CDG Management, one of the largest telemarketing firms in the country, will close its Tacoma call center on December 21, affecting 34 workers, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department.

The company, based in Edison, New Jersey, is best known for fundraising campaigns on behalf of police, fire and veterans' associations and has frequently been criticized for keeping an unusually high percentage of the funds it raises.

The Tacoma call center raised money for the Washington State Patrol Trooper Association, according to a WARN (worker adjustment and retraining notice) filed with Employment Security.

CDG representatives could not be reached for comment Monday, either at the Tacoma center or the New Jersey headquarters.

A notice on Alaska Airlines' Web site about new fees for British Airways' tickets obtained with Alaska Mileage Plan miles makes you wonder whatever happened to the idea of free frequent flier flights.

The notice informs Mileage Plan members that British will add a fuel surcharge fee ranging from $300 to $600 per ticket beginning Dec. 1 on tickets redeemed by Mileage Plan members. Those new fees are in addition to existing fees and taxes.

British has always been on the stingy side in its agreement with Alaska, awarding only one mile of credit on Alaska's program for every four miles actually flown.

That means the roughly 5,000-mile trip from Seattle to London on British will put fewer miles in your Alaska Mileage Plan account than a trip to Dallas or Chicago.

Seems peculiar that the new fee takes the form of a fuel surcharge when fuel prices have fallen off a cliff in the last two months.

My experience trying to get a free British Airways flight with Alaska miles has always been unsuccessful anyway. I tried last year to get a free seat to London. Despite being willing to adjust my travel plans by several days and my willingness to fly through Phoenix, LA or Chicago, I couldn't find any some 10 months in advance of the flight. Maybe the fuel surcharge won't matter anyway.

A handful of gas stations in Pierce County are selling gas for $1.69, according to TacomaGasPrices.com. You have to go back to 2005 to find prices at that level. The stories in The News Tribune then were predicting $3-a-gallon gas and economic trouble for consumers who drove to work.

Well, we went way past $3.

If we do the math, filling up my 14-gallon tank would cost me $23.66 at the Costco in Gig Harbor or the nearby Arco.

In contrast, Tacoma prices hit a record of $4.34 a gallon in June. (That's an average as reported by AAA.) That 14-gallon tank would cost $60.76 to fill.

The downside? The falling gas prices are tied to the sagging economy and falling consumer demand. Investors are unsure about the economy and that's driving down the price of a barrel of oil.

Here's what today's AP story has to say:

Oil futures have followed stock markets recently, using equities as a proxy for economic outlook and investor sentiment.

“It’s probably going to be after the first of the year before we begin to decouple and various commodities and financial instruments begin to march to the beat of their own drummer,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultants Ritterbusch and Associates.

Ritterbusch said it’s premature to say oil prices have hit a bottom and it’s important for investors not to read too much into two days of price action.
Oil prices have plunged from close to $150 at their peak over the summer.

“We’ve been forecasting $50,” he said. “We’ve achieved it, but it just doesn’t have the feel of a market that’s placed a bottom.”

Gas prices continued to drop overnight, with the national average price for regular dropping about 2 cents to $1.908 a gallon, according to according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

That is more than 80 cents gallon below what it was a month ago and more than $2 below where it was in July when prices peaked at $4.11 per gallon.