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.