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.

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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.