The Tacoma Regional Convention & Visitor Bureau revealed its new logo and business plan this morning - and the message was: It's time to be accountable and get to work; that work is regional; and there are some great opportunities over the next few years.

I'll be speaking soon with TRCVB head Tammy Blount about some of the details, but two things stood out from today's gathering.

First, my favorite quote of the morning came from Bob Drewel, executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council, who, while discussing unique features visitors might enjoy hereabouts, said, "Mount Rainier is a hard place to find anywhere else."

Second, the bureau released its new video - produced by PLU students Eric Wahlquist and David Horton. It's quick. Take a look here.

Rainier Connect is finishing up a deal to buy local Internet service provider HarborNet, the ISP owner said Thursday.

Ken Lombardi, who with his wife has run HarborNet for about 20 years, said is selling the company to the much larger Rainier Connect the make sure his customers have the best service possible. HarborNet customers had been asking about Internet phone service and bundle offers like those provided by much larger companies, and the small business couldn't support it. With Rainier Connect, HarborNet subscribers will have more options, Lombardi said.

"Being a pretty small company, we didn't have the capital to make it happen," Lombardi said. "We felt it was really important that these things were available to our customers."

A message left for a Rainier Connect spokesperson was not returned this afternoon.

Lombardi said HarborNet subscribers should not see a difference, and as it stands, no employees will lose their jobs. Lombardi would not say the cost of the deal or how many subscribers HarborNet has because the deal has not been finalized.

"Rainier Connect has bent over backwards to make sure our employees will be able to continue in this field if they choose," he said.

Lombardi said he has been anxious waiting for the deal to go through. He said HarborNet is "his baby" that he and his wife have put two decades of their lives into. He will stay on to make sure everything works out, and then find a different job. He said he is interested in helping communities set up wireless connections.

"I have high hopes that everybody is going to be happy," Lombardi said. "It's always been our primary concern to make our customers happy."

Rainier Connect began as Mashell Telecom Inc. and traces its roots back to 1910. It provides, cable, TV, Internet and phone services.

Thurston County investigators suspect arson in a Monday morning fire in the southern approach to Tacoma Rail's Nisqually River bridge at McKenna.

Alan Hardy, the municipally owned rail system's interim superintendent, said the damage cut the railroad's Frederickson-to-Chehalis line in half.

"We're not sure yet, but we think it was kids or vandals who set the bridge deck on fire," he said. If the fire proves to be arson, the FBI will enter the case, he said.

Fortunately for the railroad, the line gets relatively little use. Parts of the line are used for rail car storage by mainline railroads and others. The line connects at Tacoma on the north and Chehalis on the south to the BNSF main line, so none of those stored cars were isolated by the fire.

Damage to the wooden deck of the bridge approach amounts an estimated $20,000 to $40,000, said Hardy. The railroad is self-insured, so the repair costs may have to come out of its budget, he said. Some federal grants also may be available, he said.

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The long-planned Foss Waterway hotel is back again at the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority asking for yet another extension of its planned ground-breaking date.

The hotel project on the near-downtown Tacoma Thea Foss Waterway has been repeatedly postponed over the last four years as its Seattle developers have redesigned to suit market and financing condition changes.

Previous Foss hotel design with condos

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American Airlines this week began airborne Internet service on a limited number of its Boeing 767 aircraft flying between New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.

In doing so, it became the first domestic airline to move beyond the testing stage with Internet service.

A year ago, SeaTac's Alaska Airlines said it would be one of the first, if not the first, airline, to equip its planes with Web connections. That service has yet to materialize.

Alaska spokeswoman Marianne Lindsey said the service is still in the testing stage at Alaska.

Alaska's original schedule called for it to equip a plane last spring with Row44's satellite-based Internet service. But that installation has now been delayed until later this fall with installation across Alaska's fleet now set for 2009.

"If we had it up and running, we certainly would be bragging about it," said Lindsey.

Alaska has yet to decide how much it will charge for the service. American is charging $12.95 for its initial service which is available mostly on long, trans-continental flights.

American's Internet system uses cell towers to communicate with the plane. Alaska's uses satellites. The satellite system is more versatile because it will maintain Internet contact even over the remote areas and over the ocean where some of Alaska's flights go.

Other carriers that had hoped to get their Internet service running by now are also reporting delays. Southwest hopes to use the same system from California-based Row44 as does Alaska.

You had to know that Microsoft was annoyed by those Mac vs PC ads. Now the company is striking back.

Jerry Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen in Microsoft Corp's $300 million advertising campaign aimed at changing its image, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people close to the situation.

Seinfeld, known for his eponymous television sit-com, will appear in ads with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and will receive about $10 million for the work, the report said.

The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads, which feature a nerdy PC guy getting upstaged by a hip Mac counterpart. Reuters reports.

The new ads, likely to debut on Sept. 4, is expected to use some variation of the slogan "Windows, Not Walls," the paper said.

For its new campaign, Microsoft also considered a range of other famous personalities, including comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.