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!