inventory yesterday – a massive study of all pollutants generated in the ports and their sources.

For people keenly interested in the entire document – it's hundreds of pages – you can download it from here.

Costco announced late Tuesday that shareholders will get an extra 1.5 cents per share in quarterly dividends.

The dividend of 14.5 cents per share is payable May 18 to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 27.

If the Air Force gave extra credit to aircraft makers who turn in their bids early, Northrop Grumman would have taken a lead over the Boeing Co. Tuesday.

Boeing's aerospace rival turned in its bid for the $40 billion airborne tanker contract two days early. Bidders have until Thursday night to submit their bids.

The initial contract is for 179 replacements for the Air Force's 40-year-old KC-135 aerial tankers. Follow-on contracts are expected in later years.

Northrop Grumman is partnering with Europe's Airbus to bid on a militarized version of the Airbus A330 jetliner. Final assembly of the tanker would be in Montgomery, Ala.

Boeing is bidding on a tanker version of its 767 twin-jet. That plane is built in Everett.

The Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County today released its annual list of the area's major employers – those entities or businesses with 100 or more employees.

As before, the U.S. Army at Fort Lewis led the list of 213 employers with 38,143 military and civilian workers. Local school districts came second with 13,393, and the U.S. Air Force at McChord counted 11,765.

Among private concerns, MultiCare Health System marked 5,567 employees. Franciscan Health System came second with 4,059, and Safeway Stores totaled third with 2,650.

Look for a full list and analysis in an upcoming issue of The News Tribune.

The aviation press is full of doomsday stories about the Chinese developing their own capability to build airliners.

But just how still distant that capability remains is highlighted by news from China News Service that Xiamen Airlines is mulling a plan to buy 60 Boeing 737-800s.

According to the Chinese news agency, the airline would take delivery of the first 35 single-aisle 737s by 2010 with the remaining 25 to be delivered between 2011 and 2013.

Xiamen bought 10 737s last year.

When Boeing started selling off surplus land near its Renton plant after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, some civic leaders there felt that decision was a harbinger of distress for the city of 50,000.

Far from it. The surplus Boeing land is now giving Renton a valuable source of new tax income, potential new near downtown population, and, perhaps, if the city's stars are in correct alignment, a major regional attraction in a new Sonics arena.

News that the Sonics and a Dallas-Chicago-based development company, TranswesternHorizon, have reached agreement allowing the basketball organization to buy a 21.2-acre site Boeing owns in Renton is the latest run of good tidings for Renton. The partnership has first rights to buy the site from Boeing. The Sonics would build a new $500 million arena and practice facility on the site if government agrees to pay part of the tab.

Former Boeing land is already the site for the region's only Frys electronics store and is the proposed site of development called The Landing that so far includes plans for 900 apartments, a 140-room hotel and 660,000 square feet of retail development.

Announced tenants include Regal Cinemas, Target, LA Fitness, Staples, PetSmart and a handful of smaller tenants.

Meanwhile, Boeing, which has consolidated its single-aisle aircraft building operation in Renton into a smaller footprint, shows no sign of going away. Construction of 737s is now at a near-record pace, and the company is building a new assembly line on the site for the military version of the 737, the MMA.

Five former Pure Fitness clubs in Western Washington, two of them in Tacoma, have become LA Fitness Clubs.

Neither organization has said much about the takeover, why it happened and how the change will affect members.

An employee at the South Tacoma location said Pure Fitness members were receiving new membership codes. Pure Fitness members who are paying less than $29.99 a month for membership will have their membership restricted to the former Pure Fitness locations, she said. Those who want to upgrade and pay more dues will be able to use any LA Fitness location.

The clubs hours may be changing, she said, and there are plans to improve the club, but no major improvements will happen for at least six months.

A call to LA Fitness' corporate headquarters was greeted be an automated answering system. A message left on that system has yet to be returned.

Attempts to reach Pure Fitness executives in Arizona met with a promise to have one of the managing partners return the call. We're still waiting.

Consumers will soon know which of their local businesses are owned by veterans.

Gov. Chris Gregoire today signed into law a measure to create a list of veteran-owned businesses in the state and sticker to identify those businesses for consumers.

To be included on the list and receive a “veteran-owned” window sticker, businesses will submit an application to the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs.

The department will make the list of veteran-owned businesses available on its Web site, according to information from the governor's office.

They were the days of hot fudge and carhops, of jalopies and Big Bands. The teenagers would gather then at Busch’s, down along South Tacoma Way – Stadium kids on one side, Lincoln on the other. But times changed. The '30s became the '50s, '60s, the '80s, the Millennium. The carhops disappeared. New teenagers found new places. Nobody had time for root beer anymore.

Busch’s closed in 2001, then reopened, then then menu changed and so did the name. The character changed. The customers never came back. Wasn’t it a sports bar for 20 minutes? A nightclub? The names came and went. Those early teenagers joined AARP, and hot fudge wasn’t on their diet.

So now a new sign has gone up – there at Busch’s, at 3505 South Tacoma Way – there above the parking lot that has for so long been so empty.

“Closed for Demo,” it says.

Although daily room rates for Tacoma-area hotels and motels rose 7.8% in February, they remain the lowest in the state. The average area room rented for $66.74, while the state average was $113.81, said Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood on Monday.

Rooms in the downtown Seattle area posted an average of $147, while rooms in Bellevue marked $144.13. The cost of Bellevue rooms was up 18.2% over a year before, Rood said.

Seventy-two percent of Tacoma-area rooms were occupied in February, Rood said, up 10.8 percent from 2006. At 72%, the area had the state's greatest percentage of occupied rooms during the month. Spokane had the lowest quotient of occupied rooms, at 59.1%.

A Florida-based real estate investment trust is officially the new owner of Wild Waves, the Federal Way water park.

Six Flags, the park's previous owner, announced in January it would sell Wild Waves as part of a $312 million seven-park deal to PARC 7F Operations Corp.

PARC 7F sold the parks to Orlando-based CNL Income Properties, which then leased the parks back to PARC. CNL announced the completion of the sale today.

PARC's vice president of corporate development said in January that the sale will have little effect on Wild Waves.

The company will make some minor improvements to the park and revise some customer service policies to make the Wild Waves more family friendly, he said.

Subway plans to introduce deep-dish pizza at its thousands of locations in June. Despite its “Fresh Fit” campaign, the sandwich chain has been trying for 10 years to make a go of pizza, according to trade magazine Brandweek. At the core of the chain's healthy-eating image campaign: Jared Fogle and his ability to lose more than 200 pounds after putting himself on a diet of Subway sandwiches.

Here’s what the Brandweek story had to say:

Subway's addition of pizza is not without precedence. McDonald's has been testing pizzas off and on for years. Panera Bread Co. offers pies after 4 p.m. Dunkin' Donuts is testing individual pizzas at four locations; Dunkin' Deli locations also offer "Pizzettas."

"Pizza is the most competitive category in fast food," said Bob Sandelman, CEO at food service research firm Sandelman & Associates, San Clemente, Calif. "There are not only the chains, but also local competition from mom and pops and regional players."

Subway’s personal-sized pizzas will sell for $2.99 with another $1 charged for pepperoni, meatballs or sausage, according to Brandweek. But, hey, at least additional veggies are free.

Delta Airlines is once again considering changing its paint scheme, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The bankrupt carrier already has changed its paint scheme or livery three times in the last decade.

The idea is that the company wants to let its customers know that it's a
"new Delta" when it emerges from bankruptcy reorganization. The new scheme will reportedly retain the basic red, white and blue colors while bringing back a stylized triangular "widget" shape.

=> Read more!

If you just look at what Alaska Air Group's top executives drew in salary last year, their compensation was relatively modest by corporate standards.

Alaska CEO Bill Ayer was paid $360,000 in salary. Horizon Air President Jeff Pinneo earned $237,000. Alaska Air Group owns both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, for instance.

But when you look at total compensation including stock awards, incentive plan compensation, the value of perks such as travel, club dues and automobiles, their totals increase significantly.

Ayer's total compensation was $1.921 million. Pinneo was paid $798,493. Chief financial officer Brad Tilden got $894,410. Kevin Finan, executive vice president for operations received $997,063, and executive vice president for marketing and planning Gregg Saretsky was paid a total of $1 million.

The Alaska executive team, has kept the airlines out of bankruptcy, a feat only a couple of other airlines have achieved in recent years, and they've seen the company's stock rise from the mid-teens to over $40 a share.

ShareBuilder (an online brokerage) this week released results of a poll taken by Harris Interactive on how women go about investing.
Among the results:

• Only 40% of women say they have a financial game plan.
• Women are more than twice as likely as men to say “they don’t understand the language” involved with stock investing (23% vs. 10%).
• 23% of women choose not to contribute anything toward retirement – vs. 10% of men.
• While only 39% of women under 30 describe themselves as knowledgeable about investing, the figure jumps to 54% for women 51-60.
• Dining out is the biggest spending category for both men and women, and it’s also where they are least likely to cut back when saving more for retirement.
• 40% of both women and men say they carry no credit card debt.
• Most couples talk about their finances in the kitchen, followed by on the computer, then in the bedroom and finally outside of the home.
• For women who watch Grey’s Anatomy, 44% see their financial persona in Addison – trying but not always succeeding.

Perhaps we need to look harder inside the carnival for a new metaphor to describe the economy. In his latest (and always perspicacious) Pacific Northwest Economic Update, Union Bank of California Senior Economist Keitaro Matsuda writes of the "economic rollercoaster" our economy has lately taken.

Bumper cars or the Octopus might work, if the housing market takes a tumble, but it looks like we're in for a continued soft recovery. The Fun House may be too optimistic. But with what goes up about to go down, and vice versa, and everything a circle after all, maybe it's a ride on the Ferris Wheel.

At any rate....Matsuda said unemployment growth will slow from 2.1% in 2007 to 1.6% in 2008. Personal income growth will likewise decline, from 6.5% this year to 5.6% next year. The leisure and hospitality service sector saw the fastest job growth in Oregon between February last year and this year, while the Evergreen State marked a best-performing 8.1% growth in the information and communication sector – with software publishing leading the way.

“With the housing market slowdown, employment growth in the Pacific Northwest will be a little slower in 2007 than last year,” Matsuda said, “though we expect the region to beat the national average again.”

The coming deceleration will be modest, he continued, “compared with the economic rollercoaster rides” the region experienced in the past.

Alaska Air Group, the SeaTac-based parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, today said it expects to show a first quarter loss when it reports financial results later this month.

The company didn't quantify what it expects to lose in filings with the federal Security and Exchange Commission.

The airline holding company's first quarter typically is a losing quarter because its traffic to its tourist destinations in Alaska and throughout the West are lowest in the winter.

Wall Street analysts polled by Zacks Investment Services predicted that the company will lose from 8 to 47 cents a share in the first quarter. The average of those analyst ratings was a 25 cent per share loss.

While the company saw its traffic increase during the first quarter, its capacity grew faster than the increase in the number of passengers.

Americans spent more than $110 billion at self-checkout lanes in 2005, up nearly 35 percent from 2004, according to the IHL Consulting Group, the Kansas City Star reported.

Experts estimate that anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the daily transaction volume of some retail stores goes through self-checkout machines. In its 2006 survey, the retail consulting company found that 94 percent of respondents will use self-checkout, even if they don’t necessarily like it.

But a growing number of consumers like the lanes, the Kansas City Star reported. They say self-checkout moves faster and gives them control on how their items are handled. They also can check the prices at their own pace and have more privacy for purchases of pregnancy tests and personal care items.

Where to find self-checkout? Try Home Depot, Costco or Fred Meyer.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week announced results of its latest ratings of Venture Bank concerning adherence to the Community Reinvestment Act. The bank was rated satisfactory in its small-business and residential lending practices and outstanding for its performance in community development.

“The bank displayed a reasonable record of distributing its loans in both low- and moderate-income geographics,” the FDIC said. “High levels of community development loans, community development services, and community development investments were noted.”

Bank practices are regularly reviewed by the FDIC in relation to compliance with the principles of the CRA.

When Danny Edwards, 26, enlisted in the Army in April 2001, he expected to stay for a career. He changed his mind while serving in Iraq in 2003. Black youth across the country appear to be heeding advice from parents, teachers, ministers, coaches and other black veterans.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert A. Cocroft, executive director of National Association for Black Veterans, Inc. says a downshift in enlistments “is a telling indication that something is amiss about the military experience” for African Americans.”

That difference appears to be the war in Iraq.

Read more in tomorrow’s Tom Philpott Military Update column.

The Martin Luther King Housing Development Association and Centro Latino have a plan for what they are calling a "Hilltop Renaissance."

It's a renaissance Hilltop leaders say has already started as property prices increase, new businesses move in and the general feel of the neighborhood changes.

Both agencies have requested money from the state's capital budget for building projects.

MLK Housing needs $5 million to help construct a mixed-used business center, which would include affordable housing on the top levels, room for start-up business on the street level and underground parking. The project's total cost is $22 million.

Centro Latino requested $2 million to buy and upgrade the building it currently leases.

=> Read more!

T.S. Eliot may have called April the cruelest month – but here in Washington it’s a month meant for understanding money.
So says Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has proclaimed April as Financial Literacy Month.

And with the 2006 nationwide savings rate at minus-1.2%, it’s time to go back to money school. Among other activities, the Department of Financial Institutions will be promoting its “Money Savvy Kids” and “Money Savvy U” initiatives, which offer students information about saving, investing, donating and spending.

Throughout April and May, actors from the National Theater for Children will present “Mad About Money” – with lessons in saving, budgets, investing and credit – in 48 state schools.

Tacoma Goodwill will present an 8-class financial literacy course at both Tacoma Community College and Sumner Family Center. We’ll have more details soon.

An April 24, the Washington Bankers Association will celebrate the 11th annual Nation Teach Your Children to Save Day.

The partially collapsed building at 13th & Fawcett came down today.
The building is owned by Tacoma real estate executive Eric Cederstrand and his father

Earlier this week, the roof and one side of the former Eagles Aerie #3 collapsed.

Third Point LLC, the largest shareholder of Kent-based Flow International Corp., said it would seek to replace directors if the company didn’t hire an investment bank to explore a sale, Bloomberg News reports.

The company should also remove its anti-takeover provisions and de-stagger the terms of its board members, Third Point said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

=> Read more!

Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz says he can preserve the chain’s coffee-house nature even as he adds seven new stores a day.

“This is really hard to do,” Schultz told Bloomberg News in an interview at the Seattle headquarters of the world’s largest coffee-shop chain. “And because very few people have done it before, they’re out there waiting for us to fall.”

=> Read more!

Tacoma Business Center this week celebrated both its own reopening at the downtown campus of Bates Technical College and the grand opening of the Women’s Business Center.

The Tacoma center assists – free of charge – people who are either starting a business or who require counseling on matters concerning an existing business.

Agencies housed at the center include SCORE, Small Business Development Center, Community Capital Development and the women’s center.

For more information call 253-680-7770, and look for a full story about the operation in a News Tribune business section article later this month.

Hiring activity in the West and South will be the strongest in the country in the second quarter, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey released today.

Thirty-four percent of employers in the West and 31 percent in the South plan to increase their staff levels compared to 26 percent in Northeast and 24 percent in the Midwest, the survey reports.

The compensation portion of the report bodes well for employees. More than a third of employers say its harder to retain workers right now compared to one year ago.

Fifteen percent of 6,800 workers say they are actively pursuing a new position, according to the survey and 50 percent said that though they are not looking, they'd be open to a new job if one came along.

To keep employees, employers reported increasing salaries, upping bonuses and adding opportunities for flexible hours, telecommuting or job sharing.

New figures from Alaska Air Group are good news for Alaska frequent fliers and disappointing news for the company.

The good news for Alaska Airlines was that its overall traffic increased .5 percent in March. The not-so-good-news was that the airline's capacity grew faster than its traffic. That capacity to carry passengers grew by 2.3 percent.

The result that's potential good news for Alaska customers, is that the airline's planes were less full in March than they were in the same month a year ago. The airline's "load factor," the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, decreased from 78.2 percent in March 2006 to 76.8 percent in 2007. That translates to better seat selection possibilities, more capacity to handle passengers whose flights are canceled and more seats available for frequent flier awards, if the airline choses.

Less full planes also puts pressure on the airline to lower prices.

Alaska isn't alone in seeing its load factor drop. One of its main rivals in the Northwest, Southwest Airlines, reported its load factor dropped from 75.5 percent in March last year to 73.3 percent in March this year.

Alaska's regional sister airline, Horizon Air, said its load factor dropped to 71 percent in March compared with 75.6 percent in March last year. Traffic at the airline dropped .3 percent while capacity grew 6.3 percent.

MultiCare Health System has named two new executives to its leadership team.

Lester Reed, MD, has been named vice president of medical affairs. He will oversee medical and clinical operations at Allenmore, Tacoma General, and Mary Bridge Children's hospitals. He first came to MultiCare in 2001 and left in 2004 to become a clinical director for a government health agency and clinical professor of medicine in New Zealand. He returned in 2005.

JoEllen Vanatta, RN, has been named vice president and chief nurse executive. Vanatta has been administrator of Allenmore Hospital since coming to MultiCare in 2001. She has served as interim chief nurse executive since 2006, and served in a variety of nursing leadership roles throughout her 30-year military career.

Reed and Vanatta will report to MultiCare Health System Chief Operating Officer George J. Brown, MD.

Lester Reed

JoEllen Vanatta

The city earlier today issued a permit to 13th & Fawcett Associates for demolition of their building at 1305 S. Fawcett in downtown Tacoma. The roof and one side of the former Eagles Aerie #3 collapsed yesterday.

Charlie Solverson, manager of the city's Building and Land Use Services, said the Puget Sound Air Pollution Agency was working with contractors to avoid any unnecessary release during demolition – which could begin as early as tomorrow.

Also today, engineers were investigating the cause of the collapse of the brick building.

UW Tacoma’s Milgard School of Business has chosen four local businessmen who exemplify outstanding business achievement to receive Business Leadership Awards in May.

• George H. Weyerhaeuser, Lifetime Achievement Award
As chairman, president and CEO of the company his great-grandfather founded in 1900, George H. Weyerhaeuser helped the organization grow into one of the world’s largest timber companies.

• Ray Tennison, Business Leader of the Year
A well-known and active member of the Tacoma community, Tennison has been president of Simpson Investment Company since 1997.

• Joe Stortini, Small Business Leader of the Year
Previously a state senator and Pierce County commissioner and executive, Joe Stortini opened his first restaurant, Mama Stortini’s, in University Place in 1992, and his latest restaurant, Joeseppi’s, in Westgate in 2005.

• Bob Ecklund, Nonprofit Business Leader of the Year
President and CEO of the YMCA of Tacoma-Pierce County since 2004, Bob Ecklund has led the organization to new highs in membership and fundraising.

=> Read more!

What's your mission? Most companies and firms have one. What's yours?

Author Jeffrey Abrahams has recently published a book (which we will soon review) that chronicles "101 Mission Statements from Top Companies."

We'd like to know about the missions of companies and firms in the South Sound.

Please send us a copy of yours. It's the one carved there above the door, or printed on every piece of stationery, or recited every morning at staff meetings.

Please send your workplace mission statement to C.R. Roberts at c.r.roberts@thenewstribune, or by mail to Roberts at The News Tribune, P.O. Box 11000, Tacoma, Washington 98411.

Thanks.

Political reporter Sean Cockerham reports today that the family leave bill being considered by the Legislature may either die – or go to the voters.

From his story:

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that she generally supports the idea but told bill supporters she favors sending it to a public vote.

“I said, ‘if we’re going to ask workers to pay, then why wouldn’t we ask workers to have a say in that?’” the governor told reporters.

The bill would impose a 2-cent-per-hour tax on workers, adding up to around $40 a year. The state would set up a program allowing workers up to five weeks of family leave each year.

Workers could take the time to care for a new child or sick parent and be paid up to $250 a week.

A public vote doesn't thrill the state's labor council nor the business groups fighting the bill. According to Sean's story, both say a statewide campaign would be complex and expensive.

A French business incubator today announced negotiations with Tacoma's William M. Factory Small Business Incubator. The compact will result in a partnership with Factory as it designs a proposed Applied Technology and Scientific Services offshoot.

The announcement came at an international gathering of incubators being held this week in Seattle.

Karine Caner, manager of Montpelier Agglomeration, the French organization, joined M. George Freche, president of the Region Languedoc Roussillon and Montpellier, to say the agreement will foster the sharing of information and techniques "to better serve entrepreneurs, stimulate job creation and better our respective technology industries."

The agreement will also stimulate trade between the South Sound and Montpelier, as well as develop networks of overseas markets, Caner said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this morning released its quarterly national state profiles, which offer data indicating regional economic health and the state of banking in the 50 states.

In today's report on Washington, the FDIC said:
• Single-family home permits were down 32% in the fourth quarter from the same quarter a year before;
• The home-price index rose 13.7 percent;
• Of 99 banks in the state (up from 96), total assets rose to $65.46 billion from $57.83 billion;
• Past-due and nonaccrual loans were at 0.54 percent of total loans compared to 0.69 percent;
• The median percentage of return-on-assets fell to 0.97 percent from 1.13 percent;
•Deposits for the 76 institutions in the Tacoma-Bellevue-Seattle area stood at $63.55 billion at the end of 2006;
• 53% of institutions had assets less than $250 million, 33 percent had assets between that and $1 billion, and 13 percent had assets between $1 billion and $10 billion.

The Puget Sound chapter of the National Human Resource Management Association announced today that it had awarded Tacoma's Columbia Bank its 2006 Prizm Award for workplace diversity.

The award was created to honor organizations and businesses "for their creative and innovative strategies and initiatives to promote, advance and celebrate the concepts and spirit of diversity in the workplace and in the community."

Melanie Dressel, Columbia Bank president and CEO, said she was proud that her bank had been recognized for its "continuing efforts to create a diverse, inclusive culture."

It was only a matter of time before orders for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner topped 500.

That milestone event happened today when Boeing announced that Japan Airlines had ordered five more of the efficient twin-jets.

Along with orders from other airlines whose identities have not yet been disclosed, that puts the 787 orderbook at 514 aircraft. Forty-three airlines have ordered the plane since its launch on April 26, 2004.

The mid-sized jet has enjoyed the most bountiful pre-service sales of any jetliner in history.

The 500 mark came more than a year before the plane is scheduled to begin commercial service. The first example of the plane is due to roll out on July 8 this year, 7/8/07.

Japan Airlines' new order brings that carrier's orders for the 787 to 35. The plane's own success has become something of an issue with Boeing because the aircraft is sold out for its first four years of production. That means that most customers who want to expand an existing 787 order or enter a new order will have to wait nearly five years before getting additional aircraft.

So while Target can't seem to soak up enough ink on the success of its clothing lines (did you see the story about sought-after Target clothes for sale at eBay?), the world’s largest retailer is attempting to bring back women shoppers it turned off with last year’s Metro 7 line, according to trade magazine Brandweek.

Here’s an excerpt from the Brandweek story:

The retailer's share among women who choose to shop at the store "most often" for their apparel purchases fell seven percentage points in February versus February 2006, per BIGresearch, Columbus, Ohio, "That's a pretty big decline," said Joe Pilotta, vp-research. Pilotta said Macy's, J.C. Penney and Kohl's seem to have benefited.

Read more here, including one analyst's assessment that while Wal-Mart is in damange control mode, he’s not sure it’s enough.

Two new drinks debut at Starbucks today: a latte and a Frappuccino both flavored dulce de leche. And that’s not all. The drinks are part of a South-of-the-Border push that includes brightly hued floral mugs and small stuffed frogs and capuchin monkeys.

The new coffees and merchandise come shortly after chairman Howard Schultz wrote to his executives about taking the fast-expanding Seattle company back to its roots. The latte and Frappuccino spent 18 months in development and included trips to Costa Rica, Mexico and much time in the company's Liquid Lab, according to Business Week.

Read more here about Starbucks take on dulce de leche and what it could mean to a company the magazine says “is struggling to hold on to its soul.”

The average price of regular gas in Tacoma reached $3 today, up 1.1 cents from yesterday.

That's about 40 cents a gallon more than drivers paid a month ago when prices averaged $2.577.

The reason: The jump has been triggered by a decline in U.S. gasoline inventories ahead of the summer driving season, when gasoline demand rises and prices usually peak.

Oil prices reached a six-month high last week as tensions between Iran and the West sparked supply concerns. A barrel of crude oil for May delivery rose 7 cents Monday to settle at $65.94 a barrel on the Nymex.

Does anyone have advice for places to find cheap gas?

Even here in Southern California, word reached me that many readers interpreted my Sunday column -- Downtown and Wal-mart: A perfect match? -- as an April Fool's Day joke.

Sorry. No joke.

Scouts for Wal-Mart have looked at multiple sites in downtown Tacoma. They have requested traffic counts from the City of Tacoma.

And judging from the reaction, it appears Wal-Mart would find little support for the idea.

Sea-Tac Airport's most popular air carrier, Alaska Airlines, improved its score on several critical customer service benchmarks in February, a new federal report says.

The improvements came as the airline, whose main hub is Seattle, struggled to raise its on-time performance, baggage handling and consumer complaint grades to former highs. The airline's punctuality and baggage handling performance hit all-time lows in the summer of 2005 after it fired its 472 Sea-Tac baggage handlers and ramp workers and replaced them with contract workers.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Alaska's on-time performance in February rose to seventh among 20 airlines nationwide. In the first quarter last year, the airline ranked 17th in the nation.

At Sea-Tac, Alaska's on-time arrivals were in third place after Hawaiian and Southwest. The carrier's flights were 71.7 percent on time at Sea-Tac in February. Hawaiian Airlines flights were on time 79.4 percent of the time. Overall at Sea-Tac in February, 68.7 percent of all airlines' flights arrived on time.

Nearly 77 percent of Southwest's flights were on-time at the airport in February.

Worst performer at Sea-Tac was Northwest with just 50.6 percent on time flights. American Airlines followed with 54.2 percent of its flights. US Airways was the third worst with 58.5 percent on-time arrivals.

=> Read more!

Dan Voelpel wrote on Sunday about Wal-Mart's potential interest in our city.

Here's a photo of the version in White Plains, N.Y.

As of Friday, 34 percent of eligible Washington residents have failed to claim the one-time Telephone Excise Tax Refund on their 2006 returns.

A new women's clothing store is coming to Federal Way.

C.J. Banks, which sells women's apparel size 14 and up, will open Friday in The Commons in Federal Way.

From the company's press release:

The company strives to offer quality, everyday fashion options suitable for work and leisure activities. C.J. Banks offers distinctive fashions featuring exclusive designs and easy styling in comfortable sportswear and casual dresses. Color coordinated tops and bottoms help to create an easy, versatile wardrobe.

C.J. Banks, currently operates over 200 C.J. Banks stores in 24 states throughout the United States.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a special alert early this afternoon concerning bogus cashier’s checks drawn on Frontier Bank. The checks are related to fraudulent awards, part of the same Canada-based scam reported late last month and drawn on Westside Community Bank of University Place.

On the counterfeit checks, a telephone number not associated with the bank appears below the bank's name and address in the upper-left corner.

Authentic examples show a watermark consisting of the bank's "F" logo centered in the middle of the check.

The building at 1305 S. Fawcett that collapsed Monday morning is owned together by Tacoma real estate executive Eric Cederstrand and his father, a colleague at Colliers International said today.

The building, once the meeting place of a Tacoma fraternal lodge, had been on the market for $1.35 million. Tom Brown, a vice president at Colliers, did not say if the proposed sale price would be reduced.

Or increased. The owners had marketed the brick building as a tear-down. "That really was the play," Brown said. "This accelerates things."

Harlan Bayes, secretary for Tacoma Eagles Aerie #3, said his group occupied the building beginning in 1918. "I think we left in the early '80s. They condemned the building. That's why we moved out."

Another notorious downtown Tacoma eyesore saw some natural code enforcement action today.

The Eagles Building at 1305 S. Fawcett, a member of both Local Development Council's "Neglected Nine" and the City's "Filthy Fifteen" lists of deteriorating buildings, spontaneously collapsed about 10 a.m. today.

The collapse left the facade facing South Fawcett standing but the south wall of the building and much of the roof collapsed into the building's interior.

City officials, who had fortunately marked the building as unsuitable for occupancy, had been trying for months to get the owners to repair it.

The specific cause of the collapse has yet to be pinpointed, but those who know the building said the roof has been leaking for years.

It's opening day in baseball land, and Amazon.com wants to make sure you have everything you need – and then some – to cheer on your favorite team.

Amazon today announced the Major League Baseball Fan Shop where baseball enthusiasts can find jerseys, hats, collectibles and memorabilia to support their favorite teams.

Here's a sampling of what you will find:

1. Replica MLB jerseys
2. Authentic 2007 batting practice/spring training jerseys
3. 2007 New Era BP/spring training cap
4. Authentic MLB jerseys
5. Jackets and pullovers
6. Franchise baseball hat collection from Amazon.com
7. 2007 Topps baseball cards series
8. Ernie Banks signed Wrigley Field actual seatback
9. MLB team logo ballpoint pen
10. Derek Jeter autographed photo of "The Catch"

Laying off 10,000 aerospace workers won't be so easy for Airbus as it was for Boeing to lay off some 30,000 after 9-11.

Airbus' biggest union called for strikes today at all the company's manufacturing sites in France.

The work halt would occur Tuesday. The union is protesting Airbus' "Power 8" restructuring plan which is designed to save the company $6.5 billion to offset losses from its botched A380 jumbo jet production plans.

Some 4,700 layoffs are scheduled to take effect in France.

There's no need to check the calendar. After you've seen what Aero-News.Net has uncovered as Boeing's latest mutation of the 747, you know today must be April 1.

The aviation publication says Boeing is planning a 747 with a double fuselage and twin tails, somewhat like the WWII fighter, the P-38.

The 747-38

The so-called 747-38 would easily eclipse Airbus' A-380 in size with a maximum capacity well over 1,000 in an all-economy situation.

The new plane would have the ultimate in redundant systems with two complete cockpits, either of which could be used to control the plane.

One small technical issue: unless Boeing substitutes the big 120,000-pound-thrust GE engines it uses on the 777-300ER for the relatively puny engines it uses on the standard 747, getting enough power to lift it off the runway could be an issue.

The P-38