Northwest Airlines Wednesday night initiated an $80 roundtrip airfare increase on over 4,000 routes for both leisure and business travelers.

The airline was careful about attempting to raise fares only on routes without significant low-fare competition.

The fare increase attempt, which could be withdrawn if competitors don't match it, is the first in about a month by a major U.S. airline.

Previously airlines had been initiating about one airfare increase attempt a week. Airlines have initiated 21 wide ranging airfare increases this year, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com.

Though crude oil prices are falling, airlines have yet to raise fares and cut costs enough to return to profitability.

Most of the fare increases centered on Northwest's Detroit hub rather than on its other two hub cities, Minneapolis and Memphis.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines is initiating non-stop service from Sea-Tac to Minneapolis at introductory prices, a factor that may stave off a Northwest increase on that route.

Sales of the interactive Wii game console rose 51 percent over last year propelling quarterly profits at Japan's Nintendo to a 34 percent increase.

The company, whose U.S. headquarters is in Redmond, today reported net profits of $988 million for the quarter ending June 30.

The company sold 5.2 million Wii machines in the April through June period, double the combined sales of rival game machines, Sony's PlayStation3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The game company, however, told analysts that its yearly profits would drop to nine percent because of slowing sales of its DS handheld game console.

The lines were three cars deep at the ARCO station at Portland and Puyallup avenues in Tacoma this afternoon as motorists enjoyed an unfamiliar sight: the sign on the pumps read $3.89 a gallon.

"Who would've thought that we'd be celebrating because gas is $3.89 a gallon?" said Melissa Bernovich of Browns Point.

She and her husband Guy were filling up their min-van for a trip to Portland.

It's been a long time since he'd seen regular on the downhill side of $4, he said. "Let's hope this is a positive trend."

It's been just a week since the ARCO station's closest competitor, the Puyallup tribal Shell station on the opposite side of Interstate 5, first cracked the $4 barrier by posting regular at $3.99 a gallon.

In that week, at least 15 Tacoma-area gas stations have dropped their prices below $4, some like ARCO dropping the price to $3.89.

Larry Vigil of Bremerton was enjoying the respite from the record gas prices. Vigil was driving a four-cylinder Kia Sportage, in which he recently recorded mileage in excess of 31 miles per gallon on a trip to California.

He had been driving a V-8 Land Rover sport utility vehicle before he bought the Kia. That vehicle averaged 11 or 12 mpg, he said.

He had dropped by the ARCO because it consistently has prices among the lowest in the area.

"I'm hopeful this continues," said Vigil.

It wasn't just lower gas prices that attracted customers to the station. Fran Trierweiler of Tacoma was filling five, five-gallon containers with diesel at $4.65 a gallon at the station for her boat. That price was 16 cents below the average Tacoma market price.

Was she glad to see fuel prices falling? "You'd better believe it," she said.

Though Tacoma-area gas prices have fallen steeply from their record average high of $4.368 a gallon just five weeks ago, area prices on average are still significantly over the $4 mark, according the AAA Washington.

That organization's daily survey put average Tacoma prices at $4.129 Thursday, down 2.4 cents from Wednesday's mark.

Tacoma average prices are still well over the national average, $3.909. But they were well below the average in Alaska, $4.636. Oklahoma prices, said the AAA, are the nation's lowest at $3.636 a gallon.

Analysts say that if crude prices keep coming down -- those prices fell $2.69 a barrel today to $124.73 -- gas prices could go as low at $3 a gallon in some parts of the country.

A cutback in consumption by the driving public and by airlines has throttled the demand for gasoline, causing futures prices to turn downward.

The Associated Press reported today that Starbucks posted a loss for its third quarter and also lowered its outlook for the year and said it would open fewer new locations.

Here's more from the AP story: But the company kept its profit guidance intact for fiscal 2009, easing investors' fears about the economy's effect on the year ahead.

"I don't think anyone's really focused on the quarter," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo. "Everyone is thinking of next year."

The company reported a loss of $6.7 million, or 1 cent per share, compared to a profit of $158.3 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. Starbucks said it earned 16 cents per share once the costs for restructuring and closing stores are excluded.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $2.61 billion.

Just when you've gotten over the shock of checked baggage fees that can approach the price of a ticket, a European discount airline is proposing to eliminate checked baggage entirely on some flights.

Dublin's Ryanair, a pioneering European discount airline that has eliminated seatback pockets and window shades and sold ads on seatback trays to pare costs, is now proposing to make some of its flights carry-on bags only.

Ryanair says it wants to speed up the turnaround of certain flights and cut the handling costs and weight by designating some flights for no checked bags.

The airline says it is targeting flights most frequently used by business travelers for brief trips.

The airline also is likely to become the first discount airline to allow the use of cell phones aboard. The airline will charge travelers for their airborne use, creating another source of revenue to offset high fuel costs.

New figures from the Port of Tacoma show container trade at the Tideflats port is up in June for the third month in a row.

This upward trend in April, May and June has almost erased the downward drift in the first three months of the year. For the first half, container numbers at the port were off just .6 percent or 5,662 20-foot container units.

After a nearly seven percent drop in container volume last year, could this upswing portend a restoration of the port's growth curve?

Port of Tacoma executive director Tim Farrell thinks several factors favor a renewal of that growth:

* Fuel costs. With fuel at record levels, some importers are shifting goods back to West Coast ports and bringing them cross country by train rather than pay the extra fuel costs of bringing containers to the East Coast by ship.

* Container surcharges in California. The nation's largest container ports, Long Beach and Los Angeles along with the State of California are imposing infrastructure improvement, nightshift and pollution surcharges on containers moving through those ports. If all are imposed, they could amount to $250 per 40-foot container. Tacoma doesn't impose those surcharges.

* Anticipation of freshened consumer demand. Farrell calls it the "Slinky effect" after the coiled steel kid's toy. Consumers have cut back for months on purchases because of high fuel prices and sour economic conditions, but ultimately they'll re-enter the marketplace to buy the items that they've postponed purchasing, and that will fuel a surge in demand.

Here's a chart of the new container volume figures through the port in the first half of the year that I've drawn up:

A dozen gas stations in the Tacoma area have joined the price-cutting frenzy this week after a Puyallup Tribe gas station late last week cut regular prices to $3.99 a gallon.

According to tacomagasprices.com 12 stations were selling gas below $4 a gallon Tuesday in Pierce County. The prices dipped as low $3.92 a gallon at the Safeway at 707 S. 56th.

The Flying J truck stop on Port of Tacoma Road was just a cent higher, and the perennial low price ARCO at Puyallup and Portland avenues matched that price.

The average price in the Tacoma area was considerably higher, $4.177, according to AAA Washington. That's down 1.1 cent from Monday and 18 cents from a month ago. The price still has a long way to fall to reach the price a year ago, $2.922. The highest recorded average price this summer was $4.368 in Tacoma.

Statewide, the cost of a gallon was higher on average Tuesday, the AAA reported. The state average was $4.22.

The fare war between Alaska Airlines and two new entrants in the Seattle-Southern California shuttle business continues into the fall.

Both JetBlue, which flies between Long Beach and Sea-Tac and Virgin America, which flies Los Angeles-Seattle, have posted discount fares for the fall, and Alaska has generally matched them.

Despite airline price rises throughout the domestic route structure, you can still buy a Sea-Tac LAX or Long Beach trip for a little more than $200 on some days.

United Airlines, the other incumbent carrier in the California-Seattle business, is cutting back flights and appears to be raising fares to cope with higher fuel prices.

Alaska Airlines and its regional sister air line, Horizon, have formed a new partnership with Korean Air to share flights and to grant mileage credit to frequent fliers on their mileage programs.

The new codeshare agreements mean that travelers on Korean Air to West Coast gateways can book Alaska and Horizon flights onward to other destinations under a Korean Air flight number.

The mileage program alliance means that Korean Air flight miles can be credited to Alaska Mileage Plan accounts. The alliance also allows members of each airline's mileage plans to get free flights or upgrades on each other's flights.

The agreement begins Friday with mileage earning and redemption set to start Sept. 3.

Korean Air offers four weekly flights from Sea-Tac to Seoul.

Orlando's AirTran Airways says it has reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the delivery of four Boeing 737-700 airliners from 2009 to 2015.

The airline made that announcement today as it reported a second-quarter loss of $13.5 million. The airline earlier had deferred delivery of 18 other Boeing 737s to 2013 and 2014.

The airline planes to cut its capacity in the rest of the year by seven to eight percent by canceling its least profitable flying.

Meanwhile in India, low-cost airline SpiceJet said it is negotiating with Boeing to defer develiveries of new 737s.

The airline said it may seek to lease the new aircraft rather than purchase them outright. The percentage of seats filled on SpiceJet aircraft last month was 78 compared with 90 percent in the same month last year.

Boeing has warned that the present fuel cost squeeze and economic slowdown may affect its production schedules as airlines dial back the need for new planes.

But with orders for between six and seven years of production and a diverse mix of airlines, the company has said its unlikely to cut employment or production pace.

Boeing isn't alone in being touched by airline woes. Its biggest rival, Airbus, has seen similar deferrals and order cancellations.

Union longshore workers and a consortium of shippers and terminal operators have reached a tentative contract agreement covering 29 West Coast ports including Tacoma.

That agreement, if it is ratified by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, will prevent a feared work stoppage that would have been devastating the U.S. economy.

Neither side in the agreement would yet discuss specifics other than to say the new contract will have a six-year term.

There was also no word this morning about whether local issues such as the one that caused a brief walkout in Tacoma earlier this month have been settled.

The agreement covers some 25,000 workers. The PMA says its statistics show that regular full-time union members make an average of $136,000 annually and enjoy generous benefits.

Longshore union officials say those figures don't reflect the true picture because many members don't get fulltime work.

A 10-day lockout in 2002 shut down West Coast docks through which much of the nation's imported goods flow. The lockout was halted by President Bush after it inflicted millions of dollars in damage to the economy as retailers ran short of goods to sell and manufacturers shut down plants because of the lack of imported parts.

Want to “Do the Puyallup” and get paid for it this year?

Here’s your chance. The Puyallup Fair needs nearly 3,000 seasonal workers to put on the yearly extravaganza, and they start accepting applications and conducting interviews on Aug. 6.

The jobs range from food service and retail sales to booth operators and barn workers. Most pay minimum wage ($8.07 per hour); a few skilled positions pay more.

Apply in person at the fair’s employment office, located on the north end of the fairgrounds, west of the Red Gate and next to the Sky Ride Station (9th Ave. Southwest between 4th St. Southwest and 5th St. Southwest).

The fair runs from Sept. 5 through Sept. 21 this year. The employment office will be open from 8:30 a.m. until noon, and 1-4 p.m., Monday through Friday through Sept. 21.

The Champaign, Ill.-based company is bringing its sandwich operation to Pierce County.

I spotted one this week by the Tacoma Mall in the same parking lot as Red Robin. The chain has nearly 700 stores nationwide.

Here are some menu highlights:

Gourmet Veggie Club: Double provolone, real avocado spread, sliced cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, tomato, & mayo. (Try it on my 7-grain whole wheat bread. This veggie sandwich is world class!) Calories: 855

The J.J. Gargantuan: This sandwich was invented by Jimmy John's brother Huey. It's huge enough to feed the hungriest of all humans! Tons of genoa salami, sliced smoked ham, capicola, roast beef, turkey & provolone, jammed into one of our homemade French buns then smothered with onions, mayo, lettuce, tomato, & our homemade Italian dressing. Calories: 1,008.

I took a quick peek in the store today and saw a sign advertising sandwiches for $5.85.

According to the company's Web site, two Jimmy John's restaurants are located in Seattle.

I'll let you know more soon.

Comcast will hook you up with a Wii game console if you agree to subscribe to digital-television from the company.

The cable provider lost some basic video customers in the first quarter and is looking to lure some back, with upgrades.

Here are the details: Customers who sign a two-year contract by Aug. 17 for Comcast’s Preferred Plus or Premier Triple Play packages, which cost about $130 to $160 each month, will receive a Wii system, the company announced today.

By my math that means you will have to commit to spending at least $3,120 on Comcast services during the next two years to get the $249.99 game system. (Price comes from bestbuy.com.) But then you come out of the deal with cable, phone, Internet and a Wii.

The game consoles may help court telephone and Internet customers, who cable companies rely on for growth as the video market matures. Bloomberg News reports. Comcast’s first-quarter revenue from Web access rose 12 percent to $1.75 billion, while digital-phone sales doubled to $573 million, the company reported in May.

Don't be alarmed if you see dozens of emergency vehicles speeding toward Sea-Tac Airport Wednesday morning.

They'll be headed to the first large-scale mock crash exercise in 25 years at the airport.

The exercise will be staged on the soon-to-open third runway from 9 a.m. to noon. The third runway is on the airport's west side. The exercise is not expected to interrup air travel.

The airport will use a mock-up aircraft fuselage to simulate the main body of the crashed aircraft and derelict cars to represent large pieces of debris from that aircraft.

As many as 75 pieces of emergency equipment are expected to participate in the exercise along with about 175 firefighters and 100 volunteer "victims." Police and other agencies will also take part in the emergency drill.

The efforts to squeeze more revenue out of the airline business model continued today with news of two new money-saving measures.

Emirates Airlines, the carrier that just announced a plan to buy nearly $12 billion worth of Airbus planes, said it is eliminating the printed version of its inflight magazine to save weight and fuel.

The magazine's contents will be available on screen on the aircraft's in-seat entertainment systems. Northwest Airlines and Japan Airlines have announced they will trim the size of their inflight publications but won't eliminate them.

While eliminating the magazine will save only a few ounces from each seatback, multiplied by thousands of seats in the Emirates system, the weight savings will be considerable. Weight savings mean fuel savings. The less weight the aircraft has to lift, the less fuel it burns.

Meanwhile, Phoenix-based US Airways has notified its top-level frequent fliers that it won't grant them bonus miles beyond what other less frequent fliers receive.

In most frequent flier programs those fliers who pass a certain benchmark of miles in a year receive more credit for each mile flown. The programs are designed to reward business fliers who frequently pay the highest fares and who travel most often.

The airline said its survey of business fliers showed that free upgrades to business class or first class were more important than bonus miles.

Alaska Airlines today unveiled a new feature on its Web page designed to give budget-conscious travelers an easier way to find low fares.

Here's how it works: Travelers enter their preferred travel dates in the on-line reservation booking system. Then they choose the low-fare calendar search option. That option will display the lowest fare to their destination for the remaining days of the month.

The new option will allow travelers with flexibility in their plans to quickly pick the lowest cost roundtrip, the airline said.

Emirates, a Mideast airline with global ambitions, announced it wants to buy nearly $12 billion worth of new Airbus planes.

The announcement of the letter of intent to buy 30 Airbus A330 and 30 A350XWB planes came at the delivery ceremony of the first Emirates Airbus A380 superjumbo jet in Hamburg, Germany.

Emirates is Airbus's best customer for its A350XWB and for A380.

Fueled by oil revenues, the carrier is ambitiously marching to make its Dubai hub the axis of world air travel.

This from the official Southcenter mall news release.

How long did it take: Two years

How many new stores: 75 retailers including H&M Banana Republic, Forever XXI, bebe, Coach, Gilly Hicks, Lucky Brand Jeans, M.A.C., PINK, Sephora, Swarovski and White House/Black Market.

Other news: Borders Books and Music introduced a new concept stores, featuring a digital center where customers can mix and make their own CDs, download books and music, publish their personal books and create photo albums.

What about food: Sharky’s, Kudo Beans, Sushi Ito, Red Mango, Joeys Grill and Lounge, BJ’s Brewhouse, Blue C. Sushi, Duke’s Chowder House and RACHA Thai.

And entertainment: AMC opened a new 16-screen theater on the third level of the shopping center, incorporating stadium seating top to bottom, LoveSeats and wall to wall screens with new IMAX capabilities.

And for kids: The Westfield Kids Play Space is a hands-on Exploratorium where kids can discover the wonders of the earth’s rainforest. It's close to Starbucks and Auntie Anne’s, as well as many children’s retailers, including Crazy 8, Gymboree, Limited Too, Pumpkin Patch and Stride Rite.

Not all of the new stores are aimed at the high-fashion crowd. Crazy 8 brought its first store to the Puget Sound area.

The store, owned by Gymboree, sells durable kids' clothes at a lower price than its parent company. Crazy 8 has the same feel with lots of complete outfits: pants, shirts, socks, hairbands, coats and shoes that match.

I found boys' jeans for $9.99 (if you buy two pairs.) T-shirts for $5.99 (if you buy two.) Dresses for $15.99 and a cool lion sweatshirt for $17.99. The store was much quieter than shops aimed at teens and 20somethings.

The mall added dozens of new or remodeled shops to its shopping center.

Some of the new ones include: Pink, a teen/college version of Victoria's Secret. The store sells sweats, jammies and lingerie with bold PINK branding. I also saw shirts and shorts with University of Washington and Washington State University logos.

I stopped into Love Culture, a store I had never heard of but then I am not the target demographic. It seemed a lot like Forever XXI, which is pronounced "X" "X" "I" by the way - inexpensive but fashionable aimed at teens and 20somethings.

White House/Black Market, Banana Republic, Sephora and other also opened today.

I picked up a few things while talking to shoppers at H&M:

A dress for my daughter: $12.90
Scooby Doo pajamas for my son: $9.90
A blue T-shirt for me: $7.90
A scarf for me: $12.90

The men's section is on the first floor and the H&M staff were carefully monitoring the number of people there to make sure they met fire codes. That meant waiting in line to get down there. (Which also meant I didn't pick up anything for my husband.)

Shoppers waited in line more than 20 minutes to get into the H & M store.

Dorothy Timmons from Maple Valley was eager to check out clothes for her kids at the store. She waited with her husband and two kids, too.

"I was born in Europe so having H & M here is way cool," she said. She confessed to texting her friends around the world today bragging that Seattle was getting the retailer.

Once inside she browsed shoes and belts for her kids, along with other stuff for the two girls.

The lines were inside too. Lines to get into the dressing room. Lines to go to the first floor. Lines to pay.

Celebrity stylist Robert Verdi (known for dressing Eva Longoria Parker) was helping customers pick out outfits.

"What's great about H & M is that it's affordable and high fashion," he said.

Claire Giordano, 16, waited outside the mall for three and a half hours to get in. She asked Verdi to help her pick out some new clothes.

"He's a nice person and this was so much fun," she said as she headed off to the dressing room with an armload of clothes including a brown bomber jacket and floral tops.

H & M spokeswoman Jennifer Uglialoro said the long lines will continue through the weekend.

"People know that we get stuff in the store everyday. Once we sell it out, we don't reorder. So buy it today if you like it," she said.

Hundreds of people waited outside Southcenter Mall this morning to be among the first to see the new stores.

The mall put on quite a show with speeches, acrobats and flying banners.

Much of the buzz outside the mall was about H & M, the European retailer known for its high fashion at low prices. Shoppers were plotting the best way to get there.

Tracy Hughes, 18, of Burien, lined up this morning to get in first. She and four of her friends wanted to see H & M, XXI and other shops.

"I'm so excited to have the stores in my area," she said.

Rumors that Boeing is planning to open a second assembly line in Everett for its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner have surfaced again in the aviation press.

According to those reports, Boeing would open that second assembly line into part of the area where its now builds 767s. The 767 assembly line, which now produces just over one plane a month, would be moved to another building.

Boeing's existing Everett Dreamliner assembly line

With 896 orders from 53 airlines already booked even before the first Dreamliner flies, Boeing is constrained in accepting new orders by its ability to produce more aircraft within a reasonable period of time.

Most airlines looking to order a 787 now are looking at a minimum of a six or seven-year wait until they receive their aircraft.

I haven't heard yet from Boeing on the issue, though they usually are mum about production issues until the decision is made.

Opening a second final assembly line in Everett wouldn't speed up production unless Boeing's suppliers make similar moves. Those suppliers still are having some difficulties producing subassemblies even at the glacial pace of current production.

New figures from the federal government's Bureau of Transportation Statistics show Sea-Tac Airport passengers fared considerably better than average when it comes to fare increases.

The survey, which uses figures from the first quarter of 2008, show fares at Sea-Tac rose only .6 percent from the first quarter of 2007 and only 1.9 percent from the first quarter of 2001.

The national average from 2007 to 2008 was 4.4 percent but the national figure for the 2001 to 2008 period was a 4.6 drop.

Considering an even longer perspective, Sea-Tac ranked 76th of 85 domestic airports in average fare increases from 1995 to the first quarter of 2008. Sea-Tac fares rose 13.1 percent in the period. Nationwide, the average was a 21.4 percent increase.

At the top of the list was Lihue in Hawaii where average fares rose 102.5 percent since 1995.

Second was California's Burbank where fares were up 68.8 percent.

What the figures don't say, however, is how changes in the pattern of air traffic skew those figures. In 1995, most of Lihue's traffic was short hops to other islands. By 2008 the airport on Kauai had developed a considerable long-range business directly to the U.S. The same with Burbank. The suburban Los Angeles has many more transcontinental flights than in 1995.

In another statistical measure, Sea-Tac ranked in mid-pack at 38th among the 100 airports the BTS ranked for average fares. The average Sea-Tac fare was $345.39 in the first quarter of this year.

Cincinnati, a hub airport dominated by Delta Air Lines, the average of $535.32 topped the list. It was followed by four mid-sized airports, Greenville, South Carolina; Madison, Wis.; Knoxville, Tenn., and Grand Rapids, Mich.

At the bottom of the list for average fares was Atlantic City, N.J. where the average fare is only $108.71.

Note that the survey was based on prices during the first quarter of this year. Air fares are up considerably since then.

Southcenter mall opens its remodel today and I am going. I'll let you know what the new stores look like and how bad the traffic is.

Send any questions about the mall my way. I have already collected a list from people including:

Is it Forever "X" "X" "I" or "Forever 21?"

What does the store Pink sell?

Is there a JCrew?

How many places are there to get coffee?

How long are the lines at H&M? (I suspect the answer to this one is: really, really, really long.)

I'll start posting updates later this morning.

It seems like it was only a few days before Memorial Day that a gallon of regular hit $4 in Tacoma.

Now, as of about an hour ago, it’s back. The Tacoma Shell station on Portland Avenue – the one near the Emerald Queen Casino – lowered its price for regular gasoline to $3.99 per gallon.

Graphic evidence that there is sub $4 gas in Tacoma

“The cost of gas is going down,” said John Weymer, spokesman for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, which owns the station.

AAA reported earlier today that the average price of a gallon of the cheap stuff was going for $4.253 in Tacoma. That’s down from yesterday’s $4.265, and (oh what wonderful days those were) $2.964 a year ago today.

Update on the $3.99 gas: With the tribe advertising the price on its huge I-5 casino message board, business was brisk at the station this morning. The driveway was often jammed with cars, but the traffic moved through quickly. When I was there, it took 10 minutes or so to reach the pump. During that same period, two dual trailer gas trucks pulled in to replenish the station's underground tanks -- John Gillie

Columbia Bank released quarterly earnings earlier today, and I spoke with Melanie Dressel, president and CEO at Columbia Bank, after she and other bank officials finished this afternoon’s conference call with analysts.

When we were finished, after about 45 minutes, Dressel asked what the headline would be on Friday’s story. I asked her what she would write.
“Columbia Remains Strong,” she said.

Today’s numbers:
• Columbia Banking System announced second-quarter earnings of $1.9 million, compared with $8.5 million for the same quarter last year. The decrease in net income, Columbia said in a release, “reflected the previously announced provision for loan losses of $15.4 million. ... which was due to an increase in real estate construction related non-accrual loans ...”
• Per-share, the earnings were 11 cents for the quarter, compared to 53 cents in the second quarter 2007.
• At June 30, Columbia’s total assets were $3.17 billion, compared to $3.18 billion at the end of 2007.
• Total loans were $2.28 billion, unchanged since the end of 2007.
• Total deposits were $2.4 billion, compared with $2.5 billion at the end of the year.
• Total non-performing assets (which includes loans that do or may present a problem) stood at $72.27 million, up from $5.98 million in the second quarter last year.
• The provision for losses rose to $15.4 million in the second quarter from $2.1 million in the first.
• The company will pay a quarterly dividend of 17 cents per share on Aug. 20.
• Net interest income was $30.3 million, an increase of $4.6 million from the second quarter a year ago, leading to a net interest margin of 4.39 percent, which is ahead of last year’s 4.36 percent.

“I think that people were pleasantly surprised at the increase of the net interest margin,” Dressel said. “The expectation was that we were going to lose money – but we made money.”

“One of the things you have to remember,” she said, “up until four months ago, the Pacific Northwest economy was performing normally. We are very much affected by the national economy. Our biggest safeguard is that we have never wanted to put all of our eggs in one basket. We wanted a diverse portfolio.”

“The times we are in are unprecedented,” said Andy McDonald, Columbia chief credit officer. “We’ve never been in a credit market where’s there’s been such disruption.”

“We’ve got money to lend,” said Dressel. “We’ve got strong capitalization, strong liquidity. We’re open for business.”

Columbia stock fell 99 cents in trading today, and settled at $13.21. The stock is down 55.57 percent so far this year.

If you're the kind of shopper who queues up at 5 a.m. for the post-Thanksgiving sales, who scans the ads daily for the best sales and who doesn't hesitate spending $40 on gas to explore new shopping venues, we've got a challenge for you.

Southcenter opens its airy $240-million addition Friday, and the shopping center is offering a $25 or larger incentive to draw a crowd.

Those who arrive before 9:30 a.m. for Friday's grand opening will receive a scratch-off ticket good for at least a $25 discount at a number of Southcenter merchants.

Here's the ad explaining the offer.

Note carefully, the phrase, "While supplies last." I suspect, based on the crush of people attending the first day shows at the new addition's centerpiece, a 16-screen AMC theater last week, that the Westfield folks will have no trouble gathering a crowd. A 9:30 arrival could find those scratch-offs long gone.

The shopping mall addition features 75 new shops and restaurants, several of them, such as Forever XXI, Gilly Hicks, Hollister and H&M, new to the Northwest.

The new shopping emporium includes a handful of new eateries, among them, Joey's Grill and Lounge, Blue C Shushi, Duke's Chowder House, Racha Thai and BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse

Shoppers won't find jalapeno peppers in Fred Meyer stores around here.

The grocery chain's parent – Kroger – announced today that all of its stores were pulling the pepper from shelves as a precaution.

UPDATE: Top Foods also pulled peppers from its shelves earlier this week, spokeswoman Becky Skaggs said.

Kroger Co. spokeswoman Meghan Glynn told The Associated Press today that the company decided to halt jalapeno sales after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Monday that a McAllen, Texas, distributor was recalling jalapenos because they had the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.

She said Kroger removed jalapenos the next day, even though none of its supply was from the Texas distributor.

Glynn said Kroger had received no complaints from customers suspecting jalapenos made them ill.

The government is warning against eating fresh jalapenos or products made from them while it continues to investigate a national salmonella outbreak initially linked to tomatoes.

The Texas distributor, Agricola Zaragoza, suspended sales of fresh jalapenos and recalled those shipped since June 30. It said those shipments were made to Georgia and Texas.

Alaska Airlines consistently has won industry awards for its Mileage Plan frequent flier program including this year's InsideFlyer magazine's "Program of the Year."

Those honors, no doubt, were achieved in part by the program's generosity: a free domestic trip on Alaska or its sister airline, Horizon Air, for 20,000 miles. The industry standard is 25,000.

But in a year when fuel prices have escalated 51 percent for the airline, generosity has become too expensive.

The 20,000-mile free trip is going away Nov. 1.

"When Alaska airlines introduced its popular 20,000-mile 'Saver' award 13 years ago, we were paying less than $20 a barrel for crude oil. Last week oil touched $145 a barrel," said Steve Jarvis, Alaska's vice-president of marketing.

In its place will be a new thre-tiered array of awards:

The previous "Saver" award has been renamed "Super Saver." The trips available on Super Saver, even at 25,000 miles, will be limited.

A new middle award level will be called "Choice." Choice awards will cost more in miles than Super Saver but will offer more seats. These seats will be available for 40,000 miles for domestic trips.

The former "Peak" awards will become "Full Flex." Those awards will have no restrictions. Miles cost: 55,000

Additional changes to the program include a $25 fee for booking trips on an Alaska partner airline.

The airlines are throwing some fliers a bone in this switch. Awards for flying within a state, formerly restricted to Alaska, will be expanded to include California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington. The miles cost for these trips, say Seattle to Walla Walla or Spokane, will be 15,000, down from 20,000.

Here's a link to Alaska's new award chart.

The changes are not going down well with some frequent fliers on Internet forums.

On FlyerTalk, one frequent flier commented: "Bad move, Alaska. Very, very, very bad move."

Another said: "I'm surprised nobody is talking about the increased redemption levels! 25k for a domestic "super saver". Then two more tiers above that? Ugh! Mileage Plan has nothing left to differentiate itself."

Six Tacoma bowling enthusiasts – including one national Hall of Fame member – are in the final stages of sealing a deal to buy Tower Lanes.

The bowling center, at 6323 6th Avenue, offers 16 lanes plus an 18-hole mini-golf course and a restaurant.

The group – Ray Schuler, Gary Glein, Andy Ritting, Lance Lorfeld, Bob Hanson and Jeanne Naccarato - has formed a partnership under the name Tower Lanes & Entertainment LLC. I spoke late yesterday with Naccarato, a member of the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame and the Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Fame.

“I’m going to target corporate parties, birthday parties, and I’ll be organizing fundraisers,” she said. “We’re going to revamp the mini-golf, re-do the greens, and have music.” Naccarato also said she will be giving lessons at the center.

The group is buying the building and 3-acre property for $2.1 million from current owners Vern and Shannon Isaacson, Naccarato said.

Hanson, who is likely to act as general manager of the facility, has been bowling since he was a boy and is a member of the Greater Tacoma Bowling Association. He told me yesterday that “the recreational aspect of bowling has been growing. It’s huge. I think we’re on the right track.”

Tower Lanes opened in 1957. The partners expect to keep it open through the remodeling, which should be complete by late September, Hanson said.

Alaska Air Group, will trim 80 persons off from its management ranks and cut flying by up to 10 percent next year as it battles to cope with rising fuel prices.

That announcement came today as the SeaTac-based parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air reported a $63.1 million profit in the second quarter, up nearly 37 percent over the same period last year.

The second-quarter profit amounts to $1.74 a share on operating revenues of $930.8 million, up 2.9 percent over 2007's second quarter.

That figure includes after-tax gains of $97.3 million Alaska made speculating in the oil business.

Subtract those gains and charges made to retire some of its less fuel efficient aircraft, then the results flip-flop to a $14.1 million loss for the second quarter. That loss per was 39 cents per share.

Here's a chart I've created to summarize some of Alaska's second quarter essentials:

Wall street reacted to the earnings report by driving down Alaska's share price by $1.23 to $17.62 a share at midday.

Alaska isn't in the oil business by choice, but of necessity. It has been buying fuel hedges for years to insulate itself from the wild swings in the price of jet fuel. Those fuel hedges allow Alaska to buy jet fuel at a price fixed as long as several years ago when oil prices were lower.

With the rapid buildup in the price of crude and jet fuel this quarter, accounting rules required the company to recognize those gains on its balance sheet.

Despite those balance sheet gains, Alaska chairman Bill Ayer said the company is struggling to raise income to exceed expenses.

"Skyrocketing fuel prices have eclipsed the improvements we've worked so hard to achieve in every area of our business," Ayer said.

The air group chairman announced further measures to help the holding company's bottom line:

* A five percent reduction in the management ranks at Alaska Airlines coupled with an earlier 13 percent cut in management at regional flier Horizon Air.

* A change in the airlines' frequent flier program including upping the price of most domestic trips from 20,000 frequent flier miles to 25,000 miles beginning Nov. 1. The 25,000-mile amount has been the standard in domestic airline frequent flier programs for years except at Alaska.

* A reduction in the Alaska's mainline capacity by five percent in the fourth quarter and by five to 10 percent in 2009. That means eliminating unprofitable or lightly-used flights.

While Alaska's news was not generally positive, it avoided the huge write downs that most of its competitors have announced this quarter.

Collectively, the nation's domestic airlines have announced more than $6 billion in losses for the quarter.

Another notable exception to that trend is Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, whose fuel hedging activities surpassed Alaska's. Southwest announced a $321 million profit for the second quarter today. That includes the gains on $4.3 billion in fuel hedging contracts.

In a business where cash is increasingly essential, Alaska held fast. Its cash on hand increased 1.2 percent in the quarter to $1 billion.

Major design changes to a proposed remodeling and expansion of Tacoma’s Proctor Business District Safeway store could pave the way for a construction start on the project next spring.

Those design enhancements – nine months in the making – were designed to address the harsh comments the original design proposal received last summer from neighboring businesses and residents.

The revised design includes windows on the expanded Proctor Street side of the supermarket, exterior artwork that’s keyed to the neighborhood, an indoor-outdoor seating area with a fireplace and a change in exterior materials to brick to more closely mirror the nearby Proctor firehouse.

Critics complained the original design turned a blank wall to the district’s busiest street, Proctor, that the metal artwork featured generic Tacoma images rather than neighborhood-related designs and the choice of exterior materials, tile and metal siding, wasn’t compatible with the neighborhood.

=> Read more!

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. sold a 5 percent stake of Tacoma's Russell Investments to Nippon Life Insurance Co., the companies said today.

Nippon Life will be a passive investor in Russell, said Northwestern spokeswoman Jean Towell. The Japanese company will have no representative on Russell's board nor will it have any say in Russell's management, she said.

The new agreement, however, will allow Russell to collaborate more closely with Nippon on Japanese business opportunities, said Towell. Russell has had a Tokyo office for more than 20 years.

"This business opportunity is a good one and should prove beneficial to Nippon Life and Northwestern Mutual," said Northwestern President Edward J. Zore. "Nippon Life is a premier long-term investor with a significant international presence, making its investment in Russell a 'win-win' for all parties involved," he said.

Russell is facing setbacks in its international business, an article in Pensions & Investments newspaper's Wednesday edition claims.

Some of those problems are tied to the poor performance of Russell-managed hedge funds of funds, the paper said.

Two of those Russell funds closed in April.

Overseas clients, particularly those in Europe, are increasingly seeking such alternate investments as hedge funds to complement their traditional stocks and bonds portfolios, the paper claimed.

Two key Russell managers departed this month, Jon Bailie, head of alternatives, and Frederic Jolly, Russell's chief executive for Europe.

Russell's Japanese equity investments have also underperformed the norm, the article said.

The deal also includes an investment by Nippon Life in Northwestern’s private equity fund, Nippon Life said in a statement.

Both Nippon Life and Northwestern Mutual are private companies.

Japanese insurers are expanding their alliances with overseas counterparts as the nation’s population declines, shrinking the domestic insurance market. Nippon Life’s move follows smaller Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s purchase of a 24 percent stake in Thailand’s Ocean Life Insurance Co., said the Associated Press.

The Nikkei newspaper reported the tie-up earlier, saying Nippon Life will spend about 30 billion yen for the stake in Russell, without saying where it obtained the information.

Towell said the two companies were not disclosing what Nippon paid for the 5 percent stake in Russell. The $30 billion yen figure, however, is inaccurate, she said.

A present exchange rates, 30 billion yen would be worth roughly $278 million. That would place the value of Russell at $5.58 billion.

Established in 1857, Northwestern Mutual had assets totaling $156.5 billion at the end of December, the statement said. Tacoma-based Russell Investments became a unit of Northwestern in 1999 and had $211 billion in assets under management at the end of June, according to the statement.

Delays in two key programs, one in commercial airplanes and the other in defense, put a dent in Boeing's results for the second quarter reported today.

The 15-month delay in the delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner and a two-year pushback in the delivery Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft to Australia increased Boeing's expenses and delayed expected income from those programs.

Nonetheless, Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney said the company's large backlog and comfortable financial position will allow the company to continue to grow over the long run.

"Strong global demand of our products and services, a record backlog and a sustained focus of productivity improvement and execution will continue to drive growth and profitability for this company," said the company chairman.

Earnings for the full year and for 2009 should be the same as the company had earlier projected:Earnings per share for 2008 should be $5.70 to $5.85 a share; for 2009, they will be $6.80 to $7.00 a share, said James Bell, Boeing's chief financial officer.

The company's revenues were essentially flat for the quarter at $16.96 billion. Earnings from operations fell 17 percent to $1.25 billion. Operating margins fell by 1.4 percentage points to 7.4 percent.

Net income was down 19 percent to $852 million. Earnings per share dropped by 14 percent to $1.16. Without a $248 million write down in the Australian AEWC program, earnings would have been up three cents to $1.38.

Boeing stock fell $2.54 today after the earnings announcement. It closed at $66.72.

Wall Street analysts seemed surprised by the dip in earnings.

Paul Nisbet, an analyst with JSA Research, told the Associated Press that the quarterly results were "poor, surprisingly so."

"The company didn't telegraph anything that would have led us to believe that the costs were going to go up for the infrastructure for the complete commercial airplane operation because of the delay of the 787s," he said in an interview.

"And I think they were remiss in not doing that," Nisbet said. "That was the only real surprise."

Here's an at-a-glance chart I created that summarizes these figures:

On the plus side, Boeing's backlog continued to grow. It totaled $346 billion at the end of the second quarter, up 24 percent from the same quarter.

At the Seattle-based Commercial airplanes division, the backlog grew to $275 billion, some eight times the division's annual revenues.

Both McNerney and Bell said Boeing should be able to handle whatever setbacks the airline industry suffers because of the current fuel and financial crisis.

"We believe we are in a good position to weather the current volatilities," said McNerney.

The company's airliner backlog is so large and so diverse that delivery postponements and cancellations can be absorbed without major production rollbacks or layoffs as the company has experienced in previous downturns, they said.

Only 10 percent of the company's orders for new airliners, for instance, consist of orders from U.S. carriers. And Boeing continues to add to its eight-year backlog with annual orders well in excess of annual production rates.

The company expects to produce 475 to 480 commercial jets in 2008 and 500 to 505 in 2009. Through July 15, Boeing has booked 542 orders for new airliners this year.

The company's aircraft leasing arm, Boeing Capital Corp. stands ready to help airlines acquire new aircraft should they need financial assistance, said Bell.

Costco Wholesale Corp. told investors this morning that its earnings will miss Wall Street expectations. The retailer is struggling with higher energy costs that are hurting its profits.

Shares in the nation’s no. 1 warehouse club operator plummeted more than 12 percent in morning trading Wednesday.

At 7:35 a.m. shares were trading at $65.88, down $6.12 or 8.5 percent.

Here's what The Associated Press is reporting:

The outlook reflects weakness in the company’s gasoline operations and slightly lower-than-planned merchandise profits as Costco holds back on price increases to drive sales. Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in a statement that the lower outlook came “largely from inflation, particularly as to energy costs.”

Amid those energy prices, Costco and other low-price retailers face a dilemma of whether to raise prices on merchandise — which could cost them customers — or hold down prices, which hurt margins, said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a research company in Swampscott, Mass.

Perhaps you’ve heard the ads on radio – the ones featuring Hayden D. “Hayes” Barnard. Need a mortgage? Just call Paramount Equity Mortgage.

And if you did, then you might be in for some restitution.

The State Department of Financial Institutions late yesterday announced the agency intends to revoke Paramount’s license to do business in Washington, and fine Paramount $500,000, and require that the company pay investigation and examination costs, plus require that restitution be paid “to any applicant or borrower harmed by (Paramount’s) violations of the Mortgage Broker Practices Act.”

The company made more than 1,700 mortgage loans to Washington borrowers in 2007, collecting more than $8.7 million in fees, said a DFI release.

The agency accuses California-based Paramount “of charging and collecting unearned fees, charging consumers to buy down interest rates without actually reducing the rate, failing to make required disclosures and making state and federally required disclosures in a deceptive manner.”

Deb Bortner, director of DFI’s Division of Consumer Services, said Tuesday, “Paramount failed to make proper disclosures in almost every loan we reviewed. In today’s market, we simply do not need a mortgage broker engaged in deceptive conduct doing business in this state.”

Calls to Paramount’s offices in King County and Spokane were not returned late Tuesday, nor was a call to Hayes himself. Three people who answered, however, promised that someone would get back to me.

I’ll start the clock.

If you feel that you’re due some money out of this, click here for a link, or visit www.dfi.wa.gov for more information.

UPDATE: Wednesday afternoon I spoke with Jason Bloom, chairman of Elliott Bay Mortgage in Seattle and incoming president of the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers. He later issued a statement:

"WAMB supports all regulatory oversight that ensures consumers are protected by mortgage brokers and lenders who hold themselves out to the highest levels of professional service. We secured passage of loan originator licensing in our state and if any individual or company is found guilty of wrong-doing, WAMB supports their removal from the industry."

Beyond the news from Washington Mutual (with a second-quarter loss of $3 billion), several other Western Washington banks announced earnings today.

• David Brown, president and CEO of Puyallup-based Valley Community Bancshares, reported a record 29 percent increase in earnings – to $1.24 million – for the first six months of the year. As of the end of June, Valley Bank had no nonperforming loans.

• Everett-based Frontier Financial Corp. reported quarterly net income of $2.1 million, a decrease of $16.1 million – or 88.6 percent – from a year ago. Frontier increased its allowance for loan losses during the quarter, and at the end of June claimed an allowance of $78.7 million, compared to $54 million at the end of 2007.

• Olympia-based Heritage Financial reported net income for the quarter at $1.8 million compared to $2.6 million for the same quarter last year. Earnings came in at 27 cents per share, compared to 39 cents a year ago. Non-performing loans were at $8.45 million, an increase of $6.85 million from a year ago.

• Reporting its first quarter 2009 results, Bellingham-based Horizon Financial noted earnings of $2 million and an increase of $3 million to its loss allowance. Non-performing loans grew to $35.8 million, of 2.88 percent of net loans at the end of June – an increase from $157,000 in nonperforming loans, or 0.01 percent of net loans, at the end of the same quarter last year.

In Tuesday trading, Frontier stock was up 1.42 percent, Heritage down 3.7 percent and Horizon up 7.4 percent. Valley shares are not widely traded.

Ambitious plans to build a Bellevue-like cluster of high-rise mixed-use buildings on the site of the old AMC theater in Federal Way is now officially on hold.

Blame the same housing malaise and credit crunch that have put hundreds of projects on hold throughout the country.

The site developer, United Properties of Vancouver, B.C., received a year's extension last week from the Federal Way City Council on closing on the property. The closing date is now Sept. 11, 2009.

David Setton, United Properties vice president, told the city in a letter that "lenders have advised us to postpone he marketing and construction of the project."

United has agreed to pay the city's interest costs on the property, about $150,000 a year.

United proposed building a $227 million, four-tower cluster with 900 residential units, retail and office space around a central park area. The initial plan, presented a year ago, called for building one 15-story tower and three 22-story structures.

United called the development "Symphony," but never fully implemented a public marketing plan for the project.

A single-page Web site for the project advertises its availability in June 2008.

I stopped on my way to work today to fill up my tank and discovered that the price of gas was down a few pennies per gallon from last month – when we hit the all-time high. While it didn't push my bill below $50, at least prices are going in the right direction.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas sells for $4.278, according to AAA. That's down from $4.342 three weeks ago and from $4.368 on June 22. (That's when we hit the record.)

What's going on? It's probably a combination of things. The price of a barrel of oil has fallen nearly $20 in the last two weeks to end today at $127.95. Drivers are trying to save money by driving less. That is lowering demand for fuel, which pushes down the price.

Copa Airlines has ordered two more 737-800 airliners from Boeing.

The new order brings Copa's total 737s on order to nine. The Renton-built planes are scheduled to be delivered in 2010 and 2011.

Copa, whose hub airport is in Panama City, Panama, operates 27 Next Generation 737s. The single-aisle 737s will seat 160 passengers, 16 in Executive Class and 140 in coach.

With your Boeing stock was selling for $68.47 a share this morning on Wall Street, would you sell it to someone for $63 a share?

An Edmonton, Alberta, firm hopes you will. They've issued what they call a "mini tender offer" to Boeing stockholders to buy up to two million shares for that below-market price.

TRC Capital Corp. must be thinking that some investors won't bother to check the current price of their investment before agreeing to TRC's proposal.

Most tender offers are launched by firms at a premium to the present stock selling price in an attempt to win a controlling share in a company. Not TRC's offer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a notice regarding such tender offers at http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/minitend.htm.

More good news bad news from U.S. airlines.

United, US Airways and JetBlue all posted second quarter losses today. In United's case, the loss was huge, $2.73 billion, but Wall Street was happily surprised.

The losses weren't as large as analysts had predicted.

United's loss including one-time accounting charges was $2.73 billion, but excluding those charges, the loss was a more reasonable but still distressing $151 million. Those losses amounted to $1.19 a share. That compares with Wall Street estimates of operating losses of $2.05 a share.

At US Airways, the company reported a $567 million loss. That loss includes a $640 million write down. Without the writedown, the airline would have lost $101 million or $1.11 a share. Wall Street again had predicted a larger loss, $1.30 a share.

JetBlue, the New York-based low-cost carrier, reported losing $7 million, or 3 cents a share. Analysts had expected a 7 cent loss.

The Puget Sound's biggest airline holding company, Alaska Air Group, will announce its results Thursday morning. Analysts expect a 41 cent per share loss. You can listen to the Alaska earnings webcast here.

Alaska, holding company for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, saw its stock jump substantially early today to $17.68 a share, up $1.91 or 12.1 percent from Monday's close. The stock traded as low as $10.10 a share a week ago.

Hoping to bolster its expertise in building unmanned robotic aircraft, Boeing today announced it is acquiring unmanned aircraft maker Insitu Inc.

The price of the acquisition wasn't disclosed.

Insitu has collaborated with Boeing since 2002 in developing the ScanEagle unmanned reconnaisance aircraft.

The ScanEagle is the size of a large model aircraft with a wingspan of 10 feet and the ability to fly at 16,000 feet. The aircraft, which weighs about 40 pounds, can loiter over an area for up to 20 hours providing remote commanders an aerial view of the area via a wireless connection.

ScanEagle on its launcher

The ScanEagle is launched from a catapult launcher and can be recovered using a "Skyhook," a rope held aloft by a 50-foot pole.

Insitu, headquartered in Bingen, Wa., sixty miles east of Portland on the Columbia River's north bank, will operate as an independently managed Boeing subsidiary.

The deal is expected to close in September. Insitu, founded in 1994 to develop remotely piloted aircraft to do fisheries and weather reconnaisance, has about 360 employees.

Our last week's story about Boeing union machinists voting to approve strike sanctions against Boeing wasn't entirely clear on some issues, Boeing spokesman Tim Healy writes us.

Boeing hadn't yet provided proposals regarding incentive pay to union negotiators, but they intend to do so before the end of July. Our story said they had already made that proposal.

The company proposal for a change in the retirement plan for new hires would apply to workers hired after Jan. 1, 2009 rather than beginning with the new contract signing, Healy said.

That new retirement plan would be what Boeing calls an "enhanced defined contribution plan." The present pension system that applies to Machinist Union workers is a combination of a traditional defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan.

Boeing and the Middle Eastern emirate of Qatar announced today that Qatar has signed an agreement to buy C-17 military transports.

Neither Boeing nor Qatar said just how many of the four-engine, high-wing airlifters Qatar will buy.

Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling said Boeing was not releasing the number because the company was leaving it to Qatar to announce a specific figure if it chose to do so.

Reports in international media say the contract is for two C-17s with the prospect for an additional two.

The Qatar order will help Boeing keep open its sole remaining California aircraft production line in Long Beach.

The company is delivering its 175th C-17 to the U.S. Air Force at the end of this week. Fifteen more C-17s remain to be built under an existing contract with the Air Force. President Bush earlier this summer signed a bill to acquire another 15 of the aircraft. Details of that contract are still being worked out.

When that contract is signed, the Air Force will be committed to acquire a total of 205 C-17s. Congress is pondering yet another bill to buy 15 more of the airlifters.

Boeing has already delivered 14 of the planes to foreign governments including six to Great Britain, four to Canada and four to Australia.

Qatar would use the C-17s to deliver humanitarian aid to countries around the world.

Sea-Tac Airport will lose 94 weekly flights beginning this fall as airlines prune their schedules of unprofitable flights.

That figure comes from data from flight scheduling company Innovata.

Sea-Tac's lose is relatively small compared with loses at some airports.

At Los Angeles International, for instance, the airport will lose some 1,900 weekly landings and takeoffs.

Prince Rupert, B.C., which built a new containership terminal with the promise to container transport companies of a quick and uncrowded path to the Midwest, has attracted a second weekly containership call.

The new ship is operated by an alliance of steamship companies including COSCO, K-Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin.

COSCO previously had launched weekly service from Prince Rupert to China and Japan.

Canadian National Railroad links Prince Rupert's Fairview container terminal with the American Midwest and East.

Prince Rupert's successes could diminish the number of containers handled through Pacific Northwest ports including Tacoma and Seattle.

If you’re looking for a way to attend a funeral without attending a funeral, then Tacoma’s Gaffney Funeral Home may have the answer.

Live and via archive, Gaffney has recently begun offering a webcasting service wherein memorial services are recorded and broadcast, and saved, electronically.

So now, out-of-town loved ones need not travel to attend the final rites. Shut-ins can finally participate. A wider circle – a wider world – of friends and associates can share in the grief and celebration of someone’s passing.

“It is our goal to help everyone come together to celebrate the life of their loved one, and find comfort,” the business said in a release late last week.

“Many people haven’t heard about webcasting,” said Corey Gaffney. “A webcast is simply a broadcast of the service, distributed over the Internet using streaming technology. It can be viewed live or recorded, and viewed when friends and family wish to – sometimes over and over again. The broadcast is password protected, so the service is as private as it originally was.”

A new study commissioned by the Everett City Council says limited air service to Paine Field could help Snohomish County economic development.

The study said that up to five daily flights would have only a relatively minimal effect on noise while providing more convenient air service to cities such as Spokane, Boise, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco for Snohomish County business people and leisure travelers.

A big fight is brewing there over the prospect of regular airline flights. The city of Everett, which doesn't own the airfield, appears to be getting in the corner of the advocates, which Snohomish County, which does own the former Air Force base, is opposing the service.

Allegiant Airlines earlier this year proposed starting service from Paine Field to Las Vegas.

Neighbors of the airfield are generally opposed to even limited service because they fear it will disrupt their lives and lead to more flights. The Everett Chamber of Commerce wants service to the airport.

The field is home to the world's largest aircraft plant, Boeing's Everett wide-body factory. A major airline overhaul firm is also based on the field.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently reminded Snohomish County that it can't flatly deny airlines an opportunity to serve the field under law.

High gas prices raising you blood pressure? It might help if you checked your tire pressure. One South Sound firm is offering to help – for free.

In the same way that other tire-related businesses may offer to check a customer’s tires for inflation, now Tacoma’s Courtesy Tire Service is offering the service to anyone who asks.

Courtesy is located at 4502 S. Steele St., at the Tacoma Mall, and a press release says having the correct pressure can “combat the high cost of gas. ... Recent reports from the U.S. Department of Energy have indicated that many drivers can improve their gas mileage by around 3.3 percent simply by keeping their tires inflated to the proper pressure. Many motorists can actually save $2.00 or more per fill-up.”

If necessary, technicians will fill your tires to vehicle manufacturer-recommended levels at no charge.

Are there any other businesses out there helping drivers beat the high price of gas? If you know of one, please leave a comment. Thanks.

This Tale of the Wayward Circus is told by the Better Business Bureau.

Seems there’s a circus of sorts traveling though Eastern Washington. The Colville Chamber of Commerce issued a warning early last week after the organization attempted a last-minute setup at the Stevens County Fairgrounds.

The circus lists its address s as a drop box in Las Vegas at 4080 Paradise Road #15-555, and the agent’s name is listed ("C.K." and/or "J.K.").

The BBB did some additional research based on a report from the Northeast Washington Fairgrounds, which ultimately chose not to do business with the circus, and turned it away from the fairground properties. After that incident, according to the BBB, the group headed to Othello wanting to do business with the fairgrounds there. The Othello Fairgrounds, based on the past questionable dealings, as well as their own doubts, also chose not to do business with them.

Why? The agent for the group calls organizers (or the group just shows up) at the last minute wanting to arrange dates, sometimes pitching that they have a "Say No to Drugs Circus" they want to bring to town.

=> Read more!

Airport shuttle operator Shuttle Express has entered the now-fierce competition for travelers between Seattle and Portland.

Shuttle Express comes to the game with leather-seated six-passenger vans running six times daily on weekdays between the two Northwest cities.

As an introductory offer, the van service is offering $39 one-way fares on two schedules a day at 5 a.m. and at 10 a.m. With the mandatory 15 percent gratuity that amounts to $89.70 roundtrip. Other fares are as high as $158.70 for other times of day.

The van makes the trip in roughly three hours depending on the traffic. It features a worktable and wireless Internet.

Four dollar-plus gas has attracted both Shuttle Express and another new entrant into the Seattle-Portland transport business. That's Portland's SeaPort Airlines, which is operating flights between Boeing Field and Portland International Airport with 9-passenger turboprop planes.

The traditional players are still in the market and matching prices. Amtrak has five trains each way daily with fares as low as $56 roundtrip. Horizon Air offers two dozen flights from Sea-Tac as low as $159.00 return.

And Greyhound is the price leader with a restricted $49.00 fare.

Here's a chart that compares the options. I made some assumptions in drawing up the chart. You could do better on time and price if your circumstances are different.

You could, for instance, be driving a car that gets better than the 20 mpg I assumed, or you could waltz through the train station or airport with less waiting time than I included. (Horizon offers its Portland shuttle passengers a shortcut through the security line and planeside luggage checking.)

So there’s this new law in Russia – Federal Law 131-FZ – that requires, essentially, the establishment of many new cities where once there may have been villages and neighbordhoods.

But it turns out that Russians are not so familiar with the finer and more specific requirements of municipal governance.

Enter the U.S. Agency for Economic Development, the Foundation for Russian American Economic Cooperation and the City of University Place, all parties to the Municipal Partnership Program.

Beginning a week from Monday – July 28 – and lasting through Aug. 2, a delegation of six officials from the new city of Slavyanka will visit University Place to learn about what a city is and how it works. In 2009, a delegation of two officials will make a reverse trip to Slavyanka, an urban settlement of some 14,700 people. The city is located 112 miles from Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East near the borders of China and North Korea.

The agenda in U.P. calls for meetings and tours, as well as an appearance at the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at Curtis High School on the 31st and a trip to the U.P. Festival on the 2nd.

And please, no jokes about how Slavyanka needs to recruit Crate & Barrel to its Towne Centre, or how one of its first priorities should be to get rid of the best Italian restaurant in town, or how, to be successful, the city should work toward hosting the U.S. Open golf tournament in, say, 2050.

The Russians were coming, the came and they have left Tacoma after a two-day conference at the Hotel Murano.

The conference, sponsored by the Russian American Pacific Partnership, featured presentations on such matters as trade and transportation and focused on building new relationships particularly between the Russian Far East and the U.S. West Coast.

=> Read more!

If I told you could have made a 96 percent return on your investment in just three days, you would probably dismiss me as a late night TV pitchman.

But I've got the proof, if you've got the nerve and you can afford to lose some money.

The magic phrase? Airline stocks. In the last two months they've not been a financial adventure for the faint of heart. Most U.S. airlines during that time have been on a black diamond run toward the bottom as they cancelled flights, raised fares and fees and complained about how they've suffered at the hands of the oil industry.

But in the last two days, they've started back up the mountain.

Consider United Airlines, that aviation underachiever that's seen its marriage proposals to two other airlines rejected this spring and summer.

As recently as Tuesday, you could have bought a share of United for $2.85. At midday today, those same shares were selling for $5.59, a 96 percent increase over Tuesday's price.

If you'd prefer a more local investment, take Alaska Air Group, the holding company that owns SeaTac's Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. Tuesday's price was $10.12 a share. Today, ALK was selling for $16.24, a 60.4 percent increase.

Most other domestic airlines, with the exception of Southwest, have shown similar volatility.

That volatility goes both ways. United's 52-week high is $51.60 a share. Alaska's is $29.00.

Have airline shares finally fallen so low that they've gone from questionable investments to potential bargains? Some analysts seem to think so, upgrading airline stocks to "buy."

Of course, not much fundamentally has changed. While crude oil prices retreated in recent days, it seems unlikely they'll ever return to levels that fit with the airline industry's former business models.

Boeing is touting a militarized version of its civilian 737 airliner to replace aging Navy electronic eavesdropping aircraft.

Boeing is one of three finalists in the competition to replace the Navy's EP-3E aircraft. The EP-3E is based on the '60-era Lockheed Electra airliner.

The company wants to use a modified 737 equipped both with sensitive electronic data-gathering equipment and powerful radars to replace the Lockheed aircraft.

Boeing is already building 109 P-8A sub-hunting aircraft on a new assembly line at its Renton plant. The P-8A is a a 737 modified to carry sensors and weapons to locate and destroy submarines.

Modified 737

If Boeing wins the contract for the signal intelligence job, it would produce the 20 planes the Navy is seeking on that same production line.

Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are also proposing replacement aircraft. The Navy expects to cull the field to two by next summer.

The Farnborough Air Show is over and the order numbers are in. The winner: Well, it's Airbus.

The French airplane manufacturer claimed 60 percent of the total number of planes.

But Boeing defended its lower number saying that the company no longer holds on to order to announce at the air show, putting less weight on the final tally at the end of the event.

The world’s two largest airliner manufacturers announced $64 billion in orders, Bloomberg news reports. That fell short of the $69.7 billion in purchases at the most recent comparable event, November’s Dubai Air Show.

“There may have been a little less traffic through the show this year, but that helped those discussions go a little deeper, so all in all it’s been a week well-spent,” said Tom Downey, Boeing's senior vice president for communications to Bloomberg. “Our customers are clearly facing some difficult circumstances with high oil prices, but there’s still demand.”

As in Dubai, the biggest buyers were carriers and leasing companies from the Persian Gulf region, where governments are investing revenue from the same surge in oil prices that is eroding earnings at airlines across the globe, according to Bloomberg.

Starbucks has released a list of some 600 U.S. stores slated to close. I count one in Tacoma - downtown in the Rainier Pacific Bank Building – and 18 others in the state.

In the South Sound, the Federal Way store at 31515 20th Ave. S. will close, as will the store at the Kent Haggens and the one in the Orting Retail Center.

No final closure dates have been announced, and the company said in a release this afternoon that it has informed workers and management personnel at the affected stores about the closures.

For a look at the complete list, click here.

We’re only two months away from the opening of Ikea’s Tacoma Distribution Center.

Actually, it’s Ikea’s Frederickson Distribution Center – being completed on 65 acres in the developing industrial area in unincorporated Pierce County.

The company announced today that the official inauguration ceremony – for invited guests – will take place at the site, at 10 a.m. on Sept. 17.

The building, pictured above in a News Tribune file photo, contains 834,000 square feet and represents the first phase of a project the company expects to expand into more than 1 million square feet.

The distribution center will employ 125 workers and primarily serve four Ikea stores in Western Canada and three – Renton; Portland; and Draper, Utah – in the Western U.S. Goods shipped to the Port of Tacoma will be taken to the new facility, where they will be processed and sent on to their destinations. According to a release today, some 10,000 items will fill the center’s inventory.

George Brown, chief operating officer at Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System, is leaving to become president and chief executive officer of Legacy Health System in Portland. Brown will leave MultiCare by the end of this month.

According to a noon press release, he joined MultiCare in 1998 as vice president of Acute Care Services & Facilities, where he oversaw hospital operations at Tacoma General, Allenmore and Mary Bridge. In 2005, Brown reached his current position as COO, supervising clinical operations throughout the system.

Before coming to MultiCare, he served as commanding general at Madigan Army Medical Center and as commander of the Army Western Regional Medical Command at Fort Lewis.

While at MultiCare, Brown was active in restoring Level II adult trauma care to Tacoma, and he helped bring new operating rooms and robotic-assisted surgery facilities to the system.

“Over the last 10 years, we have grown and successfully implemented many initiatives that improve health care services to our community,” said MultiCare President and CEO Diane Cecchettini, in the release. “Dr. Brown has been a catalyst for many of these initiatives, and I commend him for his many contributions over the last 10 years. We wish him well in his new endeavor.”

Amazon is getting into the streaming video game today as it debuts an online store of movies and TV shows, according to The New York Times. Some of the more interesting aspects: You can purchase a movie at work and then watch it at home or anywhere with a computer. And unlike Amazon's original attempt at selling movies online, there's no software to download before watching.

According to The New York Times, today's launch is for a select audience and will be open to more users later in the summer.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

Customers of Amazon’s new store will be able to start watching any of 40,000 movies and television programs immediately after ordering them because they stream, just like programs on a cable video-on-demand service. That is different from most Internet video stores, like Apple iTunes and the original incarnation of Amazon’s video store, which require users to endure lengthy waits as video files are downloaded to their hard drives.

“For the first time, this is drop dead simple,” said Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital media. “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.”

Amazon is also pursuing the technology and media world’s holy grail — an Internet pipeline to the TV. It has struck a deal with Sony Electronics to place its Internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs.

Tacoma Public Utilities reports this morning the construction project to expand the company's headquarter is finally finished.

It's called "Administration Building South."

From the news release: Designed by Tacoma firm BCRA, the multi-story structure is connected via a two-story bridge to the original Administration Building, and was designed to allow for the extensive growth of the Tacoma Public Utilities programs, including the Click! Network, Tacoma Power, and Tacoma Water. During master planning, an increase in nearly all of departments was identified, which dictated a need to expand both the Administration Building and the Maintenance and Shop capabilities of the complex. The new Administration Building South includes an Emergency Operations Center.

The design and construction process incorporated the use of sustainable concepts and made use of LEED criteria as a check to sustainability. The Shops Building has achieved LEED Certification.

Another smaller Northwest city is seeing its air service curtailed as a result of the airline financial crisis.

Delta Air Lines has told Yakima that it will terminate twice-daily service to its Salt Lake City hub at the end of August.

Delta blamed the high cost of fuel for the service curtailment.

Yakima had mounted a community campaign to raise pledges to buy tickets and to promote the service last year. That campaign successfully persuaded Delta to begin service to Yakima in June 2007.

The Eastern Washington city will retain air service to Seattle via Horizon Air, whose sister airline, Alaska, will likely gain some of the transfer passengers who've taken Delta to other destination from Salt Lake City.

Spokane, Bellingham and Pasco in Washington have seen their air service cut back in recent weeks, and Klamath Falls and North Bend in Oregon have experienced similar cutbacks.

Alaska Airlines began service to its third Hawaiian destination today.

The airline is flying a Boeing 737-800 aircraft daily between Sea-Tac Airport and Kahului on Maui.

The SeaTac-headquartered carrier began Hawaiian service last fall to Honolulu. It has since added service to Kauai.

Beginning Nov. 17, Alaska will connect Sea-Tac with Kona on the island of Hawaii.

The airline has also started service between the 49th state, Alaska, and the 50th state, Hawaii.

American, Continental and Delta airlines have reported second quarter losses this week, largely the result of fuel prices advancing quicker than fare and fee increases.

The second quarter is traditionally the second best quarter for U.S. airlines. Though analysts had predicted big losses, the losses reported at the three carriers, which totaled $2.5 billion, were less than some had expected.

One-time charges related to write-downs of outmoded equipment and goodwill increased the airlines' downside results.

Without those charges, for instance, Delta would have shown a profit of $137 million instead of the loss of $1.04 billion. American reported losses of $1.45 billion, while Continental was barely in the red with a loss of $3 million.

A decrease in crude oil prices this week has given new life to airline stocks today. American, Delta, Alaska, U.S. Airways, JetBlue and United stocks were all up today in early trading.

Alaska Air Group, the SeaTac-based parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reports its earnings next week.

Aircraft leasing company Aviation Capital Group has ordered 15 737-700s from Boeing at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

The planes, built in Renton, are worth $934 million at list prices.

AGC is a frequent Boeing buyer having ordered a total of 96 Boeing jets including 91 737s and five 787 Dreamliners.

Pacific LifeCorp is the parent company of AGC.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post any good news about bank stocks, but here’s the lead of a Bloomberg story out today:

“Wells Fargo led Washington Mutual Inc., SunTrust Inc. and other bank stocks to the biggest one-day gain in almost two decades after posting profit that exceeded estimates and raising its dividend.”

It’s about time – and it was interesting watching the Washington Mutual ticker near the close of the market today.

As for the numbers, Washington Mutual stock is up on the day by 25.48 percent; Columbia Bank is up 12.17 percent, Key Bank is up 16.36 percent, Frontier Bank is up 15.88 percent, Umpquah is up 25.75 percent and Bank of America is up 22.40 percent.

According to Bloomberg News, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Banks Index of 22 companies rose as much as 15 percent, the biggest rise since September 1989, and the KBW Bank Index of 24 companies climbed as much as 10 percent, the most since May 1992.

I’ll be watching tomorrow. Is this a one-day rally or the start of a recovery in financials that I figure is now about six months overdue?

Tacoma-based Rainier Pacific financial Group, parent of Rainier Pacific Bank, today reported second-quarter net income up 3.6 percent over the same quarter in 2007. The increase of $1 million brings per-share earnings to 17 cents over 16 cents a year ago..

As with several other banks, the group is also announcing an increase in its provision for loan losses.– to $550,000, compared to $150,000 for the first quarter and the second quarter last year.

The group said in a release that it has classified $13.5 million in real estate construction loans as non-performing, and has placed the loans on nonaccrual status. The loans, which have not produced specific losses, are due to “cash flow problems experienced by two local residential builders during the quarter resulting in their inability to fully meet the debt service requirements.”

The loans comprise $6.6 million in land for future development; $5.5 million in one-to-four family residential construction loans and $1.3 million in developed residential lots.

Total non-performing loans at Rainier Pacific have increased to $13.9 million, or 2.09 percent of total loans, the release said. A year ago, non-performing loans were $233,000 or 0.03 percent of total loans.

Net charge-offs have increased modestly to $258,000 for the quarter, compared to $250,000 for the first quarter and $191,000 for the second quarter a year ago.

“The current operating environment remains very difficult, and we expect the economic slowdown and lower consumer confidence to continue to place pressure on the financial services industry over the near term,” said John Hall, Rainier Pacific president and CEO.

At the end of the quarter, the group counted $663.9 million in total loans, compared to $637 million a year ago. Total deposits rose to $40.7 million from $33.9 million, while total interest income fell from $14.3 million to $12.9 million.

The group continues to purchase its stock, buying 29,793 shares during the quarter. Near the close of trading this afternoon, Rainier Pacific shares (RPFG) were down 4 cents to $8.63.

Unless you’re drinking alcohol, buying new clothes or visiting the doctor, you’re right: Things are starting to cost more.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting this morning that overall consumer prices in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area are up 2.2 percent over the last two months. And from June 2007 to June 2008, prices are up 5.8 percent.

Over the last two months, only three categories saw a decline: alcoholic beverages, down 1.4 percent; apparel, down 2.8 percent; and medical care, down 1.1 percent.

Electricity was up 11.7 percent in the region in April and June; food and beverages were up 1.4 percent; gasoline rose 19.7 percent; and education rose by 0.4 percent.

For the month of June alone, the shelter index was up 0.9 percent, with an annual increase of 7.6 percent.

The centerpiece of Southcenter's ambitious new addition, the 16-screen AMC theater, is due to raise the curtain Friday.

The official opening for the full 75-store, multi-restaurant addition to the '60s-vintage center is still set for July 25, but you may be able to get a peek at some of the stores and restaurants if you see a movie.

The theater, which includes an IMax screen, is on the top level overlooking the 90-foot-tall atrium. For a list of some of the new stores and restaurants go here.

Members of Boeing's largest union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 751, meeting at Key Arena today overwhelmingly approved a motion to sanction a strike against the company.

The strike sanction vote is not a sign that a strike is imminent, but that the lodge is taking preliminary steps to prepare for one if necessary.

A successful strike sanction vote will enable the national union to pay workers strike benefits if necessary and is a shot across Boeing's bow in negotiations.

Boeing union members who work at least a partial shift, will be excused for the rally, but won't be paid for the time off, the union said. The rally usually slows production at Boeing plants to a crawl.

The union has more than 20,000 members in the Puget Sound area including membership at Boeing's plant at Frederickson in Pierce County.

The contract between Boeing and the union is set to expire Sept. 3. Boeing spokesman Tim Healey said the company has provided the union with both its incentive plan and health care proposals much earlier than normal to allow sufficient time to discuss the possibilities.

Healey said the company is disappointed that the union scheduled its vote for a work day because of the impact that members' absences have on production schedules.

The company has said it wants to institute a modified pension plan for new hires beginning with the new contract, but has yet to make a formal proposal on that issue.

That new pension plan proposal will call for a defined contribution rather than a defined benefit plan.

The union wants substantial wage and benefit increases because of Boeing's unprecedented backlog of commercial airplane orders and high profits. It wants to retain and enhance the current defined benefit pension plan for all workers.

Malaysia Airlines and Air China today announced orders for a total of 80 aircraft worth $8.9 billion from Boeing.

Air china's order was for 15 Boeing 777s and 30 Boeing 737s. The airline will use the wide-bodied 777s on long-haul routes. It will use the single-aisle 737s for shorter and domestic routes.

The additions to Air China's fleet will boost its capacity by about 35 percent. The airline already has an order with Boeing for 15 787 Dreamliners. The order is worth $6.3 billion at list prices.

Malaysia's order is for 35 737-800s built at Boeing's Renton plant. The Southeast Asian airline has also acquired purchase rights for an additional 20 737s.

The 35 737s will cost Malaysia $2.6 billion based on the planes' sticker prices.

The Malaysian order takes the 737 past another milestone, 8,000 planes since the debut of the original version of the workhorse plane in the mid-'60s. The 737 is now in its third generation.

After Outside magazine rated Tacoma the No. 5 best town in America last week, I attempted a fool’s goal: List the key people instrumental in the amenities and projects on which the magazine based its rating.

I wanted to say thanks. Even though I listed 48 names, I knew I would miss some. A few of you let me know about it. I missed Elbert Baker, Marc Gaspard, Bill Honeysett, Jane Russell and Don Sacco. How could I?

And Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma sent me the following e-mail describing in detail the contributions of Booth Gardner, Wayne Ehlers, Ted Bottiger, Ken Madsen, Tim Strege, Bob Evans, Paul Isaki and Pete Von Reichbauer.

Baarsma writes:

When I served as a staff assistant for Governor Booth Gardner in 1988-89 it became apparent that the stars were perfectly aligned for Tacoma. Wayne Ehlers was Speaker of the House, and Ted Bottiger was Majority Leader in the Senate. All of the key political positions in Olympia were held by Tacoma-Pierce County elected officials.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Tacoma. If any of the “stars” blinked Tacoma’s key projects would not have come to pass. Those projects being: the Union Station renovation, the History Museum and UW-T.

An unsung hero for the Union Station project was Ken Madsen — a state senator at the time. Ken was the point person from the Pierce County caucus on that issue. I was with Ken and Booth’s staff assistant Paul Isaki when the decision was made to include funding for Union Station in the Governor’s capital budget. Paul came up with the number after an analysis by a group of consultants. So, without Booth, Wayne, Ted and Ken along with Lorraine (Wojahn), Brian (Ebersole) and Dan (Grimm) among others you listed and some from the GOP side such as Pete Von Reichbauer the outcome would have been much different.

In those days, the folks up north referred to our people as the Pierce County mafia. They delivered in a big way for Tacoma. It was, as I said, a once in a lifetime opportunity. There were some stars locally, too. Tim Strege was instrumental in the (Save Our Station) movement and former (Tacoma city) council member Bob Evans made sure that (architect) Charles Moore’s design for the History Museum was not degraded. There was an effort to “downsize” the building to placate some judges. If that had happened, the outcome would have been a disaster.

Thanks, Mayor.

Shares of Washington Mutual recovered a bit on Tuesday from its biggest drop in more than two decades after telling investors that it’s “well capitalized.”

The Seattle-based bank gained 38 cents, or 12 percent, to $3.61 on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News. The shares tumbled 35 percent Monday and have lost more than 90 percent of their value in the past year.

“The stock’s been absolutely crushed here and they don’t go down forever,” Kevin Kruszenski, director of equity trading at Keybanc Capital Markets in Cleveland, told Bloomberg. “There’s a sentiment that the banks are overdone.”

Washington Mutual, which has 2,500 branches throughout the country, said after the close of trading Monday that it has more than $40 billion in liquidity and $150 billion in retail deposits. The company has recorded $3 billion in losses in the past two quarters amid tumbling home prices and record foreclosures.

Washington Mutual ranked 11th among subprime lenders last year, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

Fruit smoothies are on their way to coffee giant Starbucks, according to BusinessWeek. The magazine says the Seattle company has named its new drink Vivanno, which will include banana, milk, and an orange-mango-blend juice, along with whey protein and fiber powder in a 16-ounce cup.

The cost? $3.75. The calorie count? 270.

According to the story, the Vivanno will attempt to take back market share from Dunkin' Donuts and others, but with this potential weakness in the smoothie plan: Starbucks coffee drinkers might simply switch to the fruit drink rather than the fruit drink drawing in new folks.

CEO Howard Schultz says research shows people will come to Starbucks for healthy drinks. On the one hand, fruity drinks and smoothie places seem to be very popular, particularly in the summer months. But I don't associate Starbucks with anything other than coffee, scones and (now, thank you!) Top Pot donuts. Then again, I don't like ice in my coffee or a blender to come near it. You?

For the third consecutive month, the state's employment has remained virtually unchanged – although Pierce County continues to see an increase in unemployment.

The Employment Security Department reported this morning that seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment remained at 2,964,700 in June.

“The basic picture we’re getting is that employment has remained stable over the month, and that unemployment has risen a little bit. There is not a whole lot of turbulence. I would say it’s plateauing,” said Dave Wallace, ESD acting chief economist.

The increase in unemployment is primarily due to the addition to the labor force of new graduates, new state residents and others newly seeking jobs.

“With the number of jobs holding steady, the unemployment rate is up because more people are looking for work,” said ESD Commissioner Karen Lee.

The construction and financial sectors showed significant job losses, down 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent from May to June, according to statistics released today.

In Pierce County, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in June, from a revised figure of 5.7 percent in May and 4.8 percent in June, 2007. The unemployment rate in King County remained steady at 3.9 percent over the past month, and up slightly from 3.7 percent the year before.

“It’s sluggish growth, but it’s better than no growth at all,” said regional economist Paul Turek, who oversees ESD calcualtions in Pierce County.

The Sprinkler Fitters Local 699 and the companies that employ them agreed on a new labor contract late last week.

The union members and those honoring their picket lines have returned to work, said Jeff Bennett with The McKinstry Co. construction company and a member of the bargaining team.

The union members voted last Friday and approved the new terms.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that 176 people voted for the contract and 26 voted against it.

The contract includes a wage raise of $13.05 per hour, spread out over three years. The first increase, of $2, will be backdated to July 1, according to the PI.

The union went on strike in early July to protest the proposed contract terms. The strike shut down construction sites in Pierce County including St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor and the new Nordstrom at the Tacoma Mall.

I've put a call into the union to get more information but haven't heard back yet. I'll post more later.

The Boeing Co. and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica today announced a joint effort to establish a composite materials recycling facility in southern Italy.

The new facility, which is scheduled to open about a year from now, will recycle used composite aircraft parts into industrially useful materials.

Composites are seeing increasing use in aircraft throughout the world because of their light weight, corrosion resistance and durability. Boeing new 787 Dreamliner is the first large commercial jet to be built largely of composite materials.

Composite materials typically consist of carbon fiber threads imbedded in a medium that cures and gains strength when baked in a large oven-like autoclave.

The new recycling plant will be in Italy's Puglia region near Alenia's production facilities. Puglia is in southeastern Italy. Its southernmost part forms the heel of Italy's boot shape.

The center is expected to process about 1,100 tons of composite scrap yearly at full production

Nigeria's Arik Air announced today it has ordered seven more 737 single-aisle aircraft from Boeing.

The announcement came at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

The new order bring's Arik Air's total 737s on order to 17. The carrier already operates seven 737-700s.

In addition to the Renton-built 737s, Arik Air has ordered five 777-300ERs and seven 787-9 Dreamliners from Boeing. The carrier has also said it intends to buy four 747-8 jets.

Some 80,000 present and past Boeing workers in Western Washington learned Monday they will receive a bonus of Boeing stock worth $1,636.90 as part of a stock incentive plan.

The amount the workers receive is based on the value of Boeing stock on June 30.

The Share Value Trust plan was set up 12 years ago by Boeing to share appreciation in the company's stock price with workers and retirees.

Unfortunately for Boeing workers, that incentive payment could have been much higher, but recent declines in the airline industry have savaged Boeing stock. At midday today, Boeing stock was trading at $63.52 a share. That compares with a 52-week high of $107.83.

Boeing and a vendor that produces software to handle the braking on its new 787 Dreamliner are working through problems with that software in preparation for the Dreamliner's first flight.

Dreamliner vice president Pat Shanahan said Tuesday that the brake software problem was one of small handful of critical impediments slowing down the company's progress toward a 787 first flight.

The 787 schedule is already 15 months behind with the first flight now set for late this year.

Shanahan said Boeing is also working on some potential fatigue issues with the plane's central fuselage.

And the plane is likely to tip the scales at somewhat over Boeing's target weight.

Nearly 900 examples of the 787 have been ordered making it the most successful commercial airliner ever built in terms of pre-first flight orders.

Parts shortages and issues with major subcontractors failing to finish their work on time has played a large role in putting the 787 behind.

Both Boeing and the Northrop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defense and Space consortium said today they'll compete with the same planes for the Air Force aerial tanker contract that they did in the last contest.

Northrop-Grumman/EADS won a previous contest, but the Government Accountability Office said last month the decision making process was marred by errors. The Defense Department is holding yet another bid-off for the contract, estimated to be worth $35 billion to $40 billion.

Northrop-Grumman/EADS won last time in part because the plane on which it based its tanker, the Airbus A330, is larger than Boeing's 767 on which Boeing based its proposal.

Boeing contends that the Air Force shouldn't have given the rival proposal extra credit for extra cargo and passenger-carrying capabilities because the request for proposal did not ask for a larger plane.

Boeing theoretically could bid a larger version of the 767 or its 777 if it had time to prepare the engineering on those larger planes and if it thought having a larger plane would be an advantage.

The award to Northrop-Grumman/EADS set off a firestorm of political protest because much of that plane is built in Europe although final assembly will be in a new plant in Mobile, Ala.

Boeing debuted the latest version of its popular 777 airliner today, but what the company called "a minor telemetry issue" kept the first flight from being flawless.

The 777 Freighter took off from Everett's Paine Field where it was built about 10:30 a.m. today, but failed to show up at Seattle's Boeing Field at the appointed hour.

Instead the first example of the new plane landed back at Paine Field leaving news cameras waiting at Boeing Field without footage of its first landing.

The plane flew out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca and flew loop patterns along the Washington coast for nearly three hours before returning to Everett at 1:38 p.m., Boeing said.

Federal Aviation Administration rules required the plane to return to its "airport of origin" because of the communications issues between the test equipment on board and Boeing's telemetry monitor room.

"There were no airplane-related issues," said Boeing spokesman Tim Bader.

Boeing has been plagued with problems in recent months including a 15-month delay in the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner.

If $4.40-a-gallon gas isn't enough to convince you to take the Sounder to your job in Seattle, maybe the latest findings of a worldwide parking survey will.

Colliers International says its latest survey shows parking rates have risen nationwide for the fifth year in a row. The increase was 2.8 percent.

The June survey of 64 U.S. cities (not including Tacoma) shows the median price of monthly parking in Seattle is now $260 a month, 71 percent higher than the median U.S. figure of $153.79.

That price is a bargain compared with the five top U.S. averages:

New York City Midtown, $585
New York City Downtown, $462
Boston, $460.00
San Francisco, $350
Chicago, $310

But even those high rates pale in comparison with some foreign parking rates. For instance:

London City, $1,166
London, West End, $1,135
Sydney, $774
Hong Kong, $742
Perth, Australia $610

San Francisco's Virgin America Airlines took the top spot of Travel & Leisure Magazine's new list of the top domestic airlines.

That list is dominated by smaller, low-fare carriers.

Southwest and Alaska airlines, seventh and ninth of the list, are the only so-called "legacy carriers" on the listing.

SeaTac's Horizon Air took the number 10 spot on the magazine's rank.

Virgin America started service this spring from Sea-Tac to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Boeing Co. has won $12 billion in orders from two Middle Eastern airlines during the first day of the world's largest air show.

New low-cost carrier FlyDubai has ordered 54 of Boeing's popular 737-800 single-aisle jets worth $4 billion at list prices.

Fifty of those planes will come directly from Boeing. The remaining four will be leased from Babcock and Brown Aircraft Management. The planes will be delivered between 2009 and 2015.

The Chicago-based Boeing also announced an $8 billion order from Etihad Airways. The United Arab Emirates airline is buying 35 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777s. The carrier also ordered 55 aircraft from Boeing rival Airbus. The airline said it will purchase 20 Airbus A320s, 25 A350XWBs and 10 Airbus A380s.

Etihad has also taken options on another 25 787s and 10 777s. Aircraft will be delivered beginning in 2011. Deliveries will continue through 2020.

Grocery and drug store chains have long provided in-store brands as their own, cheaper alternative to better-known name brand products. But, according to a story at The New York Times, Safeway has twisted the concept to its advantage by making a concerted effort to create a brand from its own line of goods. The ultimate goal: Getting the O Organics line in the other grocery stores where you shop.

Here's an excerpt of the story:

But rather than becoming the alternative to established brands, Safeway wanted O Organics to be the established brand. The company brought in executives from consumer-product giants like Procter & Gamble and Nestlé, gave the line a look that stands on its own (although the color choices may look familiar to anyone who knows the Whole Foods house brand) and hired the ad agency DDB in Chicago to create print and television advertising to help build the image of a full line of healthful, organic products in a wide range of categories. The company says the line is on track to hit sales of $400 million in 2008. In 2007, Safeway followed a similar strategy with Eating Right, which is positioned as balancing taste and nutrition, with a package design that highlights the most impressive aspect (“low fat,” for example) of the 250 products in the line, including frozen dinners and cereal.

The company’s research suggests that shoppers think of the lines as independent brands that sell in Safeway by some exclusive arrangement — and that was the goal.

A new 110-130-seat single-aisle jetliner announced this weekend by Canadian planemaker Bombardier won't be a threat to Boeing's 737, the head of Boeing's commercial airplane division told reporters today.

Scott Carson, speaking at a news conference at the Farnborough Air Show in England, said he doesn't expect much effect on Boeing's best-selling aircraft.

"We don't anticipate any particular impact on single-aisle sales. We're largely sold out of the 737 through 2014 anyway," Carson told reports at the big show.

Bombardier announced Sunday that it is proceeding with the C-Series aircraft with the commitment from Lufthansa to order 30 of the aircraft.

The plane, whose body will be built in China and whose wings will be constructed in Northern Ireland, will be assembled in Montreal.

Bombardier C-Series

Kansas City had made a determined pitch to win the final assembly site with $240 million in incentives to the plane-maker.

The C-series aircraft will be be powered by Pratt & Whitney's new geared turbofan jet engines. The geared engines are more efficient than conventional jet propulsion plants.

The C-series will come in two versions, a 110-seat model and a 130-seat model.

=> Read more!

Longshore union and terminal operators are back at the bargaining table this week in Tacoma after a dispute over local issues erupted into a work stoppage at the Port of Tacoma's Pierce County Terminal Friday night.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, terminal operators and stevedoring companies on the West Coast said the walkout kept 82 export containers from being loaded on an Evergreen Lines ship before it departed.

Longshore spokesman Craig Merrilees said longshore workers at Tacoma Local 23 became frustrated at the pace of bargaining over local issues Friday after a PMA negotiator left the bargaining table.

The union posted pickets at the terminal, the Port of Tacoma's largest, late Friday night.

The pickets were down and both sides were back at the bargaining table Saturday, the union spokesman said.

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the PMA have been operating without a contract since July 1.

The PMA said work was also slowed at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in California because workers there decided to take their coffee breaks simultaneously rather than stagger them as was customary. The simultaneous coffee breaks halted all work at the docks during the duration of the 15-minute breaks.

Merrilees said workers there were similarly concerned about local issues now being talked out at the bargaining table.

"The important thing is that the main negotiations are proceeding. That's the focus of our efforts," he said.

A lockout six years ago halted virtually all West Coast importing threatening to damage the U.S. economy during the critical stockpiling period for Christmas imports.

In today's column, I wrote about the $157,000 advertising campaign for the Crystal Brame Family Justice Center. In the newspaper, you saw a version of the poster. Now watch the TV commercial.

The team at Rusty George Creative, a downtown Tacoma branding, design and advertising agency, came up with this concept to convince women in abusive relationships to contact the center for help.

When a facilitator described this commercial to a focus group of 12 clients of the Family Justice Center, six of them cried.

Let me know if it strikes you as powerfully as it struck me.

The commercial aired on cable television throughout the region in June and will run again in late November and December. Grants, including one from McGavick Graves, a Tacoma law firm, funded the campaign.

Following yesterday's 40 percent drop in value, Columbia Banking System stock rose 8 cents in Friday trading to close at $10.88.

The stock hit a 52-week low early in the day – slipping to $8.50.

Second-quarter results from the Tacoma-based company will be released July 24.

Do you recognize this unpeopled place?

Tollefson Plaza at South 17th Street and Pacific Avenue has inspired a groundswell of civic criticism as an uninspiring downtown wasteland. People don't naturally hang out there.

Yes, Tollefson Plaza in downtown Tacoma. A promised slate of summer lunchtime concerts and other magnet events predicted to draw you there won't happen this year.

Bickering and wordsmithing over contract language between the plaza owner, the City of Tacoma, and the prospective plaza event planner, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, means the Chamber may only test a couple of events this year, Joanne Buselemeier, the chamber's administrative manager told a crowd Friday at the City Center luncheon.

The contract, still unsigned, needs both City and Chamber approval. After that, the City will begin a procurement process for tables, chairs and garbage cans. And the Chamber must recruit an event planner and solicit sponsorship donations from a downtown business community suffering economic challenges to the donation accounts.

Consequently, Buselemeier explained, the Chamber still hopes for a Halloween outdoor festival aimed at kids and a Christmastime festival with a temporary ice skating rink and tree-lighting ceremony.

If the two sides get lucky, we still could see a Friday lunch concert or two in late August or September. But don't count on it.

Today is the day the IRS sent out the last of the Economic Stimulus Checks to those taxpayers who filed their returns before the April deadline.

But according to the Associated Press and the IRS, there’s still money waiting for people who haven’t yet filed their 2007 returns.

The IRS said it will continue processing late returns and issuing the checks throughout the year.

As before, the IRS is urging some 5 million Social Security recipients and veterans who don’t normally need to file returns to do so this year so they can qualify for the free money they’re due. The agency today urged those folks – and people who received extensions – to file by October 15 to ensure they receive a payment before the end of the year.

The Treasury Department said that this week, the last week of mass disbursements, it sent out 7.5 million payments worth $5.8 billion. Cumulatively, it has made 112.4 million payments worth almost $92 billion as part of the stimulus package that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law last February, according to the AP.

Eligible individuals can receive up to $600, and married couples $1,200, plus $300 for eligible children younger than 17. For people such as retirees who have no tax liability or filing requirement, there is a minimum payment of $300, or $600 for married couples.

For those of you wondering how Columbia Bank stock is doing today – after yesterday's 40 percent tumble – well, trading is fairly heavy, and two hours before the close the stock is up 3 cents over yesterday's close.

Early in the session, COLB hit a second consecutive 52-week low, at $8.50, but looks to be recovering. When I last checked the Bloomberg machine, trades are coming in around $10.85 per share.

After unch I'll post a full look at the stock and how its peers are doing.

Seeking to protect the resale value of 284-acre tract near Maytown in Thurston County, the Port of Tacoma is asking for a year's extension of a mining permit for the property.

The port is also asking a Thurston County hearings examiner to relax two conditions of the permit requiring it to make major modifications to local highways needed to access the site.

The mining site is part of a 745-acre tract that the port had considered using for a logistics center and rail marshalling yard. The port earlier this year abandoned that idea after determined local opposition to its plan surfaced.

The port now wants to sell the property.

Unless the port gets an extension of the permit or begins active mining on the site within three years from the time the permit was issued, the permit will expire. That expiration date is Jan. 3, 2009.

In papers filed with its two requests to Thurston County, the port says it wants to remove only about 500 cubic yards of gravel from the site for use in port construction.

Removing that gravel would solidify the port's claim that it has activated the permit by beginning activity on the site.

Port lawyers contend the port's planning and cleanup activities on the site so far constitute a beginning of mining activity, but the port clearly wants to bolster that claim.

The existing permit, which envisioned a large mining activity on the site involving as many a 760 truck trips a day during the summertime, requires that the port improve lighting at the gravel pit entrance and lengthen an off-ramp on I-5. The port contends those activities are unnecessary for the token mining operation it has in mind.

The port is considering a number of possible uses for the property including selling it to conservation groups or government to perserve it as parkland or to industrial developers for mining or warehousing.

The port spent more than $21 to buy the property in 2006 and more than $4 million preparing it for development.

If you ever wonder why airlines have stripped flying of nearly all of its civilizing amenities, take a look at a recent survey by Travelzoo.com about what travelers will endure to find that holy grail, low fares.

The 1,000-person survey found that 41 percent of air travelers would agree to give up bathroom privileges if they could get a 50 percent fare reduction.

Midwestern residents were the most willing (46%) to agree not to use the restroom. Makes sense. They don't have to endure six-hour transcontinental flights.

Some 28 percent of those surveyed said they would stand rather than sit if they could costs in half. Men (35%) were more willing to stand than women (21%) to win the fare savings.

No airline is considering such measures. Although standing-room-only would increase aircraft capacity, it wouldn't increase it enough to merit a 50 percent fare reduction. Likewise, eliminating restrooms wouldn't be much of a cost advantage even if airlines could legally and morally do so.

A German company five years ago briefly toyed with the idea of creating a standing "seat" for airlines that would give passengers a slightly slanted backrest and a safety belt. The New York Times wrote a couple of years ago that Airbus was marketing the concept to Asian airlines. Airbus quickly denied the report.

After 17 months of largely unproductive negotiations, Alaska Airlines pilots have filed for assistance from a federal mediator.

The pilots, who took up to 35 percent pay cuts in their last contract, want more pay and benefits, but Alaska, beleaguered by high fuel prices, says there's little it can afford.

The mediation request is the first in a long line of steps that could lead to a strike by the pilots.

The pilots' contract became amendable on May 1, 2007. Negotiations began in January of that year.

To strike, the pilots must first try mediation and if that is unsuccessful and the National Mediation Board releases them, they must first have a 30-day cooling off period. After that period, the pilots could strike if the president doesn't intervene.

Shares in Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System fell more than 40 percent today after bank officials announced in an early-morning conference call with analysts that the quality of Columbia’s real-estate loan portfolio continues to deteriorate.

The stock closed at $10.80, down $7.45 for the day and 63.67 percent so far this year. At one point during Thursday trading, Columbia slipped to a 52-week low of $9.30.

The stock hit its previous low of $10.29 on Oct. 9, 2002.

Following the market close today, Columbia President and CEO Melanie Dressel said in an interview, “Fortunately, we don’t manage the company on the day-to-day stock price.”

“I’ve never seen that,” said Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Gary Schminkey, of the sudden drop in share value.

The Thursday morning call with stock analysts came after a press release issued Wednesday afternoon announcing that Columbia was making a second-quarter provision for loan losses of $15.4 million “due to an increase in non-accrual loans resulting from the slowing Pacific Northwest economic environment.”

=> Read more!

US Airways, at the forefront of airborne cost reduction programs, has told Hollywood studios it won't be showing onboard movies beginning this fall on domestic flights.

The cutback will remove another cost item for the Phoenix-based airline. The airline said the number of passengers paying $5 to rent headphones has decreased, and the 500-pound weight of the movie-playing equipment is adversely affecting its planes' fuel mileage.

The change will save the airline about $10 million a year, a US Airways spokesman said.

US Airways already charges fees for both the first and second checked bags, and in-air refreshments such as sodas and juices now cost passengers $2. The airline has upped the price of alcoholic beverages to $7.

The airline has increased its fee for changes to non-refundable tickets to $150 for domestic tickets and $250 for transatlantic and transpacific tickets.

The movie halt, like all the other cost-saving measures, was driven by the high cost of fuel, the airline said.

The Boeing Co. said continuing issues with delays in delivery of six airborne early warning and control planes to Australia's air force will cost the company $250 million in the next quarter.

The company told investors to expect a charge against earnings of 22 cents a share. Even so, the aerospace company said it still expects earnings per share will be in the range of $5.70 to $5.85 a share for 2008 and $6.80 to $7.00 for 2009. Boeing will announce second quarter earnings on July 23.

The planes, based on the Boeing 737-700 airframe, contain complex detection and communication gear. It's the performance and integration of those electronic systems that have put the program three years behind schedule.

The first of the aircraft flew in 2004 for Australia's Wedgetail program.

Boeing said it will deliver the first two planes in July of next year with degraded capabilities. The remaining four planes will be delivered with full capabilities in 2010.

If you're looking for a quick way to get to Kamloops, B.C. and the Sun Peaks ski area this winter, your quest just became a mission impossible.

SeaTac's Horizon Air, which has operated ski season flights from Seattle to the British Columbia town northeast of Vancouver since 2003, says it won't be making those trips this winter.

"Sky high fuel prices, a U.S. economy that's in the doldrums. In this economic environment, we just couldn't see how it would be possbile to operate these flights profitably this year," said Horizon's vice president of marketing and communications, Dan Russo.

Alternate air connections are available through Vancouver and Calgary. With a good connection, the total duration of your journey through Vancouver is something like 3 1/2 hours. Through Calgary, it's closer to six.

By car, the 325-mile trips takes about the same as the flight through Calgary provided the border crossing is brief and the weather cooperative.

Starbucks Corp. is creating new promotions to help get you into its stores more often and to counter falling sales.

“One of the things we’re consistently hearing in this day and age (is), even though budgets are tight, they still don’t want to give up life’s little luxuries,” said Brad Stevens, vice president of customer relationship management at Starbucks, in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “They consider Starbucks one of those luxuries.”

No word yet on what they are going to do here in the Puget Sound region.

UPDATE: The Seattle P-I reports today that in Seattle customers who buy a full-price drink in the morning can get a 16-ounce cold beverage for $2 after 2 p.m.

Starbucks will say that the majority of its more than 11,000 U.S. stores will offer some sort of deal between now and early September, The Associated Press reports.

Here are some examples from around the country:

Through July 23, Starbucks is giving away 12-ounce iced coffees on Wednesdays to customers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and Detroit who present an “iced brewed coffee card,” a reusable voucher distributed in stores and newspaper inserts.

=> Read more!

Spokane will lose non-stop flights to four cities when Houston-based ExpressJet Airlines stops flying Sept. 2.

The 17-month-old carrier used 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets to fly between Spokane and Reno, Nev. and Ontario, San Diego and Sacramento in California.

The airline will shut down its system, which connected medium-sized cities with non-stop flights, because of high fuel costs for the relatively small planes.

Jim Ream, ExpressJet president and chief executive officer, said, "If we had any other choice, we would not take this difficult action. However, rising fuel prices has made the operation impossible to sustain."

ExpressJet this month also reached agreement with Delta Airlines to halt flying for that carrier. That severing of relationships means an end to Delta flights between Sea-Tac and Portland and Los Angeles.

ExpressJet says it will return 39 jets to lessors. It will continue to do contract flying for Continental Airlines.

ExpressJet's demise as an independent carrier could be good news for carriers operating connecting flights through Seattle such as Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Horizon Air.

The 33,000-plus passengers who flew on those four carriers to those West Coast destinations would likely fly to Seattle to take flights to those destinations now that non-stop service is no longer an option.

Northwest Airlines has joined American, United and US Airways in charging $15 for the first checked bag.

The Minnesota-based airline announced today that the fee will apply to all tickets bought Thursday and later for travel beginning on Aug. 28 or after.

Northwest and most other major U.S. airlines already charges $25 for the second bag checked.

In that same announcement, the airline said it will increase the change fees for non-refundable tickets from $100 to $150.

The airline also said it will reduce its 34,000-employee workforce by 2,500. Employess will be offered buyouts.

The new fees and layoffs are driven by higher fuel prices, the airline said.

Occupancy at Pierce County hotels rose at a modest rate in May – higher than the statewide occupancy rate, but less than a handful of other regions. In May, 74.1 percent of county rooms were occupied, up 2.2 percent from the year before.

Statewide, 76.8 percent of rooms were taken, up 1.6 percent from 2007, according to Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood.

The cost of an average room in the Tacoma, $85.94, was up 13.2 percent over the year, Rood said. The figure indicates an increase higher than anywhere else in the state and higher than the statewide average increase, up 2.6 percent.

The average statewide cost of a room stood at $128.09 in May, with downtown Seattle showing the largest cost, at $167.52 – down 1.4 percent from 2007. All other regions reported an increase for the month, with the Tri-Cities and Spokane up 11.5 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Airbus barely edged out Boeing in first half airliner orders, new figures released today show.

The European aircraft maker netted 487 orders in the first six months of 2008 versus Boeing's 475, figures from the two manufacturers show.

Airbus delivered 245 planes in the first half compared with Boeing's 241.

Boeing and a Canadian company plan to build a hybrid blimp-helicopter designed to carry heavy loads to remote locations.

SkyHook International Inc. has partnered with Boeing's helicopter division in Pennsylvania to build the huge lifting aircraft that will handle payloads twice that of the world's largest helicopter, Russia's Mil MI-26.

The MI uses some 22,000 horsepower to lift 20 tons. The Boeing-Skyhook aircraft will use 21,000 horsepower to lift 40 tons.

The advantage the Boeing-Skyhook craft has is that the large blimp-like envelope will create enough lift to hold aloft its own weight and that of the four engines and rotors. The rotors then will use their thrust to lift the payload.

The preliminary design shows a large gas envelope coupled to four rotors on pylons. Boeing will use its experience with the CH-47 Chinook helicopter to design the rotors and its expertise with flight control software from the 787 to create the control system.

Skyhook JHL-40

The new blimp-like aircraft is expected to debut in 2012. In concept, it mirrors a failed 1980s effort by Piasecki Aircraft to create a similar hybrid device.

That device include a blimp-like gas bag coupled to a crude metal framework that carried four tail-less H-34 helicopters controlled from one cockpit.

Piasecki PA-97

The craft crashed when vibrations within the framework caused the framework to fail. One of the helicopters separated from the metal framework, its rotor slashing into the gas bag. The other three helicopters then uncoupled from the frame and fell to the ground killing the pilot.

The Federal Aviation is ordering airlines operating Boeing MD-80 jets to do new inspection of the plane's wings for possible fatigue cracks.

The airlines operating the planes must conduct the inspections within two years or 20,000 landings and takeoffs.

The inspection orders come in the wake of recent FAA orders to inspect MD-80s' wiring that grounded the nation's fleet of the McDonnell Douglas-designed planes last spring.

American and Delta Airlines will be most severely affected by the order. American has 212 MD-80s in its fleet. Delta has 117.

SeaTac-based Alaska Airlines has seven MD-80s in its fleet but plans to retire them by September.

American Airlines will eliminate three daily flights from Sea-Tac Airport this fall in its effort to prune unprofitable flights from its schedule.

The Fort worth, Texas-based airline will eliminate a daily non-stop from Seattle to Austin, Texas, one of eight daily flights to its Dallas hub and a single flight to St. Louis. The Austin flight will be eliminated beginning Sept. 3. The other two flights will disappear from the schedule on Nov. 2.

The airline is laying off or offering voluntary severance packages to 22 Sea-Tac workers.

The airline is cutting back about 6,500 jobs nationwide and grounding 75 planes.

The National Retail Federation today published the STORES Top 100 Retailers list – showing the nation’s top retailers by revenue.

Wal-Mart remains at the top, with 2007 revenues of $378 billion, an increase of 8.6 percent over the past year.

Home Depot, CVS Casemark, Kroger, Costco, Target, Walgreen, Sears, Lowe’s and Supervalu complete the first 10.

Starbucks and Nordstrom were the only other Washington companies recognized on the annual tally.

Within the Top 10, Lowe’s shows the largest increase of outlets, at 10.9 percent, with Walgreen close behind at 9.8 percent. Supervalu marked a 31.2 percent increase in earnings, while Costco was down 1.9 percent, according to stores.org.

For a look at the complete list, visit www.stores.org/pdf/08Top100Chart.pdf

American Airlines will lay off 22 workers at Sea-Tac Airport beginning Sept. 5 as part of its nationwide staff reduction.

That news came today in a warning notice filed with the state Employment Security Department. Nationwide, American plans to eliminate 6,500 employees or about eight percent of its workforce.

Some employees may leave the company voluntarily with a severance package designed to bridge the gap between full-time employment and their retirement, the company said.

American and most other major airlines plan to cut back flying beginning this fall to allow fuel-guzzling older aircraft to be grounded and to cull unprofitable flights from their schedules.

American hasn't yet announced specific flight reductions at Sea-Tac, but it's expected the airline will consolidate some of the multiple flights it schedules between Seattle and its hubs in Chicago and Dallas.

Delta Air Lines will discontinue its three daily non-stop flights from Sea-Tac to Los Angeles beginning Sept. 1, the airline announced today.

The flights are among those now flown on Delta's behalf by ExpressJet Airlines. Delta is ending its contract with Houston-based ExpressJet.

Delta was a marginal player in the highly competitive Los Angeles-Seattle non-stop market. It had cornered just seven percent of the market, according to statistics from FareCast.com.

The largest player in that market is Alaska Airlines with 54 percent of the market followed by United Airlines with 15 percent of the traffic.

A new entrant in the LAX-SEA market, Virgin America Airlines, has won a 13 percent share of the traffic.

That new competition has kept fares low. Roundtrips in July were available for as low as $185 plus taxes today.

ExpressJet flew 55-passenger Embraer ERJ-145s on the route. The other competitors fly larger aircraft, typically 140-150-passenger 737s or A320s.

The end of the ExpressJet contract also means an end to Delta service from LA to Portland.

Delta and other mainline carriers are paring away marginal routes to combat the damage higher fuel prices are doing to their bottom lines.

Ryanair Holdings, the largest low-cost airline in Europe, has ordered three more Boeing 737-800s.

The Dublin-based carrier will receive the new planes beginning in June 2010.

Ryanair's fleet consists entirely of 737s. The company ordered dozens of the Renton-build planes and took options on dozens more during the lull in plane order activity after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Though neither Boeing nor Ryanair will say what the airline paid, analysts say Ryanair got a good deal.

A power outage at the Port of Tacoma early this morning interrupted production equipment at U.S. Oil & Refinery Co., sending a spew of partially refined crude oil out one of the company’s vent stacks.

The surge of fire and black smoke above the stack attracted widespread notice in the Tideflats area, but according to U.S. Oil spokeswoman Marcia Nielson, only a small amount of oil actually escaped and no serious damage was done.

“Power outages are never good for a refinery,” Nielson said. “It interrupted our process, but all the vents and flares and everything did everything they were supposed to do.”

The power outage, caused when a Port straddle lift hit a power line just before 7 a.m., interrupted the flow of cooling water that normally goes up the stack along with the flare, Nielson said.

“We got two hits from the power outage, and the second one caused on the of the relief valves to spray out product,“ she said.

Falling oil coated vehicles parked in the area. As a precaution, a Tacoma Fire Department hazardous materials team sprayed foam in the area to suppress vapors, according to Tacoma Fire’s Lt. David Elmer.

I’ve just about had it with the Belgians. First we bail them out of two world wars, and now, thank you very much, they’ve announced a hostile takeover of Anhaeuser Busch.

Beyond apple pie, baseball and high gas prices, what’s more American than a bottle of Bud? And now some Brussels-based outfit called InBev is filing with U.S. officials, giving notice that the gloves are off.

And what have the Belgians given the world so far - besides Jean-Claude Van Damme, brussels sprouts and the detective Hercule Poirot (pictured below)?

Okay – Belgian waffles. I’ll give you that. But who do they think they are, trying to buy one of America’s most well-consumed brands? The next thing you know, the French are going to try and buy Boeing.

FYI, here’s part of the story from the New York Times this morning:

The Belgian company said Anheuser-Busch had been unwilling to enter into discussions on a takeover. “As such, InBev believes it is time to take action to ensure Anheuser-Busch shareholders are provided the opportunity to have a direct voice in the process and a say in the future direction of the company,” InBev said.
“Our strong preference remains to enter into a constructive dialogue with Anheuser-Busch to achieve a friendly combination that comprehensively addresses the interests of all constituents,” Carlos Brito, the InBev chief executive, said in the statement.
“We believe our firm offer of $65 per share reflects the full and fair value of Anheuser-Busch and is a compelling proposal for shareholders.”
Brito criticized Anheuser-Busch’s restructuring plans, saying the strategy “entails significant execution risks and does little to address the fundamental competitive challenges to the company.”

Most domestic airlines raised their fares over the holiday weekend.

The fare increase attempt was the 15th time of 21 attempts this year in which enough airlines joined the fare increase move to call it successful, said Rick Seaney, CEO of Farecompare.com.

Airlines have become very sophisticated in raising fares, carefully avoiding markets with significant competition from low fare carriers but raising fares in city pairs where they have little or no non-stop competition.

Fuel prices are driving the relentless march upward.

New on-time statistics for June released this week by Portland's Flightstats.com show Alaska Air Group's two airlines, Horizon Air and Alaska, maintaining the good on-time records they won in May.

Horizon's 84.45 percent on-time record put it second only to Hawaiian Airlines in FlightStats' ranking of the nation's 39 major and minor air carriers.

Alaska ranked 11th, but was second among the major legacy airlines, second only to Southwest.

Alaska flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled times 77.7 percent of the time in June.

Here's how the majors ranked and their on-time records for June:

Southwest 78.10%
Alaska 77.7%
US Airways 75.98%
Delta 71.13%
Northwest 69.34%
Continental 66.30%
United 60.96%
Amercan 58.32%

Boeing warns that airliner orders will be down this year from the record-setting pace of 1,400 orders last year, but in most years the influx of orders in a little more than six months this year would be considered extremely healthy.

Last week, that 2008 order total hit 475.

Boeing reported new orders for three new 777s from Air France and 13 737s from unidentified buyers.

That raises the 737 total to 354. The 787 Dreamliner has sold 79 this year, and the 777 has received 40 new orders.

The 747 has just two orders this year, and the 767 has none.

Most airlines, including SeaTac's Alaska and Horizon, this week are reporting decreased traffic in June as higher fares and the sour economy start taking their toll on ticket sales.

Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, said traffic fell at both carriers in June.

Alaska's traffic decreased two percent compared with June last year. Horizon's fell 4.2 percent.

Those traffic decreases meant that Alaska's planes operated with a higher percentage of empty seats last month. Alaska's load factor (the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers) was 79.5 percent compared with 81.3 percent in June 2007.

At Horizon, the load factor was 78 percent compared with 79.6 percent in the same month last year.

At Fort Worth,Texas-based American Airlines, traffic fell by 3.1 percent in June.

And at Houston's Continental Airlines, traffic dropped .9 percent in June.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines' traffic increased .7 percent last month, but its load factor fell by 3.9 percentage points because capacity increases far outstripped it traffic increases.

The composite horizontal stabilizer, the horizontal part of the Boeing 787's tail, has passed a critical stress test in Italy where it's made.

The stabilizer, built by Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, withstood 150 percent of the maximum aerodynamic load it could encounter in flight, said the Italian company.

In such a test, the horizontal stabilizer typically is mounted in a heavy steel superstructure and then deliberately bent upward by powerful hydraulic jacks while instruments measure its deflection and check for breakage.

The stabilizer was tested "well in excess of the required 150 percent limit load" until it broke, Alenia said.

Boeing will soon check the Dreamliner wings in a similar test in Everett.

The Boeing Co. is on pace to deliver between 480 to 490 airliners this year. During the first half, it delivered 241, it said today.

The second quarter production at Boeing's Puget Sound factories in Renton and Everett, totaled 126 aircraft, up modestly from the 115 aircraft the company delivered in the first quarter.

The company delivered 187 of its popular 737s, nine 747s, six 767s and 39 777s in the first half of the year.

Despite a record backlog of some 3,600 orders, Boeing has refrained from accelerating its production rate sharply as it has done in the past during good times.

Probably a good thing. With analysts predicting that financially strapped airlines may cancel or postpone up to 25 percent of orders, Boeing won't have resort to dramatic layoffs to cope with reduced orders.

Clicking on the travel link on MSN's homepage won't take you to the familiar Expedia reservations page anymore.

Instead you'll find yourself at the reservations site of Chicago-based Orbitz.com.

MSN says it hooking up with Orbitz instead of Bellevue's Expedia because it provides more innovative travel choices to its patrons.

Neither side will say as much, but I suspect money had something to do with it.

The change of alliances could be a blow for Expedia which depended on MSN for about 3.5 million contacts a month.

MSN and Expedia were both Microsoft creations but Expedia was spun off several years ago.

News of new glitches in the contruction of mid-fuselage sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner helped send Boeing stock downward again today.

The stock was trading at $64.63 a share down 82 cents at midday after news surfaced of problems in a South Carolina assembly plant, Global Aeronautica, jointly owned by Italy's Alenia and Boeing. Boeing recently acquired its share of plant ownership from Vought Aerospace of Texas.

The Charleston, S.C. plant halted production for 24 hours beginning Monday night after an Federal Aviation Administration review in mid-June found evidence of failure to follow procedures to eliminate foreign object damage to the plane's structure.

Foreign object damage occurs when a tool or surplus pieces of the plane are accidentally left in the structure potentially causing damage to the structure or wiring.

All Global Aeronautica workers were given an 8-hour retraining session on FOD procedures.

The 24-hour shutdown came after another disclosure that a worker at the plant apparently misdrilled holes in the structure of the composite midbody section. That midsection was repaired.

The inauguration of new air service this week between Seattle's Boeing Field and Portland International Airport has spurred a fare war between the new player and dominant incumbent Horizon Air.

SeaPort Airlines, which will make eight daily roundtrips between Boeing Field near downtown Seattle and Portland with 9-passenger Pilatus PC-12 turboprops, is offering an introductory price of $75 each way on a roundtrip.

Horizon Air, which has 31 daily flights with 74-passenger Bombardier Q400s between Sea-Tac Airport and Portland, is countering with a $69 roundtrip good through August. 24.

Remember flight attendants asking if anyone has change for a $50 as they walk down the aisle selling drinks and renting media players?

Well, that won't be happening any more on Alaska Airlines.

The SeaTac-based carrier is going cashless in the cabin beginning Aug. 5. Flight attendants will be accepting only credit and debit cards for on-board purchases.

Flight attendants will use a handheld credit card reader from GuestLogix Inc. of Toronto to charge purchases. The airline has been using such devices for about a year on transcontinental flights.

In Alaska, where cash is still king, Alaska will sell $5 vouchers at ticket counters to pay for on-board purchases.

A strike by the Sprinkler Fitters Union Local 699 this week is shutting down construction sites around the Puget Sound including Franciscan's St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor.

The union, which represents workers who install fire protection sprinkler systems in commercial buildings, went on strike Tuesday at 12 a.m.
after the workers and the companies that employ them couldn't agree on a new contract.

Workers are picketing today outside construction sites where they would be working if they had a contract such as the new Nordstrom at the Tacoma Mall and St. Anthony's.

Members of other labor unions have also stopped working in support of the strike, shutting down construction sites in Western Washington.

The union and the companies that employ its members - represented by the local office of the National Fire Sprinklers Association – have been negotiating over a pay increase and contract language, said Gordon Sansaver, who is on the contract negotiating committee and a member of the executive board of the union.

"We are one of the hardest working crafts in any industry. We are proud of that," he said.

The employers – a group of construction and sprinkler companies – offered $14 an hour over four years, said Jeff Bennett with The McKinstry Co. construction company and a member of the bargaining team.

A full time union member can make $100,000 a year, he said. Union members say that includes over time work.

Bennet said the employers presented their final offer on Monday, which was rejected by the union. They are waiting for the union to call for further negotiations.

The union represents more than 500 workers in seven Western Washington counties including Pierce and King.

Raw numbers mean nothing if you're worried whether your favorite caffeine refilling station will close.

But raw numbers are all that Starbucks is now providing when it comes to its plans, announced Monday, to close down 600 Starbucks outposts nationwide between now and March 2009.

Here's the explanation from a Starbucks spokesperson about why the Seattle-based coffee giant isn't publishing a list of stores that will be affected:

Details for specific locations are still being finalized. Store closures will begin in July 2008 and continue through March 2009. Out of respect and dignity for our partners, and our desire to share this information with impacted partners first, we are not publishing a full list of the stores. Individual stores will be notified by their district manager and/or regional director approximately 30 days prior to the anticipated closure date. Concurrently, the approximately 6,600 remaining U.S. company-operated stores will be notified that they are not affected by this announcement.

It's been two weeks since we last visited the generally unpleasant topic of gas prices.

We're here to say not much has happened since then on the retail front, though oil futures have hit new records.

It appears that at least for now in the higher cost areas in Western Washington, prices have stabilized albeit at a high level.

For example:

Two weeks ago, the average price of a gallon of regular in Tacoma was $4.342. Today, the same gallon in Tacoma on average will cost $4.35.

In Seattle, the price today, $4.377, is a fraction of a cent less than what it was on June 18, $4.38.

Meanwhile in Eastern Washington, prices are catching up with the west side of the Cascades.

Two weeks ago, a gallon of regular in Spokane was a bargain $4.044 a gallon. Now its $4.104 a gallon according to AAA Washington. It's still a bargain compared with Western Washington prices just not as much of one.

In the Tri-Cities, the story is much the same:
Two weeks ago, $4.179 a gallon. Today, $4.236.

If you're really looking for a bargain gas price, head to the nation's midsection. In Oklahoma, you can buy a gallon for $3.878.

Stay away from Alaska and California if you want to keep your wallet intact. The average price for a gallon of regular in Alaska is $4.649; in California, it's $4.578.

The union representing West Coast dockworkers and the group representing shipping companies say they are unlikely to reach a new labor agreement today, but they intend to keep talking.

The International Longshore Workers Union and the Pacific Maritime Association said they have no intention of striking or locking out workers as long as constructive talks continue. Today was the expiration date for their prior agreement.

The two sides have been talking since March 17. They announced an agreement on health care issues in mid-June but safety, work rules, pension and compensation issues still remain to be settled.

A devastating shutdown of West Coast docks occurred in 2002 when the two sides failed to reach agreement. President Bush then intervened to get the docks working again. The two sides say they don't want to see a recurrence of that shutdown.

The ILWU represents more than 25,000 workers at West Coast ports including Tacoma and Seattle.

CB Richard Ellis is out with the second-quarter numbers for Puget Sound retail, office and industrial space.

In the Tacoma area, the vacancy rate for office space is 9.32 percent, just under the Puget Sound rate of 10.95 percent. The direct asking rate for class A office space is at an average of $21.64 per square foot, well below the area average of $30.48. Downtown Seattle tops the list at $36.74.

For industrial property, Tacoma and Pierce county top the list of vacant space at 10.19 percent against an area average of 5.85 percent. The average asking rate is 36 cents per square foot, at the bottom of the list, against an average area rate of 54 cents.

The Tacoma area has 1,323,725 square feet of industrial property under construction – or nearly half of the land in the area under construction, at 2,937,819 square feet.

For retail space, Pierce County showed a total vacancy rate of 5.77 percent for the quarter, the highest in the area, against a Puget Sound overall average of 3.86 percent. The county again leads the area with 761,204 square feet under construction. The asking rate in Pierce County is the lowest in the area at an average of $17.23 per square foot, against an area average of $24.75, CBRE said.

If higher fares and a sour economy are taking a toll on air travel, the effects have yet to show up at Sea-Tac Airport where 2008 traffic through May is up 887,487 passengers.

New figures from the airport's owner, the Port of Seattle, show traffic in May was up 5.5 percent over the same month last year with year-to-date traffic through May 31 up 7.63 percent to 12,511,927.

Some airports nationwide are beginning to see dwindling traffic as airlines cut flights and raise fares to cope with rising fuel costs.

Though passenger numbers are up, cargo traffic is down 5.71 percent at Sea-Tac, airport figures show.

An employee error at a Boeing supplier's plant in South Carolina has damaged the upper section of the composite fuselage for the fourth test 787 Dreamliner, Boeing has acknowledged.

The error happened at Global Aeronautica in Charleston, S.C. where major portions of the 787's midbody are assembled.

The damage has been repaired, said a Boeing spokeswoman.

The fuselage section is expected to be transported to Everett for final assembly soon.

The damaged section will undergo further evaluation and testing in Everett before it is incorporated into the test aircraft.

Delays in the first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and airline financial problems have taken a gouge out of Boeing's stock price in the last year and also, as it turns out, in its employees' wallets.

Payouts to more than 70,000 Boeing Puget Sound employees under a stock trust bonus plan are determined by the average selling price of Boeing stock on June 30.

That price Monday was $66.15, down more than $41.00 from Boeing's 52-week high of $107.83.

That translates to a payout of $1,760 to every Boeing employee in company stock.

Had the benchmark day been just a month earlier, the payout would have been some $3,700 each based on an average share price of $82.77.

Press 1 to continue, or wait for an operator who will assist you. Please stay on the line. Really. We value your business.

But you don’t seem to value the way they do theirs, if you’re dealing with banks – but you do feel better than you did last year when dealing with the call-center industry overall.

The latest rankings by customers of customer-service representatives is out this week, with the Contact Center Satisfaction Index as prepared by Claes Fornell International Group.

In its second annual study of the industry, the group found that satisfaction with call centers is up three points to 72 (out of 100) on the CCSI scale.

• The lesson for companies that employ call centers comes best in the result showinging that 71 percent of unhappy and unsatisfied customers will share their experience, while only 48 percent of the happy and satisfied will send forth good word-of-mouth.

• Among the unhappy, 65 percent are at risk of defection to another brand or company, while 95 percent of satisfied customers will likely remain loyal.

Among the results for the banking industry:
• Overall satisfaction in 2008 is down 8 percent to 71 on the scale, from 77 in 2007.
• Customers have found call-center employees more courteous this year, at 82 vs. 81.
• Banking call-center employees speak in an understandable manner as much as they did last year, with a score of 79 unchanged.
• Employees are perceived as less knowledgeable, at 77, down from 78.
• They seem to have considerably less interest in helping, down to 77 from 81.
• Finally, customer service representatives are seen as much less effective in handling issues, down to 73 from 78.