The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved funding for eight more Boeing C-17 airlifters for the Air Force.

The committee's action gives new hope that the California assembly line where the plane is built won't shut down next year when the planes currently ordered are completed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri pushed for the additional purchases. The final assembly of the planes is in Long Beach, Calif. Many of the plane parts are built in a Boeing plant in Missouri.

The Pentagon had recommended that the Air Force buy no more of the four-engine transport planes. One of the C-17's main bases is Pierce County's McChord Air Force Base.

The Boeing Co. has trimmed its Washington workforce by 2,657 jobs through the end of May making good on its prediction that its payroll will be down 4,500 here in its commercial division by year's end.

New statistics from the aerospace company show Boeing dropped its workforce by 517 jobs in May. All of those jobs have not been layoffs. Some have been retirements or voluntary departures whose positions weren't refilled.

Boeing's employment in Washington topped out at about 77,000 last October before the company, anticipating business slackening, began trimming back.

Worldwide, the company says it will have 10,000 fewer workers on the payroll by the end of December than it had on Dec.31, 2008.

Summertime's usually robust travel demand is ordinarily a good time for airlines to sit back and watch the revenues roll as rivals call a truce in the fare wars.

Not so this summer. Demand is still tepid, and airlines with still too many seats going empty are keeping fares low to attract more passengers.

Witness what's happening in the Puget Sound area. Air fares on some flights are lower than they've been in two decades on selected departures. For instance:

With taxes included, you can now buy a roundtrip ticket from Sea-Tac to New York for $239, to Boston for $252 and for $216 to Baltimore.

Flights are still available for $120 roundtrip to San Francisco and for $139 to Los Angeles.

You have to be flexible to get the lowest fares. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday departures are more likely to be low-priced as are early morning and late evening flights.

According to statistics compiled by FareCast.com, you're more likely to see those superlow fares for flights just a few days ahead of departure than those booked months ahead.

That's contrary to the usual rule, but these aren't ordinary times. Typically airlines reward early bookers with low prices, but in this year's case, airlines are finding too many seats remain unfilled as the flight time approaches, and they're cutting prices to clear out inventories.

That new rule applies if the plane still has a score or more of empty seats still unsold two weeks ahead, but if only a handful remain available two weeks in advance, they airline will put a premium price on them to snag last-minute fliers with a high price.

The National Retail Federation is out today with its latest update on the impact of retail business in the state. All the numbers are annual – for 2008.

According to the NRF:

• Retail establishments employed 520,288 people in Washington
• That’s 18 percent of the state’s total employment
• There were 33,461 retail establishments in Washington
• Total sales were $108.7 billion
• That’s 2.26 of total national retail sales

Drilling down:

• There were 199,128 restaurants and bars in the state
• 59,306 grocery and liquor stores
• 13,240 gas stations
• 12,391 furniture and home furnishing stores
• 31,182 clothing and clothing accessories stores

For a look at the full report – and to navigate an interactive map that will allow a search by state and by congressional district, click here.

A new forecast from Moody's Economy.com ranks Washington among five states expected to lead the recovery from the recession.

Three of the five states, Washington, Oregon and Idaho, are in the Pacific Northwest. The others on Moody's early bounce-back list are Colorado and Texas.

All but Texas earned their places on that list in part because of their concentration of high tech industries. Moody's expects high tech to lead the revival because businesses have been holding back on technology expenditures but will need new technology to enable their makeovers.

Texas made the short list because the lingering effects of the energy price runup last year buffered the depths of the recession.

All five states entered the recession late, so, the theory goes, the hole they've dug is not as deep as states where the recession has been doing its damage since as early as 2007.

Another reason for naming Washington and others as early recoverers: households in those five states have suffered less permanent damage than in other states. Thus discretionary household spending is expected to resume earlier.

Moody's predicts the bounce back will begin in Washington in this year's fourth quarter.

Some states won't see the beginning of the end of the recession until a year later, Moody's predicts.

Here's a link to a more complete story on the Moody's study.

Insure.com is out with its list of those cars that are the most – and least – expensive to insure.
Not surprisingly, the top four are high-performance sports cars, while SUVs and mini-vans top the list of cars that cost least to insure.
Here’s the Top Ten most and least expensive with an average cost for annual insurance. There will be differences, of course, depending on your insurer and other factors.

Most expensive to insure:
1. Nissan GT-R, $2,533 (pictured above)
2. Dodge Viper, $2,446
3. BMW M6, $2,236
4. Ford Shelby GT500, $2,186
5. Mercedes-Benz G-Class, $2,088
6. Audi S8, $2,071
7. BMW M5, $2,020
8. Hummer H2, $1,912
9. Lexus ISF, $1,881
10. Porsche 911, $1,819
11-20. Chevrolet Cobalt SS, Jaguar XK Series, BMW M3, Cadillac XLR, Audi R8, Land Rover Range Rover, Cadillac Escalade EXT, Honda S2000, BMW X6, Mercedes-Benz SL-Class

Least expensive to insure:

1. Hyundai Santa Fe, $832
2. Kia Sportage, $840
3. Hyundai Entourage, $848
4. Kia Sedona, $857
5. Kia Rio5, $870
6. Honda Odyssey, $871
7. Smart fortwo, $881
8. Saturn Vue, $911
9. Mazda Tribute, $913
10. Chrysler Town & Country, $915
11-20: Scion xB, Mazda Mazda5, Volkswagen Passat, Jeep Wrangler, Honda Accord, Suzuki Forenza, Lincoln Town Car,
Mazda Truck, Chevrolet Impala, Dodge Grand Caravan

For a look at the entire list, click here.