The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions announced this afternoon that is has agreed to a settlement with Wachovia.

The agreement includes a penalty payment of nearly $500,000 and the buy-back of auction rate securities from Washington investors who found themselves unable to sell the their securities, according to a DFI release.

For details, the consent order is available here or at the DFI Web site, www.dfi.wa.gov.

“We are pleased to see the problem for Washington investors resolved,” DFI’s Securities Director Michael Stevenson said today. “Investors will be able to sell their Wachovia auction rate securities back to Wachovia.”

The Washington settlement is part of a multi-state agreement in which Wachovia agrees to pay a $50 million dollar penalty split among the states and buy back more than $8.5 billion in auction rate securities nationwide.

Investors who purchased Wachovia auction rate securities products prior to Feb. 13, 2008 may be eligible for a buy back and should visit www.nasaa.org/ars/ for more information.

Auction rate securities are preferred shares or debt instruments such as corporate or municipal bonds. They have a long-term maturity and are sold at weekly or monthly auctions, and until recently were sold by many brokerage firms as cash equivalent investments, according to the DFI release.

In February 2008, however, the auction rate security market collapsed, bringing auctions to a halt. Wachovia customers were unable to liquidate their investments, contrary to alleged representations made about the product.

Wachovia allegedly misrepresented auction rate securities to customers as “safe” and “liquid” investments and failed to reasonably supervise their salespersons in the sale of the securities, DFI said.

Stevenson signed a consent order for Washington March 24 with Wachovia, which is registered as a securities broker-dealer in the State of Washington. The order requires Wachovia to complete the repurchase of auction rate securities from Washington customers by June 30, 2009. Wachovia also agrees to pay $491,556.71 to Washington, which constitutes the State of Washington’s proportionate share of the $50 million penalty.

In signing the consent order, Wachovia neither admits nor denies the allegations, DFI said.

The settlement stems from an investigation initiated by a multi-state task force of state regulators formed by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) that included participation by the Securities Division of the Department of Financial Institutions.

This report is just in from Olympian business writer Rolf Boone:

Venture Financial Group Inc., which owns Venture Bank, has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is unable to file its annual report on time.

The annual report, also known as a 10-K filing, is a year-end statement of a public companyís financial performance. Typically, a company's annual report is filed during the first quarter of the new year. The first quarter ended March 31. Venture Financial notified the SEC late Wednesday.

In its notice to the SEC, the company said the filing will be late because it continues to discuss with accountants and federal banking regulators the appropriate valuation of its trust preferred securities portfolio, including the extent of other-than-temporary impairment of this portfolio.

This is a reference to losses the company reported in the third quarter of last year.

Venture Bank, like many community banks, invested in mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but after the government took over those operations, Venture's investment fell as a result.

For the third quarter of last year, the company reported a $40 million loss or $26.1 million after taxes, according to the filing. The company expects to report a full-year net loss of $21.8 million for 2008, compared to a profit of $11.7 million for 2007, the filing shows.

The third-quarter loss also caught the attention of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has instructed the bank to raise money, sell or find a merger partner by April 14. Venture Financial Chairman Ken Parsons said this week that the bank will continue to operate on and after that date.

The Boeing Co. reported today it delivered 121 airliners in the first quarter of 2009, six more than in last year's first quarter.

That increase in deliveries came despite a weakened economy in which airlines are suffering from major sales declines and falling fares.

Boeing's deliveries were led by the popular 737 twin jet with 91 deliveries. Last year Boeing delivered 87 of the airliners in the first quarter from its Renton plant.

Second most popular of Boeing' commercial offerings was the 777 with 23 deliveries compared with 21 in the same period last year.

Deliveries of the 747 and the 767 at 4 and 3 were the same number the company delivered in the first quarter of 2008.

One of downtown Tacoma's earliest skyscrapers, the 17-story Washington Buildings is seeking inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Beaux Arts style building at 1019 Pacific Avenue was built in 1925. The building for many years housed the exclusive Tacoma Club on its top floors and contained the offices of many of Tacoma's more prominent law firms and businesses.

To be included on the National Register, the building must first be recommended by the Tacoma Landmarks Commission and by the State Office of Historic Preservation.

The local landmarks board will consider the building's application at its April 8 meeting.

You couldn't tell it by the spitting snow and gray skies this week, but Spring must be on the way because the first of the seasonal farmers markets are opening this weekend in the South Sound.

Markets in Tacoma's Proctor business district and in Gig Harbor are making their 2009 debut Saturday, and other markets are set to start their seasons within a few weeks.

The year-round Olympia Farmers Market is also seeing more activity from both customers and vendors.

The Proctor Farmers Market is opening at North 27th and Proctor streets at 9 a.m. Saturday, three weeks earlier than usual, said market manager Jessica Troy.

"We had our nursery stock and flower vendors telling us they'd like to get an earlier start on the season, and we've obliged," she said.

That market will include several new features this year. Among those is a demonstration booth which will feature monthly cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. and other tutorials on other weeks. This week the demonstration will feature tips on getting your garden planted.

The Proctor market will also feature a kid's booth this year, Troy said. And for the first time, food vendors will be able to accept food stamps in payment.

"The community is really coming together around locally sourced food," said Troy. "That's particularly important in this economy."

Meanwhile in Gig Harbor the market at the Kimball Drive Park and Ride will feature local baked goods, plants, and produce beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

Despite a difficult climate for raising money for special programs, the Gig Harbor market has found new funding sources for programs such as its end-of-the-season chowder cook-off and free introductory guitar lessons.

"If a little kid wants to learn how to strum, he can learn some basics. It will be a free music lesson for anyone," Dale Schultz, the market's executive director, told the Peninsula Gateway.

Other South Sound markets and their opening dates:

Puyallup -- Saturdays and Sundays starting May 2
Federal Way -- Saturdays beginning May 9
Tacoma Downtown -- Thursdays starting May 21
Tacoma Sixth Avenue -- Tuesdays beginning June 2
Gig Harbor Downtown -- Wednesdays starting June 3
Lacey -- Second Saturdays of each month starting July 11
Vashon Island -- Saturdays year round, Wednesdays starting July 15

For more complete information on market hours and operations click here.

The Associated Press reports today that Costco has decided to close two stores – one in Kirkland, another in Tempe, Ariz. – that sell home furnishings.

The stores close in July after leases expire.

The report says Costco has made gains during the economic downturn "as shoppers have headed to its stores mostly for deals on bulk food items and gasoline," but sales of nonfood items have dropped as consumers cut discretionary spending.

“The current economic slowdown and resulting weakness in the home furnishings business in particular have led us to conclude that the single-format Costco Home concept does not fit into our long-term expansion plans,” Chief Executive Jim Sinegal said in a statement today.

The company said it doesn't expect layoffs related to the closings, and still plans to offer home furnishings at remaining wholesale clubs.

Costco stock closed up $1.72 to $48.07 in trading today, but is down 8.4 percent so far this year.

Turns out that not even coffee is safe from budget cuts at the Port of Tacoma.

In an effort to trim expenses to offset the port's declining revenue, the port is reducing its coffee/tea selection for staff -- and asking them to pay for some of the fancier options.

First, you must know: The port's coffee selection rivals 7-11. There's flavored creamers, teas and a big Starbucks machine that brews individual cups of joe in different sizes.

Staff have been able to voluntarily pay $2 each month -- deducted from their paycheck -- to help foot the coffee bill.

The port isn't raising the monthly coffee charge. Instead its reducing the options, reports Tara Mattina, the port's spokeswoman.

Starting Friday the coffee available in the port's break rooms will be your regular, office-variety coffee pots of caf and decaf.

Fresh-brewed cups out of the Starbucks machine will cost extra: 50 cents for a small and 75 cents for a large.