If your Zune is dead, you're not alone.

The Associated Press reports that thousands of Microsoft’s Zune media players — the software company’s answer to Apple Inc.’s iPod — showed users an error message Wednesday. The problems appeared when people tried to start up their devices.

Frustrated users lit up Microsoft’s online support forum for Zunes with more than 2,500 messages by Wednesday afternoon, AP said.

The company, based in Redmond, said the outage affected only the 30-gigabyte models and was caused by a problem with their internal clock. Microsoft expected the problem to clear up as the clocks ticked over to Jan. 1.

But it'll be inconvenient. AP reports that users will have to jump through some hoops to get their Zunes back to normal, including letting the batteries die down completely before the devices will restart successfully.

COPA Airlines has ordered four more of Boeing's 737-800 jetliners, the airline announced today.

The Panamanian carrier expects delivery of those planes over the next three years.

The planes will seat 160 passengers, 144 in coach and 16 in first class.

COPA has a fleet of 42 planes including 17 737s. With the new order, COPA has 13 Boeing aircraft on order.

Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton reports that Boeing is considering a major upgrade of its popular 737 before it develops a new single-aisle aircraft to replace the workhorse plane.

The upgraded 737, a fourth generation of an aircraft originally designed in the 1960s, would feature more fuel efficient engines, perhaps Pratt & Whitney's new geared turbo-fans or CFM's new generation engine.

If Boeing picks the geared engine, which is larger in diameter than the 737's present CFM engines, it could require substantial revisions to the design: new, taller landing gear to increase the clearance between the engine and the runway and perhaps a new wing and wing box.

Any such update, of course, would include an updated cockpit and passenger amenities.

Boeing and its rival, Airbus, have repeatedly delayed complete redesigns of their popular 737 and A320 aircraft saying the science of aircraft design hasn't advance enough yet to prompt the expenditure of billions of dollars to produce an aircraft only 10 percent or so more efficient than the planes being built now.

A fourth-generation 737 would mean postponing the new single-aisle design until at least 2020 and give Boeing's Renton plant at least that much more longevity.

The Renton plant produces that 737. Boeing has said it likely will consider the Renton plant and other sites around the country for assembly of a totally new single-aisle plane.

A sub-hunting version of Boeing's popular 737 airliner could see its production schedule slowed if the Defense Department has its way.

The department's proposed 2010 budget cuts $940 million from the program to build the P-8A subhunting aircraft in order to fund completion of a third DDG-1000 destroyer, Bloomberg News reports.

The DDG-1000 was partially funded by Congress last year.

The budget proposal, of course, is subject to amendment by Congress and the new administration.

The first prototype examples of the P-8A are being built on a special assembly line at Boeing's Renton plant.

Commercial 737s are produced on another assembly line there.

Say what you will about the local economy - but the sky continues not to fall on office leases and rents.

Colliers International is out today with its 4th Quarter numbers for the Puget Sound region, and Pierce County landlords are not doing as bad as, for instance, the retail industry. Actually, they're doing relatively well.

According to Colliers, Pierce County absorbed 58,200 square feet during the quarter, thus posting a positive absorption number. Vacancy rates “fell as a result of many small office spaces being leased, specifically in Fife, South Tacoma and the central business district of Tacoma.”

The submarket in Fife “saw the most move-ins absorbing 27,000 square feet concentrated in three Class A office buildings: Port Business Center, Trans-Pacific Trade Center and the Fife Business Center.”

In Gig Harbor, the Mallards Point Building Two “was delivered 40 percent absorbed.”

Overall, the total vacancy rate for Pierce County office space stands at 8.43 percent, Colliers said. The rate one quarter ago was 8.62 percent, and a year ago was 7.23 percent.

The vacancy rate in Seattle is currently 9.59 percent, up from 9.19 percent a quarter ago and 8.37 percent a year ago.

In South King County, the vacancy rate is 20 percent, up from 18.7 percent in the third quarter and and 18.4 percent a year ago. In Federal Way, specifically, the current vacancy rate is 30.14 percent for Class A, B and C properties combined, with Class B properties seeing a 40.59 percent vacancy rate.

Concerning specific areas of Pierce County, Colliers reports:

• The vacancy rate for Class A properties in Tacoma’s CBD stand at 1.13 percent; for Class B, 9.86 percent; for Class C, 14.96 percent.
• In Puyallup and Sumner, Class A vacancies are at 7.97 percent; Class B at 18 percent, and Class C (only 45,000 square feet) fully occupied.
• In Lakewood, Class A vacancies stand at 6.88 percent; Class B at 8.06 percent; and Class C at 16.66 percent.
• In Gig Harbor, Class A vacancies are at 13.34 percent; Class B at 20.23 percent; and Class C at 8.91 percent.

In total, Pierce County currently offers 3.098 million square feet of Class A space; 4.576 million square feet of Class B space; and 1.153 million square feet of Class C space.

If you were out of work for a week or more because of the recent bad weather, you may be eligible for unemployment compensation.

In a decision released today, the state Employment Security Department said workers whose workplaces were closed for more than a week may apply for a check.

If you didn't work because you couldn't get to work, what with the bad roads, then you are not eligible. This only applies if your employer's doors were closed - and closed for more than a workweek.

If you believe a check is due, contact ESD by calling 800-318-6022. Because this is a backdated claim, the department's online application system will not process your request.

The press release today advises that it is best to call on Wednesdays and Thursdays, although state offices will be closed on Jan. 1.

A story I wrote for Tuesday's Business section, on the use of federal money for state and local governments to buy foreclosed properties, generated a few phone calls this morning on how people on the brink of foreclosure can get help.

The federal program I wrote about in my story isn't intended for individuals, and I can understand the frustration of people who need help. To that end, I found this great tip sheet from my colleague Rob Carson, who wrote a story on foreclosures recently.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WITH YOUR MORTGAGE

Helpful advice from Teresa Seeley, housing coordinator and counselor at the nonprofit agency Consumer Counseling Northwest in University Place (www.ccnw.org, 253-588-1858).

• Swallow your pride. Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's help out there for people who look.

• Make sure you know what kind of loan you have. If you haven't read your loan agreement, do it.

• Look for help as soon as you think you might have to miss a payment. Call your lender. Sooner is always better than later. Don't wait until you miss a payment.

=> Read more!

Ehli Turners Auctions, at 1222 46th Ave. E in Fife, is closing its doors.

Owner Walter Woodward said recently that a combination of factors led to the decision, including a family illness and the tanking economy.

Woodward also said that he and his wife, Heidi, who co-own the business, believe some of the company's funds were embezzled and that they've asked Fife Police to investigate.

A Fife police spokesman couldn't be reached for comment Monday or Tuesday.

Woodward said the auction house has 41 employees, eight of whom were fulltime. He said the business would close by the end of 2008.

Ehli Turners was one of the state's largest auctions, with more than 40,000 square feet of space.

Starbucks is adding new tea drinks to its menu on Saturday.

The company said today that its new Full Leaf Tazo Tea Lattes and Tazo Tea Infusions "are a continuation of the company’s commitment to offering better-for-you options."

Most of the tea offerings are less than 200 calories for a 12-ounce tall.

Starbucks also says most of the drinks provide more antioxidants than an 8-ounce glass of orange juice.

Here are the three varieties of tea lattes (descriptions come from Starbucks):

Black Tea Latte, a bold, invigorating combination of black tea and freshly steamed milk.

Vanilla Rooibos Latte, a naturally caffeine-free infusion of botanicals that unites South African rooibos (ROY’-bus), Tahitian vanilla, sweet spices and freshly steamed milk

London Fog Latte, an intriguing blend of black tea, citrusy bergamot, French lavender, vanilla and freshly steamed milk.

Starbucks Tazo Tea Infusions are a combination of Tazo black chai tea lightly steamed with fruit juices, these non-dairy beverages are available in two varieties:

Berry Chai Infusion, a blend of aronia berry and black currant juices steamed with black tea and sweet, exotic spices like cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.

Apple Chai Infusion, a blend of apple juice steamed with black tea and sweet spices.

The latte drinks will be priced between $2.85 and $3.50 for a tall, depending on the location of the store. The infusions will sell for $2.40 to $2.70 for a tall, according to The Associated Press.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s office is out this week with a list of tips for consumers in trying times.

“Now is the time for consumers to get smart about their insurance and take advantage of the opportunities to maximize their coverage, minimize their costs and protect themselves financially,” Kreidler said.

For instance:

--- Review your homeowner’s policy. As home prices drop and equity dwindles, it makes sense to review your homeowner’s insurance. To wit:

• Insure your home, not the land. Policies do not provide protection for your land, so make sure the value of the land is not included as part of your coverage amount.

• Make sure you are receiving all the discounts you are entitled to. Discounts are typically given to people who have more than one policy with the same insurer; have security or safety systems, such as smoke detectors, deadbolts and fire alarms; or are 55 or older and retired.

=> Read more!

And so the East-West Candy War begins again.

The Associated Press is reporting today that Wenatchee Rep. Mike Armstrong plans to “introduce legislation to name Aplets & Cotlets the official candy of Washington” during the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 12.

Aplets and Cotlets, made of apples, apricots and, I’m assuming, some kind of gelatin, are produced in Cashmere, not far from Wenatchee.

“The bill is likely to revive the battle with backers of Almond Roca. In 2001 a state candy bill was introduced to crown the crunchy chocolate almond treat made by Brown & Haley in Tacoma since 1912. It failed to pass,” the story says.

Hearing of this perfidy (I mean, have you ever actually eaten an entire Aplet or Cotlet? Do you know anyone who has?), I called Pierson Clair, president and CEO of Tacoma-based Brown & Haley. He seemed unworried by the Cashmerian call-to-arms and he was complimentary of his cross-state rival.

“The State of Washington is home to some of the great confections of the world,” he said. “Brown & Haley uses ultra-high quality raw material from the State of Washington, such as butter, and I’m sure other Washington confectioners use other high-grade raw materials for their products. I’m sure that the elected officials of Washington can develop a method so that all of the extraordinary fine confectioners of our great state can enjoy a heightened awareness by the public of our great tradition.”

He continued, “I am sure that the lovers of Roca, such as Debbie Regala, Dennis Flannigan and Jeannie Darneille, will take great delight in talking about the premium quality of the Roca family in the next Legislature.”

And if we're actually voting on this, I'd like to nominate the Mountain Bar.

Readers can join in an online poll here.

It’s been one of those years, but there’s a new year on its way. It’s so close you can almost taste it.

But have we learned out lesson? Will we take the hard-earned answers of 2008 into the questions we’ll face in 2009?

It’s all about resolutions. Are you making any business-related resolutions for 2009? Anything about investment strategies? Spending? Saving?
If you’re a business owner, what changes will you make in 2009 in light of 2008?

And beyond work and money, are you making any personal or philosophical resolutions that will go into effect on Wednesday at midnight?

If any of this fits you, please post a reply here or reply by e-mail to c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com by Tuesday afternoon. Thanks.

And best wishes for 2009!

Weyerhaeuser no longer will try to sell its Westwood Shipping Line.

The Federal Way-based company said today that the weaker shipping markets and tight financing conditions for potential buyers made this a bad time to sell.

Weyerhaeuser had announced in May that it was exploring a strategic alternative for Westwood, a wholly-owned subsidiary that operates a fleet of seven ships used by customers to ship forest products, containerized and oversized cargo.

"We did not feel that the current market conditions would allow us to recognize a reasonable value for our assets and operations," Guy Stephenson, Westwood Shipping Line president, said in a news release. "We look forward to continuing to provide safe, uninterrupted service to our customers while pursuing new business opportunities and expanding our service."

Westwood serves customers in more than 20 ports in Japan, Korea, China and North America with a fixed-day, weekly sailing schedule.

I’m no expert on judging how busy things are at Tacoma Mall, but Mary Hilton is. She shops there twice a week, and she was there this morning with her two daughters, Marne and Michelle, and husband Wayne.

“I don’t think it’s too bad,” she said, with “bad” being so crowded you wouldn’t be able to walk around freely.

“I think it’s like a regular Saturday,” she said.

You could easily walk around on the day after Christmas.

Michelle had come with the family to return one item, a pair of pajamas, and “get a good deal on something else,” which turned out to be a shirt and sweater at Macy’s.

The family also bought the last stick of summer sausage available at Hickory Farms.

Down the way, a Mrs. Morris of Lakewood was standing with her daughter, and she said she'd been out shopping since 6:30 a.m.

“We went to Target, Pier One and then here,” she said.

She’d been trolling for good deals. “When we get in the car, we know where we’re going. I think Macy’s had good bargains. At 6:30, there weren’t many people out at all, but about 20 people were waiting by the door at Starbucks. I thought there would be a lot more people here.”

Bob Mack, deputy director at Tacoma Public Utilities, was at the mall with his sister Kathy and nephew Aaron Klein of Seattle.

Mack had patronized the opening day of a menswear sale at Nordstrom - and not for the first time.

“I come for the sale every Dec. 26. It’s my tradition,” Mack said, holding a sack of dress shirts and ties. “I’m really not a mall shopper.”

Those who are mall shoppers encountered difficulties only in the parking lots, where ice and slush still covered many of the spaces, and where drivers had decided to park a bit willy-nilly, taking up two and sometimes three slots.

The longest lines looked to be at Starbucks and at a few of the vendors at the food court. The Hickory Farms kiosk looked to have the emptiest shelves.

Phuket, Thailand -- There's a waiting line to rent elephants for treks to the top of the mountain today above Patong Bay and the weather is a steamy 85, but that doesn't mean that here in Asia that the recession is not a concern.

On a Christmas trip to Southeast Asia, we've not escaped the worries about economic malaise that grips the U.S.

On Orchard Road in Singapoore and on Nathan Road in Hong Kong, the shoppers are out in throngs, and the casinos in the Las Vegas clone of Macau are shoulder-to-shoulder with gamblers, but the papers and television news is filled with news of layoffs, of sour retail sales and descending real estate prices.

The Sands Casino in Macau with is laying off hundreds, governments are talking of slowing down the kinds of ambitious public works projects that have propelled Asia forward in the past, and the Chinese are sending money to Taiwan along with the pair of pandas. And perhaps, most ominously, even famously strong Toyota is talking of operating losses.

For economies accustomed to stratospheric growth rates, the recession could be particularly worrying politically and economically.

The U.S. may have lost much of its diplomatic power and influence over the last decade, but it is still the U.S. that many countries depend on to power the world out of recession. The news is full of details of Obama's plans to revive the world economy. More than our own hopes and dreams are riding on what he and we can accomplish.

After the snow comes the slush.

If you were out shopping today, then you know it was tough enough getting around in the South Sound, what with the snow-compacted washboard streets. And good luck trying to find a place to park that wasn’t flooded with puddles or peppered with ankle-high hillocks of ice.

Consider the people responsible for clearing those parking lots.

“It’s not very easy, trying to find someone to do it,” said a woman, who asked not to be named, at Hogan Enterprises. “We just don’t get this very often.”

The company manages shopping centers in University Place, Gig Harbor and Tacoma. “A parking lot sweeping company usually does it,” she said. “If you’re not contracted, it’s hard to get anybody.”

Late this morning she said she’d been on the phone for two hours trying to find someone who could clear a handful of parking lots. Either the firms she called were too busy – or they simply weren’t answering their phones or returning messages.

One firm that did answer – I called later in the morning – was Nature’s Helper Northwest. Owner Mark Castoriano said his company, which operates in King and Snohomish counties, was “slammed. There’s too much chaos out there. Everyone’s calling, from Lake City, Issaquah, from Woodinville to Tacoma.”

If he could dispatch a vehicle to a parking lot, he said, he was charging "anywhere from $600 to several thousand.”

At Tacoma Mall, where parking areas were sometimes hard to negotiate on Wednesday, manager Steve Heim sad the inner and outer ring roads had been plowed and “they’ve put sand down on the parking aisles. If we try to plow while cars are here, we end up trapping customers. It’s not possible to plow every square inch. We’re doing everything we can to keep customers safe.”

Sarah Bonds, area director of marketing for mall owner Simon Property Group, was more optimistic. “We’re doing really well,” she said.

At Bellingham-based Haggen Food & Pharmacy – which operates groceries in Washington and Oregon, including Top Foods in the South Sound – the ice, old snow and new slush have led to the opening of a companywide emergency operations center, said spokeswoman Becky Skaggs.

“We’ve had some challenges in some areas getting plows,” she said. “We’ve been able to work with some construction companies – they’re quiet this time of year. It’s given them some business. There’s been a lot of people working hard.”

A few of the company’s lots, she said, “are just a mess. Portland’s a disaster.”

Along with making sure customers could park and walk safely to and from the stores, Skaggs said there are other concerns that come with a storm such as the one we’ve seen this week.

For instance, shopping patterns have changed. On the positive said, what with the holiday season itself, the company had stocked it stores with a higher level of merchandise. And this year, customers started buying early, Skagg said.

But now, with so many people unable to travel out of the area, more families are shopping "for an unexpected Christmas dinner at home.”

Then come the concerns beyond snowplows. It’s not just about getting shoppers in and out. “There are issues with garbage and cardboard pickup, and the armored car pickups,” Skaggs said. “Now we’re looking at the loads on our roofs. the icicles hanging off the stores themselves.”

“It’s kind of a snowball effect,” she said, with something a chuckle.

Now that we're covered in snow and ice, PEMCO insurance and local professionals have a few tips for preventing flooding and water damage at home.

• Remove snow from areas where it could melt and enter your home. Shovel snow away from the house. Also consider clearing decks, patios, and driveways that slope toward the house.

"The main thing when you're shut in like this is to make sure there's no moisture leaking in," said Scott Orton, owner of Precision Home Inspection. "That could lead to mold problems, which are very serious."

• Clean snow and debris from ground drains. Make sure drains near your home, typically around the driveway, are free and clear from blockages. Ice and compact snow can create dams that keep water from properly draining.

University Place City Manager Bob Jean reiterated this point Monday in a call to TNT reporter Brent Champaco.

"There's no way we can get out there to clear all the storm drains as we try to clear the slush," he said. "Anything people can do once the thaw hits to clear stuff with a rake, keep the storm drains clear, that would help."

• Keep your thermostat at 65 degrees or warmer. When the heat in your home rises to the ceiling, it helps rooftop snow melt and prevent ice dams from forming, and it can help prevent freezing and broken pipes.

"If you need to replace broken pipes," said Jodye Howard of DrainTech Northwest in Tacoma, "consider a new kind of plastic pipe that returns to its original shape after it's frozen." Howard said the price is comparable with copper pipes.

• Do not try to climb onto your roof to remove snow. If you see the snow melting and dropping off the edge of your roof, that's a good sign. It indicates ice dams are probably not developing.

"Keep thinking ahead and using common sense when it comes to preventing water or other damages from this winter storm," Jon Osterberg, PEMCO spokesperson, said in a statement. "At the first sign of dampness inside your home, call immediately for professional help before long-term damages set in."

An intrepid TNT employee reports that last night, the Fred Meyer store on 19th Street in Tacoma was out of meat, eggs, yogurt and other products because of the storm.

Deliveries for restocking apparently were held up from the distribution center in Puyallup, according to one store employee.

When I went to Freddie's in UP on Saturday (along with everyone else in town) I watched workers restock the dairy case twice in the 30 minutes I was there. No shortages that day, but I haven't been back since. (I bought an extra gallon of milk just in case.)

I'm awaiting callbacks from several area grocers, but I'm curious: What have you noticed? Any favorites – or essentials – missing from your local grocery store? And where will you go for the basics if they're not in their regular place? Send your observations to kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com.

UPDATE: Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for Portland-based Fred Meyer, said a combination of storm-caused delivery delays and high demand have left a few shelves bare – but not for long.

Most deliveries go out to the stores every other day, and Merrill said a few trucks have been out of commission here and there. She said the company is reaching out to other carriers to help pick up the slack.

"All of our deliveries have been as best as they can do them, though they're not on the regular schedule," she said Monday, "and things are flying off the shelves faster than they usually do."

Top Foods is seeing the high demand, too.

Becky Skaggs, a spokeswoman in Bellingham, said there have been runs on storm-related items and that people are doing holiday meal shopping earlier.

"We're full and having no real problems," she said, but "I'm sure there's been challenges with the delivery times. There might be a (particular) brand out, but there are always other options."

UPDATE II: Reporter Stacey Mulick said that the Target on Union Avenue in Tacoma is down to three one-gallon jugs of milk, but that the rest of the dairy case is full.

"They have tons of the Archer Farms store brand stuff," she said.

Jamie Bosmans, a barista at Tosta Caffe in Freighthouse Square, said Monday that the storm has been a mixed blessing.

Inclement weather has many people commuting to points north by train instead of battling Interstate 5.

"I've worked her for about a month, and I've seen more business from the snow than I have except for when we have concerts" at the Dome, Bosmans said.

But the weather is forcing business at the square to close down early. "So I'm actually getting less hours," she said.

Bosmans said all her customers are talking about is that it's impossible to drive. But she's had no trouble getting to work, she said.

"It's pretty flat and you just have to be cautious of other drivers and go slow," Bosmans said. "It's just cold."

More from Rob Carson:

Areall Rians, manager of the Pink Coconut tanning salon on Puyallup’s South Hill, says the snow has sharply reduced her business.

“Basically, we have to keep opening late and closing early, so we don’t get very many people,” Rians said Monday afternoon.

Normally this time of year, Rians said, 80 to 90 people cycle through the Pink Coconut’s tanning beds every day.

“We’re down quite a bit, probably at least 30 or 40 a day,” she said. “The first day it snowed was the worst. Now, the last couple of days, it’s improved.”

Fewer people are in the salon, Rians said, but the same things are on their minds. “Everybody’s just talking about how they don’t like to drive in the snow and how they’re worried they won’t get their Christmas shopping done.”

Rob Carson is still snowed in at home but he sends this along:

Rachel Moreshead, the owner of Black Water Cafe (747 S. Fawcett), lives close enough to her shop so she can walk to work. She put on an extra pair of socks Monday morning, shoveled out pathways to Black Water’s door and opened as usual.

“I think a lot of people are really happy we’re open because a lot of other coffee shops have closed down,” Moreshead said.

The number of people coming in has stayed about the same, she said, but a lot of them have been people out for walks instead of the usual business crowd.

“A lot of people are staying home from work,” she said. “It’s like our Saturdays and Sundays all week long.

“People are really excited about the snow,” Moreshead said. “Today we had three people who cross-country skied here.”

It's not just fenders getting bent. One Washington insurance company is beginning to see the claims come in.

Jon Osterberg, spokesman for Pemco, said this morning: "As of Friday, it took a little while for the claims calls to come in, but we did see a slight increase. It wasn’t a significant increase. The latest figures have auto claims up 14 percent to 15 percent."

Typically, he said, people delay submitting minor claims in weather such as this.

"The one thing that was interesting, we were also seeing a comparable increase in homeowner claims. It looks like 40 percent to 60 percent are due to burst pipes. What was just starting to come in - those people in Spokane are having a heck of a time."

Along with auto claims and claims for burst pipes or collapsed carport roofs at home, Osterberg said he expects to start hearing from people with second homes.

"Sometimes, people who have second homes, or vacation homes, these people won’t know until they try to turn on the water for the first time. It's not until people get to those homes that they know."

This is typically a slow week at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, so there weren't too many scheduled events that the weather could disrupt.

However, executive director David Bobo reported today: "We had a group that’s been using us for Sunday night worship services, they were in last night. We did have a Christmas party Saturday night that we rescheduled for January. Friday night we did have an event, but the people saw a huge falloff in attendance. The one Saturday night, we worked hard to get them moved."

There is a wedding reception on the slate for this coming Saturday, and Bobo said the center is ready to accommodate visitors.

"If you can get here, we’ll be here."

At the Les Schwab Tire Center at 5131 6th Ave. in Tacoma, a helpful employee tried Monday morning to get the manager on the phone to discuss how busy his shop is because of the weather.

The employee reports back: "We're just too busy to talk about how busy we are."

As the winter storm rolls on, Star Ice and Fuel is ready.

"Fuel is our business, and we take it pretty seriously," said Richard Reisinger, manager of the store at 405 S. Tacoma Way. "Whenever there's power outages ... the fuels we sell are the fuels that you can use when the power's not working."

Reisinger said Monday that customers swamped the shop all weekend, coming from miles around because they couldn't buy the things they needed closer to home.

"Seems like we had half the town in here on Saturday," he said. Top sellers: Propane, kerosene, Presto Logs and wood pellets.

Star has a 1,000-gallon propane storage tank – much larger than those you find at a corner gas station. They sell 40-pound bags of wood pellets, too. Presto Logs burn longer and hotter than regular firewood.

"We didn't run out of anything," Reisinger said. "We have a big warehouse here, and still have plenty of everything in stock. ... We don't wait until we run out to order something."

Filing for state unemployment benefits online is free, so don't pay for it - that's the message Friday from the Employment Security Department.

In a news release, the department outlined a scam that works like this:

Unemployed workers must search for job openings as a requirement for receiving benefits. One of the places to search is through a state Web site, go2worksource.com.

If they mistype it as 2worksource.com, they land on a Web site that charges them $9.95 to file their unemployment claims. They then get an e-mail from “Unemployment Advisors” confirming that the fee has been charged to their credit cards.

The department said in the release that it is unable to determine if claims from this site have actually been filed unless a person calls the department to check.

Several Web sites crop up each year offering to help unemployed workers obtain unemployment benefits, often for a fee, the news release said. These sites may not be illegal, but they can be confusing, inaccurate and unnecessary.

“People who have been laid off can’t afford to be spending money on services they can get from us for free,” Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said in the release.

Unemployed workers should use www.esd.wa.gov to file their claims. If you paid a third party to file your claim, contact the state Attorney General’s Consumer Resource Center at 800-551-4636 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays, or file a complaint online at www.atg.wa.gov.

UPDATE: Mark Varadian, a spokesman for the department, said Friday that the number of people taken advantage of is unclear. He said that they learned of the scam Thursday when one person paid the $9.95 fee and then discovered that no claims had been filed.

"We have no way of knowing unless someone who paid the $9.95 ends up calling our office," he said.

The department immediately notified the Attorney General's office.

"The challenge here is, did this other company in fact do anything illegal?" Varadian said. "If the service they're claiming to provide is to provide unemployment advice, then they can give people the same information we have on the (Web) site and charge them $9.95 for it.

"If they say they'll file the claim for them and don't, that's different," he said.

Robert Larson is president of Larson Automotive Group, which has eight dealerships in the Puget Sound region. I spoke with him this morning about President Bush's announcement of bridge loans to GM and Chrysler, and about Wednesday's news of Chrysler idling its plants.

What is your take on President Bush's announcement of loans this morning?

I think it's about time. It's sad that the vast majority of the American public are turning their nose to the Detroit Three as opposed to the bankers. Chrysler will be fine. They have a plan to be profitable in '09. It may be miniscule but it'll be a profit. ... This is just a bridge loan to help them get through the cash crunch.

How do you account for what you describe as the public's differing reactions to the bank bailout and the auto loans?

The Detroit Three probably should have had more fuel economy cars than they did, but they didn't create this (economic) mess we're in.

What's the biggest obstacle to selling cars?

People's confidence. In everything. People just have to go to work and just do. But it's dominoes. It's so simple and so hard. If everyone just forgot about what was going on and went on about their business... But it's not going to happen that way so we have to dig our way out.

What is your take on Chrysler's decision to charge dealers a fee for cars unsold after a certain period of time?

It's funny that you would put further economic burden on dealers at a time when they're trying to keep employees and stay afloat. I don't agree but it doesn't matter. We have to be very diligent. I literally sign all the checks and my comptroller and I keep it as tight as we can. We're just trying to get employees to understand the predicament that the United States is in.

So far we've kept (the effects of the economy on employees) to a real minimal amount. We went automated on the receptionist phone system. Really, other than that, we need some employees. We're short technicians, short sales people.

Are you hiring for those positions?

Yes, we are. So if you find some good ones that have a fair amount of training and the right attitude, send them our way.

(Rob Carson sent this in. He's snowed in at home today.)

The Federal Reserve’s dramatic cuts to lending rates have so far done little to help South Sound consumers, mortgage brokers in the Tacoma area said Thursday.

Home loan costs did not drop significantly with the Fed’s most recent cut on Tuesday, they say, and loans are still only available to those with excellent credit, lots of equity and proof of employment.

“Our phones are definitely ringing,” said Kevin Tinsley, president of All Tech Mortgage in Lakewood, “but we’re not able to help as many people as we could in previous booms.”

Tinsley said his business is up about 50 percent over a month ago, with much of the interest coming from people who took out loans 10 or 12 years ago and are interested in refinancing.

However, he said, those who want to refinance find the guidelines have changed since they took out their loans.

“There are a few more hoops people have to jump through,” he said. “We’re having to run people’s credit before we can even quote them a rate.”

Tinsley said his clients tend to be in upper income levels but, even so, only about 40 percent of them qualify for the lowest rates.

Jack Hansmann, loan officer at Capital Resources in Tacoma, said the Fed’s rate cuts may have made matters even worse.

“They’re doing the exact opposite of what they should do,” Hansmann said.

Lowering rates makes lenders even less willing to loan, he said.

“When rates get too low, there’s no money in it,” he said. “There’s just risk.”

Darcy Hansen, a loan officer at Financial Services Northwest, Inc. in Tacoma, estimated that the number of people calling her office has doubled since last week.

“Lots of people are calling in,” she said. “There’s a lot of interest out there.”

However, rates available to consumers are directly tied to the fed rates, Hansen pointed out, and they remain basically unchanged since last week.
Even so, there is significant interest among consumers, Hansen said.

“Everyone is under the impression they will come down further.”

Thirteen Macy's stores will be open for 24 hours a day starting this weekend – and they're in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut and Illinois.

From the news release:

Ron Klein, chairman and ceo of Macy’s East, says “Macy’s is at the top of the list for holiday shoppers. By going 24-hours at 13 key locations and extending store hours at another 5, we are giving our customers extra time to shop when it’s convenient for them and to take the stress out of holiday shopping.”

He goes on:

"Not only will our stores remain open to better serve our customers, but they will be greeted by our dedicated sales associates who voluntarily reworked their schedules during this holiday season to meet our customers’ shopping needs.”

All Macy's stores will close at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Bloomberg News is reporting today that "Ruby Tuesday Inc. will close about 40 restaurants in the third quarter and another 30 over the next several years. Another 35 to 40 stores are being marketed for sale."

I called the corporate offices, but they were closed. I also made quick calls to the three South Sound Ruby Tuesday stores.

• University Place: The manager "is not at liberty to discuss that right now."
• Lakewood: "We'll stay open."
• Puyallup: "That probably will not affect us." Will the store stay open? "That's what I would expect."

Don't worry about all those loud noises coming from the Port of Tacoma tomorrow. Everything's fine. There's nothing to see. Go about your business.

According to a release this afternoon, the port
will be hosting demolition work Friday, and that work "might cause brief noise."

Noise, and possible detours along Taylor Way. Demolition contractors expect to close northern sections of Taylor Way for up to 30 minutes Friday morning as they demolish old structures on the Tideflats.

Businesses on the north end of the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula and residents in Northeast Tacoma might hear noise and feel vibrations between 9:45 and 10:15 a.m. as the contractors cut through old steel structures.

The demolition is part of ongoing work to remove 56 structures from former chemical manufacturers, power plants, warehouses, offices and shipbuilding and lumber milling facilities to make way for the Port of Tacoma’s Blair-Hylebos Peninsula redevelopment plans.

UPDATE from Kathleen Cooper: Port spokeswoman Tara Mattina says contractor R.W. Rhine will be tearing down an steel smokestack that's 220 feet tall. It was part of the city's old steamplant. Workers already have cut a hole in one side of the smokestack, and they'll use torches to cut another hole to bring it down.

Mattina said she's checking with the project manager to make sure the demolition is still a go, what with the weather changing so rapidly. If they decide to delay, we'll post it here.

Looking for work? Maybe something temporary?

We’re about a year away from 2010 and the attendant 10-year cycle of the U. S. Census. As we approach the magic year, the Census Bureau will be hiring 1.4 million people nationwide to help compile the numbers.

Before that, and starting this year, the bureau is hiring 140,000 people to do “address canvassing,” collecting the address of every structure where people live, nationwide.

Locally the bureau is hiring canvassers at around $13.25 an hour, according to Stacy Gimbel, a public affairs specialist with the District of Columbia office of the bureau.

She told me that jobs are open in the South Sound. If you’d like to apply or get more details, visit 2010censusjobs.gov or call 866-861-2010.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has appointed Stan W. McNaughton to its Seattle Branch board of directors. McNaughton is president and CEO of Seattle-based PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company. The appointment is for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2009.

McNaughton has led PEMCO since 1998. Before joining the company in 1986, McNaughton held positions at the Everett Herald and Price Waterhouse.

McNaughton also serves as chairman of Evergreen Bancorp and is a member of the Washington Roundtable, and works on behalf of the Partnership for Learning, TVW, the Dean's Advisory Board for Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics, and the Executive Education Advisory Board for the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington Seattle.

Current Seattle Branch directors Kenneth M. Kirkpatrick, president, Washington State U.S. Bank and James R. Gill, president, Pacific Northwest Title Holding Co. will complete their terms of service on December 31. A second director vacancy will be filled and announced at a later date.

Other members of the Seattle Branch board include Helvi K. Sandvik (chair), NANA Development Corporation; William S. Ayer, Alaska Air Group; Richard Galanti, Costco Wholesale Corporation; Carol K. Nelson, Cascade Financial Corporation; and H. Stewart Parker, formerly of Targeted Genetics Corporation.

The Russell Investments board of directors this week approved two new members, both Tacoma residents.

Joining the seven-member board are Peter Gunning, chief investment officer, and Frank Ryan, chief financial officer.

In addition to the appointments, Edward Zore, parent company Northwestern Mutual president and CEO, will become board chairman.

Russell President and CEO John Schlifske said in a company release, “Both Pete and Frank were chosen for this important role because of their strong leadership and understanding of Russell’s business, and because both have global responsibilities within their respective parts of our business.”

Gunning directs the company’s investment management and research activities across the globe and serves on Russell’s investment, executive and management committees. Before coming to Tacoma he was regional CIO for Russell’s Asia-Pacific region. He joined Russell at their Sydney office in 1996.

Ryan is responsible for Russell’s financial and control functions including accounting, tax, treasury, management reporting and planning. He sits on the management and executive companies and joined the company this year. He previously served as CFO and managing director at the San Francisco office of Barclays Global Investors.

Chrysler announced yesterday that it would idle its plants for a month. Part of the story that intrigued me was the fact that Chrysler's financing arm has warned dealers that it may stop loaning money so dealers can stock their lots.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that starting Jan. 1, the auto maker's financing arm also will impose large fees on dealers holding new cars and trucks that are unsold after more than 360 days, and will require the payment of all remaining balances on any used vehicles unsold after more than six months.

This could cost dealers a lot of money, the Journal reported, and some are selling cars at a loss to clear their inventories and avoid the fees.

I've got a call in to a local Chrysler dealer to get its take, but I want to hear from you too: Have you gotten a good deal on a Chrysler lately? Would you buy one if it was steeply discounted? Email me at kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com with your thoughts and a daytime phone number.

I've got some ambivalence posting this - I don't want it to seem like I'm choosing sides or promoting one service over another – but it does look interesting.

Comes a press release from Qwest – which says the company is reducing the price of its Qwest Connect Quantum Internet service by 40 percent, from $99.99 to $59.99.

Current customers will see an automatic reduction, while new customers will also be given the lower price.

The fast connection speeds – over 1.5 Mbps – are available to customers in several Western Washington communities, including Tacoma and Puyallup.

The Tacoma Club has found a place where it may settle.

In a memo to members dated Dec. 16, the club board says the club is negotiating with the Hotel Murano for the top-floor space once occupied by Altezzo Restaurant. The club has sent a letter of intent to the hotel.

The club had announced some time back that there were problems with the current space, on the 16th Floor of the downtown Tacoma Wells Fargo Plaza. The club will vacate that space on Jan. 4, the memo said.

A lease has not yet been signed with the Murano, and the directors asked members for their support of the move. “We need your final input and vote to move,” it said. A ballot was included with the memo.

The directors outlined the club’s current major financial obligations: $100,000 due to Unico, the Wells Fargo landlord, being paid down “significantly by year end,” and $150,000 to Rainier Pacific Bank, which is being repaid monthly at $4,700.

The directors announced in the memo that the club will hold its annual membership meeting Jan. 6 at the Murano.

“Please join us for our Annual Meeting to discuss the Club’s future, to ratify our new lease ... (and) to elect a new Board and set a course for a bright future,” the memo said.

One of the things I learned while covering the video filming at Angel del Solar's salon was that his business is now in a partnership with the Jacquelyn David Salon & Day Spa in Olympia.

The business has been a downtown Olympia institution for two decades. David Wright named it after himself and his daughter, with the idea that she would take it over one day. That happened almost three years ago, when David Wright died, Jacquelyn Wright said Wednesday.

Wright said she met del Solar and his management team at an event in Florida, and in mid-June of this year they started discussing the changing economy and ways to strengthen their businesses.

They agreed that creating a unified team would allow them to, among other things, negotiate better with suppliers. So on Aug. 1 the name on the door in Olympia changed to the Angelo Mendi Salon & Day Spa. Wright and del Solar said Wednesday that they're working to unify their Web sites so the brand is recognizable.

And del Solar said this brand expansion may not be the last: He and Phillip Wilson of FHI Heat are looking at opportunities in Dubai.

What began in a Tacoma basement 10 years ago became the rule nationwide today as the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to mandate a new system of financial reporting for all publicly traded U.S. companies.

Called XBRL, the system regulates the manner by which companies report their numbers. Within the next three years, all companies will be required to use the system, thus giving investors, regulators and others interested in numbers a clear picture of results. From now on, it’s going to be apples and apples, oranges and oranges. No longer will one company’s “net profits” be called by what another company calls “net gross returns.”

It’s truly a revolution, and it was invented by Charlie Hoffman, who was, a decade ago, working for a small Tacoma accounting firm.

I spoke with Hoffman this morning after the SEC decision.

“We started this 10 years ago,” he said. “It was January 15, 1999 when we made our first presentation. There is no way anybody would have convinced me that the SEC would have been doing a mandate in 10 years. It was inconceivable. We thought 25 years. It’s been almost like the stars are just lining up perfectly at every step along the way. You get the right people to join the process. You get a guy like (SEC) Chairman Cox getting behind it, and the vision he has. You get these financial crises - they didn’t hurt the ability of this to be noticed.”

Hoffman said he recently heard XBRL compared to the invention of man-powered flight. The first flight lasted 12 seconds, and now a person can fly from any point on earth to any other point on earth without landing. Hoffman said XBRL is now “at about 45 seconds. That’s how much farther it will go. It’s still in its infancy. Companies are going to start reporting, and that’s going to drive fundamental changes to financial reporting.”

The SEC has yet to release full details of today’s meeting, but Hoffman, who listened to the meeting on a conference call, said all public companies will be required, within three years, to report using XBRL. Five hundred large companies will be required to use the system by next year, then the next 1,500 smaller companies, and then the final list of all publicly traded companies.

As I’ve reported before, the system is already in wide use across the world, with several countries mandating XBRL for private as well as public entities.

And how did Hoffman fell about today’s announcement?

“It was good,” he said.

Several South Sound tow companies say it's business as usual this morning as the snow falls on the region.

Workers at Fife Towing on 34th Avenue East and Burns Towing on McKinley Avenue both reported business as usual. The manager at Burns Towing, who didn't want to give his name, said that was to be expected.

"Everyone stays home today," he said. "It's tonight that'll change – if it freezes over."

Robin Hunt, a dispatcher at Lakewood Towing, agreed.

"It's been pretty slow this morning, but that could change at any time."

Anyone out there need a jump or a tow this morning? Who do you call when you do?

The haircut of the future is here, now, in the Stadium District. And the instructional video was born in Tacoma.

Forget a barber using scissors to trim hair. Instead a stylist uses a curved blade to shape the fabric. On this cutting edge, the stylist becomes a “fabric folder.”

“The cut is one-of-a-kind. No one can copy what we do,” said Angel del Solar, owner of the Angelo Mendi Boutique Salon at 12 N. Tacoma Ave. At this salon, the alternative method is the only method. Prices range from about $30-$70, depending on the experience level of the stylist.

Why not spend a lot less elsewhere?

“You can get a No. 2 with fries,” del Solar said, “or a sandwich you really like.”

=> Read more!

Take heart. Stock prices will improve.

In its quarterly survey of major North American money managers, Tacoma-based Russell Investments reports that 72 percent see U.S. equity markets as undervalued. That’s a new high for the survey. A year ago, 34 percent said the market was undervalued. Last quarter, it was 45 percent.

“Professional money managers expect considerable bounce from the current market lows,” the company said in a release today.

The managers are bullish on eight of 13 asset classes, double the number from the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. The managers reported record levels of bullishness on corporate bonds, U.S. small-cap and mid-cap value stocks, and high-yield bonds.

“Managers are retaining their faith in the financial system and have a positive outlook for 2009, said Erik Ristuben, Russell‘s North America chief investment officer. “In their opinion, this market has been driven by panic and fear as much by economic fundamentals.”

Among the findings:

• Compared to survey results last September, managers are more bullish on corporate bonds and U.S. small cap equities, and more bearish on autos and transportation.
• Managers expect improvement in U.S. large-cap growth equities (67 percent), mid-cap growth (61 percent), U.S. large-cap value stocks (61 percent), corporate bonds (60 percent) and small-cap growth stocks (56 percent), among others.
• Compared to sentiments in September, managers are more bearish on cash, U.S. treasuries and real estate.
• For sectors, managers expect strong results from health care and financial services.
• 72 percent of the managers believe U.S. equity markets are undervalued, 20 percent say the markets are fairly valued and eight percent say the markets are overvalued. Three months ago, the numbers were 45 percent, 42 percent and 13 percent respectively.
• 50 percent of the managers expect markets to rise by 10 percent or more in 2009; 27 percent say 10 percent say less than 10 percent; 15 percent say the markets will be flat, and eight percent say markets will be down.

I've had enough bad news. And I've found something, well, salubrious. Reassuring. Pleasant.

The San Francisco office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting today that prices in the Puget Sound area are down.

Grocery prices decreased 1.8 percent between October and November. Household energy prices decreased 0.1 percent. Electricity is down 0.7 percent.

And gasoline, which had previously jumped like a rabbit scared by a fox, dipped 29.1 percent.

This is an off-month for the BLS report of activity in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area, and a full look at consumer prices will be out next month – but I think these preliminary numbers look nice.

Especially now.

The unemployment rate in Washington rose slightly in November to 6.4 percent, up from 6.3 percent in October, the state Employment Security Department announced today.

The state lost an estimated 11,700 non-agricultural jobs in November. This figure does not reflect the temporary losses due to the strike by Boeing machinists.

The largest declines were in residential specialty-trade construction, which shed 3,300 jobs, and clothing and accessory stores, which lost 1,800. Gains were reported in health services in social assistance, up by 700 jobs, and scientific and technical services, up 200.

In Pierce County, the November rate stands at 6.6 percent, up from 6.2 percent in October and 4.6 percent in November 2007.

Mary Ayala, ESD chief economist, said in a conference call with reporters this morning that “relative to other states, I think Washington is doing better.”

She noted that Oregon recently reported an unemployment rate of 8 percent. She said Washington is doing relatively better because the state “is a more service-based economy.”

Puget Sound Energy announced today it has completed a new $15 million natural gas supply line between Frederickson and South Tacoma.

Natural gas began flowing through the new line on Sunday, according to a PSE release.

The project, designed to upgrade the utility’s natural gas system in South Tacoma, involved installing 5.25 miles of 16-inch natural gas line from PSE’s existing Frederickson station to 128th Street East and Waller Road.

Construction began in August, with the work advancing approximately 200 feet per day.

PSE has more than 1 million electric customers and nearly 750,000 natural gas customers.

The Port of Seattle and the City of Tacoma have entered into partnership with one of the largest ports in China, hoping to create a global model for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

U.S. and Chinese officials gathered in Seattle Monday morning to celebrate an “ecopartnership” with the Dalian Port Corporation of Liaoning, China.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, who has led efforts to expand clean energy cooperation with China, announced the agreement, saying it would “establish a model of how our two countries can work together to improve the world environment and our economies at the same time.”

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma and Tacoma Public Utilities Director Bill Gaines both attended Monday’s event and spoke about Tacoma’s participation in the partnership.

Baarsma noted that the container terminal operator and cargo company SSA Marine will be a major player in the partnership. SSA Marine has a terminal in Seattle and is planning to build one in Tacoma, to be served by TPU’s Tacoma Rail.

The partnership was part of a larger agreement made between the United States and China in June.

That agreement, called the Ten Year Framework on Energy and Environment Cooperation, emphasizes goals of clean air and water, clean, efficient transportation and conserving forests and wetlands.

Initial talks on the agreements were held in Gig Harbor last March.

The Washington state connection is one of seven ecopartnerships reached in Beijing on Dec. 4. All of the partnerships are voluntary and involve a wide variety of government agencies and businesses, universities and non-profits.

Together, the United States and China consume one-third of the world's oil, more than half the world's coal and emit 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gases.

Tacoma's own hair stylist to the stars, Angel del Solar, has a big project going on at his boutique salon.

Del Solar, owner of the Angelo Mendi Boutique Salon on North Tacoma Avenue, will be working with Phillip Wilson today and tomorrow to produce an instructional video on an innovative hair-cutting technique that Del Solar compared to Frank Gehry's style of architecture.

Traditional methods of cutting have stylists looking at one section of hair at a time, and to cut it a certain way, so that almost any haircut can be reproduced on any head, del Solar explained to me last week. "Kind of like pre-fab housing," he said.

But the technique he and Wilson, a top national stylist himself, is all about deconstruction to produce a unique cut for every person.

"We decided it was time to make a video so that people could work and learn at their own pace," del Solar said by e-mail this weekend. "We chose Tacoma because I had a great connection with Michael Dziak who will be producing the video and MeRa Tausend, (a) nationally recognized photographer. We have models coming from Lux Talent, a modeling agency here in Tacoma and the clothing from Dame Lola right next door to our salon."

Check out Wednesday's News Tribune for more details on this project by a nationally recognized stylist who is one of Tacoma's hidden gems.

Boeing's revolutionary, but oft-delayed 787 Dreamliner has passed the 900 orders mark.

Boeing reported this week that an unidentified customer has ordered 15 more of the composite-bodied, twin-engine airliners.

That brings the Dreamliner orderbook to 910 planes, more than any jetliner before its first flight.

Boeing delayed that first flight again last week to the second quarter of 2009, almost two years later than it was first scheduled.

The Dreamliner has been delayed by problems with suppliers, fastener and software issues as well as by a 58-day strike by Boeing machinists.

The first production 787 is set to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways in 2010.

Boeing sales for the year now total 657, behind rival Airbus and less than half of last year's record-setting pace, but still a strong year by historic measures.

It isn't even Christmas yet, and the airlines are starting their afte-Christmas sales.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines, for instance, is touting its "Extend Your Holiday" sale with fares as low as $59 each way to San Francisco and $69 to Los Angeles.

With taxes, those fares are $139 and $159 roundtrip.

Alaska's rival, San Francisco-based Virgin America, is matching those fares. United Airlines is matching those fares to San Francisco and nearly matching them to LAX.

Credit the recession and falling fuel prices as well as the usual January travel lull for the bargain fares.

The cheap fares, of course, have conditions in the fine print. On Alaska, the tickets must be purchased before the end of 2008 and apply for travel between Jan. 6 and Feb. 11. A two-week advance purchase is necessary to secure the low fares. The tickets must be purchased on the airline's Web site, alaskaair.com. Tickets purchased by phone or at the counter will cost more.

Springtime runway maintenance in Petersburg, Alaska, will halt Alaska Airlines service to the small town on the Inland Passage for nearly a month in March and April.

Alaska Airlines said it will halt service to Petersburg March 23 and resume it April 22 next year.

The Alaska Department of Transportation will replace several culverts that span the runway at Petersburg.

The SeaTac-based airline will reroute passengers through Wrangell at no additional charge for changing their tickets.

The Alaska Department of Transportation is working to find alternate means of transportation for people destined to Petersburg during the runway closure. More information is available at the Petersburg Alternate Transportation Office at (907) 772-2950 or at tpac@aptalaska.net.

While the occupancy rate of hotels in all regions of the state either fell or were unchanged in October, the rate for Pierce County hotels rose 11.1 percent compared to the same month last year.

In October, 74.8 percent of Pierce County rooms were taken, compared to 67.3 percent a year ago, according to Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood.

Statewide, the occupancy rate fell 5.7 percent. Everett and Snohomish County saw the greatest decline, at 13.9 percent, while the rate in downtown Seattle was unchanged.

The cost of a room in Pierce County likewise rose in October, up 10.2 percent to $86.28. This marked the state’s highest rate of increase, with rates statewide falling 0.7 percent to $135.31. Other than in Pierce County, only Southwest Washington and the Tri-Cities saw increases, at 2.7 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Downtown Seattle continued to mark the state’s highest average rate, at $178.58. The rate in Southwest Washington was the lowest, at $81.76, Rood said.

The Seattle Times reports that Quadrant Homes has stopped building and selling at The Ridge in Gig Harbor.

The 120-lot development off Borgen Boulevard was to hold 1,500-3,100 square-foot homes for $259,000-$342,900, according to the story.

Peter Orser, Quadrant Homes president, told the paper that the decision was "a suspension, not an abandonment" and that the stoppage would be temporary. But he acknowledged that the move was significant and attributed it to the contracting economy.

Have you bought a home in The Ridge? Or had you started the process of buying there? We want to hear from you. E-mail kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com with your name and a daytime phone number.

UPDATE: Orser said Friday afternoon that The Ridge has 14 homes that are in the process or are completed. Five of those are models, so nine customers "have determined that they want to occupy the home," Orser said.

"They feel pretty good about the value they're getting," he said.

When Quadrant decided to suspend operations at The Ridge, Orser said the company contacted everyone who was under contract to buy there and offered them the chance to change their mind.

"This is a difficult situation (so we told people that) it's your choice and we'll honor that," he said.

Orser said the issue is trying to figure out how to build homes in today's environment, which is affected by "multiple and complex" issues. He said no one thing was driving the suspension.

As for when The Ridge will get rolling again, Orser said there was no timeline given the economic conditions.

"This is a national and international event, so we're reviewing every project, every day, literally," he said. "I don't foresee (suspensions) in any of our other projects, since the circumstances here were different." He declined to elaborate on the circumstances.

Sometimes well-intended efforts can have unintended consequences.

Take the federal government's new report of notable airline ground delays that debuted this month.

Because the system for collecting that data isn't yet perfected, SeaTac's Alaska Airlines got unfairly slammed in a government report.

The government's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that Alaska's Oct. 23 Flight 75 from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska, had the second longest ground delay of October, some four and a half hours.

A ground delay is when a plane is either unable to take off or unable to reach the gate to complete its flight and passengers suffer from hours of involuntary confinement.

Such notable incidents as JetBlue's Valentine's Day debacle at JFK where hundreds of passengers spent multiple hours on the ground in aircraft awaiting clearance to take off come to mind. Food and water was exhausted in some cases and toilets were reaching capacity.

Alaska spokeswoman Caroline Boren said that's not what happened with Flight 75. The flight left Seattle on time, flew to Juneau but was unable to land because of the weather. The flight then returned to Seattle.

To the government's computer's, however, it looked as if the plane left the gate and then returned to the gate four and a half hours later. Computer thinks ground delay.

"This is something we're going to be talking to the government about," said Boren. "It's a glitch in the system."

Husky Jobs, the database used by University of Washington students to search for jobs and internships, has seen a steep drop-off of listings since June.

Judy Colburn, associate director of student development at the UWT, said that in June the board had 1,531 listings. As of yesterday it had 837.

"What I'm seeing is, at least in Pierce County, some job openings in healthcare, some in technology... healthcare and IT, those have the most," Colburn said today.

I talked with Colburn about the challenges in the job market and asked what advice she has for students entering the work force.

"I really encourage students to use any network they can," she said. "Everybody is a potential lead. I'm telling folks to go out and do informational interviews, a form of networking, to get one-on-one with folks even if they don't have (any openings) right now."

On Sunday, I'll have a story in The News Tribune's business section about finding a job in this economy.

Beset with continuing production and development delays on most of its new aircraft programs, Boeing Co. today realigned its leadership and reorganized its Commercial Airplanes division.

The company will consolidate its supplier management, fabrication, propulsion systems and its manufacturing and quality control functions into a single new organization.

Heading the new operation to be called Supply Chain Management and Operations will be Ray Conner, 53. Conner most recently was vice president of sales for the commercial airplanes division.

Production and development programs will be united under the leadership of Pat Shanahan, formerly vice president and general manager of the 787 program. Shanahan will supervise both the 787 and the 747-8 programs as well as other development programs such as the 777 Freighter.

=> Read more!

One out of every 319 households in Pierce County was in some stage of foreclosure in November, according to numbers released today by RealtyTrac, a company that collects foreclosure data nationwide.

Pierce County’s rate was easily the highest of any Washington county and well above the rate of the U.S. as a whole, which was one in 488 households.

According to RealtyTrac, the Washington state foreclosure rate for November was one in 948 households.

King County’s rate was one in 1,133; Thurston’s one in 984 and Kitsap’s one in 786.
If there was good news in the report, it was that there were fewer foreclosures in Pierce County during November than during October.

In October, 1,308 Pierce County homes were in foreclosure. Last month there were 969.

Lisa Drury, head of recording at the Pierce County Auditor’s office, suggested that at least part of the decrease was due to the unusually low number of business days in November.

“There were only 17 business days because of the holidays and the way the weekends fell,” Drury said.

The increase in rates of foreclosures fell across the country in November, RealtyTrac reported, partly because of new state laws that lengthened the foreclosure process.

In RealtyTrac's report, Nevada, Florida and Arizona had the nation's top foreclosure rates. In Nevada, one in every 76 homes received a foreclosure filing last month. Florida saw one in every 173 properties receive a foreclosure filing, and in Arizona it was one in every 198 homes.

Rounding out the top 10 were California, Michigan, Georgia, Ohio, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.

After two months of relatively good on-time performance, Alaska Airlines fell back in the rankings in October, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports.

Alaska, Sea-Tac Airport's dominant airline, was 13th in on-time arrivals among the 19 U.S. airlines that the federal agency tracks. Even so, 84.4 percent of the airline's flights were on-time in October.

The nation's airlines performed exceptionally well during October with an overall on-time arrival of 86 percent. That surpassed both the October 2007 mark (78.2 percent) and September 2008's (84.9 percent).

Number one on the agency's list was Memphis-based regional carrier Pinnacle Airlines. Pinnace flies as Northwest Airlink and Delta Connection in the Midwest and South. Pinnacle flights were 90.7 percent on time in October.

Following in order below Pinnacle were Northwest Airlines (90 percent), Hawaiian Airlines (89.9 percent), Southwest Airlines (89.6 percent) and Frontier Airlines (89.1 percent).

At Sea-Tac Airport, Southwest performed the best in October with an 87.7 percent on-time rate. Skywest Airlines, which flies as Delta Connection and United Express from Sea-Tac, was second with 85.8 percent of its flights on time.

United was third with an 85.2 percent on-time record. In fourth place at Sea-Tac was Delta with an 84.6 percent on-time performance. Alaska was fifth with 84.1 percent of its flights on time.

Other significant statistics gleaned from the BTS report:

=> Read more!

Boeing this morning issued the press release that nearly everyone in the aviation industry had been expecting all week: the 787 Dreamliner will be delayed once again.

The brief announcement blamed the 58-day Machinists Union strike and new problems with fasteners for most of the delay.

Under the new schedule, the first Dreamliner will fly by the end of the second quarter next year, and the first plane will be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways in the first quarter of 2010.

Today's delay announcement was the fourth official delay since the plane made its premature debut at a celebration at the company's Everett plant on July 8, 2007.

The first example of the plane was scheduled to fly then within two months of its rollout.

The latest delay puts the program nearly two years behind schedule. All Nippon was originally scheduled to receive the first commercial 787 in May of this year.

"Our industry team has made progress with structural testing, systems hardware qualification and production, but we must adjust our schedule for these two unexpected disruptions," said Scott Carson, head of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Group.

The fastener issue emerged during structural testing of the plane. Some fasteners were too long because of a Boeing specification error. Those must be found and replaced before the planes can fly.

Industry sources say Boeing is still struggling with weight issues in the first planes and is encountering difficulties meshing all of the software programs used to fly the revolutionary composite airliner.

For much of the airline industry, battered by the declining economy worldwide, the delay will in some ways be a relief. The airlines won't have to find the money to pay for their new planes immediately, a tough task in a credit crisis, and they won't have to add planes to their fleets when traffic is declining.

Boeing nonetheless is expected to pay customers monetary penalties or provide some of them substitute aircraft.

Already, Boeing has arranged to produce more of its 767 aircraft to fill gaps in airline schedules left because of the Dreamliner delays.

Office Depot plans to close 112 underperforming stores in the next three months, the company announced today.

The office supplies giant has five stores in the South Sound area, central Tacoma, Lakewood, Federal Way, Lake Tapps and Gig Harbor.

The Delray Beach, Fla.-based company said stores in Burien and Vancouver are the only ones closing in Washington. The nationwide closures represent about 10 percent of the company's outlets.

The company said it will be closing 45 stores in the central part of the country, 40 in the Northeast and Canada, 19 in the West and eight in the South.

In addition, Office Depot will close six of its 33 distribution centers. Some 2,200 of its employees will be laid off.

Fourteen more stores will close as their leases expire in 2009, the office products company said.

The company said it is closing the underperforming stores to improve its profit picture.

Matthew Erlich, intrepid flack at Tacoma Goodwill, read the story in today’s paper about Washington’s free electronics recycling program that starts Jan. 1 and wanted to clarify a point.

The story notes that the E-Cycling program applies only to computers, monitors, television sets and laptops and warns: “ Some sites may charge a fee for products not covered by the program – including mice, printers, cell phones, scanners and other electrical devices and appliances.”

Tacoma Goodwill is not one of the sites that will charge, Erlich says.

He goes on:

“Tacoma Goodwill is, in fact, accepting mice, printers, cell phones, scanners and other electrical devices and appliances for free – as in, without charge. We sell some of those items in our retail stores – apparently there are people who need a mouse and we happen to have them at a great value. Some of the items, specifically cell phones, we collect and send to a company that recycles many of them and returns them to local police agencies – where the phones are given to crime victims who need a way to contact people in an emergency.
As a practical matter, we will separate items destined to be a part of the E-Cycling program from these other items that we will use.”

Sea-Tac is one of 14 U.S. airports where United Airlines passengers can pay to get to the front of the security line under a new program announced this week.

Under United's "Premier Line" program, passengers willing to pay $25 or more can use priority lines at check-in, security and at boarding.

The service will be offered to customers on the airline's Web site under the "Travel Options" tab when booking a ticket, at check-in online and at any time in the "My Itineraries" section of the online page.

A limited number of Premier Line passes will be offered depending on the time of day and the expected number of passengers at the airport.

At Sea-Tac in recent weeks as traffic has declined between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, security and check-in lines have been moving fairly quickly especially at non-peak hours of the day.

Paying extra, however, could yield a significant time savings during the holiday rush are during the early morning and early evening high traffic hours.

Typically first class passengers and travelers who've reached the higher levels of most airlines' frequent flier programs already get priority treatment at check-in, security and boarding.

Maersk Line, the Danish containership company that is leaving Tacoma next May for Seattle, is laying up eight of its 6,500-unit containerships.

The vessel mothballings are being driven by falling demand for containership services between Asia and Europe and the United States.

Maersk's decision to leave Tacoma and consolidate its trans-Pacific services with French line CMA-CGM in Seattle was driven by those same trends.

"We make these changes to reduce capacity and save costs, while we at the same time seek to maintain or expand our service level and coverage," said Michel Deleuran, head of network and product at Maersk.

Southwest Airlines is adding three flights to its Seattle schedule beginning next May 9.

The flights will include a return of the Seattle-Nashville non-stop, an additional flight to Albuquerque for a total of two and an additional flight to Chicago's Midway Airport that ups the schedule to four daily.

Sea-Tac Airport also loses one flight in the spring and summer shuffle, a second daily non-stop to Reno.

Southwest, which usually publishes its schedules only a few months in advance is jumping ahead a little more than usual this year with the spring and summer schedule.

The airlien said it plans to add and subtract more flights this year based on seasonal demand, eliminating some flights to wintertime beach destinations and replacing them with popular summertime routes.

The Seattle-Nashville route, for instance, is likely to go away again next fall so the plane used on that route can be redeployed to someplace like Florida for the winter.

The folks over at Exit133.com are reporting that an Apple store may be coming to Tacoma Mall. This is based on an online advertisement for a store manager at the mall.

Amy Barney, a spokeswoman for Apple, was tight-lipped about any plans.

"We've made no announcements regarding a store in that area," she said Tuesday. When asked about the online job posting, she said:

"I can't speak to that because I don't handle advertising. But any job openings are listed at apple.com/jobs."

When you hop over to that site and check out future openings for store manager, a spot at the Tacoma Mall is among them.

Tacoma Mall's manager, Steve Heim, referred calls to the mall's spokeswoman. I've left her a message and will post an update as soon as I hear back.

UPDATE: Sarah Bonds, spokeswoman for the mall, said "At this time we don't have any information to disclose. But as soon as we know something, we'll let you know."

I've called a few Apple stores in the region to see if anyone there had heard anything, and they have less to say than the CIA. We'll keep trying to find out more.

I filled my tank this morning (13.22 gallons. I wish it had been emptier.) and I paid less than $10, $9.51 to be exact.

Get outta here, you say. Special circumstances, did apply, I'll admit, but still it was amazing considering the same tank in mid-July would have cost me $57.37 at Tacoma's average unleaded regular price.

The special circumstances: I shop at Safeway. I use their club card. I'd bought some gift cards there for Christmas. Since my local Safeway doesn't have a gas station, my club card gas credits tend to mount up. And Safeway is offering extra credits for buying a $100 or more in gift cards. So when I paid, the cashier told me that I had earned $1.00 off per gallon.

With that incentive, I went out of my way to stop at a Safeway gas station on the way to work. Saved $13.22 on the $1.719 price.

Any more purchases and they would have been paying me to fill up.

How could gas prices change so radically? The same way the rest of the economy from the stock market to unemployment rates. A disturbance in the momentum that fueled the rise can send prices and the economy in the opposite direction in a heartbeat.

Consider how much the price of gas continues to fall.

According to TacomaGasPrices.com, 11 stations in Pierce County were selling gas for less than $1.60 a gallon Tuesday. The average price for regular in the county fell 5.3 cents from Monday to Tuesday.

Those same prices dropped 16.3 cents in the last week and 57.5 cents in the last month.

The price of crude oil Tuesday hovered within a few cents of $42 a barrel, just a bit over 28 percent of the $148 a barrel it sold for in July.

I'm working on a story about finding a job in this tough economic climate.

Are you looking for work? For how long? What has that been like?

Or are you unemployed and have you stopped looking for work? Why?

And employers, are you hiring but not finding what you need?

E-mail me at kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com by the end of the day with your story. Please include your full name, your hometown and a daytime phone number for possible follow-up questions.

Unsettling news for Boeing and Airbus.

China is encouraging its airlines to postpone or cancel scheduled deliveries of new airliners next year because of falling traffic.

According to a report from Bloomberg News, the government is asking the air carrier to sideline some planes already in service to cut capacity.

China is among the biggest markets for the two planemakers. Its growing economy had provided a big market for the two companies as its increasingly affluent citizens began flying.

The worldwide economic slowdown has hit China hard, cutting demand for the consumer goods its factories produce.

The Chinese government has begun financial assistance to some airlines including China Southern, the country's largest airline. Other airlines considering asking for help include China Eastern and Hainan Airlines. Hainan is the only one of those that flies to Sea-Tac. Hainan flights connect Sea-Tac with Beijing.

Most employers in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area expect to maintain their current staffing levels in January through March, according to a survey out today.

Manpower Inc. does a quarterly survey to measure employers' intentions to grow or reduce their staffs. It's based on interviews with 31,800 employers in the top 200 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the country.

The Tacoma-area results tracked closely to the national ones, with about two-thirds of employers planning on neither hiring nor reducing payroll in the first quarter of 2009. In the area, 17 percent planned to hire, 15 percent planned to reduce payroll and 4 percent weren't sure.

Manpower said in a news release that area job prospects appear best in these areas:

=> Read more!

It was business as usual today at Seattle's KCPQ and KMYQ television stations after their parent company, Tribune Co. Monday filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

"We're just doing business as we always have," said Pam Pearson, Q13 vice president and general manager.

Those two stations are part of a group of media companies including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel owned by Tribune.

The company said it will continue publishing its newspapers and airing its television programs while it reorganizes.

KCPQ was once owned and operated by the Clover Park School District. The district sold the station in the mid-'80s to Kelly Broadcasting Co. of Sacramento. Kelly moved the station to Seattle and affiliated it with the Fox Network. Kelly sold the station to the Tribune in 1998. It merged its operation with KMYQ-22, its Seattle MyNetwork affiliate.

Falling advertising caused by the down economy and Internet competition is credited with the troubles for the media company headed by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell.

Tribune also owns the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field although they were not included in the bankruptcy. The company has been offering the baseball team and the historic ball park for sale to reduce its debts.

Got an unexpected e-mail from what appears to be the IRS in your mailbox?

Don't believe what it says and don't follow its instructions.

A new fraud scheme using the IRS name designed to empty you bank account is circulating on the Internet.

Under that scheme, you receive a message from what appears to be the IRS informing you of an opportunity to avoid some paying taxes. The e-mail asks you to fill out an official-looking but bogus tax form and submit it to the taxing agency.

The form asks for such vital information as Social Security number, address, bank account numbers and passwords and even your mother's maiden name. That's all that a scammer would need to access and drain your bank account.

The IRS advises you to delete such mail. The IRS will write you a letter to initiate an inquiry, not send you an e-mail, the agency said.

Kelly Haughton, retired since October from Tacoma-based Russell Investments, has received the William F. Sharpe Lifetime Achievement Award from the Index Business Association.

As strategic director for Russell, Haughton spearheaded the development of the Russell Indexes, now widely used by the investment industry. He served with Russell for 27 years, during which he saw his index methodology account for more than $4 trillion in benchmarked assets – or some 63 percent of all institutional products that use a benchmark.

His vision was to develop an equity benchmark that truly reflects the U.S. equity market, and his work continued as he led the development of the Russell/Nomura family of indices in Japan – where he served as chief executive of Russell Indexes Asia and also led the team that created the Russell Global Index.

More recently, Haughton has focused on the methodology strategy for index derivatives, including the transition of Russell Indexes futures contracts to the Intercontinental Exchange.

Although retired, Haughton continues as a strategic advisor at Russell.

United Airlines, once Sea-Tac Airport's dominant airline, saw its market share there continue dropping dramatically this year, new figures show.

United, struggling to recover from a bankruptcy reorganization and a tough economic climate, carried 220,141 fewer passengers from Sea-Tac in the first 10 months of 2008.

Those figures from Sea-Tac's owner, the Port of Seattle, show United in fifth place among the airport's 29 airlines with a 7.49 percent market share.

In 2002, United held a 12.23 percent share of the Sea-Tac passenger market.

United has shrunk its network to combat overcapacity and at the same time it has seen its traditionally strong markets such as Seattle - Los Angeles, Seattle-San Francisco, Seattle-Denver, Seattle-Chicago attacked by rivals such as Alaska, Southwest, Frontier and Virgin America.

Alaska Airlines is the airport's dominant airline with a 33.97 percent market share followed by its sister regional airline Horizon Air with 14.22 percent market share.

The combined Delta-Northwest airline is third with 12.3 percent of the Sea-Tac market.

Southwest Airlines is fourth with a 8.99 percent market share.

Juli Wilkerson, former chief of Tacoma's economic development department, announced Monday that she will retire as director of the state economic development department on Jan. 9.

“Governor Gregoire is a great leader and I have been honored and privileged to serve her,” Wilkerson said in a statement. “I am proud of what we have achieved. However, I am unable to commit for an additional four years and it is time for me to retire and be with my family.”

Wilkerson, 56, guided the Tacoma Economic Development Department from its inception in 1999. She helped create the "America's #1 Wired City" campaign and fought for big projects such as the glass museum and light rail.

Appointed by Governor Gary Locke and reappointed in 2005 by Gov. Chris Gregoire, Wilkerson has run the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development for five years.

Wilkerson has had a long career in state and local government. She worked for the City of Tacoma from 1991 to 2004, including as assistant city manager and director of the planning and development services department. She also worked for the state Department of Revenue and the Washington State Attorney General. She is a graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law.

“Juli has been an exceptional advocate and innovative leader for the interests of citizens, communities and businesses throughout the state,” Gregoire said in a statement. “She leaves the agency in excellent shape and prepared to address the current economic challenges and capture new opportunities in the emerging green economy.”

CTED established a public-private partnership to promote and fund tourism. Among the department’s achievements was the creation of a new business recruitment and expansion tool, www.choosewashington.com.

Boeing Co. and the union representing some 700 of its engineers in Wichita, Kan., are at a standstill in talks aimed at producing a new contract for the workers.

Boeing, without announcing its intentions to the union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, halted negotiations Friday.

Now the union has asked its engineers to "work to rule" refusing holiday and voluntary overtime.

Negotiations of a serious basis began Nov. 16, but the union claims the company hasn't responded to its offers.

The union claims the company so far is only offering a raise in the first year of a multi-year contract.

SPEEA and Boeing recently settled on a new 4-year contract that provides a five percent average wage increase over each year of the contract.

In Wichita, Boeing recently announced some 800 layoffs because of declining military work.

Alaska Airlines today realigned its leadership naming chief financial officer Brad Tilden as the SeaTac-based airline's president.

Tilden will report to Alaska chairman Bill Ayer.

Taking Tilden's place as chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance for Alaska Air Group and Alaska Airlines is Glenn Johnson, formerly Alaska Airlines' executive vice president of customer service – airports and maintenance and engineering. In addition to leading the company's finance organization, he will oversee information technology, strategic planning and corporate real estate, the airline said.

Leaving Alaska Air Group will be its executive vice president of flight and marketing, Gregg Saretsky. Saretsky had worked for the airline in marketing leadership roles for 10 years.

The company also announced the election of Ben Minicucci as Alaska Airlines' chief operating officer and executive vice president of operations.

Previously vice president of Seattle operations, Minicucci will report to Tilden in this new position, and will lead flight operations and maintenance and engineering, in addition to airport customer service.

The Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County is telling its members in its December newsletter that not all is gloom and doom among local businesses.

Three larger EDB members have told the business development organization that they intend to expand next year to take advantage of the lull in economic activity.

* A local auto parts builder told the EDG that its business was up some 50 percent in September.

* A bio-tech firm says it intends to expand its workforce from the present 200 to 500 in the near future.

* A construction materials maker is investing in new equipment. The manufacturer said it wants to take advantage of down-cycle pricing on the new equipment.

Rob Carson sent in this chat this afternoon:

Today: ChildTrek
Address: 430 East 25th St., #3 (in Freighthouse Square)
On the phone: Owner Miebeth Bustillo-Booth

Please give me a quick description of what you sell.
We sell natural, green toys made with sustainable materials.

When did your holiday season start?
We have an online store, too, www.childtrek.com and there, the season started in late October. Here at the Freighthouse Square store, it started in early November.

How are sales so far?
Things are going fantastically well. With our online store and this one, we are in the black. We believe there is a shift that is happening. People are shifting away from plastic toys and toward toys that are safe and wholesome.

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?
They’re being more selective. They want more for their money. They want good solid toys that will last, and I think that’s really working in our favor.

Are you having any sales?
Yes, as a matter of fact, tomorrow, (Saturday), we’re having ‘Green Play: A Toy Safety Fair.’ There’s going to be free toy testing, for harmful chemicals, and tests for lead levels in your body for women who are breast feeding or pregnant. We’ll have sales associated with that.

What are your most popular sellers so far this season?
Oh, let’s see: At the store, that would probably be wooden blocks of all sorts, especially the Automoblox. Others would be the HABA Little Leaf House Fabric Book and the Plan Toys Melody Xylophone.

Are there any particularly notable items you’ll be selling this season?
They’re all notable.

Though trade is often a one-way street these days, the Port of Tacoma recently reversed the usual inflow of autos to export cars from its piers.

Two hundred forty-one Mitsubishi Eclipse autos were loaded Nov. 21 onboard the Manon, an auto carrier that had brought heavy machinery to the port from abroad for ports in China, Japan and South Korea, the port reports.

Misubishi Eclipse

The Eclipse is only made in a plant in Normal, Ill., so Asian buyers who want an Eclipse must import the U.S.-made car.

The outbound cars arrived by rail in Tacoma and were processed for export by Auto Warehousing Inc.

The number of Eclipse vehicles exported through the port is expected to increase in 2009, according to port officials.

Aviation industry analysts expect the Boeing Co. to announce a new round of delivery delays for its troubled 787 Dreamliner later this month.

The new delays, at least six more months by some predictions, would stretch out the first delivery into 2010, nearly two years after its first delivery was scheduled.

The new delays are driven by the 58-day Machinists Union strike which shut down aircraft production at Boeing this fall and by continuing problems with software and fasteners on the revolution plane.

The new delay, which pundits expect Boeing to announce before Christmas, will be the fourth official delay announced by the company.

The new announcement comes as Boeing is encountering problems across its new product lines caused by parts shortages, improperly installed fasteners and improperly made parts.

The company delivered only four planes in November, it announced this week. Those planes were nearly complete when machinists went on strike in September.

The deliveries in November were two Boeing BBJ business jets, one 777 and one 767.

Newly expanded Mokulele Airlines, headed by former Alaska Airlines baggage handler Bill Boyer, has formed an alliance with its CEO's former employer.

Under the new partnership, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members will earn 500 miles of frequent flier credit when they take a Mokulele flight beginning next year.

Mokulele is expanding its inter-Hawaiian fleet next year with Embraer 170 twin-jets operated by Republic Airways.

Alaska itself in the last year has begun serving four Hawaiian destinations from Seattle and Anchorage.

Mokulele until recently was a small airline serving less traveled islands with a fleet of smaller turboprop aircraft.

After the demise of inter-island carrier Aloha Airlines, Mokulele announced its expansion into the larger Embraer jets and new service to other islands.

Boyer, who once owned a Lakewood coffee shop in addition to holding down his baggage handling job at Sea-Tac Airport, invented a portable digital entertainment player he called the DigEPlayer. Alaska was one of the first customers for the player which it rents to customers on longer flights.

Boyer sold DigEPlayer to a Utah company and bought Mokulele Airlines.

Sea-Tac Airport Friday inaugurates a new program: Park at the airport garage, they'll give you a complementary fill-up.

That's the least they could do, you say, considering that daily parking costs $26 in the airport garage.

There is one hitch: you vehicle must be electric.

The airport is adding five stalls on the fifth floor of the airport garage designated for electric cars.

Those stalls include a 120-volt, 20 amp. electrical hookup to recharge your vehicle.

The power will be free with your parking.

Among U.S. airlines, SeaTac's Alaska Airlines has to consider itself fortunate.

Its business was down in November, but it shrank its capacity at the same rate its business fell.

New figures from the airline show traffic dropped 6.9 percent last month over November 2007. But the number of seats fell proportionally.

That translates to planes operating 76.7 percent full, the same as a year ago.

One compensating side effect of lower business is that on-time arrivals improved to 81.4 percent compared with 77.9 percent last November.

Other U.S. carriers fared worse.

American's business dropped 14.5 percent in November, but its capacity dropped only 9.3 percent. Its percentage of seats full dropped four percentage points.

American Eagle's passenger traffic declined 21.5 percent. Its capacity decreased by 15.9 percent.

Southwest Airlines revenue passenger miles slid 8.3 percent on capacity that was the same as last year. That meant the percentage of seats filled fell from 69.3 percent to 63.2 percent this year.

It seems contrary to common sense to even think of gas at less than $1 a gallon, but with prices still sliding, the economy still bleeding and workers still being laid off is it foolish to ponder such a price?

Pierce County's lowest price hit $1.61 a gallon at Costco near the Tacoma Mall today, and the average price of all grades of gasoline continue to fall across the state and and nation.

Here in Pierce County, for instance, the average price reported by TacomaGasPrices.com dropped five cents in a week and 55.7 cents in a month.

Oil industry analysts, contemplating crude oil prices in the low $40-a-barrel range, say the prices could head even farther south in January when more layoffs happen and the economy goes into its usual post-Christmas funk.

For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound region. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Best Loved Baby
Address: 4002 S 12th St., Tacoma

On the phone: Ida Simmons, co-owner with her sister Sarah Simmons; mother-in-law Gerene Simmons; and friend Vronwyn Judd.

Please give me a quick description of what your store sells.

We sell mostly natural or organic baby products, for example: Cloth diapers, baby carriers, clothing, bedding, layettes, shampoo and mama care kind of stuff. We also have nursing covers and other pregnancy products – all natural things.

You recently moved, from Proctor Street to S. 12th Street. Why was that?

We just moved here in the beginning of November. On Proctor we were in a small shop in our house, and we wanted to expand because we were growing quite a bit.

How are sales going so far?

They're up a little bit compared to last year, but not quite as much as you would expect because of the economic situation. People are still coming in but they're buying less and being more frugal. They're coming in especially for cloth diapers since there's such a cost-savings compared to disposables. You can spend roughly $600 from birth to potty training for one child with cloth diapers. For disposables, it's about $2,000 roughly until potty training because babies in cloth diapers tend to potty train earlier.

Are you having any sales?

We just finished our Thanksgiving sale and are getting ready for holiday sale, but we're not quite sure what we'll do for that. We hope to roll it out in the next week.

What's the most popular item?

Bumgenius diapers. It's a one-size cloth diaper that fits from birth-potty training. It has velcro that makes it super easy and convenient, and comes with washable liners. It's the most recognizable brand of cloth diaper, so people come in for that brand. Sometimes they end up buying it, and other times they buy other cloth diapers. But it brings people in.

Median home prices in Pierce County dropped again in November, according to figures released Thursday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The median price for a single-family home or condo in November was $230,000. That price is about $32,950 below the median for the same time last year - an almost 13 percent drop.

Month-to-month, however, it's a 4.5 percent decline from $241,000 in October.

The median price is the midpoint of all sales. Half of homes went for more and half for less.

Other county data for November from the Northwest MLS:

• Homes listed for sale dropped from 1,505 a year ago to 1,368.

• Closed sales were cut almost in half compared to a year ago, from 784 to 463.

Look for more details on the data in tomorrow's News Tribune.

Most Northwest stocks enjoyed a respite Wednesday from the pummeling they took recently as good news about Internet sales and declining fuel prices pumped up prices.

Amazon.com led a group of Northwest stocks in positive territory with a nearly 10 percent stock price gain.

Amazon stock rose $4.02 or 9.76 percent on news that sales on Monday, dubbed Cyber Monday by retail analysts, rose 15 percent overall.

Analysts expect that pace won't continue through the rest of the holiday shopping season, however.

SeaTac's Alaska Air Group was up 6.17 percent to $24.76 as fuel prices continued falling. Crude oil hit $46 a barrel Wednesday, more than $100 less a barrel than it brought in midsummer.

Tacoma's Trueblue Inc., a temporary labor firm, beat the Dow's increase of 2.05 percent Wednesday with a 5.63 percent jump to 47.50 a share.

Even Federal Way's Weyerhaeuser enjoyed a good day with an increase of nearly 5 percent to $36.19 at the close.

Microsoft beat the Dow with a 3.76 percent increase to $19.87, and Costco stock bumped up 2.63 percent to $51.42 a share.

Satellite Coffee Co., one of Tacoma's premier homegrown coffeehouses, soon may open a new location downtown.

Pat Brown, an owner of the shop at 817 Division Avenue – above Supernova Hair and Tattoo – confirmed a report Wednesday on Tacoma Urbanist about the plans.

"It is true, but I haven't spilled the beans about the plan – so to speak – yet because I need to talk with my business partners," Brown said Wednesday afternoon.

Satellite features only direct trade coffees and espressos, and is the only cafe between Portland and Seattle that serves and sells Stumptown coffee, a Portland-based outfit founded and run by Puyallup native Duane Sorenson.

I'll post more details here as I learn them.

UPDATE: The new shop will be in a shared space with a juice bar on Market Street next to the downtown YMCA, Brown says, and they hope to be open in the spring.

Patricia Lecy-Davis owns Embellish salon at 1121 Court D #A – that's the purple building next to the Y. She will be opening Smooth 'n' Juicey in the space with Satellite Coffee, Brown says.

I left a message with Lecy-Davis on Wednesday afternoon to get more details about the juice bar.

Brown says the decision to expand Satellite's footprint came after long conversations with Stumptown's Sorenson and his colleagues.

"Owning a coffee shop is a real grind until you have two or three of them," Brown says. "They don't make enough money after expenses, and (even with two shops) I'm still looking at working long hours."

But the Division Avenue shop is successful, Brown says, so it seems like a good idea to open another one.

Brown and Lecy-Davis decided to share the space after Lecy-Davis was in Satellite one day going over designs for her juice bar, and "the lightbulb went on for both of us," Brown said.

Though not by design, the new location continues Satellite's connection with salons.

"On Division we have the hair salon downstairs with the coffee shop up in the bird's nest above Supernova," he said. "This new one is the opposite, with the shop and juice bar downstairs and the hair salon upstairs."

So Tacomans, here's at least two places to get a 'do and a free-trade caffeine dose in one spot.

The economic slowdown is finally affecting traffic at Sea-Tac Airport, new figures show.

Passenger traffic at Sea-Tac Airport declined 1.72 percent over the same month last year, but the airport's traffic for the first 10 months of the year remains 1.2 million over the same period in 2007.

Expect more declines in coming months as airlines nationwide cut capacity in an effort to match falling demand.

But Sea-Tac is still faring far better than most airports, according to federal figures. Those figures show air traffic has dropped 14 percent nationwide this year.

That compares with the overall growth of 4.57 percent at Sea-Tac. Traffic there through October, according to the airport, was 27.45 million passengers compared with 26.28 million in the first 10 months of 2007.

Credit the slower decline in home prices here and the relative health of such major employers as Microsoft, Costco, Amazon and Boeing here.

For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound region. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Green Cottage Pets

Address: 3024 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor; 612 Regents Blvd., Fircrest

On the phone: Tom Moodie, owner

Please give me a quick description of what your stores sell.

We're a holistic pet food store – we sell human-grade pet food. And, supplements, leashes, collars and accessories. Everything is chemical-free. USDA ingredients, no byproducts. You could eat anything in my store.

When did your holiday season start?

December's always a good month. We usually increase sales by 10 percent. We sell more toy and gift items, accessories, blankets, beds; the things you don't usually buy all year 'round. People buy presents for their dogs and cats.

How is it going so far?

Business has always done well. We can feel a little bit of the (economic) crunch, more in Fircrest than Gig Harbor. The disposable income is different in Gig Harbor than it is in the Fircrest area. It's a totally different clientele.

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?

Everybody is shopping a bit more. With gas prices down and the cost of goods up, people aren't hesitating to drive 5 miles out of their way to save $2 on an item. If the gas prices were higher I'm not sure that would be the case.

Are you having any sales?

We run a few sales. Christmas stockings for dogs and cats that if you fill it up we give you 10 percent off whatever you can fit in it.

What's the most popular item?

Food. Dehydrated to frozen to dry to wet, we do it all. We guarantee everything in our store. If we don't know something we look it up. We're really stringent about what we bring in. We research every item and the ingredients and offer a money-back guarantee.

A group of Kitsap County hotels, resorts and bed-and-breakfast accommodations is offering to pay your ferry fare as an incentive to stay the night.

The offer is good through the slower winter and early spring season through the end of March.

Save your ferry receipt and mention the offer, and the cost of two adult fares plus a vehicle under 20 feet will be deducted from your final bill.

The details are available at www.FreeFerry.com.

No mention of paying the bridge toll, but then getting to Kitsap County via the Narrows Bridge is free. It's just the returning that costs.

For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Krazy Kat Fiberhaus

Address: 3013 6th Ave., Suite A, Tacoma

On the phone: Peggy Viney, co-owner with her husband, Joel Viney

Please give me a quick description of what your store sells.

We are a needlework and lacemaking supply shop. We sell a little bit of everything that cross-stitchers, needlepointers and hand embroidery people need. We even have some stuff for smockers and needle felters.

When did your holiday season start?

It starts in July. If you're going to be stitching presents, you're not going to be starting them in December because it does take time depending on what you're making. In the last month I have had a lot of people buying kits and supplies for stockings and ornaments. But for the most part in December it's family members coming in to get gift certificates or to buy that special frame for the needleworker in their family.

How is your holiday season going compared to last year?

We've about tripled our business. Part of it is moving to Sixth Avenue in March. We were in Freighthouse Square for about a year before that. It's a lovely little mall but we found that our demographics showed that most of our customers were coming from this end of town. Being next door to the Bead Factory has been a contributing factor to our success. Crafters don't do just one thing.

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?

I do notice that people are becoming more conscious of their budget. You can tell the economy is not affecting certain segments of my business. Needlepointers tend to have more discretionary funds than cross-stitchers. A hand-painted 4-inch square canvas for needlepoint can cost $30 to $40. It's painted by hand, by a person, almost stitch by stitch. I have some canvases that are up to $700, and that's not including the threads. Cross-stitch patterns start at $1, and the most expensive patterns I have are $35 and that's because they're Lord of the Rings patterns and Peter Jackson has to make his money – they're trademarked.

Are you having any sales?

We have DMC Medici and Needle Necessity French Wool threads on clearance. We've been giving away some needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns so people only have to buy the threads.

What's your most popular item?

Thread! We focus on threads so we have a lot of thread. Most needlework shops tent to get pattern-focused. Most people love the Weeks Dyeworks and The Gentle Art threads. They are all cotton floss.

Sea-Tac Airport improved its on-time Thanksgiving holiday record this year with more than four out of five flights arriving on time.

New statistics for the holiday period from Portland's Flightstats.com show that 81.82 percent of Sea-Tac flights arrived on time.

That's a 2.12 percentage point increase over 2007's holiday period when 79.7 percent of Sea-Tac flights were on time and a vast improvement over 2006 when just 61.2 percent of flights arrived on-time.

Though Sea-Tac performance improved, its on-time arrival record was mid-pack among 36 U.S. airports FlightStats charted.

The best on-time arrival percentage was Salt Lake City's where 90.94 percent of flights were on time. Oakland, Calif. was next with an 89.22 percent record.

At the bottom of the list was the world's busiest airport, Atlanta, with just 64.18 percent of its flights on time.

Other low scorers were Boston, 71.8 percent; Newark, 75.56 percent, and New York's LaGuardia, 76.52 percent.

Airline schedule reductions and generally good weather for the first half of the holiday period improved overall performance, said FlightStats.

With the uncertainty about its labor situation now back under control for at least the next four years, Boeing is focusing on getting its much-delayed assembly lines up to full speed.

The approval of a new four-year labor agreement Monday night by Boeing engineers and technical workers represented by the Society of Engineering Employees in Aerospace, clears the way for that focus.

Engineers and other professional gave their new agreement a 79 percent favorable vote. Technical workers approved their companion agreement by a 69 percent margin.

Boeing has told its customers to expect at least 10-week delays in delivery of its established repertoire of planes, its 737, 777 and 767, because of a 58-day Machinists Union strike earlier this fall and because of production line parts issues.

Customers waiting for its still-developing 787 Dreamliner and its new technology 747-8 will waiting even longer, up to 24 months beyond the original schedule for the 787 and nine months to a year for the 747-8.

Boeing is still negotiating with engineeers and technical workers at its Wichita plant. Talks are resuming there after a Thanksgiving recess.

A California man has shut down his mirror-image version of Russell Investments' Web site after the Washington attorney general's office alleged he violated the state's anti-phishing law.

Under an agreement with the state, Rommel Balingit of Pinole, Calif., was ordered to pay a $10,000 civil penalty. That penalty, however, was suspended provided he complies with the terms of the agreement, said the attorney general's office.

Russell is a major investment services company with headquarters in Tacoma.

The company had alerted the state of Pinole's look-alike site that mimiced its own site.

According to the attorney general's office, Balingit claimed to have created the site to demonstrate to potential clients his Web design skills. Balingit owned a Web design company.

For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Baskets & Things

Address: 121 Meeker Ave. SW , Puyallup

On the phone: Darcie Lynn, manager.

Please give me a quick description of what you sell.

We sell a little bit of everything, from food to bath products, some furniture, purses, jewelry and cards and lamps, mirrors, pictures. It’s hard to describe because there’s so many different things.

When did your holiday season start?

Our holiday season started Nov. 20. We always have an open house with four days of holiday specials the weekend before Thanksgiving. Then each week after that we have specials.

What kind of specials do you have?

Well, let’s see. Last week, snowmen and everything white was 25 percent off.
This week, it’s anything that’s silver or gold. Next would be ornaments, then red and green. Last is all food and dishes. Monday through Saturday, those things are 25 percent off.

How are sales so far?

Good, we’ve done very well.

What are your most popular sellers so far this season?
I couldn’t really specify because we don’t have any grand amount of anything. We just pretty much sell just everything. Sometimes we try to figure out after a big day where the holes are, and we just can’t find them.

Are there any particularly notable items you’re selling this season?

We decided we would have more food this year. We had guessed that might be the market, and we were correct on that – so far at least. We sell lots of different candies, teas, coffees, cocoas, hors d'oeuvres- type things, specialty cake mixes, sauces of all kinds . . .

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?

We really haven’t really heard about much concern. We’re lucky because we have just so many loyal customers that come to us. And we have a great variety of prices. We’re a store where everybody can buy something.

RecruitMilitary, a Cincinnati-based employment agency for military veterans, is holding a career fair in Tacoma this Thursday (Dec. 4), intended to help veterans and their spouses find jobs.

Organizers say they expect more than 300 veterans to attend the event at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Veterans will be able to interview with national, regional and local employers. The event is being produced in cooperation with President Bush’s National Hire Veterans Committee, the American Legion and the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network.

Delta Air Lines may soon ask Boeing to change some of the airliner orders that its merger partner, Northwest Airlines, had entered with the aerospace company.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Delta is considering reducing Northwest's orders for 787 Dreamliners and substituting orders for the long-range 777-200LR.

The switch could mean more money for Boeing. The 777-200LR has a list price of $243 million. The 787 is listed at $178 million.

The order change could bring Delta a plane more suited to its present plans.

Delta is ambitiously adding new international destinations, some of them very distant from its New York and Atlanta hubs. The 777-200LR has the world's longest unrefueled range, more than 10,000 miles.

The plane is also about 50 seats larger than the 787 and potentially could be available before some of the 18 787s Northwest had on order.

Delta in recent months has added a handful of destinations in Africa and Europe to its route structure in some cases offering the only non-stop service to those distant cities from the U.S.

Those new routes will allow travelers to reach African destinations, for instance, without stopping or changing planes in such European hubs as London, Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt.

We're not usually much for touting business promotions, but here's one that's too good to pass without notice if you're a traveler in the Northwest.

Beginning today, some bags of Tim's Cascade Potato Chips will feature a peel-off coupon good for 20 percent off the price of Amtrak Cascades tickets.

Amtrak Cascades are the the trains that travel in the Pacific Northwest corridor from Eugene, Ore. to Vancouver, B.C.

The offer, as you might expect, has blackout times during the holiday rush periods when the trains are full anyway, but the offer is good through February.

To see the fine print, go to the Amtrak Cascades Web site. x

London's Heathrow Airport has been named the world's worth airport in a poll of members of Priority Pass, the largest independent lounge program.

The British airport, known in recent years for huge baggage losses, cancelled flights and general construction chaos, was named by 15 percent of Priority Pass members polled.

Two Asian airports, Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok and Singapore's Changi, were named the first and second best by the same group of travelers.

Paris' Charles de Gaulle, Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare were next in line on the worst list behind Heathrow.

Amsterdam's Schiphol and Dubai's World Central followed Hong Kong and Singapore on the good list.

NATO has agreed to buy two Boeing c-17 Globemaster III long-range military cargo jets.

A third C-17 will be provided to NATO by the U.S. Air Force. The planes will be stationed in Hungary.

A group of 12 nations will share the planes' airlift capability. Those include Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States.

The first plane is expected to be delivered from Boeing's Long Beach, Calif., assembly plant as early as next spring.

The new order will help Boeing keep its Long Beach plant open while it lobbies for more Air Force orders for the airlifter. Some of the Air Force's 194 C-17s are stationed at McChord Air Force Base south of Tacoma.

In addition to the U.S. Air Force, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have bought C-17s. Qatar is also ordering the airlfter.