The Seattle developers of a planned Foss Waterway Hotel are once again back to the drawing boards with their plan for the boutique hotel on the near-downtown waterway.

This time they're eliminating all but a handful of condominiums from the building and adding 60 more rooms to the previous 100 they had planned, according to Don Meyer, executive director of the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority.

You'll recall that four years ago another developer started planning an all-hotel building for the site on the west side of the Foss at South 15th Street.

That developer dropped out and the Seattle owner of the Inn at the Market stepped in.

During the height of the condo boom, he redesigned the structure to include several floors of condo units over the hotel, shrinking the size of the hotel in the process. Condos then were more financiable than hotels.

By the time he had secured financing for the mixed-use building, however, the condo market had flattened, and his bank required a pre-sale of half the building's units before it would release funds for construction.

Now that the market's gone soft on condos, he's going back to a concept closer to the original design for the building hoping that the building will pencil out better financially.

The owner faces an end-of-April deadline from the Foss Waterway Authority, which had sold him the property south of the nearly complete Esplanade condos, to begin the project.

The Foss's Meyer said the City of Tacoma just this week delivered good news. It won't require that the developer seek a new shoreline permit to construct the building because its mix of uses has changed.

"That's a big, big decision," said Meyer. Requiring a new shoreline permit could have meant months more planning and waiting.

The authority meets April 25. There's no request yet from the developer for a further extension, but such a request wouldn't be a surprise considering the frantic repositioning that's been going on.

The following news falls into the "making lemons into lemonade" category.

Two recent events, the third delay in the delivery of the first production 787 Dreamliner and Boeing's loss of the Air Force aerial tanker project to Northrop Grumman and Airbus, could offer a consolation prize to the Puget Sound economy.

According an article this week at Flightglobal.com, Boeing has proposed turning its two misfortunes into more work for workers on its Everett 767 assembly line.

That's the assembly line that was scheduled to produce 767-based tankers for the Air Force.

Now Boeing is proposing to provide temporary capacity for airlines whose 787 Dreamliners will be delivered months behind schedule by replacing them with new 767-300ER aircraft produced in Everett.

Airlines around the world are demanding that Boeing provide them with substitute aircraft to replace the late-arriving Dreamliners, but the market for mid-sized, long-range aircraft now is tight. Few substitute aircraft are available on the lease market.

Airlines such a Qantas are asking Boeing to lease them new Airbus A330s, but the quantity the capacity at Airbus to produce those aircraft is already strained.

Thus the idea of ramping up production of the 767. The aircraft is an older design than the A330, but it's been a steadfast provider of long distance air service for years.

After the 767s do their temporary stints and the 787s arrrive, they could be converted to cargo aircraft, a market for which their is brisk demand.

Boeing is now producing about one 767 a month in Everett, but given a few months lead time, that pace could be increased to produce the fill-in aircraft.

The number of jobs in Pierce County dropped last month and the unemployment rate increased, the state's Employment Security Department reported today.

The county lost 500 jobs in March and gained 3,500 over the year. The figures are adjusted for seasonal changes in employment such as holiday hiring or winter weather that slows some business.

But Paul Turek, Tacoma area economist with the ESD, said even the raw figures show a weakening employment picture.

"The last time we were seeing something this low was when we were dealing with the 2001 recession," Turek said.

Tacoma's unemployment rate increased from 5.6 percent to 5.9 percent. Tacoma reported a 4.7 percent unemployment rate in March 2007. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Still Pierce County's rate does remain higher than the unadjusted unemployment rates in neighboring King, Thurston and Kitsap counties.

Typically, Turek said, the unemployment rate in March falls - so the uptick is a bit concerning.

"We are in a slowing local economy," Turek said.

The county job losses contributed to an overall decline in jobs in the state.

Washington posted a month-over-month drop in jobs for March, the first decline since September, the Employment Security Department reported.

The state lost 3,200 jobs from February to March, though jobs still grew by 43,400 over the year.

Washington's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate bumped up as well to 4.9 last month from 4.5 percent in February.

Evelina Tainer, Employment Security's chief economist, said that it's too soon to tell whether last month was a turning point for the state's economy.

But, she said, the figures do confirm projections of slower economic growth this year compared to 2007.

Tainer said she tends to be optimistic.

"I'm not convinced we're due for a recession in this state," she said.

The state's unemployment rate ticked up due to a growth in the labor force, meaning more people were out looking for jobs.

But jobs in most industries declined last month, including leisure and hospitality, transportation, warehousing and utilities and construction.

Those tax rebate checks might be a few weeks away but Sears has plans for yours. According to an AP story I saw at Business Week, Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday it plans to offer a 10 percent bonus to shoppers who convert the rebate checks into a Sears or Kmart gift card.

Customers can present their checks at a cash register at Sears and Kmart to convert it into a gift card at the full value of the check, and to receive a bonus gift card worth 10 percent of the check.

The cards can be redeemed at any Sears, Kmart or Lands' End retail stores, as well as sears.com and landsend.com, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears said.

The promotion is scheduled to last between May 14 and July 19 with no expiration or fees on the gift cards.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines will provide charter airline service to the Seattle Mariners for road games in 18 West Coast and Midwest cities this year, the ball club and the airline announced today.

In addition to West Coast cities, Alaska will fly the team to Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City and Minneapolis.

The airline will provide the team's players, coaches and staff with a pre-trip buffet and on-board meal service.

Starbucks and iTunes said today they will offer customers free songs through the new "Pick of the Week" program.

Pick of the Week featured artists include Carly Simon, Duffy, Counting Crows, Adele, Sia, Hilary McRae and many more.

Each Tuesday, more than 7,000 Starbucks company-operated locations in the United States will stock a new Pick of the Week download card redeemable on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) for a complimentary song or music video hand-picked by the Starbucks Entertainment team and iTunes.

The first Pick of the Week, available starting today at participating Starbucks locations, is Counting Crows’ new song, "Washington Square."

This from the news release:

"With Pick of the Week, Starbucks will leverage its trusted curatorial voice in music and entertainment through its partnership with iTunes to provide our customers with a world-class digital discovery experience," said Ken Lombard, president Starbucks Entertainment.

In October 2007, Starbucks and iTunes offered free daily songs for a month. Customer response to "Song of the Day" resulted in more than 6 million songs downloaded.

Once Pick of the Week cards are distributed, customers will then have up to 60 days from the date they are available to redeem their complimentary digital entertainment offering on iTunes.