The 130-member Lakewood Rotary installed a new president Saturday night at the Tacoma Country & Golf Club.

Joel Feldman, who succeeds Bob Zawilski, is the 53rd head of the group, according to a release issued today.

Also at the gathering, Tony Robinson was honored as Rotarian of the Year, and Bill Amblad was named as the Bernie Ootkin Humanitarian Award recipient. This is presented only to a non-Rotarian each year.

Other officers installed by Dave Covey, assistant governor of the 5,200-member Rotary district, were Greg Horn, president-elect; Ben Sclair, secretary; and Astrid Arola, treasurer. Directors include Dave Guttu, Clint Johnson, Janine Messenger, Paul Guy, Bill Potter and Paul Wulfestieg. Three individuals completing their term as directors were Duncan Cook, Mary Covelli-Johnson and Steve Mazoff.

Take your pick. Which is which? One Wal-Mart logo is from the first two years of the company, 1962-64; another hails from 1968-81; and the third is the newest, which should be in and on stores by this fall.

I'll post the answer as a comment.

I just had a call from Laura Gardner Smith at Macy's western headquarters, and she tells me three Puget Sound Macy's are slated to add an in-store FAO Schwarz outlet beginning this fall.

The three: Southcenter, Northgate and Downtown Seattle.

The Northgate store will dedicate 250-300 square feet, Downtown Seattle about a thousand, and Southcenter was still being decided. Look for The Seattle store to open Nov. 5 and the others as early as October.

"We don't have Tacoma down yet," she said.

Retail giant Wal-Mart reportedly will be remaking its logo and giving its name a tweak. According to The Associated Press and Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart will begin replacing logos on the front of its stores this fall -- a new look already being revealed inside its stores. The logo last saw an update in 1992, according to the AP.

And for all the grammarians out there particularly interested in punctuation, Wal-Mart's hyphen will apparently be getting the boot.

Here's some of what the AP reported over the weekend:

"This logo update is simply a reflection of the refreshed image of our stores and our renewed sense of purpose of helping people save money so they can live better," spokesman Kevin Gardner said in a written statement.

Gardner said he had no other information about the change. However, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the new look would include eliminating the hyphen in the company's name, now shown as a star at its more than 3,600 U.S. stores. The new logo would show company's name in white letters on an orange background, followed by a small starburst, the Journal reported, based on an artist's rendering filed with planning officials in Memphis, Tenn.

The revamped logo comes as Wal-Mart continues to tweak its image after facing criticism from union-led groups and local communities across the nation opposed to big-box store developments. In the time since, the company has launched a marketing campaign highlighting its environmentally focused practices and efforts to make health care more affordable for customers through a discounted prescription drug program.

Northwest regional airline Horizon Air will eliminate all flights to North Bend-Coos Bay and Klamath Falls in Oregon beginning Oct. 11 in a move to trim unprofitable flying from its schedule.

"Despite our best efforts to adjust flight schedules and fares in order to make these routes financially viable, consistent profitability has proved to be elusive," said Dan Russo, Horizon's vice president of marketing and communications. "The astronomically high fuel prices have only made the situation worse, and so we find ourselves with no choice but to reduce our losses by taking this action."

The end of Horizon Air service won't leave the two airports without a carrier. SkyWest, flying as United Express, serves both airports with daily flights to San Francisco.

The diminishment of air service, however, is expected to be particularly difficult for the two relatively isolated cities that depend on tourism for much of their business activity. North Bend is the gateway to the southwest Oregon cost and to the internationally famed Bandon Dunes link-style golf courses at Bandon. Klamath Falls is the close to Crater Lake National Park.

The airline will also trim its Seattle-Portland schedule from the present 31 flights daily to 24 by Oct. 26 as it retires its 37-seat Bombardier Q200 turboprop aircraft from its schedule earlier than anticipated, the airline announced today.

The dozen Q200s will be retired by Oct. 28 instead of by April 2009, the original target for their retirement, the airline said.

The airline will also begin removing CRJ-700 jets from its fleet in September as it moves to a fleet of all 74-passenger Bombardier Q400 turboprops.

The airline is moving to the Q400, of which it now has 34 because the aircraft is the most fuel efficient in its fleet. Standardizing on a single type of plane will also help Horizon trim maintenance and staffing costs give it more scheduling flexibility.

Horizon is attempting to cut its fuel consumption and eliminate unprofitable routes as it tries to cope with ever-higher fuel costs. For the airline industry as a whole, fuel costs have risen more than 75 percent this year.

SeaTac-based Horizon announced numerous other schedule changes in a press release:

Medford-Portland: The current five daily flights (two Q400s and three Q200s) will be reduced to four (two Q400s and two Q200s) from Aug. 25 through Sept. 6 and then become two Q400s and two CRJ-700s starting Sept. 7, increasing seats by 11 percent compared to today.

=> Read more!

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines has equipped 19 gates at Sea-Tac Airport with diesel-powered heating and cooling units in a move designed to save some 1.1 million gallons of jet fuel every year.

The diesel units will run instead of aircraft auxiliary power units, small turbines that traditionally power a jet's heating, ventilation and cooling systems on the ground. The diesels will use 10 percent of the fuel that the APUs do, according to the airline.

Alaska intends to equip gates at other major airports in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco with the diesel units, increasing annual fuel savings to 2.4 million gallons.

The new units cost about $65,000 each, but their payback period is just 18 months based on fuel savings.

The airline also announced that it has fitted fuel-saving winglets on all of its Boeing 737 fleet that are capable to handling the vertical wing extensions.

Those blended winglets, made by Seattle's Aviation Partners Boeing, save about 100,000 gallons of fuel per year per plane.

A dozen legislators are making early preparations for the time when production of Boeing's popular 737 winds down at the company's Renton plant.

Anticipating a competition like Boeing created for the assembly site of the 787 Dreamliner, legislators are already talking about what tax breaks, worker training initiatives and infrastructure improvements will keep single-aisle jetliner here. Washington won the 787 competition five years ago amidst strong competition from other states.

Meeting at a Sea-Tac hotel this week, the lawmakers and industry officials discussed how to keep Washington competitive with aggressive southern states and foreign sites where wages are lower and state-paid incentives are higher.

They'll have a few years to lay their plans. Boeing has delayed the introduction of a 737 successor until about 2020 because earlier plans to build a follow-on plane failed to produce the kinds of economic savings that would have been worth the multi-billion investment needed to create a 737 successor.

Southwest Airlines will drop two of its four daily flights from Seattle to Chicago's Midway Airport and one of four daily flights from Sea-Tac to Denver as part of a "route optimization" plan effective Nov. 2.

The Seattle flight schedule deletions were part of a system-wide schedule readjustment that Southwest announced today.

Under that scheme, Southwest is eliminating 31 underperforming flights but adding 40 new ones.

In the Seattle-Chicago non-stop market, Southwest faces United and American, which both have hubs at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Alaska, which has a hub at Sea-Tac.

In the Denver market, it faces competition from United and Frontier, who both have a hub in the Mile-High City and Alaska, whose headquarters are in SeaTac.

Southwest is one a few airlines adding to its schedule instead of shrinking it.

The Dallas-based low-cost carrier is cutting back flights where it faces strong competition or weak demand and adding flights where it sees weakened competitors or growing demand.

Southwest is particularly emphasizing new flights at Denver where its two main competitors, United and Frontier, are in financial difficulties. Southwest is adding a net of 20 more daily flights at Denver.

United has just emerged from bankruptcy reorganization and has unsuccessfully sought to merge with Continental and US Airways. The Chicago-headquartered United is grounding dozens of its planes and laying off 950 pilots.

Frontier is in bankruptcy reorganization. It recently announced that it will sell off 11 of its 60 relatively new Airbus aircraft.

"Free" frequent flier trips are about to enter the same historic time warp as inflight meals, no-charge second checked bags and free airline phone reservations.

Delta Air Lines today announced it will begin charging a $25 fuel surcharge on domestic and Canadian flights earned with mileage plan miles and $50 on international mileage plan flights beginning Aug. 15.

Delta follows US Airways with extra charges of frequent flier mile redemption. US Airways will charge a $25 to $50 processing surcharge for frequent flier flights booked on or after Aug. 6. American Airlines is already charging a $5 processing fee for miles redemption.

Most airlines also charge an extra fee for booking frequent flier flights over the phone and for flights booked with a few weeks of the flight.

Taxes and security fees are also added to the frequent flier tab.

International Lease Finance Corp., the world's largest aircraft lessor, says it plans to buy 150 single-aisle aircraft from both Boeing Co. and its rival, Airbus.

The Los Angeles-based ILFC may announce those orders soon at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

The present financial and fuel crisis in the airline industry could provide ILFC with a unique opportunity: satisfy airlines' need to replace their gas guzzlers with more efficient new aircraft without having to spend their precious cash.

If ILFC's timing is right, it could negotiate better prices with the aircraft makers who are seeing their order books shrink.

In anticipation of summer travel season, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent out a few tips today on how to cross the Canadian border quickly and safely.

First U.S. and Canadian citizens are now required to present proof of citizenship and identity to enter the United States at land and sea ports of entry. This can include a passport, trusted traveler program card (NEXUS), or a birth certificate with a driver’s license.

Travelers 18 and under can present just a birth certificate.

More handy tips:

- Take a look at the "Know Before You Go" portion of the U.S. Customs Web site to avoid fines and penalties.

- Have your citizenship and identity documents ready for inspection as you cross and be prepared to declare all the items you acquired abroad. Also hang up your cell phone before you get to the inspection booth.

=> Read more!

Burger King has sold out of a limited-edition, super-fancy hamburger it made available to Londoners, according to Forbes. The cost? $185 How many days did it take to sell out? Just two.

Here are some additional details from the Forbes story on what the chain restaurant dubbed simply The Burger:

The secret to the meat's delectable taste? "Its massaged Japanese Wagyu beef," Dowding said.

The burger, which looks similar to a regular whopper, is made out of ingredients from seven countries, from Japan to France.

Some restaurateurs dismissed the burger, spiced with organic white wine and pink Himalayan rock salt, as a "marketing stunt," comparing it with similar products launched by department stores like Selfridges and its 85 pound ($168.84) sandwich and Peter Jones's 50 pound ($99.31) cup of coffee, pre-digested by a Civet cat.

But David Kisilevsky, vice president of marketing at Burger King, said "the burger is aimed at aficionados looking for the ultimate burger taste experience."

It might pay to know your local sales tax rate – literally, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Some shoppers may save money on sales tax due to a change starting July 1 on how the tax is collected on shipped and delivered goods.

Beginning next month sales taxes on items that are shipped or delivered will be based on where the customer receives the product instead of the point from which it was shipped.

The Department of Revenue points out that knowing your local sales tax rate could save you money if that rate is lower than the rate where the store or its warehouse is located.

For example, if an Olympia resident buys a couch and the couch is shipped from the retailer’s Kent warehouse then the appropriate sales tax rate would be the 8.4 percent rate for Olympia, rather than the 9 percent applicable in Kent.

The sales tax rate for Tacoma residents is 8.8 percent, according to the Department of Revenue's Web site.

But in some unincorporated areas that rate can be lower, said Mike Gowyrlow, Department of Revenue spokesman.

To calculate the rate for your area, go here.

The change in how the state collects sales tax was required for Washington to join a nationwide effort to standardize the way each state taxes goods, the DOR reports.

“We want the public to be aware of these changes, which in some cases will mean lower sales tax rates,” Revenue Director Cindi Holmstrom said. “We’ve been working hard to educate businesses on the change and want to make sure consumers know about it too.”

The July edition of Travel+Leisure magazine features a patriotic cover story about "50 Fabulous U.S. Travel Ideas" – one for each state.

Coming in at No. 6, Tacoma, Wash. Why?

"Because of the incandescent beauty of Tacoma's colored glass," the magazine touts.

Travel+Leisure's write-up on Tacoma includes an image of a glass pear blown by artist Jesse Kelly and available to purchase at the Museum of Glass gift shop.

"This once industrial city has become an international destination for glass art. The birthplace of acclaimed glass designer Dale Chihuly, Tacoma is home to not only the Museum of Glass, but also galleries, shops, and a few unexpected spots that have embraced the medium.

"At the new Hotel Murano, each of the 21 guest floors honors a different artists (from Australian Cobi Cockburn to Chihuly), and rooms are filled with one-of-a-kind handblown pieces."

Prium Companies redesigned its building planned for the Foss Waterway. Now, it's ground floor is actually on the ground, rather than built up on a pedestal of stairs.

When Prium Companies won approval recently from the Foss Waterway Development Authority to switch from a mostly residential building to a mostly office building, it required a redesign.

This week the FWDA released these images of the waterside view and the view from I-705. Credit the work to BCRA's architectural team:
· Stuart Young, principal-in-charge
· Gail Merth, senior architectural designer
· Rich Gardner, senior project manager

The original design had the building's ground floor built upon a pedestal similar to Thea's Landing, the retail/residential building a few lots away.

The mix of textures on the exterior should give Prium's building a distinctive look compared to other mixed use buildings on the Foss.

Expect construction to start next spring.

Nineteen Northwest airports are at risk of losing some or all of their air service during the current airline financial crisis, a new study says.

The study by the Business Travel Coalition lists those airports among 150 U.S. airports that could see diminished travel choices.

Sea-Tac Airport and Portland International Airport were not among those the BTC listed as being at risk.

The BTC said high fuel prices and slackening demand for air travel is putting flights in jeopardy.

The study listed Spokane, Tri-Cities, Bellingham and Yakima in Washington, Eugene, Medford and Redmond in Oregon, Boise, Idaho Falls and Sun Valley in Idaho, Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell and Missoula in Montana and Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau in Alaska among the airports at risk.

Some cutbacks have already occurred. Bellingham has lost Delta Airlines service to Salt Lake City and Yakima has seen its second daily flight to Salt Lake City, shut down and then reinstated twice this year.

Somewhat strangely, the study doesn't mention Butte, Montana, from which Horizon Air is withdrawing service, and such smaller cities as Wenatchee and Walla Walla in Washington and Coos Bay and Pendleton in Oregon.

Airport consultant Michael Boyd, who advises smaller airports about attracting and keeping service, was critical of the BTC report.

"In this current ariline planning environment, and in light of the capacity cut-backs already announced, reporting to the world that some airports will lose at least some service is about as intuitive as predicting snow to fall in a blizzard," he said.

"But telling the media in some communities that their airport is facing near-catasptrophe and potential loss of all air service, based only on the supposition that airlines could fail, and without hard analytical analysis of specific service, revenues, yields and hub-flows, cannot be regarded as hard forecasting. It borders on Chicken Little," he said.

The BTC said it used several factors to evaluate airport potential airport service cutbacks including the proximity of other airports, the impact of airline mergers, prior fluctuations in air service, the mix of leisure and business travelers, service by at-risk carriers and media reports.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has ordered two Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the airline announced today.

The list price of the two-engine, Renton-built 737-800 is $75 million.

The new orders come in addition to orders from the Bangladeshi carrier in April. The airline then announced orders for four 777-300ER extended range aircraft and four fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliners.

The airline plans to create an all-Boeing fleet.

A Tacoma law firm that specializes in plane crash litigation has filed suit on behalf of four Honduras plane crash victims.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by the Tacoma law firm of Herrmann Scholbe late Wednesday, claims the pilot of a TACA Airlines plane used poor judgment in landing an Airbus A320 during poor weather at an airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras May 30. Five people were killed in that accident.

According to the suit, the pilot made two approaches to the difficult airport at Tegucigalpa. He aborted the first landing when he emerged from the clouds halfway down the short, 5,300-foot runway.

He landed the aircraft on the second try despite having little more than half of the rain-soaked runway remaining to stop the aircraft, the suit claims.

"The plane overshot the runway and then crashed into a ravine where the fuselage cracked into three pieces as it finally came to a rest straddling the street below," claims Tacoma attorney Charles Herrmann.

Three passengers died and two students in cars on the street were killed.

International law allows passengers to file suit in any of several venues including the country in which the tickets were purchased, in the country where their final destination is located and in the country where they live regardless of their citizenship. The plane was due to fly to Miami after leaving Honduras.

Herrmann's firm also represents four other plaintiffs who will file suit in Honduras.

Herrmann has represented clients in numerous air disasters during the last quarter century. His firm first gained a reputation by representing the families of passengers of Korean Air Lines flight KAL 007 shot down by a Soviet MIG over Sahhalin Island in 1983.

Tacoma Goodwill announced today that it's named its new building the Tacoma Goodwill-Milgard Work Opportunity Center.

“The Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation has showed a continued commitment to Goodwill,” said Terry A. Hayes, Tacoma Goodwill CEO. “The foundation is a leader in seeing and meeting the needs of many, many organizations in this area.”

The announcement was part of the organization's official ground breaking today on the 63,000-square-foot facility.

The building at the corner of South 27th Street and Tacoma Avenue will include a two-floor Youth Career Center as well as a job-training and placement center and classrooms.

The project will cost about $20 million and allow Goodwill to triple its services in Pierce County over the next five years, according to a press release from the organization.

The Port of Tacoma debuted its new Web site this week.

The site – almost a year in the making – has several new features including a calendar of port events, Web streamed commission meetings and online public records request forms.

Rod Koon, the port's director of communications, said port tried to build various content for its differing audiences.

"I think we made some great progress in terms of being more transparent with commission meetings, having more content for customers and for the community providing information on various aspects of the port," Koon said.

The port spent about $75,000 of the Web site redesign, which was done by Tacoma-based Business Internet Services.

The Boeing Co. says it is switching to a 401-K-like defined contribution plan for new, non-union employees beginning next year.

The change won't affect the 525,000 Boeing workers already enrolled in the company's traditional defined benefit plan.

The new Boeing plan isn't a traditional 401-K plan, although the 401-K plan is part of the new retirement package.

Under the new plan, Boeing will contribute the equivalent of three, four or five percent of an employee's salary to a self-managed retirement account even if the employee does not contribute to that account himself.

And Boeing will also match employee retirement plan employee contributions dollar for dollar up to four percent of pay and 50 cents per dollar for any amount of employee contributions between four and eight percent of pay.

For Boeing, the new plan has the advantage of not putting the company on the hook to up its contributions to its defined benefit pension plan when the pension plan investment performance turns sour. Typically, those investment return declines happen at the worst time for the company, during an economic downturn when its profits are challenged.

Boeing's unions, which are negotiating for new contracts have said they don't welcome such a new plan because it removes the responsibility for creating a steady pension benefit from the company and places it on the employee.

A new assembly line at Boeing's Renton plant may increase its output of P-8A submarine-hunting aircraft after a U.S. Navy request for accelerated production.

The new assembly line, opened recently to produce the 737-based patrol aircraft, has the ability to produce 18 to 24 of the aircraft a year, according to Boeing officials.

The Navy has ordered 108 of the planes. They were scheduled to be delivered at the rate of 13 a year beginning in 2013.

But the grounding of 25 percent of the Navy's existing fleet of sub-hunting P-3C Orions late last year has left the Navy with a capability gap that it hopes to fill by getting more P-8As sooner.

The first of five test P-8As was tested on the ground earlier this month.

The P-8A is a derivative of the commercial 737 airliner equipped with a bomb bay and underwing missiles and a sophisticated array of underwater detection equipment and radars.

Boeing's Tukwila-based engineering and technical workers union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, has won a critical election at Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, Kan.

Spirit technical employees voted 1,073 to 855 to keep SPEEA representing them Tuesday. Spirit is Boeing's former commercial airplane fabrication operation in Kansas. It remains a major supplier for Boeing.

Some union members had petitioned for the election. Dissatisfaction apparently stemmed from the exclusion of union workers from Spirit bonus program. The union says it will seek to modify its contract to include that bonus program.

SPEEA, which faces negotiations to renew its contract with Boeing in the Puget Sound area this fall, also won an election in January in Utah where engineers voted to keep the union representing them at Boeing.

Amazon.com Inc. said today it bought Fabric.com to expand its selection of sewing and craft products.

The Web site sells fabrics, patterns and sewing tools.

Amazon said Marietta, Georgia-based Fabric.com will continue to function as a stand-alone operation, offering lines of fabric for apparel, quilting and home decor.

The nomination of one of Tacoma's humbler structures ever considered for listing on Tacoma's Register of Historic Places goes before the Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission today.

If the commission approves and the nomination passes a July 23 public hearing unscathed, Frisko Freeze will join such monumental Tacoma buildings as the Temple Theater, Union Station, Stadium High School and Old City Hall on the Tacoma historic register.

The 1950-vintage drive-in hamburger place across Division Avenue from Multi-Care Medical Center, will be tied for second on the list as the youngest structure on the list. Buildings must be at least 50 years old to qualify.

Only the 1956 addition to the former Weyerhaeuser headquarters building would be younger on the list. Frisko Freeze would be tied with the Narrows Bridge for that second place honor.

"Frisko Freeze is a building that provides a snapshot into the automobile culture of the '50s," said Reuben McKnight, Tacoma's historic preservation officer.

The building's shed roof, its canted windows and its bright color scheme are emblematic of an era focused on futuristic ideas and innovation, said McKnight.

The fast food restaurant is particularly noteworthy because it has survived its 58 years without significant alterations. Its neon sign, its many coats of red and white enamel and even its tightly designed interior remains the way it has for decades. Even its menu considering its age, has little changed.

Designation as an historic place will give the building a particular cache and enhance its iconic status as well as afford it some limited protection from demolition and some tax advantages.

The commission meets at 5 p.m. in Room 16 of the Tacoma Municipal Building North.

Two dozen farmers have committed to selling their produce at the new Sixth Avenue Farmers' Market, scheduled to open July 15.

The lineup includes local farms Terry's Berries, L'Arche Farm and Garden, the Estrella Family Creamery and The Bee Lady as well as growers from east of the mountains.

The market is being organized by the Federation of Tacoma Farmers Markets, a partnership between Tacoma’s Broadway Farmers Market and Proctor Farmers Market.

The 6th Ave Business District Association and the City of Tacoma are supporting the effort, according to information from the Tacoma Farmers' Market president Richard Hines.

In addition to produce, vendors at the Sixth Avenue market will be selling seafood from Alaska, meat, poultry and fresh flowers.

"We are creating a high-quality, food-centered farmers market that reflects the vitality and energy of 6th Ave,” Hines said.

“Tacomans want more choices for local food, including meats and cheeses, and they want to buy from farmers who are committed to sustainable production. This is shaping up to be a great addition to the city’s farmers market system,” he said.

The market will run from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in Tacoma.

It's not Whole Foods, Metropolitan Market or even Safeway, but downtown Tacoma, at least the Foss Waterway part, is getting a food market.

The owners of Dock Street Sandwich say they'll be opening a specialty food market in a Thea's Landing retail space on July 3.

The 1,300-square-foot store, formerly occupied by The Urban Dog, will be called Thea's Market.

The market will handle wines, specialty cheeses and meats and Northwest food products along with a basic selection of staples such as milk, eggs and bread, said store co-owner Jayna Marshall.

The Dock Street store will be on the south end of the Thea's Landing condominium building. Jayna and Jim Marshall's other retail business, Dock Street Sandwich, is on the building's north end.

"We've been looking at doing this for about a year and a half," said Jayna Marshall.

The two have lived on the waterway for four years themselves and know the business conditions there well.

The couple worked with the building owner to work out a lease deal that gives them some flexibility, she said.

The completion of the repaving project on Dock Street, the recent opening of the new D Street bridge over the BNSF tracks and the imminent occupation of the new Esplanade condo building has made the prospects of the new market brighter, she said.

The market will target three categories of shoppers, she said: downtown and Foss Waterway residents, daytrippers to the nearby attractions such as the Museum of Glass, Washington History Museum and the Tacoma Dome and boaters using the nearby marinas.

Marshall and her husband hope to get the doors open before the huge crowds expected for Tall Ships on the Independence Day weekend with at least a basic stock of goods.

Tacoma Goodwill will break ground at 1 p.m. Wednesday for a $20 million, 63,000-square-foot job training and work placement center near downtown Tacoma.

The new Work Opportunity Center will be located at 714 S. 27th St. where Goodwill's car detailing facility is now located.

The groundbreaking will feature a symbolic razing of the existing facilities on the site by participants in Goodwill's Youthbuild program, said Goodwill spokesman Matthew Erlich.

The new building will be a LEED certified "green" building.

Japan Airlines will close down its training base at Moses Lake's Grant County International Airport after more than 40 years next spring.

The cost of fuel has made training in such a remote location from Japan too expensive, the airline said.

The Japanese carrier was first attracted to Moses Lake because of its long runways, good weather and uncrowded skies.

Grant County is the former Larson Air Force Base. Its main runway is among the longest in the country at 13,500 feet. The airport includes some 4,700 acres of land.

Japan Airlines trained its Boeing 747 crews at Moses Lake. The airline will be phasing out its 747s in favor of more fuel-efficient two-engine aircraft.

The Japan Airlines presence over the years spawned a number of unusual adaptations for an Eastern Washington town including a Japanese restaurant at the airport's small terminal.

Retiring its fuel-guzzling MD-80 aircraft early will cost Alaska Air Group, Alaska Airlines' parent company $60 million in charges over the next two quarters, the company says.

The $30 million charges in two consecutive quarters will equal the remaining lease payments due on the seven McDonnell Douglas twin jets.

Alaska is replacing its MD-80 jets with more fuel-stingy Boeing 737-800 jets. Those jets use about 25 percent less fuel.

Once those MD-80s are retired by the end of August, Alaska will be flying an all-737 fleet.

Boeing Co. has declared a quarterly dividend of 40 cents a share, the company said today.

The dividend is payable Sept. 5 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 8.

The dividend is up five cents a share from the 35 cents declared in the second quarter last year.

Boeing has steadily raised its dividend in recent years as its profitability increased. In the second quarter of 2002, for instance, the Boeing dividend was just 17 cents a share.

A politician and an airport that can't stand much more degradation of their public popularity are being blamed for travel screw-up that affected nearly 40,000 people in England.

The fateful combination brought President George Bush and his entourage including two 747 and one 757 aircraft and four helicopters to London's crowd-impaired Heathrow Airport in mid-June.

Now it seems that the Bush visit caused the closing of one of the two Heathrow runways twice during the visit resulting in the cancellation of 69 flights.

By some accounts, nearly 40,000 passengers had their travel plans delayed or canceled because of the Bush presence.

Heathrow is already suffering from a bad reputation because of tens of thousands of bags lost there last year and because of the botched opening of British Airways' Terminal 5 this spring that resulted in dozens of cancelled flights while the luggage system was sorted out.

Willie Walsh, British Airways chief executive, has publicly criticized Heathrow operator BAA for allowing Bush to land there. A military airport would have been much less disruptive, said Walsh.

A new study by the Milken Institute ranks Washington fifth among the states in its ability to attract science and technology jobs.

The state advanced one place from sixth, the position it held in a similar Milken study in 2004.

"The changes in this year's index give a good measure of who is ahead in the increasing competition for scarce human capital and other resources needed for a successful industry," said Ross DeVol, director of regional economics at the institute and principal study author.

The study ranked Massachusetts in the first position followed by Maryland, Colorado, California and Washington.

California fell from the second position to fourth, and Maryland advanced from fourth to second.

California's rank fell in part because a decline in academic test scores and a low proportion of the population with college degrees could potentially harm its potential to take advantage of future tech jobs, the study's authors said.

Amazon.com adds office supplies to its unending list of products.

The Seattle online retailer today said its new store includes a selection of more than 500,000 products including both well-known and hard-to-find brands such as Avery, Hammermill, Papermate, Midland Paper, Russell+Hazel and Raymond Geddes.

"We are thrilled to offer our customers an easy and convenient way to find and discover everything they need to outfit their office or classroom," Chris Rupp, director of merchandising for computers and office supplies, said in news release. "With our enormous breadth of selection, we have paper, pencils, sticky notes, pushpins and much more, all available for purchase with the click of a mouse, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Pension & Investments magazine had a story today about Russell.

The story says that the Tacoma financial services company is facing increased competition from SEI Investments out of Pennsylvania, which has surpassed Russell as a manager of instutional tax-exempt assets.

Here's part of the story:

“SEI has out-Russelled Russell,” said Charles “Chip” Roame, managing partner of strategy consulting firm Tiburon Strategic Advisors LLC, Tiburon, Calif.

As of Dec. 31, SEI managed $156 billion in assets for U.S. institutional tax-exempt clients vs. Russell's $58 billion, according to data reported by the firms to Pensions & Investments. Russell hired Boston Consulting Group Inc., Boston, at the beginning of the year to help crystallize its business strategy, said sources familiar with the firm's operations. Eric Gregoire, spokesman at Boston Consulting, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the surprise exit of President and CEO Craig Ueland on June 9 has left firm officials fielding questions from employees and industry observers.

Industry watchers are speculating that Russell's spectacular hedge fund blowup — the firm had to liquidate some $6 billion in two hedge funds of funds and is winding down its non-directional hedge fund offerings — could have hastened Mr. Ueland's departure.

Russell's major lines of business are asset management, consulting and index construction, with asset management being the major revenue driver. The firm also offers transition management services. Assets under management doubled to $213 billion in the 4 years Mr. Ueland was CEO. Institutional assets grew to $52 billion as of March 2008, up from $28 billion five years earlier, according to data provided by Russell.

While growth has been strong, some changes need to be made so that Russell can again be the pre-eminent U.S. multimanager.

“Russell was the leader of the multimanager approach ... but SEI was quicker to commercialize it,” Mr. Roame said. SEI is considered to be Russell's leading competitor in the multimanager business.

Milwaukee's Midwest Airlines has announced it will retire its 12 fuel-guzzling MD-80 aircraft by next fall to cut fuel expenses.

That's likely to mean schedule reductions in cities that its fleet of more modern Boeing 717s can't reach non-stop.

Midwest flies from Sea-Tac to Kansas City and Milwaukee now. The 717 can reach Kansas City non-stop, but perhaps not Milwaukee.

Midwest is the latest among U.S. airlines to retire MD-80s. SeaTac's Alaska Airlines has accelerated its planned retirement of its nine remaining MD-80s to August 25. American Airlines is grounding dozens of the twin-engine planes made by McDonnell Douglas.

Anyone who's built a new house or remodeled and seen completition delayed because the appliances were on backorder can feel some empathy with Qatar Airways.

Boeing has told the Mideast carrier to expect delays of up to a month in the deliveries of three 777 wide body from its Everett plant because of delays in delivery of galley equipment from a German supplier.

Galleys are the airborne equivalent of kitchens.

Fortunately for Boeing the galley equipment is what's known in the aerospace industry as "buyer-furnished equipment," or BFE.

Aircraft buyer sometimes elect to contract for and provide their own equipment which the aircraft manufacturer installs.

Such BFE typically includes such interior fittings such as galleys, seats and inflight entertainment equipment.

The failure to get aircraft delivered on-time is potentially costly for airlines. Boeing 777-300ERs now have a list price of $250-$279 million.

Boeing sold two airliners last week, bringing its 2008 total orders to 455.

The company reports that it sold one 777 wide-bodied jet to Korean Airlines and one Boeing Business Jet, a modified version of the 737, to an unidentified corportation or individual.

Both Boeing and Airbus say they expect orders to slow down from last year's torrid pace -- more than 1,400 orders for Boeing -- but at the present pace, Boeing should book more than 900 orders this year, an amount that's way above the norm.

During some of its lean years, Boeing booked just a few more than 200 aircraft orders for the whole year.

Boeing Co. has successfully completed the critical "power on" testing of the electrical systems of its 787 Dreamliner, the company said Friday.

The tests were completed well before the end-of-the-month deadline Boeing had set for itself in its revised Dreamliner testing and production schedule.

The tests began June 11 and continued until Friday.

The tests set the stage for further expansion of the Dreamliner's operating repertoire culminating in its first flight late this year.

The 787 is about 14 months behind schedule because of difficulties with major and minor suppliers.

One of Alaska Airlines' more nettlesome new competitors, Bay Area-based Virgin America Airlines, is cutting back its flying to cope with the fuel cost crisis.

The Burlingame, Calif.-headquartered start-up airline said recently it will cut its seat availability by about 10 percent. Most of those cuts will come in its mid-week transcontinental flying.

Virgin America's entry into the Seattle-San Francisco and Seattle-Los Angeles market has spurred a competition for market-share with SeaTac's Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the incumbent airlines on those routes.

Virgin America's cutbacks mirror industry trends: reduce unprofitable flying to reduce losses caused by the huge escalation in fuel costs.

A new study by commercial real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis shows the Seattle office market is among the most vigorous in the country.

The CBRE study ranked Seattle second only to suburban Miami in the percentage increase in occupancy cost. That cost increase is usually a good measure of the demand for office space in a market.

Worldwide, Seattle ranked 16th. At the top of the list is Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, the former Saigon, with an increase of 94.4 percent.

"The Seattle central business district office market remained a true 'landlord's market,'" the study said. "While institutional investors may finally see some slowdown in activity, strong absorption is enabling current owners to keep lease rates high to validate their 'top dollar' purchases of 2007."

Suburban Seattle ranked ninth in the U.S. with a 17.8 percent increase.

Two years after it won a competition to build a mostly residential building on Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway, Prium Companies got approval this week for a new design for a smaller building featuring primarily office space.

Blame the downturn in the housing market, said Don Meyer, executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. The authority's board approved the new design Wednesday.

Because of the changes, Prium must reapply to the state Department of Ecology for an amendment to its original shoreline development permit.

Construction on Prium's building, between Albers Mill and the State Route 509 cable-stay bridge, should start next spring, Meyer said.

=> Read more!

Thursday's announcement of 1,200 further job cuts at Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. may not be the end of staff reductions at the thrift.

WAMU Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger said this week the company continues to review its business with an eye toward eliminating unprofitable operations and streamlining others.

The cuts would reduce the bank's Puget Sound area staff of about 4,600 workers by about 260.

The latest layoffs are the third round of staff reductions at the bank which has suffered because of the subprime lending crisis.

The Tacoma Housing Authority has recently finalized the agreement to purchase the Tacoma Rhodes Center from the state

The deal is to be completed by no later than August 27. The Legislature asked the state's Office of General Administration to offer the building to public organizations first.

The Housing Authority stepped forward and after several rounds of negotiation agreed on a deal. State tenants in the building who want to extend their current leases will be able to do so for 10 years at existing rates, said the state.

The downtown Rhodes Center is the former Rhodes Department Store, which was converted into the University of Puget Sound Law School. When UPS sold the law school to Seattle University, which moved the school to Seattle, the university sold the building to the state.

If you want to work at Microsoft, this year is a good time to apply.

The Redmond tech company has added more than 11,000 employees in the past year and now has nearly 90,000 workers worldwide, according to The Associated Press.

Much of the growth came from acquisitions, such as the 2,600 employees in aQuantive, the Seattle-based digital advertising company.

As of the end of May, Microsoft had nearly 39,000 employees in the Seattle area, the AP reports.

Microsoft has been expanding its headquarters campus in Redmond and leasing space in Bellevue and Seattle.
A spokesman, Lou Gellos, says the company is looking to see what space is available in Seattle.

A court ruling this week laid out more protections for private text messages that we all know you're sending via your work-issued devices. Now corporate employers must have either a warrant or the employee's permission to see text messages not stored by the employer, according to an AP story I spotted at Business Week.

It appears to be a win for privacy and for flirty texts sent from those long work meetings, where you might very well be reading this post on your work-issued device. But, remember, emails are still fair game.

Here's more from the story:

Corporate e-mail has typically been stored on a company's own servers or on server space it pays for, which employers control, according to federal law. Text-messaging has typically been managed by outside providers.

The lower court had ruled that employers have access to text messages because they're stored by the outside contractors, but the 9th Circuit found that the storage was incidental. Greater privacy protections apply, the court said, because employers are paying only for messaging services.

It's not clear, however, how employers should now manage the relationship with an employee who splits the bill for a work-issued cell phone or other message device, a common arrangement.

In that case, the employee might be reluctant to give his employer full access to his text messages, since some are presumably personal.

First in the nation, first in the hearts of people with very sweet sweet-teeth. That's the Tacoma Krispy Kreme store.

The Kool Kreme Krispy Kreme outlet outside Tacoma Mall has developed a trio of new treats. They’ve been on sale for a week now, and just today the Issaquah Krispy Kreme offered them for sale. A rollout to other Northwest outlets is also in the works, and according to a spokesman the things could well be on sale across the KKD (that's the Krispy stock ticker, and the stock is up nearly 80 percent so far this year) empire.

Just in time for summer, if it ever arrives, the delicacies are:

• Kool Dog: A maple bar or chocolate bar split horizontally, filled with soft-serve ice cream and slathered with chocolate sauce.

• Doughnut Sundae: Bits of bite-sized Krispy Kreme donuts mixed with Kool Kreme (the brand of soft-serve popularized at the Tacoma store) and topped with toppings that could include sugary sprinkles, fresh fruit or such.

• Apple Fritter Sundae: Bits of bite-sized pieces of Krispy Kreme’s apple or banana fritters topped by Kool Kreme and other toppings.

The Port of Tacoma commission at its meeting today agreed with a recommendation from Tim Farrell, executive director, not to renew an interlocal agreement with the Port of Olympia.

The agreement, which will expire within weeks, was aimed at developing property near Maytown, in Thurston County.

Farrell said this afternoon that the property, which the Port of Tacoma owns, will be put up for sale. He said he will entertain all offers, and will soon begin discussions with environmental interests.

The decision to nix the Maytown initiative, he said, was primarily due to economic factors – given a slowdown in traffic and a recommitment to development of the Port of Tacoma at its Tideflats home.

Another well-known department store chain has snagged a celebrity endorsement. And something the others don't have, at least yet: An MTV-produced movie.

According to an Associated Press story, Sears will begin selling clothes and accessories designed by hip-hop artist LL Cool J. And look for a film in August shot at Sears with actors wearing Sears clothing.

Here's an excerpt of the AP story, which I spotted at the Houston Chronicle:

After spending years trying to get shoppers to embrace its softer side, the ailing retailer is still known more for its hardware than handbags. So its latest strategy to stem slumping sales is trying to tap yet another new market: the young, hip and urban.

"While mom may decide what the acceptable place is to shop, the kids are deciding what clothes they want and what places have it," said Richard Gerstein, Sears' chief marketing officer. "If we come out of our season with much more relevance with this group, and improving our sales and profitability with this group, we think it's a big win."

Whether the initiatives can help Sears shed its stale image is up in the air. But what's certain, experts say, is that the chain led by financier Edward Lampert desperately needs to reinvent itself if it's going to survive.

If Boeing fails to prevail again in its third try to win a $35 billion Air Force aerial tanker deal, Washington State could lose the opportunity to see 9,000 new jobs the tanker deal would create.

But even if Boeing rival Northrop Grumman/EADS wins again with the KC-45 tanker, this state will gain jobs, Northrop Grumman/EADS contends.

Boeing apparently won another chance at winning the tanker contract Wednesday when the Government Accountability Office found flaws in the Air Force procedure that picked Northrop Grumman/EADS to build the tanker.The GAO report will likely force the Air Force to redo the competition.

The KC-45 will create 2,729 direct and indirect jobs in Washington, Boeing's rival contends.

Five Washington companies, ELDEC in Lynwood, Honeywell in Redmond, Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane, Accra Manufacturing in Bothell and Exotic Metals in Kent, will supply parts or services for the KC-45.

The company claims 678 jobs will be created in Oregon by the Northrop Grumman/EADS tanker. The KC-45 is a militarized version of the Airbus A330 jetliner. Final assembly of that plane is to happen in a new plant in Mobile, Ala.

Boeing's final assembly for its tanker, a version of the 767 commercial jet, would be in Everett.

Thirty-five percent of the air traffic controllers at Seattle's Boeing Field are trainees, one of the highest ratios of any commercial field in the country, a new Government Accountability Office study shows.

The GAO study ranked Boeing Field 45th on the list of 50 domestic airports in the proportion of fully certified air traffic controllers.

Houston's William P. Hobby Airport had the highest proportion of trainees with 44 percent. New York's LaGuardia Airport was next with 39 percent trainees, and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was next with 38 percent trainee controllers.

The best ratio in the country was at St. Louis where only six percent of air traffic controllers are still in training.

Sea-Tac Airport ranked 15th on the list with 19 percent of its controllers being trainees.

=> Read more!

American Airlines may speed up deliveries of Boeing 737-800s from Boeing to replace its fuel-guzzling MD-80s, American's chief executive said Wednesday.

Gerard Arpey told analysts at a Merrill Lynch & Co. conference in New York that it may ask Boeing to deliver it more of the Renton-built 737s than the 70 it is already scheduled to receive in 2009 and 2010.

American 737-800

The 737-800 is 25 percent more fuel efficient than the MD-80s that form the backbone of American's domestic fleet. American is grounding dozens of those planes this year to save fuel.

Delta Air Lines says it's trimming even more flights from its schedule to cut costs and enhance revenues.

The Atlanta-based airline, which had said in March that it would cut out 10 percent of its flying, said this week that will increase that percentage to 13 percent.

The flight reductions are designed to eliminate poor performing flights from the airline's schedule as it struggles to cope with high fuel costs.

Most network carriers including United, Continental, Northwest and US Air have announced reductions in their schedules.

Delta didn't mention any cuts in its service to Sea-Tac. Delta serves Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Atlanta and New York from Sea-Tac

More layoffs could be coming at Seattle-based Washington Mutual.

According to bank sources those layoffs could be announced as soon as today.

The layoffs would be yet another step WAMU is taking to cut expenses in the wake of home mortgage lending loses that have damaged the bank's balance sheet.

The layoffs, as many as several hundred, would be spread across the company nationwide. WAMU has some 46,000 employees on its payroll.

It has already announced 3,000 job cutbacks and the closing of 186 loan production offices.

The bank lost more than $1 billion in the last quarter, and its longtime chairman and chief executive officer, Kerry Kilinger, lost his chairman's title.

A private equity firm, TPG, is poised to inject $7 billion in new capital into the bank to aid its recovery.

October might seem far away, but not apparently to those putting together this year's Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber Business Expo. The organization has put out a call for early registration and has some discounted booths for those who don't procrastinate.

Reserve a space by July 15 and the booth costs $675. Until Sept. 1, you'll pay $700. And after that, booths cost $800.

The expo takes place Oct. 14. According to a Chamber release, the expo will showcase more than 100 exhibits, workshops and food from local restaurants.

For more information, contact 253-627-2175.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but the relentless march upward of pump prices seems to be losing a little steam.

Consider:

* The average national retail price of regular unleaded today is $4.075 a gallon. That's down from $4.078 Tuesday and $4.08 Monday.

* Retail prices have begun falling back slightly in a few places in Washington. In Bellingham today, for instance, the average price of regular was $4.428 per gallon. That's down a penny from Tuesday. In the Tri-Cities, the average regular price today was $4.179 a gallon down from $4.180 Tuesday.

But prices aren't headed down everywhere yet. The price in Tacoma for a gallon of regular was $4.342 according to AAA Washington. That's up from $4.339 on Tuesday.

In Seattle, the average price was up .8 of a cent today to $4.38 a gallon.

It isn't worth driving there to gas up, but if you're traveling to Spokane, gas up before you head back. The average price in the Eastern Washington metropolis was just $4.044 a gallon today.

Expect a decision as soon as this afternoon from the Government Accountability Office on Boeing's appeal of the Air Force's award of a $40 billion tanker contract to a Northrop Grumman-Airbus consortium.

The Air Force tapped Northrop Grumman and its European partner Airbus in February to build 179 airborne tankers to replacing aging Boeing KC-135 planes. The Northrop Grumman Airbus tanker is a version of the Airbus A330 commercial jet built in Europe. Final assembly of the tanker version would be handled at a new plant in Mobile, Ala.

Boeing bid its Everett built 767 against the rival offering.

During the GAO review, details have leaked that the Air Force figures used in calculating the long-term costs of the rival planes were flawed and that the Boeing tanker is more survivable in a war situation.

But Northrop Grumman believes those flaws won't be enough to reverse the Air Force's decision.

Don't show up at South 13th and Pacific today hoping to witness the groundbreaking of the rehabilitation of the historic Luzon Building.

That groundbreaking ceremony, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed until sometime in mid to late July, said Gintz Group construction manager Tim Lieberman.

Blame problems in putting the complicated financing and rehab plan together.

The Gintz Group is getting a loan from the city to pay part of the rehab costs of the Burnham & Root-designed building and is relying on historic tax credits to help it score private financing for the rest.

The Gintz Group, a Tacoma developer with multiple projects in town, considered and rejected several construction schemes to preserve the building's historic exterior while building a modern interior structure, said Lieberman.

The Luzon Building, designed by famed Chicago architects Burnham & Root, is one of two Burham & Root buildings on the West Coast.

The issue is that the wooden floors and their substructure in the building have deteriorated through years of water leakage. In addition, the rehabilitated masonry building has to meet modern earthquake codes.

=> Read more!

La-Z-Boy has started selling its recliners and other furniture via the Internet in the face of hard economic times and competition from both ends of the retail spectrum – Target to Crate & Barrel – according to a Detroit News story.

Easily returned items seem to work well for Internet purchases, but I wonder about the viability of sofa and big chair buying. Could be a good fit for furniture window shopping, though.

Here’s an excerpt from the Detroit News story:

Online transactions will be processed in the company's Michigan headquarters, but purchases will be shipped by La-Z-Boy's nationwide network of 336 dealers.

It is "too soon to tell" what kind of impact the Web site could have on the company's bottom line, said Laura Champine, a home products analyst at Morgan Keegan. "Historically, it's been very tough for furniture manufacturers to get off the ground in e-commerce."

Champine pointed out that while some retailers have succeeded in online sales -- she said home furnishings and kitchenware retailer Williams Sonoma did $400 million in e-commerce this year -- it is difficult to sell "big ticket items" over the Internet. "I'll be surprised to see that this will move the needle for La-Z-Boy."

However, Doug Collier, La-Z-Boy vice president and chief marketing officer, said the Web site's primary goal is to pique interest and draw them to the company's retail outlets.

In case you were wondering where to get your La-Z-Boy locally, there's a store on Tacoma Mall Boulevard.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines told Wall Street analysts today it is unlikely to follow the example of other major legacy airlines and shrink its fleet.

Alaska chief financial officer Brad Tilden said that it intends to keep its fleet of 40 older 737-400s in the air until their lease expiration in 2016 and then replace them with newer, more efficient jets.

Alaska has also been adding new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to its fleet.

Some airlines have been grounding Boeing 737 "Classics," 737-300s, -400s and -500s because they are less fuel efficient than "Next Generation" Boeing 737-600s, -700s, -800s and -900s.

Alaska will retire its least efficient jets, McDonnell Douglas MD-80s by September, and its Horizon Air sister airline is retiring its Bombardier Q200 and CRJ-700 aircraft. After Alaska retires its MD-80s, its fleet will be the youngest among non-startup carriers.

Alaska executives said that rather than ground aircraft it intends to redeploy them from marginal routes to routes with more business.

The airline recently announced it will begin serving Kona in Hawaii and Minneapolis from Sea-Tac.

Australian airline Qantas may soon order Boeing 777-300ERs to replace its fleet of 13 Boeing 747s, industry sources say.

The airline is under pressure to cut fuel consumption, and the quickest way to drop consumption would be to replace the gas-guzzling, four-engine 747s with two-engine, efficient 777s.

Qantas could also order more Airbus A380 superjumbos but that airplane is larger than the 747s and would not be available as quickly as the Boeing jets.

Qantas has ordered Boeing's game-changing, super-efficient 787s, but those aircraft deliveries are running at least 20 months behind schedule, and the 787 is significantly smaller than the 747s.

The unemployment rate jumped up half a percentage point to 5.7 percent in Pierce County in May, but economists say the jobs picture here remains healthy.

"Historically, it's still a very decent rate," said Employment Security Department regional economist Paul Turek.

"The job market is getting a little thinner, but were still relatively OK," he said.

The present seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in Pierce County is still substantially under the rate hit during the recession of 1990 and 1991 when local unemployment touched 7.6 percent.

And it's nowhere near the 9 percent Pierce County experienced in 2003 after the 9-11 layoffs in the aerospace industry.

Under the old definition of "full employment", 4 percent to 6 percent, the present situation would have been considered a full employment, said Turek.

Under a more modern definition that considers the advantages modern technology gives to job seekers, Pierce County's unemployment rate would be somewhat below the 4 to 5 percent "full employment" range, he said.

Turek said month-to-month changes should be considered in a broader picture.

"We're still doing a pretty good job here, especially considering what's happening in the rest of the country," he said.

While the year-to-year unemployment rate is up in Pierce County from 4.4 percent to 5.7 percent, 7,140 people were employed in Pierce County this May than in May a year ago.

On a statewide seasonally adjusted basis, Washington's unemployment rate at 5.3 percent is still below the nationwide average seasonally adjusted of 5.5 percent.

Both statewide and Pierce County, weakness in the construction industry was a contributor to higher unemployment numbers. Education and health care remain strong.

Sirius Real Estate Group this morning withdrew its bid to buy the vacant 1916 Tacoma Elks Temple, 565 Broadway, according to company spokesman Jim Dugan.

Sirius had until Friday to complete its period of due diligence and determine whether its plans, reconstruction costs and financing would work. But it didn't need that long to decide that it couldn't access the amount of financing necessary to rehab the building in the current market, Dugan said.

=> Read more!

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines tops a new airline satisfaction study by survey firm J.D. Power & Associates.

Alaska, closely followed by Continental Airlines, was rated at the top of the traditional carriers rank in the Power survey of airline customers.

Alaska earned five out of five gold circles in the Power survey in overall satisfaction, flight reservations and scheduling, check-in, aircraft interior, boarding, deplaning and baggage and flight crew categories. The airline won a four of five circles rating in the in-flight services and cost & fees category.

Continental earned five of five circles in the cost and fees, in-flight services and overall satisfaction categories on the Power survey. It ranked four of five in the other areas of the survey.

At the bottom of the survey results in the traditional airline category was United Airlines.

In the low-cost carrier ranks, New York's JetBlue Airways took top honors, followed by Southwest Airlines, Frontier
Airlines and AirTran Airways.

Overall, the survey firm noted, satisfaction with domestic airlines was the lowest in three years.

"The study finds that satisfaction with 'people' factors, including knowledge,courtesy and helpfulness of reservation and gate agents, check-in staff and flight crew, has declined dramatically since 2007 and is the leading contributing factor to the overall decline incustomer satisfaction with airlines in 2008," the survey company said.

Alaska spokesman Paul McElroy said the airline's "genuine, caring employees" were a major factor in the airline's ranking.

Only Alaska and Air Canada among the tradtional carriers improved their rankings this year over 2007.

Employers such as the Transportation Security Administration, Home Depot and Menzies Aviation will be interviewing for new employees at a job fair Saturday at Auburn's SuperMall.

The job fair, sponsored by Goodwill, will be held in the mall's Aviation Court from noon to 3 p.m.

Goodwill advised job seekers to bring resumes and to be prepared to interview for positions.

"Firms partner with Goodwill to help fill a wide variety of jobs," said Terry Hayes, Tacoma Goodwill chief executive officer.

Other employers at the job fair include Tacoma Community College, Walsh Construction, Schwan's and Evans Glass.

For additional information go to Goodwill's Web site, www.tacomagoodwill.org or call Sarah Hawkins at 253-219-4606.

In the face of record high gas prices, several local transit agencies are urging residents to "Dump the Pump" on Thursday and ride public transportation.

Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, Kitsap Transit and King County Metro Transit will join transit agencies across the country to encourage people who have never tried transit to take a ride, according to a news release.

They are also asking regular transit users to leave their vehicles at home and only use transit that day, whether that means hopping the bus or carpooling to work.

The agencies will be handing out "I dumped the pump" stickers to riders. In Pierce County, you can score a sticker between 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. at select transit centers that day.

For more commuting options in the region, go here.

A new Lowe's home improvement store has opened in Bonney Lake.

The 102,000-square-foot store at 19911 South Prairie Road East carries some 32,000 items from lumber to lavatories.

Steve Fox, former manager at Lowe's Tacoma store, is the manager at the new east Pierce County branch.

While the store wouldn't disclose exact employment numbers, a typical Lowe's store of that size employs about 120 people, said a news release from Lowe's corporate public relations department.

The location of the big box home improvement store caused some concern in the Bonney Lake community. The store's developer paid for extensive road improvements including several new turn lanes to ensure that traffic congestion would be lessened.

The battle over digital music downloads continues.

Amazon.com said today that it started two new promotions that offer discounts for MP3 purchases at the company's Web site.

"Daily Deals" is updated daily and offers a popular album at a significantly discounted price, according to a news release from the company.

"Friday Five" offers five albums for $5 every Friday and through the weekend, the company says.

First up: Coldplay's earlier albums (the band has a new album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends").

"X&Y" will be available today for $1.99.

"A Rush of Blood to the Head" will be available on Wednesday for $1.99.

"Parachutes" will be available on Thursday for $1.99.

"Brothers and Sisters" will be offered on Friday for 99 cents.

British Airways is negotiating with Boeing Co. to acquire a dozen Boeing 777-300ERs to help fill a capacity gap left by the anticipated late delivery of its 24 787s.

Flight International reports the 777 deliveries would begin in 2010. The two dozen 787s British has on order will likely be delivered 20 or more months behind schedule.

The 787s scheduled first flight is now 15 months overdue because of supply system issues.

British already operates 41 777s. It's not clear whether BA would retain the 777s once the 787s were delivered.

The 777-300ERs are somewhat larger capacity than the 787s. British has been looking for a larger plane than the 787 to augment its present fleet. It had been evaluating the 777 and Airbus' A350XWB.

Portland International Airport will be losing non-stop service to Mexico City and Guadalajara via Mexicana Airlines.

The two routes are another casualty of the fuel cost crisis beseting airlines.

Mexicana, which began service to Portland in 2004, decided to withdraw from the Oregon airport when it reassessed its routes.

Like many airlines, Mexicana is readjusting its flight schedule to trim out marginal routes in light of fuel prices that have risen as much as 90 percent in the last year.

If you spot a purple LINK light rail train in Downtown Tacoma Tuesday, don't think that Sound Transit has abandoned its blue, wave-like corporate paint scheme.

No, one of the light rail vehicles has become, for a fee, a rolling billboard for the Click! Network.

The train has been wrapped with a decal-like purple skin advertising Click!'s 10th anniversary.

The wrap, which cost the municipally-owned cable network $13,280, was designed by IMagic and applied to the train by Titan Worldwide, said Click! spokeswoman Diane Lachel.

The promotion will run through the end of the year when the train will return to its former color scheme.

Taiwan's China Airlines will cut service to Seattle next fall, an aviation publication says.

Airline Weekly said China, which began service to Sea-Tac in 2004 will end that service in September as part of its worldwide economy efforts. The airline is trimming away its least profitable flights as he struggles to cope with high fuel prices.

If China leaves Seattle, EVA Airlines will still link Seattle with Taiwan.

Seattle largely has dodged airline route cutbacks until now because business remains somewhat more robust in the Puget Sound area than in other parts of the nation.

Sea-Tac recently added service to Beijing via Hainan Airlines, and Northwest Airlines has announced new service to London and to Beijing.

Looks like Wal-Mart, once again, is going to try to go after the affluent bargain shopper cultivated by rival Target.

I covered retail not so long ago in California when Wal-Mart debuted its Supercenter concept there. At the time (way back in 2004), the chain told me it was all about providing low-cost options for working families so they could save money. (You might also recall a recent attempt to sell trendy clothing that didn't fly.) This comes at a time when Wal-Mart and other discounters are doing well as people rein in spending amid rising gas and food prices.

According to the Financial Times, Wal-Mart’s new Marketside grocery stores – the first new concept launched by the company in a decade – will be serving up “premium” food, indicating price/discounts will not be the focus.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Job advertisements for the new Wal-Mart business say the stores will deliver “unique solutions for time-starved consumers in a premium fresh/convenience oriented format” – an indication of the pricing position of the new 15,000 sq ft stores.

Wal-Mart has already indicated that the neighbourhood stores will be focused on delivering “meal solutions”. Store planning documents indicate that food will be prepared and served on the premises, in contrast to the minimalist utilitarian approach of Tesco’s hard discount Fresh & Easy stores.

A small, Portland-based airline has announced plans to do what giant, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines could not three years ago: set up air service between Seattle and another major city from Boeing Field.

SeaPort Airlines has announced a new service from Boeing Field near downtown Seattle to Portland beginning June 30.

The carrier will fly eight weekday roundtrips between the two airports using a single-engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12. The airline has scheduled four Saturday and Sunday roundtrips between the two airports.

It expects to attract travelers who want to avoid the security hassles at Sea-Tac Airport and at Portland International Airport. SeaPort will use a private terminal at Portland.

SeaPort's total passenger capacity in the 9-passenger planes is less than Horizon Air offers in one flight of its 74-passenger Q400 planes that fly frequently between SEA and PDX.

Tickets will cost from $149 to $224.

The airline's announcement is unlikely to generate the kind of massive opposition that Southwest did when it announced plans to move all of its 40-some daily flights from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field. Southwest planned to increase its flights to some 90 a day and build a new terminal at its expense.

The plan elicited opposition from other airlines at Sea-Tac, and rival Alaska Airlines said it would move some flights to Boeing Field to counter Southwest' move. Boeing Field neighbors also opposed the addition of regular jet commercial flights from the airport which is busy with private and corporate aviation and test and delivery flights by The Boeing Co.

Southwest's plan eventually failed when King County Executive Ron Sims withdrew his support for the plan.

Tacoma Mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. has announced the addition of four new retailers to its new "lifestyle center" due to open in October.

Those retailers are:

* Coldwater Creek. This retailer of women's apparel, gifts, jewelry and accessories will occupy a nearly 7,000-square-foot space. The Tacoma Mall store will be Coldwater Creek's eighth in Washington. The chain has 300 stores nationwide.

* The Walking Company.This shoe-oriented store specializes in comfort shoes and accessories. It will open a 1,842 store with brands such as ECCO, Mephisto, Dansk, UGG and Merrell.

* AT&T this communications company will supplement its mall kiosk presence with a 3,051-square-foot full-scale store featuring the Iphone and other wireless technologies.

* Bose will be retailing its high-end sound systems and electronics in a 3,069-square-foot location.

The lifestyle section of the Mall is currently under construction on the Mall's south side. That new section along with a new Nordstrom being built at the former Mervyn's location, is on schedule to open before the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest this fall.

Tacoma Mall management said it wil soon be announcing three more new stores for the lifestyle addition.

If you're thinking about taking a flutter at the slots this weekend, and if your plans include dining, then watch out for a detour. The main floor restaurant, Pacific Rim, has been closed - to make way for some remodeling and a new Pacific Rim Buffet.

The current Pacific Rim has moved upstairs – it opened this morning – where it will operate temporarily. In August, look for Tatoosh, a fine-dining eatery, to take up the space.

Here's a look at the view, which, on a clear day, would feature Mount Rainier.

I took a brief tour of the kitchen today with John Vukas, the Emerald Queen's director of food and beverage, and executive chef Jean Andre Begni (that's him on the right, with the great mustache).

Signature dishes at Tatoosh, according to Vukas, will include Peking duck, salmon-wrapped scallops, cedar-wrapped tenderloin and a seafood platter. Entrees will run $15 to $25, with a few high-end items in the high $30s.

Elsewhere at the casino, the new parking garage complex is set to open on June 25. It's all part of a $150 million expansion project, and a battalion of landscapers will descend next week to begin planting.

Seventeen South Sound businesses have been selected as finalists in the competition for the Tacoma Chamber's Spotlight on Business Awards.

The awards will be presented on Tuesday, June 24, at the Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel.

The finalists (in five categories) are: Bayview Limousine, Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel, Celebrity Cake Studio, Connelly Law Office, Franciscan Health Systems, Heartwarming Care, Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante, Lazer Trends, Mac-Donald Miller, Pacific Wellness, Petra Engineering, Pierce County Coalition of Development Disabilities, R-4 Printing, Roman Meal Co., Trillium Employment Services, Washington Architectural Hardware, and WineStyles.

Jerry Hocutt, author of "Cold Calling for Cowards," will present the luncheon keynote. The event is sponsored by Heritage Bank and begins at 11:30 a.m.

For more information or registration, call Janice Hutchins at the Chamber at 253-627-2175.

Construction will begin June 24 on a new phase of Tarragon Properties successful Kent Station development after a ceremonial ground-breaking.

Tarragon Properties, Kent Station's developer, will construct a four-story, 77,000-square-foot mixed use building.

That building will include 17,000 square feet of retail on the first floor, two floors of classroom space for Green River Community College and a fourth floor of Class A office space, said Tarragon marketing director Stephanie Keller.

The new building will be built on a site across from the Sound Transit garage that serves both the adjacent Sounder rail station and the shopping center.

Green River Community College already has a presence in the center, first opened in 2005. The center is 93 percent leased.

Unidentified buyers ordered 35 new 737s this week according to Boeing Co.

Those orders bring Boeing's totals up to 453 new airliner orders for 2008.

The Renton-built 737 remains the best seller with 336 ordered.

Airlines have ordered 79 787s, 36 777s and two 747s since Jan. 1.

Boeing is predicting 2008 will be a good order year but not as robust as last when customers ordered more than 1,400 aircraft.

After numerous delays, Boeing finally seems to be getting some traction in moving the 787 Dreamliner program forward this week in Everett.

The company says it has began to power up the systems in the first Dreamliner. This "power on" event is a significant milestone in getting the first 787 into the air.

The powering up of airplane systems will continue for another 10 days to two weeks as Boeing and its vendors check to see that all those systems are working properly.

The first flight of the 787 is still set for the fourth quarter of this year.

Airlines are imposing fees, raising fares and cutting flights almost faster than we can report these changes.

Here's a quick roundup of breaking developments all driven by jet fuel prices as much as 90 percent higher than last year:

* Bags. US Airways joined American and United in imposing a $15 fee for the first bag checked. Expect more carriers to join the parade today. US Airways' luggage check fee will be implemented beginning July 9.

* Refreshments. Forget that free soda, coffee, bottled water or juice on US Airways. The airline announced late Thursday that they'll begin charging $2 starting Aug. 1. Expect higher prices for alcoholic beverages too. Again, this could start a trend.

* More fees. While US Airways was delivering the bad news about free drinks and bags, officials there also told customers they're upping the price of dealing with a phone or counter clerk for tickets to $25 and raised a variety of other fees including those for pets and ticket changes.

* Fares. Airlines successfully raised fares for the 13th time this year Thursday. This increase averaged about $20 on most trips. The legacy carriers that started the fare increase move at midweek were more selective this time, carefully dodging markets in which low-fare carriers were competing. A broader attempt early this week failed because the low-cost airlines didn't match the increases.

* Surcharges. One of the competitors in the hyper-competitive West Coast shuttle markets final said uncle to fuel surcharges late this week. Virgin America said it will impose a $10 fuel charge on tickets up and down the West Coast including its new Seattle-San Francisco and Seattle-Los Angeles flights. On transcontinental flights, it added a $25 fuel fee. Virgin America, Jet Blue and SeaTac's Alaska Airlines are locked in a battle for market share in Northwest-California routes.

* Flight cutbacks. Both Continental and US Airways announced flight cutbacks late Thursday. Those carriers are dropping flights on less profitable routes. They're discontinuing all service to some cities entirely. Continental, for instance, will close its operations in such airports as Oakland and Palm Springs, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Toledo, Ohio; Sarasota and Tallahassee, Fla.; Montgomery, Ala. and several foreign cities. They join American, United and Delta in trimming their schedules.

* Fees for frequent fliers. US Airways is imposing a fee on its frequent fliers ranging from $25 to $50 for issuing award tickets. The Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier is also ending the practice of awarding its most frequent fliers bonus miles for every trip flown.

* Fleet reductions. US Airways is cancelling the leases on two Airbus A330 wide bodies it had been set to receive in 2009 and returning some Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s to lessors. The cancellations of the A330 leases will likely mean the airline won't be flying new international routes it had announced.

Average wages in Washington increased 5 percent from 2006 to 2007, new figures from the state's Employment Security Department show.

That good news for wage earners is also good news for those Washington residents unfortunate enough to be unemployed.

The boost in average wages will change weekly maximum and minimum unemployment benefits in Washington, which are based on average weekly wages.

Beginning July 1, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit will rise from $515 to $541. The minimum weekly unemployment check will increase to $129 from $122.

Only the maximum and minimum benefits will change. Those receiving amounts between those two extremes will continue to receive the same amount.

The increase in unemployment compensation will mean higher unemployment taxes for employers. Beginning in 2009, employers will pay unemployment taxes on the first $35,700 paid to each employee, the Employment Security Department said. That's up from the first $34,000.

I usually try to avoid touting the competition. However, in this case...

There’s an interesting article in this month’s (July) issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine on how to save on various fees: bank fees, investment fees, phone fees and so on. Mostly and essentially, the tips speak to common sense.

Choose the right ATM, look for good IRA, make your credit card payment on time – that kind of thing. There’s also a story about an obscure Social Security rule that allows retired beneficiaries to secure higher payments by paying back what they’ve already received and then restarting payments at a higher rate – say you retired at 62, and now, at 70, you’d like a greater monthly payment.

If you’ve got some tips of your own on avoiding all those fees that nibble away at the wallet, send them along to c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

And to avoid paying the $3.50 cover price of the magazine, you might speak with your local librarian.

American Airlines won't be a lone wolf anymore in charging its customers for all their checked bags.

United Airlines today joined American in imposing a $15 fee each way to check passengers' first bag.

United already charges $25 each way for a second bag.
The checked luggage surcharge for the first bag will apply to passengers making reservations beginning tomorrow for flights leaving Aug. 18 or later.

American announced the $15 first bag fee three weeks ago for flights leaving this Sunday or later.

For the last three weeks, other airlines had taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the new baggage fee. They wanted to see what happens to American's traffic.

Now with the nation's first and second largest airlines imposing the bag charges, other airlines are more likely to join in.

First class passengers, passengers headed for foreign destinations other than Canada and members of American's top level frequent flier program are exempt from the extra charge.

Southwest is the only major U.S. airline not charging for either the first or second bag.

A new full-service restaurant with a name appropriate to the Northwest has opened in Sea-Tac Airport's North Satellite terminal.

Big Foot Food and Spirts' hearty food will offer travelers an alternative to the fast food offered in the satellite terminal.

Big Foot opens at 5 a.m. and serves until 11 p.m. to allow travelers showing up for early morning or late night flights a chance to fuel up before getting aboard their food-free flights.

As fuel prices escalate, some fuel-saving strategies that didn't pencil out economically when fuel was cheaper suddenly become feasible.

The latest among those fuel-saving ideas? Washing the insides of jet engines.

Southwest and United airlines have recently signed agreements with jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney to wash the engines of their fleets of aircraft.

Pratt's EcoPower engine wash system uses water to flush away accumulated particulates and grime that reduce the efficiency of jet engines. Washing engines will typically occur at night when the jets are parked.

Each washing cycle takes 60 to 90 minutes and costs $3,000 to $5,000 at list prices.

Airlines previously had washed engines only during major overhauls which typically occur every four to five years.

Now Southwest says it will wash its engines twice yearly.

The Dallas-based airline says it hopes to save $20 million yearly by operating cleaner engines.

When Tacoma's J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. delivers the new $12 million tug Pacific Star to Foss Maritime today, the shipyard won't be including a full tank of fuel.

That's because the 98-foot tractor tug's tanks hold 45,000 gallons of diesel fuel to power its two 16-cylinder, 3305-horsepower engines.

At pump prices, a full load of fuel would cost nearly $225,000.

Foss skipper Dave Corrie said the tug will typically fuel up every two to three weeks. The tanks aren't completely spent in that time period despite the boat's 24-hour-a-day operation.

"We don't let the needle get down to E before we fill up," he said.

The boat will likely often be used to escort tankers to and from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the refineries at Cherry Point.

If a tanker loses power, those escort tugs stand ready to push or pull the tanker out of harm's way. They don't want to run out of fuel when handling such urgent work, said Corrie.

Martinac President Joe Martinac Jr. said tugs designed for long ocean voyages have even larger tanks, 120,000 gallons.

You won't have to journey far from here to find the world's most livable city, according to a new study by MasterCard.

That study ranked Vancouver at the top of list in the study's evaluation that included a city's media and culture, performing arts and creativity.

Only San Francisco among U.S. cities evaluated made the top ten on the MasterCard list.

Here are those top ten:

1. Vancouver
2. Dusseldorf
3. San Francisco
4. Frankfurt
5. Vienna
6. Munich
7. Zurich
8. Tokyo
9. Copenhagen
10.Paris

The livability rating was part of a larger study aimed at determining how cities rank as "Worldwide Centers of Commerce."

That larger study ranked London as the top center of commerce followed by New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Chicago, Hong Kong, Paris, Frankfurt, Seoul and Amsterdam.

It wasn't clear from that study whether Seattle was part of the evaluation.

Despite a dismal housing market, the state is close to – and in fact, ahead of – its targets for revenue collection.

In a note released earlier today, Steven Lerch, interim director of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, reported that tax payments to the state general fund improved between mid-May and mid-June.

Receipts for the month were $9.7 million – or 0.6 percent – higher than expected.

Sales, B&O, use and public utility tax receipts, and property and liquor tax payments were above the estimate for the month. Real estate excise, estate, timber excise, cigarette and miscellaneous were less than expected.

This month’s positive variance increases the cumulative variance since the February forecast to $37.7 million, or an increase of 0.8 percent, Lerch reported. However, excluding special factors, collections are cumulatively $4.0 million, or 0.1 percent, below the forecast for the past four months.

The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to require inspections of the fuel systems on some 3,500 Boeing jetliners to ensure that their engines don't stop in flight.

The proposal was prompted by six incidents involving Boeing jetliners between 2002 and 2004 which resulted in engine shutdowns.

Boeing already has advised airlines of the problems and suggested they inspect their planes' fuel systems. Many have already done so, said the company.

Boeing has redesigned its fuel system to avoid the possibility of those problems recurring.

The Olympian reports today that a couple is suing the Port of Tacoma, alleging they were cut out of a deal that involving the port's property in Maytown.

The suit was filed in Thurston County Superior Court Tuesday.

From The Olympian:

It alleges that in March 2006, the owners of Marine View Inc. of Olympia were approached by Derrick Urquhart, manager for industrial real estate at the Port of Tacoma.

According to the suit:

Urquhart told the company's owners, Michael and Stefani Parsons, that he was seeking property with rail access to develop for an intermodal center.

The Parsonses directed him to a 745-acre parcel in Maytown, which at the time was owned by Citifor, a Chinese timberland-holding company.

Later, the couple agreed to either buy the property and sell it to the port, or sell part of the property to the port and retain a 170-acre parcel for themselves. They also discussed separating the property into rail uses for the port and non-rail uses for Marine View.

"If it hadn't been for Marine View and Mr. (Michael) Parsons, there was no way the port would've ever known about the property," said Olympia attorney Steve Bean, who is representing the Parsonses.

=> Read more!

Pizza chains for years have been trying to get their customers to order via the Internet. Why is it that shoppers are inclined to order shoes and pay their bills online, but not order up a large olive-and-pepperoni?

Trade journal Marketing Daily reports this week that Pizza Hut has a special, one-day deal Thursday to generate some online business.

According to the story, first-time pizzahut.com online customers have 24 hours to order three or more one-topping Pizza Mia pizzas at a 20 percent discount -- just $4 each.

Pizza Mia pizza is made with whole milk mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and dough made from Great Plains flour, the story says.

Papa John's and Domino's also appear to offer online ordering. Garlic Jim's web site provides a tab to order online, but when you click on it, it says "coming soon."

More people stayed in Pierce County hotels and motels in April than they did a year before – and they paid more for their rooms.

In April, 66.8 percent of rooms in Tacoma and Pierce County were taken, up 0.9 percent from April of 2007, said Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood in his monthly report.

Statewide, a 71.2 percent occupancy rate was unchanged.

Those who rented rooms in Pierce County paid an average of $84.22, up 17.9 percent – the highest increase in the state – from the $71.44 charged a year before. Statewide, rooms rented for an average of $127.18, up 0.8 percent from 2007.

Among all regions of the state, only Seattle saw a dip in the rate for a room, down 6.1 percent to $160.66.

If you sometimes buy clothes without looking at the price tag, are willing to splurge on shoes and jeans and are around 29 years old, you could be what a new study has identified as the recession-proof shopper.

These tidbits come courtesy of trade journal Brandweek, which drew the information from an online survey conducted by Elle magazine.

Here's a sampling:

Researchers identified a "recession-proof shopper," who is at the median age of 29. She is affluent, with a median household income of $62,000: 65% were in the workforce, and only 52% worked full-time. Elle states they are passionate shoppers with 57% spending over $2,000 or more per year on clothes and 40% spending $750 or more per year on accessories and footwear.

The majority will be willing to splurge on shoes (75%), handbags (70%), beauty (68%), evening/special occasion products (63%), jeans (63%), jewelry watches (57%) and weekend clothes (52%), but not outwear/coats (41%) and workout clothes (18%).

Seemingly, there is negligence when it comes to the price of trendy products. Eighty percent are willing to pay more for the latest fashions and 81% agree that "price is not the most important factor—it's getting just what I want." Also, 79% agree "there are times that I buy clothing without even looking at the price."

What do you splurge on? And are there really people out there who make a purchase without even checking to see how much it costs?

Find the whole story here.

During a recent inteview with new Wilcox Farms CEO Linda Thomas, we talked at length about chickens and eggs.

Having sold off its dairy operation, Wilcox has literally put all of its eggs in one basket: organic commercial egg production.

Being raised in the city, I had little knowledge of egg production, so what I learned was fascinating.

The bulk of my interview appeared in Monday's News Tribune, but some of the more interesting facts got excised by the editor's delete key so the interview would fit in the space allotted.

Here are some of those tidbits that didn't make the story.

* Hens must be 19 weeks old before they begin laying eggs.

* As they start producing eggs, their first ones are small and then gradually increase in size.

* After their production diminishes, Wilcox reduces the light in their hen houses for a few weeks to fool the hens that its wintertime. When the lights go on for longer periods, their egg-laying cycle begins again.

* A typical hen's productive life ranges from 90 to 120 weeks before they're slaughtered.

* Since Wilcox's chickens are organically raised, the company is looking for an organic pet food maker to whom they'll sell the meat.

* Wilcox is considering raising its own crops organically on its 1,500 acres near McKenna because trucking in organically-raised food is becoming more expensive because of fuel prices.

* Wilcox could raise corn organically on its farm, but climatic conditions here are marginal for corn. A more likely crop: peas.

SeaTac-based Horizon Air has announced new service linking Los Angeles with Prescott, Ariz.

The once-daily, non-stop service will begin Sept. 8.

Prescott, a city in west central Arizona, is now without air service following the May 30 shutdown of Mesa Airlines' Air Midwest subsidiary. Air Midwest had provided service from Prescott to Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The new Horizon service will be coupled with new existing service from Flagstaff, Ariz. and Los Angeles.

Horizon will provide two daily non-stop flights from Flagstaff to LAX beginning June 23. Beginning in September, the morning flight from Flagstaff will stop in Prescott, and the evening return flight will also land briefly in Prescott.

Horizon will use its 74-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft on the route.

A scaled-down proposal by the Port of Tacoma for a rail yard in South Thurston County received criticism and questioning from the public and Olympia port officials, The Olympian reports today.

The Tacoma port has ditched its proposal for a full scale logistics center on property it owns in Maytown and is instead focusing on a smaller rail operation.

But, according to The Olympian story, there's still a lot more questions than answers on this project.

Here's their report:

A scaled-down proposal for a rail yard on Port of Tacoma-owned property in south Thurston County was criticized Monday by residents, and faced pointed questions from Port of Olympia commissioners.

f the agreement is not approved later this month, the Port of Tacoma would sell the property, according to information presented at the Port of Olympia meeting.

In order to evaluate rail-yard plans for the Maytown property, the Port of Tacoma seeks to extend an agreement it has with the Port of Olympia.

No action was taken on the agreement Monday, but Olympia commissioners will vote June 23 on whether to extend it.

=> Read more!

The Boeing Co. announced today that the delivery of six military surveillance planes to Australia will be delayed from 2009 to 2010.

The six "Wedgetail" aircraft are modified Boeing 737s stuffed full of electronic surveillance equipment and radars and equipped for aerial refueling.

The delay in the $1 billion program was pegged to problems integrating the electronic systems in the aircraft.

Turkey and South Korea have also ordered variations of the electronic surveillance plane.

The basic airframe for the plane is built in Boeing's Renton plant and modified at Boeing Field.

Boeing's 15-month delay of its 787 Dreamliner program has also tarnished the company's reputation and its stock price.

The government of Qatar may soon order two Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, reports aviation publication Flight International.

The order and options to purchase two more of the aircraft could be critical to Boeing's plan to keep the C-17 production line in Long Beach, Calif. open until it receives a new U.S. Air Force order.

Boeing has built 174 of 190 C-17s that the Air Force has on order and will soon deliver a sixth aircraft to Britain's Royal Air Force.

The company has also produced four C-17s each for Australia and Canada.

Boeing is hoping that Congress will authorize the purchase of 30 more C-17s, the long-distance transport workhorse of the American military. The C-17 is the main military aircraft based at Pierce County's McChord Air Force Base. NATO is also reportedly negotiating for three C-17s.

Boeing wants to avoid shutting down its assembly line because the shutdown and start-up costs could add considerable expense to the Air Force order, so landing gap-filling orders from foreign customers is essential.

Qatar, a Middle East country, will take delivery of its aircraft in August 2009.

Boeing's Long Beach assembly line is the last large aircraft production line in California, a state that once was dotted with aircraft factories.

If you know someone whose quick thinking saved a life on the job, the Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Advisory Board wants to hear from you.

Nominations are now being accepted for the governor's annual lifesaving awards, according to a new release from the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Who is eligible: All Washington workers covered by the state's workers' compensation system or working for a self-insured employer.

What: The nominee must have performed “hands-on” aid in saving a life, according to L&I.

For law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and other similar professions, the lifesaving action must not be part of their normal job duties, but must be “above and beyond the line of duty.”

And the heroic act must have taken place between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, any day or time, anywhere in the world.

The aware recipients will be honored at the Governor's Industrial Safety and Health Conference in Spokane on Sept. 24.

For a lifesaving nomination form and additional information, contact Barbara Saunders, the lifesaving award coordinator, at 360-902-5442.

Nomination forms are also available and can be submitted online. The deadline for submitting applications is July 31.

Here's a story about a young national company lauded for its customer service. If you like shoes, you're probably already familiar with Zappos.com. (A few of us in the office are acquainted with the site and its shoe selection.) If you're not, this Forbes story suggests Zappos.com could be heading in the online sales direction of Amazon.

The piece includes a couple of nice anecdotes of exceptional customer service, but all customers are given a year to return shoes and most orders get overnight shipping.

Here's part of the story:

Emulating Amazon, Hsieh has expanded Zappos into clothes, cookware, electronics, bedding and toys. Pickings are slim in some of these departments. For now, folks interested in athletic accessories can buy only gloves, listed for $35 to $55; those who want to explore tv and home theater products will find only a Vudu video receiver for $295.

Can Zappos break out of the shoebox? Product diversification is the best way for Hsieh to keep Zappos ahead of rivals that have popped up in the $1.4 billion online shoe business. They include Piperlime, an online shoe site created by Gap (nyse: GPS - news - people ) 19 months ago that offers a similar shipping and return policy as Zappos. And then there's Endless, a similar outfit started by Amazon. These sites offer many of the same styles and brands. Prices are sometimes higher on Zappos, where they fluctuate based on supply and demand.

Hsieh, who owns ten pairs of shoes and can't recall more than two of the brand names, insists Zappos' corporate personality gives it an edge on copycats.

Russell Investments CEO Craig Ueland has resigned, the company confirmed today.

Russell Board Chairman Mike Phillips said the company's board, which included Ueland as a member, has been discussing the long-term strategic directions for investment services firm, and Ueland's decision to leave stemmed from those discussions.

He declined to detail the specifics of those board deliberations.

Phillips praised Ueland's performance at the company. "Craig has done a really good job in his five years at Russell," he said.

The board named Northwestern Mutual executive vice-president John Schlifske as Russell's interim CEO.

Schlifske, 49, has been a member of the Russell board representing Northwestern Mutual, Russell's parent company since 1999 when Northwestern bought Russell from the Russell family.

Phillips said Schlifske knows the inner workings at Russell better than anyone from Northwestern and perhaps better than some at Russell because of his long history working with the company.

The Russell chairman called Schlifske "a people person" whose values closely mirror those of Russell.

Schlifske joined Northwestern Mutual in 1987 as an investment specialist. He held various positions of increasing authority in the securities and real estate departments at the insurance and investment company.

The new Russell CEO earned his bachelors degree in economics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and a masters degree in finance and accounting from Northwestern University. He is married and has six children.

Schlifske

Schlifske, who took charge immediately at today's board meeting, will search inside the company and perhaps outside for Ueland's replacement, Phillips said.

Ueland

The company informed employees by e-mail of Ueland's resignation. It was planning a company-wide Webcast to explain the changes more thoroughly.

It's too early to say whether Ueland's departure will have any material effect on Russell's search for a new headquarters. Phillips said the headquarters issue was not an element in the change in leadership at Russell.

Russell is outgrowing its Tacoma A Street headquarters. Developers both within Tacoma and in other Puget Sound cities have been making sales pitches to the company.

Tacoma civic leaders have created a nearly $150 million incentive package to keep Russell and its 1,200 well-paid employees in town.

Ueland took over as president in June 2003 and assumed the CEO role in January 2004. He replaced Mike Phillips as chief executive.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma said he was surprised to hear of Ueland's departure.

The mayor said he recently had some cordial e-mail discussions with Ueland over city pension matters.

"Craig was a very highly-regarded executive. I'm sure someone like that is in high demand," the mayor said.

The city is continuing as planned with preparations to establish a financial services zone in downtown Tacoma to provide benefits to companies such as Russell.

"I don't think this change is a sign of anything in particular regarding their search," said Baarsma.

With food prices escalating over the past year, I'm looking for a few good bargain shoppers.

Specifically I'm working on a story about surplus, salvage and discount grocery stores, what they carry, how they work and the deals the shoppers find there.

Do you shop at Grocery Outlet or a similar store? Or are you finding ways to cut back on your grocery bill?

I'd love to interview you about where and how you shop for food.

E-mail me at kelly.kearsley@thenewstribune.com or call 253-597-8573.

Hainan Airlines begins non-stop flights between Beijing and Sea-Tac today, the first non-stop service from China since China Eastern Airlines left Sea-Tac a decade ago.

Gov. Christine Gregoire will greet travelers arriving on the inaugural flight at noon today.

Hainan will fly four times weekly between the Puget Sound area and the Chinese capital.

Hainan, an unfamiliar name in the U.S., is China's largest private airline.

The flight will take about 11.5 hours westbound and 10.5 hours eastbound because of prevailing winds.

The flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The flights leave Sea-Tac at 2 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 4:35 p.m. the next day. The flight crosses the International Dateline advancing the calendar a day westbound and having the opposite effect eastbound. Because of that calendar readjustment eastbound. The flights will arrive in Seattle "before" they leave Beijing.

The Beijing flight leaves for Seattle at 4:20 p.m. and arrives here at noon the same day.

Tacoma unleaded regular gas prices on average were just half a cent shy of $4.25 this morning as national average fuel prices broke through the $4 mark.

That's a swift enough rise to prompt a little self congratulation if you filled up your tank Friday, the last time we updated the gas price story.

Prices then averaged $4.22 in Tacoma.

According to AAA Washington, it took just a little bit more than two weeks for gas prices to advance from $4 here to nearly $4.25.

Here's a timeline:

A year ago: $3.253
A month ago: $3.758
May 19: $3.916
May 26: $4.03
June 2: $4.162
June 6: $4.22
Today: $4.245

Things could be worse. You could live in California where average gas prices today were $4.445.

If you'd been hoping that the long-awaited D Street Overpass project would open as promised today, then you'll just have to put those hopes on hold.

The City of Tacoma now predicts the $24.5 million project will be opening June 16. The four lanes over the railroad tracks could be open as soon as this weekend, but the Dock Street connection will open somewhat later.

The formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for June 25, said the City of Tacoma's Roxanne Murphy.

A trip over the partially open bridge this morning showed the major structural elements are in place, but items such as the railings are still to be completed.

The completion of the project will be a great relief to Dock Street residents who've dealt with repaving projects and street closures since April 2006.

The overpass will end the long waits that drivers have experienced for years trying to cross the BNSF-Union Pacific main line at D Street.

The aerospace community is abuzz today trying to puzzle out what the forced resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley will mean to Air Force procurement policies.

Boeing, of course, is hoping new leadership at the Air Force will somehow have a change of heart about awarding the $40 billion contract for new airborne tankers to an Airbus consortium.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the chief standard bearer for Boeing's 767-based tanker in Congress, said the resignations could be significant.

"For months the Air Force has stonewalled Congress and the American people in answering basic questions about the tanker decision. Now, on the eve of the GAO ruling, the administration has expressed a lack of confidence in the decision-making and leadership of the Air Force's top officials."

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is scheduled to rule on Boeing's appeal of the tanker contract on June 19.

In the meantime, the Economic Policy Institute says its new study of the tanker contract shows that contracting with Boeing instead of the Northrop-Airbus group will create 14,000 more U.S. jobs.

Northrop and Airbus' parent company, EADS, will base their tanker on the Airbus A330 commercial airliner. Much of that tanker will be made in Europe, but final assembly will be in a new plant in Mobile, Ala.

Boeing's proposed tanker would be based on its 767 jet made in Everett and modified in Wichita, Kan.

EPI estimated that the Boeing tanker would contain 75 to 84 percent U.S. content while the Northrop-Airbus tanker would contain 50 to 60 percent U.S. content.

Amazon’s Web site went down for more than two hours in the middle of the day Friday, The Associated Press reports.

The Web site shut down at about 10 a.m., giving an error code to anyone visiting it, according to Keynote Systems Inc., a California-based company that measures Internet activity.

Here's more from the story:

Shawn White, Keynote’s director of external operations, says an error in the configuration of the Web site might have caused the shut down.

White says another reason might have been be server overload, but he says Amazon has a history of being able to handle large loads of visitors.

Calls to Amazon.com were not immediately returned.
White says the Web site was back up to 60 percent capability around noon.

You've just paid $800 for a roundtrip to Houston. You've forked over $40 each way to check two bags, $20 to make your reservation at the counter, $5 for snack box on board and $30 extra for an aisle seat.

Isn't there something to break up the monotony of all this bad news about traveling?

Yes, and it comes from Portland's FlightStats.com, which tracks airline on-time performance across the country.

In spite of the economic crisis that's hit the airline industry this year, or perhaps because of it, flights are improving their on-time performance nationwide.

According FlightStats figures, flights were on time 79 percent of the time in May nationwide, up for the fourth month running. In 2007, the average for on-time arrivals across the country was 72.6 percent.

On-time performance at Sea-Tac Airport in May was slightly better than the national average at 79.72 percent. That compares favorably with average at Sea-Tac for all of last year of 73.39 percent.

SeaTac's Horizon Airlines recorded the third-best on-time arrival performance of the 39 North American airlines that FlightStats tracks.

Horizon flights were on time (within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time) 87.69 percent in May.

Sun Country Airlines posted the best record with an 88.09 percent on-time performance in May. Hawaiian Airlines was second with 88.04 percent.

Horizon's brother airline, Alaska, was on time 79.35 percent of the time.

I drove by a gas station on my way to work this morning that had regular for $4.21 a gallon. I kinda hoped that was an anomaly but I checked the AAA Web site and the Tacoma average is $4.22, up from $4.209 yesterday.

That means it would cost me 69 cents more to fill my volkswagen with 13 gallons today than on Thursday. And $6.54 cents more than a month ago when gas was $3.717.

Has the price of gas affected you? Have you started going in to work fewer days a week or carpooling?

If you drive in to Seattle or even to Tacoma from Puyallup, those gas prices add up.

The possibility of the Port of Tacoma building a 700-plus acre rail center and logistics facility in rural South Thurston County is fading fast.

"We've backed away from the notion of a logistics center," the port's deputy director John Wolfe said today.

The Tacoma port purchased 745 acres near Maytown two years ago as a potential site for a South Sound Logistics Center.

The original SSLC concept included a rail yard for parking trains and an industrial park with the potential for distribution centers and warehouses.

The Tacoma and Olympia ports then partnered to explore the idea. But the concept proved quite controversial.

Hundreds of Thurston County residents have attended public meetings in the past year to oppose the project, voicing concerns about the environmental, traffic and quality-of-life consequences of such a facility.

The now downgraded pitch focuses on developing just a rail yard - and explores several alternatives for the rest of the property including preserving some of it as prairie.

Wolfe will be at the Port of Olympia commission meeting Monday night to discuss the revamped concepts and alternatives for the property.

=> Read more!

I’ve long thought that there’s one true signal that the world is about to end: The end comes when Starbucks builds a Starbucks inside a Starbucks.

Friends, we’re very close.

Last night I stopped at the Safeway at the Green Firs Shopping Center in University Place at 40th and Bridgeport. The place, even at a late hour, was choc-a-block with workers who were moving aisles, rearranging shelves and scraping paint. I asked the checker what was going on, and she said the store was doing a major remodel.

The refurbished store will offer a new deli and a Starbucks, she said.

This will be the new Starbucks located one door down from the Starbucks that’s already there.

Happpily, there’s still room for a Tully’s inside the Rite Aid located in between.

What even USA Today says is a very preliminary analysis of fall flight schedules shows Washington is one of only nine states where air service is not expected to fall next autumn.

Of those nine, only two states, Washington and Colorado, are home to major airports.

The newspaper's analysis of preliminary flight schedules for October shows available seats at Sea-Tac will grow by 1.5 percent in October over October 2007.

The newspaper's study says only Maine, Vermont, Indiana, Louisiana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Washington will see increases in flight capacity.

The big losers will be popular leisure destinations such as Honolulu, Las Vegas and Orlando. Some secondary airports in big metropolises will also lose flight including Oakland and Santa Ana, Calif., and Chicago Midway.

Hotels in Hawaii and Las Vegas are already cutting prices to attract more visitors.

The USA Today study doesn't take into account new cutback initiates announced this week by major carriers Continental and United as well as more than seem sure to follow to cope with high fuel prices.

Boeing's official order Web site reported 10 new airliner orders booked during the week ending Tuesday.

That brings Boeing's official order count for 2008 to 418.

Those 10 orders include three 737-900ER jetliners, the largest in 737 family, from Romania's Blue Airline. At list prices, that order is worth $239 million.

Ireland's Ryanair also ordered three more 737s, and an unidentified customer ordered four 737s, Boeing said.

Not officially announced yet are other apparent orders that have surfaced since Tuesday:

* Korean Air said it has ordered an additional Boeing 777-300ER for delivery in July of 2010. At list price, that order is worth $257 million.

* Saudia Arabian Airlines told Air Transport Intelligence that it has committed to acquiring 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and eight Airbus A330 jets. It wasn't clear whether those orders are yet firm. The airline also may lease some of those jets.

* Hawaiian Airlines announced today it will bolster its interisland fleet with the lease of four additional Boeing 717 jets from Boeing Capital Corp. Those planes will arrive in the island this fall. Hawaiian is pumping up its fleet after the demise of its principal rival, Aloha Airlines. Boeing has stopped building 717s, so the planes apparently will come from Boeing as they come off lease with another carrier.

Alaska Airlines' traffic continued growing by 2.2 percent in May despite the nationwide economic slowdown.

But traffic at Alaska's regional sister airline, Horizon, fell 3.7 percent in the same month as it reduced capacity.

Alaska's traffic increase came as the airline bumped up its capacity by 1.3 percent over the same month last year.

The result was slightly fuller planes at the SeaTac-based carrier. The percentage of seats filled in May by fare-paying passengers was 77.8 percent compared with 77.1 percent in May 2007.

Meanwhile at Horizon, the percentage of seats fell from 74.2 percent in May 2007 to 73.6 percent in May this year.

Horizon is shrinking its fleet to eliminate its less-fuel efficient aircraft, its 37-seat Q200 turboprops and its 70-seat CRJ-700 jets.

Across the country, air traffic results for May were a mix of ups and downs:

United Airlines Down 4.1%
Northwest Airlines Up 4.3%
Continental Airlines Up 1.1%
US Airways Up .6%
Delta Air Lines Up 4.2%
American Airlines Down 1.1%

Nordstrom Inc. said today that sales during May were up in part because of the earlier date for its Half-Yearly Sale for Women and Kids.

The retailer reported preliminary sales of $716 million for the four-week period ended May 31, 2008, an increase of 12.2 percent compared to sales of $638 million for the four-week period ended June 2, 2007, according to a release from the company.

More from the release:

Combining the results of May and June will provide a more comparable view of the company's results versus last year. July sales are anticipated to be consistent with the second quarter plan.

Preliminary year-to-date sales of $2.59 billion were approximately flat compared to sales for the same period in 2007. Year-to-date same-store sales decreased 2.2 percent.

Continental Airlines today announced plans to become lighter and leaner.

The airline said it will lay off 3,000 workers and retire 67 of its older aircraft by the end of the year.

Those reductions will reduce the Houston-based airline's domestic capacity by 11 percent.

Continental is the latest among major carriers to announce capacity reductions. United, American and Delta have all announced aircraft retirements and staff layoffs or buyouts.

By year's end, Continental will have grounded all of its Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft.

In a message to employees, Continental CEO Larry Kellner said, "The ailine industry is in a crisis. Its business model doesn't work with the current price of fuel and the existing level of capacity in the marketplace. We need to make changes in response."

The airline didn't make specific schedule change announcements. It expects to do so beginning in two or three weeks.

Continental flies to its Houston and Newark hubs from Sea-Tac.

A day after announcing the demise of a merger with Washington Banking Co., parent of Whidbey Island Bank, stock in Everett-based Frontier Financial Corp., parent of Frontier Bank, today fell to a 52-week low.

Frontier stock was down 29 cents to $14.25 – that’s down 23.26 percent over the year so far.

WBC stock fared worse, also hitting a 52-week low, down $2.81 – a whopping 22.48 percent – to $9.69.

Both sides are claiming the other is to blame for the merger’s failure. In a release yesterday, WBC said it decided to end the agreement because of “Frontier’s inability to obtain regulatory approval in a timely manner” causing circumstances that “constitute a breach of Frontier’s representations and warranties.”

Frontier counters by saying it “denies that it breached the agreement and believes WBC’s repudiation of the agreement is a breach of the merger agreement.”

In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Frontier said it will charge $517,000 in related pretax expenses in the second quarter, with the total cost coming in at $1.3 million.

Frontier also informed the SEC that each company has asserted that it is entitled to a $5 million termination fee to be paid by the other side.

I did speak with John Dickson, Frontier president and CEO, late this afternoon. He said, “I’m very disappointed. My preference would have been that we mutually agree to terminate the agreement.”

He said WBC was the aggressor in the termination, and he’d prefer to simply close the book. “We don't want to make this any worse than it already is. We would just as soon shake hands and walk away.”

Dickson said the delay may have been the result of a compliance examination by regulators – and that Frontier has addressed “90 percent" of the issues raised. Given the rules, he was unable to disclose the nature of the issues, although they did not concern Frontier's capitalization or safety.

The Port of Tacoma has started to tear down buildings on the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula to make room for new shipping terminals.

Shipping line NYK announced last year that it was moving from Seattle to a new 168-acre container terminal on the Blair Waterway in Tacoma.

That terminal is scheduled to open in 2012.

As part of that project the port will also relocate the shipping terminal for TOTE, a shipping line that carries cargo to Alaska, and improve the peninsula's road and rail infrastructure.

But before all that can happen, the port needs to tear down 129 buildings and structures to clear the way for construction.

Port staff will be in front of the port commission Thursday requesting approval for the demolition program.

The first phase includes knocking down 56 structures including the former Tacoma steam plant and the old Arkema chemical site.

The first phase will cost an estimated $18.7 million.

The port initially estimated that developing the east side of the Blair Waterway for shipping would cost about $800 million.

Executive Director Tim Farrell said today that the total development cost could range between $1 billion and $1.3 billion.

The estimates are on the high-end, he added, in that the port is assuming it won't receive grant funding or assistance from other interested parties.

Demolition has already started on a former kite shop located on E. 11th Street.

"Essentially the projects we are doing this year are facilities that are no longer being used or are abandoned," said Matthew Bryant, a port project manager.

The port has spent the past year buying up the property it needs to develop the peninsula.

The port aims to salvage or recycle a good portion of the buildings and structures being torn down.

The port's demolition contracts will require contractors to divert at least 65 percent of the non-hazardous waste from landfills.

"Kaiser showed us it was possible," Bryant said.

The port completed the demolition of the former Kaiser Aluminum smelter last year.

The agency recycled more than 150 million pounds of various products from the site including steel, copper, aluminum, lead, concrete, alumina ore, oil and carbon anodes.

A few phases of the project even earned the port money as the agency benefited from selling the metals.

The first 56 structures should be demolished by the beginning of next year. The rest of the demolition will take place in 2009 and 2010, Bryant said.

The port commission meets at noon Thursday at in Room 104 of The Fabulich Center at 3600 Port of Tacoma Road.

With air-jet tubs, in-room refrigerators and flat-screen TVs – and after a $275,000 investment – the Maritime Inn on the Gig Harbor waterfront has reopened.

According to a release today from owners Joanie Mitton and Jannae Jolibois, the 15-room inn now features the features above, along with
new carpeting, “hearty wood floors” and beds offering pima cotton sheets and down duvets.

Designer Rebecca Knowlden of Becca Interiors served as general contractor to the project, the note said.

“Our goal was to create a boutique feel,” said Mitton. “Rebecca was able to bring our ideas into focus and reach that goal.”

The inn opened in 1995 and is located at 3212 Harborview Dr. in Gig Harbor.

For more information, visit www.maritimeinn.com.

The Canadian version of KFC has agreed to improve its chicken slaughter conditions and add vegan options -- aka fake meat -- to the menu, according to a story in the Globe and Mail out of Toronto.

I'm definitely in favor of better treatment of animals, but my first question is: Why would a vegan go to a restaurant known for its fried meat? With fried chicken as two of the three words of the namesake acronym? And as a vegetarian (OK, technically, a pescetarian), I can also ask this: Why not just skip the fake version of something you don't eat and go for something of the vegetable group? And what all gets put into that fake meat?

Alright, onto the story:

The fake chicken, known as unchicken, has been around for years and is available in a handful of restaurants and stores in Canada. Most of the fake meats are soy-based and fair game for vegans. Some may contain eggs, but are meat-free.

There are some Canadian unchicken manufacturers (one calls it "Chick'n"), but a selection of the mock meats is not easy to find. Many Ontarians turn to an unusual supplier: the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

KFC's efforts come courtesy of a campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which says it will press its case in the U.S. But until then, vegans and vegetarians, you'll soon find an unchicken friend in Canada.

A plan to convert a former railroad line to a pedestrian and bike trail that connects the Thea Foss Waterway with South Tacoma Way is moving toward approval with the City of Tacoma.

The property is the old Prairie Line owned by the BNSF Railway. The Prairie Line was the original rail route that carried rail traffic between Tacoma and Nisqually until BNSF's predecessor built a rail line along Puget Sound.

BNSF closed the line when Sound Transit negotiated an agreement to cross the line with its LINK light rail tracks at South 17th Street and Pacific Avenue.

The line formerly crossed Pacific Avenue just north of the Tacoma Art Museum and south of Tollefson Plaza.

Under the proposed agreement, BNSF would grant the city a strip of property along the rail line between South 15th and South 27th Street. That property cuts through the University of Washington Tacoma campus and hooks up with the BNSF line that Sound Transit will use to connect it Freighhouse Square station with stations in South Tacoma, Lakewood and ultimately in Dupont.

In return for the property, the city would close a crossing of the BNSF tracks at South 22nd and Dock streets.

That crossing is hazardous because it's on a curve on BNSF's multiple-track mainline.

BNSF would grant the city air rights over its mainline tracks at South 15th Street to expand the existing bridge to allow for the trail. The railroad as also agreed to grant air rights for another pedestrian bridge over its tracks at an unspecified location to link downtown with Dock Street.

The city, as funds permit, would pave the trail and connect it with another trail along South Tacoma Way.

Florida-based discount airline Spirit today warned of layoffs that could trim its 2,300-employee labor force by 460 workers.

Those workers could be laid off by Aug. 1 as Spirit trims operations at bases in Detroit, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Spirit is the latest airline to announce operational cutbacks to counter high fuel prices.

Spirit flies mainly in the East. It has no flights to Sea-Tac Airport.

These ones might taste good. Jones Soda is rolling out beverages named after the presidential candidates, the company said in a news release this morning.

The drink will be available online.

Here's the word from the company: "This politically correct beverage gives people of all ages nationwide the opportunity to chug down change and belch up choice. The program provides a unique forum for those who are under 18 years of age to vote for their candidate of choice and encourages participants to take a stance on today’s political issues at www.campaigncola.com."

The sodas are:

Hillary Clinton’s "Capital Hillary Cola"

John McCain’s "Pure McCain Cola"

Barack Obama’s "Yes We Can Cola."

Prices: A six-pack sells for $14.99 or a 12-pack for $23.99.

=> Read more!

United Airlines will kill off its leisure-oriented Ted operation, ground 100 older aircraft and lay off 1,100 more people to cope with its expanding financial crisis.

United is the latest domestic airline to ground fuel-inefficient airlines against a backdrop of jet fuel prices that have risen more than 75 percent in the last year.

The Chicago-based carrier said it will ground all of its 94 Boeing 737s and six of its older 747 aircraft by the end of the year. United has 460 aircraft in its fleet.

United is Sea-Tac Airport's fourth most popular airline by passenger's boarded.

United's cutbacks come after failed attempts to merge with Continental and US Airways.

The airline planes to end its six-year-old Ted operation, which it created in 2002 to compete with discount carriers.

The Airbus A320s dedicated to the leisure-oriented, all-coach Ted operation will be repainted and reconfigured into mainline United aircraft equipped with both coach and first class seats.

The Ted experiment is the latest failure by legacy airline to create a low-cost carrier within its older airline. All have failed.

Delta shut down its effort at such a carrier, Song, during bankruptcy. United terminated an earlier effort, Shuttle by United. US Airways abandoned its efforts to create such a carrier, MetroJet. Continental Airlines halted its Continental Lite operation in the mid '90s when it failed to produce positive results.

United's cutbacks follow news of groundings and flight reductions at Delta and American Airlines.

Industry observers say that the domestic industry must reduce capacity and eliminate marginal routes if it is to regain profitability.

United has already announced it will halt all service to Anchorage and will eliminate flights between Los Angeles and Hong Kong as part of its rationalization. More route reductions will unfold in the coming months, the airline said.

I’ve been hearing some people talk lately about investing overseas – what with tepid results from U.S. markets. For those of you who are so inclined, I thought I’d give a look to which markets are doing well, and which not.

As of around noon today, here’s how the world shakes out on Bloomberg:

The best full-market returns (by percentage gain, year-to-date):
Ghana, +45.75
BLOM (Beirut), +31.30
MSM30 (Muscat), +30.13
Amman General, +26.81
DSM20 (Doha): + 25.39

And the worst:
Ho Chi Minh Stock Index: -57.36
OMX Iceland: -39.26
ISE National 100 (Istanbul): -30.80
CSI 300 (Shanghai and Shenzhen): -28.66
CSE (Cyprus): -27.77

And for reference, the Dow was down about 6.22 percent, the S&P down 5.9, the NASDAQ down 6.28 and the three Russells were ranging between down-3.4 to down-5.12 percent.

Robert Serling, brother of famed "Twilight Zone" author and narrator Rod Serling, this month is publishing a history of SeaTac's Alaska Airlines.

The book, "Character & Characters: The Spirit of Alaska Airlines," chronicles Alaska's 75-plus years of growth.

"Alaska is an airline built from humble beginnings in 1932 by a cast of always dedicated, sometimes quirky and often brilliant characters," said Serling. "For more than 75 years, it has been an airline that has defied all odds. It has proven to be as rugged, as rich in tradition and as resourceful as its namesake state."

Serling has written more than two dozen books, most of them about aviation. Among them are histories of Eastern, Western, TWA, Continental and American airlines.

The book will be available on-line and in bookstores beginning June 15.

Not everyone wants to be on American Idol? Apparently not, according to Chet Fenster, managing partner at MEC, the company that has created a new reality TV-type series to push the Macy's in-house brand American Ragged.

Industry magazine Adweek reported this week that Macy's has selected aspiring musicians to be shuttled around the country as they learn what it takes to launch a music career. A 10-part series of documentaries following the bunch will air on YouTube. It's called "Ragged Road" and is scheduled to air in the fall.

Here's what the Adweek story had to say:

The five music business wannabes will be announced later this week. MEC created a contest in the form of a casting call that was advertised online in partnership with Facebook, on 12 college campuses, at the South by Southwest Music Festival and in Macy's stores around the country. Those interested auditioned in person or uploaded videos.

The five cast members will tour the U.S. this summer, and they will be meeting with "everyone from the curator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to someone who runs a label, to someone who books bands in a particular city. Not everyone wants to be on American Idol," Fenster said.

All five cast members will be wearing American Rag clothing. They will also be given the opportunity to shop for the brand as they travel across the country. For YouTube users interested in buying the clothes, the Macy's site will serve as a shopping portal.

Sea-Tac Airport has won another dubious distinction this week: 13th place on Forbes Magazine's list of the top 20 time-draining airports in the U.S.

Forbes used a combination of airport rankings of security, weather, air traffic and airline-related delays to create a composite score for America's top airports.

Based on that score, which was compiled using 2007 federal figures, the magazine ranked Sea-Tac 13th worst. At the top of that list of most delay-prone airports was Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The best of the 20 worst was Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Here the link to Forbes' story.

On the list of the nation's 100 busiest airports, here are Sea-Tac's rankings. First is the best and 100th is the worst:

95th - Security delays
85th - Late-aircraft arrival delays
81st - Air traffic control system delays
73rd - Flight cancellation delays
84th - Carrier-related delays
69th - Weather-related delays
67th - Flights arriving on time
52nd - Flights departing on time.

And here's Forbes' list of the 20 worst time robbing airports:

1. Chicago O'Hare
2. Newark Liberty
3. New York JFK
4. New York LaGuardia
5. Dallas-Fort Worth
6. San Francisco
7. Boston
8. Philadelphia
9. Atlanta
10. Minneapolis-St. Paul
11. Denver
12. Detroit
13. Sea-Tac
14. Charlotte
15. Los Angeles International
16. Washington Dulles
17. Phoenix
18. Las Vegas
19. Miami
20. Washington Reagan National

Forbes' advice? Go to Hawaii. The sunny skies and warm temperatures ensure good flight conditions. Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaii's airports always rank high in on-time statistics. Likewise avoid major hub airports in favor of smaller airports in the vicinity. In the Bay Area, San Francisco Airport's delay ranking is far worse than nearby airports in San Jose and Oakland.

Business Week has named Seattle's Amazon.com as the best performing tech company in the world in its 2008 list Infotech 100 list.

The on-line retailer's rating was based on its finish in four categories, shareholder return, return on equity, total revenues and revenue growth.

The list appears in the June 2 edition of Business Week.

Apple was second on the list and a company with strong Washington State connections, Nintendo was fourth. Nintendo of America is headquartered in Redmond. Its parent company is based in Japan.

Amazon's revenues ranked 23rd of the 100. Its revenue growth was 29th; its return on equity ranked 22nd, and its shareholder return was 29th.

Redmond's Microsoft ranked 23rd on the list.

By now, you'd think that gas prices might be losing some of their upward momentum. But new price surveys show that prices are continuing their upward path and even accelerating.

Historically, gas prices peak around Memorial Day and prices soften as refineries add summertime production.

Not so this year. AAA Washington's latest survey shows average regular unleaded prices in Tacoma hit another record today at $4.162 a gallon. That's up from $4.03 a week ago and $3.916 two weeks ago. A month ago, gas was selling for a relative bargain $3.732 in Tacoma. A year ago, the price was $3.342.

Highest prices in the state were in Bellingham where a gallon of regular cost $4.204 on average today.

Statewide, the average price of a gallon of regular was $4.145. Twelve states and the District of Columbia have average gas prices over $4 a gallon, according to the AAA.

At the top of the list is Alaska where average unleaded regular prices are $4.26 a gallon. Washington is fifth.

Last on the price list is South Carolina with a price of $3.794 a gallon.

At the top of the list is Alaska with a price of $4.26 a gallon. Washington is fifth.

I ran across some info today at industry magazine Stores about baby boomers that paints a nuanced and complex picture of the generation and how best to market to them. It's information unlikely to help anyone looking to simplify this group and who they are. But there's some interesting stuff, such as:

Single boomers bring as much money to the table as married ones. This is a person-per-household stat, but it shakes the notion that couples and families always have more money to spend than their single counterparts.

They like their iPods, Internet shopping and instant messaging. But they also like morning radio and reading a newspaper, too.

It's Bob Dylan vs. Bruce Springsteen. The story makes the case that there is an intra-generational divide, comprising of those born between 1946 to 1954 and 1955 to 1964.

Hey, boomers, recognize yourself or anyone you know here? Find the whole story here.

By today, that old-time currency of the airline business, the paper ticket, is supposed to be history.

The change took effect Sunday. That's the day the International Air Transport Association, which had operated a clearinghouse for paper tickets, quit accepting those tickets.

A few paper tickets may still exist in small, isolated airlines around the world, but the major and minor airlines worldwide now rely on electronic ticketing.

The IATA says it will save the equivalent of 50,000 trees a year because airlines won't be issuing those stiff stiff paper tickets anymore.

But that doesn't count the trees felled to provide the paper on which we print those electronic tickets at home or at airport kiosks.

The IATA and its airline members initiated the conversion to electronic tickets in 2004 because tracking tickets electronically saves the airlines about 65 percent of the cost of sorting and reconciling the transactions made on paper tickets.

Two items in the news today that show that even the most disturbing news may not be as negative as it seems.

The first is the news in today's Wall Street Journal that says that the delays in delivery of both the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus superjumbo A380 may be good for the airline industry.

Those delays come at the same time business and leisure travel numbers are eroding as world economies weaken.

If the airlines scheduled to receive those new fuel-efficient planes were planning to retire old fuel-guzzling planes of equal capacity, then the news would not be so good. But in many cases, the airlines involved were planning new routes with the new aircraft, adding to the glut of capacity.

The second item is that Seattle's Aviation Partners Boeing expects a brisk market for its fuel-saving winglets for the 767-300ER. The company has already sold 121 sets of those vertical winglets to airlines even before their certification by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The winglets, vertical wing extensions that curve upward from the aircraft wing tips, breakup drag-inducing wingtip vortices, saving fuel, allowing shorter takeoffs, longer trips and lower noise profiles.

The 767-300ER winglets are supposed to cut fuel consumption of the twin-aisle 767-300ER by six percent.

The winglets, if they become an option on factory-new 767s as well as add-ons for existing planes, could prolong the life of the 767 until the 787 production, now 15 months behind schedule, ramps up to full speed.

JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker says Southwest and Alaska airlines are the least likely of the major domestic airlines to file for bankruptcy.

Baker, in a report to investors, raised his rating on Alaska from underweight to neutral.

"There will be blood," Baker wrote referring to the rough financial times most airlines are facing. He predicted the domestic airline industry will lose some $7.2 billion this year, worse than its record after the 9-11 terrorist tragedies.

Airlines are being squeezed by astronomically higher fuel costs and economic slowdowns that are diminishing the number of high fare business tickets they're selling.

Baker listed US Airways as the most likely bankruptcy candidate followed by Northwest Airlines, United, American, JetBlue, Continental, AirTran, Delta, Alaska and Southwest.

The Boeing Co. continues hiring at a steady pace in Washington as jetliner orders continue to pour in.

As of the end of April, the company had 74,971 on its Evergreen State payrolls. That's 875 more than Boeing's Washington workforce was at the end of January.

For most other companies, such an increase would be a spectacular addition, but for Boeing, the increases are fairly conservative considering how the payroll during other boom times in the aerospace business increased.

Just before the turn to the 21st century, Boeing had more than 100,000 workers on its Washington payrolls. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, those payrolls dropped nearly 40 percent here.

If airliner orders continue at their present pace -- the company has won more than 400 orders through the end of May -- the company will add more than 900 planes to its backlog this year.

Boeing already has enough airliners on back order to keep its Washington production lines moving at the present pace for up to seven years without another order in the interim.

The fuel crisis is causing some airlines to postpone orders, but the company's conservation production pace can be sustained for years even if orders begin melting away.

Orlando's AirTran Airways, pressured by high fuel costs, says it will delay delivery of 18 Boeing 737-700 jetliners, to save cash.

The airline will delay those deliveries of the Renton-built planes by up to five years.

The AirTran delay is similar to one announced last week by New York's JetBlue Airways. JetBlue said it will defer delivery of 21 Airbus jetliners by four to five years.

AirTran had been scheduled to receive the planes beginning next year and continuing through 2011. The new delivery dates will be in 2013 and 2014.

The deferrals won't mean a total halt to AirTran's growth.
The airline will receive 23 737s between 2009 and 2011.

AirTran flies from SeaTac to its hub in Atlanta and to Milwaukee and Baltimore.