Columbia Bank will conduct its second annual Shred Fest on Saturday, June 23rd, at three South Sound branches.

In an effort to help prevent identity theft, Columbia Bank customers and non-customers alike are invited to bring up to 100 pounds of sensitive documents to be shredded. Shredding services are being provided by LeMay Mobile Shredding.

The event will be held at Columbia’s Spanaway, Auburn and Gig Harbor branches from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. In addition to shredding services, the bank will offer information on preventing identity theft and other types of fraud directed at consumers and businesses.

For more information, including the types of documents that are recommended for shredding, as well as Shred Fest location addresses, visit www.columbiabank.com.

A Kvichak product

Kvichak Marine Industries is building a new manufacturing facility – set to employ about 100 people – in Kent.

The company builds aluminum boats and now working on a contract with the Coast Guard that includes crafting 250 new patrol vessels, according to a news release from enterpriseSeattle, a economic development agency in King County.

The company will move into its new Kent digs – a 55,000-square-foot facility – by the first of July. Kvichak has another facility in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. That facility employs about 130 people.

enterprise Seattle worked with Kvichak to help plan the company's expansion.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. today issued a special alert concerning counterfeit cashier's checks drawn on Timberland Bank of Hoquiam. The bank contacted the FDIC recently to report that bogus checks bearing the institution's name are in circulation.

The counterfeit items display the routing number 325170754, which is assigned to Timberland Bank, but are dissimilar to authentic cashier's checks. The counterfeit items display a security feature statement embedded within the top border, which has rounded corners. A "NOTICE TO PURCHASER" regarding an indemnity bond is located in the top-center area.

Authentic checks have a tan wood-grain background with green lettering and red check numbers. The bank's telephone number, 360-533-4747, is displayed between the bank's name and address in the upper-left corner.

A computer problem at United Airlines' headquarters halted most United departures nationwide for about two hours this morning, the airline confirmed.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, eight United flights scheduled to leave between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. today were delayed as long as three hours and 33 minutes, according to FlightStats.com, which tracks arrivals and departures nationwide.

United flights from Sea-Tac to Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Toronto were reported more than 15 minutes late departing during that three-hour period.

Some United flights handled by partner airlines were unaffected by the computer outage.

Though the computer was running again by 8 a.m. Pacific time, the delays are likely continue to domino through United's system throughout the day, because the initial groundings caused planes to arrive at their destinations late, thus delaying later flights.

At Sea-Tac, for instance, though the computer problem was cured, five of 11 United departures between 9 a.m. and noon were showing late departures.

In the fine print department, here's a little-known change that could leave you sitting at the gate if you're inclined to press the deadlines for checking in at the airport.

Alaska and Horizon airlines have changed the baggage check-in cutoff times at some major airports where summertime traffic is especially heavy.

Instead of the usual 40 minutes before departure cut-off time for checking bags, Alaska has changed that cut-off time to 45 minutes before departure at Denver and Las Vegas.

For Horizon, which ordinarily will accept checked baggage up to 30 minutes before departure, the airline has lengthened that period to 40 minutes at Portland and Seattle.

In Mexico, instead of the usual 60 minutes, the check-in cutoff time is now 90 minutes before departure in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Technical and professional employees at Boeing's Wichita plant voted Tuesday to decertify a Seattle-based union as their representative.

The vote was 353 to retain the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace and 408 to decertify the union.

The main issue in the election appeared to be the failure of the union to obtain participation in Boeing's Employee Incentive Plan for union members in the last contract.

That incentive plan pays bonuses based on the company's financial performance in the last year. Employees in the plan in recent years have received thousands of dollars in payments because of Boeing's rising fortunes.

SPEEA still represents 740 engineers at Boeing's Wichita plant.

SPEEA-represented employees in the Seattle area participate in the incentive plan.