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.

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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.