A recent increase in the Port of Tacoma's bond rating and better earnings from investments may help the Port of Tacoma weather the credit crunch, the port's finance director says.

Jeff Smith, the port's senior director of finance and administration, recently told port commissioners that tightening credit availability and higher standards could make it more difficult for the Port of Tacoma to raise hundreds of millions of dollars of new construction money.

But Smith told The News Tribune Tuesday that a recent reevaluation of the port's ability to pay off its bonds and a subsequent credit rating adjustment upward should make the port a more desireable borrower.

And any increase in interest rates the port pays on its bonds will be at least partially offset in part by higher earnings on the port's investments, he said.

As borrowing interest rates rise, he noted, so too do interest rates paid on investments.

The port typically invests substantial amounts of money it holds as bond reserves, yet unexpended construction money and as operating reserves.

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 will baptize Sea-Tac Airport's new third runway Thursday by making a series of "touch-and-go" landings on the new 8,500-foot strip.

The landings, first by a commercial aircraft, will test the runway's instrument landing systems and lights in preparation for its commercial opening Nov. 20.

Later this fall, a wide-bodied aircraft will also test the runway systems. The 737 is a narrow-bodied plane.

In a touch-and-go landing, the plane's wheels briefly touch the runway before the pilot advances the throttles to immediately take off again. The series of landings is now scheduled to start about noon.

The third runway has been some 14 years in planning and construction. Much of that time was spent in court with neighboring cities and neighborhoods who sought to block its construction.

The third runway was built on millions of cubic yards of fill on an area once occupied by homes west of the two existing north-south runways.

The new runway is far enough away from the airport's easternmost runway to allow staggered use of the two runways during bad weather.

The two existing runways are too close to allow more than one stream of traffic to land at once when visibility is low.

The third runway cost the Port of Seattle, the airport's owner, about $1.2 billion.

When Russell Investments announced last year that it wanted to consolidate its 1,100 Tacoma associates into new space by 2013, executives lamented that its trading floor at 909 A St. had too little space and convoluted layout for its growing team of traders.

Do you want to see for yourself what goes on inside Russell's trading floor?

This shot of the trading floor inside Russell Investments' headquarter in downtown Tacoma kicks off a photo gallery published by AdvancedTrading.com.

AdvancedTrading.com, a financial industry Web site, published a photo gallery of Russell's trading floor with captions that describe what goes on there.

Ideally, Russell executives say, they would have a wide open floor with about 70,000 square feet for all traders and their managers to see each other. In the downtown Tacoma building, the elevator shaft and the building's mechanical system run up the center of the building.

They're putting bags over gas pumps all over the Southeast as stations supplies run dry today, but here in the Northwest gas supplies remain plentiful.

And they're getting cheaper each day.

Gas in Tacoma is now available for $3.45 a gallon at several ARCO stations in the Tacoma area according to Tacomagasprices.com.

And AAA Washington says the statewide average for regular dropped to $3.719 today, down .6 cent from Tuesday.

In Tacoma, the average is even lower, $3.669, down .6 cent from Tuesday.

Tacoma's prices is below the national average, which hit $3.715 today.

For once, having a separate supply line than the Midwest and Southeast has been a benefit to the Northwest. The gas shortages in the Southeast are attributed to delays in getting Gulf Coast supplies reinstated after hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Ordinarily, those Gulf Coast refineries supply gas to those states less expensively than our local refineries, which depend on Alaska for crude oil supplies.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices were all over the map, jumping $25 at one point Tuesday and then declining to $105 a barrel today. That's still significantly above the $91 or so crude futures sold for as recently as last week.

Sometimes we get it wrong. A listing in today's paper was incorrect. Here's the actual event:

Washington State Tax Consultants Tacoma Chapter Annual Fall Seminar: Exempt Organizations, IRS form 990/990ez and more, 6 hours CPE credit, no tickets will be sold at the event being held at King Oscar Convention Center, 8820 S. Hosmer, Tacoma. Please call Jack 253-756-9599 to make a reservation; $110 WSTC/OATRC/AATC members, $125 for all others.

Last week we told you about an Oct. 2 job fair at Sea-Tac Airport.

Now it seems there's another job fair that day in Seattle.

Sears tells us it's hiring 20 people to join its appliance repair team.

The company is holding a hiring fair at its Seattle Repair Center at 4786 1st Ave. S. from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2.

The company says it's looking for mechanically-inclined, customer service-oriented people.

Even those who don't get hired will have a chance to win a 32-inch LCD TV in a drawing.