The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.
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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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In what has become a predictable event come Friday, regulators closed a pair of banks today – one each in Nevada and Illinois.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced this afternoon that Security Savings Bank of Henderson, Nev. and Heritage Community Bank, of Glenwood, Ill. were shuttered by local regulators and the federal agency.
In Nevada, the FDIC has entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of Nevada in Las Vegas to assume all deposits of Security Savings.
The two offices of Security Savings Bank will reopen on Monday as branches of Bank of Nevada, the FDIC said. As of December 31, Security Savings had total assets of approximately $238.3 million and total deposits of $175.2 million. Bank of Nevada did not pay a premium to acquire the deposits.
The FDIC has been appointed receiver at Heritage Community in Illinois. The agency entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with MB Financial Bank, N.A., of Chicago to assume Heritage Community’s deposits. The four offices of Heritage will reopen as branches of MB Financial Bank on Saturday.
As of December 5, Heritage had total assets of $232.9 million and total deposits of $218.6 million. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, including those from brokers, MB Financial Bank agreed to purchase approximately $230.5 million in assets at a discount of $14.5 million. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition, according to the announcement.
The business slowdown has finally touched traffic at Sea-Tac Airport.
The airport this week reported its January passenger traffic was down 5.86 percent in January compared with the same month in 2008. Some 2.15 million passengers passed through the airport last month.
The traffic decline comes after Sea-Tac set a new record of passenger traffic last year, more than 32 million passengers.
International passenger traffic was down considerably more than domestic with international traffic dropping 10.88 percent. Domestic traffic fell 5.27 percent.
Still, Sea-Tac traffic reductions are less than some U.S. airports. Traffic at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport declined 15.7 percent in January.
Tacoma's J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. will launch a new tugboat from its construction ways on the Thea Foss Waterway early Saturday morning.
The 98-foot-long tug, built for Vancouver, B.C.'s Seaspan International Ltd., is powered by two 3,000-horsepower diesel engines driving two swiveling thrusters.
The tug, the M/V Seaspan Resolution, will carry 45,000 gallons of fuel and nearly 3,600 gallons of water.
The launch is scheduled at 6 a.m. to take advantage of favorable tide conditions. Martinac's shipyard is located on the east side of the Foss Waterway, just north of South 15th Street.
The launching should be visible from the public esplanade on the west side of the waterway.
Hometown carrier Alaska Airlines will be the principal sponsor of the Seafair Torchlight Parade this summer, replacing rival Southwest Airlines, which had held the title spot for several years.
The 2-mile parade, now called "Alaska Airlines Torchlight Parade at Seafair," will be held July 25 in downtown Seattle.
The parade, the largest nighttime event in the Northwest, is expected to draw about 300,000 spectators.
Alaska and its partner airline, Horizon Air, are headquartered in the city of SeaTac, just south of Sea-Tac Airport.
Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Europe's biggest discount airline, Ryanair, says the carrier is considering charging passengers for restroom access while flying.
But a company spokesman discounted the possibility saying O'Leary, a plain-speaking, fun-loving manager, sometimes just makes things up.
The airline has no firm plans to put coin slots in airliner restroom doors, said the spokesman.
Ryanair derives much of its income from sales of extra services. The airline, for instance, sells transportation from its sometimes distant airports to city centers. It charges extra from desirable seats, and on-board refreshment.
The company sells advertising on its tray tables and sells the exterior of some of its aircraft as flying billboards.
