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.