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Southwest Airlines will add two flights to its Sea-Tac schedule this spring, the airline said today.

One of the those flights will connect Denver and Sea-Tac and another will cover the route from Sea-Tac to St. Louis. The new flights will begin in May.

Southwest is aggressively expanding in both cities to take advantage what it perceives as weakness among the incumbent airlines there.

In Denver, a bankrupt Frontier Airlines recently was acquired by Republic Airlines. In St. Louis, the dominant carrier, American, continues to shave down its flight schedule.

American once had a major hub at St. Louis which it acquired when it bought TWA. The carrier has steadily diminished St. Louis' importance while bolstering its existing hubs in Chicago and Dallas.

SeaTac's Alaska Air Group, despite reduced passenger traffic and lower fares, today announced profits with special items of $87.6 million in the third quarter.

That compares with a loss of $86.5 million in the same quarter in 2008.

This year's third quarter, traditionally the busiest quarter for the airline, was "one of the best quarters we've had in a very long time," Alaska Chairman Bill Ayer told analysts and reporters in a conference call.

Without the effects of special items such as fuel hedges, the company made $83 million in the quarter or $2.33 a share. Analysts polled by Zacks Research had predicted profits of $2.26 a share.

The company's turnaround was fueled literally by a huge difference in fuel prices between this year's third quarter and last's. During last year's third quarter, oil prices hit $147 a barrel. During this year's prices were half of that or less.

The airline holding company, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, also reworked its schedule to cut capacity in weaker markets such as California, Arizona and Nevada and to expand to new markets such a additional islands in Hawaii, Houston and Austin. The airline begins flying from Sea-Tac to Atlanta Friday.

"Our work to reduce capacity to better match demand, redeploy aircraft to into promising new markets and achieve record operational reliability contributed to our best quarterly financial performance in many years," said Ayer.

While improving its profits, both Alaska and Horizon achieved better on-time performance. Alaska was the top on-time performer among major domestic airlines every month this year from April through September, and Horizon was near the top among smaller carriers.

New fees for checked baggage also contributed to the company's profit margin. Since the July 7 imposition of those fees, the airlines have received $23 million in new revenues without a noticeable diminishment in passenger market share to the only major airline that doesn't impose checked baggage fees, Southwest.

Alaska's profits came during a quarter when many of its large and small competitors were reporting losses or, at best, small profits.

Delta Air Lines, the world's largest carrier, reported third quarter losses of $161 million this week. American Airlines' parent, AMR, said its losses for the July through September period were $395 million.

Phoenix's US Airways lost $80 million in the same period. Continental Airlines reported a narrower loss, $18 million, in the third quarter. United Airlines was in the red $57 million for the quarter.

Southwest Airlines said it lost $16 million in the quarter including one-time charges.

On the positive side, JetBlue Airways said it made $15 million in the quarter. AirTran Holdings of Orlando reported a net profit of $10.4 million.

Oslo's Norwegian Air Shuttle today confirmed an order for six more Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The low-cost European carrier has ordered 48 737s from Boeing with this order. The airline is also leasing 22 of the single-aisle Renton-built planes from leasing firms.

Founded in 2002, the airline is expanding its network in Europe with the 186-seat planes.

Norwegian's 737s will be among the first to feature Boeing's new "Sky Interior." That interior features soft blue overhead lighting, modified sidewalls and window surrounds and overhead bins.

The Port of Tacoma is offering a free bus tour of its facilities Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.

The port's tour bus will pick up passengers who've reserved their seats at the South Hill Park & Ride lot at 10416 94th Ave. E. at 9 a.m.

Reservations are available by calling the port at 253-383-9463 or by e-mail at bustours@portoftacoma.com

Passengers should be back in South Hill by noon, the port said. Photo identification is required for riders 17 and older.

On-line travel company Expedia Inc. announced today it will close its Tacoma call center office by the end of the year.

The company plans to transfer some of the work the Tacoma office performed to an expanded call center in Las Vegas.

The company said an unspecified number of workers in Tacoma will be offered jobs in Expedia's Bellevue headquarters or in the Las Vegas call center.

The company didn't say specifically why it is closing the Tacoma operation, one of four call centers it maintains around the country.

It did issue a general explanation: "In making the decision to grow the Las Vegas location and close the Tacoma location, Expedia concluded that these geographic changes in its call center footprint would enable the company to most effectively serve its customers and address its evolving business needs."

"Expedia is providing support to any employees transitioning out of the company," the company said in a press release.

Tacoma temporary staffing provider TrueBlue Inc. stayed profitable in the third quarter despite a 27 percent revenue drop compared with the third quarter of 2008.

The company today announced net income of $8.2 million for the quarter ending Sept. 25. That's 19 cents a share.

That income is about half the $16.3 million or 38 cents per share the staffing company made in the same quarter last year.

Revenues were $284.8 million compared with $387.9 million for the same period in 2008.

"Our strict cost management combined with ongoing stabilization in the same branch revenue drove our results this quarter," said TrueBlue Chief Executive Steve Cooper. The company's ongoing efforts to reduce is workers compensation costs also helped keep the company in the black, he said. TrueBlue has reduced workplace injuries by 60 percent over the last six years.

The downtown Tacoma-headquartered company has closed 155 branch offices and cut company-wide employment from 3,300 to less than 2,600 since the first of the year.

Management has trimmed other expenses by 30 percent, he said.

The company's results were about six cents a share better than its own predictions, said Chief Financial Officer Derrek Gafford. That improvement was the result of better-than-expected revenues, particularly from a single large customer whose need for temporary staffing has continued longer than expected.

The company's economy measures, said Cooper, have left TrueBlue, parent company of such brands as Labor Ready, Spartan Staffing, CLP Resources, Plane Techs and TLC, well-positioned to benefit from any upswing in business once business activity increases.

The company is beginning to see some freshening of demand in the Midwest where auto parts suppliers are ramping up their factories.

"It really started with Cash for Clunkers, but it's continued on after that," said Cooper.

The construction industry, a major source of demand for temporary help, is still ailing, company officials said.

The startup of some federal stimulus-funded projects will begin happening late this year and early next, said Cooper. Those projects may stimulate demand for more workers.

Those stimulus projects have been slower to leave the starting line than the government had hoped, but with preliminary planning and permitting done, they should begin moving forward, he said.

Tacoma Goodwill Industries plans a grand opening next week for its new Puyallup store just off River Road in a remodeled former cinema.

The new 17,000-square-foot store will open with ceremonies beginning Oct. 29 at 8:45 a.m. Puyallup Mayor Don Malloy, Goodwill Board President Bob Bruback and Goodwill Chief Executive Officer Terry Hayes will officiate at the event.

The new store at 1200 Fourth St. NW next to KMart will employ about 35 workers and have a payroll of $500,000 including benefits, said Hayes.

During the Oct. 29 through Nov. 1 grand opening, shoppers will have an opportunity to win a DVD player, an iPod Nano and $50 gas cards.

On the opening day only, Goodwill will have a mattress truckload sale. Mattress and box spring sets will be priced at $199 for twins, $249 for fulls, $299 for queen-sized and $399 for king-sized. A frame will be included with the purchase free.

The store is the 24th for Tacoma Goodwill, the 10th in Pierce County.

Boeing needs to bring more of its engineering work back inside Boeing, the company's chief executive said today after announcing a $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter.

Jim McNerney said the company went too far in attempting to develop the revolutionary 787 Dreamliner while also installing a new design and production scheme that relied heavily on outside suppliers.

Much of the company-wide quarterly loss was driven by $2.5 billion in new costs associated with design and production problems on the Dreamliner. The company also took $1 billion in additional losses on the development and production of a second new project, a next generation 747.

"The industry got a little overheated," said McNerney addressing the root of the 787 and 747 problems. "Baselines set up were very aggressive."

Attempting to build a new plane with pioneering composite technology while simultaneously pushing major design and construction responsibility out to partners was "a bridge too far," he said.

"We need to bring more of the engineering, especially as the systems level, back into Boeing," he told reporters and analysts in a conference call.

The Dreamliner is now nearly 2 1/2 years late in flying for the first time, and the 747-8's first flight schedule recently slipped into the first quarter of 2010.

Boeing's losses for the quarter amounted to $2.23 a share. The 787 and 747 charges alone amounted to a $3.59 a share. Good performance in other parts of the company blunted those Dreamliner and 747 losses.

"The fundamental operating engine of the company is running well," McNerney noted.

While some airlines have deferred or canceled orders in the first nine months of the year, the commercial airplanes side of the company still has a backlog of orders -- $254 billion -- that represent more than seven years of production, he said.

The company has no plans to reduce the production pace of its bread-and-butter 737 at its Renton plant, he said, despite some deferrals by some customers.

Boeing will continue laying off workers to adjust to changing demands in other sectors, particularly in defense where the government is tightening up programs and in the service sector where airlines are cutting back on expenses, the Boeing CEO said.

Boeing will announce whether a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line will be built in Everett or in South Carolina within the next two weeks.

Boeing Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney told analysts and reporters today the announcement from him and Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Jim Albaugh will happen within a fortnight.

Talks continue with the International Association of Machinists about how the union and the company can ensure labor peace in Puget Sound, he said.

Labor disruptions remain a major issue in the decision about where to locate the second assembly line for the tardy but revolutionary composite airliner.

Washington has been campaigning hard for Everett noting that workers in this area have more aerospace experience, are better educated and have the advantage of operating the only existing final assembly line.

But bettors are putting money on Charleston, S.C., if only because having a second site in a state that is not union-friendly would give Boeing a psychological advantages in a potential strike situation in Puget Sound.

Machinists last year shut down Boeing assembly lines for two months while they struck Boeing over new contract proposals.

Asked why Boeing, which has been burned in its attempt to outsource much of the engineering and subassembly work on the Dreamliner, would build a second assembly line on the opposite coast, McNerney noted that Boeing already has major operations in Charleston and that diversity of operations sites would buffer the effects of labor disruptions.

“Our balance sheet would be a lot stronger today had we not had a strike last year, our customers would be a lot happier today had we not had a strike last year and the 787 program would be in better shape,” McNerney said.

“I don’t blame this totally on the union, but the mix hasn’t worked well yet,” he said. “So we’ve either got to satisfy ourselves that the mix is different or we’ve got to diversify our labor base.”

Boeing has already sought building permits in Charleston for construction of a new assembly plant there, but the company says those applications are no indication of its final decision.

Boeing owns a former Vought Aerospace plant in Charleston that builds fuselage sections for the Dreamliner. It also owns half of another plant that joins those sections with fuselage parts built in Italy. Boeing bought those plants from Vought when the Texas-based company was overwhelmed with production problems.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber marked 125 years of business advocacy with a luncheon Tuesday at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.

Simpson Investment Co.'s Ray Tennison is the outgoing Chamber chairman. In his remarks he said the past two years have been the most difficult in a generation for business and government.

"I am heartened by this community's ability to adapt," he said. "Sometimes with too many groups and too many meetings, but people are still dedicated."

Murray Pacific Corporation's Toby Murray, the incoming chairman, said that while his business has been a Chamber member for some time, he personally hadn't been that involved in activities until now. He also indicated that even the Chamber isn't immune to belt-tightening.

Staff and volunteers would be reviewing the Chamber's programs, events and services, he said, ending his remarks with a call to action.

"If you have time, volunteer it," he said. "If you have ideas, share them. If you have resources, consider investing them."

Other parts of the event included:

• The keynote speech, delivered by Kirkland-based "futurist" Glen Hiemstra, who said the world is in the midst of a "techo-social-economic revolution" that began in the early 1980s and won't be concluded until around 2020. Hiemstra said things are out of balance, especially the country's balance of wealth, and that the U.S. and the world needs an "economic reset" while protecting the free enterprise system. In his view, the keys to successful future business ideas are that they are smart, simple and sustainable.

• Pioneering and long-time Chamber members, featured in video interviews and awards: Weyerhaeuser, Puget Sound Energy, University of Puget Sound, Brown & Brown and the Roman Meal Company.

• "We Like Tacoma," by S.A. Huntington Jr., was written in 1909 and first performed by about 15,000 Tacomans who marched 20 blocks in downtown Seattle in July of that year. The chorus?

"We like Tacoma,
Where rail meets sail,
Where all are hearty, prosperous and hale,
Down on Commencement Bay,
A "New York's" going day by day –
Tacoma, the peer for all."

Delta Air Lines announced new flights from Sea-Tac Airport to Asia and Europe today adding destinations Beijing in China and Osaka in Japan and bolstering its repertoire of flights to Amsterdam.

The flights from Sea-Tac to Beijing and Osaka will begin next summer. Three additional weekly flights to Amsterdam are slated to start June 1. The airline, which merged with Northwest Airlines last year, already offers seven weekly flights to Amsterdam, hub for its European partner, Air France-KLM.

The Beijing flights begin June 4. The airline will challenge China's Hainan Airlines, which already flies that route. Osaka flights are due to start June 7. Northwest Airlines once flew that route but abandoned it.

Delta already flies from Sea-Tac to Tokyo daily. The airline earlier this year dropped flights from Sea-Tac to London to free up an aircraft for other overseas routes from other airports.

Delta will use its code-sharing arrangements with SeaTac's Alaska Airlines to feed the international flights and to get international passengers to other domestic destinations that Delta doesn't serve.

Sea-Tac in recent years has both gained and lost international service. Last summer, longtime Sea-Tac tenant SAS halted service from the Puget Sound area to Copenhagen as part of a systemwide cutback. Delta also ended its London service, although British Airways continued its service to the English capital.

Air France added non-stop service from Sea-Tac to Paris in 2007. Aeromexico began serving Mexico City and San Jose del Cabo from Sea-Tac in 2008. Lufthansa started service to Frankfurt and Hainan to Beijing last year. Icelandair began flying from Sea-Tac to Reykjavik last summer.

San Francisco's Virgin America Airlines fired another shot in the West Coast airfare war this week, reducing some roundtrip fares from Seattle to San Francisco to as low as $80 without taxes and to $120 excluding taxes to Los Angeles.

The airline, partially owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, also posted fares as low as $120 roundtrip to Las Vegas, San Diego and Orange County. Those flights may require a stop in San Francisco.

The airline also launched fares of $200 roundtrip excluding taxes to Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Fort Lauderdale. All of those flights require stops in Virgin's home city of San Francisco.

The new prices are available for flights Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday. They must be booked by Oct. 27.

Look for competitors such as Alaska Airlines and United Airlines to match their fares on comparable flights.

Boeing delivered its 12th 777-300ER to Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways this week. The plane is the first painted in a special paint scheme highlighting Cathay's membership in the OneWorld airline alliance.

The OneWorld alliance is a group of 11 major airlines and 21 affiliate airlines worldwide that coordinate schedules and share flights and marketing.

Cathay has a fleet of 29 777s, 12 of them 777-300s, five 777-200s and 12 777-300ERs. The 777-300ER is the extended range version of the standard 777.

Mokulele Airlines, a inter-island carrier in Hawaii once owned by Tacoma entreprenuer Bill Boyer, has encountered some turbulence in its merger with another Hawaiian carrier.

News reports from the islands say Mokulele passengers had to wait up to two hours beyond their scheduled flight times to get to their destinations on the merger's first day last week.

Mokulele is merging with go! Airlines to become go!Mokulele. Republic Airlines, the Indianapolis-based carrier that acquired a majority of Mokulele from Boyer earlier this year, and Mesa Airlines, another regional carrier based in Arizona, agreed to join the two Hawaiian carriers earlier this month. Mesa owned go!.

The two airlines had but a day to merge their reservations lists and to reschedule passengers, thus the delays. Republic redeployed three Embraer jets that had been flying for Mokulele also causing scheduling issues.

Those jets are expected to fly for Republic subsidiary Frontier Airlines.

Boyer, once an Alaska Airlines baggage handler, made his fortune inventing a portable movie player for use on airlines and other modes of transportation. Boyer contracted with movie studios to load their movies on the player's hard drive for playing in flight. Boyer sold that enterprise and reinvested in the Hawaiian carrier.

Tacoma's first large-scale condominium auction Saturday yielded substantial bargains for the buyers of 17 units at downtown Tacoma's Marcato condominiums.

For instance, a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,210-square-foot unit with two inside parking places sold at auction for $180,000, just 46.3 percent of its original offering price of $388,900. That's a $208,900 discount.

A third-floor unit with two bedrooms and two baths brought $195,000 in the auction, a drop of $210,900 from the asking price of $405,900.

The units, which ranged from a single bedroom, 620-square-foot unit to a 1,228-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and an den, sold for an average of 55.2 percent of the units' original offering price.

The 70-minute auction at downtown's Hotel Murano, yielded $3,365,000 in sales for Marcato developer Vision One LLC. The original asking prices for those units was a total of $6,096,862.

"We had almost 700 groups through in the month leading up to the auction," said Koket Fowler, project manager for TeamBuilder Auction Group. "We knew all the units would sell because of the large amount of interest, the quality of the community and the great values," she said.

Sixty-eight pre-registered and pre-qualified buyers attended the auction.

In general, one-bedroom units sold for a higher percentage of their original asking price then did the larger, two-bedroom units.

The smallest unit in the auction, 620-square-foot unit with one bedroom and one bath on the building's second floor sold for $160,000. That's 69.6 percent of the $229,900 offering price before the auction.

Developer Robert Hebert said he was pleased that buyers realized some bargains. Though the prices were substantially less than the original asking prices, he said, the auction brought a quick finish to what had been the glacial pace of sales since the recession struck.

While each building is different, the Marcato auction may give other developers who are holding onto large unsold inventories of condo units in Tacoma an idea of what the market will bear in the future.

Several major buildings are seeing condo sales moving so slowly that they'll be years filling. A large waterfront building on the Thea Foss Waterway, the Esplanade has nearly 150 vacant units.

The bank that foreclosed on that property has yet to disclose how it intends to sell the remaining units.

Union workers at Boeing's helicopter plant near Philadelphia have ratified a new contract that will give them annual raises totaling 15 percent along with $7,000 in lump sum payments over five years.

Member of the United Aerospace Workers Union are set to receive a 3 percent raise in the contract's first year, a two percent raise in the second year, 3 percent raises in the third and fourth years and a 4 percent raise in the fifth year of the contract. Those same workers will receive a lump sum payment of $3,500 the first year and payments of $1,500 in the fourth year and $2,000 in year five.

The union represents 1,789 workers in the company's Ridley Park, Pa. helicopter plant. The agreement was reached Oct. 14, and workers voted on it last week.

The plant with more than 5,400 employees produces the CH-47 Chinook twin-rotor helicopter and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Officials from the City of Tacoma and the LeMay Automobile Museum met Friday afternoon – for the second time this week – to discuss what both sides expect will be the final details leading to approval and construction of the museum.

At a Tuesday session of the City Council, some members voiced concern that disagreements had jeopardized the project, which would place the museum on a site near the Tacoma Dome.

On Friday, most points of previous contention seemed either settled or aimed toward agreement. The main target of council concern Tuesday – the use by LeMay of nine acres in an area now used for parking – looked to have been settled as officials Friday consulted a pair of maps of the area.

With the removal of a bus turn-out space and the narrowing of a proposed access road, museum officials were satisfied that they would retain their total acreage in an area that now comprises lots “B” and “C” without encroaching on lot “A,” which the city sought to preserve.

The issue of the placement of utilities was agreed in principle and will await consultation with Tacoma Public Utilities staff, with details to be provided at a subsequent meeting of city staff and LeMay representatives.

Represneting the City Friday were the Tacoma City Manager and Deputy City Manager, plus officials from the offices of Community and Economic Development, Public Works, Public Assembly Facilities and the City Attorney.
Representing LeMay were board members Paul Miller and Karl Anderson.

City Manager Eric Anderson said after the meeting, “We accomplished more than I expected.” Miller joined the sentiment by adding, “Everybody appears to be working very constructively to find solutions.”

Karl Anderson said he remained concerned about the looming deadlines for financing of the project. “I still have concern about getting it done,” he said.

At the meeting, he said, “If we can get this done in a week, that should give the funders enough time to review it.”

Funding for the project depends on final plans being available to financiers of a New Markets Tax Credit. The chance to qualify for those funds will evaporate at the end of the year, and museum and city officials must still agree on several matters including building plans, final siting of the facility, the grading of the land and the precise location of both utilities and parking.

Most of the items contained in a checklist provided by the city manager were either already completed or near completion, judging from the discussion. The atmosphere Friday was cordial and cooperative, exemplified by Eric Anderson’s question to Miller, “What do you know that we don’t know, and what do we know that you don’t know?”

That was the agenda he set, and appeared to accomplish, on Friday.

McClatchy Co., owner of The News Tribune, rode a wave of cost cutting to a higher third-quarter profit. But Thursday’s earnings report showed McClatchy’s advertising sales dipping. Online sales increased.

The company said it earned $23.6 million, or 28 cents per share, for the three months ending Sept. 27. That compares with $4.2 million, or 5 cents a share, a year ago. McClatchy boosted its profit by shedding payroll and other expenses more quickly than its revenue eroded.

The Associated Press is reporting that Sterling Financial Corp. must raise $300 million to solidify its capital under an agreement announced Thursday with federal and state regulators.

AP also says that the largest bank based in Washington also announced the appointment of a new management team. Co-founder and chairman Harold Gilkey has stepped down and will be replaced by acting Chairman William Eisenhart and acting CEO Greg Siebly. Also departing was Heidi Stanley, chairwoman of the subsidiary Sterling Savings Bank.

Here's the rest of the story:

Sterling, with $12.4 billion in assets, has struggled with steep losses, particularly on real estate loans.

In August, the company announced it would defer interest payments on notes and preferred stock, triggering a sell-off of its common shares that dropped the price 20 percent to $2.42. The shares closed Wednesday at $1.66.

In the deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, Sterling agreed to develop new plans for maintaining adequate capital, reduce commercial real estate loans, and cut off loans to troubled borrowers, all within 60 days.

The Spokane bank also must review loan-loss allowances and submit a plan to reduce reliance on brokered deposits, which command higher interest rates.

The bank has 120 days to develop a three-year strategic plan to improve profitability and lower risk.

The order signed Oct. 9 also required the board of directors to notify regulators of any change in management.

In a statement by Eisenhart released Wednesday afternoon, the bank said the changes took effect immediately.

“The board is committed to taking the actions necessary to respond to the challenges that face Sterling,” Eisenhart said. “The board is bringing in a new generation of management to lead the efforts to strengthen Sterling’s capital and liquidity positions.”

Gilkey, 70, co-founded Sterling in 1983 and had been its chairman since. He was also corporate CEO and president, director of Sterling Bank, and CEO of Golf Savings Bank, another Sterling holding.

Stanley, 53, joined the bank in 1985. She became its CEO in 2008 and chairwoman earlier this year.

Eisenhart credited both for building a franchise that expanded from one branch in Spokane to 175 in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and California.

The appointments will become permanent when approved by the bank’s regulators, the statement said.

Regular gas prices dropped below $2.50 a gallon at at least three Tacoma-area outlets today as the decline in vehicle travel cuts demand.

The price for regular was $2.49 a gallon at two Tacoma ARCO stations and at the Costco near Tacoma Mall.

On average, local regular gas was selling for $2.70 a gallon according to Tacomagasprices.com.

That's down from $2.958 a month ago and from $3.206 a year ago.

Moody's Investor Services has downgraded the Boeing Co.'s investment outlook rating from "stable" to "negative" based in part on its continuing problems getting its 787 Dreamliner off the ground.

The ratings service said the order erosion for the revolutionary plane is concerning as well as the company's repeated delays in putting the first test plane into the air.

Boeing has delayed the Dreamliner's first flight five times, the latest in late June when it said the aircraft's wing-body joint had shown potential weakness in static tests.

The company also recently postponed the first flight of its next-generation of the venerable 747 until the first quarter of next year because of a number of unfinished tasks on the first aircraft.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber will celebrate 125 years of work at its annual meeting luncheon next week.

The keynote speaker at the Oct. 20 event will be Glen Hiemstra, a Kirkland-based author and consultant who calls himself a "futurist." According to his Web site, Hiemstra focuses on "emerging trends in science, technology, economics, demographics, energy, the environment, and transportation" to "discuss the opportunities that we all have to shape the preferred future."

Hiemstra is the author of "Turning the Future into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Futures."

According to a chamber news release, other parts of the Chamber's 125th anniversary celebration will include the unveiling of the historical song, "We like Tacoma," and archival film footage of a Chamber trip to Alaska in 1936.

The luncheon will be at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, 1500 Broadway, in the Grand Ballroom on the third floor, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Registration is from 11:30-noon.

Tacoma's LeMay Automobile Museum has added two new members to its board of directors.

The auto museum's board named Moray Callum, executive director of Ford America Design and Richard Davis, president and chief executive of Standard Parts Corp. as board members at its September meeting, the museum announced this week.

David Madeira, president and chief executive of the museum, said the two men's appointment shows continued momentum in the museum's development despite the recession.

"We are honored to have them both on the board as we continue the drive for America's Car Museum," he said.

LeMay is at the end of a fund drive to raise funds to build a museum building near the Tacoma Dome to house the LeMay Collection, the world's largest privately held auto collection.

The Boeing Co. will showcase the latest model in its line of business jets, a plane that can be converted quickly from a passenger carrier to a freighter, next week at the National Business Aviation Association convention.

The aircraft, a modified Boeing 737 passenger jet, is equipped with a 140-inch-wide door to allow the aircraft to transport relief supplies, tools, parts and machinery in its freighter role.

The plane can be converted from a passenger configuration to a freighter in less than eight hours, Boeing said.

Boeing says the convertible aircraft can transport VIPS and troops one day and disaster supplies or critically-need machinery the next.

The plane will be on display at Orlando Executive Airport during the association's convention.

Gig Harbor's Threshold Group, a wealth management and family services firm, today announced its intent to merge with a similar firm, Ashbridge Investment Management of Philadelphia.

The preliminary agreement signed by the boards of both firms last month calls for creation of a single firm under the Threshold Group name. Offices will be maintained both in Gig Harbor and Philadelphia.

Threshold's New York office will be combined into the Philadelphia office. The Gig Harbor company's Portland office will remain open.

The merged firm will focus on comprehensive investment advisory services and an integrated range of family office services including financial and tax planning, estate planning, budget and cash flow management, wealth education and family governance, the two firms said in a press release.

Threshold was created by former Frank Russell Co. owners George and Jane Russell to serve wealthy families. The company employs 34 associates in three offices. Its assets under management total $1.5 billion.

Ashbridge is the creation of the Grace family of Philadelphia. Industrialist Charles B. Grace Sr. formed the firm in 1958 to manage the wealth generated by the sale of steel fabricator Heintz Manufacturing Co. and the money passed on by Eugene G. Grace Sr., long-time chairman of Bethlehem Steel. The firm has nine employees and manages $750 million in assets.

An advanced laser mounted on a C-130H aircraft fired on and hit a moving vehicle last month at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, the Boeing Co. disclosed today.

The chemically powered laser fired a beam of concentrated light on the vehicle, burning a hole in its fender.

Boeing is developing the Advanced Tactical Laser for the Air Force to knock out high priority targets without causing major collateral damage.

The company is also using a high-powered laser weapon to knock down enemy missiles in a system still under development.

The idea of such high-powered beam weapons emerged first in the '30s in such science fiction tales such as "Buck Rogers."

Practical laser weaponry has been difficult to produce because of its need for huge amounts of power generated for a portable weapon. Present day developmental laser weapons use a chemical reaction to create such a large burst of power.

It's Boeing by a nose in the race to claim the title of the world's largest plane maker in 2009.

Boeing reported its factories turned out 359 aircraft by the end of the third quarter. That's just one more than rival Airbus, which built and delivered 358.

The two aerospace companies are targeting this year's output at 480 to 485 aircraft each.

Net orders aren't keeping pace with production this year as airlines cut back on expansion and other cancel previous orders. Boeing's net orderbook for the year through the first week of October was 70 new aircraft.

Fortunately both aircraft makers rolled up big backlogs prior to the recession, so they can continue producing at their present rate or at a somewhat reduced rate for three or four years without seeing their backlogs near zero.

Tacoma-based blue collar temporary labor provider TrueBlue Inc. says it will announce third quarter results Oct. 21.

The company will discuss those results in a 2 p.m. Webcast available on its Web site.

Analysts on average expect the company to report earnings of 13 cents a share. That compares with 9 cents a share in the second quarter.

TrueBlue is the parent company of Labor Ready, Spartan Staffing, CLP Resources, Plane Techs and Transportation Logistics Co.

Southwest Airlines' new spring schedule is out today, and the company is adding two flights to its Seattle-Tacoma repertoire.

Those flights will connect Sea-Tac with Chicago's Midway Airport and with Las Vegas. The new flights will be added to Southwest's schedule March 14.

The additions will increase Southwest flights to Chicago and to Las Vegas to three daily.

Southwest is adding 104 flights to it systemwide itinerary in mid-March to raise its number of daily flights to 3,260.

Bellingham's Haggen Inc. has named its Lake Tapps TOP Food & Drug store as the winner of its best store award for 2009. The Lake Tapps store shared that honor with the company's Woodinville store.

Haggen operates 33 supermarkets under the TOP and Haggen names in Washington and Oregon.

Four of the Lake Tapps store's department managers, Angela Moore, Lynette Barth, James Chapin and Mike Heath, were tops in their categories in the internal contest.

Washington’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to an estimated 9.3 percent in September, up from a revised rate of 9 percent in August, according to the state Employment Security Department in a release this morning.

The estimated rate for August had been reported as 9.2 percent last month, but it was revised downward after more analysis.

The state lost an estimated 16,000 non-agricultural jobs in September, seasonally adjusted, after an estimated loss of nearly 12,000 jobs in August.

Industries that lost the most jobs last month were government, which cut 7,100 jobs, mostly in K-12; manufacturing, down 2,700; and construction, which lost 2,300 jobs.

Industries that added jobs in September include retail trade, with 300 new jobs; transportation, warehousing and utilities, up 100; and information, up 100, according to the release.

Year over year, Washington had 131,200 fewer jobs last month than in September 2008, a 4.4 percent decrease.

Nationally, employment declined by 4.2 percent over the past year.

An estimated 312,692 people (not seasonally adjusted) in Washington were unemployed and looking for work in September.

Both St. Joseph Medical Center and MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital have been named winners of the National Research Corporation's Consumer Choice Award.

The award honors 280 hospitals of the 3,200 nationwide that have the highest consumer perceptions of high quality healthcare.

The two major Tacoma hospitals were named co-winners because the results of local surveys were within the survey's margin of error.

That survey was conducted by the National Research Corp. NRC polled 250,000 households nationwide and 750 households in the Tacoma area about their impressions of local hospitals' healthcare.

The results of that survey were published in the Oct. 12 edition of Modern Healthcare, an industry publication.

In Seattle, Swedish Hospital won the award. In Bremerton, Harrison Memorial Hospital won.

Along with a proclamation by Gov. Gregoire marking Thursday as Credit Union Day, several credit unions in the state are celebrating
the 75th year of their trade association – the Washington Credit Union League – by honoring the 75,000th new member of 2009 with more than $2,000 in gift certificates and prizes, according to the league.

Several credit unions in the state will note Thursday, which is also International Credit Union Day, by collecting donations for charities and holding free consumer shredding events.

“Seeing the Governor officially celebrate this sector of the financial services industry says so much more about credit unions than they could say about themselves,” said Washington credit Union League President & CEO John Annaloro in a press release.

This is the fifth consecutive year Gov. Gregoire has proclaimed Credit Union Day.

As to the prizes, the 75,000th person to join a Washington credit union has not yet arrived. According to the National Credit Union Administration, more than 67,000 Washingtonians had joined by the end of June. The winner will likely join during the third or fourth quarter of this year, said league spokesman David Bennett on Monday.

In the Olympia-Tumwater area, credit unions participating in the contest include O Bee Credit Union and Evergreen Direct Credit Union.

In the Tacoma area, the list includes Woodstone Credit Union, BECU and TAPCO.

In a case where mildly bad news is actually seen by the investment community as good news, Nordstrom stock continued its ascent today after reporting dropping sales last week.

The company reported a September decline in sales of 2.4 percent in stores open a year or more, but a .3 percent overall sales increase including newly-opened stores.

But that 2.4 percent dip was less than half what analysts had predicted, 6 percent.

The Seattle-based luxury retailer's stock closed Monday at $33.61 a share, up 36 cents or 1.08 percent.

Compared with competitors such as Neiman-Marcus, the Nordstrom results were encouraging. The Dallas-based high-end store said its sales fell 17.6 percent compared with September 2008.

Nordstrom's stock has been on a rocket ride since it hit a low of $6.61 a share last November.

Analysts say Nordstrom's tight inventory control and adjustments to fit the leaner market have insulated the company from the roughest downturns.

Airline rules that severely limit payouts to passengers whose bags are lost have been warned they face fines if their rules are unreasonable.

The federal Department of Transportation told airlines this week that they can't unduly restrict reimbursement for necessities lost when bags are misplaced by the airline.

Airlines, for instance, can't limit reimbursement for necessities bought 24 hours or more after their bags failed to arrive or limit that reimbursement only to outbound trips.

Under DOT rules, airlines are required to cover up to $3,300 per passenger on domestic flights.

The DOT last month fined Spirit Airlines $375,000 for failing to reimburse passengers in a timely manner and for limiting reimbursement to outbound flights.

The Boeing Co. lost ground in the first week of October as airline order cancellations outnumbered new orders by nine planes.

Boeing reported new orders from unidentified customers for 11 737 single-aisle aircraft. But other customers canceled orders for 10 of the Renton-built planes.

The company said other airlines also canceled orders for 10 of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. That new order reduction brings cancellations for the Dreamliner to 83 for the year compared with 13 new orders.

The 787 Dreamliner is nearly 2 1/2 years behind schedule in making its first flight because of design, production and labor problems with the revolutionary new aircraft.

Boeing recently announced it intends to take a $2.5 billion charge because of those problems and delays.

Boeing has generated 181 new aircraft orders for the year, but also saw 111 prior orders canceled making the company's net orders just 70 for the year.

The Securities Division of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions today served an order to King County resident Michael Mastro – claiming that Mastro may have defrauded investors.

DFI’s seeks to order Mastro “to cease violations of anti-fraud laws and to revoke the use of exemptions from securities registration. DFI is also seeking a fine of $100,000, subject to prior repayment of the investors,” according to a notice filed today.

Mastro is a real estate developer doing business as Mastro Properties. For more than 20 years, DFI said, he “raised capital for his various business operations by selling promissory notes to investors at interest rates ranging from 8 to 12 percent. Mastro may have raised more than $100,000,000 through the sale of these notes to more than 175 investors.”

Mastro's Web site lists properties in Pierce as well as King counties.

DFI alleges that he failed to register the offer and sale of the notes in violation of the state’s securities laws. The Securities Division alleges that Mastro violated state securities anti-fraud laws because he failed to disclose certain facts – including personal information about himself; the risks of the investments; and adverse changes in his financial circumstances.

Mastro was unavailable for comment today.

“Our investigation took up the matter of the so-called “friends and family investments,” said Securities Division head Michael Stevenson this afternoon. “He had previously secured them with real estate. (Some of) the more recent notes were unsecured.”

Stevenson noted that the charges against Mastro were civil rather than criminal, although local or federal prosecutors might take an interest in the case.

The investigation was generated by complaints from the public, Stevenson said, and has been active since February.

Mastro has 20 calendar days in which to respond to the charges and ask for a hearing.

“I would expect that he would,” Stevenson said.

Just in time for the ski and snowboarding season (but maybe a bit late for wakeboarding), Sturtevant’s Ski Mart will open a new store in Tacoma tomorrow morning.

“This new Tacoma Sturtevant’s Ski Mart location allows us to better serve the needs of the South Sound community by being centrally located,” said Sturtevant’s owner Tracy Gibbons in a press release.

The company closed a Puyallup outlet in April – and the nine-year manager of that store, Keith Rollins, will map the piste in Tacoma.

The new outlet is located at 2220 S. 37th St. and features “a combination of new, in-season product and discount, close-out product from previous seasons,” according to the release.

Another Ski Mart is located in Bellevue and another is planned for Alderwood. The company also operates a Sturtevant’s – exclusive of Ski Mart – in Bellevue, and sponsors the annual SkiBonkers sale.

Bellevue's Paccar is closing a strike-plagued Peterbuilt truck plant in Denton, Tenn. and consolidating all Peterbilt heavy-duty truck production at a non-union plant in Denton, Texas.

The company said the weak market for heavy-duty Class * trucks is at the root of the closure, not the plant's labor problems.

The Tennessee plant hasn't produced a truck since the summer of 2008 when the United Auto Workers and Paccar couldn't agree on a new contract.

The Tennessee plant has endured strikes in 1992, 1998 and 2002.

The market for heavy-duty trucks has fallen to about half the number the trucking industry bought in 2005 and 2006.

The Boeing Co. board of directors today named retired Admiral Edmund Giambastiani Jr. as its newest member.

Giambastiani ended his 41-year Navy career as the military's second highest-ranking officer, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He will serve on the board's audit and and finance committees.

"His substantial experience on both the acquisition and operational sides of the U.S. military will significantly support the ongoing strategic evolution of our company," said Boeing chairman Jim McNerney.

Russell Investments is leasing about 215,000 square feet in its new Seattle home, according to a Seattle Times report today.

That's about 10,000 square feet less than the space the firm currently uses at its headquarters at 909 A St. in Tacoma. A report from Colliers International for the third quarter of 2009 put the available office space at 909 A St. at 224,000 square feet.

The Times' Eric Pryne reported this morning on leasing at the WaMu Center -- the building Russell's parent company Northwestern Mutual bought last month for $115 million.

Pryne's report focused on how rents in the WaMu Center compare to historic prices for downtown Seattle office space. But TNT readers might be more interested to learn what the recent listings for space in the building at 1301 Second Ave. reveal about Russell's future.

=> Read more!

The Boeing Co. today delivered the third and final C-17 transport to a 12-member consortium of mostly European nations.

The countries will share the three four-engine transports for military and aid missions worldwide.

The planes are based at Papa Air Base in western Hungary.

C-17s working for the consortium have already flown missions to Afghanistan to supply Swedish troops and to Kosovo.

Boeing has sold 19 C-17s to foreign customers including the consortium, the United Kingdom, Australia, Qatar, Canada and Australia. The United Arab Emirates is expected to order C-17s later this year.

The U.S. Air Force has 189 C-17s in service with 24 more yet to be delivered. The planes are built in Long Beach, Calif. in a former McDonnell Douglas plant.

The Tacoma City Council Tuesday night delayed indefinitely consideration of an environmental indemnification agreement for a proposed hotel on downtown Tacoma's Foss Waterway.

That delay will allow developer Hollander Investments and the site owner, Robert Thurston of Seattle, time to study their options for dealing with the issue.

Hollander and Thurston may bypass the council by simply transferring the existing environmental agreement from Thurston to Hollander.

The council delayed ratification of the new agreement several weeks ago because some council members were concerned that the Hollander design wasn't matching their vision of a boutique hotel on the waterfront site.

Other issues delaying the otherwise routine approval of the agreement were allegations that Hollander failed to live up to verbal agreements to remain neutral in a union election and to set aside rooms for convention business at its Marriott Courtyard Tacoma. Hollander denied it had violated any unwritten agreements.

If Hollander and Thurston determine they don't need the city's approval for the environmental agreement, Hollander would buy the hotel site between the Esplanade Condominiums and Thea's Landing and begin immediate planning to proceed with construction.

The construction must begin by March in order for it to meet shoreline permit expiration dates.

The hotel developer could be stymied in that effort if the city was slow to move on construction permit approvals for the project.

The developers of a proposed Marriott hotel on downtown Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway may bypass the Tacoma City Council in an effort to get a timely start on the new hotel.

Mark Hollander of Hollander Investments asked the council today to remove consideration of an environmental indemnity agreement for the hotel from tonight's council agenda.

The council has balked at approving that relatively routine environmental liability agreement because some members are unhappy with the design of the new hotel.

Hollander told the city he and the present owners of the hotel site need more time to study their options for further development.

A group led by Seattle hotelier Robert Thurston now owns the property. The city has already signed an environmental indemnification agreement with the Thurston group.

Hollander and Thurston are considering simply transferring that agreement to Hollander when the property is sold to the Bellingham developer. If the transfer is sufficient to protect the developer and the city, then the council would not have to be involved.

=> Read more!

A day after the failure of a deal that would have given Everett-based Frontier Financial Corp. access to a rescue package worth some $456 million, Chairman and CEO Patrick Fahey said the company will continue its search for capital.

“I’m not giving up,” he said in a phone interview earlier today. “We’re going to continue to work on our problem loans and shore up our capital position.”

The collapse of the proposed capital infusion – essentially a merger with SP Acquisition Holdings of New York – was jointly announced Monday in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Both Frontier and the holding company blamed “certain closing conditions contained in the merger agreement (that) could not be met.” The agreement had been signed in late July.

Because the agreement has failed, SP Acquisition Holdings will cease existence on Oct. 10.

Frontier remains viable and continues speaking with possible investors, Fahey said today.

=> Read more!

Boeing delivered 113 jets in the third quarter, up 35 percent from the same quarter last year.

But that figure wasn't as relatively robust as it appears. Last year, part of the third quarter deliveries were delayed by a Machninists Union strike that began Sept. 7.

This year's deliveries number included 90 737-single-aisle jets, four 767s, and 19 777s. No 747s were delivered in the third quarter because Boeing has halted production of that plane to shift to producing the new 747-8.

New figures from Sea-Tac Airport show airport passenger business remained below last year during August with a particularly sharp drop in international passengers.

The airport reported that passenger traffic was down 4.62 percent in August overall with domestic traffic down 4.23 percent and international traffic off 8.84 percent.

Total passengers for the month were 3,191,450, a drop of 154,483 from August 2008.

Year-to-date traffic to the end of August was off 1,063,285 passengers or 4.77 percent. Domestic YTD traffic was off 4.11 percent, and international traffic had fallen 11.34 percent.

You didn't hear much derision from Boeing two years ago when its rival, Airbus, announced multiple delays for its superjumbo A380 and its military transport, the A400M.

Could it have been that Boeing saw similar events happening in its future?

Delays have become a regular occurance on the 787 program, and today Boeing announced a second delay for its next generation 747.

The delay of the planes first flight to the first quarter next year from late this year comes as the 787 finally is being readied for its first flight.

And as part of the announcement, Boeing told stockholders to expect a $1 billion pre-tax charge from the 747 this quarter.

Part of that charge, $640 million, is due to higher production costs. The remainder is due to lower demand for the new aircraft.

Boeing said it now plans to produce just one and a half 747-8s a month for the next two years.

The company has sold 78 freighter versions of the new aircraft and 27 of the passenger version with just one major airline customer for the passenger plane, Lufthansa.

The 747-8 delay comes on the heels of a mid-summer delay for the 787 Dreamliner. The test 787s are now undergoing a retrofit of their wing-body joints to strengthen them prior to the plane's first flight.

The 787's latest schedule calls for it to make its first flight before the end of the year. The aircraft is already more than two years behind schedule.

Blame part of the 747-8s delay on the 787. When Boeing was struggling to finish that aircraft, it transferred engineers from the 747 to the 787 program.

Now those engineers are back to the 747, but the plans they were preparing have been produced late in the schedule causing problems for suppliers and for Boeing.

The 747-8 is stretched version of the 747-400 with new wings and engines, a new interior and electronics suite.

The engines are modified versions of the ones powering the 787. Boeing promises a more fuel efficient aircraft with greater capacity and lower maintenance than previous 747s.

We’ve already hit the bottom and we are no longer there.

So say real estate professionals who have reviewed the latest numbers, out Monday, from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

“It appears that we’ve seen the bottom, and we’re starting to climb out,” said Bill Riley, an owner of GMAC Real Estate in Puyallup and president-elect of Washington Realtors.

“People now know they can buy a house and it will be worth more down the road, he said Monday. “I wasn’t sure last month, but we are definitely in an upswing. There’s a possibility we can see the price of homes increase in 2009.”

=> Read more!

A warm, dry September followed by similar weather thus far in October bodes well for Washington's wine industry, the Washington Wine Commission reports.

The weather is creating what the commission called, "beautiful quality" fruit and an early start to harvesting.

"It looks outstanding. The weather has given us both plenty of sugar and good acidity," said Dick Boushey of Boushey Vineyards. "Also, the color in the reds is great. Cabernet and Syrah has some of the earliest veraison that I've ever seen." Veraison is the telltale color changing that indicates grapes are ripening.

Jim McFerran of Mibrandt Vineyards said Cabernet should the be the vintage's star performer. "When Caberent is the star, all other varieties tend to be great as well," he said.

Could airline traffic, headed downward for much of the last year, be turning the corner?

Alaska Airlines reported its traffic measured in revenue passenger miles, was up 1.4 percent in September. Coupled with the airline's 1.4 percent capacity reduction, that means planes were operating closer to capacity this September than last.

The passenger load factor, the percentage of seats filled, was 77.9 percent last month compared with 75.8 percent in September 2008.

At Alaska's sister airline, Horizon Air, traffic fell by 1.1 percent, but capacity fell faster at 2.6 percent. The result there too was fuller aircraft.

Horizon's load factor this September was 73.7 percent compared with 73.7 percent compared with 72.6 percent in the same month last year.

It looks like the Tacoma office for the state attorneys general isn't moving to the Brewery District after all.

General Administration spokesman Jim Erskine said that on Friday afternoon, Kirkland-based developer MJR withdrew from negotiations for the Attorney General lease space in the Jet Building on 21st Street and Jefferson Avenue.

The building is owned by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly and it sits just outside the state-approved footprint for the University of Washington. As I reported last week, Chihuly's spokeswoman said he had received an unsolicited offer on the building and that the offer is being considered.

It appears that the answer to MJR was no.

Erskine said that MJR principal Mark Lahaie sent the GA a letter Friday afternoon, which stated that that "initial discussions made it clear that an agreement was unlikely."

The state's Department of General Administration said last week that MJR was the successful bidder for 36,000 square feet of new offices for 100 employees.

University of Washington Tacoma spokesman Mike Wark said last week that the university was surprised to learn that a building so close to the campus might be turned into office space. The school's master plan calls for finding opportunities outside the footprint for student services, such as residence halls, so that the state money can be used to build academic buildings as the student body grows.

If the university had known that Chihuly's property was available, Wark said, "we would have been interesting in talking about it."

"We emphasize purchasing properties when people are ready to sell," he said.

I've confirmed that among the original proposers, Tacoma-based developers Simon Johnson LLC pitched space in the downtown post office.

I'm awaiting word from the state GA department on what happens next.

UPDATE: Erskine said Monday afternoon that the state's team wll meet tomorrow morning to decide whether to choose another successful proposer from the original bidders, re-advertise, or end the search altogether.

The other proposers were:

• Prium Cos. LLC, whose lease portfolio includes 820 A St. and 1933 Dock St. The 820 A St. building is the Bank of America Plaza that sits on the intersection with Ninth Street, just before the entrance to I-705. The 1933 Dock St. site has no building yet.

• American Life, a Seattle-based property investment and management firm whose lease portfolio includes 2413 Pacific Ave.

• Simon Johnson LLC, the ­Tacoma-based development team of Herb Simon and Ted Johnson.

• Pacific Plaza LLC, at 1301 Pacific Ave., the former crumbling parking garage that has been renovated - by PCS Structural Solutions, BLRB Architects and the City of Tacoma - and now has office and retail space.

• Linmar Management Co., the San Diego-based firm that renovated the 1903-vintage Provident Building at 917 Pacific Ave.

Sea-Tac's Alaska Airlines recorded the best on-time arrival performance of the nation's eight major airlines in September according to new figures from flightstats.com.

The carrier's flights were 89.23 percent on time during September. Southwest Airlines was second among the majors with an 88.16 percent on-time performance.

At the bottom of the list of majors was Delta Air Lines with a still-respectable 81.77 percent on-time showing.

Beyond just the major carriers, Hawaiian Airlines was the best performer among all of the nation's carriers with a 93.6 percent performance.

Fifth on the larger list was Alaska's sister airline, Horizon Air, with a 91.7 percent on-time performance in September.

Among the world's 50 largest airports, Sea-Tac Airport was sixth with an overall on-time record last month of 89.21 percent. Among large U.S. airports, that was second only to Phoenix where 90.07 percent of flights were on-time last month. Tokyo's Haneda Airport was on top with a 95.88 percent on-time performance in September.

Flights are considered on-time if they arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time according to federal Department of Transportation standards.

The Museum of Flight's timing of its new exhibit, "In Search of Amelia Earhart," couldn't be better.

The exhibit opens at the Boeing Field museum Oct. 24, the day after the nationwide debut of "Amelia," a movie starring double Oscar winner Hilary Swank as the famed aviator.

The exhibit is scheduled for a six-month run at the museum.

Earhart, an aviation pioneer with many honors to her name, disappeared on a round-the-world flight 72 years ago.

Pilot and Earhart authority Debra Plymate will deliver a lecture about Earhart's life, her philosophy and her legacy at the museum on Oct. 31. The lecture is set for 2 p.m. in the museum's William M. Allen Theater. It's free with a paid admission to the museum.

Attorney General Rob McKenna is warning state residents to beware of some door-to-door magazine sales people claiming to work for a charity.

The attorney general's office says Fresh Start Opportunities, subject of an earlier warning last March, appears to be active again in Washington.

Fresh Start's youthful magazine sellers say they're working on earning money for college or to get a better job or to win points for a free trip, but their magazine sales work appears to be a scam, the attorney general's office said.

McKenna's office has received complaints from residents contacted door-to-door by Fresh Start sales workers. Those magazine customers say they paid from $50 to $784 for subscriptions to magazines that never were delivered.

Complaints to the organization's mailing address elicited no response and calls to the Fresh Start's toll-free number listed its "temporarily unavailable."

Rainier Pacific is out today with an agreement consenting to a recent “cease and desist” order from regulators.

The agreement, issued to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the State Department of Financial Institutions, officially consents to the order. “Although Rainier Pacific Bank has agreed to the order, it has not admitted or denied any of the allegations in the order,” said a Rainier Pacific press release this afternoon.

The order required the bank to take various corrective measures, and no fines or penalties were attached. The bank assured customers that all services and transactions would continue.

The measures outlined in the original order, previously reported, included, among others, the retention of qualified management, a stronger presence by the board of directors, an increase in the bank’s capital, the maintenance of an adequate allowance for loan losses, a review of the bank’s loan policies and the development of a strategic plan.

“We are working diligently to fully comply with the order as quickly as possible,” said John Hall, Rainier Pacific president and CEO.

The response to regulators was issued after the close of trading. Rainier Pacific closed today at 86 cents, down 3 cents.

The Port of Tacoma's plans to develop the east side of the Blair Waterway for shipping terminals are over for now.

The Port of Tacoma Commission today will consider new agreements with Tokyo-based NYK Line that have the shipping company calling at an existing terminal at the Port.

The Port of Tacoma Executive Director said the deal is a positive for the port in that NYK still comes to Tacoma, but the agency doesn't have to invest millions of dollars in building them a new terminal.

NYK Line and the port announced more than two years ago plans to build the Tokyo-based shipping line a $300 million, 168-acre terminal on the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula.

But in the time since, the estimated total cost for developing the peninsula -- including building NYK's terminal and the necessary road and rail infrastructure to support it -- soared from about $700 million to $1.2 billion.

At the same time, the recession hit the shipping industry hard and sent cargo volumes plummeting.

The commission will consider three items today including one that breaks the lease signed between NYK and the port in 2007.

NYK Lines has committed to coming to Tacoma by July 2012 -- which is when the company's contract expires in Seattle -- though the company's commitment is "subject to competitive market rates and efficient operating conditions."

The company's ships will call at the APM Terminal, which used to serve Maersk ships. Maersk now stops in the Port of Seattle.

The commission will consider a Memorandum of Understanding noting just that.

JPMorgan Chase, the successor to failed Washington Mutual, has sold another former WAMU property, but this time the sale won't create a loss for Tacoma.

Chase was the bank that recently sold the former WAMU Seattle headquarters to Russell Investments parent Northwestern Mutual at a bargain basement price triggering Russell's planned move from downtown Tacoma to Seattle. Russell is downtown Tacoma's largest employer.

The new sale, announced today, is for WAMU's Cedarbrook Conference Center near Sea-Tac Airport.

Chase sold the conference center with its rushing streams and lush landscaping to Cedarbrook Lodge LLC. Managing partner in Cedarbrook LLC is Wright Hotels Inc., a company founded by Stuart Rolfe and Jerome Arches.

Rolfe is son-in-law of Howard S. Wright, the Seattle construction magnate. Wright Hotels is involved in several other West Coast properties including the Seattle Sheraton, the Portland Red Lion and the Monterey Marriott.

The 110-room conference center will be operated by Coastal Hotel Group, former operator of the Salish Lodge.