On most days the naked pink concrete of downtown Tacoma's Tollefson Plaza attracts nary a person to its sun-bleached steps, and its water feature remains almost invisible from any distance beyond 10 feet.

That the plaza hasn't been successful is no secret. The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce hopes to change the plaza's vacant visage by holding a series of concerts and other events there this year.

Properly designed, an urban plaza can be a magnet for people of all ages. The opening of Kent's new Town Square Plaza shows how.

The Kent plaza at the corner of Smith and Second Avenue downtown, has proven a popular gathering spot this summer, particularly for kids looking for relief from summer heat.

The plaza features an interactive water feature whose centerpiece is a 12,500-pound granite sphere supported by a cushion of water no more powerful than a garden hose. The water acts as bearing for the five-foot diameter sphere allowing even kids to spin it in any direction.

The plaza also features smaller fountains on the periphery that empty into a system of drains built into the plaza surface.

Here's the scene on a recent weekday morning.

The fountain was a gift to the city from the Kent and Kent-Sunrise Rotary Clubs.

Discount food merchant Winco Foods is in the final stages of seeking permits to build a 94,000-square-foot store on the eastern edge of Sumner.

The store site at Washington 410 and 166th Avenue East is just east Riverside Ford's new showroom.

The City of Sumner is drafting up traffic mitigation and environmental conditions to allow the store and its 538-car parking lot to begin construction.

Ryan Windish, Sumner planning manager, said the traffic issues are likely to be more significant than the environmental ones for the 16-acre site.

If the permitting proceeds as scheduled, the store could open its doors next summer.

Winco is an employee-owned discount food chain with 61 stores in Idaho, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The Boise-based company has three stores in Pierce and South King County in Puyallup, Federal Way and Kent.

Surprise! We’re not losing ground.

According to a new report from the Washington State Employment Security Department, workers across the state earned 5 percent more in 2007 than they did in 2006, while inflation grew by 3.9 percent.

That means – on paper at least – the average worker made a year-to-year gain of about $472.

The industry with the highest average wages in Washington last year was “Information Services,” which includes publishing, broadcasting, Internet services and telecommunications. Workers there averaged $96,241.

Other top-paying industries included “Company and Enterprise Management,” averaging $86,943, and “Utilities,” averaging $73,740.

At the bottom? “Accommodation and Food Services” ($16,017); “Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting ($23,412); and “Other Services” ($24,387).
King County had the highest average annual wage in both 2007 ($56,217) and 2006 ($53,490).

Snohomish County was second-highest in 2007 ($45,448), with Benton County a close third at $43,786.

Thurston and Pierce counties ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

The 10 counties with the lowest average annual wages in 2007 were Okanogan, Douglas, Pacific, Asotin, Adams, Wahkiakum, San Juan, Lincoln, Skamania and Jefferson.

Further details by industry and county are available online, under Current Economic Conditions.

Cindy Crawford is starting a new chapter in her "Life Book."

Crawford, who worked for Weyerhaeuser in the '70s and returned in 2001, is one of the workers laid off at the company's Federal Way headquarters.

"I will land back on my feet," she wrote in an e-mail to The News Tribune. "As a widow with a dependent child (I) need to work for at least another 10-15 years. Perhaps I can now pursue my dream job?"

Crawford finished as an insurance administrator, and she wrote that her combined time at Weyerhaeuser puts her time there at more than 10 years, so she can draw retirement. But now she is optimistic to look for a job.

"I am sure there is another job for me," she wrote. "I come from the old school and stay with the job no matter what. ... I was taught that dependability, loyalty and commitment says a lot about a person's work ethics."

The company announced Wednesday it was laying off 1,500 workers, 1,000 in Federal Way because of a loss of $96 million in second-quarter earnings and a 17 percent drop in sales.

Crawford wrote that she wanted to retire from Weyerhaeuser, but not she's looking for another job.

"Pursuing a new job, meeting new people and having a positive effect on those I come into contact (with) make me look forward to this challenge," she wrote. "I think about it as a new chapter in my Life Book."

We want to hear from others affected by Weyerhaeuser's cuts. Comment on this post or send an e-mail to brian.everstine@thenewstribune.com.

Assembly of the fourth flight test Boeing 787 Dreamliner began today at Boeing's Everett plant, some five weeks later than planned.

A contract worker's mistake in drilling holes in the Dreamliner's center fuselage at Global Aeronautica in Charleston, S.C. was responsible for the delay.

Global Aeronautica spent those five weeks repairing the damage.

Those extra weeks weren't wasted, however. The time spent repairing the holes was also used to complete more of the wiring and plumbing on the fuselage center section.

That means less assembly time in Everett.

The Dreamliner program is already 15 months behind schedule largely because of supplier problems. The first flight for the 787 is set for November.

The sour economy and higher fares are taking a toll on passenger air travel this summer.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines today reported passenger traffic was down 117,000 passengers in July this year compared with the same period in 2007. That translates to a 2.2 percent drop.

At regional airline Horizon Air, traffic dropped by 26,700 passengers last month compare with July 2007. That was an 11.7 percent decrease. Horizon and Alaska are owned by the same holding company, Alaska Air Group.

One bit of good news for passengers: those lower passenger loads meant a better likelihood of finding an empty seat next to you. The percentage of seats filled on Alaska with paying passengers in July was 79.7 percent, a drop from 83.4 percent in the same month last year.

On Horizon, the percentage of seats filled, the so-called "load factor," was 77.3 percent compared with 79.8 percent in the year earlier period.

Horizon is taking major steps to match its capacity with demand. The airline is retiring its 37-seat Q200 turboprop planes and selling off its 70-seat CRJ-700 jets.

When that fleet adjustment is in place, the airline will have 48 aircraft, all 74-seat Q400 turboprops, the most fuel-efficient in its fleet. Some of those reductions in flying affected the July figures. Available capacity was down 8.8 percent last month, the airline said.

A call center employee for Alaska Airlines and its corporate sister, Horizon Air, diverted payments for reservation changes to a personal account instead of the airlines'over a 22-month period, the airlines said today.

The 1,500 customers whose credit cards were affected were sent letters via first class mail Tuesday, the airlines said. A notice is being posted on the airlines' Web site.

Although the changes fees never reached the airlines, the customers won't be held responsible, the two air carriers said.

The airlines' holding company, Alaska Air Group, has notified law enforcement authorities of the credit card misuse and are cooperating in the investigation.

The airlines urged customers affected to review their accounts for unauthorized charges and order a free credit report as the companies specified in instructions on the Web notice. You can find those specific instructions here.

If customers have questions, they may contact the airlines at 800-401-5403 between 8 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

The world's largest pizza restaurant chain announced this week it will soon serve healthier pizzas, according to trade publication Brandweek. The home of the stuffed crust has dubbed the new pizzas "the Natural" for health-conscious consumers, according to Brandweek. Among the Natural's features: multigrain crust, organic tomato sauce and preservative-free toppings.

I'm all for getting food a little (or a lot) more healthy, but isn't a piece of pepperoni a piece of pepperoni? Not sure you can really make that part of a health-conscious meal.

Anyway, here's the rest of the story from Brandweek:

It will be introduced initially in Tampa, Fla., and Dallas in coming weeks, and rolled out nationally later this year.

Brian Niccol, Pizza Hut's CMO, said the new pie was a response to an emerging consumer need: the desire to eat pizza and still remain healthy. "That's why we're offering the Natural," Niccol said in a statement. "It allows us to stay on the cutting edge of food trends while delivering on the amazing Pizza Hut taste our customers expect and demand."

A campaign for the Natural includes TV spots, which will air across the country. One 30-second spot, titled "Loft," shows a chef named Elizabeth serving the new pizza at a tasting event. One customer takes a bite and declares: "This is like the best pepperoni I've ever had." "Look at this crust. Love multigrain," others exclaim. The spot concludes with the host professing that the pizza was actually created by Pizza Hut. Tagline: "So pure. So real. We had to call it the ‘Natural.'" BBDO, New York, handles.

As part of its "all natural" theme, Pizza Hut will box the new pie—which will retail for $9.99—using packaging made from 75% recycled material. Spending for the campaign was not revealed.

Pizza Hut is a subsidiary of Yum Brands, which owns 6,200 restaurants in the U.S. and 4,000 in other countries. The restaurant chain spent $244,719 on advertising last year and $67,633 through March of this year (excluding online), per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.