The Puget Sound area's largest investor-owned utility, Puget Sound Energy, ranks second from the bottom in a new customer satisfaction survey of 13 Western utilities.

The J.D. Power and Associates study ranked PSE 12th of 13 power providers it studied in the West. Only Sierra Pacific Resources ranked below PSE. At the top of the list was Arizona's Salt River Project with a satisfaction score of 772 of 1,000. PSE earned a score of 651. The regional average score was 673.

PSE's score was below the national average score of 661. J.D. Power rated 76 utilities nationwide, but divided the rankings by geographic region.

Overall customer satisfaction was based on six factors:power quality and reliability, company image, price and value, communications, billing and payment, and customer service.

Sea-Tac-based Horizon Air has applied to the Mexican government for its first route to Mexico.

The regional airline has asked permission to fly between Los Angeles and Loreto on the Baja Peninsula.

Horizon is contemplating flying the route using its Bombardier CRJ-70 jets, said Horizon spokeswoman Jen Boyer.

Horizon's sister airliner, Alaska Airlines, pioneered the route from LA to the small Mexican town on the Gulf of Cortes. Under a plan Horizon is considering, it would fly its 70-seat jets to Loreto on days when demand is too light for Alaska's 737s.

Meanwhile, the federal Department of Transportation has issued Alaska Airlines a certificate of convenience to carry passengers and cargo to and from American Samoa.

Don't count on buying an Alaska ticket soon to the far South Seas. Alaska was among 20 airlines granted that permission.

The International Association Machinists and Aerospace Workers launched its campaign for passage of new union organizing legislation today with a rally outside the Frederickson headquarters of Toray Composites America.

The union, the largest at The Boeing Co., used the rally to promote what it calls the Worker Freedom of Choice Act.

"Essentially, this piece of legislation will prohibit employers from requiring workers' attendance at any meeting where religion, politics or union membership is the main subject," said Larry Brown, the Machinists' District 751 legislative director.

The new legislative proposal is an altered version of a bill unions sought last year requiring aerospace companies receiving state incentives to remain neutral in union organizing drives. That bill failed to pass.

The union targeted Toray, whose Frederickson plant provides Boeing with composite tape and fabric from which much of the 787 is built, because it contends the Japanese-owned company has used intimidation to keep the union from organizing the plant.

The company said contends its workers turned down union efforts to organize the plant because it pays market-rate wages.

Toray hired a consulting firm to advise it during the union organization drive, said Dave Manger, Toray communications manager, to advise it on how to comply with labor law. As a result of that consulting firm's activities, the company shuffled its management structure and made changes to its shift schedule to make working at Toray more agreeable to more workers.

The Machinists have tried to organize Toray workers three times without success.

Venture Financial Group, parent of DuPont’s Venture Bank, today reported second-quarter earnings up 23.1 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings were $3.2 million, or 44 cents per share. A year ago, per-share earnings stood at 36 cents.

Loan quality continued to improve, with nonperforming loans at 0.09 percent of total loans, down from 0.32 percent a year ago and 0.10 percent at the end of 2006.

Total assets at the end of the quarter came in at $1.083 billion. The bank rose above $1 billion in the first quarter, when earnings also hit $3.2 million, a record quarterly increase of 39.1 percent over the year before.

Venture announced last month that it plans a public offering of its stock some time later this year.

You don't hear a lot of kids say this. But maybe they should.

The Employment Security Department released a report today on skills that will pay the bills in upcoming years.

It forecasts that people interested in nursing, landscaping and computer-related occupations may find more jobs available to them through 2014.

Here's a few of the details:

- State economists predict an estimated 53,155 people will be employed as registered nurses in 2009. That number will rise by 11 percent to 59,002 by 2014, according to the report.

- Jobs for computer software application engineers should go from 28,057 in 2009 to 30,964 in 2014.

- Landscape workers and grounds-keepers, at 28,248 jobs in 2009, will grow to 31,478 jobs in 2014.

Boeing's 757, now out of production, seems to be enjoying a revival as the stand-in for Boeing's upcoming 787 Dreamliner on transoceanic routes.

Delta, Northwest, US Airways and Continental are using their 757s in smaller international markets. Fortunately for those of us on the West Coast, the 757 doesn't have the range to fly the nine and ten-hour routes from here to Europe.

But from the East Coast, airlines are increasingly putting 757s into service to cross the Atlantic.

The addition of blended winglets from Aviation Partners Boeing gives the 757 the extra range and fuel economy to make it an attractive platform for transoceanic flights.

The downside of the 757's use as an international carrier is that it's a single-aisle aircraft with all of the issues that go with it: relatively cramped seats, fewer restrooms and aisles that can be blocked by a beverage cart.

On the West Coast, we're not unaffected by this trend. Northwest is flying most of its Hawaiian routes, which formerly were handled by twin aisle 747s or DC-10s, with single-aisle 757s.

As the 787 Dreamliner begins service, some airlines may replace the aging 757s with the modern twin-aisle 787s.

In today's legal notices, the Port of Tacoma is soliciting a surveying firm for its expansion projects on the east side of the Blair Waterway.

The notice puts the preliminary construction budget for the associated marine terminals, road and rail infrastructure at $900 million.

The terminal for NYK Line will cost $300 million, the port said. And moving the TOTE terminal to make room for NYK will cost another $160 million.

That leaves $440 million for the rest of the work.

Quite a pricey project.

I've got a call into Port officials for a better breakdown of the entire cost of the expansion. I'll let you know when I find out.

In the meantime, I've received some interesting responses from readers regarding Sunday's port expansion story.

They include:

- Questions about how Tacoma Rail will handle the influx in cargo.
- Disbelief that the port commission won't raise the tax.
- Concern about the environmental effects on the expansion, the increased traffic, the cost of the expansion, etc.
- And one very enthusiastic "Thank God for the Port of Tacoma."

I'm working several follow up stories to these questions and more. I'll keep you posted.

For those of you who can’t wait for the LeMay Musuem to open near the Tacoma Dome, you can take a good long look at the collection – of some 800 vintage, classic and specialty automobiles – at the 30th annual LeMay Car Show and Auction on August 25.

The show, which will include hundreds of cars from local collectors, will begin at 9 a.m. at the museum’s current location, Marymount Academy, and at the LeMay family homestead. It’s a fundraiser for the museum, and costs run $10 for adults, $5 for active military and $20 for families. Call 253-536-2885 or visit www.lemaymuseum.org for more information. Shuttle buses will run from parking areas at nearby churches and schools. Addresses and directions are on the Web site.

As for the effort to build the new museum, CEO David Madeira recently met with The News Tribune editorial board and said he’s looking forward to presenting the latest construction plan to the Tacoma City Council.
He assured us that the museum board is committed to building in Tacoma.

He said the overall new fundraising goal is $143 million, which includes the city’s donation of land, or $125 million without.
“We have 34 percent of the total funding. We may be over $50 million today. To say we’re at $50 million is pretty remarkable progress,” he said.

The new, phased construction calls for a collectors’ car center, a storage facility for the LeMay collection, administrative and educational space and an outdoor “showfield” to precede construction of the main pavilion museum. By phasing, Madeira said, the museum would save $3 million to $5 million.

Paul Miller, a board member who also met with the board, said, “If we go back to 1999, and look at what the city funded, it was a 180,000-square-foot box building and a 15-story tower – a $40-million to $80-million black box.” Now, he said, plans call for “a $140-million amazing structure. Nobody’s saying we’re not going to build it. We’re staging it differently.”

Add to the mix the development of retail in the area. I’m working on a longer story on how that development is progressing, and I’m waiting for some documents from the city. As they say at Jiffy Lube, stay tuned.

Intense competition among airlines flying to Hawaii from the mainland and within the Hawaiian islands means low yields for the airlines, but low fares for travelers.

According the Farecast.com on Expedia.com, fares to Honolulu during the fall are as low as $298 roundtrip. That's $159 less than the average low for this time of year.

Admittedly those sub-$300 fares are available on only a few days, but other days are just a few dollars more.

That's a big break for those accustomed to paying in excess of $400 for a roundtrip seat to the islands.

And fares among the islands themselves are at near historic lows. Fares between Honolulu and Maui, for instance, in September are as low as $39 each way thanks to cutthroat competition between the traditional Hawaiian carriers, Aloha and Hawaiian and newcomer go! airlines.

Those fares aren't as low as the $1 each way that go! advertised in early June for 1,000 tickets, but they're a considerable savings over more normal airfares.

This situation won't last forever. A competitor is bound to leave the market eventually because the fares won't support a longterm operation. Aloha and Hawaiian have already made one trip through bankruptcy court and tried to merge without success.

Hawaiian's second quarter financial results show the extent of the damage: a loss of $3.9 million.

Tacoma Goodwill Industries will hold a job fair Aug. 14 featuring some two dozen employers including The Boeing Co.

The fair is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon at Goodwill's Workforce Development Office, 714 S. 27th St. in Tacoma.

In anticipation of the fair, Goodwill will be holding four job fair preparation workshops for job applicants.

The job preparation workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. this Thursday and from 9:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 7.

The preparatory sessions will be held at the Workforce Development Office.

Wal-Mart is abandoning plans to build a new store at the corner of Mildred and Regents Boulevard, the company announced this morning.

The retail giant said two years ago that it would open a store in Fircrest. The plan drew criticism from citizen groups who didn't want the big box store in their neighborhood.

The project faced construction challenges from the beginning. The site is less than half the size of most Wal-Mart plots. And most of the store's parking would be underground, allowing for about the same retail space as larger sites.

Here's what the company said:

Although we and many others worked hard to come up with a plan for a store on our Fircrest site in Pierce County, Washington, we have now concluded that a store on that site would not be financially viable. We believe the store would have been a good addition to the community and would have greatly improved the area’s shopping options, provided high-quality new jobs and increased tax revenue to the community.

“However, the combination of traffic mitigation costs and the constraints of the site led to a financial picture that did not pencil out. We explored many designs, including multi-story buildings, to fit in the footprint but found that the costs outstripped the benefits of those plans.

We'll let you know more as we get it.

Coming Wednesday in The News Tribune, read my review of Tight Cuts, the new place for men who want a little extra with their haircut.
Open just 10 days at the corner of Pearl Street and Sixth Avenue, the Tacoma outlet owned by franchisees Don Squire and Patricia Larson, husband and wife, took at crack at my head. They didn't have much with which to work.
But here's a preview of what stylist Marian Jones (Yes, she wore the tight white cotton shirt and black leather skirt) accomplished.

That's Marian on the far right. Not bad, huh? (The haircut, I mean.) Plus I got scalp and neck massages, a hot towel face wrap and a discount using a coupon from the TNT.

Boeing is talking with suppliers about raising its 787 Dreamliner production rates to 16 a month, a British electronics company executive said today.

Ultra Electronics CEO Douglas Caster told Reuters that Boeing is approaching its suppliers about their capabilities to support such a production rate.

Boeing's 787 production lines are already booked solid for five years at present rates, and the company is looking at how it can satisfy airline demand for the ultra-efficient twin jet.

The company is being cautious about moving too quickly to raise projection rates because of bad experiences. In the late '90s, Boeing attempted to raise its production rates quickly, but lost billions because some critical suppliers couldn't keep up.

That left Boeing with dozens of planes that lacked key parts after they rolled out the factory doors. The company was forced to shut down production for a month to allow it to finish planes that still needed retrofitting with vital parts.

Producing 16 wide-bodied planes a month would be unprecedented in the industry. Typically most wide-bodied aircraft roll off the production lines at rates ranging from one to six or seven a month.

After canceling some 16 percent of its flights on Sunday, Northwest Airlines canceled less than seven percent of its Monday flights.

That number was still several times the normal rate of cancellations for Northwest and its competitors. Most airlines typically cancel less than one percent of daily flights.

By early afternoon today, Northwest had canceled none of its Sea-Tac departures. Sunday, the Minnesota-based airline cancelled three of its nine daily departures from its Sea-Tac to its Minneapolis hub.

Those Sunday cancellations were Flight 166 due to leave Seattle at 12:55 a.m.; Flight 160 due to leave for Minneapolis at 10:55 a.m. and Flight 168 scheduled to leave at 5:50 p.m.

Northwest blames the cancellations on high pilot absenteeism but the pilots union says Northwest hasn't hired enough pilots to maintain its flight schedule.

Northwest Chief Executive Officer Doug Steenland told employees the airline is cutting its August schedule, recalling furloughed employees and hiring new pilots.

Cutting the schedule could have an immediate effect on cancellations, but recalling pilots or hiring new ones will have a delayed effect because of the time needed to train those pilots.

Heading home from work on the Tideflats? Get ready for some road construction.

This week, the Washington Department of Transportation will begin widening the southbound I-5 ramp at the Port of Tacoma Road interchange.

During the two-month project, drivers should be prepared for disruptions including narrowed, shifted lanes on the on-ramp and four on-ramp closures.

Most of the work is scheduled at night.

The first on-ramp closure is Wednesday at 10 p.m. The ramp will reopen to traffic at 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

This $1.5 million widening project is the result of a partnership among WSDOT, Port of Tacoma, and the City of Fife, according to WDOT.

I interviewed Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell Wednesday night about the port's new lease with NYK Line, a shipping company that currently uses the Port of Seattle.

I asked him then if the Port of Seattle knew that NYK Line would be moving to Tacoma.

"I think they know," he said.

Maybe. Regardless they are not pleased with the announcement, according to the story in today's Seattle PI.

Seattle port officials called the deal "a very serious blow to the relationship between Seattle and Tacoma" and termed it "another case of Tacoma expanding at Seattle's expense."

Port Executive Director Tay Yoshitani gave a speech to the Seattle Rotary at 1 p.m. Wednesday – the day before the port officially announced the deal.

He had few nice things to say about Tacoma:

"While we cooperate with the Port of Tacoma on things like security, environmental programs and some infrastructure issues, they are extremely aggressive in soliciting business away from us," he said.

"I have no reservation in reporting to you that Tacoma currently is attempting to negotiate away a couple of our key customers. I strongly believe they ought to be looking at taking cargo away from California, rather than from us. This kind of competition makes no sense from a regional or state-wide perspective, but they don’t seem to see things that way."

=> Read more!

The last of the original merchants in Thea's Landing on downtown Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway will close its doors Tuesday.

The hip canine shop's five-year lease will end Tuesday, and its owners won't be renewing.

The road and utility work on Dock Street, the bridge construction on East D street and the lack of street parking on nearby were all part of the decision to close, said the co-owners daughter, Lauren Rekow.

The shop's Bellevue Square location will remain open.

It's that time of year again. Almost.

Time to hire employees to work at the 2007 Puyallup Fair.

The Washington State WorkSource Office will begin accepting applications on Monday,
Aug. 6 to fill 3,000 positions at the Puyallup Fair.

The Fair runs Sept. 7 through the 23rd.

Early applicants will be able to choose between jobs in food service, retail sales, ride operations, barn work, game booth operations and other positions.

Qualified individuals should apply in person at the Fair’s Washington State WorkSource Employment office, which is located at the Red Gate near the Sky Ride Station (9th Avenue SW near 4th Street SW). The Employment Office will be open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

To qualify, applicants must be at least 16 years of age. Applicants must also show picture ID and proof (a Social Security card or alien registration card) of legal right to work.

Most jobs will pay minimum wage – $7.93 per hour.

You may have noticed that much of the newspaper world spent ink this morning informing America that the sky (in the form of the Dow Jones Industrial Average) was falling. The reporting and placement of stories in a lot of papers might have left you feeling we are on the edge of a disaster, not to mention a debacle.

It’s almost as bad as TV when there’s a storm coming, what with the various Storm Watches!! and such. The is a propensity of some media to scare people.

Well, don’t be afraid. Yes, the market is down. It’s down to where it was ... in April. (Quick, hide the kids!) Actually, the economy is doing fine. I haven’t seen an advance look at tomorrow’s Business Section front pages across the nation, or the Northwest, but I’ll predict that few who blazed with the bad news this morning will come out Saturday with an equal amount of ink to reprint the Associated Press story currently on the wire that proclaims: “The best barometer of the country’s economic fitness — gross domestic product — increased at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday.”

Call me disloyal. Call me Pollyanna. But that's good news. So please go about your business. Take a breath. Smile. There’s nothing left to see here. (Until Monday, when the markets open again.)

Microsoft has sold 60 million licenses for the Windows Vista operating system since it went on sale to all customers at the end of January.

That’s on pace to beat the initial estimate of Roger Kay, an analyst at Wayland, Massachusetts-based researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates. Kay estimated 82 million licenses would be sold for the year. Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner announced the number today at Microsoft’s analyst meeting.

Shares of Redmond giant fell 73 cents to $29.98 in Nasdaq trading Thursday. The stock is little changed this year.

Continental Airlines, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, said it will install 10,000 copies of Vista by year’s end. Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second-biggest non-state-owned bank, will move 70,000 workers to Vista. The program, Microsoft’s first new version of Windows for PCs since 2001, was introduced in November to some business customers. It was released more widely in January.

The total number of Windows copies in use, including all authorized versions and pirated copies, will hit 1 billion this year, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer said at the meeting in Redmond on thursday.

Our neighbors at the Puyallup Herald have news for car buffs.

The Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals classic car and hot rod show celebrates its 20th anniversary this month with a car show, an automotive swap meet, a vendor exhibit midway, pin stripers, Friday Night drag races at Pacific Raceways in Kent and a multitude of other automotive-themed activities.

Lil’ deuce coupes, hot rod roadsters, lead-sled 50s Mercury customs, 55-57 Chevys, Camaros, Hemi Barracudas, BOSS 409 Mustangs and other timeless cars will fill the Puyallup Fairgrounds and Expo Center during the show, which takes place the weekend of July 27-29.

To celebrate two successful decades of the event, Puyallup Mayor Michael W. Deal will present the event’s organizers with the Keys to the City and an official proclamation during the opening day.

Last year, the Puyallup show had 2,300 classic cars registered, said George Marten, event director for Puyallup’s show. He expects a similar count for this year. Throughout the three-day run, the event will pump an estimated $2.5 million into Tacoma/Pierce County, the Herald said.

Joni Mitchell is following the lead of Paul McCartney in joining with coffee giant Starbucks to release her comeback album, according to The Associated Press.

Hear Music, a record label formed in partnership with Starbucks Corp. and the Concord Music Group, said Wednesday that Mitchell is its second signing. “Shine,” her first album of new compositions since 1998, will be released on Sept. 25.

McCartney’s album “Memory Almost Full” came out last month and was played relentlessly at Starbucks franchises, where listeners could purchase it with their coffee. (In fact, it was the only song reportedly played the first day of its release. Bet it made big fans of the baristas.)

The disc has sold 447,000 copies, 45 percent of them in Starbucks stores, the company said.

The new venture has attracted interest from veteran artists both because the music business is collapsing around them, and their fans are much more likely to be spending time in Starbucks these days than in music stores.

For Mitchell fans: She wrote nine of the 10 songs on “Shine,” the exception being an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling poem “If,” according to The Associated Press. She described it as “as serious a work as I’ve ever done” with some dark lyrics.

The University of Washington Tacoma has hired Dr. Joel Baker, a researcher of water pollution in marine environments, as the first holder of the Port of Tacoma Chair, the school announced in a release today. Pending approval of the university's Board of Regents, Baker starts Jan. 1, 2008.

Baker will conduct scientific research and teach environmental science classes at UWT. He will develop an applied scientific research program at the university, collaborating with the community to focus on issues impacting the marine environment in South Puget Sound. He also will work with the Port of Tacoma Chair Advisory Board to identify research of interest to the community and will serve as science adviser for the Urban Waters marine research center.

Urban Waters was established to promote research on local marine environmental issues and to help develop solutions for water pollution in Tacoma and other urban bay communities. The Port of Tacoma Chair is funded through endowments from the Port, the City of Tacoma, SSA Marine and matching funds from the university.

Baker’s research focuses on pollutant transport and fate in natural waters and the accumulation of chemicals in aquatic food webs. His goal is to learn how pollutant sources and cycling mechanisms can be controlled to protect the health of humans and the ecosystem. Currently a professor at the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Baker leads a research group studying the flow of contaminants from the atmosphere and surface water to the marine environment.

In addition to teaching, Baker’s connection to Urban Waters means he will research pollution in the Foss Waterway, Commencement Bay and South Puget Sound, and study the surrounding urban environment’s impact on the marine environment. Baker has a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental engineering sciences from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in environmental chemistry from the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science & Forestry.

According to The Associated Press, Nordstrom Inc. has agreed to sell its Facconable brand to a Lebanon-based company for $210 million as the high-end department store chain focuses on its main business.

As part of the agreement with M1 Group, Nordstrom said it will continue to buy Faconnable merchandise for at least the next three years and will still offer the label in its stores.

M1 Group is a diversified business based in Beirut that focuses mainly on telecom, energy and real estate activities.

Nordstrom said that Faconnable employees based in the United States and in Nice, France, will be offered jobs at M1 once the deal closes. Several U.S. employees will stay with Nordstrom for about a year to help with the transition, it said.

Taking a page from the playbook of our own Ed Murrieta, we thought it might be helpful to start a version of his You Plate Special here on the Biz Buzz blog.

So if you have something to say, here's the place to say it. This space is reserved for you to comment on and discuss what's going on in business in the South Sound that we should be discussing, reporting or analyzing here on our blog or in the pages of The News Tribune.

Please don't promote your own businesses, though, or trash someone else's. We're hoping for a higher ground here.

Sea-Tac's Alaska Air Group profits declined to $46.1 million in the second quarter this year from $55.5 million in the same quarter last year, the airline holding company said today.

The company blamed the decline on higher fuel costs, softer ticket prices and a drop in the percentage of seats filled.

"Although our second quarter profit fell short of last year's the results represent a solid performance in view of the significantly higher fuel costs and a softer revenue environment," said Bill Ayer, the company's chairman.

The change was particularly pronounced at the airline holding company's Horizon Air unit. Alaska Air Group is also the parent company of Alaska Airlines.

Horizon's pre-tax loss for the quarter was $4.6 million compared with a profit of $10.2 million in the same quarter of 2006.

Some of Horizon's problems are attributable to a peak in aircraft maintenance, transition costs from 37-seat Bombardier Q200s to 76-seat Bombardier Q400s in its fleet.

Alaska said increased competition on its Mexico routes and overcapacity on some state of Alaska routes cut profitability.

The conversion of some 737-400 passenger jets to combination passenger and cargo planes was behind schedule last quarter, and Alaska was forced to substitute larger planes with higher passenger capacities and lower cargo capabilities on the Alaska routes they had been scheduled to fly.

Something just didn’t seem right yesterday afternoon. I’d read and reported Frontier Bank’s second quarter numbers – they were quite good. Earnings were up, loan quality was solid, the bank maintained its very respectable efficiency rating.

So why, hours before, had the stock hit a 52-week low? That’s what didn’t make sense.

Then, on the wire, I read the story about Countrywide’s problem with loans, and how the company wasn’t looking for a recovery until 2009.

After a call to Frontier CEO John Dickson, to make sure I wasn’t missing anything in the earnings, I figured the stock dropped because Frontier does a lot of real estate loans. There was no bad news locally – only with Countrywide. Brokers and analysts were aiming with birdshot, not bullets.

Indeed. Today, on a day when the sector of similar banking industry stocks fell .01 percent, Frontier (trading as FTBK) was up 8.09 percent. Other banks just didn’t come close to having such a strong day.

Wall Street may make the occasional mistake, but it does wise up. Eventually.

If commercial real estate numbers are the data you’re using to keep track of the Puget Sound economy, then times are good.
The Seattle office of CB Richard Ellis, the worldwide real estate firm, this week issued a look at the second-quarter in the Puget Sound – including Pierce County – for office, industrial and retail properties.

• Pierce County retail: Vacancy rate of 3.65 percent. Gross leasable area of 8.137 million square feet. Under construction: 240,000 square feet.
“Two centers at 176th and Canyon Road in the Frederickson area are scheduled to start in the near future.”
“In Bonney Lake, Tarragon Development is adding 90,000 square feet to a Target Center.”

• Pierce County industrial: Net rentable area: 21,877,378 square feet. Total vacant: 2,508,454. Total vacancy rate: 11.85 percent.
“The final building at Rainier Park of Industry, Building 7, has 506,000 square feet ready for a tenant, as does the second building at Pacific Coast Corporate Park in Fife with 501,250 available square feet. Portside Industrial Park in the Port of Tacoma has 413,000 square feet in need of a user.”
The Puget Sound region as a whole “delivered an astronomical 3,448,271 square feet (during the second quarter).”
“The positive absorption (marks) four full years since the region experienced a quarter of negative absorption.”

• Pierce County office space (A, B, or C; over 10,000 square feet): Net rentable area in Pierce County: 3,822,599 square feet. Total vacancy rate: 9.39 percent. (Downtown Seattle: 8.58 percent; Tacoma: 8.88 percent.)
“Lease rates were ... fairly flat in the Tacoma market, as a drop of $0.03 saw rates end at $20.63 per square foot.”
“Look for rates to climb ... in the upcoming quarters, especially on the Eastside.”

Wallstreet seemed to like yesterday's Amazon.com news.

Shares in the company rose to their highest level in 7 1/2 years after the company beat analysts’ profit estimates by curbing technology spending and lifted its sales forecast for the second time since April.

The stock surged $16.93, or 24 percent, to $86.18.

Shares of Amazon.com have more than doubled this year, making it the best performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

“There’s still a lot of potential in e-commerce in general, and Amazon’s taking advantage of that,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. He has a “market perform” rating on the stock.

Qwest will have greater pricing flexibility for its services and received approval to raise the monthly rate for basic residential telephone service up to $1 under a deal announced today.

Currently, Qwest residential customers pay $12.50 a month for basic phone service statewide (plus taxes), a rate unchanged since 1998.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission conditionally approved a settlement agreement that calls for easing regulations of most Qwest’s residential telephone prices and services throughout Washington for the next four years.

The deal won’t take effect until Qwest submits an acceptable plan for service quality for its wholesale services.

The agreement also says that the company is no longer required to provide residential customers one free directory-assistance call each month, and may change prices of non-essential features, such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail.

=> Read more!

The Flag still flies above the penthouse at the University Union Club building at 539 Broadway in downtown Tacoma.

That Flag might just as well fly at half-mast. Formerly the quirky David’s on Broadway, the place reopened earlier this year as Winfield’s, a restaurant, and Winfield’s Twisted Cue Club, a billiards parlor. Other features included karaoke and a nightclub.

The enterprise closed within the past few days, and today there’s a sign out front saying it “Will Not Reopen.”

A call this afternoon to building owner Leah Caruthers in Texas confirms the closing.

“We are disappointed in Tacoma’s support,” she said. “We were hoping for better outcomes.”

She was unsure of the ultimate fate of the structure, but said she would be willing to offer a lease to someone interested in putting in a restaurant or offices.

Investors drove Boeing stock upward by more than $3.00 a share in early trading today after the company reported second quarter earnings well above Wall Street estimates.

In morning trading, Boeing set new record prices above $107.00 a share.

Boeing reported earnings on a per share basis were $1.35 a share for the quarter compared with a Wall Street average prediction of $1.16 a share. The company second quarter profits were $1.1 billion compared with projections of $950 million.

That positive earnings news came in spite of Boeing's additional research and development spending to keep its 787 Dreamliner on schedule.

The company, which originally projected that the first 787 would fly by the end of August, now targets the first flight for late September.

The extra development costs were more than offset by better productivity and output in the commercial airplane business.

The company's Puget Sound-based commercial airplanes operations had operations profit margins of 11 percent on production of 114 airplanes.

Boeing raised projections for full year earnings to a range of $4.80 to $4.95 a share compared with earlier forecasts of $4.55 to $4.75 a share.

Olympia-based Heritage Financial Corp., parent of Heritage Bank in Western Washington and Central Valley Bank in Eastern Washington, today reported second-quarter earnings of $2,627,000, or an increase of 3.6 percent compared to earnings of $2,535,000 a year ago.
Earnings-per-share were unchanged at 39 cents.
Total assets assets increased $77.3 million, or 9.3%, to $905.6 million at the end of the quarter.
Nonperforming assets for the quarter were $1,605,000, or 0.18 percent of total assets, a decrease of $1,223,000, or 0.34 percent, compared to the second quarter of 2006.
Heritage stock, which trades as HFWA, rose 1 cent in Tuesday trading to $23.50. The stock has slipped 5.28 percent so far this year.

Everett-based Frontier Bank announced second-quarter earnings today, up 4.4 percent to $18.2 million compared with net income of $17.4 million in 2006. Per-share income was 40 cents, up 5.3 percent – or 15.8 percent excluding a previously announced balance sheet restructuring.
Loans increased by $439.5 million, or 16 percent, since the second quarter of 2006.
The bank’s efficiency ratio, 35 percent, continues as one of the industry’s best
As of June 30, 2007, nonperforming assets were 0.31 percent of total assets, compared to 0.44 percent a year ago.
At June 30, 2007 Frontier’s total assets were $3.58 billion and deposits totaled $2.83 billion, an increase of 15.5 percent and 16.9 percent respectively when compared to the same period a year ago.
Frontier expects to open its 46th, 47th and 48th offices – in Lacey, Bremerton and Gig Harbor – during the second half of the year. The Gig Harbor Office is expected to open in October, and will be managed by Joyce Taylor.
Frontier shares, trading as FTBK, were down 55 cents in Tuesday trading. They settled at $20.39, a 52-week low.

If you are heading to the Tacoma Mall for some early back-to-school shopping or to attend the Nordstrom sale, be aware of parking challenges.

The parking lot west of the former Mervyn's site is blocked off. And the lot on the south side of the mall outside the food court also is closed. Both sites are part of a planned mall expansion that will bring new shops, restaurants and a bigger Nordstrom.

The mall has put up signs directing Nordstrom customers to the north side of the mall to park.

This is the north side of the mall where Nordstrom will be:

Sea-Tac Airport has introduced two new passenger-friendly features that should make catching a plane at the airport a little easier:

B Concourse tram stop

The airport has reopened the B Concourse stop on its south tram loop connecting the Main Terminal with the South Satellite. The airport closed the B Concourse stop while it was replacing the tram that connects the buildings. The new tram stop will allow those connecting from the South Satellite to the B Concourse to avoid a long walk.

Garage parking payments:

A new system allows users of the airport's vast parking garage to go paperless. Instead of taking a paper ticket when entering the garage, users can now insert a credit or debit card into the ticket machines.

When exiting, just insert that same card in the slot at the toll booth, and the parking charge will be automatically charged to your card and you'll get a receipt for the payment.

The good part of the new system is that you won't have to keep track of your paper ticket. The bad part with those of us with multiple credit cards and failing memories: you've got to use the same card to exit as you used to enter.

Have you seen those road side signs around town advertising the company SmartTalent?

I spotted them today on my way down Tacoma Mall Boulevard.

The signs say the company is hiring but it's not clear for what.

Turns out it's a Kirkland-based staffing and recruiting company that opened an office in Gig Harbor a few weeks ago.

=> Read more!

In New York or San Francisco, the penthouses at Tacoma's new One St. Helens would be considered an irresistible bargain.

But at a rental rate of $2,700 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,200-square-foot apartment, those penthouse rents at the 20-unit building nearing completion near Stadium High School are breaking new ground.

One St. Helens developer Reed Kelley thinks the penthouses are good values.

This is what you get for you money: unobstructed views of Commencement Bay, Mount Rainier and the Olympics; high-end finishes such as granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, premium tile and carpets and large decks to enjoy the view. The building also includes secure lower level parking and a location within a block or so of Wright Park and the Stadium business district.

Kelley has done little marketing for the building (It doesn't even have a sign identifying it at the construction site), but he believes it's virtues will
draw potential renters.

Smaller units in the five-story building will be substantially less expensive. The new apartment building is within a month or two of completion.

Kelley and his partners opted to make one St. Helens apartments for a couple of reasons, he said.

They want to hold onto it as an income property for years rather than making a quick profit, and they think the market for condominiums is overbuilt now in Tacoma.

Who will rent a $2,700-a-month, two-bedroom unit? Kelley said he expects that young, higher income professionals who are believe their Tacoma jobs are likely to be stepping stones to even bigger jobs elsewhere are likely candidates.

Go ahead and complain about the rain. And the Mariners, who have lost their last three games. And you might even still be in a mood to lament long lines at the airport.
But don’t complain about gasoline prices.

Remember those threatening predictions last spring about $4-a-gallon gas?
They have not come true.

As of this morning, the price of a gallon of regular in Tacoma stood at $2.964, according to AAA.
That’s down from $3.063 a month ago, from $3.001 a year ago, and it’s way down from the all-time high, registered last May, at $3.459.

If you’re planning a drive this weekend and you’ve got gas on your mind, I’d suggest you head south rather than north.
A gallon of regular in Vancouver (the one south of Chehalis) is going for $2.973.

A liter of the same goes for $1.08 (Canadian) in the other Vancouver, and with a liter being 0.264172 gallons, and with the Canadian dollar being (a whopping) $.964134 (U.S.), that means you’ll be spending $3.94 (U.S.) a gallon. (If you've got the right i.d. and get through security at the border.)

The proposed Foss Waterway hotel and condominium project will likely be delayed again.

The development partnership that is proposing the oft-delayed project is likely to get until Sept. 30 to complete financing arrangements on the hotel project, if the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority follows its director's recommendation.

The deadline to produce permits, designs and financing was today, but the developer failed to produce a firm financing plan, said authority director Don Meyer.

Meyer said he wants to have iron-clad assurances that the partners will have money to build the project.

The partners have the $2 million to buy the property, but their bank's financial comittment was too full of contingencies, Meyer said.

Dave Murphy, the hotel project's architect and a partner in the development said the developer's bank has assured him they'll finance the deal, but it just
needed more time to gather up the paperwork.

The high end TV and stereo retailer Magnolia Audio Video will close its doors on Sept. 1.

I stopped in there today on the hunt for a new TV. A salesman said the store will be open a few more weeks. All the TVs were on sale, by the way.

Magnolia is owned by Best Buy, which announced earlier this month that it was closing six of the Magnolia stores including one in Silverdale.

The company said the closures are part of a long-term change in strategy that has not been disclosed. Magnolia will have 13 remaining stores.

The four other stores closing: Arden Fair, Calif.; Clackamas, Ore.; Colma, Calif. and Torrance, Calif.

Australia has given preliminary approval to become a partner in Boeing's program to turn commercial 737 jets into submarine-hunting naval patrol aircraft.

If the Down Under government gives it's final approval, the Australians will spend $3.5 billion to buy 20 P-8A patrol aircraft to replace the country's aging AP-3C Orion patrol aircraft.

The new deal is the first substantial spinoff of Boeing's contract to build P-8As for the U.S. Navy.
Boeing is also pitching the P-8A to India for use as a maritime patrol aircraft.

The company is building 108 P8-As for the U.S. Navy. The planes will be built on a new assembly line at Boeing's Renton plant.

Columbia Bank has completed its deal to acquire Mountain Bank Holding Co. and Town Center Bancorp.

Respectively, the two holding companies formerly controlled Mt. Rainier National Bank, which will operate under the name Mt. Rainier Bank, and Town Center Bank, which has been subsumed into the Columbia brand.

Shareholders of both organizations have approved the transactions, and all regulatory approvals have been received, Columbia said today.

With the completion of the mergers, Columbia's total assets approach $3 billion, with 53 branches in nine counties in Washington and Oregon.

Mt. Rainier Bank will continue to operate in Enumclaw, Buckley, Black Diamond, Auburn, Maple Valley, Sumner and Federal Way. The Town Center acquisition adds five Oregon locations in the North Clackamas and Northeast Portland area.

Real life is finally catching up with the movies.

After decades as a standard weapon in sci-fi movies and TV shows, the laser, that hitherto friendly beam of cohesive light that reads DVDs and CDs, that corrects our vision and serves as a pointer in a darkened room, is being turned into a weapon.

The U.S. Army today award the Boeing Co. a $7 million contract to begin development of a truck-mounted high energy laser to destroy rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds in flight.

The laser will be mounted on a heavy-duty truck called the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

Can ray guns be far behind?

Apparently you’re using self checkout more and more, with $525 billion expected to be spent this year, according to a new study from the IHL Consulting Group, which I found highlighted at a retail-tech blog called StoreftontBacktalk. And the group expects the figure to keep rising.

Columnist Evan Schuman goes on to say that not all self checkout is as convenient as the next. He makes the case that Home Depot does it right while grocery stores have some catching up to do.

What’s your experience? Do you gravitate to the self checkout? If so, why? Or do you avoid having to scan and bag your own stuff?

What do women want? Apparently, the answer is video games about beauty treatments.

The Lifetime cable network and digital media company RealNetworks Inc. announced a partnership this week to create a series of downloadable games for women, The Associated Press reports.

The first “Lifetime Presents” game, “Sally’s Salon,” is set to launch July 25 on RealArcade, RealNetworks’ casual games site, and on Lifetime’s own Web site.

In it, players direct Sally through a virtual beauty salon by performing and customizing beauty services and hiring employees.

Casual games with themes such as makeovers, prom dresses and cleaning have made the games section of Lifetime’s Web site its most popular section, with millions of games played each month, Lifetime said.

Business Week has a story detailing how a Costco-chosen vendor went about designing a flatware line specifically for the warehouse retailer.

Unused to having its product featured on pallets and minus sales people, the Canadian company, Gourmet Settings, studied Costco shoppers and discovered they're more than willing to pony up for luxury in the bare-bones setting. The story doesn't say how much the flatware costs, but it's sold in 52- to 65-piece boxes.

It all turned out so well the Canadian company, Gourmet Settings, ended up winning a design award for the flatware.

You can find the story here.

When Alaska Airlines announced last fall it would begin flying nonstop between San Diego and San Francisco, it seemed like a smart move.

San Diego's dominant airline, Southwest, had abandoned San Francisco's airport as too expensive and too fog-bound several years ago, and only United flew the route.

But with a little less than a year of flying between the two California cities, Alaska has confirmed it will abandon the route Sept. 9.

It's a classic case of a changing competitive landscape.

=> Read more!

Boeing passed the 600 mark in 2007 orders for new airliners this week.

The company recorded 36 new orders bringing the total for the year to 616. That still puts Boeing shy of Airbus which is reporting 680 orders.

New orders record in the last week include an order from Southwest Airlines for 25 new 737-700s, three unidentified orders for 737s, two unidentified orders for 777s and six more unidentified orders for 787s.

The 737 still remains Boeing 2007 order champion with 267 orders, but the 787 is not far behind with 235 orders.

=> Read more!

When I heard yesterday about the impending closure of The Camera Shop in downtown Tacoma – the closure after 70 years in business – I figured it was because of the changing nature of photography: the digital this, digital that, and nobody needs to buy film anymore.

I also thought about The Camera Shop as one of the two retail outlets that have been downtown, stayed downtown and remained loyal to downtown even through the darkest days. When everybody else left, going out the to Mall or otherwise surrendering, The Camera Shop and LeRoy Jewelers stayed. I’ve admired them both for their perseverance.

But it isn’t the Digital Age that’s forcing the closure. Instead, its the city’s latest brand of progress.

“The worst thing is the rebuild of Pacific Avenue, and no help from the city after that,” said Ed Elliott, owner and son of the founder, Barney Elliott. “That was the project that started the end of July (a few years back), and ended with the Daffodil Parade, not Thanskgiving.”

He said he'd been told the project would be completed in time for the Christmas shopping season. It wasn’t. The shoppers and foot traffic never returned.

As for the Digital Age, it seems shutterbugs still need – and buy – accessories such as tripods, filters, camera cases and the cameras themselves.

Elliott, who is 63, put out the Closing sign on Wednesday. He’ll be offering “mark-downs throughout the store.” So far, customers have been stopping to say, typically, “I hate to see you go.”

No one from the city has yet come by.

It was Barney Elliott, by the way, who filmed that iconic movie image of Galloping Gertie as she galloped her last into the Narrows.

Chocolate is coming to your local Starbucks.

The Seattle-based company announced today that it is teaming up with Hershey Co. to create Starbucks-branded coffee-flavored chocolate products.

Executives with both companies said they’re eager to respond to customers’ growing demand for premium chocolate.

Tom Hernquist, a senior vice president and global chief growth officer at Hershey, said that coffee-flavored chocolate treats have proved particularly popular.

The first product slated to hit U.S. grocery, drug store and department store shelves this fall, will be a premium hot chocolate, though Hershey executives would not say whether it will be sold in powder or drink form, according to The Associated Press.

Most other products, including chocolate bars, truffles and chocolate-covered coffee beans, are likely to become available early next year, said Chris Baldwin, president of Hershey’s North American commercial group.

Attention Gottschalk’s shoppers: You probably saw the "Everything must go" ad in this morning’s paper. The store at Highland Hill is closing.

When we called for more information, the store manager offered no details beyond what was in the ad. The store at 5915 6th Ave. is closing. Later calls to corporate headquarters have gone unanswered, and a district manager was unavailable.

The store will close on Sept. 22. A South Hill Mall outlet closed last year. The Lakewood store remains open.

Retailers long ago discovered they could get to you through e-mail, with coupons, alerts and links to new product. Turns out they think Tuesday is the day you’ll most likely click on their special deal.

According to a column at trade publication MediaPost, retailers send the most e-mails (one third of them) on Tuesdays. Next up are Thursday, Monday and Friday. Saturday was the least popular day, with only 8 percent of emails sent then.

Paving of Sea-Tac Airport's third runway was due to begin today after a delay caused by rain Tuesday.

The paving project will create an 8,500-foot-long landing strip west of the two existing Sea-Tac runways.

The runway, oriented north-south, is designed to increase Sea-Tac's capacity during poor weather when visibility doesn't allow planes to land and takeoff simultaneously on the two existing strips because they're too close together.

The Port of Seattle, Sea-Tac's owner fought neighboring cities and protest groups for nearly a decade over the right to expand the airport.

The final bill for the third runway is estimated to be about $1.2 billion.

A downtown Tacoma landmark, the Union Bank of California, has been sold to a Puyallup businessman.

Jay Yi, owner of food packaging products company Inexim, bought the 1928 Italian Renaissance building at 1011 Pacific Ave. for $2.3 million, said Ethan Offenbecher, who handled the real estate transaction.

Yi said he intends to move his company offices from Puyallup to the third floor of the bank building and lease the architecturally elegant lobby for ceremonial occasions.

The Union Bank of California moved to the historic Waddell Building at South 15th and Commerce streets two years ago.

A Puyallup investor had owned the building since 2003.

Dave Tsuru, who will operate the ceremonial space, said he is adding a stage to the high-ceilinged room, but otherwise leaving it unmodified.

Tsura said he expects the room will be rented mostly for corporate events and weddings.

The columned building exterior was constructed of Wilkeson sandstone and granite. The interior is finished with walnut and Travertine masonry and decorative plaster.

Seattle architect John Graham is listed as the building's designer.

Nude bicyclists who live outdoors may not be as pleased as the rest of us, but there’s good news on inflation.

Not every month do we get to report that consumer prices have gone down. This month we have that distinct honor. Consumer prices are down over May and June, and the trend looks good for June alone.

And there’s no next paragraph that begins: “But...”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said this week that consumer prices in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area fell 0.1 percent in May and June. The decline was due mostly to falling prices for clothes, down 7.3 percent, and housing, down 0.6 percent. Although gasoline prices were up 1.2 percent for the two months, they fell 6.3 percent since May.

Grocery prices are unchanged since May. Overall energy prices are down 3.1 percent.

Tacoma-based Rainier Pacific Financial Group released it’s quarterly earnings this morning, and the news is better than we’ve seen in a good while.

Earnings were up 41.7 percent over a year ago – to $982,000.

Vic Toy, senior vice president for strategic planning, told me, “I think this is pretty much the direction we’d like to see the organization go.”

Asset quality remains above the local standard, with only .03 percent of total loans either 90 days delinquent or on non-accrual status.

Total assets at Rainier Pacific were $904.8 million at the end of the quarter, just shy of the $1 billion mark. Total loans were at $647.4 million, with the sector mix coming in at 33.3 percent commercial real estate, 24.6 percent multi-family real estate, 12.2 percent single-family, 11.7 percent real estate construction, 8.6 percent consumer, 6.9 percent home equity and 2.7 percent commercial business.

Toy said the company is allowing securities to run off the books, and replacing those with loans. And although the yield curve remains flat, it does look to improve over the remainder of the year. This could mean continued good news from Rainier Pacific.

Wall Street seemed impressed this morning, taking RPFG up 5.15 percent to $15.72 before lunch.

Maxjet, a business-class airline with service across the Atlantic, wants to start its first trans-Pacific service from Seattle.

Maxjet is one of a half-dozen airlines to apply to the federal Department of Transportation for a limited number of new flights allowed under a new U.S.-China airline agreement signed last week in Seattle.

Maxjet is lobbying for those rights against the big boys of the airline business, Delta, United, Northwest, US Airways and Continental, which all want to start new China service from their hub cities.

Those airlines would fly aircraft with 300 to 425 passengers between the U.S. and major Chinese cities if the DOT approves.

In contrast, MaxJet is proposing to fly a smaller Boeing 767-200ER from Seattle to Shanghai. That same plane would provide through service to and from Los Angeles.

Maxjet's planes are equipped with 92 business class seats. That's less than half the number of seats a 767 typically carries in a mixed economy-business configuration. The seats are configured with a 60-inch pitch, the distance between seats. Typical pitch for economy class seats on other airlines is 31 to 33 inches.

The airline has apparently done well with such service in from the East Coast where it connects New York and Washington, D.C. with London's Stansted Airport. The airline also connects London with Las Vegas, and, beginning in August Los Angeles with London.

Monday is the deadline for developers of the oft-delayed Foss Waterway hotel to show up with all their permits and financing in place to build the new hotel on the near-downtown Tacoma waterway.

Plans are to build a 120-room boutique hotel and 22 upscale condominiums on a site between Thea's Landing and the new Esplanade condominium.

Given a long history of false starts and time extensions, those who are watching the clock tick down aren't out buying gold-plated shovels yet for the ground-breaking.

The latest deadline is one set by the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority, which owns the land on which the hotel would be built.

The authority's search for a hotel developer for the site north of Thea's Landing began more than four years ago.

One of the developers who responded to the authority's request for proposal for the two sites near the 15th Street Bridge told the authority that while apartment or condos were likely a good bet for the site, hotels were more problematic. That developer didn't win the nod to build on the site.

The developer who won the contest to develop the two parcels said the hotel would be no problem.

The Foss hotel is one of more than a dozen major projects in the downtown area caught somewhere in the netherworld between announcement and construction.

In this Sunday's News Tribune, we update you on those projects. Will they fall flat or will cranes be rising soon on their sites?

Money Magazine is out with its latest "Best Places to Live" list, and no town in the Northwest makes the top 10.

That's somewhat of a surprise because Northwest communities have usually held season tickets to that select list.

But just missing the cut is number 11 on the list, Sammamish.

Other Northwest towns in top 100 include Sherwood, Ore., 18; Lake Oswego, Ore.,32; Camas,63; Mukilteo, 69, and Silverdale, 99.

Holding the number 1 spot on Money's list is Middleton, Wis. near Madison. Following Middleton in order are Hanover, N.H., Louisville, Colo., Lake Mary, Fla., Claremont, Calif., Papillion, Neb., Milton, Mass.,Chaska, Minn., Nether Providence, Pa. and Suwanee, Ga.

=> Read more!

DuPont-based Venture Financial Group, Inc., parent company of Venture Bank, announced this afternoon that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed public offering of shares of its common stock.

Application will be made to list the common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “VNBK.” Venture Financial Group anticipates offering these shares of common stock during the fourth quarter of 2007.

Ken Parsons Sr., Venture president and CEO, said Tuesday that the IPO will help raise money. “We’re clearly going to be in the market to combine other banks into our institution. To do that these days, you really need a publicly traded stock. It also give us a chance to generate capital for continued growth, to open up financial centers in other markets.”

Venture stock is already publicly owned, and traded through a transfer agent working through the company. Parsons said that current shareholders should not be concerned about any dilution caused by the proposed offering.

The exact terms of the offering, which will be made only by a final prospectus, have not yet been disclosed. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and D.A. Davidson & Co. will underwrite the deal. The number of shares to be included in the proposed offering and the expected price range of the shares were not included in the filing, and will be determined later. The final decision to proceed with the deal, Parsons said, will depend on market conditions and regulatory approval.

Pierson Clair, head of Tacoma’s Brown & Haley, returned a few days ago from a 23-day journey – he dubs it a “family adventure” – to China with his wife, daughter, son and father-in-law.

“We’ve all seen the National Geographic pictures,” he said over lunch today. “The great cities, the Yangtze, the terra cotta soldiers, the Forbidden City. They’re all bigger, more spectacular. They’re more grand than I’d imagined.”

And yes, Clair brought along some Roca. Brown & Haley’s Chinese sales are going up by 20 percent a year, so there was a goodly amount of the confection for sale in Hong Kong. Still, some people on the mainland had never tried it. When they did, Clair said, he sensed “delight. It just fits in to their vision of food.”

Clair also found a few new tastes for himself in the world of Chinese candy. “There were some nut rolls, sesame, cashew, almond, honey – that were new to me," he said. "I also had a peanut-butter chew with honey that was very refreshing.”

Workers at the Tacoma Macy's stores agreed on a labor contract with the retailer last month, ending a year-long disagreement about health care costs and credit applications.

Blaine Sherfinski, secretary/treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 367, said a majority of the union's 300 members agreed in June to a cost-of-living wage increase each year during the three-year contract. They also agreed to a stipend to offset an increase in health insurance premiums.

One major sticking point during negotiations was the number of credit card applications workers were required to get.

Macy's proposed requiring that Tacoma employees solicit one credit card application for every 30 hours of work.

"We were able to get some slight modifications that our membership felt were achievable," Sherfinski said.

Employees will get credit for soliciting an application even if the application is denied. Previously, applications that didn't result in a credit account weren't counted in the average.

Representatives from Macy's could not be reached by phone this afternoon.

"We strongly encourage our friends in the community to return to Macy’s," Sherfinski said.

The union had discouraged consumers from shopping at the store until workers had a new contract and were picketing on street corners near the mall.

The previous labor contract expired in May, 2006.

Seattle's Museum of flight, the nation's largest private air and space museum, has been named an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

That new affiliation, effective today, will allow the two museums to share artifacts and collaborate on projects and research.

The Smithosonian's National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the nation's finest collection of significant aerospace artifacts.

Although the Smithsonian opened a huge new air and space wing at Washington's Dulles Airport in recent years, many of its aerospace museum pieces remain in storage.

Pat Zachwieja had been on the payroll at Alaska Air Group just two weeks when Denver-based Frontier Airlines announced today it had named him as vice president of market planning.

Zachwieja had been Horizon Air's vice president of marketing and planning for several years before a consolidation of flight and market planning moved him to Alaska July 1.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are both owned by Alaska Air Group. The holding company decided to consolidate planning activities into a single office earlier this year because the two airlines work closely together to coordinate their schedules to match capacity to demand in markets the two airlines serve.

Zachwieja is familiar with Frontier because Horizon until recently provided regional airline services to Frontier under the Frontier Jet Express brand.

After years of political and legal wrangling and extensive site preparation, contractors were scheduled today to begin paving Sea-Tac Airport's third runway.

That's before the rains came. Sea-Tac officials say they will reschedule the paving ceremony until drier weather.

The billion-dollar-plus project is scheduled to open sometime in the second half of 2008.

The runway had encountered strong opposition from a coalition of near-airport cities as well as neighborhood groups.

In order to build a base on which the runway can be laid, the Port of Seattle, Sea-Tac's owner, spent more than two years filling a deep gulch west of the current runways. The Port cleared homes from the area, restored streams and replanted native vegetation.

The third runway, 8,500 feet long, is designed to give the airport more capacity during foul weather. The two existing runways are too close to allow simultaneous operations when visibility is bad.

The new runway is still too close to allow full simultaneous operations in bad weather, but it will allow air traffic controllers to stagger landings and takeoffs close together to allow more aircraft to use the airport when the visibility is poor.

An Oklahoma-based company, Syntoleum, has partnered with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods on an experimental process to turn waste grease and fat from beef and chicken processing plants into jet fuel.

The Department of Defense says it will test the fuel for use in one of its jets.

Syntoleum is the same company that produced synthetic fuel from natural gas that was burned in an Air Force B-52 bomber.

The Defense Department is looking for alternate energy sources for its huge fleet of aircraft. The U.S. imports about 56 percent of the fuel that is used to power aircraft.

I was on my way to the Lakewood Town Center at 7 p.m. last night and saw long lines inside and outside the new Church's Chicken restaurant on Bridgeport Way. Customers were crowded into the small restaurant and cars were jammed into the parking lot.

The new chicken store - famous for its sides including fried okra and jalapeno peppers - opened recently.

Cars were still lined up in the turn lane going east on Bridgeport Way two hours later.

Has anyone eaten there? What's the big deal?

=> Read more!

Tacoma’s William Factory Small Business Incubator has joined with the Montpellier Agglomeration Business Innovation Center of Montpellier, France.

The two incubators signed an economic cooperative agreement earlier this month, when Factory assistant executive director Colleen Hall Barta visited Montpelier.

Documents were signed by Hall Barta and by Montpellier Region President George Freche and Vice President Gilbert Pastor.

The agreement outlines a plan to coordinate efforts between entrepreneurs from both programs. Selection of the technology start-up companies from Factory and the Montpellier BIC will begin immediately, with exchange visits expected in the next four months.

Hall Barta said the benefits for the Montpellier region and the Tacoma-Pierce County area will include an increased global business presence and an opportunity for local hiring.

This is the first international agreement to be signed by the William Factory program.

Electronic Data Systems Corp. will lay off 147 workers in Federal Way effected Aug. 24.

Accomplishing the layoffs is expected to take about four months, said a company spokeswoman.

Plano, Texas-based EDS is an IT outsourcing company.
EDS said the layoffs are necessary because an unnamed client divided work that formerly was outsourced to EDS among four companies.

EDS told the Employment Security Department last week that the layoffs were expected to be permanent.

Zumiez is now open in its new location, near Century Theatres at The Commons in Federal Way.

The 2,400-square-foot location displays the latest Zumiez concept that targets the Gen Y consumer, according to the mall. The store sells clothing and accessories "rooted in the action sports lifestyle."

Book retailers all over the United States aren't saying where the stacks of the newest Harry Potter books are stored.

Amazon.com held a media day today at an undisclosed fulfillment center showing workers gearing up to prepare hundreds of thousands of copies of the highly-anticipated "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" for delivery starting July 21 - the same day the book is released. Media reports this afternoon say the books are in Fernley, Nev.

Reuters reports that Barnes & Noble also is trying to keep the location a secret saying only that the books are at a warehouse somewhere in the northeastern United States.

With its ending wrapped in secrecy and high security surrounding its distribution, the book will go on sale around the world at midnight on Friday.

The Boeing Co. has agreed to pay over $1 million to settle claims that it overbilled the federal government for materials it sued to retrofit new engines on Air Force KC-135 tankers.

The government alleged Boeing improperly billed it for fasteners, nuts, bolts and rivets used in the project to update the decades-old aerial tankers. Those parts were supposed to be included in Boeing's bid price for the tanker modernization, but Boeing billed those costs at separate items.

According to the terms of the agreement, Boeing will pay $1,093,236 for overbilled items plus interest.

If you weren't among the 15,000 who watched Boeing's newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner, make its debut appearance on July 8, you've a got a chance to see the re-run on your own 60-inch plasma.

Click! Cable TV is offering Tacoma-area subscribers a chance to see the one-hour-long program free on video-on-demand. The program, which was broadcast on satellite systems around the world, will be available for viewing through Aug. 10 on Click!

It may be the end of that time-honored in-flight tradition, the flight attendant's search for change.

Alaska Airlines announced today it will roll out in-flight credit and debit card capabilities on 22 of its transcontinental flights.

The airline has been testing an on-board credit and debit card transaction device for about a year now on select flights. It has decided to adopt that technology first with the transcontinental flights and then with all of its flights.

The airline offers free soft drinks but sells alcoholic and energy drinks as well as in-flight meals and snacks on longer flights and rents portable movie players.

Those in-air sales have made flight attendants into virtual banks with increasing demand for change and a bigger responsibility for accounting for cash.

The airline expects the electronic transaction availability may increase sales from passengers who want to buy something but are temporarily short of cash.

An established Hong Kong carrier, Cathay Pacific Airlines, and an upstart, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, are battling for business in the Vancouver-Hong Kong market.

The battle is benefitting travelers, not only from Canada but also from the Pacific Northwest who can fly or drive to Vancouver and still save big dollars over U.S. Hong Kong flights.

Oasis Hong Kong offers fares as low as $598 roundtrip from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Cathay, with a larger customer base and membership in frequent flier programs, has countered with a $698 fare roundtrip.

Those fares are roughly half the ordinary roundtrip from North America to Hong Kong.

The fact that the fares exist doesn't mean they're still available on all or many flights. I checked recently for some August roundtrips and found the cheapest fares at about $756 U.S. That's still about half of the $1,400 fares I was seeing from the U.S. And most of those flights required stops or plane changes.

Best bet to get the low fares is to go to either the Web sites of the airlines themselves or to a site such as Kayak.com that aggregates prices from many sites.

Friday was about as busy as busy ever gets down at Tacoma's Freighthouse Square - or make that the New Freighthouse Square, as (new since November) managing partner Larry Miller likes to call it.

The food court – with several new eateries – was SRO, with parents and kids having a bite before walking up to the Dinosaur Spectacle at the Dome.

Not quite as historic as stegosauruses, but once thought extinct - there's also a great new shop downstairs where folks (and they come in all ages) can play slot cars.

Slot cars! Who would have thought it? They're back and they're fast and Tacoma's got 'em.

There's also a new outlet dedicated to Legos.

More later.

If you’re a small business owner interested in the whens, whats and hows of you relationship with the Internal Revenue Service, then set aside a few minutes of your Wednesdays.

The IRS is offering a weekly newsletter directed specifically at small businesses. The free service presents, among its briefs, notes and articles, such things as important tax dates, reminders and tips concerning compliance, and news releases and announcements.

A recent issue reported on tax estimates, deadline extensions, tips for choosing a preparer, and state tax obligations.

To subscribe, visit www.irs.gov/businesses/small/content/0,,id=154826,00.html

You may see green coniferous trees in the lobby at Sea-Tac Airport next holiday season, but be assured they won't be Christmas trees.

The Port of Seattle's Holiday Decorations Advisory Committee has recommended that specific religious symbols whether they be Christmas trees, menorahs or other symbols not be displayed in the airport this year.

The recommendation follows a flap last year that resulted in the airport removing nine Christmas trees from public areas at the airport after a rabbi asked that a menorah get equal treatment.

The rabbi had threatened to sue the airport's owner, the Port of Seattle, if his request was denied.

The 12-member committee, which included representatives from various cultures and religions, said erecting trees might be acceptable as long as they weren't decorated with anything that could be considered religious.

Boeing sold another of its new 747-8 Intercontinentals this week, not to an airline but to an individual, corporation or government to be used as personal transportation.

The 747-8 is the latest version of the 747. It's equipped with the same engines as the super-efficient 787, a new wing and a stretched body.

Dubbed the 747-8 VIP, the personal 747 contains more square footage than most of our homes.

"With more than 5,000 square feet of cabin space, the new 747-8 VIP jet epitomizes incomparable luxury and operational flexibility," said Steven Hill, president of Boeing Business Jets. "The 747-8 VIP builds on the proud legacy of the 747 and incorporates the advanced technology of the 787 Dreamliner. It is a proven design with the operational flexibility to fly into most airports throughout the world."

The VIP version of the 747-8 Intercontinental provides a cabin with 444.6 square meters (4,786 square feet). The new SkyLoft area, which is located above the main cabin between the upper deck and tail of the 747-8 VIP, provides a potential of 81.8 additional square meters (881 square feet) of cabin space and gives owners the opportunity to create unique personal suites, private offices and recreational spaces, Boeing said.

List prices for the new 747-8 range from $285.5 million to $300 million. Four 747-8 VIPS are on order. Worldwide, 22 747s are in use as VIP transports.

To date, Boeing has recorded orders for 87 747-8s.

With news today that Chile's LAN Airlines will acquire 26 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Boeing's 787 orderbooks topped 700 still more than a month before the Dreamliner makes its first flight.

LAN said it would also lease six additional 787s and acquire purchase options for 10 more Dreamliners. The first of the 787s will join LAN's fleet in 2011.

The order, valued at $3.2 billion, is the largest in the airline's history. LAN has been one of Boeing's better 767 customers having ordered several in recent years. The airline, however, has also ordered Airbus aircraft including A320 models for use within South America.

Boeing has sold more Dreamliners prior to the plane's entry into commercial service than any jetliner in history. When the first 787 debuted Sunday in Everett, Boeing had recorded 677 orders for the new plane.

If you live in a smaller community with limited air service, you know just how expensive traveling by air can be.

Oftentimes, the fare from Walla Walla to Seattle can be more than the flight from Seattle to Orlando.

Horizon Air today took a step toward reducing that disparity, cutting fares between major cities and smaller communities throughout the Northwest.

Advance purchase fares from Yakima or Wenatchee to Seattle, for instance, are as little as $49 each way. From Seattle to Victoria, B.C., the fare with a 14-day advanced purchase is now $59, and new fares between Seattle or Portland and Pasco are as little as $69.

=> Read more!

The City of Tacoma erred in ruling that the application of investors to convert a Northeast Tacoma golf course into an 860-home housing development was incomplete, a hearing examiner ruled today.

That examiner's ruling opened the door for the city's planning department to resume processing Northshore Investors LLC's request to convert the Northshore Golf course into a planned residential development.

But City spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said the city will appeal the examiner's ruling to Pierce County Superior Court.

"The city believes that the original staff determination that the application was incomplete was correct," he said.

Had the examiner ruled that the developer's application was incomplete, the developer would have had to complete the application. That modified application would have been subject to stricter development rules the City Council adopted this week.

The city imposed a six-month moratorium on planned developments the day after plans were submitted for the Point at Northshore. The city contended that because the application was incomplete, the moratorium applied to the Point application.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna and Scott Jarvis, Director of the Department of Financial Institutions, announced today that more than 12,000 Washington residents are eligible for an estimated $9.1 million in restitution from Ameriquest Mortgage Company and its related companies.

The money comes from last year’s $325 million national settlement, in which states alleged widespread fraud by Ameriquest as part of a high-pressure scheme to sell mortgages that trapped consumers into debt and put them at risk of losing their homes.

Letters and claim forms were sent to eligible Washington consumers this week. To receive restitution, consumers must mail their completed, signed form to the settlement administrator by Sept. 10, 2007.

=> Read more!

Washington employees in 2006 earned more than 5 percent more than they did in 2005, according to a new report released by the state Employment Security Department.

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report shows that annual wages across the state averaged $42,881 in 2006, up 5.3 percent from 2005’s average of $40,705. By comparison, the inflation rate for 2006 was 3.7 percent, based on the Seattle-area consumer price index.

The industry that generated the highest 2006 wages in Washington was information services ($91,098), which includes publishing, broadcasting, Internet services and telecommunications.

Other top-paying industries included management of companies and enterprises ($85,033) and utilities ($70,404).

Rankings remained relatively consistent in the bottom-paying industries in 2006: accommodation and food services ($15,468); agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting ($22,218); and other services ($22,991).

King County posted the highest average annual wage in both 2006 ($53,542) and 2005 ($50,143). In 2006, Snohomish County posted the second-highest average ($42,906), with Benton County a close third at $42,140. Clark and Thurston counties ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in 2006. The next five counties in order of average annual wage were Kitsap, Pierce, Cowlitz, Pend Oreille and Spokane.

The 10 counties with the lowest average annual wages in 2006 were Okanogan, Douglas, Pacific, Wahkiakum, San Juan, Skamania, Adams, Lincoln, Asotin and Grant.

The Pacific Northwest (including British Columbia) has walked away with some significant kudos in Travel & Leisure Magazine's recent World's Best Awards contest.

For example:

In the top hotels in the continental U.S. and Canada category, Gold Beach, Ore.'s Tu Tu' Lodge was rated number one. The Willows Lodge in Woodville, took home the number 12 spot, and Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore., was rated 19th.

Other top 100 finishers in the Northwest: Wickanish Inn, Tofino, B.C., 21; Four Seasons Resort, Whistler, B.C., 24; Salish Lodge & Spa, Snoqualmie, 31; Sooke Harbour House, Sooke, B.C., 32; Wedgewood Hotel and Spa, Vancouver, B.C., 92, and the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, 100.

In the top islands category in the continental U.S. and Canada, two of the five islands, Vancouver Island, No. 1; and San Juan Islands,No.4, were in the NOrthwest.

Of the magazine's top 10 U.S. and Canadian cities, three were Pacific Northwest cities: Vancouver, B.C., No. 7; Victoria, B.C., No. 9 and Seattle, No. 10. The magazine named New York No. 1.

=> Read more!

Chang Mook Sohn, Director of the State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, said in his regular monthly report today that revenues taken in between June 11 and July 10 “were again better than expected.”

Collections this month were $57.8 million – or 4.8 percent – higher than the estimate.

“All major taxes with the exception of the cigarette tax were above the estimate for the month,” he said. Higher than expected Revenue Act – sales, business and occupation, use and public utility taxes – receipts were up $42.8 million from the estimate, while and real estate excise tax payments – up $9.1 million – accounted for the majority of this month’s variance.

“Another month of strong collections again verifies the strength of the Washington economy,” Sohn said. “Relatively strong employment and income growth, led by rapid growth in the aerospace and software sectors, continue to trump a weak real estate market and high energy prices. Spending continues to outpace income growth.”

Boeing stock was trading at over $100 a share this morning, the fourth day this year that Boeing will likely close over the century mark.

The buying activity is yet another tribute to the plane that rolled out Sunday, the 787 Dreamliner, and the people who conceived and built it.

The 787 and other Boeing products that have sold well recently have provided stockholders an E ticket ride for the last several years.

Consider the closing prices for Boeing on July 10 or the trading day closest to July 10 for the last several years:

July 10, 2007 - $100.25
July 10, 2006 - $80.35
July 11, 2005 - $69.97
July 9, 2004 - $50.04
July 10, 2003 - $34.69

Had you bought Boeing just four years ago and sold it Tuesday, you would have enjoyed a 189 percent gain ($65.56 a share) on your investment.

And this from a company that some considered fatally wounded after 9-11.

We see the corporate headquarters everyday but somebody else thinks Washington is as good at providing a home for business as the rest of us.

The state gets top marks in Forbes.com's second annual Top States for Business.

Here's what the story says:

Washington is the biggest mover (tied with Tennessee), rising from 12th to fifth place, Washington is also the only state to finish in the top five in three main categories (labor, regulatory environment and growth). And Washington's numbers are up across the board when you look both backward and at projections into the future.

Sleighbells ring, are you listening?

Tomorrow you can watch. On what is expected to be the hottest day of the year, Tacoma’s Click! Network will begin broadcasting 24 hours of photographs showing Pierce County as a winter wonderland.

The photographs, from last winter’s storm (remember what winter is? It’s the one where the air is cold, and something called “snow” falls from the sky while ice actually forms on roadways) will be accompanied by holiday music, said Mitch Robinson, Click! marketing and business operations manager

To view the coolness, customers can tune to “Click! 1” – channel 1 for those with cable receivers or channel 117 for those without a receiver.

“We hope everyone does their best to stay cool and safe in the midst of this heat wave,” Robinson said.

The photos are courtesy of Tacoma resident Kevin Freitas, who blogs his commentary and photographs of Tacoma along with others at www.feedtacoma.com.

Faith Dairy, a major milk producer in Pierce County for more than 40 years, will close this weekend.

The dairy – with 30 acres near its retail center at East 72nd Street and 180 acres near Roy – milked a herd of 400 cows and sold both fluid milk products and a well respected ice cream.

The dairy was a victim of changing times said owner Sid Mensonides earlier today.

“We’re faced with a decision. To make it a really viable business, we’d have to make some significant investments. Right now we’re focusing on shutting it down and selling the cows, and letting people know,” he said.

Faith Dairy employs 22 people. Mensonides said some will retire while others are finding new positions. He was not sure what will become of the land, although he has met with one possible buyer.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is in Mexico City today on a trade mission aimed at promoting Washington products such as apples, cherries, wine and beef.

Today Gregoire visited a Costco and a Starbucks, according to the state's Community, Trade and Economic Development department.

Gregoire met the president of the coffee growers’ co-op from Chiapas, which supplies export coffee to Starbucks.

CTED reports that she also visited the local wine shop Vinoteca to highlight Washington wines. Vinoteca is one of Mexico’s leading importers and distributors of wines and spirits with operations in more than 10 cities.

I asked CTED a few weeks ago if any Pierce County people were on the Mexico mission.

Susan Webb, the department's spokeswoman, said representatives from Weyerhaeuser and Tacoma Community College were part of the Washington delegation.

Here's a link to the Governor's Web site for daily updates of her trip.

This afternoon, she'll be at a french fry promotion, where chefs will undoubtedly use WA-tatoes.

China Southern Airlines confirmed today it had ordered a total of 45 new aircraft, 20 from Airbus and 25 from Boeing.

The 20 Airbus A320s will go to China Southern itself and the 25 Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be delivered to Xiamen Airlines, in which China Southern holds a 60 percent ownership.

The Airbus planes will be delivered beginning in March 2009, and the Boeing aircraft will be delivered beginning in July 2011.

The total deal at list prices is worth about $3.7 billion. Airlines commonly negotiate substantial discounts, however, for larger orders.

Sea-Tac Airport this week celebrated the debut of new non-stop service to Mexico City on AeroMexico.

Aeromexico is latest of several foreign airlines that have put Sea-Tac on their route maps this year.

AeroMexico service, via a Boeing 737-700 will leave Seattle-Tacoma International Airport daily at 8:30 a.m. and arrive in Mexico City at 3:40 p.m. That same flight continues on to Guadalajara with arrival in Mexico's second largest city at 6:10 p.m.

AeroMexico's new service is the first service by a Mexican carrier to Sea-Tac in more than a decade. Mexicana Airlines foremrly served Sea-Tac but abandoned the route in the '90s.

The only other non-stop flights to Mexico from Sea-Tac are provided by Alaska Airlines, which flies from here to Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Cancun and Mazatlan non-stop, though some of that service is seasonal.

Alaska serves both Mexico City and Guadalajara from Sea-Tac, but with a stop in Los Angeles.

East Pierce County reporter Eijiro Kawada posted this on our news updates today:

The Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce has appointed its new executive director.

Sally Zeiger Hanson most recently was the assistant director of education services at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. In that role, she provided leadership to the state’s 34 colleges on a variety of economic development initiatives, and was the state director of the Running Start program.

Zeiger Hanson holds a bachelor’s degree in international public relations from the University of Washington, and a master’s degree in education in student development administration from Seattle University.

A lifelong resident of the area, she currently writes a monthly article for The Herald newspaper and serves on the Valley Arts United board. She will begin her new position August 13.

SeaTac-based Horizon Air plans to increase both the number of flights and capacity to several markets on the West Coast and in the Northwest beginning this fall, the airline announced today.

From Seattle, Horizon will add three daily Bombardier Q400 flights to Eugene, Ore. beginning Sept. 9. Those three flights will replace four daily Q200 flights to Eugene. The Q400 carries 76 passengers. The Q200 carries 37 passengers.

Between Pasco and Seattle, Horizon will replace one Q200 flight with a Q400 flight daily. That means a total of seven daily flights, three Q400s and four Q200s, between the two cities. That new flight also begins Sept. 9.

From Wenatchee to Seattle beginning Sept. 9, the airline will add a fifth daily Q200 flight.

From Redmond/Bend, Ore., the airline will replace two Q200 flights with two Q400 flights beginning Sept. 23. That translates to a 40 percent increase in capacity.

The airline will also add a third daily flight from Santa Rosa, Calif., to Los Angeles. The new flight will also connect Santa Rosa with Portland for the first time.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters and Chinese Minister of Civil Aviation Yang Yuanyuan today signed an agreement that will open the doors to new tourist, business and aviation trade with China.

The new pact will increase the number of non-stop flights by U.S. carriers between the two countries by 13 daily flights over the next six years.

The agreement will allow one additional daily flight in 2007 and one more in 2008. Four daily flights will be added in 2009, and three new daily flights in 201 and two each in 2011 and 2012.

The federal Department of Transportation has said it wants to award the first new route this year to a major carrier without any existing routes to China. That limits the contestants to Delta Air Lines and US Airways.

Delta says it wants to fly from its Atlanta hub to Shanghai. US Airways says it's interested in adding China to it route map but not until 2009.

Sea-Tac is unlikely to profit from the opening of new opportunities to serve China until later in the decade after the major hubs have non-stop flights to China.

Kia cars at the Port of Olympia. Photo taken by The Olympian.

An overload of Kia cars at the Port of Tacoma means new business for the Port of Olympia.

A shipload of almost 4,000 Kias arrived Sunday in the South Sound port, where 140 longshore workers unloaded the cars, according to information from the Port of Olympia.

The cars are manufactured in South Korea and are typically unloaded in Tacoma. Due to increased production of the cars, Tacoma was unable to handle the shipment.

The cars will be stored at the Port of Olympia's marine terminal prior to being transported to Auto Warehousing in Tacoma where they will be processed for distribution to dealerships.

In the wake of the good feelings generated by Sunday's debut of Boeing's new 787, two airlines are reportedly adding more orders to the Dreamliner's backlog.

The International Herald Tribune reports a Boeing sales executive confirming that Qatar Airlines, long rumored to be the 787's newest customer, does indeed have orders on the books.

But Qatar itself has yet to confirm those orders, and its chairman is notorious for changing his mind even after orders seem solid.

Aviation analysts put Qatar's order at 30 aircraft, which are already posted on the Boeing order site from an unidentified customer.

Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic Airways has told a British newspaper it intends to exercise its option for eight more of the ecologically friendly jets.

Virgin has already ordered 15.

Boeing, as part of it 787 premiere celebration, assembled a line-up of examples of all its major 7-series jetliners Saturday night at Boeing Field.

The occasion was a dinner for 787 customers being held at the museum.

Boeing had assembled the collection of jets at its factory at Everett's Paine Field and then flew them to Boeing Field where they each made a low pass at the field and then landed in front of the assembled customers.

The first to land was an Omega Air 707, which touched down at exactly 7:07 p.m.

When all aircraft had landed, they lined up, nose-to-tail, in front of the museum.

The group included the 707, an AirTran 717, a FedEx 727, an Alaska Airlines 737-800, a Rolls-Royce test bed 747 with a protype 787 engine slung under its wing, a Continental Airlines, 757-300, a Delta Air Lines 767, and a yet-to-be delivered Air France 777-300ER.

The line-up may have been an unprecendented gathering. Aviation experts say they can't recall a similar gathering of an example of all of Boeing's jet transport aircraft in one place.

Boeing notched up 35 new orders for its hot-selling 787 Dreamliner today, the day of the first 787's debut.

Air Berlin, which four years ago defected to Airbus for a major order, became Europe's largest 787 customer today with an order for 25. The airline also secured 10 options and purchase rights for 15 more of the super-efficient twin-aisle planes.

The low-fare carrier has an eye on longer-haul flights to Asia and the U.S. from Europe with the Dreamliner.

In the Mideast, ALAFCO Aviation Lease & Finance of Kuwait placed an order for 10 787s. The order was meaningful for Boeing because the Mideast has been among Airbus' strongest regions.

The new orders raise the Dreamliner's orderbook total to 677 firm orders, more than any other jet based on orders before commercial service.

The first Dreamliner rolls out in Everett this afternoon at 3:30. The first flight is set for September with first commercial delivery to All Nippon Airways set for next May.

There are few things in life you can safely purchase from people who come to your door: Girl Scout cookies, magazines, Mary Kay products, the occasional Bible.

Asphalt, however, is not one of them.

The Attorney General's Office today warned homeowners of con artists claiming to repair your driveway.

The scammers have been reported in communities around the state, including recently in Tacoma. Here how it works:

The cons approach the homeowner or business and offer to repave a driveway or parking lot. They offer a low price and say they have just enough asphalt leftover from another job nearby.

To further convince you they are upstanding pavers, they drive nice trucks and are very polite.

But don't fall for their tricks, said Attorney General Rob McKenna.

“They may offer great deals, a lifetime guarantee – whatever it takes to get your money – but often the quality of the material used and its application are inferior," he said.

=> Read more!

The LeMay Automobile Museum board of directors has appointed Candida Romanelli to its steering committee.

Romanelli has served since 1992 as show director for the New York International Automobile Show and vice president of the Greater New York Auto Dealers Association.

“As the custodians of North America’s oldest auto show we understand how important it is to preserve our industry’s glorious past as we celebrate the future," Romanelli said. "Setting the LeMay Museum’s amazing classic and vintage collection in a state-of-the-art facility is inspired and we know that when it is completed it will excite and educate automobile enthusiasts the world over."

David Madeira, LeMay president and CEO, said Candida "is a dynamic individual who really understands marketing and promotion. Her expertise, energy and connections with both the automotive media and industry will bring great benefit to our efforts.”

Romanelli also serves as vice president and member of the board of managers of the East Side House Settlement, a New York non-profit organization. She is also a founding member, past president and current advisor to the Women’s Automotive Association International, and a member of the International Motor Press Association, the International Association for Exhibition Managers, the American Society for Association Executives, the Automotive Trade Association Executives and the National Association for Consumer Shows.

Romanelli lives in Roslyn Heights, in Nassau County, New York.

Add Burger King to the list of restaurants offering healthier fried food.

The fast-food chain said today it will use trans-fat-free cooking oil at all its U.S. restaurants by the end of next year, according to The Associated Press.

The world’s second largest hamburger chain said it was already using zero trans-fat oil in hundreds of its more than 7,100 U.S. restaurants nationwide.

Burger King is known for its flame-broiled burgers, but uses cooking oil for its french fries and most of its chicken products.

In tests, consumers determined that more than a dozen items cooked in the new oil, such as french fries and hash browns, tasted the same or better than products cooked in the trans-fat oil, the company said.

The state Department of Labor and Industries today issued an advisory aimed at consumers planning to hire a contractor for home improvements.

Among the suggestions:
• The state issues more than 1,000 citations annually against unregistered contractors. Fifty thousand contractors are registered with L&I, which means they have met state insurance and bond requirements. Contractors must be registered with the state in order to work legally. Check to see if yours is on the list at contractors.lni.wa.gov or by calling L&I’s toll-free contractor-registration line, 800-647-0982.
• Interview several qualified contractors and solicit written bids.
• Ask the contractor to show identification and their L&I contractor-registration card.
• Review all aspects of the bid, not just the price. Materials, time frames, cleanup practices, required deposits and references are also important.
• Ask for references on similar projects and go look at the finished product. Also, visit a project in progress to see how the contractor operates. Is the site clean, do they communicate with the homeowner and follow up in writing with changes?
• Be wary of contractors who ask you to buy the building permit. Property owners can purchase a permit for work they personally do on their own property, but only a registered contractor can buy a permit for work on someone else’s property. Also, make sure that all inspections required under the permit are conducted.
• Be wary of a contractor who asks for a large deposit or the entire cost upfront. Ten to 15 percent of the bid price is normally sufficient. Before work begins, ask the contractor for the required disclosure statement, called “Notice to Customers,” if your project is valued at more than $1,000. This statement provides you with information about your rights and responsibilities.
• Withhold 15-20 percent of the project cost until you are fully satisfied with the finished product.
• Put all change orders in writing and include the additional cost. Ask questions as work progresses. If you don’t like an answer or don't understand it, stop the work until you do.
• To report an unregistered contractor, call the L&I toll-free fraud hotline at 888-811-5974.

Boeing Co. is having a good year. The aerospace company said Thursday it delivered 114 commercial airplanes in the second quarter, its highest total since 2001.

The deliveries ran the aerospace company’s total through the first half of the year to 220, leaving it on target to reach its full-year estimate of 440 to 445, The Associated Press reported.

Boeing’s deliveries for the quarter included 86 737s, 21 777s, four 747s and three 767s.

Goldmans Sachs Infrastructure Partners has made a significant investment in Carrix, Inc. – the parent company of SSA Marine.

You may recognize SSA Marine as the Seattle marine cargo handling company that teamed up with the Puyullup Tribe of Indians to build a container terminal on the east side of the Blair Waterway.

Until now, Carrix was wholly owned by the Smith/Hemingway family. In fact, Jon Hemingway is the company's CEO.

The family will still retain controlling interest in the company. But Goldman Sachs is now the only other shareholder.

Goldman Sachs is a very large, very old investment banking firm. Founded in 2006, Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners seeks investments in transportation infrastructure such as toll roads, airports and ports. It already has $6.5 billion of capital committed.

Bob Watters, SSA Marine vice president, said today that deal is a "huge step" for the company and it will allow SSA Marine do even more projects.

He declined to say what percentage of shares Goldman bought – or their value.

As for SSA Marine's plans in Tacoma, Watters said the company is "moving ahead with that project as quickly as we can."

Washington Federal Inc. and First Mutual Bancshares Inc. announced this week that they will merge. After the deal closes, First Mutual will become a part of the parent Washington Federal Savings, and the combined entity will operate 148 offices in eight Western states, with total assets of $11 billion and total deposits of some $6.8 billion.

The merger transaction is valued at approximately $189.8 million.

First Mutual shareholders may elect to receive stock and/or the cash equivalent equal to approximately $27.05 per share – depending on the open-market share price at the time of regulatory approval and the closure of the merger.

The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter.

First Mutual is based in Bellevue and Washington Federal in downtown Seattle. First Mutual shares closed Thursday at $26.01, and Washington Federal shares finished the session at $24.37.

It happens in a grocery store parking lot.

The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers about a new scam first seen in Eastern Washington, and now reported in Covington and Twin Lakes.

Shoppers leaving stores are being approached by an individual claiming that he or she is new to the country, cannot speak English very well, and needs a ride to a lawyer’s office. Once in the car, the scammer explains that he or she has inherited a large sum of money and would like to donate it to a local church or charity.

The victims are offered half of the money if they promise to donate it at a later time. If the victim accepts, the scammer then asks the victim to withdraw money to prove that they don’t intend on stealing the donation. Once the victim withdraws money, the scammers take it and flee.

In late June, two instances of this scam occurred in two King County Safeway parking lots. The scammers seem to be targeting senior citizens.

If you are approached by someone asking for a ride or asking for help to donate money, keep in mind it is most likely a scam. Report the incident to the store manager and to your local police.

The Tacoma office of the Washington State Department of Revenue is hosting a free workshop for new and small business owners on Wednesday, July 18, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Lakewood Library, 6300 Wildaire Rd. SW, in Lakewood.

Participants will learn about Washington excise taxes, reporting classifications, deductions, tax incentives, sales tax collection and record-keeping requirements. All receive a workbook and helpful reference guide to Department of Revenue rules and regulations.

To register, visit the Department of Revenue Web site at www.dor.wa.gov or call 253-593-2722. Space is limited. A complete schedule of workshops statewide, and a short streaming video version of the workshop in English and Spanish are available on the Web site.

Hotel occupancy rates fell slightly in the Tacoma area – and statewide – in May. The number of occupied rooms in Pierce County was down 1.1 percent for the month, to 72.5 percent, according to Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood.

The statewide rate fell 0.5 percent to 75.5 percent. Everett and Snohomish County saw the highest decline, down 10.1 percent over May of 2006.

Although down by 2.4 percent, Downtown Seattle marked the state’s highest occupancy rate, with 81.7 percent of rooms taken in May.

Tacoma’s average daily room rate, $75.94, was up 6 percent over the year. The statewide average rate, $124.96, increased 6.4 percent.

Toray Composites America, the Frederickson outpost of Japan's Toray Industries, is hiring again.

The company is looking for 100 new employees to work in its composite tape manufacturing business. Applicants must be at least high school graduates.

The company is adding on to its Frederickson plant to meet the demand from Boeing for composite tape, the basic ingredient of the new 787 Dreamliner.

The company has grown from 104 employees in 2003 to more than 300 today. The plan is to add the 100 new workers by October.

First Mutual Bank of Bellevue has informed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that counterfeit cashier's checks bearing the institution's name are in circulation.

The counterfeit items display the routing number 325171232, which is assigned to First Mutual Bank, but are dissimilar to authentic official checks. The counterfeit items display "CASHIER'S CHECK" near the top center.

First Mutual Bank issues official checks, rather than cashier's checks. Authentic checks display the routing number 122042205, which is a payable-through account issued by Travelers Express Company, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, and drawn on Preferred Bank, Los Angeles, California.

The genuine items have ornate blue borders on three sides and display the words "OFFICIAL CHECK" inside a green rectangle that is incorporated within the top border. The bank's logo, name, P.O. Box, city, state and zip code appear in the top-left corner. A security feature statement is displayed within the bottom blue border.

More than 3,600 Puget Sound are Boeing engineers and technical workers are currently working on the 787 project design in an effort to get the plane out the door and flying on schedule.

Those numbers came from a database search by the union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, that represents Boeing engineers and technical workers in the Puget Sound area.

Boeing has reportedly loaned engineering talent to its partners to help them overcome production glitches that are slowing the project.

The 787's rollout is due for Sunday, and its first flight sometime in September. Boeing desperately wants to save itself the embarassmemt that it Airbus when its A380 was behind schedule two years.

Boeing acknowledges that its first Dreamliner's major pieces arrived at its Everett plant without some of the wiring and plumbing that its partners were supposed to install before the assemblies left their plants.

Sometimes getting out from behind your desk to exercise can seem like too much work. Still, it's good for you. But then you knew that already.

The American Heart Association's employees think your employer can help you decide to leave your chair.

The organization is is offering recognition to Pierce County employers that have made efforts to create a healthy workplace. They will be recognized as a Start! Fit Friendly Company.

Does your employer encourage you to get out of your chair to take a walk or attend a fitness class?

Nominate your company by Monday, July 30. Application forms and information are available online or by calling (253) 272-7854.

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Gov. Christine Gregoire gave preliminary approval of three Puget Sound shipyards' plan to jointly build four new ferries for the state.

The three shipyards, Seattle's Todd Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma's J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding and Nichols Brothers Ship Yard of Whidbey Island had agreed to get together to build the ferries rather than bid for the jobs themselves.

The governor and the Legislature had urged the three shipyards to find common ground on the ferry project.

The ferry system expects to spend the next several months grinding out the details of the contract. The ferries will carry 1,500 passengers and 144 cars. The state has allocated $344 million to build them.

Workers currently receiving Washington workers’ compensation wage-replacement or pension benefits began reveiving a 5.445 percent cost-of-living increase on Sunday, July 1.

State law requires that benefits be recalculated each year to reflect the change in the state's average wage from the previous calendar year.

Also increasing will be the amount the Department of Labor and Industries pays for a permanent partial disability (PPD). Effective Sunday, PPD awards rose 3.19 percent for workplace injuries incurred July 1 and beyond. PPD awards go to workers who have lost a body part or suffered a permanent, disabling injury.

Under Washington’s workers’ compensation system, injured workers receive from 60 to 75 percent of their income, up to the legally set maximum, tax free, while they are off the job and recovering. The percentage of income is based on their marital status and number of dependents. For workers injured in 2006, the average monthly time-loss paid was about $1,690.

The recalculation of benefits is based on the average annual wage of all workers in Washington. That wage, calculated by the Employment Security Department, rose to $42,584 in 2006, an increase of about 5.4 percent from 2005.

As a result, the new maximum monthly benefit is $4,258.40, or 120 percent of the state’s average monthly wage, for workers injured after June 30, 1996. Only 4 percent of L&I claimants receiving wage-replacement benefits collect the maximum.

The Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract to replace the aging wings on its fleet of A-10 ground attack jets.

Boeing will build the wings and supply them to the Air Force for installation. The contract is reportedly worth about $2 billion.

The contract is scheduled to be completed by September 2018.

The A-10 is a rugged ground attack plane built by Fairchild-Republic in the '70s. The plane is equipped with twin engines mounted on the rear of the fuselage and with twin tails. The redundancy of the tails and engines and their positions makes them less vulnerable to ground fire and masks the engines' infrared signatures from heat-seeking missiles.

The Air Force once considered retiring the A-10 but decided to rebuild it for more service.

Amazon.com Inc. received 1.6 million orders for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” a record for any book that has yet to be released.

Worldwide pre-orders for the seventh and last Harry Potter book, due for release July 21, broke the previous record of 1.5 million set by J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in the series, according to Bloomberg News. Amazon began taking orders for the book Feb. 1.

Customers must place orders by noon Eastern time on July 17 to ensure delivery on its release date, Amazon said today in a statement. Buyers will get a $5 certificate toward a purchase in August.

Airbus, strained by the expense of fixing its problems with the superjumbo A380 and the costs of developing the A350XWB, is talking with potential partners to create a new A320-sized plane.

Aviation Week and Space Technology said the European manufacturer is still far from a firm decision to team with another aerospace company to build a replacement for the popular, single-aisle A320.

Both Airbus and Boeing have been studying the timing for fielding a new-technology replacement for their most popular aircraft, the 737 and the A320.

Both companies have said they're likely to produce replacement planes later rather than sooner because the engine technology needed to make the planes at least 20 percent more efficient is still developing.

The fireworks season is in full swing. Last night on my way home from the Oregon coast, I stopped in at the big Blackjack stand just north of Vancouver. I had seen the sign on the side of the highway for years, and I was curious what the big deal was.

The place was hopping. Dozens of cars were parked in fields around the store, which sold hundreds of explosives including the mortars and Roman Candles that are illegal around here. I've never seen anything like it. The store – about the size of a 7-Eleven – was packed with shoppers filling shopping carts with sparklers, smoke bombs and fountains. A quick survey of shoppers in line found that most people who were there were spending between $75 and $100, with some spending a lot more.

I wanted to take a picture to post but the employees wouldn't allow cellphones or any type of electronics in the building.

Fireworks stands are up around here. Let me know if you have a favorite place to shop for your Fourth of July show.