After watching fares fall steeply with the drop off of passenger traffic, domestic airlines over the weekend attempted to raise fares on thousands of flights.

The airlines, however, aren't implementing broad scale increases, but rather are increasing fares highly selectively, raising some fares between certain city pairs, for instance, only during the busiest hours.

Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, said it appears that United Airlines began posting the first trickle of fare incrases on industry computers on Thursday night. Continental Airlines matched some of those fares later that night.

Other airlines joined in of Friday and during the weekend.

Many of those fare increases are sticking, said Seaney.

Fares typically are rolled back if a significant proportion of airlines don't match them quickly.

Ethiopian Airlines is looking for new financing for an order of 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners after its banks withdrew financial support.

African media sources said ING Group NV withdrew its financing, and DVB Bank AG upped its interest requirements and fees.

The airline said it is looking for new financing sources.

Boeing has lost a score of 787 orders after airlines looked at their income situations and decided to abandon ambitious expansion and fleet modernization plans.

SeaTac's Horizon Air has already inspected more than half its fleet for a fatigue crack in the landing gear of a Canadian-built turboprop airliner.

Horizon, the nation's largest operator of Bombardier Q400 twin turboprop airliners, began inspecting the planes' landing gear before the Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive to all Q400 operators to do so.

The FAA is due to issue that directive Tuesday.

Horizon began its own inspections after Canadian authorities ordered the inspection of Q400s in Canadian fleets last month.

If the fatigue cracks in the aft hinge for the landing gear stabilizer brace grew, the gear could collapse on landing.

After five years doing business in downtown Tacoma, The Seven Muses gift shop is closing.

Owned by Tom and Leslie Michael, the store has sold all manner of art, kitsch and glitz, some made by local artists and some – the found-object sprinklers, for example – by Tom himself.

Located at 1127 Broadway, the store will close by the end of May. Until then, all but a few consignment items will be sold beginning at 50 percent off the marked price.

Both of the Michaels are teachers, Leslie at Pierce College and Tom online. They will continue teaching and plan to continue selling art items at upscale craft fairs, Tom told me earlier today.

“Downtown Tacoma is just not a retail destination,” he said. “Even the hope of turning a profit in the next three years is unrealistic.”

Costco Wholesale retained its rank as Washington's largest company on Fortune magazine's annual ranking of America's 1,000 largest corporation.

But four companies dropped off the list, some the casualties of the economy and others the target of acquisitions.

In the 2009 list, Washington had 16 companies headquartered here on Fortune's list. This year, the number dropped to 12.

Missing this year were Washington Mutual, 97th on last year's list, Safeco, 388th on the 2008 ranking, Plum Creek Timber, 982 on the list last year and Potlatch Corp., 990 in 2008.

Washington Mutual, the victim of the subprime loan collapse was bought at a fire-sale price by J.P. Morgan Chase. Liberty Mutual Insurance purchased Safeco. The two wood products companies, Potlatch and Plum Creek, saw their sales fall below the cutoff as the building industry declined.

Costco climbed from 29th to 24th on the list. Microsoft jumed from 44th to 35th and Amazon.com leaped from 171st on the ranking to 130th. Weyerhaeuser Co. fell from 147th to 236th. And Starbucks climbed from 277th to 261st.

Exxon Mobil Corp. changed places with Wal-Mart Stores on this year's list, ranking in the top spot in the country.

Boeing Co., which moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2001, but which has major operations here, fell from 27th place to 34th place on the magazine's list.

An historic, but dilapidated downtown Tacoma landmark is back on the market, the victim of the sickened economy.

Luzon Building in 2004

The Luzon Building, one of two remaining West Coast buildings designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham & John Root, is being offered for sale for $400,000.

Tacoma developer the Gintz Group is the latest in a string of owners who've tried unsuccessfully to revive the 1890-vintage former bank building at South 13th Street and Pacific Avenue.

Gintz came close to putting together a combination of historic tax credits, a city low-interest loan and a favorable construction bid, but couldn't secure bank financing for the remainder of the project.

Banks required that about two-thirds of the building be pre-leased, but the Gintz Group couldn't attract another tenant other than its own headquarters, said Ron Gintz.

"The market out there is brutal," said Gintz. "We still think the building is ideally located in the heart of downtown, but no one is renting new space."

"It's a kind of chicken and egg deal," he said. "We can't get financing without tenants, but tenants don't want to commit unless they know we have the financing to do the project."

The developer had planned to tie the masonry building to a new reinforced concrete utility core to be built on the building's south side. That structural reinforcement would enable the rehabilitated building to meet modern earthquake codes.

Gintz said that declining construction activity in the last year has had a positive influence on the cost of building materials and construction. The bids to rebuild the structure were below what they would have been last year.

Gintz said a developer with deeper pockets could do well with building.

"It pencils out. There's money to be made," he said.

Gintz said the developer owes money to several businesses that helped them bring the project to its present stage of readiness, and it needs to sell the structure to pay those bills. The developer had planned to pay those bills with the proceeds of the construction loans.

"If anyone wants to step up and lease a few floors," he said, "We'll be happy to proceed ourselves."

The building, whose site slopes from Commerce Street to Pacific Avenue, wuuld be ideal for a bank," Gintz said.

"They could have their retail banking on the Pacific Avenue ground floor, and their commercial banking operation on the second floor ground floor on Commerce."

The developer had planned to rename the building after its architects, but they'd be willing to rename it after a major tenant," Gintz said.

Burnham and Root were pioneering designers of some of Chicago's first high rises. After Root's death, Burnham designed such monumental structures as Washington, D.C.'s Union Station and several buildings at the Chicago World's Fair.

The Luzon building has twice served as a bank and has been the site of a Chinese restaurant and several retail businesses. Its most notable feature nowadays is the tree growing out of an upper story window on the 13th Street side of the building. The building has been vacant for at least a decade.

A new program at Westfield Southcenter mall could replace credit cards as the shopper's new best friend.

Only the fabfinds program launched today promises to earn deals - not debt - for the economically-burdened.

The program notifies shoppers of sales going on throughout the mall via a weekly brochure available in the center and lists of the sales on the mall's Web site.

“We want to help our shoppers navigate through this economy,” said Kimberly Blue, marketing director at Westfield Southcenter, in a press release. “Fabfinds is a great way for all of our customers to get the most value out of every shopping trip.”

Avid deal searchers might be less intimidated by Southcenter's expanse of more than 240 storefronts, since the new program can help them plan a route to the best savings before hitting the stores.

A few of this week's deals? Journey Kidz has 50 percent off and Express has rolled out its clearance bins. Shop accordingly.

Do you like the LeMay Museum? Don’t like the LeMay Museum? Like the idea that museum officials are asking the City of Tacoma to facilitate a loan, so that construction on the museum can begin this year?

Do you think Tacoma deserves and should support a major new museum?

Well, now’s your chance to have your voice heard.

The Tacoma City Council will host a public hearing beginning at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, at the council chambers on the first floor of City Hall, 747 Market St.

After digesting public opinion, the council will vote next week on whether to approve the Deptarment of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loan.

Expect a crowd.