Construction on Tacoma's long-awaited Thea Foss Waterway hotel will begin within 60 days, a partner in the project said today.

Dave Murphy, the mixed-use project's architect, said the project finally has the green light.

"Papers have been filed," he said today.

Today was the deadline the Foss Waterway Development Authority had given the prospective hotel owners to obtain the financing to build the project.

That deadline had been extended many times over the last four years as the project's developers reworked the project concept and sought financing.

The final plans call for construction of a 100-room boutique hotel, 22 high-end condominiums, a 160-car garage, a restaurant and two retail spaces on a site on the west side of the Foss Waterway adjacent to downtown.

That site is just south of the 8-story Esplanade condominiums now under construction south of the 15th Street Bridge.

Murphy said the hotel will open sometime in 2009.

Ever wondered what "perspiration" or "natural field turf" tastes like?

If you pick up a pack of the new Seahawks drinks from Jones Soda, you can find out.

The company started taking pre-orders Thursday for a five-pack of sodas with flavors it says reflect the hard work of professional football players, according to The Associated Press.

Clare Bowles, a company spokeswoman, said the four literally named flavors — Dirt, Sports Cream, Perspiration, Natural Field Turf — are “pretty lifelike.”

“Perspiration Soda is kind of salty tasting,” she said, with a slightly higher sodium content than the average soda, with a smooth, “stinky football sock” finish.

A sip of Sports Cream Soda conjures up the experience of rubbing ointment into an aching muscle, while Natural Field Turf Soda is like “playing tackle football, and you get tackled really hard, you’re down on the ground and you get a little bit of the grass in your teeth,” Bowles said.

Peter van Stolk, chief executive officer of Jones Soda, said in a statement “throughout their career, the average NFL player will spend two years of their life in the gym, eat three pounds of dirt and perspire 10,000 gallons of sweat.”

The only sweet soda of the bunch, Sweet Victory, has a berry flavor. Each bottle features the photo of a Seattle Seahawks player.

Boeing and Air New Zealand have announced they'll conduct a demonstration flight next year with a 747 burning biofuels.

The demonstration is planned for the second half of 2008 using an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 burning second generation bio-fuels.

The airline and the plane maker want to demonstrate the feasibility of using non-petroleum fuels to reduce the dependence on oil reserves to power aircraft.

Pining for the days when mortgage sales people called you during 60 Minutes or siding solictors interrupted your family dinner?

Then let your registration on the national Do Not Call Registry expire and you're sure to once more become the object of their attentions.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna today reminded consumers that their registration on that list automatically expires after five years.

That means that those who signed up for the list when it was new in 2003 must renew their registrations by June 2008 or risk once again being called unsolicited by sales people.

Here's how to sign up.

Online: www.donotcall.gov

or

Call: 888-382-1222.

You must call from the same number you wish to have registered.

Boeing's official tally of 2007 orders hit 858 this week without the 24 orders announced Thursday by British Airways.

When those orders are signed and sealed, Boeing will have won 882 orders for the year.

On the company's official order tally sheet this week, the company booked three new orders, one 737 Boeing Business Jet for an unnamed client and two unidentified airline 737s.

In other news of note, an unidentified customer cancelled two 747 orders and substituted 777s in their place.

One 787 order previously listed at unidentified was attributed to Sky Peace Limited. Sky Peace is an Asian transportation leasing firm. The 787 is a VIP model destined for an unidentified user.

It may be Sept. 27 but signs of the holiday season are everywhere. At the Tacoma Mall last weekend I saw that Macy's already had its holiday shop up outside the mall entrance with Christmas music playing.

At Target and Fred Meyer, Christmas lights and large animated figures share space with Halloween costumes and pre-carved pumpkins. Do people actually put up lights this time of year?

When do you start buying holiday decorations? I'm pretty sure you are supposed to wait until after you compost the Halloween pumpkins.

New service to Shanghai from Sea-Tac by premium-class airline MaxJet won't be happening anytime soon.

The federal government this week announced new routes between the U.S. and China, and the MaxJet proposal was not among them.

MaxJet had proposed flying an all-business-class Boeing 767 from Seattle to Shanghai beginning in 2009. The flight would have continued to Los Angeles from Seattle.

In better news of overseas connections, however, British Airways will increase weekly flights from Sea-Tac to London beginning next March to 13 flights a week from the present 10 flights a week.

British now flies a daily Boeing 747 from here to London's Heathrow Airport and a Boeing 777 three times a week. The 777 flights will increase to six times a week.

In the meantime, British abandoned service to Detroit saying the decline of the auto industry had adversely affected patronage on that route.

Tacoma's municipally owned short line railroad, Tacoma Rail, wants to be the first railroad in Washington to put into service a new generation of fuel-efficient, ultra-low emissions locomotives.

Paula Henry, Tacoma rail superintendent, said the railroad just completed a week-long test on a new breed of locomotive with exceptional results.

The new locomotive, built by National Railway Equipment Co. of Mount Vernon, Ill., cut fuel consumption and pollution dramatically compared with Tacoma Rail's older conventional locomotives.

Here are the test results provided by NRE:

*For over 90% of the in-service time, only one of the two GenSets was needed.
*Idle time was reduced by 80%.
*Estimated fuel consumption was reduced by 70%.
*Estimated emissions were significantly reduced by up to 85%.
*Due to tractive effort improvement, sand use was reduced by over 80%.
*Due to improved tractive effort only a single unit was used vs. two units on certain operations.
*Crew comfort improvements included dramatically reduced noise levels, a significant reduction in smoke. emissions, and better visibility due to the lower long hood and the inclusion of more rear cab windows.
*On railroads where NREC GenSets are used, maintenance costs have been reduced by over 50%.

=> Read more!

Both Boeing Co. and its European rival, Airbus, emerged with a piece of British Airways' $8.2 billion order for 36 new long-range aircraft today.

The London-based carrier said it is ordering 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 12 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets. The airline also took options on seven more A380s and 18 787s.

In splitting the order, BA satisfied the British government, which had lobbied hard for Airbus because the A380's wings are built in the UK, and Boeing, which traditionally supplied most of the airline's long-haul aircraft.

In buying the A380, British turned its back on Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental, Boeing's entry in the superjumbo sweepstakes. Boeing had hoped to sell the 747-8 to BA. It has logged only 20 orders for the passenger version of the aircraft from German airline Lufthansa. Five wealthy individuals have ordered the executive jet version of the new plane, and the company has more than five dozen orders for the freighter model of the 747-8.

In picking the 787, British declined Airbus' offer to sell it A350s, Airbus' rival to the Dreamliner. Airbus had reportedly offered to provide BA with A330 aircraft until the A350s become available in 2014.

British said it will take a second look at the A350 and Boeing's 777-300ER and Boeing's 787-10 later in its long-haul fleet replacement cycle.

The 787 will go into commercial service next year at Japan's All Nippon Airways.

Despite booked up assembly lines, Boeing apparently managed to find room to begin delivering 787s to BA in 2010.

DuPont-based Venture Financial Group, Inc., parent company of Venture Bank, announced today that it has decided to postpone its initial public offering of company stock due to adverse market conditions.

Chief Executive Officer Ken F. Parsons, Sr. said the decision to postpone the offering “is primarily due to market conditions for financial institution stocks. We remain committed to enhancing shareholder value. When market conditions improve we will revisit our decision to go public.”

On July 17, the company filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and had expected to raise as much as $46 million with the offering.

MSN Money reports that Venture had expected to issue 1.8 million shares. Should the bank complete the offering, the stock will trade on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker VNBK.

At noon today, current market conditions, according to Bloomberg News, show Western commercial bank stocks down an average of 9.9 percent from a year ago.

“We’ll be watching the market.” said Joseph Beaulieu, Venture senior vice president, earlier today.

If you work in the Puget Sound area, you’re better paid than people doing the same job elsewhere (at least in most of the elsewheres) in the U.S.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics today release its annual “Occupational Pay Relatives” data set, which compares pay received in 78 metropolitan areas across the nation.

Workers in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area earned 109 percent of relative wages nationwide. This means that if everybody else earned 100 percent, we earned 9 percent more.

Among those elsewheres, workers in the San Francisco area earned the most, scoring 119; followed by the New York City area, at 114; Salinas, Calif., at 113; and the Boston area and Hartford, Conn., both at 112.

Topping the lowest five was Corpus Christi, Tex., at 87; followed by Great Falls, Mont., Johnstown, Penn. and Springfield, Missouri, at 87; and the Brownsville, Tex. area at 78.

In the West, Anchorage scored 109; San Diego, 108; Los Angeles, 107; Sacramento, 106; Portland-Salem, 104; and Reno, 98.

Puget Sound Energy customers will see their natural gas rates drop by 13 percent beginning Oct. 1, according to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

The commission approved PSE's request for a rate cut – in response to lower wholesale natural gas prices – today.

Puget Sound Energy is the state’s largest natural-gas provider. It serves more than 721,000 customers in parts of Snohomish, King, Pierce, Lewis, Thurston and Kittitas counties.

This is PSE's first rate cut in five years. The average bill for a PSE residential ratepayer using 68 therms will drop by $11.27 to $82.12.

Once a year, the UTC adjusts customers' rates to reflect the change in wholesale natural-gas costs. Natural gas utilities in Washington are not allowed to earn a profit on gas commodity increases.

I received an e-mail from a Chicago p.r. agency this morning (we get a lot of mail from out-of-town p.r. agencies) concerning job interviews. I’m not sure I’ll be interviewing the client the agency was promoting, in that we don’t cover Chicago a whole lot here at The News Tribune, but there was some food for thought in the message.

Or at least - some snack for thought.

Public relations folks know that we journalists love lists. We love lists because we believe that readers love lists. They’re simple, they’re short and they’re easily digested. So here’s a list (from Tom Gimbel, CEO of the Chicago-based staffing, recruitment and executive search firm, the LaSalle Network.) It’s a list of three dumb questions he’s heard asked at job interviews.

1. Can I see the break room?
2. How many sick days do I get?
3. Do you trace Internet traffic on company computers?

If you’ve heard of any other dumb questions – maybe you’ve asked them yourself, or maybe a job candidate has asked them when you’ve been the interviewer – please let me know. Add a comment below. This could be fun. Or not. Thanks.

The weak dollar is throwing a wrench into Airbus' plans to restructure its manufacturing network to save money.

The European aircraft maker said today that the Euro's strength against the dollar means to the company will have to find a way to save an additional $1.4 billion to meet its financial goals.

That same weak dollar and strong Euro is a plus for Boeing. Boeing and Airbus price their airliners in dollars. Boeing pays for much of its production and parts costs in dollars. Airbus, most of whose plants are located in Europe, pays for labor and goods in Euros, but gets dollars for its planes.

The Euro after years of parity with the dollar, is now worth about $1.40.

Airbus is fighting the currency disadvantage by currency hedging and by buying more parts in the United States where it pays for those goods in dollars.

Shareholders of Heritage Financial Corp., parent of Heritage Bank and Central Valley Bank, will receive a dividend of 21 cents per share payable on October 30, 2007 to shareholders of record on October 15, 2007.

Heritage has paid cash dividends for 39 consecutive quarters since the company’s stock began trading on the Nasdaq exchange in early 1998.

Heritage Financial serves Pierce, Thurston, Mason and South King counties with 14 branches of Heritage Bank, while Central Valley Bank serves Yakima and Kittitas Counties with six branches.

Heritage stock fell 19 cents today, to $22.20. The stock is down 10.52 percent so far in 2007, according to Bloomberg News.

Boeing Co. stock continued its climb above the $100 per share mark today closing at $104.93 a share, up $1.88 from Monday's close.

The company's stock this year has managed to cast off bad news with just a little staggering and return to positive territory.

As recently as Sept. 7, Boeing was selling for more $10 a share less, $94.84 at the close. Despite news of delays in the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner and reports from news anchor Dan Rather that at former Boeing engineer believes the Dreamliner won't withstand a crash, the stock has surged back.

The price is still shy, however, of the $107.23 closing high on July 25.

The video gaming world's hottest item, Halo 3, got off to a strong sales start today in the South Sound with customers lining up outside local stores before their opening.

At both Best Buy and the Tacoma Mall GameStop 15 or so game enthusiasts were waiting to put their money down for the final edition of the trilogy of Halo games when the stores opened this morning at 10 a.m.

At Tacoma's Circuit City, the line was shorter with four or five customers queueing up for the store's opening, said store personnel.

The demand for the game remained steady throughout the morning an into early afternoon.

"We're still getting a steady stream of customers coming in," said Nikkie Evans at GameStop at 1 p.m..

Microsoft, on whose XBox360 the game can be played, is counting on strong Halo 3 sales to reinvigorate interest in its gaming system.

The basic edition of the game costs about $60 at most stores with more fully featured editions costing about $130.

Yikes. Bad news already from the Halo front.

The Associated Press reports that special limited-edition packaging is scratching the video game disks.

Microsoft Corp., which owns the studio that makes “Halo 3,” responded quickly on its Xbox Web site with details for a replacement program.

Customers can fill out a form and send in their scratched limited-edition disks for a free exchange through the end of December.

Microsoft is selling the limited-edition version, which comes in a tin decorated with the “Halo 3” logo, for $70.

A regular copy of the game costs $60, and a “legendary” version, which comes with a replica of the helmet worn by game protagonist Master Chief, costs $130. The game officially went on sale today.

With 84.3 percent of rooms taken, the hotel-occupancy rate in Pierce County rose 3.7 percent in July as compared to the same month in 2006. Statewide, 84.5 percent of rooms were occupied, an increase of 2.2 percent, said Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood in his latest monthly report.

Tacoma and Pierce County hotels continue to charge the state's lowest average daily room rate, at $81.78, which has increased 8.8 percent from 2006. The statewide average, $134.02, increased 3.8 percent over the year. Downtown Seattle hotels, which charge an average of $177.10, saw a 0.6 percent decline. Everett and Snohomish County marked the largest increase, with rates up 11.2 percent to $102.05.

Earlier this spring Sound Refining opened an automated biodiesel blending facility near Tacoma's Tideflats.

Though the blender has been up and running since April, the company will celebrate its official, grand opening Thursday.

The machine automatically mixes pure biodiesel with petroleum diesel, creating blends of various ratios.

For example, B-100 is pure biodiesel, while B-20 is 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel. Despite being mixed with petroleum products, the blends still offer environmental benefits,said Bett Simpson, Sound Refining's sales manager.

So why blend the fuel?

Simpson said people want blended fuel vs. 100 percent biodiesel for a few reasons.

Fuel containing more, pure biodiesel can sometimes cause blockages in vehicles fuel filters – so companies often ease into biodiesel using blended fuel.

Also, Simpson noted that companies must use a blended biodiesel to be eligible for various state and local tax credits.

Sound Refining's new blender machine mixes the fuel more precisely than the traditional, "splash" method of blending. That is loading the fuels into one truck and letting them mix as they are transported.

"Customer’s will be able to mix the percentage of biodiesel/diesel depending on needs, whether that need be B-2, B-99.9 or practically any percentage in-between," according to a news release from the company.

Sound Refining is a fuel wholesalers and sells its products to distributors.

A nationwide test of America’s financial institutions has begun, and chances are: You won’t be hearing much about it.

Beginning yesterday, nearly 3,000 financial institutions – banks, credit unions, securities firms, insurance companies and such – began a three-week scenario wherein pandemic flu has infected the U.S.

Employees are calling in sick. The workload is up and the workforce is suddenly depleted.

Will the country’s ability to manage money shine, fail or even survive? That’s what the test is all about.

Pre-registered players will be given updates on the number of employees who are no longer coming to work. How well have the institutions planned for such a contingency? After three weeks, we’ll find out.

Read on.

=> Read more!

You may have noticed the story about coins in yesterday's Wall Street Journal Sunday in the News Tribune. What should you do when you want to cash them in? If you don't want to pay the fee at a Coinstar machine, who counts them for free? Where can you unload them without having to stick them in those little paper rolls?

The Journal article mentioned a few East Coast banks. I recall doing a story a few years ago where I discovered that the only place around here you could have your piggy bank counted – free – was at the Emerald Queen Casino.

I also remembered a story a few months back wherein Columbia Bank had promised to put counting machines into a few local branches.
That has finally come to pass. A Columbia spokeswoman told me today that customers can have their coins counted, at no cost, at the Allenmore branch, 1959 S. Union in Tacoma, and the Puyallup South Hill branch, 4220 S. Meridian.

If your South Sound bank also provides the service, please add a comment to let other customers know. Thanks.

Get free music with your latte.

Starbucks Corp. said today it will introduce a digital music service in more than 600 outlets in New York and Seattle, Bloomberg News reports.

The iTunes wireless download service, started in partnership with Apple Inc., will be available in the cafes starting Oct. 2, the company said.

Starbucks, based in Seattle, has added CDs, DVDs, books and other items to expand sales beyond coffee. The company will give away 50 million free downloads as part of a promotion for the service at more than 10,000 locations. Customers will be able to download a free “Song of the Day” chosen by Starbucks employees, from artists such as Bob Dylan and John Mayer, that can be redeemed at iTunes stores.

“This is the first step in combining the power of brick and mortar retail and digital music,” Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, said in the statement.

Tacoma is going to be a bit safer later this week as an estimated 2,500 visitors attend the 56th Annual Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference.

The event, which runs Wednesday and Thursday, will feature more than 70 events including workshops, exhibitions and demonstrations – on subjects ranging from pet CPR to the effects of sleep apnea. Attendees can expect a forklift rodeo, poletop-rescue competition and trade show.

The highlight of the convocation, at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, will likely come Wednesday morning as Gov. Chris Gregoire honors 43 individuals who have saved lives. Among the honorees – who hail from throughout the state – are Ken Wickstrom, a Peninsula Light Co. foreman, and Tom Miner, a program manager for Pierce County’s Department of Emergency Management, who gave CPR to a man who had suffered a heart attack.

Other South Sound honorees include Comcast employee Todd Brennan, who used his bare hands to extinguish the flames that had enveloped an Oceanside, Calif. man after a motorcycle accident; and David Burns, a Tacoma employee of Northwest Protective Services, who pulled a man from waters near Foss Landing Marina.

For more information about the conference, visit www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/TrainTools/GovConf/

Now that I gave you my list, I want to hear yours. And don't just stop at the borders of Tacoma, like I did when I came up with my Top 10 most underrated businesses in today's Business section.
1. Sitecrafting
2. Valhalla Coffee Roasters
3. Tacoma Screw Products
4. Prosser's Piano & Organ
5. Burkhart Dental Supply
6. UrbanXchange
7. Russell Investment Group
8. East Asia Supermarket
9. Gordon Thomas Honeywell Malanca Peterson & Daheim
10. Albers & Co.

What do I mean by underrated?
• A well known company whose impact runs deeper than most people realize.
• A little known company doing gangbusters business.
• Any business that doesn't get its due.

Join the conversation. Share your list underrated businesses and explain why. I may choose one or more of them to write about in a future column.
Remember: you have to login or register to comment.

Other items from last night's commission meeting to note:

The commission approved a whopping $4 million, four-year contract to Auburn-based Parametrix to survey the Blair Peninsula for future development.

The port plans on a building a container terminal on the east side of the Blair Waterway for NYK Line. That project requires additional road and rail infrastructure and moving an existing terminal.

Parametrix will be on-call for the survey work.

Also Bill Evans, the port's environmental project manager for Kaiser site demolition, asked for and received a change order on some of the Kaiser work.

More interesting, however, is the fact that the Port of Tacoma has actually made money dismantling the former Kaiser Aluminum facility due to the high price of recycled metals.

=> Read more!

Who says Port of Tacoma commission meetings are boring?

Last night, the commission approved $100,000 to co-fund a trade office in Fuzhou, China. It's an 18-month, pilot-project with the city to see if some economic benefit can be gleaned from Tacoma's sister city relationship with Fuzhou.

The project passed 4-0 – Commissioner Clare Petrich abstained from voting – after much discussion.

=> Read more!

Last month I wrote about Jet Artist Cooperative, the brainchild of Linda Danforth, who provides inexpensive space for eight artists of various genres on the top floor of a historic building on the UWT campus.

Well, she got bombarded by so many more artists looking for space she didn’t have that Danforth just signed a lease at 705 Opera Alley. She started showing it to artists Wednesday but still has spaces available in what she’s calling Broadway Artist Cooperative.

“Since Jet was full, I felt it was a shame to turn people away,” she said. “I expect (the new space) to fill up by October first – hopefully anyway.”

Contact her at lindadanforth@hotmail.com.

Meanwhile, Danforth also signed a lease this week on storefront space formerly occupied by Friday’s Cookies in Hilltop’s Alberta Canada Building. There she and her board of directors will launch a separate venture – Tacoma Art Place, a non-profit organized under the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, to provide space and access to equipment and training that will allow more people to affordably explore their creativity and artistic ability.

The Federal Reserve, which lowered its benchmark interest rate earlier this week, doesn’t seem to be worried about inflation.

Neither should you. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued its latest consumer-price numbers for the Pacific Northwest, and the trend is up, but mininmally so.

Prices in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area increased only 0.2 percent in July and August. For the year, the inflation rate in the Puget Sound area is up 3.0 percent.

Grocery prices were down 1.1 percent for the two-month period, while housing costs rose 1.4 percent.

Apparel prices, typically volatile, were down 0.3 percent, the bureau said, while household furnishings and operations fell 4.1 percent. Medical-care costs rose 0.8 percent over the two months, and were 5.7 percent higher compared to a year ago.

Transportation costs fell 2.6 percent as the price of gasoline decreased 11.1 percent. Over the year, the overall transportation index has decreased 1.8 percent, with the price of gasoline down 7.4 percent.

Paper airline tickets, once the currency of the travel industry, will soon be going the way of the franc, the mark and the lira.

The airline industry industry clearing house that has handled paper tickets for most major airlines for decades this week announced it will shut down its clearing house operations for paper tickets June 1.

That means an end to paper tickets except for small regional airlines and for niche operations.

The reason behind the abandonment of the paper tickets relates, as most everything does in the airline industry now, to costs.

The International Air Transport Association figures that issuing paper tickets costs an airline $10 to $17 a ticket. Electronic tickets cost but $1 to create and handle.

The paper ticket has been dying for years as airlines have gradually cut back on its use. Just 14 percent of airline trips now involve paper tickets.

Airlines advise passengers to carry a printed copy of their return reservation if going to a foreign country that requires evidence of a return flight to admit you to the country on a tourist visa or passport.

I remember when a billion dollars used to mean something.

The Associated Press reports that for the first time, it takes more than $1 billion to crack Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans.

In fact, the story reports that the minimum net worth on the list was $1.3 billion and 82 U.S. billionaires didn't make the cut.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates tops the list, with a net worth of on estimated $59 billion.

=> Read more!

Kelly, C.R. and I stopped in to The Poppy Seed Cafe in Fircrest for lunch today. (And did some shopping at a boutique next door after we ate.)

The small shop along Regents Boulevard has been open for about 18 months and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Owner Shelly Adams said the most popular items on the menu are egg scrambles and the raspberry poppy seed salad. We didn't have any of those entrees but they sound nice. The restaurant also offers a lemon poppy seed waffle during breakfast that sounds yummy.

Adams said she and her husband run the place together.

After lunch, Kelly and I stopped in at Good Karma next door. That shop sells jewelry and handbags from local artists.

Good Karma has been open since December. Owner Michelle Baerg said she looks for cool stuff created by artists around the state. She has some nice handbags made in North Bend and jewelry made in Fircrest and University Place. One cute item: small stud earrings shaped like spiders for Halloween.

This just in from The Olympian:

City officials seek public comment about DuPont's strengths and weaknesses via a survey at the city's Web site, www.ci.dupont.wa.us.

Survey results will help the city and consulting firm Total Destination develop a "brand name" for DuPont.

The city is spending $30,000 in hotel and lodging tax money to come up with a tag line — such as Seattle's "The Emerald City" — to help in marketing.

I tried, but I couldn't resist suggesting a few of my own:

DuPont: We almost have a grocery store.
DuPont: Where Kevin Costner gets coffee
DuPont: Right next to Steilacoom, the state's oldest town.

Of course, people who live in the City of Destiny shouldn't throw stones from their wired houses – or something like that.

A new massage shop is coming to the Tacoma Mall on the north side down the hall from Ben Bridge Jeweler.

Massage Envy, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company with franchises around the country, will offer a massage for $59, with each additional massage in the same month costing just $39.

The company will open its newest clinic on Saturday, Sept. 29.

“Our goal is to allow everyone to experience the therapeutic and stress-relieving benefits of massage therapy as often as needed,” said Rick Davis, owner of the new clinic.

Aside from price, Massage Envy offers a number of other special features, the company said. The clinics are open weekends and as late as 10 p.m. on weekdays to accommodate guests’ busy schedules.

Massage Envy shops also are located in Puyallup and Federal Way.

Massage Envy has more than 250 clinics in more than 30 states.

Friends of the Port, a citizens' group, is calling for the Port of Tacoma to televise its meetings. Check out today's story for the background.

The News Tribune is curious what readers think – so we're taking a poll. Should the port broadcast its meetings on TV?

Go here to vote.
Or here to see the results.

Note: You need to be registered with the Web site and logged in to vote.

A new report by the Texas Transportation Institute ranks the Seattle area almost at the bottom of the list of most congested very large American cities.

That study ranked Los Angeles-Long Beach as the most congested area in the country followed by San Francisco-Oakland, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego, Detroit, San Jose, Orlando, Denver and Phoenix. Seattle was 19th on the list.

Other smaller cities ranked below Seattle, but it was the second least traffic-fouled of the very large areas as defined by the institute's study. Philadelphia was less congested on that list of metro areas with more than three million population.

That study found that driver's in Los Angeles were delayed in traffic an average of 72 hours a year. In Seattle, the figure was 45 hours.

Seattle traffic hasn't gotten better over the years, it just hasn't gotten as bad as fast as other cities, the study shows.

Southwest Airlines Co.'s open seating policy is here to stay. It's the long wait in line that's going, the Dallas Morning News reports.

"That's right, I'll say it," Gary Kelly, the airline's chief executive, said in a press conference this morning. "No more cattle call."

Kelly said last month's tests in San Antonio were a "dress rehearsal" for the new boarding system, which will roll out nationwide in November.

While customers won't be assigned a seat, they will be assigned a place in line.

Southwest's 36-year-old open seating policy has been a passion point for many passengers. On the airline's blog, an entry from Kelly describing plans to reconsider the policy elicited more than 700 comments - most of whom wanted the policy to stay in place.

Boeing stock was up more than $1.50 a share Wednesday after shaking off a negative report from a Wall Street analyst.

The aerospace company's stock initially fell Tuesday after Banc of America Securities lowered its target price for the stock from $131 a share to $114 a share.

The securities firm said it based its reduction on the risk Boeing faces of not delivering its first 787 Dreamliner on time. Banc of America Securities, however, retained a "buy" rating for the stock.

The first flight of the new plane has been delayed from late August to mid-November to mid-December. That schedule leaves only five months for Boeing to test fly the first aircraft and to satisfy regulators that the aircraft is safe.

The first operational aircraft is due to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways in May.

Papa Murphy's announced this week that its take ‘n’ bake pizza contains zero grams of trans fat per serving.

Here's what the company says:

Papa Murphy’s has reformulated more than 20 pizzas without sacrificing the quality, flavor and taste customers have come to expect.

Clarice Turner, president and COO of Papa Murphy’s:

“As a wife and a mom, I try to be very careful about not feeding my family anything with potentially harmful ingredients, and our customers shouldn’t have to either.”

If you love horseracing, you're going to love this: TVG, America’s Horseracing Network, is coming to Comcast Cable in Washington.

The network will be available to Digital Classic subscribers.

TVG is the only horseracing network on Comcast, and the only network where Washington residents can watch live racing from Emerald Downs and more than 100 tracks across the U.S. and around the world.

Beginning this week, Comcast will deliver TVG on Digital Classic Channel 409. The 2007 racing season at Emerald Downs continues through Sept. 30.

The Washington Restaurant Association will be visiting Seattle, not Tacoma, when it welcomes delegates to its 2008 convention.

It’s one of my favorite stories to write - the association coming to Tacoma, to the Dome, as it has for several years. There's all that free food (and drink) offered to attendees. There's lots of cheese, and I get to ask the representative from Miller Springs Ultra Premium Water (as I have for the past two sessions) just what it is that makes water ultra premium, and not just premium. (The ingredients list ozone and fluoride ions.)

It’s a great show. So when I read in the association’s magazine that Seattle was the new home of the convention that typically occupied the entire floor of the Dome, as well as not just a few hotel rooms, as well as the reservation books of many Pierce County restaurants for lunches and dinners, I wondered.

I called Anthony Anton, head of the association and a known son of Pierce County. He said not to worry.

“We’re going to Seattle this trip, and keeping it fresh,” he said. “We’re going to try some different floor plans. We’ve loved our experience in Tacoma.”

He continued, “We’re hoping to sell a hundred or so more booths. I don’t think it’s a negative thing.”

And who knows. If Seattle doesn’t work out, or gets stale, or if the delivery trucks can’t make it up the ramp to the Washington State Convention Center, then the WRA may come back.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see it moving from year to year,” Anton said. “Tacoma has a ton of advantages.”

Because it's 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday seems a long ways away.

Editors at CareerBuilder.com and Second City Communications have written a humorous book called Cube Monkeys: A Handbook for Surviving the Office Jungle.

Here's a few excerpts:

Business Books to Impress the Big Dogs: Show the muckety-mucks you're a real go-getter by keeping these best sellers in your cube

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? No, Seriously, It Was Right Here

WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR PARACHUTE PANTS? Time to Update Your Wardrobe

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE and Then Use That to Destroy Them

=> Read more!

Now you don't have to call the airline to change your itinerary on Alaska Airlines.

The airline announced today it is offering an on-line option on its Web page for customers who want to change their plans after buying a ticket.

The "Change Itinerary" feature offers a matrix of 20 choices along with corresponding costs and fees to travelers who need to adjust their tickets.

The new feature also allows Alaska MVP and MVP Gold Mileage Plan members to search for flights with first class upgrades available.

The down side of all this new Internet functionality is that Alaska simultaneously is increasing the cost of making changes by phone to $75 per ticket compared with the $50 per ticket now charged for phone changes. Internet itinerary changes will be charged $50 per ticket.

The on-line service is not yet available for those flying on frequent flier mileage plan tickets or for those with international journeys. The airline plans to add those flights to its online repertoire soon.

The 401(k) Plan isn’t what is used to be, and the financial services industry is trying to figure out what it’s going to be.

Tacoma-based Russell Investment Group has shown its leadership with its “Russell Retirement Report 2008.” The report, available for download at www.russell.com/RetirementReport2008, marks the evolution of the 401(k) by saying the very purpose of the plan is changing. ”While many have historically viewed 401(k)s as supplemental savings, they are entering a new phase – we’re calling version 2.0 – where they are quickly becoming the primary retirement savings vehicles for millions of Americans.”

The report also includes Russell’s Market Outlook 2008 - which takes a look at the near future from the longevity swap to a warning not to be surprised “by continued high volatility as jittery investors react to the changed environment and the market searches for a new level of ‘normal.’”

Normally, this kind of advice would cost money. Today, it’s free. And interesting.

Bad news for those of us with small kids.

Southwest Airlines Co., working to get passengers on its planes faster, will stop allowing people traveling with small children to board first, Bloomberg News reports.

The change, which occurs Oct. 2, is among several options under study to speed boarding and reduce the time Southwest jets sit idle between flights, spokeswoman Beth Harbin said today in an interview.
The Dallas-based airline also may announce other changes at a news conference tomorrow.

SeaTac-headquartered Alaska Airlines could be the first U.S. carrier to equip its fleet for Internet connectivity.

The nation's ninth largest airline announced today it has signed a deal with Internet provider Row 44 to test a satellite-based Internet connection scheme on an Alaska aircraft next spring.

If that test is successful, Alaska would install the Internet capability on all of its 116 aircraft.

Alaska made the announcement at Toronto's 28th Annual World Airline Entertainment Association and Conference.

The new system will allow passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants, smartphones and portable gaming systems to tap into the Internet.

The Row 44 system, unlike some ground-based systems being considered by other carriers, will use satellites to communicate with equipment aboard Alaska aircraft.

Alaska, with its routes to remote areas of Alaska and across the Pacific to Hawaii and across Mexico, needs a satellite system to ensure connections no matter where its aircraft is flying.

A lightweight radome will be installed on each aircraft housing a satellite antenna and other equipment. The satellite signals will be transmitted to Wi-Fi hotspots in each aircraft.

Alaska is still studying how to price the service. The Internet connections may be free to first class passengers or to premium level frequent fliers.

Coach passengers may either pay a per flight or per day extra charge of about $10 for Internet access or a monthly fee allowing them unlimited access to the service whenever they're flying on Alaska.

Alaska has been a pioneer among U.S. airlines of high-tech innovations. It was the first large airline to sell tickets over the Internet, the first to allow check-in via airport kiosks and the first to permit check-in via the Internet.

A former Boeing engineer claims Boeing's highly touted composite-bodied 787 Dreamliner will be unsafe in a crash because it will shatter like a crockery pot and burn emitting toxic fumes.

Vince Weldon, whom Boeing fired for allegedly threatening a supervisor, told former CBS anchorman Dan Rather that the passengers will have a lower chance of surviving in a 787 crash than that of a comparable metal aircraft. The metal will crumple, absorbing some of the force of the crash, while the 787 composite fuselage would shatter, he claims.

Weldon's allegations will be aired tonight on Rather's show on cable channel HDNet.

Boeing has denied Weldon's claims. The aerospace company says the 787 offers comparable crash protection to a metal aircraft.

Europe's Airbus, which initially planned to build its new A350 using a metal framework to which composite panels were attached, has reportedly converted to Boeing's way of thinking. The European manufacturer now reportedly will build both the A350 framework and its body panels of composite.

Composite fuselages are built of layer upon layer of composite tape and fabic, made up of carbon fibers embedded in a resin that becomes a solid material when baked at high temperatures in an industrial oven or autoclave.

Boeing is using composites in the 787 because they're lighter weight that metal, don't corrode and are resiliant when accidentally bumped.

The aircraft industry has used composites for years to build large pieces of commercial airliners such as the tail of Boeing's 777. Smaller corporate aircraft have been built largely of composites, but the 787 is the first airliner to be made mostly of that material.

Job seekers take note:

Tacoma Goodwill will hold a job fair at The Commons in Federal Way Sept. 26.

Major employers such as the Emerald Queen Casino, Safeway, Starbucks, Fred Meyer, Sears, Macy's, UPS, Top Food & Drug, Menzies Aviation and Taco Bell will be hiring workers at the fair.

The job fair is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Macy's courtyard at the shopping center at Pacific Highway South and South 320th Street in Federal Way.

Goodwill is holding two job fair preparation sessions in advance of the fair. The first preparatory session is set for Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Tacoma Goodwill Workforce Development Office, 714 S. 27th St. in Tacoma. Another session is set for Monday from 10 a.m. to noon at The Commons.

Finding a long-term parking spot in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's garage is becoming a task equivalent to finding an airline flight serving a full meal.

Airport officials expect the garage, which was begging for customers just five years ago, to be nearly full this fall especially on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

"Our airline traffic is growing at three percent a year, but our long-term parking usage is growing by 10 to 15 percent a year, said Paul Grace, the airport's senior manager for landside operations.

The tight supply of empty spots in the 9,000-vehicle garage is a symptom of a thriving economy, he said.

Companies that formerly told traveling employees to find a parking spot behind a motel for $5 a day now aren't flinching at the prospect of paying the airport garage's $22 daily parking rate.

"They don't seem to mind paying higher rates for convenient, secure parking," he said.

Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center has been named by Modern Healthcare Magazine as one of the country’s most-preferred hospitals. The Consumer Choice Award comes from results of an annual survey conducted by the National Research Corp. for its Healthcare Market Guide.

The survey polls some 200,000 households in over 190 U.S. markets. The results were announced today.

Joe Wilczek, president and chief executive officer of Franciscan Health System, which operates South Sound health facilities including St. Joseph Medical Center, said the award “is another testament to our hospital’s success at meeting the needs of patients and families. It acknowledges the special dedication, commitment to excellence and the superior skill that our physicians, nurses and other staff members demonstrate every day.”

Other Washington winners were Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane and Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.

I’m on my way out to the Puyallup Fair this afternoon – to appear with my colleague Dan Voelpel at The News Tribune booth. We’ll be there for an hour beginning at 5 p.m., answering questions from readers and passersby about business in the South Sound.

And I’m hoping to talk Dan into a ride on the roller coaster when we’re through. Which brings me to the purpose of this post.

Safety.

The State Department of Labor and Industries is charged with inspecting amusement rides such as those at the fair. The department lists a few tips for patrons. If you’re intending to visit The Puyallup over the next few days, either by yourself of with your children, these might help:

1. Check for a current state decal on the ride. The required decal indicates that the ride has been inspected and approved.

2. Observe how the ride is operated.Is the operator taking care to ensure that passengers are appropriately protected? Is the operator paying close attention when the ride is in motion? Is the operator observing restrictions about rider size?

3. For those bouncy rides, the inflatable ones: Is the operator strictly limiting the number of users on the ride at one time? Does the inflatable ride appear to be overloaded or unstable? Does the ride appear to be securely anchored? Could the blower inflating the ride accidentally be unplugged, collapsing and possibly injuring the riders?

This just in from The Olympian:

LACEY — Kohl's, a department store that will employ about 150 people, is set to open Oct. 3 in Lacey's South Sound Center, 711 Sleater-Kinney Road S.E.

The store's manager, Suzette Williams, confirmed the opening date Thursday. A Kohl's spokesman could not be reached, and the date was not on the company's Web site.

Kohl's has been remodeling the former Mervyns store that closed this year after the California company pulled out of Washington. Kohl's, based in Menomenee Falls, Wis., is expanding and will open a Tukwila store the same day as the Lacey store, according to The Seattle Times.

Kohl's is considered a competitor to J.C. Penney.

Tacoma Public Utilities announced this week it has awarded the redesign and development of its main Web site – plus sites for Tacoma Power, Tacoma Water and Tacoma Rail – to SiteCrafting, Inc. of Tacoma.

Chris Gleason, TPU spokeswoman, said today that seven qualified firms bid for the job, and that SiteCrafting was among a trio that were called in for interviews. The others, she said, were from the East Coast and Utah.

The $150,000 project also includes an online permitting application that will allow TPU business customers to view existing inspections related to their permits.

SiteCrafting’s presentation was the best of the group, Gleason said. “This is a huge deal for us. Our website was developed quite a few years ago, and it doesn’t reflect us. This will be a lot more friendly for customers.”

Brian Forth, SiteCrafting president, said today he was pleased to get the job. “We live and work in Tacoma. We have a bunch of employees in Tacoma. It’s great to benefit the community we’re a part of.”

The company has designed other South Sound sites, Forth said, including those for Puyallup, DuPont, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and the YMCA.

Here at Biz Buzz headquarters, we've seen our fair share of PowerPoint presentations.

There are a few organizations out there (you know who you are) whose members love nothing more than clicking through a few dozen slides in front of an audience.

Sometimes the presentations are delightful. Other times they could benefit from these handy tips, courtesy of MarketWatch.

If you’ve been guilty of using PowerPoint to bore your clients and colleagues to death, try heeding the advice of Harvard University psychology Prof. Stephen Kosslyn.

In his new book “Clear and to the Point,” Kosslyn offers five rules for creating powerful PowerPoint presentations:

— Keep it simple. People often make the mistake of including so much nonessential information in their PowerPoint presentations that the audience loses the thread of their argument. “Telling them too much will leave them overwhelmed, disoriented and irritated,” writes Kosslyn. The rule of thumb: An effective presentation is organized around a central message and everything you include should serve to bolster that message. If in doubt, leave it out.

— Tell them what they need to know. Some presenters assume too much knowledge on the part of their audience. Their presentations are long on bullet points and industry jargon, and short on meaningful information. If your slides don’t effectively relay your message, your audience members will spend all their time trying to decipher your “code” rather than listening to you. The rule of thumb: Be clear. Don’t treat listeners like insiders unless they actually are.

— Know your audience. If you want to engage your audience members, tailor the material to fit their interests and address their concerns. A listener who feels personally connected with the material will be more likely to ponder it and remember it. The rule of thumb: People will listen and remember only if you’re telling them something they want to know.

— Use visuals only to clarify your point. PowerPoint has so many bells and whistles now that many presenters are tempted to go hog wild with charts, graphs and other visual flourishes. But if you use too many, your audience is likely to tune out what you’re saying. “If words, shapes or effects don’t convey information, they distract,” writes Kosslyn. The rule of thumb: Less is more.

— Give your audience time to digest. To avoid information overload, it’s important to build in breaks. Use well-chosen, pertinent anecdotes (or even an occasional joke) to break up the content-heavy parts of your presentation. This will give your audience the opportunity to digest the details. The rule of thumb: Make sure your interjections help illustrate your point and don’t run the risk of offending your audience.

Honda Civic 2007

Bloomberg News reports today that Honda Motor Co. is recalling 182,756 Civics, the automaker’s second-best selling U.S. model, to fix a wheel-bearing seal that may leak and cause the wheel to fall off.

The recall, covering 2006 and 2007 model-year Civic sedans and coupes, was reported on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Web site.

The affected models were made from March 24, 2005, through Feb. 8, 2007, Honda said.

Water may be able to seep past an O-ring seal on the wheel bearing, damaging the bearing, Tokyo-based Honda said in a letter on the NHTSA Web site.

=> Read more!

Northwest Airlines' last trans-Pacific flight with a Boeing 747-200 landed earlier this week at Sea-Tac Airport after crossing the Pacific from Tokyo.

Boeing built that aircraft in 1979, and it joined Northwest's fleet that year. For decades, 747-200s were the mainstay's of Northwest's Pacific fleet. Northwest's fleet of 747-200s peaked at 22 in 1997.

The 747-200 was replaced on trans-Pacific flights by newer and more fuel-efficient 747-400s and by Airbus A330 twinjets.

Northwest will keep two 747-200s in its fleet for 18 months to use for charter operations.

Apparently anxious about the idea of an ordinary janitor dusting the airport's Rauschberg and Stella creations, Sea-Tac Airport is advertising for an "art handler" to care for its 100-or-so artworks.

Frank Stella's York Factory A, oil on canvas, Concourse A.

The 20-hour-a-week worker will clean the art and artwork exhibit cases, change lamps illuminating the art and assist in the installation and "deinstallation" of temporary art shows.

The airport is looking for someone with at least two years of experience maintaining and handling art in a museum or gallery.

The airport has been acquiring art since 1969 and has amassed a respectable collection. Here's a link to page where you can view some of the art and a map of where the art is exhibited in the airport.

With its stock selling for $20 or so below its 52-week high, Alaska Air Group has announced it will buy back up to $100 million of its own stock.

That move should have a positive effect on the stock's price because the airline will have fewer shares in public hands after the purchases are complete.

The SeaTac-base
company's move is an indication that it believes it has enough of a cash cushion on hand to finance operations and capital needs.

Alaska stock has sold for as much as $45.85 a share in the last year. After a disappointing second-quarter earnings report, the stock dropped below $25 a share. It has sold for as low as $21.50 a share in the last year.

Alaska Air Group is the parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.

Washington Mutual Inc. said today it will cut 1,000 jobs, eliminating its sales force dedicated to mortgage borrowers with questionable credit and slashing some of its wholesale banking operations, The Associated Press reports.

At the same time, the company said it plans to add up to 1,000 new employees who will sell both prime and subprime mortgages at the company’s regular bank branches and special home loan centers around the country.

The bank will lay off 75 dedicated subprime mortgage sales people and account managers, and integrate what’s left of the subprime lending business into its regular mortgage business, said spokesman Alan Gulick.

Gulick said the company will consolidate three loan fulfillment centers and lay off 340 more workers in San Antonio, San Diego and Anaheim, Calif.
Washington Mutual will also cut 210 jobs and conduct an “orderly wind-down” of parts of its wholesale banking business, which includes trading mortgages and mortgage-backed securities and lending money to other banks, the spokesman said.

Trains, boats and feats of strength. Does Maritime Fest get any better than this?

The annual celebration of Tacoma's maritime history is this weekend.

Tacoma Rail will host an open house Saturday that includes strongman Mark Kirsch. He will attempt to pull a 76,000-pound Tacoma Rail caboose for 75 feet.

The open house runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday near the Tacoma Rail offices at 2601 SR-509 North Frontage Road. Kirsh will attempt his feats of strength at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the port will be offering free boat tours with departures at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The boat rides are first come, first serve and they depart from new place this year – the Dock Building at 535 Dock Street.

There may be no free lunch, but there is a free breakfast in the offing – as the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development sponsors a Sichuan, China investment promotion seminar on Sept. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Pacific Lutheran University School of Business, Room 103.

A delegation of business and government leaders from Sichuan will be visiting the Puget Sound area in order to meet with local businesses interested in investing in China.

The is no fee for the seminar, and a continental breakfast will be provided.
Advanced registration is required by calling 253-841-4687.

Along with CTED, the event is being sponsored by World Trade Center Tacoma and PLU.

There were times – during the Millennial technology bust and various aerospace downturns, for example – when the Northwest lagged as a suffering stepsister to the prosperous states beyond our borders. Now it’s the other way around.

Just look at today’s monthly Pacific Northwest Economic Update compiled by Keitaro Matsuda, senior economist at Union Bank of California.

Says Matsuda: We’re doing quite well, thank you very much. Among his findings:

• Second-quarter year-over-year changes in home prices were negative in Nevada, Michigan, California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Not since 1997 have so many states seen declines. By comparison, Washington ranked third nationally (after Utah and Wyoming) with 9.1 percent appreciation.

• The hottest market in the nation in the second quarter was Wenatchee, with 23.5 percent appreciation. Four more metropolitan areas in Washington made the Top 20: Longview, up 13.6 percent; Seattle, up 9.9 percent; and Tacoma and Spokane, both up 9.3 percent.

• Where the nation lost 64,000 construction jobs between July 2006 and July 2007, Washington gained 9,900 – with most occurring in the nonresidential building sector.

• In Washington, Matsuda sats, “Job growth in the service and government sectors remains robust, suggesting that the fallout from the subprime crisis has so far been limited to residential construction, mortgage lending and a few housing-related industries.”

• He predicts an uptick in U.S. gross domestic product growth, from 2.0 percent this year to 3.0 percent in 2008. In Washington, he foresees a decline in employment growth, from 2.0 percent this year to 1.6 percent in 2008. Personal income growth will also decline, from 5.9 percent in 2007 to 5.6 percent next year.

Arik Air, Nigeria's newest commercial airline, today ordered a total of 15 new Boeing aircraft.

The order includes 10 Boeing 737-800 single-aisle jets, four 787-9 Dreamliners and one 777-300ER.

The new order is in addition to two 777-200LRs, two 777-300ERS and three 787-9s that Arik Air ordered in April. The airline in April took delivery of two 737-700s.

Arik Air has a fleet of 16 aircraft serving 11 domestic routes.

Boeing has pledged to help Nigeria achieve U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Category 1 status which will allow Arik to fly directly to the United States.

For the second day this week, SeaTac's Horizon Air is cancelling about a quarter of its flights.

The airline is inspecting 19 of its 33 Bombardier Q400 propjets for landing gear flaws.

The airline is taking that precautionary step after Transport Canada, Canada's aircraft safety agency, ordered those inspections of the Canadian-built planes.

The agency took that action after the landing gear of two SAS Q400s collapsed on landing this week on two flights in Europe.

As the planes clear inspection, Horizon will return them to service. Given the time it takes to inspect the planes, the regional airline expects that cancellations will continue in its system at least through Friday, though not in the quantity, 127, that the airline is seeing today.

Of course, if the airline and others like it around the world discover flaws, all bets are off about when the planes will be able to return to service.

Horizon is advising its passengers to check their flights on the Internet at www.alaskaair.com before leaving for the airport. The airline will rebook passengers on cancelled flights without extra charges if passengers call the airline at 800-547-9308.

Cancelled flight passengers are also eligible for full refunds if they chose to cancel their journeys even if their flights were reserved with non-refundable tickets.

Non-stop from glaciers to the glistening sand, from the windy wilderness to the waves of Waikiki – Alaska Airlines today announced it has acquired certain assets of Hawaiian Vacations Inc, an Anchorage-based tour company.

Alaska Airlines Vacations also announced it is offering a new line of Alaska-Hawaii vacation packages in conjunction with the inauguration of non-stop service between Anchorage and Honolulu. The flights begin Dec. 9.

Alaska has acquired Hawaiian Vacation’s current bookings, brand and Web presence, said HVI founder John Hardwick. Under the agreement, which takes force Jan. 13, HVI will no longer market vacation packages or charter flights.

Customers with HVI reservations for travel starting Jan. 13 and after will be contacted by the company, Alaska Airlines said in a statement earlier today. Customers with reservations between now and Jan. 12 will see no disruptions.

Concerning HVI’s 19 employees, Alaska spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said this afternoon, “We are working closely with Hawaiian Vacations to provide their employees with career opportunities at Alaska Airlines.”

Former HVI employees would be offered positions with the SeaTac-based airline “if there are good fits,” she said.

The sale price was not announced.

With Led Zeppelin leading much of the day’s news (they’re reuniting for a one-off November concert in London), let’s not forget that oil prices hit a record high today, with futures briefly cresting above $80 a barrel.

Chances are, the increase will affect prices at the pump. As it stands today, however, a gallon of regular in Tacoma cost $2.857, up minutely from $2.856 yesterday and a nickel up from a month ago, when the price was $2.805.

Still, the price today is well south of the record, $3.459 a gallon, that Tacomans were paying last May.

Bellinghamsters, as usual, are paying the state’s highest price today, at $2.922 per gallon, while Vancouverites are enjoying the lowest, at $2.844, according to AAA.

Not often do we write about the business of the business we’re in, but we do read about it. There’s an interesting report out today (www.journalism.org/node/7493) about the collection and dissemination of information, about mainstream media and the electronalists.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism compares the agendas offered over one week in June by the mainstream and the stream offered by three leading news-user sites: Reddit, Digg and Del.icio.us.

Among the findings:
• The news agenda of the three user-sites was different from that of the mainstream press.
• The sources used by the media to collect the data were different.
• Mainstream media, over the week, tended to focus on a handful of events – the immigration debate, a major fire near Lake Tahoe, failed bombings in Britain, events in Iraq.
• At the user sites, those topics were barely covered, with a 5 percent overlap between user-site mentions and mainstream stories. Instead, topics were more diverse. “The only story with any traction was the release of the Apple iPhone,” the report says. Popular story topics varied from intelligent design to a suit against record labels.
• Most stories on the three user sites came from blogs and sites not focused on news (31 percent, from YouTube, WebMd and Technorati, for example). Across the sites, the war in Iraq accounted for about 1 percent of coverage. Only 5 percent of coverage came from The Associated Press and Reuters, which offer much of the feed for mainstream media.

As I write this, Reddit’s top offering is a crime anecdote from the Chicago Sun-Times; Digg has pranksters at Yankee Stadium; and Del-icio.us has a video about how to buy a car. Reuters writes about record oil prices and the BBC profiles a unknown appointed as Russian prime minister.

Two European crashes involving landing gear failure on high-usage Bombardier Q400 aircraft have grounded 17 Horizon Air Q400s.

The first incident occurred at Aalborg, Denmark on Sunday. The second incident occurred on Wednesday at Vilnius, Lithuania.

Those groundings, pending inspection of the planes' landing gear, have caused SeaTac-based Horizon Air to cancel 115 flights today. That's about 25 percent of the airline's total daily flights.

The plane's manufacturer advised airlines using Q400s with more than 10,000 landings and takeoffs to ground the aircraft and inspect the landing gear for wear before putting the planes back into service.

Horizon spokesman Dan Russo said the airline had already inspected all the Q400s' landing gear on its own initiative after it heard of the first crash and found nothing obviously awry.

The airline now is awaiting specific word from aviation regulatory authorities about what they will specifically require before the planes can be put back in service. At this point neither Canadian nor American regulators have issued any of what the airline industry calls "airworthiness directives" requiring a specific kind of inspection or repair.

Horizon and other airlines flying the Q400 won't know until the regulators issue such an edict how long it will require to further inspect or fix the planes.

Horizon, a regional airline serving the Northwest, has 33 Q400s in its fleet. Nineteen of those planes have more than 10,000 landings and takeoffs.

Horizon is using other aircraft in its fleet to help cover some flights. Horizon's sister airline, Alaska Airlines, also flew 13 extra flights Wednesday to handle stranded Horizon passengers.

Horizon flies three Bombardier aircraft types, the 76-seat Q400s, the 37-seat Q200s and 70-seat CRJ-700 jets.

Horizon Air Bombardier Q400

The Q200s and Q400s are propjet aircraft.

The inspection advisory came after two SAS Q400s saw landing gear failures in recent days. Now one was killed in the incidents.

Here's a link to a video of one of the landing gear failures.

Boeing's quest to regain the title as the world's number one commercial aircraft maker met success last month.

The Chicago-based aircraft maker announced that it had produced 295 jetliners in the first eight months of the year. That's one more than its European rival, Airbus, produced in the same time.

Boeing last year wrenched the order title from Airbus, landing more new aircraft orders than the European manufacturer.

And earlier this year, Boeing's order backlog surpassed that of Airbus.

The production title, the last of the three measures of supremacy, may not last because the two airplane makers are running neck-and-neck. Both project they'll produce 445 aircraft this year.

Knowing Airbus, they'll work overtime to push just one more plane out the door in December if it means surpassing Boeing.

The state collected $1.022 billion in tax revenue between Aug. 11 and Sept. 10, which was $25.6 million – or 2.6 percent – above the state’s earlier estimate.

Chang Mook Sohn, director of the state Economic and Revenue forecast Council, said today that sales, B&O, use and public utility taxes were $19.9 million above the estimate, and real estate excise tax collections were ahead by $3.1 million.

The positive variance, he said, “was primarily due to an unusually large – $23.5 million – and unexpected audit payment, not to stronger economic activity.

However, he said, “despite weakness in the residential housing market, slower economic growth nationally, and shaky financial markets, revenue has increased a little faster than assumed in the forecast during the last three months.”

This growth, he continued, “reflects a still healthy Washington economy.”

If you like Horizon Air's "Clark & Lewis Expedition" radio ads, you'll love Horizon's newest guerilla marketing campaign, "The Slog."

Created by Seattle ad agency WongDoody in collaboration with Horizon Air marketing director Dan Russo, the mostly-Web-based ad campaign promotes Horizon's new cut-rate air shuttle service to Portland by denigrating the alternative, the drive down I-5.

The Slog's Web site, calls the drive down "I-shouldn't have" as "the longest three-hour drive in American history."

Using folksy videos in the style of an historical journal, the site recounts the trials of driving I-5 between the two cities, noting the low-lights of the trip from the infamous three-mile strip from Milton to the Tacoma Dome for its proliferation of State Patrol speed traps to the unmentionable quality of restrooms at I-5 convenience stores.

For Clark & Lewis fans, Russo says the airline, which produces those ads itself, will be airing new commercials beginning next week.

What with the hot weather I was feeling peckish over the weekend for some Baskin Robbins chocolate almond ice cream – one of my favorite flavors – but my local store was out.

Not only was the store empty of chocolate almond, but also missing were several other popular flavors. And there were no pre-packed tubs. What, I asked the clerk, was the problem?

She mentioned a freezer breakdown at the distribution end.

And yes, it turns out that Alpenrose Dairy – which makes 41 flavors and distributes to 195 stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana from its Portland headquarters – had suffered a broken freezer early last month.

They lost 30,000 tubs, said Alpenrose’s Baskin Robbins franchise manager Marilyn Herrold earlier today.

She lamented, “We lost all of our ice cream.”

But after more than a month, things are getting back to normal. “We’re back in production. We’ve started shipping pre-packed quarts,” Herrold said.

As long as I had her on the phone, I asked what the most popular flavors are, after vanilla. She named mint chip, cookie dough and pralines and cream.

And what about the ones that didn’t work? Licorice, gingersnap, loganberry sherbet, molasses taffy, pomegranate ice, rhubarb ice, prune frappe and Steve-arino.

I can understand the prune frappe, but what’s a Steve-arino? She didn’t remember. Alas.

All corporations in Washington need to register their officers with the state Employment Security Department by Sept. 30.

According to the Employment Security Department, corporations and nonprofit organizations are required to provide:

- The officer's full name
- Title
- Social Security number
- Home address
- The date the person became a corporate officer
- How much stock the officer owns
- How the person is related to other officers who own more than 10 percent of the business.

Businesses should have received a reporting form in the mail. Employment Security staff assure that the rule isn't a hoax or identity theft scam, but instead a way to prevent unemployment fraud.

This from the department:

In most cases, business owners and corporate officers are not eligible for unemployment benefits, yet a study last year showed that many have received benefits anyway. The new registration requirement will help ensure that people don’t collect benefits if they are not eligible.

In addition, registration will help the department collect unpaid taxes if corporate officers deliberately try to evade their unemployment tax bills. Under previous law, other employers had to cover those costs.

“We want to assure everyone that federal and state laws protect this personal information from public disclosure,” Young said. “We also maintain a secure data system and we encrypt our laptops so that this information can’t fall into the hands of someone who might misuse it.”

Boeing has pulled ahead of Airbus in the race for sales supremacy in the commercial airplane business this year, new figures show.

Airbus, which releases order totals once monthly compared with Boeing's once-weekly tally, said today it had recorded 713 new airplane orders through August.

That's 128 short of the 841 orders Boeing reported on its Web site for two-thirds of the year.

Regardless of who wins, the volume of orders is tremendous even if sales dried up today.

Two Northwest small towns, Waitsburg, Wash., and Yachats, Ore., are among the "10 Coolest Small Towns" named in September's Budget Travel Magazine.

Waitsburg, near Walla Walla, was cited for its quiet lifestyle and its inventory of hip new shops and restaurants.

Yachats, on the Oregon Coast, won Budget Travel's accolades for its spectacular scenery.

Other cool towns on Budget Travel's list:

Millerton, N.Y.
Milford, Pa.
Paia, Hawaii
Parkville, Mo.
Silver City, N.M.
Peterborough, N.H.
Tuscumbia, Ala.
Collinsville, Conn.

Here's a link to Budget Travel's article.

Though the route hasn't been officially announced, a new list of airline routes from China shows yet another Seattle-China connection coming in 2009.

That list from China's General Administration for Civil Aviation lists a new thrice-weekly route from Shanghai to Seattle via Shanghai Airlines beginning in 2009.

That route will be one of three new China routes from the Puget Sound area.

Hainan Airlines is scheduled to begin Sea-Tac-Beijing service next June. MaxJet, a premium service airline that now flies from the East Coast to Europe, has applied for permission to link Shanghai and Seattle with an onward flight to Los Angeles beginning next year.

Just in time for the end of the summer vacation season, the State Department says the extended wait to process new and renewed passports is over.

The department had been swamped with passport applications and renewals because travelers were rushing to comply with a new rule that requires all who travel by air out of the country to have a valid passport. That rule may be extended to land and water trips to other countries early next year.

The wait for passport issuance had been averaging 12 weeks for most of the year, too long for some travelers who had to abandon their foreign trips because they were still waiting for passports.

Earlier last summer the federal government had relented on the passport requirement if travelers were returning from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean if they could show they had applied for a passport and had other suitable identification such as a state-issued drivers license and a certified copy of their birth certificate.

Now the wait for a passport is down to six weeks or three weeks if applicatants pay extra for expedited service.

Melanie Dressel, president and CEO of Columbia Banking System, Tacoma-based parent of Columbia Bank, rang the closing bell at the New York NASDAQ stock exchange today.

Actually, she said this afternoon that she pressed a button – but the button closed trading with the definite sound of a bell. The event was broadcast on CNBC and other media.

"It was great fun," Dressel said. "People were so gracious. It was really a lifetime experience."

We'll publish a photograph of the moment in tomorrow's Business Section.

Small businesses that suffered from the severe storms last November 2 through 11 have until Wednesday to return applications for Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

The loans provide working capital for businesses affected by the storms. So far, the agency has approved more than $13.5 million in disaster loans to homeowners, renters and businesses that suffered from the storms.

A business need not have suffered physical property damage to qualify, said Nancy Gilbertson, director of SBA Seattle District. “These loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact,” she said. The loans may also be used to overcome loss of revenue caused by the storms.

Applications are available by calling the SBA at 800-659-2955 or visiting www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.

Delta Air Lines has ordered 15 more sets of fuel-saving blended winglets for its Boeing 767-300ER fleet from Seattle's Aviation Partners Boeing.

The winglets, curving upward extensions of the aircraft wingtips, reduce turbulence at the wingtips, thus getting less aerodynamic drag.

Reducing drag has significant benefits for the aircraft and the airline that owns it:

* Up to a six percent improvement in fuel economy.
* Up to 400 miles greater range.
* Reduced takeoff distances.
* An improved noise profile.
* Less engine pollution.

Delta plans to add blended winglets to 30 of its fleet of 767s by 2010.

Aviation Partners Boeing's blended wingtips are becoming increasingly common sights on Boeing 737s as airlines order them installed at the factory on new aircraft or retrofit them to existing planes to save fuel.

Both Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are big customers for the blended wingtips.

Count on a new fuel-saving technology developed by a European company to become standard equipment on new airlines in the next few years.

The technology, developed by Gibralter-based WheelTug Inc., allows aircraft to back away from gates and move along taxiways without firing up the aircraft's engines or using aircraft tugs.

WheelTug's technology uses a high-torque electrical motor attached to the aircraft's front wheels to move the plane on the ground.

The technology saves airlines the four-gallons-per-minute fuel costs of idling jet engines, reduces pollution and greenhouse gases emitted by those engines as well as eliminating the need for expensive aircraft tugs at the gate.

The company, which has formed an alliance with Delta Airlines to test the motors on its fleet of Boeing 737s, could begin installing the motors on its fleet of 737s as early as 2009.

Boeing's Phantom Works division has been involved with WheelTug for several years perfecting the technology. Two years ago, WheelTug tested a prototype of its system on an Air Canada Boeing 767 at a hot Arizona airport.

Here's a link to a video of that demonstration.

Workers’ compensation rates paid by Washington employers and employees will rise by an average of 3.2 percent in 2008, according to preliminary changes offered Friday by the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Typically, rates are adjusted annually to account for increases or decreases in such areas as state investment income or the cost of medical care.

“We did the rate holiday because the contingency reserve had grown dramatically becaaue of good investment earnings,” said L&I spokesman Robert T. Nelson this morning.
However, he said, “the only way we can avoid huge rate increases in the future is to make changes year to year. We set rates that we think will help us keep up with inflation.”

The rates for several job classifications are down in the proposed rate schedule, but most have increased. More of the proposed rate increases will be borne by employees than by employers.

Across the state, average premiums for all job classifications will go up by just over two cents for every hour worked.

“We’ve kept this as absolutely low as we think is responsible,” Nelson said. “We forecast what we’re going to need to collect, and some of those claims are going to last 40 or 50 years.”

The department will hold public hearings concerning the proposal across the state this fall. The nearest South Sound meetings will be conducted in Tukwila on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. at the L&I service office, 12806 Gateway Dr., and in Tumwater on Nov. 1 at 9 a.m. at the GuestHouse Inn, 1660 74th Ave. S.W.

to view the proposed changes, visit http://www.lni.wa.gov/ClaimsIns/Insurance/RatesRisk/Check/RatesHistory/default.asp

The Port of Tacoma commission last night approved a 5.44 percent raise for Executive Director Tim Farrell.

The raise, plus a $10,000 merit bonus, brings Farrell's annual salary to $220,880.

Commissioner Connie Bacon said Farrell will receive an evaluation letter by Monday, summarizing the commission's thoughts on his performance over the last 18 months.

Bacon noted Farrell's communication skills and recent hires. She also noted the port's finances were in good shape and customers seemed happy.

As part of last year's review, the commission pointed to areas that Farrell could work on including defining the port's use of real estate acquisitions for the long term.

In an interview Thursday, Bacon said the commission would still like Farrell to "be alert to the market and industry" and an act in "an expeditious manner."

She said the recommendation doesn't indicate a problem, but an area of continued focus.

Read my previous post for a sense of how Farrell's salary compares with other port directors.

Seattle's Starbucks and Chicago's United Airlines have inked a contract that continues Starbucks' status as the airline's official coffee supplier.

United is the only major airline serving Starbucks on board.

SeaTac's Horizon Air, a Northwest regional airline, also serves Starbucks aboard its fleet.

Horizon's sister airline, Alaska, serves Seattle's Best Coffee.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines joined the parade of airlines matching Southwest Airlines fare increases today.

Alaska increased fares in markets where the two airlines compete, about 50 percent of Alaska's routes.

Southwest is increasing fares in increments of $1, $3, $5 and $10 depending on the distance flown to help pay the cost of more expensive jet fuel.

American, Delta, Northwest, Continental and others have already matched Southwest's fares in markets where they compete.

Both Southwest and Alaska had been protected from fuel cost increases by low-cost fuel hedges, but those hedges are now expiring and fuel costs increases are having more of an effect on both airlines.

Look for Melanie Dressel, CEO and president of Columbia Bank, along with Gary Schminkey, CFO, on the podium at the NASDAQ stock exchange on Monday. Dressel will be the one ringing the closing bell at 4 p.m. EST.

If you’re watching TV at the time, check CNBC, CNN, Fox News or Bloomberg TV – which have been known to broadcast closing-bell ceremonies.

A live webcast will be available through http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_about.stm

It's only the first week of September, and Boeing's commercial airplane orders already total 841 for the year.

The company added 78 new orders to its backlog this week: 55 China Southern 737s, 22 Aeroflot 787s and one 777 order from an unidentified customer. Aviation Capital Group announced orders this week for 15 737s, but Boeing had previously recorded those orders as from an unidentified customer.

That 841 year-to-date total is more than Boeing's full-year order total for all but three years in its history.

Earlier this summer, reporters asked Boeing CEO Jim McNerney if it was likely Boeing commercial airplane orders would beat last year's record, 1,044. McNerney declined to speculate but noted that earlier projections called for close to 1,000 orders for the year.

At the present pace of about 100 orders a month, Boeing could end up with more than 1,200 orders by year's end.

=> Read more!

In preparing a story yesterday on the financial impact of the Puyallup Fair, I interviewed Jim Tucker, CEO of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions in Springfield, MO.

After talking about taxes (Puyallup is one of the few fairs that pays property tax) and how fairs are doing generally (very well, with 78 percent of fairs enjoying steady or increased attendance last year), Tucker discussed his thoughts on the Puyallup operation.

He’s impressed. The Western Washington Fair Association can boast that it remains in the top 10 for attendance among fairs and expositions within the English-speaking world, he said. Among other fairs, Puyallup is “very respected,” especially for its innovative spirit and care for consumers.

It turns out that Tucker is planning to bring the group’s 2009 spring management conference, with more than 100 delegates, to the Northwest during the Puyallp Spring Fair.

He hasn’t decided, however, whether to base the conference in Tacoma or Seattle. He’s looking at both cities. He likes the Sheraton (soon to become the classy and glassy Murano), and he was impressed by Union Station. He’s still making up his mind.

If you’d like to contact him (say you’re a candidate for a position at the convention and visitors’ bureau, or you own a restaurant downtown, or you manage a local hotel, or if you just don’t particularly think Seattle is the best way to go), I’m sure (well, almost sure) that he’d be glad to hear from you.

Feel free to contact him concerning the City of Destiny at jimt@fairsandexpos.com.

The reconstruction of Sea-Tac Airport's roadways to make room for a new Sounder light rail station took another casualty today.

Effective today, the number of lanes leaving the airport will be reduced from three to two lanes in the area near the airport terminal.

The airport advises drivers to expect delays during busy times, midday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and late evenings, 9 p.m. to 11 p.m, through the rest of September.

Those lane closure are just another reason for those circling airport's roadways waiting to pick up friends or relatives should use the airport's cell phone waiting lot instead. Wait in that lot until your friend calls on your cell and then head for the arrival lanes to pick him up.

Map of Cell Phone Lot

Driving Directions
To the Cell Phone Lot:
From the Airport Expressway, take the170th/Air Cargo exit. Turn right and make an immediate left into the Cell Phone Lot.

From the Cell Phone Lot to Baggage Claim (Arrivals Drive):Take a right out of the Cell Phone Lot and make an immediate left (sign reads to terminal). Follow signs to Arrivals.

The Associated Press reported today that Microsoft says it will open three new work locations in Seattle and increase employment in the city to 1,400 workers. Leased space will be located in the south Lake Union area, Pioneer Square and near Qwest Field.

The company is creating what it calls “touchdown space” for employees to avoid rush-hour traffic to conduct meetings.

To help with the traffic, Microsoft says it will launch free bus service Sept. 24 for employees, the AP reported. Called the “Connector” it will run five routes in Seattle, Issaquah, Mill Creek, Sammamish and Bothell. The Wi-Fi enabled buses will carry up to 1,000 employees a day.

Update and more explanation: I just got back from the Port of Tacoma commission meeting and I thought I better update and further explain the below post.

The Port of Tacoma commission did approve an extension of its contracts with consultant Foster Pepper.

The consultant is charged with reviewing the environmental, legal and regulatory factors involved with the Maytown site and any alternative sites the port selects.

When I spoke with Deputy Director John Wolfe earlier today, he said those issues would primarily deal with zoning and rezoning the sites for industrial use - hence the below post.

The contract with Foster Pepper went from $100,000 to $340,000 for this work.

Here's what I wrote previously:

The Port of Tacoma commission will vote today on an agenda item involving the controversial South Sound Logistics Center in south Thurston County.

Last month, the port agreed to consider alternative sites to the 745-acres the port purchased in Maytown for the cargo transfer facility after hearing concerns from nearby residents about the environmental impacts such a facility could have on the area.

Port officials said such a facility is needed to ward off congestion on the Tideflats. But its Maytown neighbors are less than thrilled at the prospect of their rural neighborhood becoming an industrial center.

Today the port commission will consider a related item regarding the rezoning of the Maytown property or other sites to build a cargo transfer facility.

Port of Tacoma Deputy Director John Wolfe said today that whatever property the port uses will likely need to be rezoned for a greater industrial use.

If approved by the commission, the port will expand its contract with consultant Foster Pepper to identify the "environmental, legal and regulatory factors," for each site.

The port bought the Maytown property last year for $21 million.The project is a joint venture between the ports of Olympia and Tacoma. The ports are the midst of an 18-month planning period to consider the project.

China's largest airline, China Southern, today ordered 55 more Boeing 737s.

At list prices, those 737s, a mix of 737-700s and 737-800s, are worth $3.8 billion.

Those 737s will join 129 737s already in China Southern's fleet. In addition to the planes the airline bought today, China Southern has 14 737s on order from previous purchases.

The 737 is the world's most popular jetliner. With the Chinese order, Boeing has a backlog of 1,700 unfilled orders for the single-aisle aircraft built in Renton.

At today's production rates, that backlog represents about five year's production at Renton.

Engineering graduates can expect to see the highest salaries among recent college graduates, a new survey shows.

The survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that of the top 10 starting salaries by college major, five go to engineering graduates.

If you're contemplating a major, and you're interested in getting the greatest immediate return for you academic effort, here's the top 10 list:

Chemical engineering -- $59,361
Computer engineering -- $56,201
Electrical engineering -- $55,292
Mechanical engineering -- $54,128
Computer science -- $53,396
Civil engineering -- $48,483
Economics -- $48,483
Information Systems -- $47,648
Finance -- $47,239
Accounting -- $46,718

Regence BlueShield next week will rename its downtown Tacoma office building at 1501 Market Street in honor of former Tacoma City Manager Erling O. Mork.

Mork, city manager from 1975 through 1989, later served for a decade as head of the private Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board.

Mork died of cancer at 72 in January.

At Regence BlueShield, Mork was a member of that organization's Community Board.

The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the building.

Regence CEO Mark Gantz, Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma and former Tacoma City Councilman Peter Rasmussen will speak.

Take heart, Puget Sound Boeing workers. A company executive says Boeing doesn't intend to follow Airbus' lead by building a final assembly plant in China.

In an interview with an aviation publication, Flightglobal.com, Boeing vice president Larry Dickenson said the company isn't considering a Chinese plant.

Airbus plans to build some of its A320 single-aisle jets in a Chinese plant.

McDonnell Douglas, which Boeing acquired in 1997, had assembled MD80 and MD90 jets in a Chinese plant in the '90s. But that plant proved troublesome, and the company ultimately abandoned the effort.

"We did not do well in China with McDonnell Douglas, and I'm not sure if we'd be keen on doing something similar again," Dickenson said.

Boeing theoretically could cut costs by using less expensive Chinese labor to assemble its airplanes. Boeing now buys major aircraft components built in China and maintains maintenance and repair facilities in the country.

Russian carrier Aeroflot today put the final touches on an order for 22 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The Aeroflot order raises the total number of orders for the Dreamliner to 706 from 48 airlines worldwide. The 787 already was far and away the best selling jetliner in history judged by the number of orders the plane has received prior to initial commercial service.

Aeroflot indicated earlier this summer it intended to order the planes, but only finalized the order today.

At list prices, the Aeroflot order is worth $3.6 billion.

The first 787 is due to be delivered to All Nippon Airlines next May.

The Port of Tacoma Commission will evaluate Executive Director Tim Farrell's performance at its meeting Thursday.

The commission will consider Farrell's work in 2006 and through the first six months of 2007.

Port commissioner Clare Petrich said Farrell is up for a raise, though it won't likely be as significant as last year's increase.

That was when the commission bumped the director's pay up by 10 percent to an annual salary of $200,000.

The commission said they were pleased with Farrell's performance and also wanted to bring the position's salary in line with other top positions.

When it comes to executive directors of other West Coast container ports, Farrell's salary is toward the lower end.

According to information I reported last summer on the issue, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, earns $240,000 per year.

The head of the Port of Portland, which also includes an airport, earns $246,806 per year.

The former executive director of the Port of Seattle Mic Dinsmore earned an annual salary of more than $273,000.

Dinsmore's replacement, Tay Yoshitani, started work in March at a salary of $325,000, including $15,000 in deferred compensation, according to The Seattle Times.

Yoshitani is the highest paid port director in the country, The Seattle Times reported.

Pensions & Investments (P&Ionline.com) reports that "ports, toll roads and airports have been some of the hottest subclasses of the growing global infrastructure sector, according to a new report by RREEF Real Estate Research."

Columnist Dan Voelpel sent the story my way. It goes onto to report that the annualized return for the five years ended Dec. 31 was 33.2% from ports, 32% from toll roads and 26% from airports.

Not too shabby.

The Pensions & Investments story notes that infrastructure is attracting more interest from institutional investors.

I don't know enough about the subject to dub it a trend, but I do know that my sources have noticed similar types of investments in the area.

A few to note:

- I was at SSA Marine's headquarters in Seattle yesterday. Employees were readying to celebrate a significant investment in SSA Marine's parent company Carrix, Inc. by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners.

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

- TIAA-CREF recently bought 968,000 square foot Regal Logistics’ Campus in Fife for $63,000,000. Regal Logistics distributes toys.

The first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner slipped two to three months today because of work still unfinished on the wiring and flight control systems.

But Boeing maintains that the delay of the first flight from the original date of August until mid-November to mid-December won't affect the May delivery date for the first operational aircraft to All-Nippon Airlines.

Boeing originally had set first flight for August and then delayed it until September.

Mike Bair, the Boeing vice-president in charge of the 787 program, said "traveled work" from Boeing 787 suppliers and integration of the flight control software were responsible for the delays.

Sections of the first 787 arrived at Boeing's Everett assembly site late this spring bare of wiring and plumbing that Boeing had asked its suppliers to install in the major sections at their own facilities.

Now, Boeing workers in Everett must install that missing wiring and plumbing, a job that the company had never intended them to do.

Bair said the shortage of critical aerospace fasteners was also responsible for the delays. Fastener suppliers had been unable to produce enough aircraft-grade fasteners to use in the 787 assembly because they were working at maximum output to supply Boeing's and Airbus' booming assembly lines for existing aircraft.

Now Boeing must find the temporary hardware-grade fastners used to hold the plane together for the July 8 rollout and replace them with aircraft fasteners.

In many cases, Bair said, the major parts arrived from suppliers with incorrect documentation of work that had been performed at their facilities. That documentation must be corrected before the plane can fly.

Boeing is resequencing its assembly line to move static and fatique test airplanes earlier into the assembly sequence.

The company has told suppliers it wants them to finish the work "stuffing" their supplied sections with wiring and plumbing before delivering them to Everett.

If the first plane flies in December, Boeing will have just five months to complete an exhaustive FAA flight test regimen that leads toward certification. That flight test regimen was already projected to be the quickest in history when the 787 was scheduled to fly in August. Boeing spent 11 months testing the 777 before it achieved certification.

Problems with cash flow? Competition? Inventory management? Growth? A confusing array of regulations? You're not alone, and there's a solution. There's lots of solutions.

Vendors, agencies and various experts on all matters relating to small business will be present this Saturday, Sept., 8, at the 11th Annual Washington Small Business Fair.

Admission is free. The event runs from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. No pre-registration is required. Anyone - from entrepreneurs thinking about starting a business to current business owners and employees – may attend.

Seminars will offer discussions on matters including taxes, licensing, marketing, financing, connecting with the government, business law and doing business online, among others.

Agencies offering representatives range from Social Security to the Washington Association of Accountants, from Labor & Industries and the IRS to SCORE and the National Association for the Self Employed.

The event will be held at Renton Technical College, 3000 N.E. 4th St. in Renton.

For more information, visit www.bizfair.org.

Wells Fargo today announced a trio of initiatives aimed at reducing energy use and environmental protection:

• Through the end of the year, customers with a Wells home-equity account who use their Enhanced Access Visa cards will be eligible for a 5 percent rebate for the purchase of Energy Star appliances.

• Customers who switch to online statements and online bill payments earn $10. Those who speak with a Wells banker for a financial review will receive an environmentally friendly shopping tote, thereby reducing the use of paper and plastic grocery bags.

• Credit card customers enrolled in the Wells Fargo Rewards program can redeem either 5,000 or 10,000 points for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) representing 6,000 or 12,000 kilowatt hours of green – wind generated – energy.
In case you’re not aware of RECs, the certificates are purchased through a broker and generate income directly to enterprises (wind farms, for example) that generate clean power. Each certificate is numbered and certified to represent a block of renewable power. The person receiving the REC can hang it on the wall, but it has no monetary value. At the other end, the enterprise receives money that is reinvested in the production of green power.

Boeing holds a major update on the progress of its new 787 Dreamliner Wednesday.

Don't expect good news.

The company is expected to announce more delays in the schedule for the first flight of its 787 and perhaps some delivery delays for the first bunch of aircraft as well.

News from inside the 787 plant at Everett is that while the 787 is a fundamentally sound airliner, the company's ambitious assembly and testing schedule can't be met.

Boeing rolled out the first 787 on July 8 to a worldwide audience, but that plane was just an empty shell.

In the subsequent weeks, the company has partially disassembled the plane to finish incomplete work and to replace temporary fasteners that were holding the plane together for the rollout.

Among the issues delaying the first flight:

* The failure of downstream suppliers to wire and plumb the sections they delivered to the final assembly line in Everett. Boeing's plan had called for those suppliers in Wichita, Kan., Charleston, S.C., Japan and Italy to "stuff" the body and wing sections they built with wiring and plumbing, but the contractors didn't have time to do so. Assembly workers at Everett are now doing that work.

* The unavailability of certified fasteners to hold the airplane together. Fastener suppliers, already stretched by high production rates of existing airplanes, couldn't supply enough aircraft-grade fasteners to hold the plane together. Boeing used temporary fasteners to get the job done, but now must find and replace all of those fasteners, some of them ordinary hardware store grade bits, with aircraft-quality fasteners. Removing the temporary fasteners reportedly has caused damage to some parts of the composite structures. That now must be fixed before new fasteners can be installed.

Engineers who are watching the plane's progress say the 787 ultimately will fly successfully (the original first flight schedule called for August), but Boeing tried to do too many changes in the way it builds airplanes in too short a time.

Some aerospace workers who are building major parts of the plane, in South Carolina, for instance, have never built a plane before much less a plane that has never been built before and which uses exotic materials and new construction techniques.

As college students return to school this year, they’ll be spending $43.7 billion by the time class begins. (And the figure does not include tuition or other school fees.)

The National Retail Federation today released its annual survey of projected expenditures for college students. Among the results:

• The average student will spend $956.93, up from last year’s $880.52.

• Students will spend $7.41 billion on clothing and accessories, up from $5.78 billion.

• Electronic devices (laptops, digital cameras, iPhones, cell phones and such) will come in at $12.8 billion.

• Shoes? That’s $2.96 billion.

• Supplies such as notebooks, folders and pencils: $3.14 billion.

• Books: more than $15 billion.

• When it comes to furnishing dorms and apartments, the NRF says students will spend $5.43 billion, up from $3.82 billion last year.

• As it turns out, the survey says 49.7 percent of students will be living at home during the school year, while 28.6 percent will be living off campus and 18.7 percent in a dormitory or other campus housing. A fraction, 1.3 percent, will live in sororities or fraternities.

• Students living on campus will spend $1,529.45, while off-campus students spend $1161.98 and those staying home spend a mere $744.86 on college merchandise.

• Freshmen (armed with gift cards and cash from high school graduation) will spend the most, $1,193.60, with sophomores (presumably already in possession of the requisite Loomicrowave oven, popcorn popper, scarf, pennant and sensible shoes) will spend an average of $748.29.

A new Cruise Lines International Association report ranks Seattle as the nation's ninth largest cruise ship port.

Seattle's ranking came despite the fact that it's the only port among the nation's top ten that's not a year-round port. Seattle cruise season to Alaska lasts from late April through mid-October.

Four Florida ports, Miami, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades and Tampa, rank among the top 10. Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades rank 1,2 and 3. Tampa is number seven.

Also ranking above Seattle are Galveston, Tex. at number four, Los Angeles, five; New York, six, and Long Beach, Calif., eight. In tenth place was Honolulu.

The CLIA report listed Seattle as having embarked 373,000 passengers in 2006.

=> Read more!

Aircraft leasing company Aviation Capital Group announced today it will purchase an additional 15 Boeing 737s worth $934 million at list prices.

The order helped push Boeing commercial airplane orders to 763 for 2007. Boeing's new to-date tally also includes 42 Norwegian Air Shuttle 737 orders, 25 Xiamen Airlines 737 orders and four TAM Airlines orders for 777s signed last week.

ACG orders brings the leasing company's total orders for Boeing aircraft to 64, 59 Next-Generation 737s and five 787 Dreamliners.

ACG's current fleet includes 141 Boeing airliners including Next-Generation and Classic 737s, 757s and 767s.

Tukwila-based Business Interiors Northwest is expanding north to Alaska with the purchase of Corporate Express Business Interiors of Anchorage and Fairbanks.

BINW, with 100 employees and stores in Tacoma and Bellevue as well as Tukwila, will be adding 21 employees with the acquisition, and expects to hire three to five more, according to human resources manager Tim Broxholm.

Broxholm said this morning that Washington employees are “very excited” about the expansion. The company provides commercial office interiors and systems alongside space planning and project management services. Broxholm did not offer the price of the acquisition.

Kraft Foods Inc. will offer four varieties of coffee from Starbucks Corp. for its Tassimo home-brewing systems, according to Bloomberg.

The Financial Times in London notes this will be the first time Starbucks has sold coffee under its brand for use such home coffee machines, also known as pod systems.

The selection will be available in December in single-cup Tassimo capsules in the U.S. and Canada, Kraft said today in a statement.

More than 2 million Tassimo systems have been sold since the hot-beverage unit was introduced in 2004, Bloomberg reported. It allows users to make single cups of coffee and tea with the capsules, or pods.