New legislation will allow Washington residents to receive unemployment benefits for up to 33 weeks, seven more than the previous 26-week maximum.

President George Bush signed legislation this week providing that additional benefit.

“There’s never a good time to be unemployed, but job conditions are especially difficult right now. I applaud Congress for moving so quickly to approve this additional income assistance for our unemployed workers,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The state Employment Security Department explained the eligibility requirements and procedures in a news release:

Initial applications for the program may be submitted to the state Employment Security Department through March 28, 2009, and approved claims can be paid through Aug. 29, 2009.

Employment Security will begin notifying individuals who qualify for the program. People are asked to avoid calling or e-mailing the department so that staff can focus on processing current benefit claims as quickly as possible. Statewide, unemployment claims are 50 percent higher than last year.

People currently receiving EUC benefits do not need to file a new application. People who have stopped claiming benefits should wait until they receive written information from Employment Security before reapplying. Anyone whose EUC original benefits ran out cannot receive extended EUC benefits for weeks prior to the week beginning Nov. 23, 2008.

The first payable week for the additional extended EUC benefits will be the week ending Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

For new information, people are encouraged to check www.esd.wa.gov .

Boeing's 757, never marketed to handle overseas routes, is being drafted to fly to an increasing number of foreign destinations where a smaller long-range aircraft is needed.

Part of the shift to overseas routes is enabled by the addition of blended winglets from Seattle's Aviation Partners Boeing to the standard 757.

The winglets are those now-familiar 8-foot vertical additions to the wingtips that are gracing so many Boeing 737s these days.

The winglets cut aerodynamic drag, cutting fuel consumption and adding several hundred miles' range to the 757.

No airline is making better use of those range-enhanced, winglet-retrofitted 757s than Delta which this week announced new service to Africa from Atlanta. Many of those new routes, which are too thinly traveled to support a bigger plane such as the 747 or 777, fit the single-aisle 757 perfectly.

Delta, for instance, plans to use the winglet-equipped 757, which it calls the 757ER for "extended range," to serve Monrovia Liberia; Abuja, Nigeria; Luanda, Angola and Malabo, Equitorial Guinea
from Atlanta.

It will also serve Valenica, Spain and Zurich, Switzerland from New York with the 757-200ER.

Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System, parent of Columbia Bank, said today that it has raised approximately $76.9 million by issuing 76,898 shares of Series A preferred stock – at $1,000 per share – to the U.S. Department of Treasury as a voluntary participant in the Treasury's Capital Purchase
Program.

Meanwhile, Heritage Financial Corp., parent company of Heritage Bank and Central Valley Bank, announced a few minutes ago that it has raised $24 million in cash by selling the Treasury 24,000 shares of “Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, with a related Warrant to purchase 276,074 shares of the Company's common stock.”

The issuance is the result of Treasury's approval of applications to participate in teh program, which was established under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

At Columbia, President and CEO Melanie Dressel said in a statement, "We are pleased to have been selected as one of the first regional banks to participate in the Treasury's program, further affirming our financial strength. The additional equity bolsters our already strong capital levels,
enhances our ability to lend and increases our flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities which may arise.”

The preferred stock carries a 5 percent coupon for five years and 9 percent thereafter, The Columbia statement said. In addition, the Treasury will receive a warrant to purchase 796,046 shares of Columbia common stock at an initial exercise price of $14.49 per share. The warrant will expire in 10 years.

Heritage President and CEO Brian Vance said, “I am pleased to announce we have completed this transaction and it is an indication of our strength as a community bank that we were included as one of the early recipients of these funds. We are fortunate in that we had the opportunity to consider this capital injection from a position of strength. We did not need nor require this capital.”

He said Heritage would use the funding primarily to bolster credit relationships.

Bank stocks look to be taking a beating in trading today, with Columbia down $1.26 at around 11:30 a.m., this after hitting a 52-week low of $7.87.

Heritage is also down, sliding 72 cents to $13.00 – down from a 52-week high of $21.70 last December.

Rainier Pacific hit a 52-week low of $2.55 earlier today, down $1.01, or 28.37 percent on the day, according to Bloomberg.

Frontier Bank, down 87.72 percent on the year, was up a few minutes ago by 1 cent to $2.28.

I can't resist a bit about saving money on holiday shopping. This today out of Amazon.com.

The company says it's bringing back "Amazon Customers Vote" the feature that lets customers vote on what should get the biggest discount.

This year the program will offer a "race-to-buy format" that features six rounds and 18 total products.

Customers can start voting now at www.amazon.com/customersvote for the products they want the opportunity to buy.

Here's an example of the deals:

Round 1:

PS3 - Blu-ray Sci-Fi Bundles (includes: 80GB PS3, "Firefly: The Complete Series" Blu-ray Collection, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Remote, and "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" PS3 game) $199 (normally $574)

PS3 - Blu-ray Action Bundles (includes: 80GB PS3, James Bond Blu-ray Collection, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Remote, and "Far Cry 2" PS3 game) $229 (normally $664)

PS3 - Blu-ray Family Bundles (includes: 80GB PS3, "Pirates of the Caribbean" Trilogy Blu-ray Collection, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Remote, and "LittleBigPlanet" PS3 game) $199 (normally $567)

Here's how it works: Customers can browse all six rounds of amazing deals today and vote for the ones they would like to buy, Amazon said in a news release today.

Customers who voted should check their e-mail on the day before each buying round to see if they have been randomly selected to participate in the race to buy.

If selected, customers should come back early because there will be more participants than deals, and the race will be on.

I had an interesting day Thursday – attending the Tacoma Angel Network workshop at UWT and spending lunch at City Club, where I introduced Charlie Hoffman.

Hoffman, as I’ve reported before, is the inventor of XBRL, which is a computer language that standardizes the way companies (and governments, for that matter) report financial results.

He invented it over 10 years ago while serving as an accountant here in Tacoma. In several countries – Israel, Japan, Australia, China and others – XBRL has become the standard. Within the last few years, several major U.S. corporations have adopted the standard.

Essentially, it makes financial results easier to collect, report and disseminate. Using XBRL results, investors and analysts will be able to compare results more quickly, easily and efficiently than they can today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees stock transactions in the U.S., earlier this year asked for public comment on whether XBRL should be mandated as the reporting standard for all publicly traded U.S. companies. The comment period closed in the summer, and we’re waiting for a final decision by commissioners.

I called Kevin Callahan, SEC spokesman, earlier today, and he said commissioners may have an announcement within a month.

I’ll keep you posted.