Seattle-Tacoma International Airport closed its longest runway early today for a long-overdue rebuilding.

The runway, parts of which date from the airport's 1947 opening, will be completely rebuilt and equipped with modern lighting and safety systems. Among those safety systems will be a light system that provides airline crews with visual "stop" and "go" signals before they guide their aircraft across the runway to reach the terminal or more distant runways.

The opening of the airport's $1.1 billion third runway in November enabled the airport to shut down its oldest and longest runway.

The 11,901-foot-long runway is the easternmost of the airport's three runways. The remaining two north-south runways are 9,426 feet and 8,500 feet long.

The runway will be under construction through the summer. Its reopening is set for September.

A Tacoma man, John H. Min, lived a lavish lifestyle while raising more than $6 million from investors in a fraudulent investment scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged today.

Min bought a $70,000 Mercedes luxury car, sent his children to private schools and took elaborate vacations using the proceeds of the alleged scam, the government claimed.

Min focused on churches and their members and senior citizens as potential investors while claiming that his Dime Financial Group benefited charitable groups in developing countries, charging documents claimed.

He told potential investors that he was able to generate extraordinary rates of return by using his expertise in foreign exchange markets, the SEC claimed.

Attempts to contact Min were unsuccessful this afternoon.

In court filings in a civil case filed by some of his investors in Pierce County Superior Court, Min declared that his investors were made fully aware of the risks of currency trading.

Their losses, he said, were caused by many of the same global economic developments that have caused major banks and financial institutions worldwide to report huge investment declines.

Min said that he believes that the evidence will show "that I had no intention to defruad or misrepresent anything, and it always my hope and desire that we could provide real benefits to our customers."

"This case serves as an unfortunate reminder that investors need to be wary of possible fraud schemes even when the person offering the investment appears to be part of a humanitarian, religious or other community of trust," said Marc Fagel, Director of the SEC's San Francisco Regional Office.

"Min also illicitly used investor funds to bankroll a failed film venture about evangelical churches, and to pay expenses relating to the operation of the fraud. When Min did actually invest the funds, his trading record was abysmal. He lost more than $5 million on the Forex market, according to the SEC's complaint," the government claimed in a news release.

Min has also been charged in federal court with criminal violations in connection with the same conduct.

Seattle-area home prices were down 15 percent in January compared to the same month a year ago, according to data released today.

At the same time national home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record, and the pace continues to accelerate. There were a handful of battered metro areas where price declines slowed, The Associated Press reports.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by a record 19 percent from January 2008. It was the largest decline since the index started in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.4 percent, also a new record.

All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, with 13 posting new annual records. Prices dropped by more than 10 percent in 14 cities.

"There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data," David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, said in a prepared statement. "Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path."

In the Cleveland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. metro areas -- all ravaged by foreclosures -- annual price declines eased somewhat. Meanwhile, six cities, including Seattle, Charlotte, Minneapolis and New York, showed smaller price declines in January compared with December.

From The Associated Press:

Microsoft Corp.'s digital encyclopedia, Encarta, might have pushed its printed competitors off the shelves in some homes. Now Encarta itself has fallen victim to changes in technology, made all but obsolete by the likes of Web search and Wikipedia.

Microsoft said it will shut down the online version of Encarta in October and will discontinue sales of the PC software by June.

Encarta was first sold to computer users as a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia in 1993. Critics questioned some of Microsoft's editorial decisions, including the fact that Encarta's dictionary had a photo of Bill Gates and not one of John F. Kennedy. But the electronic knowledge base was an early example of the advantages of digital content over the printed word. Encarta was quickly searchable, and could pack more images, plus video and sound.

Encarta gained a further edge over bound volumes in the early days of the Web because it could pull down updated content while its printed competitors' articles grew stale.

But CD-ROM reference materials quickly turned to relics as high-speed Internet access spread, Web search improved and ventures like Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia compiled and constantly updated by volunteers, gained credibility. Microsoft's free and premium versions of Encarta suffered.
"People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past," the Redmond, Wash.-based company said in a statement on its Web site.

The company said customers with subscriptions to its premium Encarta service will get a refund for fees paid beyond April 30, but will be able to access the content with their user names and passwords until the service goes off-line. Encarta Japan will shut down on Dec. 31.

A record 1,000 employers are now participating in a state program aimed at helping companies minimize layoffs.

That's more participants that at any other time in the program's 25-year history, according to a news release from the Employment Security Department.

In addition to the record number of employers, the Shared-Work Program is now serving more than 30,000 workers.

A year ago, there were 145 participating employers with about 5,700 employees.

Under the program, an employer can temporarily reduce employees’ hours and qualified workers may receive partial unemployment benefits to replace a portion of their lost wages. The program is not for slowdowns that are an expected part of an industry or business.

“Shared Work is designed to help employers and their workers ride out tough times together until times get better. We hope that even more employers will apply for this program,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.

To keep up with the demand, Employment Security has added staff to process applications and to answer the program’s toll-free hotline.

Under current law, at least 10 percent of the employees in a work unit must participate in a shared-work plan, and employees can receive benefits for up to 26 weeks. But beginning April 5, any number of employees may participate and benefits may be paid for the entire claim, as long as there is an available balance.

If you've been driving the borderlands between Tacoma's Stadium District and Hilltop, then you've likely seen the construction going on at the campus of MultiCare Health System.

The big building going up, slated to open next year, will principally contain a new emergency department and cancer treatment center.

For a neat glance at how it's all going to look, MultiCare has developed a virtual tour. Click here to see it.

Bombardier Inc., the Canadian planemaker, has signed a sales agreement worth a reported $1.44 billion for 20 of its new C series aircraft with an Irish leasing company.

The twin-engine aircraft are to be delivered to Lease Corp. International Financing beginning in 2013.

The C series aircraft will compete with the smaller capacity versions of Boeing's 737 and Airbus's A320 series of aircraft.

The new planes feature fuel-saving geared turbofan jet engines from Pratt & Whitney.

The order is the second for Bombardier in recent weeks. Germany's Lufthansa signed an order for 30 C series aircraft three weeks ago.

Despite ample supplies of gas, the price of regular unleaded continues to rise gradually in Tacoma and in the country.

The average price for a gallon of regular hit $2.259 in Tacoma today according to TacomaGasPrices.com. That's 10 cents more per gallon than a week ago.

Nationwide, gas prices reached $2.03 a gallon today, up about 8 cents from a week ago.

But the good news is that that Tacoma area price is nearly $1.13 a gallon less than the same week last year.

The lowest price in the Tacoma area today was a Puyallup's Costco store which was selling a gallon for $2.05.

Expect to see gasoline prices to rise through spring as refineries shut down capacity to modify their processes to produce summer-grade gasoline.

Energy analysts expect peak prices in late spring will be substantially below last summer's $4.35 a gallon because of the recession and the reduced demand it brings.

Bill Ayer, chairman of SeaTac's Alaska Air Group, received compensation worth more than $2 million last year according to a government filing by his airline holding company.

Ayer heads a company that owns both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.

His total compensation last year was $2,022,664 compared with his 2007 compensation of $1,945,736. Those total compensation figures include a base salary plus various stock and stock option awards whose value varies greatly based on the current price of the airline holding company's stock.

The Alaska board of directors has maintained Ayer's base salary at $360,000 a year for the last three years. That base salary is less than the $551,375 average base compensation for the CEOs of rival major U.S. airlines.

According to Alaska's proxy statement, Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden was paid compensation totaling $924,138 last year. Glenn Johnson, the airline company's chief financial officer, received $1,413,090.

Jeff Pinneo, President of Horizon Air, was paid $858,746 in 2008.

Former Alaska Executive Vice President for Marketing and Flight, Gregg Saretsky, earned $1,701,073. Saretsky resigned effective Dec. 31 last year.

His going away compensation package included $32,308 in payment for unused vacation and a $12,000 payment in lieu of outplacement services. He was scheduled to receive separation payments of $23,350 per month for 17 months beginning January 2009, and a monthly consulting payment of $31,817 per month for 12 months beginning January 2009.

He also received a payment of $36,000 instead of medical coverage for a period of two years following his departure.

When SONIC, America's Drive In, opens its first restaurant in a new market, the backups just to get into the parking lot extend well over an hour.

So those of you who travel Meridian Avenue south of Puyallup at 136th Street East might want to circle April 27 on your calenders.

SONIC will open at 10 a.m. for Day 1 of SONIC in the Puget Sound region, Operations Manager Jake Nelson said today.

Apparently, folks around here don't just want to eat there.

"We have about 250 interviews scheduled already and have received close to 600 applications to date," Nelson told me in an e-mail. "We are looking to hire about 120 people and will continue interviewing thru April 19th if needed."

The skating, cooking and service training starts April 20. SONIC's corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City sends in 20 "A-Team" trainers from around the country.

"Due to the volume of employees that we intend to hire, we will have up to three sessions to ensure that we get everybody through," Nelson said.

Raise your hand if you plan to get in line for a SuperSONIC cheeseburger and cherry limeade April 27.

With a brief nod to the realities of lost business and trade in the national economy, leaders of Pierce County's Economic Development Board preferred to spend their annual luncheon highlighting 10 economic successes that have bucked the trend.

"We all know in our hearts and our minds that we’ll make it through this period. But it is a particularly tough time," said Bruce Kendall, president and CEO of the EDB for Tacoma-Pierce County.

"In 2008, we had to work extra hard to achieve" a return on your investment, Kendall told nearly 500 people gathered at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center today.

Kendall's list of 10 trend busters included:

=> Read more!

The Fresno Bee is reporting that bidders have come forward to buy department-store chain Gottschalks, which has filed for bankruptcy. Click here to read the full story.

Here's part of the Fresno report:

By Tim Sheehan / The Fresno Bee

Sunset has not yet fallen on Gottschalks, as at least one suitor has proposed a purchase of the Fresno-based department-store chain.

In a filing with the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court today, Gottschalks announced that three companies submitted bids for the 105-year-old company, one with plans to continue operating it as a “going concern.”

Shandong Commercial Group General Corporation, based in Shandong, China, was named as the going concern bidder. Details of its proposal — including whether it involves the prospect of closing stores or downsizing operations — were not disclosed this afternoon.

An auction for Gottschalks’ assets will be held Monday in Delaware.

If you’ve received less than stellar service on a Dell computer bought within the past four years, you may be eligible for a refund if you act before April 13.

Dell reached a deal in January with attorneys general from 34 states that, without admitting fault, they would pay up to $1.5 million in restitution to customers who experienced an “obnoxious pattern of communication breakdowns” according to Kristin Alexander, spokeswoman for the attorney general of Washington.

“The deals that Dell made just didn’t always compute,” she said of allegations that many customers never received promised rebates and were charged higher interest rates than originally discussed.

Dell owners who’ve had issues with financing, technical support, warranty repairs or cashing in a rebate must contact the attorney general’s office before April 13 to be reimbursed for money they can prove was lost.

Consumers who have filed so far have received an average of $250 per claim, totaling $10,680 in Washington.

Alexander said the state expects more Dell users could have money waiting for them, but time is running out.

“The point is we haven’t paid out as much as we believe people are eligible for,” she said. “We don’t know how many and are trying to get the word out.”

More information about how to apply is available at the attorney general’s Web site. Claims can be downloaded here. Consumers can also call 1-800-551-4636 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays to request a form by mail.

The amount of money applicants will receive depends on the amount claimed and the number of total recipients. Checks should be received by mid-summer. Alexander said Dell also made changes to its problematic policies as a result of this settlement.

Thinking about a little insurance fraud to boost up your income? Well, think again. And again.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is out today with the cautionary tale of one Michael C. Madsen of Bellevue, who “learned the hard way that insurance fraud does not pay.”

Madsen was convicted in King County earlier this month for filing a fraudulent insurance claim. It’s a class C felony.

We’re not talking Bernie Madoff here. Madsen was convicted after claiming the loss of a DVD system. His insurance company, State Farm, “became suspicious when Madsen filed the second claim and began investigating.”

The Insurance Commissioner’s Special Investigations Unit became involved. The unit has the authority to seek criminal charges in cases of insurance fraud.

But justice was kind. A first offender, Madsen received a sentence of 31 days for his crime. He was given credit for one day served and the remaining 30 days were converted to community service, according to the commissioner’s Web site. Madsen will also be required to pay restitution to State Farm.

For more information about insurance fraud – to report it, avoid it or learn more about it – visit www.insurance.wa.gov or click here.

Downtown Tacoma’s Sea Grill Restaurant at 1498 Pacific Ave. will serve its last meal over the weekend.

Owned by Mackay Restaurant Group in Seattle, the grill will close its doors after serving dinner this Sunday, General Manager Mike Neumann said.

Neumann said the restaurant’s chef Matt Brandsey will make more information available in a release this afternoon.

UPDATE:

In a statement from Mackay Restaurant Group, COO and CEO, Chad and Paul Mackay said the restaurant is closing because they were unable to work out new terms with their landlords "during these challenging economic times."

The statement said they will try to place employees from Sea Grill at other Mackay restaurants.

The Mackays said El Gaucho Tacoma, also managed by the restaurant group, has seen an increase in first quarter earnings over last year and will remain in business.

The recent closure of the UPS Brown Store in the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center is a symptom of the store’s inaccessibility to drivers on a one-way portion of Commerce Street, said Mike Combs, Public Assembly Facilities Director for Tacoma.
Less traffic to the convention center from out-of-towners didn’t help either.
“I believe it’s just the economy and that business was down,” Combs said Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate, because it served a great purpose for the convention center.”
The store was the only retail business located within the center, though its storefront was accessible from the outside as well.
A Starbucks across the street from the center also closed late last year.
Combs said the two closures aren’t necessarily related to or reflective of the center’s success thus far.
“The center is actually doing fine, even with this economy,” he said. “Since people aren’t traveling as much, we have a lot of local business, but, unfortunately, that doesn’t turn into a stay.”
Stays in nearby hotels, visits to downtown restaurants and shops and other revenue generators are the economic drivers of the center, which is currently being used more for local meetings than by visitors.
The UPS store space will be made into a meeting room, which Combs said will continue to generate revenue for the center.
Combs said he’s hopeful the center still will bring travelers — and their money — into Tacoma, though they might have to wait out the economic storm a little longer.
“I’m confident in the convention center. All the centers are suffering, but who isn’t?” he asked. “We’re just hoping that it turns around sooner rather than later.”

A proposal to make it easier for U.S. workers to join unions could have consequences for Boeing.

FedEx Corp., the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company, said Tuesday it may not buy 30 more Boeing Co. 777 freighters should federal law be changed to make it easier for its employees to join a union, Bloomberg News reports.

More from Bloomberg: FedEx in January exercised an option to buy 15 of the planes during the next decade and said in March 20 regulatory filing that it obtained another option for an additional 15. At the list price, 30 of the aircraft are valued at $7.7 billion.

Following through on those purchases depends on FedEx employees continuing to be under the Railway Labor Act, the company said in the filing. That law, which covers FedEx workers because the company was founded as an airline, requires a national vote if employees want union representation.

Legislation approved by a U.S. House panel on March 5 would make it easier for drivers at FedEx to vote locally to join unions, by placing the company under the National Labor Relations Act.

The Teamsters have been trying to win representation of FedEx drivers for years.

"If the regulatory and congressional environment remains hostile, there is virtual uncertainty over how weíd proceed," FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said today. The change would "stymie competition and create an economic roadblock to recovery," he said.

"FedEx is an important Boeing customer and we understand the company's concerns about the proposed legislation," said Jim Proulx, a spokesman for the aircraft maker. Chicago-based Boeing hasn't taken a position on the bill provision that would affect FedEx workers, he said.

Boeing hasn't added FedEx's first group of 15 options to its firm backlog because of the provision, and the second group has no definitive date, he said. FedEx this year begins taking delivery of an initial group of 15 of the 777s that aren't affected by the new contingency.

Federal and state regulators today tagged Everett-based Frontier Bank with a strict list of changes to management and lending policies.

Issuing what is known as an “order to cease and desist,” the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and state Department of Financial Institutions ordered Frontier to more closely monitor its loan portfolio and regularly report any progress or developments.

Bellingham-based Horizon Bank received a similar order earlier this month. A cease-and-desist order can be seen as in indication that regulators have found a bank’s policies or financial situation such that increased scrutiny is necessary.

In a statement today, according to Bloomberg News, Patrick Fahey, Frontier chairman and CEO, said “the bank has already begun working to address items cited in the examination and intends to fully comply with the terms of the agreement.”

The bank has entered into a stipulation and has consented to the order “without admitting or denying the alleged charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices and violation of law and/or regulations,” according to the regulators.

Fahey said the agreement will not impact depositors. All eligible accounts remain fully insured by the FDIC.

In the order, regulators cited certain “unsafe and unsound” practices recorded in an examination last July. Those include management that was detrimental to sound operations, a board that offered insufficient oversight, inadequate capital and loan reserves, a large quantity of poor quality loans, low earnings, and inadequate provision for liquidity.

For a look at the full order, visit www.frontierbank.com or click here.

Frontier stock closed down 14 cents at $1.35 in Tuesday trading. The stock is trading down 69 percent year-to-date, according to Bloomberg.

Tacoma-based Simpson Investment Co. has promoted Allan Trinkwald to the position of president. He will assume the office on April 1, according to an announcement today.

The current president, Ray Tennison, will become Simpson’s vice chairman and serve as an adviser the to board of directors.

Trinkwald began his career with Simpson in 2000 as chief financial officer. As chief operating officer, he oversaw operations at Simpson Door, Simpson Lumber and Simpson Tacoma Kraft.

“I think it’s a natural transition – to bring in a new leader and look at the long term mission of the company,” said Dave McEntee, Simpson vice president of operational services and external affairs, earlier today.

McEntee said he does not foresee any major changes in Simpson’s operations or mission with Trinkwald’s ascension. “It’s a challenging time for Allan, given the economy. You might even call it a depression in the forest-products industry.”

The promotion, he said, indicates “the ownership is showing strong support for the team that has been in place – and that includes Ray, Allan and the rest of the executive staff. Allan is a very collaborative, open guy. He really likes ideas. He’s a very strategic-thinking person, with a lot of experience in our industry.”

Tennison, known as a community leader as well as a successful executive, has held the presidency for some 20 years, McEntee said, “and he’s looking for other things to do with the company.”

Business at Simpson, as with other forest-products companies in the Northwest, has lately suffered with the negative economy. Still, McEntee said he remains hopeful.

“We see the inventory of new homes going down, finally. That’s a good sign. The first thing is we have to work through the glut of new-home inventory. We’re hopeful that that might be an early indicator. Maybe next year, third quarter, we might be able to see a bump in new starts and remodels.”

Simpson sawmills, he said, “are curtailed in terms of operating hours, but it’s not a story that’s unfamiliar. We are working diligently to keep our costs down, and remain competitive. We’ve got our head down and we’re working hard.”

Sporting-goods retailer G.I. Joe's Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in early March, received court approval of a $51.2 million loan to help fund operations while it restructures, Bloomberg News reports

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Delaware, approved the financing from existing lender Wells Fargo Retail Finance LLC, according to papers filed Monday. Gross set an April 2 hearing for final approval of the loan. The judge previously granted interim approval of the financing on March 9.

G.I. Joe's cited the global recession and a drought in the Pacific Northwest as reasons for the bankruptcy filing. The company, based in Wilsonville, Ore., listed both assets and debt of $100 million to $500 million in Chapter 11 documents, according to Bloomberg.

The company operates stores in Washington including in Lakewood, Puyallup, Federal Way and Kent.

The state's ports may be hurting now, but a new report forecasts that marine cargo will increase 37 percent by 2030.

"Once the world economy picks up -- and it will -- there’s an awful lot of opportunity out there for our region," Eric Johnson, executive director of the Washington Public Ports Association, said today.

WPPA and the state's Department of Transportation released their marine cargo forecast today in an event at the Port of Seattle. The forecast is done every five years.

In addition to anticipating growth, the forecast calls out several road and rail improvements needed to meet the state's future cargo needs -- including a few in Tacoma.

First, the predictions. Authored by BST Associates out of Kenmore, the report forecasts that:

- Puget Sound ports will handle 9.7 million TEUs - twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard measure of a shipping container - by 2030. Container traffic in the Puget Sound grew from 2.9 million containers in 2002 to 3.9 million in 2007.

- Auto imports will see a lot of growth. The report forecasts that the state will import 1.5 million cars and trucks in 2030, up from 690,000 in 2007.

- Grain shipments will grow modestly and break bulk - such as metal, forest products and other cargo - will grow slowly.

- Log exports will remain flat after decades of decline.

BST Associates reports that previous versions of the marine cargo forecast were "conservative or close to accurate," with the 2007 predicted container volumes within 3 percent to 4 percent of forecasts made in 1995, 1999 and 2004.

Most of the container cargo enters and leaves the state by train. But some work will need to be done for the state's transportation infrastructure to handle all the boxes, according to the report.

Tacoma claims two of the recommended nine rail improvement projects, including preventing a possible choke point for cargo at the train tunnel under Pt. Defiance.

The forecast predicts that train traffic on that line will likely exceed that track's capacity by 2018.

The project list also includes improving Bullfrog Junction in Tacoma's Tideflats.

Johnson acknowledges that finding money for these projects is going to be tough as the state wrestles with a massive budget short fall.

But he said such investments will nurture international trade and the jobs supported by it.

Meanwhile cargo volume is down at ports around the state.

"They're complete victims of what's happened to the economy," said Paul Bingham, an economist with Global Insight.

Global Insight provides global economic forecasts and the company assisted BST Associates in creating the state's Marine Cargo Forecast.

In Tacoma, the port handled almost 17 percent fewer containers in the first two months of this year compared to the same time last year, according to the port's Web site.

Grain, autos and break bulk cargo were also down in February when compared to last year.

Bingham said he expects imports to start coming back near the end of this year. Exports will take longer to recover.

Mountain View Funeral Home and Memorial Park has been sold to NorthStar Memorial Group (NSMG) of Houston, according to its former CEO and owner Cindy Thompson.
Thompson said her family decided to sell the business because there is no one within the family to take over the company at this point.
“I’m fourth generation and there’s no one in the fifth generation that could be the next owner,” Thompson said Friday afternoon. “There was really no succession plan within the family that was realistic, and that made us look at other options.”
She said they decided on NSMG because of the employees’ experience and dedication to the communities they serve.
According to the NSMG Web site, retaining local management and experts is key to meeting the needs of the communities they enter.
Thompson said she will continue to be involved in the operation, though not as an owner, and that the staff otherwise has remained the same since the sale was made final Feb. 26.
“I don’t think (customers) have seen a difference in how the company has been serving them” since the change in ownership, she said. “We really felt there was a lot of commonality between their business philosophy and our own.”
NSMG is not a publicly traded company, which Thompson said will ensure company decisions about private matters are made with long-term considerations.
NSMG's operation of multiple mortuaries and cemeteries across the country employs 550 people and generates $34.6 million in yearly revenues, according to indeed.com, a job search engine.

The University of Washington Tacoma's Milgard School of Business today released the winners of its eighth annual business leadership awards.

- The Non-profit Business Leader of the Year is David Ottey, the former director of the Emergency Food Network.

- The Small Business Leader of the Year is Brian R. Forth, president and founder of Sitecrafting, Inc., a Tacoma Web site design company.

- The Business Leader of the Year is William L. Matthaei,president and CEO of the Roman Meal Company, which produces bread and other whole grain products.

- And the Lifetime Achievement award goes to James A. Milgard, retired from Milgard Manufacturing.

Alaska Airlines said Monday it expects today to resume all flights to and from Anchorage, provided conditions caused by the eruptions of Mount Redoubt improve.

The airline on Monday canceled 19 flights to Bethel, Deadhorse, Kodiak, Nome, Kotzebue and Barrow. The flights were canceled as a safety precaution related to the high-altitude ash created by the volcano’s eruptions near Anchorage, the airline said.

Travelers were advised to check the status of flights at alaskaair.com or by calling 800-ALASKAAIR. Passengers who had tickets on any canceled flights can rebook by March 30 without a penalty or apply for a refund.

Precautions and continuity plans were put in place as early as January 2009 in the event of a volcanic eruption, the airline said.

Aircraft in Anchorage have been serviced and wrapped in protective sealant. In addition, safety masks, goggles and other supplies are on-hand to protect customers and employees from the volcanic fallout.

Alaska Airlines operates up to 50 flights a day into Anchorage and two fights daily to Kodiak.

— C.R. Roberts and Brian Everstine, The News Tribune

After searching since the beginning of the year, the board of directors of World Trade Center Tacoma this morning selected and hired an executive director to replace interim director James McMahan.

The new executive director, Anthony Hemstad, is a Western Washington native and 1985 graduate of the University of Puget Sound.

The son of a prominent UPS law professor, Hemstad matriculated through the Univeristy of London School of Oriental and Asian Studies, where he specialized in Japanese industrial policy. More recently, Hemstad earned an MBA at the University of Chicago.

Speaking shortly after accepting the position, Hemstad recalled his work an aide to Washington senators Dan Evans and Slade Gorton, and his life in Eastern Europe, from 1990 through 2002, teaching politics and government and working in the private sector as a lobbyist and consultant.

Hemstad returned to the Northwest in 2002 and most recently served as city manager in Maple Valley. He lives in Kent with wife, daughter and son. The family also own a dog which responds only to commands spoken in Czech, a language which Hemstad speaks.

“He has a remarkable international background. We felt he was a great catch,” said Marlo DeLange, WTCT board chairwoman. “He’s well versed in the political arena, fundraising, and he’s comfortable with challenges. He’s been an entrepreneur and run his own business in Eastern Europe.”

She said she and the trade center board expect Hemstad will focus on the celebration of international business and trade, promotion of international trade, the provision of information about trade, and the recognition and hosting of both inbound and outbound international trade delegations.

DeLange said Hemstad was a clear choice within a field of some 30 applicants to the position. “We found not only his background very impressive, but it was his enthusiasm for the potential of this organization that we were impressed with,” she said.

Hemstad said he expects to spotlight “the clear value-added of international trade for Pierce County companies.”

That trade, he said, “is something that can lead us out of the morass we’re in right now. It’s truly a significant benefit that companies should be exploring.”

He begins work on Monday.

Even as it continues hiring for critical medical positions, Tacoma's Franciscan Health System is laying off 30 workers and cutting the schedules of 10 more in less essential roles.

Franciscan, parent company of five South Sound hospitals, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood, St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor and Enumclaw Regional Hospital, has hired 615 new employees since Jan. 1, said Franciscan spokesman Gale Robinette.

Most of those workers, 450, are staff to the newly-opened St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor. The remaining new hires, scattered throughout the hospital network, fill essential medical positions such as nurses, surgical technicians and certified nursing assistant roles, he said.

But even a health care provider with such a big expansion on its plate must look carefully at its expenses and its staffing needs, said Robinette.

"Obviously we're in a recession, and while we're on solid financial ground, we like to be pro-active in controlling and cutting our expenditures," he said.

"We're trying to stay ahead of the economic tsunami," he said.

Many of the 30 workers who've been surplused have been in administrative support and ancillary jobs, he said.

"Those jobs that have been eliminated represent less than half of one percent of our full-time jobs," said Robinette. Franciscan employs about 6,500 workers.

Some of those laid off have found other jobs within the Franciscan Health System, he said.

About 30 positions remain vacant at St. Anthony.

DuPont-based Venture Bank will host four public gatherings within the next few weeks to address the current financial situation and its effect on community banks.

The one-hour meetings will focus on the local impact of stimulus legislation as well as the overall state of the nation's community financial institutions, according to a release today.

"Our goal is to help people understand the complex changes that have already happened in 2009 and see them from the perspective of the direct impact they are having (or could have) on our local, Main Street economy," said Jim Arneson, Venture president and CEO.

The meetings will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. as follows:
• March 24, Gig Harbor: Inn at Gig Harbor, 3211 56th St. N.W.
• March 31, Tumwater: Masonic Center, 455 North St. S.E.
• April 8, Tacoma: Cheney Stadium, 2502 S. Tyler St.
• April 15, Tumwater: Masonic Center, 455 North St. S.E.

Boeing's sixth and final test 787 Dreamliner entered production this week in Boeing's Everett plant.

Under Boeing's original schedule, that plane would have been built and flying now. It's testing phase would have been concluded a year ago.

But production and supply problems have delayed the production process by nearly two years. The first Dreamliner, rolled out for the public, in July 2007, has yet to make its first flight. That flight is now scheduled before the end of June.

Here's what Boeing had to say about the beginning of construction of the sixth plane:

The airplane, designated ZA006, will be powered with General Electric GEnx engines.

Progress continues on the fleet. The first flight test airplane, ZA001, is getting its paint touched up this week before finishing factory testing. Power was brought onto the second airplane, ZA002, in late February and build verification tests are progressing well.

Production work continues on ZA003, ZA004 and ZA005. In all, assemblies for 31 Dreamliners are currently in production throughout the supply chain.

The 787 Dreamliner has orders for 878 airplanes from 57 customers.

The U.S. State Department has put its stamp of approval on a $2.1 billion contract under which the Indian government will buy eight submarine hunting aircraft from Boeing.

The P-8I aircraft are militarized versions of the company's popular 737 airliner. The planes will be equipped with advanced submarine and ocean surveillance equipment and weaponry.

The twin-engine patrol aircraft will be built on a special assembly line in Boeing's Renton plant.

The Indian government selected the Boeing aircraft from among several proposed by aircraft makers around the world in early January.

The proposed contract calls for delivery of the first plane within four years. The Indian government has an option to purchase eight more of the aircraft.

The U.S. Navy is buying 108 similar aircraft from Boeing for its own use.

More signs that the sickened economy is making big changes in how airlines are operating emerged this week, and they're not encouraging for Airbus's huge A380 aircraft.

Airlines around the world say their overseas business is down significantly in the first two months of 2009, and they're cutting routes,frequencies and capacities between many international city pairs to cope.

Dubai's Emirates Airways this week announced that it will end service between New York and Dubai using the huge Airbus A380 aircraft and substitute smaller Boeing 777s on the route.

The A380 is a super-efficient aircraft when it operates full but when it flies with a substantial number of empty seats, its profitability falls. That's what's happening on the New York route. The 777 is also a money maker when it operates nearly full, and it's 150 seats smaller than the A380.

Emirates is moving the A380s to Toronto where they'll operate three times weekly and to Bangkok on a tourist-oriented route.

Airline industry analysts are wondering out loud whether Emirates, Airbus's biggest A380 customer, will continue taking delivery of the giant jets on their original schedule. It has 54 on order.

Meanwhile in the Los Angeles-Sydney market where Qantas has deployed A380s, a fare war has broken out as the additional capacity of those planes plus the entrance of a new competitor, V-Australia, has created a glut of seats. Qantas was advertising one-way tickets to Australia this week for $299.

Meanwhile the world's largest aircraft leasing company, International Lease Finance Corporation, isn't saying whether it will cancel its order for 10 of the big Airbus jets when it has the opportunity next January.

Air France, domiciled in Airbus's home country, France, meanwhile has postponed two A380 deliveries, and India's Kingfisher Airways has postponed its first A380 deliveries two years until 2014.

The Boeing Co. has rolled out a stealth version of its classic F-15 fighter aircraft designed to compete with newer designs from both U.S. and foreign aircraft builders.

The F-15 Silent Eagle features stealth additions such as radar absorbing coatings, weapons systems hidden within the aircraft body and canted vertical tails designed to reduce the plane's radar signature.

The modernized version of the F-15, the original model of which debuted in the '70s, is aimed at foreign customers shopping for modern fighter aircraft.

The new version of the F-15 also features new radar and electronic warfare systems that allow the pilot to jam enemy radar while still using the plane's own radar to detect opposition aircraft.

Boeing's new F-15 model is intended to keep Boeing in the fighter business beyond the normal end of the design life of the venerable fighter.

Boeing builds its two fighter aircraft, the F-18 and the F-15, at a former McDonnell Douglas plant in St. Louis. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged in 1997.

The U.S. military's newest fighters, the F-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, are built by Boeing rival Lockheed Martin. Boeing builds the wings and aft fuselage for the F-22 under contract to Lockheed Martin at a factory at Seattle's Boeing Field.

A former Weyerhaeuser Co. executive and his wife have become the first residents of a redeveloped former industrial site near Tacoma's Point Defiance Park.

Bill and Polly Blankenship's home is the first of what developer Mike Cohen hopes will be hundreds of residential units on the site of the former Asarco copper smelter. The Blankenships moved into their home last month.

Their home occupies one of 36 single-family home sites on the hill overlooking the smelter's former site. That hill was the home of the smelter's 562-foot smoke stack. Explosive demolition turned that stack into a large pile of bricks in 1993.

The smelter, which specialized in smelting high-arsenic ore for nearly a century, closed in the mid-80s.

Cohen has built four homes, two of them model homes, on "Stack Hill," and he's in the midst of building his first condominium structure, Copperline, on the flat waterfront area below "Stack Hill."

Construction of the three-story parking garage to serve that condo building is about 90 percent complete, and foundation is beginning on the multi-story residential structure, he said.

Plans for the development called Point Ruston include a commercial and retail center, a Silver Cloud hotel and more condominium structures.

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has appointed Ada M. Healey to serve as a director of the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

The news comes in a release today. According to the Fed, Healey is vice president of real estate for Vulcan, the Seattle-based corporation owned by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen.

Healey currently oversees the company's $1.8 billion development portfolio, and is portrayed by the Fed as being "instrumental in the redevelopment of nearly 60 acres the company owns" near Lake Union.

Healy has earned an undergraduate degree from Duke University and an MBA from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

She joins other Seattle board members Helvi Sandvik, William Ayer, Richard Galanti, Stan McNaughton and Carol Nelson, respectively employed by NANA Development, Alaska Air Group, Costco, PEMCO and Cascade Financial.

A 300-foot-long float designed to attract more visiting yachts and tour boats to Tacoma is nearly ready for its debut.

The nearly $500,000 dock at South 16th Street along the Thea Foss Waterway's west side should be available by May 1.

The new float will create temporary moorage space for boaters visiting Tacoma for the day and for tour boats taking organized groups on cruises in Commencement Bay.

The dock's location at South 16th Street will make the dock convenient for convention groups staying downtown to walk from their hotels or the convention center to board their tour vessel, said Thea Foss Waterway Authority deputy director Su Dowie.

The new float is a short distance from the South 15th Street bridge over the BNSF railroad tracks that links downtown with the Foss Waterway area.

The dock, built with local government funds, will be charge visiting boaters a moorage fee based on the boat's length and how long it stays.

The total value of new residential building permits within Tacoma fell off a cliff in the first two months of 2009, new figures from the city reveal.

The value of residential building permits within the city totaled just $4.8 million during January and February 2009. That's just 17.8 percent of the $26.86 million in permit value in the first two months of 2008.

The total number of residential permits fell steeply but not as steeply as the combined value of those permits.

During January and February of this year, the city issued 95 residential building permits. That compares with 212 permits during the same period last year.

The story was much more encouraging on the commercial side where the value of permits issued so far this year was more than twice the value in the same period last year.

The city issued permits in January and February last year for commercial construction worth $16.06 million. The comparable figure for this year was $39.68 million.

The commercial permit activity was pumped up by two construction projects on the Tacoma Tideflats for new container-handling facilities.

That strong commercial showing raised total permit activity to $44.48 million compared with $42.93 million last year in January and February.

Click! wants to take you back to the days when Saturdays meant a day at the movies, and really at the movies, not on, say, cable TV.

The system has announced it will sponsor a monthly series of what it calls the "Click! Family Flick" in conjunction with Tacoma's Grand Cinema.

The movies – free – include “The Princess Bride” on March 21; “An American Tail,” April 18; “Babe,” May 16; “Back to the Future,” June 20; “Shrek,” July 18; and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” August 15.

The shows start at 10:30 a.m., children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult and seating is first-come, first-served.

The program will be "a great way for families to experience a movie on the big screen at absolutely no charge," says Mitch Robinson, Click! marketing maestro.

Passenger traffic at Portland International Airport fell nearly 20 percent last month reflecting the state's relatively high unemployment rate and business malaise.

The airport said February traffic declined 19.5 percent. Domestic travel dropped 18.6 percent while international traffic dropped more than 38 percent.

Oregon's unemployment rate stood at 10.8 percent in February, one of the highest rates in the nation.

Meanwhile at Sea-Tac Airport, January traffic dropped 5.8 percent. February figures are unavailable.

Washington's unemployment rate, announced today, is 8.4 percent.

Should you be wondering about the state of technical education these days in the South Sound, then get thee to Clover Park Technical College on Thursday.

The school will inaugurate a “Creative Living Event” to showcase the work of several school departments. The event has been in the works for several years, said Shawn Jennison, college relations coordinator, earlier today.

The gathering is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the school’s McGavick Student Center, Building 23, in Lakewood at 4500 Steilacoom Blvd. S.W.

It’s free and open to the public, but Jennison said he’d especially like to see representatives from local businesses – who can gauge what the school is doing (and perhaps even make a few job offers) in several areas, including graphics and media design, retail marketing, manufacturing technology, aviation training and radio broadcasting.

Some 70 student-staffed displays are being planned by 15 programs, Jennison said. Students from the residential construction program have built an environmentally friendly shed, complete with a rooftop garden; the automotive program has pedal cars; the floral program will show new arrangements; and the culinary program will be offering food.

“This is a look at what technical education is all about in the 21st century,” Jennison said.

An auction will be held to help raise funds. Call 253-589-5800 or visit www.cptc.edu for more information.

Federal Way's Weyerhaeuser Co. announced plans today to close two more lumber mills, one in Oregon and the other in Oklahoma.

The company is shuttering the mills in Dallas, Ore. and Wright City, Okla. to cut production to match demand for lumber.

The closures will affect 307 workers, the company said.

The closure continues a trend that began in 2007 with the lumber giant trimming production capacity because of the housing downturn.

Since the first of this year, Weyerhaeuser has closed 10 wood products production facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Four of those were softwood lumber mills.

Investment firm Goldman Sachs today predicted Boeing commercial aircraft deliveries will fall this year substantially below Boeing's predictions.

The firm predicted Boeing will deliver 406 airliners in 2009. That's a big drop from Boeing's own prediction of 480-to-485 aircraft from its Puget Sound plants in Everett and Renton.

The number of deliveries will fall even more in 2010, Goldman Sachs said. It predicted 320 planes will roll off the production lines next year.

Boeing delivered 375 aircraft in 2008, but that figure was diminished because of a two-month-long Machinists Union strike that halted production. The company took about a month to ramp up production to former rates when the strike ended.

The investment firm blamed its lower prediction on the slowing economy that is keeping both business and leisure travelers at home this year.

Boeing has built and delivered 71 aircraft in 2009's first two months, a rate of 426 a year.

The declining economy took a toll on Pierce County jobs in February raising the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, the highest in 22 years.

Statewide figures, adjusted for seasonal variations, (local numbers are unadjusted) showed a similar trend. Washington's unemployment rate reached 8.4 percent last month, the highest statewide since 1985. That's up .6 percentage points from January.

The statewide figure surpassed the national average, 8.1 percent, for the second month in a row.

Unemployment rates ranged from 14.8 percent in north central Washington's Ferry County to just 5.0 percent in Southeast Washington's Whitman County. King County was below the state average with 8 percent unemployment as was Thurston with 7.7 percent. Snohomish County unemployment, however, was worse than Pierce County's with a 9.9 percent rate.

The state's Tacoma regional economist, Paul Turek, thinks the coming months will yield even higher rates in the Tacoma area until the federal stimulus takes hold and local businesses start adding workers again early next year.

"I've revised my thinking lately," said Turek. "I was saying that I thought that unemployment here would peak between 9 and 10 percent. Now I think the figure will be somewhere between 10 and 11 percent."

If Turek is correct, that peak figure will still be substantially less than the 13 percent unemployment Pierce County recorded in December of 1982.

Washington initially lagged the rest of the country in feeling the recession's cold hands, but now the effects are being strongly felt here, said the state's Employment Security Department.

At this time last year, declines in the construction and durable goods industries were buffered by steady or growing employment in services industries, said the state.

=> Read more!

There’s nothing April foolish about it – not when it comes to safety in the construction workplace.

Electrical hazards. The workings of a cement pump truck. Protection against falls.

The state Department of Labor & Industries announced Monday that the second annual Construction Safety Day will be held beginning at 7:30 a.m. on April 1 – with demonstrations, seminars, exhibits, lunch and a prize drawing – at the Puyallup Fairgrounds ShowPlex.

Registration for participants costs $50; exhibitors will pay $200 for space.

Presentations will include a focus for supervisors as well as workers, and seminars will be conducted in English and Spanish - with the main subjects being the aforementioned electrical and fall-related hazards, and a look at cement pumps.

For more information, visit www.wagovconf.org/constsafetyday.htm.

Tacoma Power has a few suggestions to help people save a little money.

- Recycle your fridge. Customers receive $30 when they recycle their old, working refrigerators or freezers through Tacoma Power's recycling program, which includes free pick-up.

- Check for heat leaks. Tacoma Power customers with electric heat can get a free home energy check to determine whether their house leaks warm air. Tacoma Power offers free insulation and duct sealing to people who qualify and zero-interest loans for insulation, duct sealing and windows. Tacoma Power reports that adding new insulation, duct sealing and energy-efficient windows can cut heating bills by 25 percent.

- Change light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs can use up to 75 percent less energy than traditional bulbs and they last 10 times longer. This saves about $30 in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime, Tacoma Power reports.

Tacoma Power also offers bill payment assistance. For more information on programs and ways to save, go to www.mytpu.org/save or call 253-502-8377.

The News Tribune, hit by the twin curses of a troubled economy and Internet competition, tightened its corporate belt another notch Monday announcing new layoffs, salary cuts and other economy measures.

The Tacoma-based newspaper is among the latest in the Sacramento-based McClatchy Co. newspaper chain to announce cutbacks to meet corporate-wide expense-savings goals.

News Tribune Publisher David Zeeck told employees that the 126-year-old paper remains profitable, but the cuts were necessary to cope with recent declines in advertising revenues.

“Because the majority of our revenue comes from advertisers, and our advertisers are hurting, that’s the primary thing,” said Zeeck. “They can’t afford to advertise as much and some of them have even gone out of business. And that hurts the revenue, and you have to react to that.

“We are still profitable,” Zeeck said, “though less comfortably profitable than in the past.”

The cutbacks announced Monday are the third round of reductions in 10 months at the Tacoma paper.
The economy measures include:
• Five percent pay cuts for employees making between $25,000 and $100,000 a year. Ten percent reductions for employees whose salaries are more than $100,000 a year.
• Workforce reduction of 30 employees. That’s about 7 percent of the paper’s staff. Six of those cuts will happen in the newsroom. One recently vacated newsroom management position won’t be filled. The cuts will occur both through voluntary buyouts and through layoffs.

Zeeck said the economic downturn is speeding up the ongoing process of newspaper evolution.

“The good thing is that we’re already hitting a million unique visitors a month on the Web and 300,000 people a day are reading the printed paper. That’s a huge audience. That’s why I feel Ok about the long-term success.”

Attention owners of retail businesses in Washington: You might want to brighten up your employee-only restroom.

Members of the public may be on their way.

A bill currently sliding its way though the Legislature says that people with qualified medical complaints can use your employee-only restroom if and whenever nature calls. The bill, HB 1138, has passed the House (90-7) and most recently was delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

According to the letter of the bill, customers eligible for entry into an employee-only restroom must have been diagnosed with one of several maladies, and would be required to supply either a letter from a health-care provider or an identification card attesting to a condition.

Those include, but are not limited to, a “permanent or temporary medical condition that requires immediate access to a restroom facility.”

Should you deny access to a member of the public qualified to use the employee restroom, the first incident will result in a letter of reprimand and the second would qualify as a civil infraction subject to a fine.

For a look at the bill and its transit toward passage, click here.

Things aren’t getting better.

The State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council director late this afternoon issued an updated version of an earlier March economic forecast.

Said Arun Raha, executive director, “Compared to the preliminary forecast, our updated Washington economic forecast is generally weaker, as a result of the weaker national economic forecast.”

He offered that the recently signed economic stimulus package “has less funding for infrastructure than assumed in the preliminary forecast. This change reduced the Washington construction forecast. On the other hand, the new forecast also reflects higher spending for the Hanford cleanup than was assumed in February.”

Some of the revised numbers, compared to figures in the preliminary March forecast:

• Real personal income will increase 3.4 percent in the first quarter, down from 4.3 percent. In the fourth quarter, real personal income will dip 0.2 percent, down from a predicted increase of 0.2 percent.

• The unemployment rate in the state will increase to 8.3 percent in the state in the first quarter, not 7.8 percent. By the third quarter the rate will rise to 9.6 percent, and in the fourth quarter 9.9 percent, and by the first quarter of 2010, 10 percent; not 8.9 percent, 9.2 percent and 9.3 percent as predicted on March 6.

• Construction employment will dip by 13 percent in the first quarter, not 11.6 percent. By the third quarter, construction employment will be down by 14.3 percent, not 14 percent; and by the fourth quarter down by 9.9 percent, not 8.9 percent.

• Housing permits will be down 28.9 percent in the first quarter, not 22.8 percent. By the fourth quarter this year, however, housing permits will increase by 116.3 percent, not 105.4 percent.

For a look at the full updated report, visit www.erfc.wa.gov/pubs/p0309.pdf

South Hill Mall's owners did something extraordinary Thursday especially considering the state of the economy.

In a ceremony near the Macy's store at the Puyallup Mall, they literally razed the ceiling of the mall to mark the beginning of a multi-million-dollar renovation project.

That process will include new floor and ceiling treatments, skylighting, new entrance features, signage and soft-seating area and a renovated food court with a stone fireplace.

The renovation contractor is S.D. Deacon Co. Crews will be working at night to avoid disrupting shoppers.

The project is scheduled for completion in early November.

Mall owner Cafaro of Youngstown, Ohio is financing the renovation of the two decades-old mall with internally generated funds.

American consumers, you just aren’t buying enough stuff. It was you who brought us through the last economic downturn - but this time around, you’re saving too much money. You’re being too responsible by not throwing your hard-earned cash around on unnecessary goods.

And it’s not just the American economy that is suffering because of your thrift.

Consider this report from today’s Cargo Business News, which says the
South China Port of Yantian is flooded with 400,000 empty containers that are stressing the facility’s storage capacity.

A similar situation, the report continues, is confounding the Port of Hong Kong. Containerized transfers fell 17.5 percent in February at the first port, and Hong Kong’s dropped 24.1 percent in December, and 23.2 percent in January, according to the newsletter, quoting a story in the South China Post.

The Hong Kong-based consultancy Transport Trackers has revised a recent forecast, and now predicts an 11 percent drop for the Asia-Europe container trade, and a 9 percent fall for the trans-Pacific container trade.

Were these typical times, many of those idle containers would be filled with stuff bound for the Port of Tacoma.

I’ll check my calendar. When’s Spend Money Like a Drunken Sailor Once Again Day?

More shakeups in the retail industry came today as a Canadian co-operative announced acquisition of 15 Pacific Northwest Sportsman's Warehouse stores including locations in Federal Way and Lacey.

The sale by Utah-based Sportsman's Warehouse was part of a two-part strategy for the sporting goods chain to weather the economic recession.

The other half of that plan calls for liquidation and shutdown of 23 other Sportsman's Warehouses in 17 states. The two actions will leave Sportsman's with 29 stores.

The 15 acquired this week by Alberta's UFA Co-operative Ltd. include Washington stores in Federal Way, Lacey, Silverdale, Burlington, Kennewick, Vancouver and Spokane.

The Midvale, Utah chain is struggling to find $30 million in new equity funding and to secure new financing to build inventories.

The company thought it found a savior in UFA when the Canadian co-op last fall agreed to explore acquiring 80 percent of Sportsman's.

The store sales and liquidations will clear $100 million in debt from Sportsman's balance sheet, the company said.

In the process, 2,000 Sportsman's workers will lose their jobs.

"Today we find ourselves in a very difficult spot," Sportman's Chairman Stuart Utgaard told the Salt Lake City Tribune. "It breaks our hearts to lay these people off because they all have mortgage and rent payments and car payments and have to buy groceries."

Changing economic conditions, however, dissuaded UFA from carrying through, the cooperative said. The company acquired the 15 Northwest stores in return for a previous loan it made to Sportman's.

UFA last year acquired a Canadian sporting goods chain as part of a strategic plan to broaden its market from petroleum and farm supplies to outdoor goods.

The new store owners have yet to announce their plans to rebrand the stores they've acquired.

The Sportsman's deal is the latest sign that the sporting goods business is suffering in the down economy. Oregon-based Joe's sporting goods chain last week filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

Delta Air Lines says it's adjusting its international flying capacity downward this year to match the unpleasant realities of a market that has seen a sharp drop in foreign travel.

The company, in a letter to employees and frequent fliers worldwide, hasn't yet said what routes its will cancel, which it will make seasonal and which it will fly less frequently or with smaller aircraft.

We've got a call in to see if any of the routes from Sea-Tac Airport will be reduced. Delta inherited several overseas routes from Sea-Tac from Northwest Airlines when the two merged last year.

Delta has already canceled its Seattle-London flight and has said it won't begin Seattle-Beijing service on its original schedule.

Figures from January show the former Northwest international flights from Sea-Tac that month showed a 16.78 percent increase in passengers over the same month in 2008. That figure, however, includes eight days of the London route, which wasn't flying during January 2008.

Delta, formerly Northwest, flies from Sea-Tac to Tokyo and Amsterdam non-stop.

Earlier this week, Seattle's oldest international carrier, SAS, said it will halt service from here to Copenhagen July 31.

Another week has passed without new order activity for Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Group.

That keeps Boeing's 2009 order book in the red by 10 aircraft more than two months into the year.

The same is true for Airbus which has recorded eight more order cancellations than orders this year for its commercial aircraft.

Boeing year-to-date tally looks like this:

Orders: 19 737s, 3 777s.
Cancellations: 32 787s.

The slow orders and creeping cancellations are courtesy of a world economic meltdown that has pinched off business travel and kept leisure travelers sitting on their wallets.

Scratch the ambitious plan to get a float for kayaks and other human-powered craft installed by early spring in the 21st Park on the Thea Foss Waterway.

That plan, which involved a hurry-up trip through the permit bureaucracy to get that float installed on the west side of the Foss south of the cable-stayed bridge at South 21st Street, proved just too daunting to get done quickly.

But the Thea Foss Development Authority has a consolation prize for kayakers.

The authority now plans to install kayak storage racks and a launching float in a boat slip at the existing Dock Street Marina farther north on the waterway, says authority deputy director Su Dowie.

Dowie said that project depends in part on the Army Corps of Engineers granting an extension of an existing permit to allow the float construction in the next few months.

The substitute project doesn't require any new pilings or anchors to disturb the bottom of the waterway, a concern during the so-called "fish window" when juvenile salmon are growing in the waterway.

With any luck, said Dowie, the project could be ready for use by mid-to-late summer.

The project would give kayak owners racks to rent to store their boats and a locked gate to prevent thieves or vandals from reaching the area by land.

Meanwhile, the City of Tacoma will proceed on the float in 21st park, but with an extended completion date.

Does SeaTac's Alaska Airlines smell blood in the water as one of its newest rivals struggles to keep operating within the law in an increasingly difficult business environment?

Alaska today renewed its request to the federal Department of Transportation to examine the ownership structure of San Francisco's Virgin America.

The Alaska request came on the heels of a Wall Street Journal article saying that two American investor groups have exercised their option to cash in their 77 percent interest in the airline.

If those two firms get their money back from Britain's Virgin Group, the majority of the airline's ownership could pass into foreign hands. U.S. law prohibits foreign interests from owning more than 25 percent of a U.S. airline.

If the report is true and Virgin can't find other domestic investors, then the airline could be prohibited from flying in the U.S.

That would be good news for Alaska which has been battling a fare war with Virgin America on the West Coast. That fare war has forced fares as low as $49 each way between Sea-Tac and the Bay area and $59 to Los Angeles.

Virgin has been losing money on its new service, but expects to move into the black in 2010.

Meanwhile, David Cush, the airline's CEO, said that 76 percent of the airline remains in U.S. hands. The airline is in full compliance with U.S. law, he said.

Cush said the story that the U.S. investors have sold out is inaccurate.

The world's largest cruise line, Carnival Cruises, will begin calling on Seattle's new Smith Cove Cruise Terminal next year.

The 2,124-passenger Carnival Spirit will call on Smith Cove beginning on May 11, 2010. The Spirit is the first major cruise ship to call in Seattle regularly during midweek. The ship will leave Seattle on Tuesdays for a 7-day Alaska voyage through the end of August.

Carnival joins Norwegian Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Princess Cruises as a Port of Seattle customer.

Those other cruise lines have called on Seattle on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, leaving the port's expensive terminals unused during the middle of the week.

Cruise lines like to begin and end cruises on the weekends because it allows vacationers to maximize their time away while minimizing their days off work.

The Smith Cove Terminal opens this spring at Pier 91 on the waterfront between Seattle's Queen Anne and Magnolia residential areas. It replaces a temporary cruise terminal near Safeco Field that served cruise passengers for several years before the port converted it back to cargo use.

The Smith Cove Terminal can accommodate two large cruise ships simultaneously. The Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal near Pike Place Market downtown can berth an additional large cruise liner.

Washington's Guaranteed Education Tuition program, despite disappointing results in its investment program, is in no danger of failing to live up to its obligation to investors.

That's the word today from a spokewoman for the state-operated college tuition fund.

Susan Martensen, marketing and communications director for the fund, said an Associated Press story that appeared in The News Tribune's business section Wednesday might have given readers the wrong impression about the fund.

While the story was correct in saying that the Washington fund's assets are less than all potential liabilities, those who've paid into the fund, she said, shouldn't be concerned for two reasons:

* The fund won't likely be called upon pay out tuition for its thousands of participants all at once. Many of those enrolled now are youngsters who won't enter college for a dozen years or more.

* State law requires the state to fund the program from its own coffers if demands on the fund ever exceed its assets.

Here are more specifics on the fund and its health from Susan:

=> Read more!

Businesses, commercial document destruction companies and the state Attorney General's office are partnering to help people dispose of their outdated documents safely.

At what the sponsors have dubbed "shredathons," you can have your papers shredded to protect them from identity thieves who rummage through trash cans to find papers with names, account numbers and vital information that will allow them to assume you identity and loot your bank account.

"Sticky fingers like personal papers," said Attorney General Rob McKenna. "Don't throw you life in the trash. Shred instead."

"Shredathons are scheduled throughout the state. To find a list of upcoming shredfests, go to http://www.atg.wa.gov/shredathon.aspx.

The topic, learning how to dodge foreclosure, is a compelling one. And the price, free, is right for a Saturday seminar at Evergreen College's Tacoma campus.

That seminar, which brings together mortgage counselors and loan modification experts together with homeowners worried about staying in their homes, is being sponsored by the City of Tacoma's Safe and Clean Team and a coalition of Tacoma private and non-profit groups.

Registration begins at 9 a.m. for the 10 a.m. workshop at the college campus at 1210 Sixth Avenue.

The organizers advise homeowners to bring their loan documents, photo identification, Social Security numbers, the last two year's W-2 forms and tax returns and their last two pay stubs.

For more information or to register call 1-800-368-1455.

The state has filed felony charges against a Tacoma plumbing and heating contractor accusing him of operating a business without a license and theft of sales tax proceeds.

The criminal charges against James Beni Jr., operator of Pacific Plumbing and Heating Inc., allege Beni continued to operate his business after his license was revoked in 2006 for non-payment of taxes. Charging documents further claimed that he collected at least $16,319 in local and state sales taxes but didn't pass those funds on to the state.

The state said it repeatedly warned Beni about operating an unlicensed business before bringing charges.

An employee at the plumbing and heating company, who declined to give her name, said she was unaware of the charges. She said she was unaware that the 66-year-old Beni, who is hospitalized battling cancer, had yet been informed of the charges filed Monday in Pierce County Superior Court.

Attorney General's office spokesman Mike Gowrylow said the charges against Beni are part of a state effort to crack down on the huge underground economy in the state that doesn't pay taxes.

"A study we did last fall," said Gowrylow, "shows the state loses more than $450 million annually to the so-called underground economy. Those people usually are competing against law-abiding companies," he said.

Collecting taxes on that under-the-table economy, he said, could help the state pay for the revenue shortfall that is forcing cutbacks in state services, he said.

Beni's arraignment on the charges is set for March 24. Conviction on the charges could result in a jail sentence of up to 10 years and a $20,000 fine plus restitution, the state said.

Alaska Air Group, the SeaTac-based parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, will give its shareholders a chance to voice their opinion on the airlines' executive pay.

The board of directors' initiative, announced this month, will allow shareholders to vote their approval or disapproval of the compensation for the company's five highest-paid executives.

While the vote won't bind directors to act, it will provide them with shareholder feedback valuable in setting future compensation, said the airline.

The advisory ballot will be included in the proxy materials which shareholders are scheduled to receive next month. Those materials will include information on the five executives' compensation for 2008.

The Alaska board took action after a stockholder proposal to require such a ballot won shareholder approval last year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is out today with tips to help consumers spend less, save more, protect against fraud and borrow wisely – especially during a difficult economy.

The advice – "Managing Your Money in Good Times and Bad" – was published as a special edition of the FDIC Consumer News and is available at www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnwin0809.

Among the collection of tips in the publication are articles concerning ways to begin cutting back; protecting against fraud; saving more; wise borrowing; problems with payments; and dealing with debt.

For previous issues of FDIC Consumer News, visit www.fdic.gov/consumernews.

Scandinavian Airline System (SAS) will discontinue its service from Sea-Tac Airport to Copenhagen on July 31, the airline said today.

That's months earlier than the airline had initially predicted in February when it announced cutbacks on its international service.

The airline said customers booked on flights after the end of July should contact the airline for rebooking on other flights or for a refund of their ticket purchase price.

SAS has connected Sea-Tac to Europe non-stop for 42 years, longer than any other airline.

The airline said economic conditions have forced it to refocus its system on Europe as travel continues to decline and travelers cancel trips.

Starbucks Corp. said it is not sure when it will open a center in Ethiopia to support coffee farmers due to the downturn in the global economy and delays in opening a similar center in Rwanda, The Associated Press reports today.

In a statement, the gourmet coffee company said it had originally hoped its Ethiopian Farmer Support Center would be open by now, but delays in opening the Rwanda center and "the global slowdown in the economy have made it challenging for us to move as quickly as we would like."

"We remain committed to opening a Farmer Support Center in Addis, but do not have an opening date to announce at this time," the company said in the statement.

The company first announced the two Africa support centers in 2007. The company had planned to open both of the centers in 2008. The center in Rwanda opened toward the end of the year, the company said.

Starbucks will use both centers to work with coffee farmers to improve coffee quality and help them produce more coffee that can be purchased by specialty coffee buyers.

Apple Inc. unveiled a minuscule new iPod Shuffle today that takes its "smaller is better" mantra to a whole new level, The Associated Press reports.

The third-generation Shuffle, a slim aluminum rectangle less than 2 inches long, takes up about half as much space as the previous version even as it doubles music storage space to 4 gigabytes. To achieve such a tiny form, Apple had to remove most of the buttons from the body of the $79 device and build them into the headphone cord instead.

"Smaller has tended to work very well for us," said Greg Joswiak, a marketing vice president at Apple.

The trade-off for a sub-$100 Shuffle always has been the lack of a screen to visually navigate through the music stored on the device. The first-generation Shuffle, which launched in 2005, could hold about 240 songs, arguably not enough to warrant a screen.

Now that the device can carry 1,000 songs, Apple has come up with a way for people to identify the music they're listening to or find songs they want. A new feature called VoiceOver can, at the push of a button, speak the song and artist name or rattle off the list of custom mixes - called playlists - that the owner has loaded onto the device.

Here's how it works: As you synchronize a new Shuffle using an updated version of iTunes, your PC or Mac looks at each track and playlist and creates a small file of a computerized voice speaking the title, artist for playlist name. If a song is in Spanish or Chinese, say, the software figures this out and speaks in the appropriate language. Apple says the device can handle 14 languages.

The new Shuffle, which comes in silver or black aluminum with a shiny stainless steel clip, is set to go on sale Thursday. Joswiak said Apple's own earphones will be the only option for early buyers, but that other companies plan to make compatible headphones as well as adapters for regular headphones.

Ross Rubin, an analyst for market researcher NPD Group, said there's no such thing as "too small" for gadget-happy consumers as long as Apple stays focused on ergonomics and provides a way to secure the device and keep it from getting lost.

Pierce County has highest percentage of so-called "high cost" mortgages in the state.

Thirty-one percent of all mortgages originated in Pierce County in 2006 were considered "high-cost," according to a recent report by the Washington Budget and Policy Center.

High-cost mortgages are defined by the Federal Reserve as being a mortgage with an annual percentage rate or APR that is much higher than a treasury security of comparable maturity. The APR reflects the total cost of a loan including interest and fees.

The loans likely include an adjustable interest rate, fees and other hidden costs, said Jeff Chapman, the center's research director and author of the report.

The report notes that the effect on a household's finances of having a high-cost mortgage can be significant.

"The cost of a $230,000 mortgage can easily be $600 higher per month, or over $200,000 over the course of a 30-year loan," according to the report.

"In the middle of the current housing crisis, having a high-cost mortgage also suggests a higher likelihood of foreclosure," the report states.

The budget and policy center is a not-for-profit organization focused on researching and analyzing state fiscal issues.

It's report, "The High Cost of Subprime Lending in Washington State," reveals that African-American and Hispanic homeowners and homeowners in lower income neighborhoods were most likely to pay a higher premium for their mortgage.

The report also forecasts that Washington will continue to feel the effects of the national housing crisis for the next few years.

The state has higher rates of adjustable rate mortgages expected to reset in the next year and higher rates of prepayment penalties than nearly every other state.

To read the full report, go here.

European Aeronautic Defense & Space (EADS), parent of Boeing rival Airbus, today reported 2008 profits of 1.57 billion Euros.

That profit came despite major problems with the company's A400M military airlifter.

EADS took a charge of 704 million Euros or $894 million on that program. The four-engine military aircraft has had major problems with its engines and other systems. Some outside observers say the program could be as much as four years behind schedule.

EADS revenues increased by 11 percent to 43.3 billion Euros which its order book grew 18 percent to 400 bullion Euros.

Boeing's oft-postponed 787 Dreamliner first flight remains on schedule for the first half of this year, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group President Scott Carson told Wall Street analysts today.

Carson, speaking at a JPMorgan aerospace forum in New York, said the first 787 is "essentially factory complete."

Further tests are being conducted on the plane's software and electronic systems, he said. The aircraft, which debuted in a global roll-out on July 8, 2007, will return to the paint hangar soon for a new paint job.

That new paint is necessary because the 787 shown at the debut was essentially an empty shell with most systems incomplete. Boeing workers have reopened the airplane to finish installation of electronics systems, to reinforce the wing boxes and to replace thousands of substandard fasteners.

The aircraft is now scheduled to fly for the first time before the end of June, nearly two years behind its regular schedule.

Carson also told Wall Street observers that Boeing expects to weather the current economic storm well because of its nearly 3,700-order backlog.

"We're playing from a position of strength," he said.
"And that strength gives us great flexibility moving forward."

The company, seeing trouble developing in the world economy, last year decided against increasing its airliner production rates, a decision that now looks prudent as airlines cancel or postpone orders.

Boeing will use that deliberate scrutiny in analyzing whether to slow down production. While it's tempting in the short run to cut output, he said, such a cut could cripple the industry's ability to produce at a higher rate when the world economy heals.

American Airlines inaugurated service with the first winglet-equipped Boeing 767-300ER this week on a flight from Dallas to London.

The winglets were designed and built by Seattle's Aviation Partners-Boeing.

The 11-foot tall vertical wingtip extensions are the first in operational use on a 767. Aviation Partners' winglets have become an increasingly popular addition to many airliners.

The upswept wingtips are familiar to passengers on the wings of Alaska and Southwest airlines Boeing 737 jets.

The wingtips reduce drag-creating wingtip vortexes, improving aircraft fuel economy, takeoff performance and weight-carrying capabilities.

The addition of the wingtips to one 767 can save as much as 500,000 gallons of fuel a year, said American.

American says that it will save up to 29 million gallons of fuel yearly when its whole fleet of 767s is winglet equipped.

The wingtips also increase the 767's range by about 350 miles.

The winglets are expected to prolong the life of Boeing's aging 767 line. Several foreign carriers with large 767 fleets have ordered the wingtip additions.

MexicanaClick, the low-cost subsidiary of Mexicana Airlines, has announced it will lease 25 twin-jet 717s from Boeing's leasing arm.

Sixteen of those jets formerly were flown by Milwaukee's Midwest Airlines, which downsized its fleet last year in the face of deteriorating business conditions and dwindling traffic.

The 717s are the last of the former McDonnell Douglas line of commercial aircraft that Boeing inherited when the two companies merged in 1997.

The 717, a smaller, high-efficiency version of McDonnell Douglas' MD-80, was built in Long Beach, Calif.

MexicanaClick will replace its Fokker F-100 aircraft with the Boeing planes.

When Tammy Blount, president and CEO of the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau, has used the words “grit” or “gritty” to describe Tacoma, lately known as “Grit City,” she meant that the town is authentic, honest, real, gutsy and down-to-earth.

“We say what we mean,” she said last week.

But now, someone has suggested she stop using the word. She won’t say who, only that “it’s been suggested by some folks.”

These folks think “grit” implies something, well, unclean, unswept, unfinished, sandy – dirty.

So Blount wants a new word. Something that says authentic, honest, real, gutsy, down-to-earth, brave, clean, loyal and maybe even cheerful. A word that’s true and strong. Maybe it’s a slogan, maybe just a word. She’s leaving it open to the imagination of readers.

And she’s offering a wonderful prize - a handblown glass artifact, “The Mountain in Glass,” produced by Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio.

So get out your thesaurus and gas up the thinking machine. Ruminate, reflect and please ponder this for a moment. Send your entry to c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Thanks.

Hotel occupancy rates were down in all nine regions of the state in January, with downtown Seattle marking the greatest decline and the Tri-Cities the least.

The occupancy rate for Pierce County hotels and morels dropped 6.7 percent for the month, compared to January 2008, according to a report by Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood. The rate for downtown Seattle dipped 23.2 percent; for the Tri-Cities 2.8 percent; and the statewide rate fell 15.5 percent, Rood said.

The rate for Pierce County facilities showed 54.8 percent of rooms occupied, compared to 58.8 percent a year before.

The average daily room rate fell in seven of the state’s nine regions, with Tacoma-area rooms down 0.7 percent to an average rate of $75.94. The statewide rate, $111.26, was down 7.3 percent.

Bellevue hotels saw the greatest decline in rates, down 8.9 percent to $144.05 – currently the state’s highest average room rate. Only in Southwest Washington and the Tri-Cities did the average cost of a room increase.

While Washington’s statewide occupancy rate in January was down to 47.9 percent of rooms occupied, Oregon hotels saw their occupancy rate dip 19 percent, to 46.6 percent of rooms taken for the month, Rood said.

The home of rock legend Jimi Hendrix will soon be home to another American icon—Hard Rock Café. The Seattle café is set to open this July, located within a mile of the Seattle Center Arena where Hendrix first performed at 116 Pike St.

The new restaurant will feature two floors of dining space and rock memorabilia as well as an open-air rooftop deck, totaling 14,000 square feet.

Builders of the café also plan to stay true to Hard Rock’s “Save the Planet” creed by adhering to environmentally sustainable standards for the construction of this energy-efficient building, according to the press release.

The restaurant is known for its American food menu served in a high-energy rock museum atmosphere.

Hard Rock International also has plans to open restaurants in Italy, Spain and Aruba as well as a fourth location in India.

UPDATE: Tacoma is hosting one-on-one meetings only. To register, please contact Mariam Anderson at manderson@wtcta.org.
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Trade representatives from the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED) will be in Tacoma next week to help local businesses explore global trade opportunities.

The one-on-one meetings are part of CTED's annual Washington State Trade Week events. The events feature the state's trade representatives from countries including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Mexico and Europe, according to a CTED news release.

The trade representatives will be available to provide advice to current exporters and people contemplating a new business. The representatives assist Washington companies with finding overseas buyers and distributors, finding resources to help companies with legal, regulatory and financial issues, and navigating the process of selling overseas.

The Tacoma seminar runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 18 at the Port of Tacoma Fabulich Center.

Contact Mariam Anderson at manderson@wtcta.org to register for the seminar or Julie Bennion at julie.bennion@cted.wa.gov to attend one-on-one meetings with trade representatives. Space is limited.

“We’re ready to help Washington companies develop or expand their export sales and increase their presence in the global marketplace,” said Mark Calhoon, Interim Assistant Director of the CTED International Trade and Economic Development Division. “This event brings our on-the-ground trade experts to communities around the state.”

More than two years after formal negotiations began, Alaska Airlines and its pilots have reached a conceptual agreement on a new four-year contract.

The negotiations have been difficult because of what's at stake for both sides.

The pilots naturally wanted to regain ground lost four years ago when an arbitrator imposed wage cuts on them as large as 35 percent.

The company, although faring better than some of its competitors, has been battered first by high fuel prices and then, most recently, by steeply falling demand and declining fares.

Last month, Alaska saw its traffic drop 10 percent.

Neither side has given any specifics, and some of that language still must be worked out.

Expect to see the details in a week or two. I'm guessing we'll see moderate raises and perhaps a few instances where the airline didn't achieve all of its benefit cost changes.

Pilots will vote whether to accept or reject the pact after the specifics are out.

Neither side can afford a strike in a business environment that's the worst in decades.

Alaska Airlines passenger traffic fell 10.2 percent last month, the airline reported today.

But the percentage of seats filled increase slightly to 73.5 percent from 73.3 percent in February 2008 because capacity dropped faster than passenger traffic.

Alaska's traffic declines were typical of a domestic airline industry hit hard by reversals in the economy.

Alaska's sister airline, Horizon Air, saw even steeper drops in business. There the traffic fell 21.8 percent and capacity declined 17.2 percent. The net effect was a reduction in the percentage of seats filled during February from 71.1 percent last year to 67.2 this year.

Horizon flies routes linking smaller cities in the West to larger hub cities such as Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles.

Some 700 Wichita, Kan., Boeing engineers have rejected Boeing's latest offer of a new contract for the second time in a row.

But those same engineers also declined to authorize a strike against the company Thursday night.

"The members have now rejected this contract twice," said Ray Goforth, the executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. "We now hope boeing will have enough respect for their workforce to sit down and negotiate a respectful contract."

Some 68 percent of those voting said "no" to the new offer. Those voting to authorize a strike were 45 percent of the total.

Seattle's Tattoo Media has agreed to a $500,000 settlement with the Washington Attorney General's office and agreed to stop to falsely telling Internet users that they had a secret cyberspace admirer.

The company had agreed last year to stop misrepresenting that someone had a 'crush" on them, but the company continued the promotion nonetheless, the attorney general's office contended.

The AG's office alleged that Tatto has violated a November 2008 agreement that prohibits the company from telling e-mail recipients that a local person was romantically interested in them.

The promotion targeted users of social networking sites such as Facebook, Reunion.com and MySpace with an ad allegedly from an admirer. Users who followed up on the message were taken to a Web site where they wer instructed to enter a cell phone number. They were then enrolled in a text-messaging horoscope service.

Puyallup's two-decade-old South Hill Mall will begin a nine-month-long renovation process next Thursday that will bring the mall into the 21st century.

Mall officials, architects, builders and Puyallup city officials are expected to attend the formal start of the renovation in mall's Macy's court.

The renovation will include new floor and ceiling treatments, skylights, new entrances, updated signs, soft seating and a new food court design. The food court will include a stone fireplace and perimeter skylights.

The renovation will be done at night when the mall is closed, said Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for Cafaro, the mall’s Ohio-based owner.

“What we envision is a much higher level of service and comfort for our customers,” said Anthony Cafaro Jr., vice president of Cafaro.

The project will include new features that should cut the mall’s energy bills and lessen its so-called “carbon footprint.” Those energy improvements include power-saving lights in the parking lots that provide more illumination while using less electricity.

The company said the renovation will cost between $5 million and $12 million depending on the bids and what options the owner decides to include.

One of the mall's anchor tenants, JCPenney, has already begun its own remodeling process. The department store moved part of its store into the former Mervyn's store last month. It plans to renovate its existing store over the next two months.

When the Penney's remodeling is done in May, the chain will have two stores in the mall.

The Environmental Protection Agency this week named Seattle as the nation's tenth most energy efficient metro area.

The federal agency's rating was based on a nationwide survey to so-called "green" buildings.

Los Angeles was at the top of the list followed by San Francisco, Houston and Washington, D.C.

In fifth place was Dallas, followed by Chicago. Ranking seventh was Denver, then Minneapolis-St. Pual and Atlanta.

Seattle finished out the top ten.

Boeing landed three orders this week for its 777 twin jet.

One of those orders came from Air New Zealand, while the remaining two came from undisclosed customers.

The new orders leave Boeing with a net loss of 10 orders for this year. The company has seen 32 orders disappear this year for its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner.

The company has logged 19 orders for its 737 narrow aisle jet and three for the 777 this year.

Airlines, hit hard by declining traffic have been reluctant to order new aircraft this year. Meanwhile some customers are cancelling 787 orders because the plane is nearly two year late in its development.

Attention Tacoma Mall shoppers!

The world is changing. It now includes crystals and a larger selection of shoes, and will soon comprise retailers of more shoes and accessories as well as children’s clothes.

Last Friday, the Mall welcomed Swarovski, a store selling all sorts of crystals.

Already, the Lady Footlocker store – home to athletic shoes, casual shoes and sports accessories for women – has opened at the location of the former Tux Shop.

And coming soon are two more stores.

For those in the market for more shoes, there’s Aldo, an international favorite featuring footwear and accessories fit for women and men. Look for an opening in May.

For the kids, come June, there’s Gymboree, a clothing store offering outfits, sleepwear, swimwear, tops, bottoms, sweaters and other fashions for kids from babies on up.

The business team will be out at the Mall today checking on Swavorski, and we'll have a report in tomorrow's paper.

Tourism matters.

That’s the message out today from the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau – heralding the release of the latest numbers from the 2008 “Pierce County Travel Impacts Report” as compiled by consultant Dean Runyon Associates.

The impact? Total travel-related spending hit $968.1 million, an increase of 7.8 percent over 2007.

Within the latest figure are 430 more travel-related jobs than in 2007, for a total of 11,360. Add $20.3 million paid in local taxes by visitors to the county in 2008, and $51.3 million in state taxes.

“These findings are especially encouraging in the face of current general economic conditions,” said Tammy Blount, president and CEO of the local bureau.

I’ll be speaking with Blount tomorrow for a larger story.

One of the things we’ll discuss is the state’s annual Tourism Day, slated for next Monday in Olympia. More than 250 tourism professionals - from chefs to planners and hotel housekeepers – will descend on the capitol to have their voices heard.

If there’s anything you’d like to know about tourism in the South Sound – anything you’d like me to ask Blount on your behalf – leave a comment and I’ll add yours to my list of questions.

Hawaiian Airlines, a perennial winner in the on-time derby among the nation's airlines took the top spot again n February, according to FlightStats.com.

Nearly 91 percent of Hawaiian's flights arrived within 15 minutes of their schedule last month, according to the Portland-based airline tracking company.

SeaTac-based regional airline Horizon Air, was fourth on the list with 86.03 percent of its flights on time.

Horizon's sister airline, Alaska Airlines, was 29th in the ranking with 76.25 percent of its flights arriving on time.

One other airline with operations from Sea-tac Airport, Southwest Airlines, made the top five list with 85.65 percent of its flights on schedule during February.

The worst record belonged to Air Wisconsin with 70.34 percent of its flights on time.

You haven’t been this feisty since 2002. You’ve been wronged, and you’re making your voices heard.

The state attorney general has released the latest list of consumer complaints – 25,197 of which were filed in 2008. Not since 2002 have so many gripes been recorded.

Complaints concerning health care businesses and commercial banks moved into the top 10 last year, while telecommunications maintained its hold as the industry to generate the most criticism.

Information about consumer protection is available at the agency’s Web site, www.atg.wa.gov. For a look at the full list of the Top 20, click here.

We are, after all, in the middle of National Consumer Protection Week.

“Year after year, the same handful of industries are generating the most complaints but what I find reassuring is that our Consumer Resource Centers continue to resolve most of those disputes and help consumers recoup millions of dollars,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a release today.

“We often liken fighting fraudsters to the Whack-a-Mole game; you knock one down and another pops up,” McKenna said. “With prevention, we’re teaching people how to avoid the scams in the first place.”

Here’s a look at the Top 20 complaint-generating industries, the number of complaints received in 2008 and the respective raninkng in 2007.

1. Phone companies 1,728 1
2. Retail Sales 1,494 3
3. Collections 1,431 2
4. Auto Sales 1,402 5
5. Electronic Shopping 900 4
6. Contractors 868 6
7. Books/Magazines & Directory Publishers 785 8
8. Cable Networks & Program Distribution 667 10
9. Health Care 639 12
10. Commercial Banking 599 13
11. Credit Card Issuers 544 9
12. Auto Repair 433 11
13. Mortgage Lending 425 14
14. Residential Landlord/Tenant 416 7
15. Internet Service Providers 403 16
16. Advance Fee Fraud 395 n/a
17. Insurance 387 18
18. Consumer Lending & Transfer Agents 361 15
19. Travel 351 20
20. Health and Diet Clubs 321 21

Delta Air Line's omission of its inherited order for 18 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has the industry speculating whether the airline has cancelled its order.

Delta inherited that order from Northwest Airlines with which it merged last year. Northwest was the first U.S. carrier to order the advanced new twin jet.

A footnote in the filing says the company didn't list the planes among those scheduled to enter service with the airline because Boeing won't meet its original in-service date for the planes.

But a spokesman for Delta says the air carrier hasn't canceled its order in spite of the two-year delay in delivery of the aircraft.

Aerospace analysts are speculating that Delta may shift its order to the larger 787-9 from the 787-8. The first 787-8s reportedly are overweight and won't meet all their guarantees for economy and range.

Boeing, which had unprecedented success in attracting orders for the composite-bodied aircraft, has seen 32 cancellations from airlines now unable or unwilling to buy the aircraft.

In the early '80s I made a weekly commute back and forth from Sea-Tac to the San Francisco Bay area to cover the Pierce County rackets trial in federal court.

My weekly commute was abetted by a price war among the airlines on the route then, United, Western and Hughes AirWest. The price? $85 roundtrip.

I never thought I'd see prices so low again, but now, nearly 30 years later, airline fares are once again below $100 roundtrip to the Bay area.

If you act quickly (there are only a handful of seats left at this price) you can travel via Alaska Airlines to San Francisco this weekend and back for just $97.

Unless the economy improves dramatically soon, expect to see more of those deals in coming weeks from Alaska and its competitors.

Those low farews are a sign of just how weak demand is during the financial meltdown. How about $117 roundtrip this weekend from Sea-Tac to Los Angeles. Or $482 return for a Sea-Tac-Rome flight? Or $498 roundtrip to London from the Puget Sound area.

Check Farecast.com for other record low bargain fares.

The median home price in Pierce County ticked up slightly in February to $239,950, making it the fourth consecutive month that the price either stayed the same or increased, according to figures released by the Northwest Multiple Listings Service Wednesday.

The county’s median home price in January was $235,000.
By no means is anyone calling it a recovery from the real estate bust that sent county home prices falling for more than a year. The county’s median home price was $260,000 in February 2008 and peaked at $285,000 in the fall of 2007.

But local real estate agents say they are starting to see a few glimmers of hope in what has been a dismal market.

The county’s median home price dipped to $230,000 in November. December recorded a median price of $235,000 and January was the same.

In King County, the median home price dipped to $348,000, down from January and from February 2008.
David Gala, a realtor with Windermere Professional Partners in Tacoma, said that homes priced at or below $250,000 have been selling.

“The affordable homes are starting to move,” Gala said. “That’s how you start, with baby steps. You start from the bottom and work your way up.”

The county’s pending sales were down 5 percent from February 2008 to 866. By comparison, King County reported pending sales down by 23 percent and Thurston County reported pending sales down by 16 percent.

Remove condos from the equation, and pending sales of homes in Pierce County increased by 1 percent from last year at this time. Meanwhile, condo sales were down by more than 50 percent, with only 53 units sold last month.

The area’s inventory is shrinking. The number of homes and condos for sale decreased by 20 percent over the year to 6,262 active listings last month. Those in the real estate industry regard this as good news as declining supply tends to bolster home prices.

Cheryl O’Brien, an agent with John L. Scott in Gig Harbor, said her office is done taking what she calls “unmotivated listings,” or homeowners who maybe don’t need to sell, but wanted to see what they could get for their homes.

“If you need to sell, we can get your house sold,” she said. “But you have to really want to sell.”

The peanut debacle has affected two Tacoma companies.

Roman Meal Co. announced today that it has issued a recall of its Whole Grain & Fruit Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Bar, which contains a peanut product that may bear the bacterium salmonella typhimurium. The affected lot code, listed on the back of the wrapper, is “Best Before 22JUN09A.”

The bars contained peanuts processed in Texas by Peanut Corporation of America, and were manufactured by a Roman Meal contractor. No illnesses have been reported. The recall was voluntary.

Roman Meal had been monitoring the nationwide recall for months, and had earlier been assured by the contractor that there was no possibility of contamination.

“Back when the peanut butter-salmonella issue became public, I contacted our supplier and asked, ‘Is our product included?’” said Steve Buckholdt, vice president for quality assurance and regulatory affairs at Roman Meal, when we spoke earlier today.

“The answer was ‘no,’” he said. Additionally, Roman Meal conducted a battery of tests on the product, and all results were negative.

The affected lots were sold only in Iowa and California, and over the Internet. Customers who purchased the bars are being offered a full refund.

“Late Friday I had a communication from the manufacturer in California saying that our product should be recalled,” Buckholdt said. “We’re like many other companies. We’ve done everything a proactive company could do. People know that we’re on top of it, that we’re doing the right thing.”

Like Roman Meal, Tacoma’s Brown & Haley has seen some of its products named to the list of products manufactured using peanuts that might have been contaminated.

The company last Friday issued a recall of its Honey Roasted Peanut ROCA Buttercrunch Toffee, and its Peanut Delights. (Peanut Mountain Bars, which use nuts from another supplier, were not affected.)

“We have conducted 83 tests that are all negative,” said Brown & Haley CEO Pierson Clair this afternoon. “The important thing is - this is a raw material. This is not anything Brown & Haley did. There is disappointment in our raw material supplier. I think that the fact that we have 83 negatives says that our systems internally worked.”

Clair emphasized that the recall was voluntary and made “to be abundantly cautious, because we value the good name of Brown & Haley.”

The Brown & Haley Roca product was sold locally as well as nationally and internationally, according to a press release from the Food and Drug Administration. The Dark Chocolate Peanut Delights were sold only at company outlet stores.

Refunds are being offered to consumers who purchased the products. For more information, click here or visit www.fda.gov.

Airport industry publication Airport Revenue News has named Sea-Tac Airport's concessions program the best overall among large airports.

Twenty-four airports were nominated for the award. That award honors a concessions program that "incorporates all facets of program excellence: great customer service, attractive storefronts, good mix of of shops, quality food services and overall high standards."

"It is very satisfying to be recognized by our peers," said Sea-Tac director Mark Reis. "Our revitalized program has been up and running for some time so this recognition is not just because Sea-Tac concessions are 'the newest thing.'"

The airport overhauled its concessions program three years ago, bringing in more local merchants and enforcing street pricing rules on airport merchants. The program also successfully enticed minority merchants to the airport to be concession operators.

BAE Systems, owner of a former Boeing Co. plant in Irving, Texas, this week told employees it will be eliminating 500 of the 625 jobs at the plant over the next year.

BAE will move some of the electrical wiring and component fabrication for Boeing's 737 AND 777 aircraft now done at the Texas plant to a plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. Work on components for Boeing's 747 and 767 aircraft will remain at the Texas facility.

A BAE spokeswoman said the company will try to find jobs for Irving workers at other BAE plants. Those laid off will receive severance benefits.

Two of the aerospace industry's bigger customers, aircraft leasing companies International Lease Finance Corp. and General Electric Commercial Aviation Services, are feeling the effects of the financial crisis.

ILFC, an arm of trouble insurance giant AIG, may have to rely on government aid to its parent to carry through with its aircraft purchase committments this year, said its parent company.

And GE's aircraft leasing subsidiary may see its supply of relatively cheap money curtailed because of pending downgrades of its parent's debt ratings.

Many airlines, particularly those in tight financial circumstances themselves, have historically relied on leasing companies such as ILFC and GE to provide them with aircraft.

Leasing aircraft gives airlines more flexibility in adjusting their fleet sizes while minimizing their need for upfront cash to acquire new aircraft.

Boeing itself says it has $1 billion available this year to help out airline customers who've found their traditional sources of capital cut off.

Business Week has named Seattle's Amazon.com as the best company for customer service in its annual survey. That surveys uses data gathered by J.D. Power & Associates.

The business publication said that in an era when many firms are cutting back on customer service, the top-rated companies in its survey have held firm on customer service expenditures. The winning companies have also found ways to use technology to make customer service faster and more consumer-friendly.

Here's the magazine's top 10:

Amazon.com -- Online retail
USAA -- Insurance
Jaguar -- Autos
Lexus -- Autos
The Ritz Carlton -- Hotels
Publix Super Markets -- Groceries
Zappos.com -- Online shoes
Hewlett-Packard -- Personal computers
T. Rowe Price -- Asset management
Ace Hardware -- Home improvement

Aiming to fill some 300 positions, the Tacoma Rainiers will host a job fair on Saturday.

“We’re expecting a lot of people,” said Geoff Corkum, the team's media director, earlier this afternoon.

The event begins at 9 a.m. and runs until 3 p.m. at the Boy Scouts of America office, 4802 S. 19th St., near Cheney Stadium.

The team plans to hire for several positions, including ushers, ticket sellers, vendors, cashiers, cooks, catering staff, parking lot attendants, bartenders, security personnel, clean-up crew, greeters and members of the on-field entertainment Fun Squad.

Most positions pay minimum wage although some offer more, depending on experience, Corkum said.

He recommends that those interested in a position should bring a resume to the fair. Applications can be downloaded at www.tacomarainiers.com.

Interviews will be conducted at the fair, and it is possible that jobs will be offered, said Rainiers President Aaron Artman.

“We hire 100 percent of our seasonal job force at this fair,” he said, earlier today. “With the economy, we could have a real big turnout.”

Ticket sales for the 2009 season are up more than 10 percent over last year, and sponsorships remain solid, he said.

The team’s home season begins April 17.

If it’s the beginning of March, can the Annual Small Business Day sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Business be far behind?

It’s here again – coming tomorrow, March 4 – the 17th yearly appreciation of, as the NFIB says in a release, the men and women who will lead the state and nation out of the recession.

Those people, small business owners and others interested in their fate, will convene in Olympia beginning at 10 a.m. with a welcome from Betty Neighbors, chairwoman of the NFIB/Washington Leadership Council.

Shortly after, according to the release, the federation’s state director, Troy Nichols, will offer a briefing on key legislation now before the legislature. He will be followed by Carl Gipson, of the Washington Policy Center, who will discuss how federal and state stimulus packages impact small businesses in the state.

At 11 a.m., State Sen. Karen Keiser and State Rep. Doug Ericksen will host a question-and-answer session on healthcare, and at 12:30 p.m., Arun Raha, executive director of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, will present the financial outlook for the state. Linda Matson follows with an update on the GROW program, which helps small business owners and their employees engage in the political process.

Following Matson’s presentation, small business owners will be encouraged to attend committee hearings and meet with legislators.

Seven companies with strong Northwest connections were ranked Monday among Fortune magazine's list of the world's 50 most-admired companies.

The Northwest group was led by Microsoft at number 10 on the list. Topping the list was computer and electronics maker Apple.

Issaquah's Costco ranked 22nd on the list. Following was Beaverton, Ore.'s Nike at 23 and Seattle's Nordstrom at 24.

Seattle-based Starbucks, even with its recession-driven sales declines, was 34 while Boeing, was 40th. Boeing is now headquartered in Chicago, but has its greatest concentration of workers in the Puget Sound area.

Northwestern Mutual Life of Milwaukee was 43rd. Russell Investments, a major Northwestern subsidiary, has headquarters in Tacoma

Christmas is coming early - or maybe late - in the form of $15 million in refunds from Tacoma Power.

According to a release from the utility today, customers who had open and active accounts both in 2007 and on Dec. 31, 2008 can expect a credit on their next utility bill. It’s part of a settlement with the Bonneville Power Administration.

Credits will begin tomorrow and go through May 4. The value of the credits will vary based on electrical usage, and most customers can expect a refund credit equal to about one-half of an average months’ electric bill.

Tacoma Power spokeswoman Chris Gleason asks that customers show patience as they wait for the credits on their bills. If customers have questions, they should call 253-502-8555 or visit www.mytpu.org/bparefunds.

Tacoma gasoline prices were down nearly four cents a gallon Monday over last week's price as crude oil fell on world markets.

Average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in Tacoma Monday was $2.137, down from $2.173 a gallon a week ago, according to TacomaGasPrices.com

That price is up more than 50 cents from the lows of mid-December but still more than a dollar less than the $3.159 a gallon Tacoma motorists paid at this time last year.

Crude oil fell to about $40 a barrel on fears of further declines in the world economy Monday.

Gasoline prices on average rose to about $4.37 a gallon last summer before starting a steep decline that lasted almost until Christmas.

Four Tacoma gas stations, all of them ARCOs, were selling regular unleaded for $1.99 a gallon Monday.

Boeing Co. stock fell to a closing price of $29.51 a share Monday, down $1.93 or 6.14 percent from Friday's close.

That's territory that Boeing stock hasn't seen since shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The price drop comes as investors bail out of the stock market looking for someplace to cache their money through the economic maelstrom.

As recently as 18 months ago, Boeing stock topped $100 a share as the company toted up record orders and backlogs for its airliners.

Monday's closing price is a nearly 66 percent drop from its 52-week high of $88.29 a share.

The aerospace manufacturer hss seen negative growth in its order backlog this year as financially stressed airlines have cancelled 13 more planes than they have ordered.

Both Boeing and its rival, Airbus, are hurting as airline traffic and fares fall in step with the declining economy.

Boeing has said it will layoff some 10,000 workers this year, more than half of them in the Puget Sound area.

That's still a fraction of the 33,000 the company laid off after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

On a day that saw the stock prices of two Tacoma banks fall to 52-week lows, Bellingham-based Horizon Bank announced that it has reached an agreement with regulators to take strict measures in capital management.

Horizon agreed to meet the mandates of cease and desist order issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the state Department of Financial Institutions. The bank will continue to do business, and no penalties or fines were imposed.

Horozon Financial Corp., the bank’s parent, had
previously agreed to several corrections, including:

• Establishment of a special assets team to monitor and dispose of bad loans;
• Enhance the work of a special credits team;
• Implement a capital management plan;
• Redirect the focus of lending away from construction and development loans;
• Implement procedures to monitor lending;
• Increase the bank’s loan-loss provision;
• Suspend a cash dividend to shareholders;
• Reduce overhead.

Because of the order, the bank has engaged a consulting firm to help develop a three-year strategic plan; established weekly meetings of senior management; and established better reporting procedures with regulators.

In connection with the order, the bank may not appoint new directors or senior management personnel without notifying regulators, nor may the bank make new severance agreements with executives without approval.

“We are working diligently to fully comply with the order as quickly as possible,” said Rich Jacobson, Horizon CEO.

Two Tacoma banks, Columbia and Rainier Pacific, saw their stock prices fall to 52-week lows in trading today. Columbia stock closed down 75 cents to $7.06, just above the low of $7.02, while Rainier Pacific fell nearly 22.5 percent to close at 75 cents, according to Bloomberg News. Everett-based Frontier Financial dropped by 15 cents to close at $1.40, still above February’s 52-week low of $1.20.

The Port of Tacoma reports business as usual today despite worries that a new requirement for port workers to have identification cards was going to keep people from work.

As of Saturday Puget Sound port workers now have to show their Transportation Worker Identification Card to get onto port terminals.

The Transportation Security Administration requires anyone with access to a secure terminal -- including longshore workers, truck drivers and port employees -- to have such a card in order to work.

Some in the industry were concerned that work at the port would slow or stop after Saturday because workers wouldn't have their TWIC cards.

Tara Mattina, Port of Tacoma spokeswoman, said that those worries haven't materialized in Tacoma.

Workers were prepared with their cards for shifts over the weekend. Port security reported one person who arrived without his card and promptly turned around and left.

And today no news is good news for the port.

"This morning was the first real test and it has worked smoothly," Mattina said.

More than 10,500 people applied for the TWIC cards in Tacoma. Of those about 8,400 have received them, Mattina said.

For more information on the TWIC, go to www.tsa.gov/twic.

The Internal Revenue Service has a heart after all.

The Seattle office of the agency announced today that the Tacoma Taxpayer Assistance Center will be open on Saturday, March 21, to offer free assistance to taxpayers.

It’s because “the IRS recognizes that many area taxpayers may be facing financial hardships and need extra help this filing season.”

Workers will be available to assist taxpayers – preparing basic returns for those eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and helping others to resolve tax issues, answer questions related to tax law, make account adjustments, accept payments, establish payment plans for those who cannot pay their due taxes in full, and perform other acts of assistance as required.

The Tacoma office, at 1201 Pacific Ave., will be open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the 21st.