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.

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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.