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.