Average Tacoma prices for a gallon of unleaded regular rose sharply overnight to an average of $1.868 a gallon.

That's nearly 9 cents more than the average on Sunday according to TacomaGasPrices.com.

The price increases mirror the jumps in the price of crude oil. Light sweet crude for February delivery rose to $48.81 a barrel in New York.

Analysts say anxiety over the situation in Gaza has propelled oil prices upward.

Both local gas prices and international crude prices were lower in mid-December when some stations sold gas for $1.49 a gallon and average gas prices here were $1.65.

Crude hit lows below in the mid-$30 a barrel during the same period.

The lowest gas prices in the Tacoma area were $1.59 a gallon at two Costco stores, one in Gig Harbor and the other in Tacoma near Tacoma Mall.

Weyerhaeuser's board of directors has elected Charles Williamson, 60, to become non-executive chairman after the planned retirement of Steven Rogel, 65, on April 15.

Williamson joined Weyerhaeuser's board in 2004. He's been the lead director since 2006 and is the chairman of the executive committee. He also is on the compensation and finance committees.

"I am honored to succeed Steve as chairman," Williamson said Monday in a statement released by the company. "I look forward to working closely with Dan Fulton and his team as we continue to position Weyerhaeuser for the future and enhance the value of our shareholders' investment."

Fulton was named CEO and a member of the board in April 2008.

Williamson was the executive vice president of Chevron Texaco Corporation when he retired in December 2005. He also is a director of Talisman Energy Inc. and PACCAR Inc.

Rogel was the first Weyerhaeuser chief executive hired outside the company and only the second leader without ties to the Weyerhaeuser family. He was recruited from Portland-based Willamette Industries in 1997 to replace Jack Creighton, who retired after 27 years with the company. Rogel went after his former employer in a hostile takeover in 2001 and won.

Anyone who tried to fly through Sea-Tac Airport during the snow-plagued holidays knows first hand the havoc those storms dealt to flight schedules.

Now a Portland firm, FlightStats.com, has put those delays into numbers.

The results aren't pretty. Sea-Tac Airport ranked 48th on FlightStat's list of 50 world airports for on-time arrivals.

Just 54.9 percent of Sea-Tac's flights arrived on time last month. Only Newark's Liberty Airport and Rome's airport were worse.

At the top of the list of world airports was Tokyo's Haneda with 86.39 percent of flights arriving on time.

Sea-Tac's airport's two dominant carriers, Alaska
Airlines and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, ranked near the bottom of the airline rank for on-time arrivals in December.

Alaska ranked 30th among 37 domestic carriers, and Horizon, usually among the top carriers in on-time performance, ranked 36th. Only Midwest Airlines ranked lower.

Just 58.39 percent of Alaska's flights wereon time last month. At Horizon, the on-time arrival rate was 54.01 percent, according to FlightStats.

During the worst of the winter weather, bad weather conditions and a shortage of deicing fluid shut down Portland's airport at times and cut Sea-Tac's flights by 60 percent.

Sea-Tac is a hub airport for both airlines.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines will paint one of its Boeing 737-400 aircraft with a design conceived by a 16-year-old Sitka, Alaska artist to commemorate the state's 50th anniversary.

The new plane will join a handful of other specially-planted aircraft in the company's 114-plane fleet.

Alaska has planes painted in a salmon design, in Disney designs, in a Boeing corporate livery and in a design advertising its airline Web site, Alaskaair.com.

The new design was picked from among thousands submitted by school children in Alaska. The winner, Hannah Hamberg, is an 11th grader in Sitka as well as an artist, cheerleader and community volunteer.

She and her design were honored over the weekend in ceremonies in Anchorage with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska Airlines executives.

Her final design depicts a ferry, a native Alaska canoe, a bear and a whale as well as a sled dogs.

India has signed an agreement to buy $2.1 billion worth of Boeing maritime patrol aircraft.

Those aircraft, militarized versions of the Boeing's popular 737 single-aisle passenger jet, are built on a special assembly line at Boeing's Renton plant.

The first of the eight aircraft India ordered is expected to be delivered in 2013.

The new aircraft, to be called the P-8I, is similar to the P-8A ordered by the U.S. Navy.

The aircraft features advanced radars and submarine detection electronics and a bomb bay for carrying weapons.

The Indian order resulted from a competition to replace that country's Soviet-made patrol aircraft.

The Indian military is poised to order some $60 billion in new equipment including 126 fighter jets, to modernize its military capabilities.