Karin Walker-Rasmas opened FoxFire Salon & Spa in her home in 1984 as a one-woman enterprise. She eventually moved around to two other locations, including the current building she bought in 2001 at 1912 65th Ave. W.

The salon, which now employs roughly 40 full-time and part-time workers, celebrates its 25th anniversary Feb. 14.

"We'd like to say, 'Thank you,' to all our customers," said Topie Castaneda, general manager.

The anniversary celebration includes an open house, double points on the salon's rewards program and complimentary skin and make-up consultations on Feb. 14. In addition, customers get 15 percent off retail prices on all Aveda products from Feb. 14-21, Castaneda said.

For move information, visit foxfiresalon.com

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded an $850,000 grant today to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to help reduce diesel emissions at the ports of Tacoma and Seattle.

The money will help retrofit 84 pieces of cargo handling equipment at the ports with diesel particulate and other types of filters, replace old trucks with new ones and install oxidation catalysts on two top loaders, according to the clean air agency.

"By cutting diesel emissions from heavy duty engines at our ports these retrofits and engine replacements will help us clear the air and protect more people from the hazards of diesel exhaust and fine particulates," said Michelle Pirzadeh, the EPA's acting regional administrator, in a news release.

The clean air agency reports that cargo handling equipment and off-highway trucks at the two ports emit almost 80 tons of diesel particulate matter per year.

The retrofit project will "greatly reduce" those emissions, the agency says, help keep the Puget Sound region within federal clean air standards and help the ports meet their own pollution reduction goals under the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy.

The ports are providing an additional $200,000 toward the project and the clean air agency is kicking in $118,000.

Tacoma's Russell Investments will cut 20 percent of its staff of 2,100 workers worldwide, the company told its workers in a brief memorandum this afternoon.

The staff reductions will occur over the next 11 months.

A Russell spokesman, Steve Claiborne, said the company hasn't yet provided details about how the reductions will happen or where.

"“That statement is all we’re announcing today,” he said.

The investment management company with its headquarters in Tacoma employs 1,100 workers downtown. If the cutbacks are applied evenly to all of Russell's worldwide operations, more than 200 workers in Russell's Tacoma headquarters will leave the company.

Those workers are relatively high paid, many making over $100,000 a year when bonuses are considered.

Fortune Magazine named Russell number 30 on its list of the "100 Best Places to Work" in 2007, but the company fell off the list last year.

The company, which has suffered setbacks in the last year that mirror the trouble in the financial community, named a new chief executive last week.

Andrew Doman came to Russell from McKinsey & Co.'s London-based financial services management operation where he was one of the founders. He takes charge Feb 2.

Doman replaces John Schlifske who assumed the chief executive's job last June after the departure of Craig Ueland. Schlifske will remain Russell president until Doman assumes that job in addition to his CEO post.

The company has suffered along with rest with the economy, collapsing its hedge fund business last year after large losses.

Employees have known since late fall that the company was reassessing its business and was considering staff reductions.

Russell was also scheduled to make a decision early this year about whether to move its headquarters to another Puget Sound city or whether to remain in Tacoma and move to another building.

With the staff reductions, finding a larger headquarters may not be a priority on Russell's "to-do" list. One local real estate broker recently noted that the company was preparing to put some of its satellite office space downtown up for lease.

The company, owned by Milwaukee's Northwestern Mutual Life, has been tight-lipped about its plans.

Russell is perhaps best known to the public for its stock market indexes, the Russell 1000, 2000 and 3000.

The company's main business is offering large pension funds and other investment vehicles advice about how to best invest their funds.

Here’s one more thing to worry about, what with this achingly distressed economy. It’s about insurance.

Or the lack thereof.

The Northwest Insurance Council is reporting that the Insurance Research Council says the number of uninsured motorists may rise “substantially” in Washington over the next few years.

A study released last week – “Uninsured Motorists, 2008 Edition” available at www.nwinsurance.org/ircuimreport.pdf – shows that unemployment is expected to trigger a record spike in the level of motorists who drive without insurance.

The 2007 rate in Washington stood at nearly 16 percent, 10th nighest in the nation. (The national average was 13.8 percent, expected to climb to 16.1 percent by 2010. New Mexico recorded the country’s highest rate in 2007, at 29 percent.)

The report claims that an increase of 1 percent in the unemployment rate corresponds to an increase of 0.75 percent in the number of uninsured motorists.

The moral is: This may be a good time to review your own uninsured motorist coverage.

As to a few ways to save money on insurance, the Northwest Council offers the following tips:
• Comparison shop. Prices for identical coverage may vary.
• Ask for higher deductibles. Increasing a deductible from $200 to $500 could reduce collision and comprehensive cost by 15 to 30 percent.
• Buy your home and auto policies from the same insurer. Some companies may offer a discount.
• Ask about discounts.

Boeing acknowledged today that it plans to proceed with test flights on its new 787 Dreamliners without replacing 100 percent of the temporary or improperly installed fasteners on the test aircraft.

Fasteners have been an issue since the time that Boeing's partners delivered the first major sections of the plane two years ago.

First, Boeing had to replace temporary fasteners that had been used to hold the plane together because the permanent fasteners were in short supply.

Then, the company found that some fasteners had been improperly installed, so those had to be replaced.

Now Boeing says that it's been unable to replace all of those fasteners that are in places that are difficult to reach. Doing so would delay the flight tests for the planes further, something the company doesn't want to do.

Boeing says the fasteners that still don't meet specifications are in areas not critical to safety or structural integrity over the short run. Those fasteners will be replaced after the test flying before the planes are turned over to the airlines that ordered them.

Boeing is predicting the 787's flight will come sometime in the first quarter of this year. Some insiders say the company is targeting late April.

Boeing plans a flight test schedule that should conclude by the end of the year.

Expect to hear more at Wednesday's fourth quarter earnings call.

Have you recently been laid off or lost your job? Are finding yourself changing careers or going back to school as a result -- perhaps looking for a more recession-resistant industry?

If so, we want to talk you for a story.

Please contact Kelly Kearsley at kelly.kearsley@thenewstribune.com or call her at 253-597-8573.