I’m guessing that most of the 600 people who attended this morning’s Goodwill “Ready to Work” breakfast left feeling a bit more inspired than when they arrived.

And a few – judging by the reaction of some of the folks at my table - left with tears in their eyes. Inspirational tears.

Goodwill Board President Bob Bruback began the breakfast presentation with news that the agency last year assisted 5,200 people, garnering 1,000 jobs and saving taxpayers $11 million in discontinued welfare and other payments.

CEO Terry Hayes followed by saying that in 2009 Goodwill will serve 6,000 people and hopes to find jobs for 1,500 people. “We have people ready to work,” she said.

She announced the opening of four Goodwill stores – North Tacoma, River Road, Des Moines and Bonney Lake – within the next six months. The openings, she said, will provide 125 jobs.

She further announced that Goodwill has received $1.85 million from the state budget to help pay for Goodwill’s Milgard Work Opportunity Center, now under construction and scheduled to open on 09/09/09.
Other funding she announced comes from a $380,000 federal grant.

The campaign to fund the center is nearly 80 percent complete, she said. “We’re on track, and that’s exciting to say in though economic times.”

The highlight of the morning, for me, came with the presentation of annual awards. The Tacoma Rainiers organization was named Small Employer of the Year, and Home Depot was named Large Employer - but that’s not what brought those tears.

It was instead the stories told in brief videos about – and personally by – the individual winners:

• The Michener Inspirational Award to Michael Belden, a young man who essentially raised himself, knew the streets, found trouble with the law and somehow, somewhere found the courage to find passage away from nowhere and then to later earn an education and work in construction trades.

• The Achiever of the Year to Carley Covell, a woman who survived a serious automobile accident and, with rehabilitation, fought beyond a disability to earn a position in online sales. No smile was wider than hers as she accepted the honor.

• The Graduate of the Year to Cody Brown, a young man with cerebral palsy who has trained for and earned a job at the Orting Safeway, a young man whose gratitude for employment seemed matched only by his willingness to assist his customers. This is where people at my table began wiping away tears, as Cody spoke: “There is a large number of people who want to work,” he told the crowd, proudly. “Don’t look at the disability. All of us have disabilities. We all have something messed up in our lives." He wants one day to graduate from customer service to the check-out slot. He gives himself 20 years to become a store manager.

I predict he’ll make it in less than half that.

Michael Cade, executive director of the Thurston County Economic Development Council, reports today that the Spring Air - Consolidated Mattress assembly plant in Lacey has closed.

The Washington State Employment Security Department said today that it received a notice on Monday that 45 people had been laid off last Friday from the facility.

Calls today to Spring Air at Lacey’s Meridian Campus business park went unanswered.

With a long history in Tacoma, Spring Air left for Lacey in 1999. The company merged with Consolidated in 2007.

A Denver Spring Air plant closed in 2008, and manufacturing switched from there to Salt Lake City and Lacey. The closure in Denver was the company’s fourth since consolidation, according to an article in a furniture industry trade publication.

“I don’t see this as a harbinger of things to come,” Cade said.

Rather than being an indication of the business climate in Lacey, he characterized the move as “more of a market strategy from the owners.“

“They were a nice fixture in the Puget Sound market,” he said.

Throughout the South Sound, the recession is affecting us all. In small ways for some, with harsh realities for others, the economic slide has touched our lives. From workers who have lost their jobs and families forced to leave their homes, to business owners unable to find financing or children who may not understand why parents worry – the recession has become a part of us.

The News Tribune is launching a special online project titled “Uncertain Times in the South Sound” where readers can post their unique hometown perspectives of the economic downturn.

We’re looking for photos that document store closures, business failures, the impact of layoffs or foreclosures in your neighborhood. We seek to share with readers any original viewpoint that represents the tough times we face.

We would like to see what you have seen.

The idea for this project comes from Slate.com, which is chronicling the images of the recession among its readers worldwide. We propose to focus on the life and times of our readership in Western Washington.

As Slate explains, the Great Depression is remembered for images of the Dustbowl, of displaced families travelling toward a better life, of children stained by hunger and fear.
But what is the image – what images will we remember – of the Recession of 2009?

Please send us images that depict your own unique view of these troubled economic times.
View images submitted to the project or submit your own via Flickr.com

A dramatic downturn in railroad transportation since the beginning of 2009 means the end of the line for Tacoma's Coast Engine and Equipment Co. (CEECO), which announced it will close July 3.

The Washington Cos., a group of individual companies ranging from construction to air transit, added CEECO to its fleet in 1988, shortly after the company moved to its current location on 14 acres in the heart of Tacoma's port.

The Walker family originally founded CEECO in 1947 with a focus on repairing EMD (Electromotive Division of General Motors) marine engines in a variety of boats.

The railroad equipment maintenance company currently has 111 employees, 30 of whom lost their jobs Monday. The rest will be laid off incrementally between now and July, CEECO President Dave Swanson said.

He said the closure is in no way reflective of those employees' efforts.

"Our employees are the best in the business, but, at this point with the economy, we just can’t find enough work to have the business be profitable," Swanson said.

In recent years, the company has grown with the railroad industry by morphing into one of the nation's larger independent locomotive repair and overhaul facilities.

CEECO has adapted to the railroad industry's changing economics by diversifying its focus and becoming more technology based over the years.

But Swanson said there was no time to react to the economy's latest curve ball - a 60-percent drop in profits over last year that hit in a four-month flash.

"It was right after the first of the year things went south," he said. "We had such a dramatic downturn that we couldn’t catch up with it ultimately."

The decline is nationwide with a 22.4 percent decrease over last year in freight traffic on U.S. railroads during the week ending April 25, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The press release showed loadings were down 20.7 percent in the West for the same time period.

Swanson said 30 percent of rail cars in North America are currently in storage because they are not in use, the highest that number's ever been.

He estimates CEECO's customers - including main regional carriers such as BNSF and Union Pacific railroads - have 20 to 30 percent of their cars in storage. And railroad companies can't afford to repair machines they aren't using.

"(Our customers) are reacting to the market and to the shipping community to operate their businesses properly." Swanson said. "They've made the correct response for their businesses. The fallout is there isn't enough business anymore."

More news from the coffee wars: Starbucks announced today that it will sell its iced brewed coffee for $1.95.

This comes the same week McDonald's launches an advertising campaign aimed at upscale drinks.

The Seattle-based coffee company described the drink: Starbucks Terraza Blend is served over ice, lightly sweetened and customized with or without milk.

"Many of our customers enjoy coffee and espresso-based beverages over ice during the summer months," said Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice president, Coffee & Tea. "Our unmatched coffee expertise provides a consistent, delicious cup of coffee - whether served hot or over ice. We’re committed to offering customers the world’s highest quality coffees available."

The promotional price is good through June 29. Depending on the market, customers will save anywhere from $0.25 to $0.45.

Weyerhaeuser Co. posted losses today of more than a quarter billion dollars as nearly every segment of its business declined from a year earlier.

The good news from the earnings announcement this morning is that the Federal Way-based timber company's earnings were better than the pessimistic predictions from Wall Street.

Before special items such as the costs of shutting down mills and the write off of good will were considered, Weyerhaeuser lost $264 million or 68 cents a share. That compares with the consensus among analysts of a first quarter loss of 80 cents a share.

Just after midday in New York, Weyerhaeuser shares were up 96 cents or 2.67 percent to $36.98 a share.

The company has been swiftly closing mills, distribution centers and wood products plants in recent plants in attempt to bring its production in line with the weak demands of the market.

"The recession hit us hard," said Weyerhaeuser's chief executive Dan Fulton. "Declining revenues in the first quarter reflect reduced volume and depressed prices across all of our product lines."

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File your claim early this week if you’re one of the 190,000 Washingtonians currently receiving unemployment benefits. That’s the word from the state Employment Security Department.

Congress and the Legislature each approved temporary increases in weekly unemployment benefits as part of economic stimulus efforts, and the increases will arrive in benefit checks beginning May 11, ESD said in a release.

To implement the changes, telephone and Web access for filing weekly unemployment claims on active accounts will close at noon Friday – May 8 – and will reopen at midnight on Saturday.

Weekly claims for April 26-May 2 should be filed before noon on May 8. Anyone who misses filing a weekly claim should call the unemployment hotline (800-318-6022) during the week of May 11-15 for assistance, ESD said

People filing new unemployment applications are encouraged to file any time by visiting www.esd.wa.gov. Web application will not be affected by the temporary shutdown. New claims also can be filed via the unemployment hotline all day on Friday but not on Saturday.

The Internet and phone claims systems will be fully functioning again on Monday, May 11.

That’s not the only change pending at the call centers.

=> Read more!

OK, so I got the new digital box from my cable provider. (It wouldn’t be fair for me to name which one, what with the power behind a blog and this being somewhat of a personal matter.)

I follow the instructions for installation, variously connecting the wall outlet, TV, digital box and my DVD/VCR.

Everything seems to work just fine. It’s a little complicated, but I am able to watch digital cable TV, or a DVD or a tape. Fine. No problem.

Except...I can’t record a tape. I try, and all I record is static. I try again, and again, flipping various buttons within my sphere of control. Still static. There are programs I’d like to tape - either when watching something else or when I'm away. This is a procedure I was previously able to accomplish. Now I can’t. I want to be able to push a button or two and record a program whether I’m home or not. Why is this so difficult?

Yes, I called the customer service line. After once being disconnected (I’m confident it was a technical glitch having to do with telephonic technology), I was able to speak to someone who seemed to have a firm grasp of the situation. She spoke to me of splitters, and she might just as well have been talking about spoons. That’s my fault. A splitter to me is something a pitcher throws.

Anyway, I’m thinking that this does not signal “progress” to me. I am now unable to do something I was previously able to do, and I am guessing that it will eventually cost me more. I know: Welcome to the 21st century.

But I’m also thinking that someone else, an adapter earlier than me, has gone through this very same thing. In plain language, is there a button to press, a switch to throw, a prayer to say that will get me what I want?

Let me know if you know. Thanks.