The state Department of Financial Institutions will announce later today that it has ordered the closure of a Renton escrow company.

The state contends that Exceptional Escrow Corp. used funds held in trust to cover operational expenses. Exceptional Escrow has offices in Renton, North Bend and Bonney Lake.

A spokesman for Exceptional Escrow was unavailable Tuesday.

With its funds frozen, the company is no longer conducting business. The state has appointed a receiver – Olympia attorney Brian Budsberg – to investigate the remaining assets of the company and develop a plan for disbursement to customers.

Boeing is asking its suppliers to restart their production lines making parts for the company's C-17 military transport plane.

Boeing told them to halt production earlier this year after no new orders appeared for the four-engine transport being built in Boeing's Long Beach, Calif. plant.

In seeking a restart and betting its own money to order new parts, Boeing is making an educated guess that there are more orders out there for the plane. The Bush administration hasn't included more C-17s in its military budget request this year, but there is considerable interest in Congress to place orders for at least 10 more of the aircraft.

In the meantime, NATO is expected to order four of the planes to be shared among European nations, and the British are reportedly interested in more C-17s because the four they've used are working well.

Thousands of jobs could disappear in California and elsewhere if the C-17 production line shuts down. The C-17 is the last large aircraft being built in California, once a state overflowing with aircraft factories.

I was at Buffelen Woodworking down in the Tideflats this morning. CEO Joe Guizzetti was nice enough to show me around.

The 94-year-old company has found its niche – and a way to compete against low-cost manufacturers in China – in high-end doors.

In fact the company is now working 3,000 doors for a new resort in Maui. Other interesting things to note:

• The country's renewed interest in Craftsman-style homes has been a boon for the company, which makes Craftsman doors complete with details such as leaded glass windows.

• Buffelen just completed a $5 million investment in new CNC machines that help the company do smaller orders and even produce single, custom doors. Previously, the smallest order the company would accept was for at least a few hundred.

Pioneer Financial Services of Lakewood announced Monday that it has been acquired by MidCountry Financial Corp. Pioneer's 19 retail offices, consumer lending facilities and online lending site will become the military division of MidCountry Bank. Terms were not disclosed.

Pioneer provides financial services and education exclusively to military personnel. MidCountry Financial Corp. is a financial services holding company located in Macon, Georgia, and its national subsidiaries include a consumer finance company, a mortgage division, an equipment leasing company, an insurance agency and MidCountry Bank, a federal savings bank, which has assets of more than $1 billion.

Pioneer President and CEO Tom Holcom said the new Pioneer will be able to provide military customers “access to a broader range of traditional bank services in the future - something previously unavailable to many 'un-bankable' military families.”

Pioneer is located locally at 12930 Pacific Hwy. S.W . in Lakewood.

Overshadowed by the race to win big airliner orders between Boeing and Airbus, a Boeing joint venture, Aviation Partners Boeing, is winning big in Paris.

Aviation Partners Boeing makes fuel-saving winglets for Boeing airliners. Those winglets, which can cut fuel consumption by as much as five percent on the airliners on which they're installed, are becoming almost standard equipment on new and recently built Boeing aircraft.

Delta Air Lines announced today that it will retrofit 63 aircraft in its fleet, 767-300ERs, 757s and Next Generation 737s with the wingtip extensions from Seattle-based Aviation Partners Boeing.

In addition to saving fuel, the winglets improve an aircraft's takeoff performance, lengthen its range and bolster its payload capability.

On the larger 767-300ERs, for instance, the winglets will increase the aircraft's range by more than 400 miles, beef up its payload by 12,000 pounds and potentially save the airline some 290,000 gallons of aviation fuel per aircraft per year. At about $1 million to buy and install a set of 767 winglets, the payback from fuel saved alone is quick, said Delta.

Delta joins American Airlines, Austrian and LAN in equipping its 767s with the winglets. Continental, Alaska, Southwest and dozens of foreign airlines are already equipping their existing fleets with the winglets and ordering new planes equipped with them from the factory.

Boeing's ever-growing order book for its game-changing 787 Dreamliner aircraft is having an unintended but beneficial consequence for its chief rival, Airbus.

With 787 production virtually sold out for the next six years, airlines looking for mid-sized aircraft soon are turning to Airbus' A330 twin-aisle jet.

Several airlines have ordered A330s this week to cover their near-term needs for more capacity. Thai Airways, for instance, today ordered eight A330-300s to supplement its existing fleet of 12.

Fly Asian Express signed a contract to purchase 15 A330-300s from Airbus today. The first of those aircraft will be delivered to the airline in the third quarter of 2008. The aircraft will fly under the name AirAsiaX on long haul, low-cost flights to and from Asia.

In a big order Monday, Phoenix-based US Airways included 10 A330s in its big order with Airbus. The A330s will help bridge US Airways' long haul capacity needs between now and 2013 when the first of its efficient, long-haul A350XWBs enter service.

Boeing had fought for the US Airways order, but didn't have a plane that could serve the airline's needs until the first 787s could be delivered five or six years from now. The 787 production line is sold out, and Boeing's 767's design is a decade older than the A330's.

Meanwhile, Boeing chalked up more orders for the 787 today with an order from International Lease Finance Corp. for 50 more Dreamliners. The ILFC order also included ordrs for 10 737 Next Generation single-aisle jets. Boeing and ILFC also disclosed that the leasing company earlier this year had ordered two 787-8s and one 777-300ER but hadn't disclosed the purchase at the time.

It’s called “Jump Start Your Business.”
And it’s free.

The Seattle office of the Small Business Administration will conduct a series of workshops next week, June 25-29, helping small business proprietors learn some basic – and a few advanced – skills.

Workshops will be held daily at the SBA Education and Training Center at 2401 Fourth Avenue, Suite 450, in Seattle.

Among other titles, the workshops include: “Business Law Essentials,” “How to Connect With the Government Marketplace, “Bookkeeping and Taxes” and “Building your Web site.” Topics also include business plans, taxes, marketing, financial statements and pricing.

Registrants are welcome to attend any or all of the workshops. For a full schedule or to register, visit www.sba.gov/wa/seattle/ or call 206-553-7310.

Nick-N-Willy’s take-n-bake pizzas shops are moving into the area bringing what Puyallup franchise owner Joan Templin describes as a "gourmet" version of the bake-at-home pie.

The Puyallup shop has been open for about a month.

The next stop: Tacoma's Proctor District in the space formerly occupied by Subway. We'll tell you more when we get details.

Nick-N-Willy's World Famous Pizza was founded in 1989 in Boulder, Colo. The company started offering franchises in 2001.

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