As of this afternoon Alaska Airlines has found no missing washers or loose bolts on the slats of its fleet of 56 new generation Boeing 737s.

Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said the airline has inspected 36 of its 56-plane fleet of 737s and found nothing amiss.

The Federal Aviation Administration this week ordered airlines operating Next Generation Boeing 737s to visually inspect the bolts holding on the planes' leading edge slats. Those slats are part of the wing that can be extended downward from the front of the wing to change the wing's shape for landing or takeoff.

That inspection order was prompted by the loss of a China Airlines 737 shortly after it landed in Okinawa last week. That plane burst into flames after a loose bolt penetrated a fuel tank. All passengers and crew members escaped.

Alaska expects to finish the inspection of its 737s well before the Sept. 7 deadline.

One more thing to put a smile on your face as you get ready to celebrate the Labor Day weekend - especially if you’ll be driving anywhere.

This morning, the price of a gallon of regular stands at $2.789. Yes, that’s up from yesterday (at $2.77), but it’s considerably lower than a month ago (at $2.902) and a year ago (at $2.901)

It’s way down from the record high of $3.459 recorded last May, and it’s lower than Seattle ($2.807), Spokane ($2.859) and the perennially high Bellingham ($2.865).

So fill up before you go, be safe, and come back refreshed.

Seattle-based Farecast.com has launched a trial version of a new Web feature that not only lists hotel prices and locations, but rates their prices relative to past prices for the same quality of room at that hotel.

If the Farecast feature works correctly (In my brief experience with it, it fails far more than it produces.) the site will indicate relative bargain-priced hotels by highlighting them in red. Likewise it marks over-priced hotels in a dark blue color on a map.

The service is terrific in theory, but because it has a lot of rough edges, it doesn't deliver consistently. The number of cities where "Rate Key" information is offered are limited, and the number of hotels rates evaluated are relatively few. The site says the hotels system is still in beta or public testing stage.

Farecast started its Web site 18 months ago forecasting airline prices based on historical data indicating whether it may pay to wait for a lower price or to grab a bargain now.

I've received a few questions from readers about differing numbers put out by the Port of Tacoma regarding the cost of building shipping terminals on the Blair Waterway.

On July 31, the port placed a Request for Qualifications in the News Tribune soliciting surveying firms for its expansion projects on the waterway.

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

The number I reported today was $812 million for developing of shipping terminals on the Blair Waterway – and sans the land purchases would actually be closer to $690 million.

"What gives?" asked a few astute readers.

Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell, with assistance from the port's engineering department explained.

The $812 million reflects what the port plans to spend and finance in the next decade in terms of developing the Blair Peninsula.

It's primarily related to the new NYK Line terminal, but also includes the development of the old Kaiser site as a third marine terminal, Farrell said.

See today's story for the breakdown.

The $900 million takes an even longer-term look at port development. It doesn't include the cost of land acquisitions.

But it does include a second phase of the NYK terminal - which could be built sometime after 2019. It also includes the potential expansion of the Pierce County Terminal.

"There's some crossover," Farrell said, between what's accounted for in each of the lists.

The number cited in the RFQ is an estimate to give the architects and engineers vying for the jobs a sense of the breadth of the work, Farrell said.

"We are sending a message to the (architect and engineering) community. Bring your A game and make sure you have the right team because this is a large scale project," Farrell said.

China's Xiamen Airlines has ordered 25 next generation 737s from Boeing.

At average list prices, the deal is worth $1.9 billion.

The airline also took options on 10 more 737 aircraft. With the Chinese sale, total sales of 737 aircraft amount to 7,153 since the plane was introduced in the mid-60s.

Horizon Air, the SeaTac-based regional airline, is cutting its prices for flights between Seattle and Portland by up to 50 percent.

The new pricing strategy is part of of Horizon's system-wide repricing plan that it began implementing earlier this year on other routes.

The idea behind the pricing scheme is to cut prices and to make up with volume the revenue it lost by chopping prices.

Now unrestricted prices for a walk-up one-way, fully refundable fare of $99 to $59 each way for advance purchase tickets.

Horizon will operate the flights either with its 76 turboprop Q400 or its 70-seat CRJ 700 jet. The airline operates 31 flights a day on the route.

Husky and Cougar fans will be able to watch football games live this fall on their mobile phones.

Verizon Wireless and MediaFLO USA Inc. have teamed up to bring fans more than 100 games, including 20 bowl matchups.

The schedule includes:

Washington at Syracuse (Aug. 31, ESPN Mobile TV)

Washington State at Wisconsin (Sept. 1, ESPN Mobile TV)

Ohio State at Washington (Sept. 15, ESPN Mobile TV)

The games will air on CBS Mobile, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile and NBC 2Go on V CAST Mobile TV from Verizon Wireless, a service of MediaFLO USA.
Programmers will choose which games to cover based on team performances the previous week.

Read on for a longer list of games.

=> Read more!

Authorities in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan are talking with officials at Sea-Tac-based Horizon Air about establishing air service between the two cities.

Saskatoon, a city of some 207,000 people, wants more air service connections to cities in the Western United States.

The city's only U.S. airline service is now provided by Northwest Airlines, which connects Saskatoon to Minneapolis.

Horizon isn't the only airline hearing Saskatoon's entreaties. The city's airport authority is also talking with Delta, United and Frontier airlines about initiating service.

Horizon is no stranger to Canada. It connects Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Kelowna, Kamloops and Edmondton to Seattle.

Saskatoon is 768 airlines from Seattle, about 100 miles more distant than San Francisco is from the Emerald City.

The pace of work on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner as well as on its 747 and 777 widebodies has created a demand for experienced machinists that Boeing can't fill immediately in the Puget Sound area.

So the company is seeking volunteers from its Wichita, Kan. plant where work is a bit slack now.

The company is proposing to relocate 60 to 80 experienced machinists for one to three months until the crush of activity is under control at its Everett plant.

The company reportedly has been borrowing mechanics from its 747 and 777 assembly lines to do extra work on it 787.

The 787 is running at least a month behind schedule because subcontractors were unable to finish all work on the major pieces of the plane before shipping them to Everett for final assembly.

That means workers there are having to wire and plumb the first planes instead of just snapping the major pieces together as originally planned.

Add 42 more Boeing 737-800s to Boeing's 2007 order tally.

Low-fare carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA ordered that many, worth $3.1 billion at list prices, from Boeing today.

The carrier also took purchase rights for an additional 42 737s. The airline has already put 11 737-800s in its fleet using leased aircraft.

The Oslo-headquartered airline's 737s will all be equipped with optional blended winglets to improve performance and economy.

The Norwegian orders comes at a time when analysts are predicting a shakeout among European low-fare carriers. The continent has literally dozens of low-cost carriers competing for business.

While the low fares have attracted new business, the growth is beginning to slow down.

When Boeing said travelers will prefer direct long-distance flights on smaller planes such as its new 787 rather than connecting through a hub, the company must have had London's Heathrow Airport in mind.

It's been a couple of years since I had transited London's Heathrow Airport, so I hadn't seen firsthand why travelers have been rating it one of the world's worst.

Just this week we connected at Heathrow to and from Spain. We lost our baggage both coming and going. The airline simply shrugged its shoulders and blamed the luggage disconnect on congestion and understaffing at Heathrow, the world's third busiest airport.

As the airport has grown to accommodate an increasing number of passengers and flights, it has grown helter skelter: a new wing here, an addition there. Parts of the terminal were built in the '40s, others in the '90s. There seems to be no logic as to how the terminal grew. If the airport needed 10 more gates, they were added in any available space even it meant putting two dogleg hallways and two changes of elevation into the walk from the central area to the gates.

=> Read more!

Brazil's TAM Airlines today ordered four more Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, taking total orders for the 777 family of aircraft over the 1,000 mark.

With the TAM orders, Boeing now has orders from 1,003 777s since the first order came in 1990.

Boeing has received 100 orders for the 777 in 2007. With the order for four additional 777s, TAM now has eight 777s on order with Boeing.

The order is especially significant for Boeing because TAM had been an all-Airbus airline before the 777 orders.

In today's column, I described some flourishes stolen from over the years from inside the 1916 Elks lodge in downtown Tacoma.

Preservation architect Jeff Ryan found some windows and railings this month in two local antique shops. Ryan provided the following photographs from his files – some he took and some from the Tacoma Public Library's historical records – to help identify some of the missing pieces.

In this 1939 photograph of a dance in the banquet room, you can see the chandelier style and get a peek at part of the exit sign behind the pillar.

One of the exit signs showed up at Sanford & Son Antiques just down Broadway from the Elks Lodge. Ryan took this photograph of it.

=> Read more!

This from The Associated Press:

A union representing about 20,000 grocery and retail workers in the Puget Sound region has overwhelmingly approved a three-year contract, according to results announced late Tuesday night.

The agreement, approved by 92 percent of those voting, covers cashiers, grocery workers and meat department employees at Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer and QFC stores in the region. The contract agreement came earlier this month following five months of negotiations over sticking points including wages, scheduling and sick leave.

The previous contract expired May 5.

The three main companies involved in the negotiations were Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., which owns Fred Meyer and QFC; Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc.; and Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc., which owns Albertsons.

The workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers.

In a statement, the union’s Local 21 said the new contract includes wage increases and better medical benefits, as well as advances in sick leave and family-friendly scheduling

The Associated Press reports that a California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach Wednesday after it tested positive for salmonella.

There were no immediate reports of illness linked to the tainted spinach, distributed by Metz Fresh LLC of King City, Calif.

The recall comes nearly a year after an outbreak of another pathogen, E. coli, in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened another 200, according to The Associated Press.

The recalled spinach was distributed throughout the 48 states and Canada and sold in both retail and food service packages. It covers 8,118 cases of spinach, although the company said more than 90 percent of that was on hold and would not be released.

While only a single sample from one of three packing lines tested positive for salmonella, the company said it moved to recall all the spinach packed that same day as a precaution.

The recall covers 10- and 16-ounce bags, as well as 4-pound cartons and cartons that contain four 2.5-pound bags, with the following tracking codes: 12208114, 12208214 and 12208314.

Consumers with questions can contact Metz Fresh at 831-386-1018.

This is latest in a long line of product recalls – whether toys from China or spinach from California.

I wonder – has it changed the way you shop? Is anyone looking at labels more? Not buying certain products?

Let me know. kelly.kearsley@thenewstribune.com

The Port of Tacoma estimates three new marine terminals on the east side of Blair Waterway and the infrastructure to support them will cost about $812 million over the next decade.

It's a figure that includes the $300 million the port will spend to build a container terminal for NYK Line, as well the cost of moving TOTE up the waterway and building rail yards and roads.

Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell said the port will finance the construction projects through its revenue and bonds.

He also repeated a statement that he and other port officials have said: Your tax rate won't increase to pay for the projects.

UPDATE: This may actually be in Friday's Business section, not Thursday's.

I plan on writing up this story today for Thursday's paper. Check back for details in the projects and how they will be financed.

Warnings for the wary in the wilderness of scams:

1. The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers about the reemergence of counterfeit check scams in the Northwest.

All of the scams follow a similar pattern. Initially, consumers receive a check, sometimes with the logo of a bank or large corporation, explaining that they have won a lottery or prize. The recipient is instructed to deposit the check into their bank account and then wire a portion of that money back to cover fees or taxes.

The checks are counterfeit, and the victim is out the money sent.

So when the checks arrive, verify them at your financial institution. Better yet, tear them up.

2. The Internal Revenue Service has issued a consumer alert regarding a new, two-step e-mail scam that falsely promises recipients they will receive $80 for participating in an online customer satisfaction survey.

In the scam, an unsuspecting taxpayer receives an unsolicited e-mail that appears to come from the IRS. The e-mail contains a URL linking to an online “Member Satisfaction Survey.” The survey requests the name and phone number of the participant and also asks for credit card information.

Actually, the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers through e-mail.

Recipients of questionable e-mail that appears to come from the IRS should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the e-mail. Instead, the e-mail should be forwarded to phishing@irs.gov.

So far, the IRS has received more than 30,000 e-mails from taxpayers reporting almost 400 such phishing incidents. To date, investigations have identified host sites in at least 55 different countries, as well as in the United States.

A co-worker got an e-mail today letting them know that the highly anticipated cupcake shop near the University of Washington Tacoma will open on Friday.

"We invite you to come celebrate with us and enjoy our fresh baked cupcakes," the e-mail said.

The company's Web site lists eight flavors including carrot, orange and coconut.

The store is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The shop is located at 1740 Pacific Ave.

David Graybill, head of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, says it’s another indication of how the Puyallup Tribe of Indians is becoming “a significant economic player” in the region’s growth.

Fife Mayor Mike Kelly ways it’s “good for the economy.”

It’s a new addition to the tribe’s Emerald Queen Casino in Fife, and the construction crane is already up. The tribe expects to pay around $150 million for the two-phase construction, which will bring a pair of parking garages, street improvements, new dining, more gaming and a few hundred new jobs to the casino.

I’m finishing a story for tomorrow’s paper. Expect it on the front page, with a full explanation of the project.

Driving down South 12th Street near Union Avenue on Monday, I noticed that the Forza Coffee shop is about to open. The sign says it will open in six days, though when I went by today there was no number.

The company is expanding around Pierce County. We will be seeing more of these scenes soon.

Anyone know of other coffee chains that are expanding in Pierce County? We'd love to hear about them.

You can buy a lot of things at Nordstrom. Now you can add books to the list.

A copywriter who works for the retailer has written a holiday book that will become the company's theme for the holiday season.

The book, written by Randy Schliep, is called "Once Upon A Holiday: The Moon Fell Out of the Sky." It will sell for $16.95 and will be available for purchase starting in early November.

Here's a synopsis from the company:

It's a story about a little girl named Sophie who has just moved to a new home on the edge of a snowy forest. It’s Christmas Eve and as she drifts off to sleep, she tells the moon her secret Christmas wish. She’s asked Santa for one special gift: a new friend. But when she awakens in the night, she discovers an event that could change the course of Christmas. Now it’s up to a little girl, an ambitious cow, a wise owl and a luminescent moon to save the holiday.

The company will use the book as inspiration for the holiday decorations at stores.

=> Read more!

As if there weren't already too many choices at your local Starbucks – the company announced today that it will add new coffee blends, pastries and promote a cookbook from chef Marcus Samuelsson to lure customers to its stores.

Starbucks will introduce pastries including chocolate cinnamon bread and a carmelized apple-pecan coffee cake.

Starbucks has added books, CDs and other merchandise in an effort to expand sales beyond coffee. The retailer will promote Samuelsson’s cookbook, “Discovery of a Continent: Foods, Flavors and Inspirations from Africa,” and donate $1 for every copy sold to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, with a minimum donation of $50,000.

Maybe you’ve seen that crane rising over Fife. The one next to the Emerald Queen.

The one next to the expanding Emerald Queen.

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is in the process of spending at least $150 million (that’s more than the total cost of the proposed LeMay Museum, and close to the cost of two Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Centers) to increase the parking, gaming and dining areas at their fife facility.

By the end of the year, look for two parking garages beside the current casino and hotel. Eventually, expect a convention center behind the parking garages. And a new traffic light along Pacific Highway. And an extended 59th Street. Plus a high-end steakhouse.

And of course, there will be more slot machines – nearly double the current 760.

I’m working on a story for tomorrow’s Business Section. Check back.

Compared to the rest of the country, far fewer careers require certification in Washington.

That's according to a study from the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for "free minds and free markets." The study ranks states by the number of jobs that require some type of license or credential.

California tops the foundation's list, with 177 jobs requiring some state certification.

Washington ranks second to last, with 53 careers requiring certification.

The Reason Foundation says the licensing requirements state to state are fairly arbitrary.

“You see that clearly when examining neighboring states," said Adam B. Summers, a policy analyst at foundation and author of the report.

"California has 177 job categories licensed. But if you take one step across the state line into Arizona just 72 careers are licensed," he said.

I took a peak Washington's Department of Licensing to see what professions require licensing here.

The list includes the expected engineers and real estate brokers as well as some that I didn't anticipate – camping resort sales people, timeshare sales and professional wrestlers.

=> Read more!

Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience, The Associated Press reports.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to “unlock” the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old laid out on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don’t want AT&T service or can’t get it, particularly overseas.

The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.

In a video post, Hotz demonstrated an iPhone running on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.

The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so it’s unlikely to become a household procedure.

“But that’s the simplest I could make them,” Hotz said in a phone interview. The next step, he said, would be for someone to develop a way to unlock the phone using only software.

Baby carrots sold at Trader Joe’s Co. and other grocers in 12 U.S. states are being recalled after reports of contagion with a pathogen known to cause bloody diarrhea, Bloomberg News reports.

The carrots, infected with Shigella bacteria, came from the Los Angeles Salad Co., a closely held food distributor, according to a company statement distributed today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The packages had “sell-by” date codes up to Aug. 8 and Aug. 16, the company said.

Besides diarrhea, Shigella can cause fever, nausea and vomiting, with infections usually lasting anywhere from 4 to 14 days. People with compromised immune systems, including young children and the elderly, are particularly susceptible to infection, which can be spread from person to person.

Los Angeles Salad, based in City of Industry, California, began the recall after four reports from Aug. 4-6 of illnesses in Canada, the company said. No one was hospitalized and all have recovered.

The recall affects packaged carrots in California, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Florida and Washington.

Comcast came within a whisker of putting its name atop the Tacoma Dome in 2003 before a public backlash to a secretly negotiated deal convinced the Tacoma City Council not to rename the city-owned arena.

Everett, apparently, doesn't have the same civic attachment to its four-year-old Everett Events Center – or should I say, "Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center."

The Everett Public Facilities District announced the naming rights agreement today.

Comcast will pay, on average, $340,000 a year over the 10-year term of the deal. In addition, Comcast will provide more than $400,000 in advertising to promote the Comcast Arena and its events. Comcast already had its corporate moniker on The Comcast Community Ice Rink, located within the arena. That will continue.

=> Read more!

If you’ve eaten at El Gaucho in the last five years – or if perhaps you recall the glory days of Rosellini’s 410 in Seattle – then you’re likely to recognize Jonny Sheard.

He began his career out on a dining room floor after leaving the Coast Guard, and after many years in Seattle he came in as maitre d’ at the Tacoma El Gaucho when it opened.

This week, Jonny moved. He’s taken on the position as general manager at the The Tacoma Club, replacing Chip Venzone. I spoke with Jonny yesterday, and I’ll be transcribing the conversation into a Q&A that’s scheduled to run in Monday’s Business Section. Take a look – he’s got some great stories.

The one piece of news to come out of the interview concerns the club’s policy of allowing non-member, non-guest, general-public customers into the dining room for meals.

No more. From now on, Jonny says, except for private parties it’s members and guests only up on the 16th floor at 1201 Pacific.

Boeing Co. is laying off about 150 employees in a computer network operations unit as it outsources information technology work to Computer Sciences Corp, The Associated Press reports.

The workers, all but about two dozen of them in the Seattle area, received 60-day layoff notices last Friday, Boeing spokesman Cathy Rudolph said.

The affected employees are systems analysts, including administrators and design and integration specialists in Boeing’s Engineering, Operations and Technology division, which has a work force of about 12,300.

El Segundo, Calif.-based CSC took over computer-systems monitoring, support and administration at Boeing’s St. Louis-based defense arm in 2003.

CSC will now handle that work for all of Boeing’s U.S. locations, Rudolph said Thursday.
Some of the affected workers may find other jobs at Boeing, while others could be hired by CSC, Rudolph said.

Attention all you gamers: You can get a replacement part for your Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel.

Microsoft announced today that it has received 50 reports that the video game controllers overheated and released smoke when plugged in.

The $130 steering wheel-shaped controllers mimic the physical sensations of race car driving for games such as “Forza Motorsport 2.”

About 230,000 have been sold to consumers, according to the company.
Microsoft said owners of the controller should stop plugging it in, but said it is safe to use with battery power.

Alaska Airlines reports today that the popular Eskimo image on Alaska Airlines' aircraft will now wear a Hawaiian lei to celebrate the airline's upcoming flights to Hawaii. The lei will appear on 10 of the airline's 114 aircraft.

Alaska Airlines will offer year-round daily flights between Seattle and Honolulu beginning Oct. 12, year-round daily flights between Seattle and Lihue on the island of Kauai starting Oct. 28, and seasonal daily service between
Anchorage and Honolulu beginning Dec. 9.

Some readers may have misunderstood a sentence contained in a story in Wednesday’s Business Section concerning the LeMay Automobile Museum.

A member of the LeMay board of directors has called to say that he's heard from some supporters who believe that the city's land donation totaled $49 million.

The museum has raised $49 million. That figure includes the donation as well as other funds raised. The $49 million represents 79 percent of the museum’s first-stage goal.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Johnny Rockets is opening its first restaurant in Olympia and its seventh in Washington.

The "All-American" diner will be in the Capital Mall, according to information from the restaurant. Veteran Johnny Rockets franchisee Robert Azinian of Cristcat Corporation will operate the new restaurant.

Azinian now operates 18 additional Johnny Rockets in Washington, Southern California and Connecticut.

Officials from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this morning issued their quarterly report of the health of America’s banks.

The Associated Press is reporting that “the impact of the nation’s worsening housing downturn on federally insured banks and savings institutions was evident in all aspects of the FDIC data. ...The increases in noncurrent loans — 90 days or more past due — and set-aside reserves to cover losses were the biggest in 16 years for banks and thrifts.

"Total past-due loans jumped by 10.6 percent, to $6.4 billion, and nearly half the increase came from home mortgage loans. In the largest jump since 1996, 824 financial institutions reported net losses for the quarter, up from 600 a year earlier...

"FDIC officials acknowledged that more details of the housing market stress will show up in results for the current quarter. The occurrence of what they call ‘declining credit quality’ for banks likely will hit with fuller force in the July-September period, they said.”

In Washington, year-to-date net income for all FDIC-insured institutions was $313 million, up from $269 million the year before.
Total assets rose from $41 billion to $49.19 billion. Total deposits were up to $38.2 billion from $31.65 billion.

The percentage of unprofitable institutions rose over the year, however, from 8.97 percent to 13.41 percent. The percentage of institutions with earnings gains fell from 84.62 percent a year ago to 64.63 percent in the second quarter. Non-current loans and leases rose from 0.36 percent of total loans and leases to 0.40 percent.

By their comments and questions, members of the Tacoma City Council seemed agreeable earlier today over proposed changes to the city’s agreement with the LeMay Automobile Museum.

Members at the full-house noontime study session heard museum CEO David Madeira present the latest vision for the LeMay, which includes construction of a “collectors’ car center” and showfield as the first stage of museum construction, with a “pavilion” museum to follow.

City Manager Eric Anderson said after the session that the council would see a resolution concerning the changes in mid-September.

Under the latest plan the city would not be obligated to provide replacement parking nor would it be required to build a $1.6 million plaza as outlined in its original agreement with the museum.

Under the new plan, the museum will be obligated to build a “Class A” facility at a cost of at least $25 million.

For details, read the story in the business section of tomorrow’s News Tribune.

Rising construction costs raised the price tag for a controversial local improvement district proposed for the Broadway/St. Helens district in Tacoma.

That didn't matter to property owners, who saw their projected assessments go up by approximately 33 percent. During a revote conducted this month, enough property owners favored the project to allow it to go forward.

In fact, the LID got more support this time at the higher cost than it did in May when owners thought their share of the project would be substantially lower.

The City of Tacoma wisely conducted the revote after learning that bids for the construction came in higher than expected. The city, for its original poll of property owners, quoted cost estimates made in 2004.

Bill Pugh, assistant city manager and public works director, presented the latest numbers this afternoon to the City Council during its weekly study session.

=> Read more!

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began selling music downloads that lack copyright-protection software at a price lower than that offered by Apple Inc.’s iTunes online store.

Downloads are available from record companies including Universal Music Group and EMI Group Plc for 94 cents a song and $9.22 an album, Wal-Mart said today in a statement.

The downloads work on most digital players, including Apple’s iPod and Microsoft Corp.’s Zune, Wal-Mart said.

Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart’s manager of digital media, said the company is in talks with Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp. as well as other record companies to offer their products in the same unprotected format.

Tacoma's real estate market doesn't offer home buyers a lot of options for affordable homes, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the second quarter of 2007.

The city is No. 172 among U.S. cities for affordability with 23.4 percent of homes in reach of buyers who make the county's median income.

On a nationwide basis, housing affordability remained well below the levels recorded prior to the price acceleration that accompanied the 2004-2005 housing boom, although there was at least some improvement from a year ago, according to the study.

Seattle came in below Tacoma at No. 177 with 21.1 percent of home meeting affordability criteria.

Kokomo, Ind., topped the list with 90.9 percent of homes affordable for buyers with median incomes.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., made the bottom - No. 215 - with just 3 percent.

An update:
If you want to contact Friends of the Port or join the mailing list, e-mail friendsoftheport@gmail.com

A new group aimed at educating the public about the Port of Tacoma has recently formed.

They call themselves Friends of the Port.

"The major purpose is to raise public awareness of the port and its activities and to promote more openness," said Jim Hoard, one of the group's founding members.

Hoard filed earlier this year to run for the open port commission seat, though he later dropped out of the race.

Ronnie Bush, another member of Friends of the Port, said one of the group's first initiatives will be to advocate for televised port commission meetings.

"A foremost issue will likely involve encouraging the port to conduct its business more in the public eye," said Bush, who is a Tacoma campaign manager.

=> Read more!

In light of Wal-Mart’s admittedly disappointing quarterly report, BusinessWeek’s new cover story examines some of the reasons for the retail giant’s recent slips by talking to the people who might know best - Wal-Mart store managers.

Some still work at the company, some have recently left. The running theme is this: Technology and executive decisions from headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., are costing the company sales and customers.

Here are some excerpts from the story:

More and more, Bentonville is calling shots that store managers used to handle. Point-of-sale data are analyzed and crunched at the Arkansas headquarters, spitting out results for what's selling and what's not, what to restock and what to pull from store shelves. Workers' schedules are determined at the home office to keep costs low when possible and to place the maximum number of people in the store at the busiest times of the day. There's even a central 800 number that workers at the 3,500-plus stores must call when they need time off for illness or other emergencies.

Many believe the company's relentless focus on whittling down costs—for products and workers—is beginning to have a negative impact on the overall operation. Others take issue with the command-and-control approach currently in vogue at headquarters. For example, Bentonville uses sophisticated computers to decide when to swap out certain products in stores, but they don't account for the gut instinct of managers on the ground. Mark Fisher, who managed the furniture department at the Wal-Mart in Moberly, Miss., says that can lead to big missteps. He cites the decision to replace a pair of $14.99 bookshelves that was a consistent best seller among college students with a higher-quality pair that cost $39.99. "[They] totally lost that entire segment of students," says Fisher, who worked at Wal-Mart for 11 years

Garland, the manager from East Ellijay, Ga., says when her store started using the point of sale system to automatically order cosmetics, it was a direct hit to cosmetic sales. That's because cosmetics are a frequent target of shoplifters, given their small size. Since stolen cosmetics never show up as sold, they never get replaced on the shelves under the new system, so customers looking to buy end up disappointed.

They won’t quite do to the town what you might expect from Shriners – with those funny hats and clown cars – but they will bring in a passel of people who care about the communities they serve.

The Kiwanis Pacific Northwest District 90th Annual Convention meets in Tacoma this week, starting on the 23rd and running through the 26th.

Expect as many as 3,000 attendees – staying in hotels, visiting museums, eating at Tacoma restaurants and doing whatever it is Kiwanians do.

Actually, they’re known for their good works, from volunteerism to youth outreach. Overall, there are some 8,000 Kiwanis clubs in 96 countries internationally, with more than 260,000 adult members. Kiwanis clubs and members undertake 150,000 service projects each year and contribute more than $107 million and 6.2 million volunteer service hours.

Service problems disabled ATMs and online accounts at Wells Fargo & Co. for at least 24 hours starting Sunday afternoon, leaving some customers of the nation’s fifth-largest bank unable to get cash or use debit cards to pay for goods, The Associated Press reports.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo would not say how many customers or machines were affected but acknowledged that services were down throughout the company - from personal banking Web sites and ATMs to the processing of mortgage and student loans.

“Customers may continue to experience transaction difficulties or delays in our stores, at ATMs and at the point-of-sale ... and processing for some mortgage, home equity, student loans and remittances,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Julia S. Tunis said.

Angry customers complained Monday at many of the bank’s 6,000 branches nationwide. Customers could get cash if they went into a branch and talked to a teller.

Boeing Co. may decide to increase production of its new 787 Dreamliner to 10 per month from seven “in the next few weeks,” Finmeccanica SpA General Manager Giorgio Zappa said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

“I believe it will make this decision in the next few weeks, and we have already started with the pre-project phase of our investment,” Zappa said today in Rimini, Italy.

Finmeccanica, Italy’s largest aerospace and defense company, has agreed to provide seven fuselages a month for the 787 and may increase its production because of the success of the plane.

A big mea culpa from The News Tribune today.

We printed the wrong money rates in Sunday's paper. Readers have noticed. So have banks. I'm working as reader representative today and several people have called.

We are printing the correct money rates in Tuesday's paper.

Anyone out there pilfering restaurant grease to fuel their biodiesel needs? According to this story I spotted in The Cincinnati Enquirer, such thefts are a growing financial and environmental problem.

Here’s an excerpt:

A local company has employed for many years a former Texas Ranger and a former Texas cop to track down criminals stealing a valuable substance - restaurant grease.

Their job has gotten busier.

The rising price of ethanol and increasing popularity of biodiesel fuel have spurred more people to take grease from traps behind restaurants to convert it to biodiesel or sell it on the black market.

The company is an animal rendering and recycling company that renders restaurant grease and either sells it or manufactures it into useful substances, such as biodiesel and animal feed. The company keeps grease containers at many types of restaurants throughout the United States.

Robert Griffin, president/CEO of Griffin Industries, wouldn't say how much grease thefts cost the company, but said the crime is increasing.

"It has grown everywhere," Griffin said. "Many want to convert it to biodiesel. They think it is there for the taking."

Grease thieves will often sneak behind restaurants at night, break the locks on containers and spill grease everywhere, said Findley, who has worked for Griffin Industries for 16 years. Thieves will often make off with 1,500 pounds of grease in one haul and sell it for between 10 and 15 cents a pound, Findley said.

You can find the whole story here. Any local restaurateurs losing their grease to thieves?

David Madeira, head of the LeMay Automobile Museum, called tonight to say that Pete Lovely – who opened Fife’s first car dealership, selling Volkswagens – today won first place in his division at the 34th Monterey Historic Races at Mazda Laguna Seca. Lovely drove a 1959 Lotus 11.

Lovely also won 50 years ago - at the first race at Laguna Seca – driving Ferrari 500.

I also spoke with Pete’s wife of 46 years, Nevele. “He had a lot of competition,” she said. “He’s feeling really good.”

Madeira was in California after driving a 1931 Lincoln from the LeMay collection to the annual gathering of car enthusiasts at the Pebble Beach Classic.

The sails on Tacoma’s 2008 Tall Ships celebration are beginning to fill – with more than just air.

I spoke with David Doxtater today – he’s principal at The Workshop, the event-planning firm that’s putting the party together. He said State Farm signed on this afternoon as a presenting sponsor of the event, which means the company offered a “six-figure” investment.

So far in total, Doxtater said, organizers have raised $400,000 toward a goal of $620,000 for the gathering, which will bring sailing ships to Commencement Bay and the Thea Foss Waterway in early July next year.

Doxtater also said the names of the first six ships will be formally announced at “Buccaneer Bash,” a fundraiser on the Dock Street esplanade Aug. 25. Tickets for that event – to include wining, dining and an auction – have been sold out at $50 each. (The six ships, by the way, are Amazing Grace, Lady Washington, Hawaiian Chieftan, Merrie Ellen, S.S.S. Odyssey and Resolute.)

Along with State Farm, other major sponsors already inked include Port of Tacoma, TOTE and Evergreen.

Some sponsorships still remain available, Doxtater said. “With the response we’ve been getting, we may have limit it.” He may also raise the goal, to include a larger educational component for area students. In 2008, he said his personal goal will be to “double the value of the benefit to our patrons and sponsors.”

Expect more news in coming weeks. With Buccaneer Bash, Doxtater said, “We’re getting ready to start regular communications with the public.”

Starbucks Corp. will open its first cafe in Russia next month after a decade of delays that included losing trademark rights, according to The Associated Press.

The first shop will open in September in the Mega Mall north of Moscow, Starbucks spokeswoman Kate Bovey said yesterday by phone from Seattle, where the company is based.

Starbucks, the world's largest coffee-shop chain, joins retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour SA in seeking to enter Russia, where consumer spending rose 24 percent last year, the most in Europe. Russians are expected to spend $12.5 billion eating out in 2009, after annual increases of more than 7 percent, according to OAO Rosinter Restaurants Holding, which operates T.G.I. Friday’s and Benihana eateries.

This from staff writer Dan Beekman:

A new trend in identity theft has surfaced in Gig Harbor, the South Sound Business Examiner reported Thursday.

According to Gig Harbor police, suspects are scanning stolen keychain credit cards into a computer, obtaining account numbers and expiration dates, and changing the names on the cards to their own.

The suspects print false information onto plastic sheets with self-adhesive backing, which are stuck over stolen mini-cards and trimmed to fit.

The doctored cards don’t work when swiped by cashiers, but do match the suspects’ identification.

The suspects ask cashiers to enter victims’ account numbers manually. Since the account numbers are valid, the transactions process.

Police have asked that stores’ cashiers be informed.

Record summertime travel coupled with a shortage of baggage handlers, pilots and customer service agents are defeating Alaska Airlines plans to improve flights timeliness and baggage service.

The Sea-Tac based airline says those factors are hurting its efforts to make at least 80 percent of its flights arrive on time.

Figures from Flightstats.com show Alaska's on-time performance in July, 70.87 percent on time, was more than nine percentage points short of its goal.

But Alaska had company. Many of the country's major airlines' on-time performance was worse.

Delta Air Lines, on-time arrival percentage last month was 67.44. American's was even lower, 66.45 percent. Continental and US Airways both rated lower than 70 percent on time at 68.49 percent and 67.51 percent respectively.

=> Read more!

According to The Associated Press, Microsoft soon will let users of its Hotmail e-mail service store 5 gigabytes of photos and other e-mail messages, more than double the previous limit.

Of course, only a small number of Hotmail users will ever approach that threshold, a reality the software maker acknowledged in a blog post this week outlining the storage boost and other upgrades to the free, Web-based service, AP reported.

Microsoft’s new limit, from 2 GB currently, will leapfrog Google Inc.’s nearly 3 GB. Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL e-mail services already include unlimited free storage.

Bloomberg's reporting that a Canadian judge has denied Costco Wholesale Corp.’s request to block a competitor from using the name “Priceco Warehouse,” saying a trademark dispute over the name must be settled by a government agency.

The judge said the federal registrar of trademarks should decide the issue between Issaquah, Washington-based Costco, the largest U.S. warehouse club, and Welcome Warehouse Ltd., operator of a single store in the Vancouver suburb Surrey.

Welcome Warehouse hopes to call a second store Priceco Warehouse. Costco, whose discount warehouses sell goods from socks to jewelry, sought an order from Rice to prevent it. The U.S. company used the name Price Costco after a 1993 merger with Price Co.

A new study by Flight International magazine documents another encouraging Boeing achievement in its fight with Airbus for supremacy in the commercial airplane market.

According to the magazine's tally, Boeing's backlog of commercial airplane orders has edged past that of Airbus.

Boeing has an order backlog of 1,868 planes versus Airbus' 1,851.

Boeing leads Airbus in undelivered orders in Africa and North and South America, but the European manufacturer leads Boeing in Asia, the Middle East and Australia and Europe.

More than twice as many Boeings, nearly 11,000, remain in service throughout the world as Airbuses, 4,500. The Airbus numbers are growing faster than Boeing's because the Airbus fleets are seeing fewer retirements because Airbuses are generally younger than Boeings. Airbus has sold commercial aircraft only since the early '70s. Boeing has been in the commercial aircraft business for some 80 years.

This courtesy of Kathleen Cooper:

The state has fined a refinery on the Blair Waterway in Tacoma $10,000 for an underground pipeline leak two years ago.

U.S. Oil and Refining Co. was was sent a letter dated Aug. 9 notifying them of the fine for leaks in 2004 and 2005, Mary-Ellen Voss, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

"We think the fine was extremely reasonable," company spokeswoman Marcia Nielsen said Wednesday. "We had two small leaks in two years, and they've both been cleaned up and taken care of."

According to a statement Wednesday from the state, one leak occurred in August 2005 when 6,552 gallons of crude oil seeped from a hairline crack in a pipeline used to transfer crude oil from a ship to the refinery.

Another leak was in August 2004 when a jet fuel line was found to be corroded, the statement said. Over the course of the next year, almost 14,000 gallons of jet fuel were recovered from the leaking line.

Nick Lachey – of former boy band and MTV reality show fame – is coming to Tacoma August 25!

He is now part-owner of the Tacoma Rainiers.

Lachey will attend a Rainier's game, play in a celebrity softball game and take batting practice with the team.

“I’m excited to get back up to Tacoma for a great day of baseball. I’ve told several of the players I could hit the hanging curve, so I can’t wait to get into the batting cage and show the guys my skills," he said.

Fans will have a chance to catch Lachey at Cheney Stadium when he will step up to the plate and take batting practice with the Rainiers. For this, the Rainiers have put together a special ticket package that will allow fans to enter the park at 5 p.m. for batting practice. Lachey will also toss out the Ceremonial First Pitch prior to the game at 7 p.m.

This $15 ticket package includes one reserved ticket, one Nick Lachey Jersey T-Shirt (for first 2,000 packages sold), and the opportunity to win an autographed Nick Lachey item.

“Nick’s presence at the game that night will add another level of excitement to what is shaping up to be a great Saturday at Cheney Stadium,” said Rainiers President Aaron Artman.

Ruthie Reinert, head of the Tacoma-Pierce County Visitor & Convention Bureau for the past decade, will spend her last day in the office on Monday. Come Sept. 4 she'll take over as president and CEO of Oregon's Washington County Visitor Association.

Reinert told me this afternoon that she's "excited. Oregon is where I started my tourism career, in Clackamas County. For me, it’s going back to a market I used to sell. I am very happy at the things we’ve done here, and I’m extremely proud of the tourism development that’s taken place over the past 10 years."

Current CVB office manager Jennifer Johnson will take over as interim head of the organization. The bureau board will search for a new director.

Ruthie describes the new digs as "what Bellevue is to Seattle." The area includes Beaverton, Forest Grove "and all of those lovely cities west of Portland."

And although it may not have a glass museum, a car museum or Frisco Freeze, it does boast 19 wineries and a sake brewery.

Concerned that strikes could prove costly for both cruise ship lines and shippers, the Port of Seattle has agreed to enter labor agreements on two time-critical projects.

The agreement assures the Port that the projects, the conversion of Terminal 30 into containership facilities and the expansion of Terminal 91 for cruise ship operations, won't be disrupted by labor disputes.

The project labor agreements provide union workers will continue working despite other disagreements with contractors that could halt work on the two projects.

Cruise ships now call on Terminal 30 near Safeco Field, but the Port wants to move them to convert that terminal back into a containership facility. The Port will provide cruise ship berths at Terminal 91 near the Magnolia neighborhood instead. Terminal 91 is used as the winter home for the Bering Sea trawler fleet. The cruise fleet will call on the terminal from May through September when the trawlers are fishing in Alaska.

Port plans call for the cruise ships to vacate Terminal 30 at the end of next year's cruise season and move to Terminal 91 in 2009.

Talerico Construction Co. of Puyallup has been fined $15,000 for repeatedly damaging Puget Sound Energy underground natural gas and electric lines while digging at construction sites.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission said today that the construction company will pay the $15,000 fine immediately. It faces an additional fine of $30,000 if it commits new violations of underground utility location rules in the next two years.

The WUTC alleged that from December 2004 through May 2006 Talerico workers hit and damaged gas and electric lines 10 times.

State law requires excavators must request utility location markings two days before they plan to dig so that they can avoid contacting the underground lines.

Purchasing a first home continues to become less affordable in Washington state, according to a Washington State University analysis released this morning.

And while the level of affordability in Pierce County held steady in the past year, it's still a tough move to make.

The typical first time buyer had 56.3 percent of the income needed to purchase a house in the second quarter of 2007. That means a first-time buyer in Pierce County needs nearly twice as much income to afford the mortgage on a starter home, said Glenn Cellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at WSU.

Look for more in tomorrow's News Tribune.

Look for Fife Mayor Mike Kelly and a few FedEx Freight executives tomorrow at 10 a.m. as the shipper breaks ground on a 80-door, 21-acre service center at 3216 70th Ave. E.

The center, serving central southwest Washington, will employ 115 people – all of whom will transfer from FedEx’s current location on 48th Avenue Court East in Fife. More employees may be hired as traffic grows, said FedEx spokesman Ken Van Guilder Tuesday afternoon. The facility will be expandable to 126 doors, and will consolidate all FedEx Freight shipments to Alaska.

The old facility will be sold, he said, while the new space will be leased. FedEx
Freight ships larger parcels – say 1,000 pounds – and is a cousin to other FedEx operations, including FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Kinko’s.

A few of us had lunch today at Le Le, a Vietnamese restaurant (that has just undergone an extensive expansion) up on the Hilltop. While we were there, Le Le herself stopped by the table to show us some papers she’d received from the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, which owns the old bank building (and former MLKHDA headquarters) across the street at 1023 MLK Jr. Way.

It seems plans are moving again to replace the building, and the first step is going to be removal of some fuel tanks and contaminants at the site.

This afternoon I called Felix Flannigan, MLKHDA CEO, for more information. He said the association is “giving notification to our neighbors that there are some contaminants associated with our development plans.”

The plans call for a complex – the Martin Luther King Business Center – offering 50-75 affordable housing units, 16,000 to 18,000 square feet of commercial retail space and parking for up to 300 vehicles. Construction should begin next spring, with an opening slated for June, 2009.

As to the contaminants, Flannigan said that “clenaup comes first, demolition comes next.” The cleanup is needed because due diligence discovered three buried fuel tanks, some fuel and scattered metals. Flannigan said there was no plume, so neighbors needn’t worry about exposure.

I remember when the National Bank of Washington had a branch at the site - at the corner of 11th Street and what was then called K Street, but I have no recollection of a gas station. Does anybody remember one?

And beyond that, how many other buried gas tanks are left in Tacoma? The station where I worked in high school, on 6th Avenue, is now a fast-food joint.

You might remember the Chantico drink Starbucks rolled out in 2005. Well, the coffee retailer is taking another shot (that's my pun of the day) at chocolate drinks.

Here's what the Associated Press reports:

Starbucks Corp. will start selling packages of premium “drinking chocolate” nuggets in U.S. grocery stores and other retail outlets this fall after an exorbitantly rich chocolate drink failed in stores two years ago.

Starbucks, which has teamed up with Hershey Co., also plans to roll out a line of chocolate candies next spring that will include a coffee-infused premium dark chocolate bar, milk chocolate squares with flecks of chai tea, and an espresso truffle.

The cubes of drinking chocolate will come in three flavors: a blend of dark and European-style milk chocolates, one with a marshmallow nestled in the middle and a third that’s infused with peppermint.

=> Read more!

A new, 14-acre regional park known as Peninsula Park would connect the Ruston Way linear waterfront park with Point Defiance Park – sooner rather than later – if the Metro Parks Tacoma board accepts a development deal.

The public has a chance Thursday to hear more about the proposal made by Mike Cohen whose companies, MC Construction and Point Ruston LLC, won the right to clean up and redevelop the old Asarco copper smelter site that straddles the Town of Ruston and City of Tacoma.

The key provision: Cohen's company would build and maintain the public park at no cost to Metro Parks Tacoma in exchange for a 20-year lease that allows him to recoup the construction cost by hosting periodic ticketed outdoor concerts and other events. At the end of the 20 years, Metro Parks Tacoma would take over the maintenance and operations of the park.

If Metro Parks rejects the arrangement and decides to build Peninsula Park as it traditionally builds parks, it would cost the park district an estimated $2 million in construction costs it doesn't have, cost another estimated $150,000 a year in maintenance costs, which the district also doesn't have, and probably would delay construction for years.

Cohen would like the park's construction to coincide with the residential, commercial and office phases of the Point Ruston development.

More details of the proposal and a concept plan sketch for Peninsula Park will be on display during an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Metro Parks Tacoma headquarters, 4702 S 19th St. in Tacoma.

A flood of new job seekers helped bump up unemployment rates in Washington and Pierce County in July, but employment continued to grow at a healthy rate.

The statewide unemployment rate hit 4.7 percent last month compared with 4.4 percent in June, said the Washington Employment Security Department. In Pierce County, the unemployment rate was 5.3 percent up from 4.7 percent in June. The rate was down from July 2006 when the rate was 5.4 percent.

"An increase in the labor force is about the only way that you can say that an increase in the unemployment rate is a positive thing," said Evelina Tainer, the department's chief economist.

Job growth in the state and Pierce County continued upward but failed to keep pace with the number of people who entered the job market in July.

Non-farm non-seasonally adjusted employment increased by 28,720 in July over June.

The year-over-year job employment growth was 89,100, the fastest year-over-year employment growth since September 2006

Wal-Mart has launched a Facebook campaign called "Roommate Style Match" that it hopes will connect college-age users -- and increase its share of back-to-school sales, according to Reuters.

The idea is for prospective shoppers to log on to Facebook, the online social networking site, to design dorm rooms with soon-to-be roommates.

Here's an excerpt from the Reuters story:

Facebook users who join the Wal-Mart group will be able to take a quiz to determine their decorating style and get a list of "recommended products" they can buy at Wal-Mart to mesh their style with their roommate's.

Students can also download a shopping list of dorm room items sold at Wal-Mart, link to Wal-Mart's Web site promoting "earth-friendly" products, or click on Soundcheck, Wal-Mart's Web site showing musical performances by singers like Bon Jovi and Mandy Moore.

The U.S. back-to-school shopping season began in July and retailers are worried that higher gasoline and grocery prices may crimp students' and parents' spending.

Wal-Mart, which has been contending with lackluster sales at its U.S. stores, said last month that gasoline prices were its shoppers' chief concern.

I had an interesting conversation this morning with Scott Jarvis, director of the state Department of Financial Institutions. We talked about real estate loans, and especially the coming fallout as borrowers realize what the "adjustable" in "Adjustable Rate Mortgage" actually means. The full interview should run early next week.

At one point I had to stop - twice - and make sure I had some numbers correct. We were talking about loan originators, and how they are now required to take a statewide test in order to continue doing business.

They must pass the test before Jan. 1, 2008. So far, out of 15,000 mortgage brokers in the state, 500 have taken the test.

And when it comes to designated brokers, 56 percent have not received a passing grade.

It's going to be a busy fall.

Maybe it was the weather.

Statewide hotel occupancy rates fell 1.5 percent in June, while the Tacoma area saw only a modest increase. During the month, 81.7 percent of Pierce County rooms were taken – an increase of 1.2 percent over June last year – while 82.9 percent of rooms statewide were occupied – for a decrease of 1.5 percent.

The cost of a room locally, $78.96, was up 6.7 percent from a year ago, and the statewide average, $130.55, rose 4.9 percent, according to the monthly report by Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood.

Downtown Seattle charged the highest price for a room, $173.75 – up 2 percent over the year. The Emerald City also saw the highest decline in occupancy, down 5.3 percent.

If you've carried a laptop computer, you're familiar with the airport security drill: remove the laptop from its case and put it on the x-ray belt for separate inspection from the rest of your carry-on goods.

Now, the Transportation Security Administration is adding other large electronic items it wants presented separately from the rest of your luggage: full-size electronic game systems, full-sized DVD players, CPAP machines and video cameras that use tape, to name a few.

Smaller electronics gear such as MP3 players, cell phones, IPods and so forth, still don't require separate inspection. They should be placed inside your carry-on luggage at the security screening station, said TSA spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin.

My husband rides the Sounder to work in Seattle everyday. He left early this morning, fearing he might not get a seat on the train due to the construction on I-5 prompting more people to ride.

His Monday morning report: A bit more crowded than usual, but he was still able to get a seat.

News Tribune reporters were out early (really, really early) this morning on trains, buses and in cars to monitor the effects of the construction.

They report the same, some crowded trains – but light traffic. Go here full coverage of the closure.

More than 30 employers have now signed up for Tacoma Goodwill Industries' job fair Tuesday.

Among those employers are The Boeing Co., Menzies Aviation, Safeway, Taco Bell, Washington Mutual, United Parcel Service, Comcast and Sears.

The fair will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at Goodwill's Workforce Development Office, 714 S. 27th St.

Goodwill expects more than 500 potential workers to participate, said Goodwill spokesman Matthew Erlich.

Airbus, hoping to stir up more excitement for its superjumbo A380 airliner, has scheduled another U.S. tour for the plane.

But don't bet on the plane coming to the enemy's lair in Seattle anytime soon.

Only two carriers that serve Sea-Tac, Air France and Korean Airlines, have ordered the 555-seat plane, and the amount of business they do here is unlikely to justify their putting an A380 on a Seattle route.

The aircraft is too big to routinely call on Sea-Tac. Traffic on adjacent taxiways would have to be shut down to allow its passage.

In its early October visit to the U.S., the A380 will visit airports serving Hartford, Conn., Cincinnati, Ohio and San Francisco.

Hartford? Cincinnati? No airlines using those airports are A380 customers, but the makers of the GP7200 engine that will power some A380s are headquartered in those cities: Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford and GE Engines in Cincinnati.

San Francisco will likely be served by carriers using the A380 including Qantas and others.

On a previous U.S. tour, A380s called on New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The closest a 380 has come to Seattle is Vancouver, B.C.

The union that represents The Boeing Co.'s engineers and technical workers is searching for a new chief executive to replace one dismissed in July.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace has actively begun the search to replace Charles Bofferding as its director.

The union's executive board on a split vote dismissed Bofferding, the 20,000-member union's executive director for 16 years, in July.

Bofferding's departure followed an election at Boeing's Wichita, Kan. plant in which workers tossed out the union.

Bofferding's supporters failed in an attempt last week to recall two executive board members who had voted for his dismissal.

The executive board hopes to have the new union leader on board by early November.

Some 120 Alaska Airlines employees stayed on duty after their shifts had ended at Los Angeles International Airport late Saturday and early Sunday to help travelers marooned on the tarmac by a Customs and Border Protection computer shutdown.

Those Alaska workers bought out Burger King's supply of hamburgers and a Terminal 3 snack bar's stock of juice to supply sustenance to 976 Alaska passengers whose planes were stuck on the tarmac, said the airline.

Other workers scrounged up diapers and other supplies to help passengers whom Customs and Border Security prohibited from leaving their planes.

The seven Alaska flights inbound from Mexico were among 40 or so international flights parked on the ramps for up to six hours Waiting for the federal workers to fix the computer system that screens travelers from out of the country.

=> Read more!

Wall Street's had a rough three weeks or so for investors since the Dow closed at over 14,000 on July 19.

(The Dow closed today at 13,239.54, down 31.14)

But is the drop in the stock market the apocalyptic event that some writers and analysts are making it appear?

Not likely, says a Tacoma expert, Russell Investment Group senior investment strategist Ernie Ankrim.

"Any time the stock market drops six or seven percent, it's a source of concern," said Ankrim. But in the long term, he said, the events of recent weeks are likely just to be a "speed bump" in an investor's history.

Smart investors, instead of taking their money out of the market and putting it in a bank, should view the present downturn as an opportunity to buy stocks at more attractive prices, he said.

The market dropped 3 1/2 percent in February, he said, and it recovered rather smartly.

The Boeing Co. denied a report today that it has officially delayed the first flight of its revolutionary 787 Dreamliner until October.

"We're still targeting the end of September for the first flight," said 787 spokeswoman Yvonne Leach. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had published a report Friday saying the plane's first flight had been delayed until October.

The newspaper said that complications with integrating the plane's electronics and software had led to the postponement.

Boeing originally target a first flight for August, but delayed that because the plane's major subassemblies weren't fully wired when they left supplier plants to be flown to Seattle for final assembly.

Leach said the company is still on target to deliver the first plane to All-Nippon Airways in May.

Ten more airliner orders this week moved The Boeing Co. within two orders of the 700 mark for the year.

Those orders were for one Boeing Business Jet 737 and a total of nine 777s, four from Air New Zealand and five from Cathay Pacific Airways.

Those orders moved total lifetime orders for the 777 to within two of the symbolic 1,000 mark.

The ruling council of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace failed to recall two executive board members Thursday night.

SPEEA, Boeing second largest union with nearly 20,000 members, is warring over the executive board's dismissal last month of the union's longtime executive director, Charles Bofferding.

Members of SPEEA's Northwest Council had attempted to recall two board members, Jill Ritchey and Mike Dunn, who had voted for Bofferding's ouster.

The vote against recall of the two was 38-37 with one abstention. A two-thirds vote is needed to recall a member.

Verizon Wireless is increasing its coverage in Pierce County with a new cell site on the Fort Lewis Military Base in Tacoma.

“Our expansion is tied to our commitment to provide the best possible wireless experience for customers as they choose and use our service. It’s our way of ensuring that Verizon Wireless continues to be the leader in customer loyalty,” said Kelley Kurtzman regional president of Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless has invested more than $540 million in its wireless network in Washington over the past five years to stay ahead of the growth in demand for our products and services and to ensure the most reliable network in the industry.

All cooking oils used at the Puyallup Fair will be trans fat free, Western Washington Fair Association board of directors voted unanimously Thursday night.

This is effective in time for the 2007 Puyallup Fair.

A survey of all food concessionaires showed that more than 80 percent were already cooking with trans fat free cooking oils.

The food vendors who had not made the conversion said they were willing to switch over to trans fat free cooking oil in time for the Sept. 7-23 Puyallup Fair, according to a press release from the fair.

Some of the largest food vendors, such as the burger and French fry operators, have been using various trans fat free canola products for several years now.

The Boeing 737 was such a poor seller early in its life, that Boeing more than once considered killing the plane program.

Good thing more level heads prevailed.

Boeing's Renton workforce this week celebrated a new record for jetliner sales for the now-ubiquitous 737 by forming a human graphic 7,000 outside the 737 assembly plant there.

That formation celebrated the 7,000th order of the twin-jet. That order was actually entered in late June by Indonesia's Lion Air for a 737-900ER.

Boeing has already surpassed that milestone with sales of 7,153 737s through the end of July.

The 737 is Boeing's best-selling plane by a huge amount. The company's next best selling jetliner is the 727 with 1,831 sales.

Airbus' single-aisle competitor to the 737, the A320 series, has 5,328 orders.

BCRA, a Tacoma-based design firm, sent us some photos this week of the new Gig Harbor MultiCare it designed.

The 122,000-square-foot Gig medical center will provide the community with a complete women’s health and diagnostic care center, family practice services, 24/7 urgent care, outpatient surgeries and a cancer infusion center.

Here's what the company had to say:

BCRA, a Tacoma-based design firm, provided architectural, interior design, civil engineering, and land use planning services for the medical park. The lobby, designed with a lodge feel utilizing local timber, stone finishes and blackened steel, was created to tell the story of Gig Harbor through local artwork. A large stone fireplace and travertine floors continue the Northwest look, while providing a high-end feel.

Factions within the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union that represents Boeing's engineers and technical workers, are maneuvering for advantage in the wake of the ouster of SPEEA's longtime executive director Charles Bofferding.

Groups of union workers are seeking the recall of several SPEEA executive board members after the split vote last month that sent Bofferding packing.

Meanwhile, other union officers have blocked the publication of the SPEEA president's monthly message to members contending the message is inflammatory.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Want to check your e-mail for free? Tacoma Art Museum now provides free Internet access from the museum’s public spaces such as: Untitled Café, the Murray Family Event Space, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Art Resource Center and the outdoor balcony.

Here's what Tacoma Art Museum Director Stephanie Stebich had to say:

“In order to achieve our mission of connecting people through art, it is crucial that we continue to advance in line with the ways people communicate and gather information today and into the future. We hope that this new service will make the museum even more accessible to people and will serve as just one more reason to spend time here with us.”

I had coffee today with Paul Barnum and Steve Claiborne – spokesmen for Russell Investment Group. They were telling me about the growth the company is seeing in Tacoma.

Russell has 18 floors of offices around the city including 12 in the Russell Building, four in the Columbia Bank Building and two in the Wells Fargo Building.

And right now, the company has 54 jobs posted on its Web site for positions including global compliance director and administrative assistant.

Airlines faced with increasingly lengthy overnight flights are borrowing an idea that the railroad industry implemented nearly 150 years ago, bunk beds.

Lufthansa's vision of economy class bunks

With many of their most elite trains traveling overnight between major cities, railroads outfitted cars with multiple layers on each side of the center aisle with curtained bunks. Principal purveyor of those sleeping cars was the Pullman Co.

Canadian railroad sleeping car

Now German airline Lufthansa and Air New Zealand say they're seriously considered equipping some of their planes with economy class bunks.

The trick will be squeezing in as many lie-flat bunks as they do seats in the limited space of airline cabins without a big weight penalty.

Seats that recline to become a completely horizontal bed are now almost standard equipment in first class overseas flights, but the cost premium is huge, sometimes as much as 10 times the discounted coach fare on the same flight.

Boeing designed a kind of bunk room in the space above the main cabin on its new 747-8 Intercontinental. The idea is that passengers willing to pay an extra fee less than the cost of a first class fare would have access to a bunk. The issues with that scheme are the extra weight and the need for passengers to have both a seat and a bunk because of emergency access issues during landing and takeoff.

No airlines have ordered the 747 bunk room yet.

We got this crazy postcard in the mail today and wondered what it was all about.

Turns out it's a marketing card from Tacoma's Rusty George Creative. I couldn't reach Rusty this afternoon but we here at the Biz Buzz guessed that it was a way to get the word out about the company's creative skills.

Anyone else out there get one of these postcards? We'll post more once we talk to Rusty.

A magazine subscription company is accused of illegally recruiting and deceiving young workers into conducting door-to-door sales with little or no compensation, according to the New York attorney general.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today he has sued Jaguar Sales LLC, based in Gig Harbor, The Associated Press reports.

The lawsuit was filed in the state Supreme Court in Poughkeepsie.

The company is accused of transporting young recruits to locations far from home, including New York state, to sell subscriptions door-to-door for magazines including Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest and U.S. News and World Report.

Potential salespersons were promised hundreds of dollars in wages, cash bonuses, free travel and paid training. Employees were then forced to endure terrible working conditions, according to Cuomo’s suit.

=> Read more!

Traffic Storm 2007! is almost upon us.

The state is calling the pending closures of most of I-5's northbound lanes the biggest highway construction closure in state history.

People are predicting gridlock from Seattle to Tacoma. Sound Transit is adding extra trains and buses. Commuters are planning on staying home or working odd hours.

But local trucking companies – at least the few I called this morning – seem to be taking it in stride, at least for now.

"It's going to be a nuisance," said Kim Boyd, fuel manager for Pacific-based Gordon Trucking. The company notified is drivers of the closures.

Other trucking outfits said they plan on having more trucks available to compensate for vehicles caught in traffic, and will allow more time for deliveries.

In short: No one appears to be freaking out.

"Not yet," said Jim Tutton. "We won’t really realize the impact until Monday."

Tutton is the vice president of the Washington Trucking Association. The WTA has a notice of the closures on its Web site.

He's says patience will be the key to enduring this traffic irritation.

The closure officially begins Friday night. Do let us know, readers, how it's affecting your commute or business.

In the meantime, I'll be freaking out for you.

I wrote a story for today's paper about the modest increase in traffic the port is expecting from developing the new terminal.

I didn't have the space to add in more details of the port's truck study - which was actually pretty interesting.

Heffron Transportation did the study in December to provide the port with a baseline count of trucks in the Tideflats.

Heffron placed 13 video cameras around the Tideflats and recorded 12 hours of traffic footage each day from Dec. 4 through Dec. 8.

Then someone had the lucky job of watching 60 hours of traffic footage, counting trucks and taking notes about their direction, type, etc.

Here's the highlights:
- 43,727 trucks were counted during the study.

- Of those about 35 percent were port-related trucks meaning they were doing some business at the port's terminals, according to Tod McBryan, Heffron's vice president. These include trucks hauling containers, empty chassis and even a few log trucks.

- Almost 40 percent of the trucks counted were not related to business at the port. This includes many of the trucks that exit the highway to stop at the Flying J truck stop.

- Trucks accounted for the highest percentage of daily traffic - about 11 percent - during the mid-morning hours (from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.).

During the peak commuter driving hours, trucks accounted for about 6 percent of the daily traffic, according to the study.

Brian Mannelly, the port's acting planning director,said the study will help the port prioritize traffic improvements.

The Washington State Film Office is quietly putting out the word that its looking for two suburban or semi-rural homes as the potential location of a major Hollywood movie.

This North End Tacoma home was the location of 1992's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle with Rebecca De Mornay, Annabella Sciorra and Julianne Moore.

The story is about a city-bound couple who finally buy their dream home in the country/suburbs only to begin feuding with their next door neighbor.

Here are the film makers' requirements according to the Washington State Film Office's Lindsey Johnson:

"The 2 homes can be in a neighborhood, but without many homes directly near them - a suburban or country feel neighborhood.
Lots of room, maybe a cul-de-sac?
Backyard, front yard, and driveway.
Two stories (a few bedrooms, one with a good view of the neighbor's property).
A vacant lot next to one of the houses.

They will need the two homes exclusively for approximately five weeks beginning this October. Ninety percent of the film takes place in two homes (interiors and exteriors)."

The producers will pay the cost of housing the two families who ordinarily occupy the homes in hotels plus a fee (to be negotiated with the film makers) for the use of their homes and property.

Of course, a critical ingredient will be the cooperation of any neighbors who will both enjoy the excitement of having a major production and its stars in the neighborhood but who also must tolerate the disruptions it will cause.

Johnson said Washington is one of several states bidding for the film location. The state wants to offer the producers several choices of locations in its bid.

"It's not a sure thing," she said. "The whole package of costs, locations, regulations and so forth will help make the decision."

Johnson is in the Film Office's Seattle office at 206-256-6151 or at lindseyj@cted.wa.gov.

The Pacific Northwest usually ranks high on most lists of desirable places to live or good places to do business.

But in one recent national ranking, the Northwest thankfully (unless you're a developer or homebuilder) finished relatively low.

A list of the nation's fastest growing surburbs from 2000 to 2006 published recently by Forbes magazine included only two Northwest communities, Camas in 88th place and Issaquah in 89th place, on the list of 100.

Camas in Clark County east of Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River grew 35.4 percent in six years. It had a population of 12,914 in 2000 and finished with an estimated population of 17,480 in 2006.

Closer to home, Issaquah in King County on Interstate 90 east of Bellevue grew by 35.2 percent in that same time period. Issaquah started with a population of 13,586 in 2000 and had a population of 18,373 last year.

Many communities in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida were ranked high on the list.

Here are the top 10:

Lincoln, Calif. 236.8 percent
Buckeye, Ariz. 191.9 percent
Surprise, Ariz. 165.6 percent
Goodyear, Ariz. 142.9 percent
Plainfield, Ill. 133.9 percent
Beaumont, Calif. 130.5 percent
Frisco, Texas 128.0 percent
Wylie, Texas 109.3 percent
Avondale, Ariz. 102.4 percent
Woodstock, Ga. 100.8 percent

New airline competition to Mexico is taking its toll both on airline fares and now on frequent flier tickets.

For those of you with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan accounts, here's an attractive bargain:

Fly roundtrip to Mexico for 20,000 frequent flier miles. The catch: travel must take place between Sept. 3 and Oct. 31 this year.

The roundtrip miles cost of such a trip is usually 30,000 miles, so the "mileage sale" amount is one-third off. The 20,000-mile price is less than most airlines charge for domestic trips.

The standard warning applies: Seats are limited. And to get the 20,000-mile price you'll need to use Alaska's automated frequent flier trip finder on its Web site. If you call for reservations, the trip will cost you more miles.

I checked to see the availability of seats on several random days and actually found some at the 20,000-mile price, though other itineraries were already sold out. So, you'll have to be flexible.

If the reader response to a story we published 10 days ago about the increasing popularity of specialty dog stores in Pierce County is any indication, then dog owners, or "guardians" if you prefer, have strong loyalties to the stores they patronize.

They lamented the fact that we mentioned only a handful of dog shops by name in the story and told us of others they think are terrific.

We chose the ones we mentioned in the story at random with no suggestion that they were the only ones in the area offering specialty canine food and gear.

Our readers wanted us to pass on the names of several more they think deserve your patronage.

Here are the ones they mentioned:

26 Bark Avenue Gifts at 3205 N. 26th St. in Tacoma's North End.
Wag Pet Market at 2703 N Proctor St. in the Proctor Business District
Mud Bay at 3804 Bridgeport Way in University Place and 13 other Puget Sound area location.

These three stores plus the five we mentioned in the story aren't a complete list. If you have a favorite we still haven't mentioned, let us know.

Alaska Airlines and its sister regional carrier, Horizon Air, reported today their passenger traffic in July outgrew the Sea-Tac-based airlines' capacity increases.

That translates to more crowded planes on both airlines but also more revenue.

Alaska's July traffic increased 4.3 percent in July compared with a 3.5 percent increase in capacity. The percentage of seats filled with paying passengers jumped to 83.4 percent for the month compared with 82.8 percent in July 2006.

Horizon saw its July traffic rise 18.2 percent while capacity increased 15.7 percent over the same month last year.

The passenger load factor (percentage of seats filled) was 79.8 percent compared with 78.1 percent for July 2006.

Kelly and I spotted a new store in the Dome District today on our way back from lunch that sells a big collection of jewelry, handbags and antique Asian furniture.

The shop - called Dragonfly - is on the corner of A Street and Puyallup Avenue.

Shop owner Angela Schellenberg opened two weeks ago in the former spot of an auto store. She and her brother transformed the space into a home for 100-year-old Asian cabinets and rice baskets. She added to the mix bracelets, necklaces and silk bags.

Schellenberg owns the Gig Harbor shop Red.

"Our little store in Gig Harbor has grown so much that we had to open another store," she said while giving us a tour through the jewelry she designs and has made in China.

Schellenberg worked for Nordstrom for several years and lived with her husband in China, where she first spotted some of the treasures she sells today.

Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific Airways have ordered a total of nine more Boeing 777s, the airlines reported today.

All nine are the 777-300 Extended Range versions of the twin jet. Cathay ordered five. Air New Zealand ordered four.

The big twins are increasingly replacing Boeing 747s and even newer Airbus A-340s on long-range overseas routes because of their range and fuel economy, reportedly as much as 20 percent less than older aircraft.

Whenever you feel Sea-Tac is hopelessly crowded, take heart in the final 2006 air passenger statistics from the Airports Council International.

Sea-Tac didn't even make the top 10 among the busiest airports in the U.S. in that tally. In fact with 29.7 million passengers last year, Sea-Tac barely edged out Charlotte for 17th place among U.S. airports.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the main hub for Delta and AirTran airlines, held first place with 84.8 million passengers.

In second place came Chicago's O'Hare Airport with 77 million passengers.

The rest of the top ten:

Los Angeles International 61 million
Dallas-Fort Worth 60.2 million
Denver 47.3 million
Las Vegas 46.2 million
New York-JFK 43.8 million
Houston George Bush 42.6 million
Phoenix Sky Harbor 41.4 million
Newark Liberty 36.7 million

Major airports below Sea-Tac on the list included
Boston Logan with 27.7 million passengers, Charlotte with 29.69 million passengers, Washington Dulles with 22.8 million, and San Diego with 17.5 millon

A new concept in Rite Aid stores will open in Puyallup on Thursday. The store, located at 9502 176th St., will feature the company's new "Customer World" design.

The drug store chain conducted extensive interviews with customers and found they want the pharmacy department to be easily seen and accessible. In the new store, the pharmacy is the focal point, the company said.

Here's how the company described it in a press release we got today:

The Customer World pharmacy waiting area is designed with lowered ceiling, comfortable chairs, a TV, and connects to a pharmacy consultation room, providing a private and professional setting for patient counseling by the pharmacist.

Elsewhere in the store: Aisles are wide. Shelves will include more items. The cosmetics department will be a highlighted.

The Federal Reserve left a key interest rate unchanged on Tuesday as worries about inflation trumped concerns about turbulent financial markets.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues voted unanimously to keep their target for the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, at 5.25 percent, where it has been for more than a year, The Associated Press reports.

The Fed decision came after a volatile couple of weeks on Wall Street as investors have been beset by troubles in global credit markets stemming from a sharp rise in defaults on subprime mortgages.

If you are yearning for some late-afternoon caffeine but you can't find enough dimes at the bottom of your desk, you may still be able to get a soda.

USA Technologies Inc. and MasterCard Inc. on Tuesday said they will install 7,500 cashless payment terminals in Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. vending machines, according to Dow Jones.

The terminals allow vending machine customers to use traditional magnetic-stripe credit cards or MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment technology.

The new terminals will be installed in the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Seattle markets.

Anything made by McDonald’s tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches, The Associated Press reports.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

“You see a McDonald’s label and kids start salivating,” said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

Levin said it was “the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what’s going on with (marketing to) young children.”

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids’ perception of taste was “physically altered by the branding.” The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

The research, appearing in August’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Amazon.com Inc. invested in a one-year-old digital-music store that lets user demand determine the price of downloads, Bloomberg News reported.

AmieStreet.com, founded last year by three Brown University students, allows people to download songs from 0 cents to 98 cents each, depending on the song’s popularity, Seattle-based Amazon.com said today in a statement.

Amazon didn’t say how much of the company it owns, or how much it paid.

Amazon.com in May said it would offer music downloads this year without software that restricts the use of the songs. The retailer’s foray into downloaded music pits it against Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store, the world’s biggest, and may help counter falling sales of compact discs.

Friday's debut of the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train was a festive occasion attended by politicians, civic leaders and their kids and grandkids alike.

Here are some photos from that inaugural train trip from Freighthouse Square to Lake Kapowsin and back.

The crowd gathers at Freighthouse Square Station before the 11:30 a.m. Friday ceremonies.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma and grandkids dressed up for the occasion.

The ceremonial "Golden Spike."

Dinner train owner Eric Temple and Baarsma driving the spike.

The dinner train departs.

News Tribune business columnist Dan Voelpel blogging the event in the Mount Rainier dome car as the train powers up the steep 38th Street Gulch.

A view of the train and the passing scenery from the open-air car.

Viewing the scenery at the Lake Kapowsin destination.

The view from the dome as the train heads back to Tacoma.

Starbucks Corp. is testing sales of protein-enhanced smoothies in its hometown of Seattle as it looks to add summertime drinks for customers who don’t want hot coffee.

Sales of 16-ounce smoothies with flavors such as banana- chocolate and strawberry-banana began at six cafes in late July, spokesman Brandon Borrman said today. The drinks are made with ice, fruit, protein supplements and milk, and cost $3.90.

“We’ll keep an eye on it and see where it goes,” Borrman said. “It has potential.”

The protein mix used in the smoothies is made by Kinetix, a nutrition firm whose investors include Maveron LLC, the venture- capital firm co-founded by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. Schultz doesn’t have a management role in Kinetix, and his ownership stake is less than 5 percent, Borrman said.

Starbucks’s protein smoothies have 240 calories, 140 fewer than a mocha Frappuccino of the same size.

The world’s largest coffee-shop chain tested protein smoothies in the past but they weren’t permanently added to menus, Borrman said.

We're well on our way home now passing through the increasingly urban landscape of the East Side.

Overall, the trip was a pleasant experience, a chance to see Tacoma and Pierce County from a different point of view.

If you're looking for a ride to rival the former BC Rail's trip from Vancouver to Whistler, this isn't it, but the journey travels through woods so dense that the trees brushed the windows, past fields with galloping horses and through an urban canyon within sight of downtown.

Given a smoother roadbed that would allow higher speeds, the trip could be a world-class experience with a clear destination and more scenery.

Now the city and the Spirit of Washington have 10 months to find out how well the deal will work out. The public will be the ultimate judge.

Just back from the outdoor car, a deck with a roof and a railing for standing room to enjoy the outdoor breeze. Nice. Bumped into former Gov. Booth Gardner enjoying the scenery there.

But getting there took a little patience and balance. The swaying of the train on this track isn't as manageable while walking. And we had to walk the length of the train and back. However, I took my cup of coffee on the way there and only had one little spill.

The apple crisp with a whipped cinnamon cream topping and caramel drizzle has to qualify as tasty, though I'd expect a professional food reviewer would like to have seen the apples firmer. But I quibble.

Along the way, I tested one of the restrooms. If I wanted to describe them positively, I'd use the words quaint and clean. That would mean small with smaller than home-sized toilet seat and an airplane-sized basin. Still, plenty of room to do your business. In case you wondered.

I never rode the Spirit of Washington on its long run from Renton to Woodinville, which ended Tuesday. On that run, the train stopped at the Columbia Winery in Woodinville where passengers disembarked, tasted wines and got back aboard for the ride home.

Here, we stopped on a scenic but lonely straightaway along the shore of Lake Kapowsin. Here we sit. Here we visit with each other. Here we can't get off the train. No winery. Just a postcard perfect look at the lake. With so many clouds out today that you can't see Mount Rainier.

That will need some fixing. More on how that might happen coming soon in a report from John Gillie's interview with Spirit of Washington Dinner Train President Eric Temple.

We bumped into state Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen (D-Eatonville) on the ride. She mentioned collaborating with long-retired director of Tacoma Public Utilities, Ted Coates, on a train to the mountain some 25 years ago.

When I worked at Tacoma City Hall under Mayor Karen Vialle back in the early 1990s, I recall her working hard with U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair) to secure federal funding for a train to the mountain.

The Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma had a train to the mountain on its priority list for many years. Current Executive Council members John Barline and John Folsom found seats on today's ride of dignitaries and media.

Over the years any number of elected officials from Tacoma, Pierce County and Washington state can claim some credit for securing a rail line and, now, finding a way for the Spirit of Washington to make productive use of it.

So far, travelers can't get to the mountain, however, due to the limited speed on a track that would need significant upgrade to allow faster use. Nonetheless, let's give a collective round of applause for all the fathers and mothers of this success.

This train will add another high-profile attraction to the growing mix in Tacoma.

Maybe it's the attraction of Dan's new haircut with "TNT" artfully cut into the hair on the back of his head, but we've become a magnet for paparazzi.

I suspect its the vintage train instead: seven cars three among them domes led by a '50s vintage EMD locomotive.

The cars have a variety of lineages. Some from the Union Pacific. Others originated with the Santa Fe.

We're now passing by Boeing's Frederickson plant where Boeing is building the vertical fin of its 787 Dreamliner, the latest in transportation technology. And we're watching it all from a car that's nearly 60 years old.

Where's Ed Murrieta when you need him?

The food on this train tastes really good to my novice taste buds. We started with a bread roll basket, including corn bread muffins, with three types of butter spreads. The starter salad of mostly greens came with the poppyseed vinegarette, the only dressing the dinner train serves.

Then the main course: a petite steak, a cut of salmon with orange saunce, steamed vegetables and wild rice. All tasty and enjoyable. (I'm sure Ed would describe it better than that.) I didn't need a steak knife to cut through the tender sirloin.

The ride, at 20 mph, ain't always smooth. The gentle sway has an occasional big sway. Our plates slid a bit across the white tablecloth -- but not so fast we couldn't catch them.

I got so into my food that I took my eyes off the scenery and missed a sight my fellow passengers in the Rainier saw -- mooners in Midland. And I don't think they meant honeymooners.

I'm waiting for the apple crisp. Urp!

If you had hopes of just showing up tonight and getting one of the 350 seats aboard the seven-car Spirit of Washington dinner train, think again.

The train's sold out.

With the exception of such stretches as BNSF's line on the margin of Puget Sound, most rail lines pass through the business ends of urban areas.

The dinner train's new route gives diners a backyard view of Tacoma's East Side. Nothing to be embarassed about, but not quite the Canadian Rockies.

We're moving along at 20 mph or less limited mostly by the condition of the tracks which haven't regularly carried passenger trains for 70 years.

The cost to smooth out the ride? About $7 million to $9 million according to Tacoma Rail superintendent Paula Henry. That would buy new rail, ballast and other improvements and would allow the train to travel closer to Mount Rainier in the 3.5 hour roundtrip.

From the Rainier car, a dome car, the Spirit of Washington left Freighthouse Square at 11:48 a.m. on its inaugural run from its new departure point in Tacoma.

Let the history books note that Chris Gleason, the spokeswoman for Tacoma Public Utilities, had the assignment to make the call when to depart after the crowd of about 175 had boarded.

Depending on your perspective, the first leg through "Graffiti Gulch" -- a stretch alongside Highway 7 just south of I-5 -- is either another seedy look at the handiwork of vandals or a hidden artistic gem. Guess what the PR people tried to tell us?

News Tribune business columnist Dan Voelpel and I are presently hard at work on assignment aboard the inaugural run of the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train from Tacoma.

More properly in this case, it's the Spirit of Washington Lunch Train. We're leaving from Freighthouse Square and headed to Lake Kapowsin via the former Tacoma Eastern Railroad tracks.

That route is now owned by the City of Tacoma's Utilities Department through its Tacoma Rail operation.

The Spirit of Washington until today has operated from Renton using BNSF tracks to Woodinville for its dinnertime runs. But impending construction on I-405 will sever one of the bridges and make traveling that route impossible. Thus Tacoma finally gets its long-sought "Train to the Mountain."

We've just started rolling -- backwards toward Seattle. I suspect we'll soon be reversing course and head up the steep gulch toward the south. We've got a eagle's eye view from the dome car. More later.

China's fourth largest airline, Hainan Airlines, has applied to the Chinese government to begin flying from Beijing to Seattle beginning next June.

The airline is the second to seek government permission to connect China and Seattle non-stop. All-business-class carrier MaxJet has asked the federal Department of Transportation to fly from Sea-Tac to Shanghai.

If either of the two carriers gain permission for Sea-Tac-China service, the new connections won't be the first to serve China from Sea-Tac. For several years, China Eastern Airlines connected Sea-Tac and Shanghai, but that airline dropped the service during an air travel downturn.

Sea-Tac has been aggressively seeking new foreign connections. Air France recently began service from Sea-Tac to Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, and Aero-Mexico started new service nonstop to Mexico City from Sea-Tac.

Hainan is likely to serve its overseas routes under the moniker Grand China Air.

The Boeing Co. posted 149 orders in July, the best month this year for orders and the best order month since December.

With July's orders, the company has recorded 688 firm orders for the year. That compares with 531 orders at the end of July last year. Last year was a record order year for Boeing.

Airbus, which always takes longer than Boeing to announce its monthly and yearly orders (what could be so difficult about toting up orders?) hasn't announced its through-July total. That total is likely to be more than Boeing's because Airbus reported 680 orders through the end of June.

Leading the pack at Boeing are the 737 (323 orders) and the 787 Dreamliner (236 orders in 2007).

Starbucks Corp. plans to open another 1,700 new locations in the U.S. next year, even as the world’s largest specialty coffee retailer faces barely growing traffic in its domestic stores, The Associated Press reported.

Starbucks said Wednesday that the number of purchases at U.S. locations grew less than 1 percent in the fiscal third quarter. Still, analysts were satisfied with even a slight improvement over zero growth reported in the second quarter.

“That certainly takes away some of the doomsday scenarios that some investors were painting around Starbucks,” said William Blair & Co. analyst Sharon Zackfia. The analyst noted that many restaurant operators were hurt by rising gas prices and other economic pressures in April and May.

A bit a clarification to yesterday's post, lest any readers were led astray.

I wrote a post yesterday about the potential number of jobs generated by the new shipping terminal planned for Blair Waterway.

The port's planning director estimated 724 – a number the planning department is using to crunch traffic impact numbers.

In yesterday's blog post I compared that number to the number of jobs the Economic Development Board estimated will be affected by the expansion – meaning the businesses will likely need to move. That's 728.

Both numbers are estimates.

I should note, to be fair, that the port, EDB, city are working to relocate the displaced businesses in Pierce County or the region.

The port has property it may offer to lease to the businesses. It may buy more.

Peter Keller, the president of NYK Line, visited The News Tribune today to speak with the editorial board.

I sat in on the interview and was able to grab Keller for my own questions afterward. He provided some insight into the Port of Seattle's assertion that Tacoma stole NYK from them.

NYK mapped the Pacific Northwest looking for every possible place the company could build a terminal, he said. They looked at Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, etc.

Tacoma, he said, was "the only place with any viable capacity" that matched what the company was looking for.

As for Seattle?

"If you don't have a product to sell, then you are not in competition," he said.

Read Monday's Business section for a Q&A with Keller on detailing NYK's plans for Tacoma, challenges faces the shipping industry and tips on how to bow properly in Japan.

A New Jersey tire distribution firm is recalling thousands of Chinese-made tires after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said those tires may be unsafe.

Those tires were made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. and sold in the United States under the brand names Westlake, Compass and YKS.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said records show 1,640 of those potentially dangerous tires were sold in Washington in Spokane and Union Gap.

The affected tires may lack a critical component that keeps the treads from separating from the tire body, the distributer, Foreign Tire Sales of New Jersey, told the NHTSA.

A list of kinds and sizes of tires affected by the recall is available on McKenna's Web site.

Those who discover the tires on their car should contact the dealer where they bought them.

Comcast is currently converting some of its Puget Sound area phone customers to a new service called Comcast Digital Voice.

We've had some feedback from some Comcast customers here at The News Tribune about the conversion process.

We're planning to write a story. But we'd like to get a wider range of Comcast customer reactions to the conversion process.

If you're a Comcast phone customer who has already undergone the conversion or if you're contemplating the changeover, let us know about your experience. We'd like to hear how it went - whether well or badly.

Please comment on this post or send your remarks to me at john.gillie@thenewstribune.com

The Boeing Co. notched up orders for 10 more commercial airliners today, three 777s for India's Jet Airways and seven 737-800 aircraft for AeroSvit-Ukrainian Airlines.

The total worth of the two orders at list prices is more than $1.3 billion. Airlines oftentimes receive discounts from those sticker prices.

In ordering the 777 twin-jets, Jet, India's largest private airline, exercised three options from its order for 10 777-300ERs made two years ago.

Jet has also ordered 10 787 Dreamliners for its fleet.Indian airlines are using the range of the new 777s to connect their country non-stop with North America.

Aero-Svit-Urkranian also obtained purchase rights for seven more 737s. The airline already operates a fleet of 13 earlier generation Boeing 737s. The airline also operates Boeing 767s in long-range routes to Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing, Toronto and New York.

In case you were curious whether the Port of Seattle officials are still angry about NYK Line's pending move to the Port of Tacoma – the answer is yes.

Port of Seattle Executive Director Tay Yoshitani wrote a column for the Seattle Times today.

The Seattle port will be the "cleanest and greenest" in the country, something Yoshitani notes will give the port a competitive edge in attracting international business.

Here's what he had to say about Tacoma:

The Port of Prince Rupert announced plans to build a container operation as large as Seattle's or Tacoma's.

And just last week, the Port of Tacoma said it will spend $300 million in public money to lure away one of Seattle's oldest customers.

We are in a real dogfight in the container business.

I personally think Tacoma's move is the wrong one for the region and a serious blow to cooperation between our two ports. At the same time we are trying to work with them on issues like security and the environment, we found that they had been negotiating to take business away from us. Their efforts ought to be employed — as ours are — trying to get business here from Canada or California, not from the next county.

The bulk of the column, however, discusses the port's current environmental efforts including composting coffee grounds, recycling grease for biodiesel and reducing energy use at the airport.

I heard a new number yesterday: 724.

That would be the number of people who could be employed at a new shipping terminal on the Blair Waterway. The number includes the longshore workers and the people who work for the terminal operator.

The number came from Brian Mannelly, the port's acting director of planning. To be fair, it's a number used it to generate forecasts on the traffic the NYK terminal will create.

Here's another number: 728.

That is the number of people directly employed by the businesses on the Blair Waterway that will be displaced by the port expansion, according to the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County.

As part of the NYK Line announcement, the port reported that 3,200 "direct" jobs would be generated by the terminal. The direct jobs include the 724 people who physically work at the terminal as well as other jobs generated by the terminal – railroad, trucking,freight forwarders, etc.

I believe the port numbers come from two, different sources.

Mannelly said his number came from pre-planning information from NYK Line and noted the number may change once the port gets more details on the design of the terminal.

The 3,200 jobs number comes from Martin Associates, the consulting firm the port uses to determine its economic impact. The firm crunches job numbers for ports around the country.

Still, the difference in the number of people physically employed and the number of direct jobs generated, to me, begs another question:

What is the total number of "direct" jobs, including trucking, railroad, etc. generated by the companies that will be displaced?

I'm unaware of any studies to that end. But I left messages with the port and EDB to find out for sure.

Customers of The News Tribune who have questions about circulation will find nothing different next year when their calls are routed to centers managed by APAC Customer Services.

The News Tribune parent McClatchy announced Monday that it had hired APAC to provide circulation customer services for its 31 daily and 50 non-daily newspapers.

“For the customers, it should be very transparent,” David Brown, The News Tribune vice president for circulation, said earlier today. “They shouldn’t see any changes at all in their service.”

Calls – including delivery, subscription and billing inquiries – will be automatically routed into the APAC network.

“That’s what APAC does. That’s their strength and their business. They have more advanced technology, and the ability to handle calls better than we will in the future,” Brown said. “Our hope is that customers will see no change in the way their calls are handled. It will be business as usual.”

Customer service representatives in the department at The News Tribune will likely find other positions in the company, Brown said. And should a customer inquiry or complaint “escalate,” Brown said APAC will have the ability to switch the call to a manager in Tacoma.

Along with its newspaper clients, APAC also provides call-center services to the health care, financial and travel industries. Its largest customer is UPS. The company recently opened its third call facility in The Philippines.

Many of you who read today's column about my haircut experience at Tight Cuts in Tacoma noticed that I mentioned using a discount coupon clipped from Tuesday's TNT sports section.

The coupon came from Tuesday, July 24. The company intended to run the coupon again yesterday, July 31, but it got pulled at the last minute due to a billing issue.

Don Squire, owner of the Tacoma Tight Cuts franchise, tells me once the billing issue gets settled, the advertisement with the coupon will run again in the sports section. But he doesn't know when yet. As soon as he tells me, I'll let you know.

I'm sorry about causing that confusion. From the numbers of readers who called, a lot of you want to check out the Tight Cuts experience for yourselves. Men and women.

I've received several phone calls from people asking if I have a copy of the NYK Line lease. The port sent me one last night.

I planned to read it before I went to bed – however 98-pages of legalese didn't sound as interesting as my new copy of Outside magazine.

So I'm reading it today. Because of the heightened interest in the Port/NYK deal I thought I'd post it for others to check out as well.

Here you go:

NYK Lease.

Let me know how far you get. Or if you want to borrow my copy of Outside (which, BTW, has an interesting story on ligers. That's right. Ligers.)

Roar.

WestJet, Canada's equivalent of Southwest Airlines, says it has ordered 20 more Boeing 737-700s to expand its network.

Fourteen of the planes will be delivered in 2012 with the remainder delivered in 2013.

WestJet already has a fleet of 66 planes flying to 64 destinations (not Sea-Tac yet). The budget airline said it is exploring new destinations in the United States and Latin America.

The orders now specify Boeing's 124-seat 737-700, but the airline said it has the option of converting those orders to the larger, 156-seat 737-800.