Television stations that relay Fox programming are “on board” with a threat to transition the over-the-air network to cable and satellite TV if Internet startup Aereo keeps reselling Fox’s signal without paying for rights, the chairman of a Fox group said Tuesday.
U.S. employers have more job openings than at any other time in nearly five years. Yet they seem in no hurry to fill them.
U.S. wholesalers cut their restocking in February by the most in 17 months. But their sales jumped, suggesting companies underestimated consumer demand.
NICOSIA, Cyprus – When Costas Kalapodas was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago and given months to live, he saw one sure place to put his money: Cyprus’ biggest bank.
There won’t be an easy fix for J.C. Penney – if it is even fixable.
A much-anticipated Tacoma longshore jobs lottery is done, but it may be as long as three weeks before the winners’ names are announced.
One of the state’s biggest medical insurance providers and one of its largest health care systems have signed a new agreement, ending the threat of a health care crisis for some 53,000 South Sound families.
Local shipping report for April 10-12
It’s been 21 years since Port of Tacoma commissioners got a salary increase, and at least one commissioner thinks a raise might be in order.
The U.S. Department of Labor is hosting a job fair for former military service members Friday at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ American Lake site.
With U.S. stock markets reaching new highs, posting first quarter 2013 returns that look like nice annual gains – 10.6 percent for the S&P 500, 11.9 percent for the Dow Jones industrial average – it’s common to wonder how much staying power this rally has.
NEW YORK – Ericsson, the Swedish maker of telecommunications equipment, has agreed to buy Microsoft’s Mediaroom business, which makes the software that powers AT&T’s U-Verse TV service, the companies said Monday.
European countries should ease off their austerity and adopt more growth-friendly policies, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday as he kicked off a series of meetings with the region’s top leaders.
Caribou Coffee lovers may need to look a bit further for their caffeine fix.
Avon is eliminating more than 400 positions and abandoning or restructuring smaller or underperforming businesses in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, including an exit from Ireland.
Alcoa Inc. kicked off earnings season Monday by reporting a larger first-quarter profit than analysts expected, helped by strong demand for aluminum used to make airplanes and automobiles.
General Electric Co. has agreed to buy the oilfield equipment maker Lufkin Industries Inc. for $3.1 billion, furthering an effort by GE to grow its oil and gas operations.
In Lakewood, forget nostalgia. This is about progress. In the same way Tacoma rid itself of pawn shops, porn stores and bars the likes of Esmerelda's and the South Pacific — all to make way for what has become a neighborhood hosting restaurants, shops and a university — so is Lakewood cleaning house.
Who would want to buy a bank these days? The margins are awful, the regulatory cost and hassle of operating keep rising, Ben Bernanke seems determined to drive interest rates (and revenue received on loans) to zero, not that people show much inclination to borrow anyway, and everyone blames you for triggering the recession, even if you were nowhere near the scene of the crime.
“What would Walt do?”
NEW YORK – In case Americans want to scarf down their fast-food even faster, KFC is stripping the bones out of its chicken.
WASHINGTON – A disappointing March jobs report Friday, marked by a sharp slowdown in hiring and shrinking labor force participation, triggered new debate over the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
With the backlog of compensa-tion claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs having ballooned in recent years, one would expect major veterans service organizations to be among the VA’s harshest critics.
Boeing completed the set of tests required by the Federal Aviation Administration for its 787 Dreamliner battery fix with a two-hour test flight Friday.
Troubled electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. has laid off about three-fourths of the workers at its California headquarters as it struggles with financial and production problems.
A New York judge has approved Bank of America’s $2.43 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders over the company’s acquisition of former competitor Merrill Lynch.
Rich Products Corp. is now recalling all of its frozen snack foods produced at its Waycross, Ga., plant.
A day after MF Global’s bankruptcy trustee hinted he might sue top executives for “negligent conduct,” his separate plan to liquidate the firm secured court approval, ushering in a final phase of a case that rattled Wall Street and prompted a federal investigation.
Even without Christmas or a new hit device, Korea’s Samsung Electronics posted near-record earnings in the first quarter. Profit is set to surge when the Galaxy S4 smartphone goes on sale this month.
Pierce County’s streak of improved home sales and higher median prices continued in March, with both sales and prices rising again, likely cementing the view that the slower housing market finally is behind us, according to new Northwest Multiple Listing Service data released Thursday.
A year after the Port of Tacoma set ambitious 10-year goals for improvements in port business, finances, jobs and environmental cleanups, the port commission Thursday gave its staff high marks for their progress in meeting those objectives.
A California company that operates the world’s second largest network of cold storage warehouses this week added cold storage facilities in Tacoma and Algona to its property portfolio.
Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 18 this year, the 108th day of 2013, the Tax Foundation reported this week in a release.
Washington state taxpayers pay an extra $1,091 in taxes to make up for revenue lost to offshore tax havens, according to a study by WashPIRG, a state public interest group.
From household wealth to spending at stores, many of the U.S. economy’s vital signs have recovered from the damage done by the Great Recession.
South Sound Mortgage Rates
SHIPS
HOUSTON — A possible agreement that could reduce the prison sentence of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling for his role in the collapse of the once mighty energy giant is being discussed, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Macy’s gave its chief executive, Terry Lundgren, a pay package worth $11.3 million in 2012. That’s down 22 percent from 2011 as he failed to meet all of Macy’s financial performance goals.
T-Mobile USA’s subscribers were more likely to stick with the company in the past three months, a welcome trend for a carrier that’s struggling against larger competitors.
Fast-food workers and supporters protested outside New York City restaurants Thursday to demand higher wages for their low-paying jobs, including about 60 who chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Minimum wage has got to go!” at a midtown Wendy’s.
Former MF Global Holdings Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine’s risky business strategies and mismanagement helped accelerate the futures brokerage’s demise, according to a report by bankruptcy trustee Louis Freeh.
Shares of Best Buy jumped on Thursday after it announced plans to create store-within-store kiosks for Samsung products — a vote of confidence from a major consumer electronics retailer that the brick-and-mortar format is still an important way to sell products.
State Farm has made it official, at least to employees: It plans to expand its operations into downtown Tacoma as soon as the leases are signed.
An amendment that would have allowed bosses to ask for a worker’s Facebook or other social media password during company investigations was withdrawn on Wednesday from a bill in the Legislature.
Boeing said it has finished more than half of the testing on its proposed battery fix for the 787, with the rest of the ground and flight tests coming in the next several days.
The mad dash for April 15 is especially crowded with procrastinating taxpayers this year.
SHIPS
Lululemon said Wednesday that its chief product officer is stepping down, as it updated the production problems it has had with see-through pants.
Facebook is close to unveiling a smartphone whose software keeps the social network front and center. It is part of an overall strategy to advance Facebook’s ambitions to dominate mobile devices the way it has desktop computers.
Monsanto reported Wednesday that its income increased 22 percent in the agriculture products company’s second quarter on strong sales of biotech seeds, particularly in Brazil and other emerging markets.
In an odd combination of old and new, Amazon says that every time a person buys a vinyl record from its online store, it will give that customer a digital version of the songs for free.
U.S. home prices jumped in February by the largest amount in seven years, evidence that the housing recovery strengthened ahead of the all-important spring buying season.
A new report from a national site location consultant ranks Tacoma among the least-costly locations in the West for operation of a major distribution warehouse.
WASHINGTON — There may one day soon be another way to fight those annoying prerecorded phone pitches known as robocalls.
Tacoma’s Franciscan Health System and Regence Blue Shield appear to be on the verge of averting a health care crisis for some 53,000 Regence members. The Tacoma-based health care company and the insurer say they’re close to resolving a disagreement over rising costs.
When the Center for Responsible Lending released its latest report on payday loans, one statistic jumped out at me:
It’s never easy for this town, is it?
A Chicago-based social media company called Timelines Inc. can sue Facebook Inc. over allegations that it violated the smaller firm’s trademark on the word “timeline,” a federal judge ruled.
SHIPS
SeaTac’s Alaska Airlines is adding a third daily nonstop flight between Sea-Tac Airport and Boston’s Logan Airport for the summer vacation season.
The CEO of struggling retailer J.C. Penney saw his 2012 compensation package plummet nearly 97 percent to about $1.9 million without the sizeable stock award he got last year and no bonuses.
Windows Phone is making strides in the U.S. market, becoming the third most popular smartphone operating system, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel’s ComTech division.
Apple is set for a possible summer launch of the next iPhone, rather than a fall launch like the last two models, according to a report Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal.
Instead of facing one European investigation into its privacy policy, Google now has to contend with at least six of them.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow public companies to make significant announcements on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites provided they alert investors which sites they intend to use. The decision announced Tuesday allows companies to use social media in place of more formal websites.
State Farm, Pierce County’s seventh-largest private employer, is in the final stages of lease negotiations that would bring about 2,000 new jobs to downtown Tacoma this year.
At America’s sports bars, chicken wings are as essential to March Madness as man-to-man defense and the three-point shot.
Wall Street is embracing its dark side.
If Jeffrey Gundlach were a famous chef, he’d be the star behind a famous steakhouse.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The people of Stockton will feel financial fallout for years after a federal judge ruled Monday to let the city become the most populous in the nation to enter bankruptcy.
Fred Meyer is expanding its fuel points program so customers can save up to $1 per gallon at the pump.
A survey shows U.S. manufacturing activity expanded more slowly in March than February, held back by weaker growth in production and new orders. But factories hired at the fastest pace in nine months, an encouraging sign ahead of Friday’s report on March employment.
Cyprus has been granted an extra year – until 2017 – to achieve a targeted budget surplus of 4 percent as part of bailout negotiations with international lenders, a government spokesman said Monday.
An Internet company offering inexpensive live broadcast television feeds doesn’t violate U.S. copyright law, a divided federal appeals court said Monday.
India’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected drug maker Novartis AG’s attempt to patent an updated version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that health activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.
Don’t mind me.
Tech review LOS ANGELES – Since Windows 8’s debut in October, there have been a range of hot-looking devices that try to combine elements of tablets and traditional PCs. These hybrids seem as if they would be great both for relaxing with an e-book and for writing stories when I occasionally need to snap back into work mode.
Smoking-cessation drugs now are available at no charge through the Tricare Mail Order Program for service members, military family members and retirees younger than 65 who want to kick this unhealthy habit.
Apple is seeking a patent for an iPhone that has a display that wraps around the edges of the device, expanding the viewable area and eliminating all physical buttons.
Shipping company UPS agreed Friday to pay $40 million to end a federal criminal probe connected to deliveries it made for illicit online pharmacies.
The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved a first-of-a-kind diabetes drug from Johnson & Johnson that uses a new method to lower blood sugar.
Facebook has invited journalists to the unveiling of what it calls its “new home on Android.”
Authors Guild president and best-selling novelist Scott Turow is condemning Amazon.com’s purchase of Goodreads, a leading book recommendation website.
A small investment fund run by three Tacomans out of a quiet office downtown is receiving international attention for best practices and performance.
The U.S. economy’s performance in the fourth quarter was not quite as bad as it first appeared, it turns out. And corporate profits rose in 2012 to an all-time high.
NEW YORK – Amazon.com Inc., the world’s biggest online retailer that got its start in bookselling, has agreed to buy book recommendations site Goodreads.
Farmers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn this year, the most since 1936, the USDA’s spring planting survey said Thursday.
While promising to eliminate unprofitable businesses, Panasonic’s President Kazuhiro Tsuga said the Japanese electronics company will persist with trying to fix its money-losing TV business.
Research In Motion Ltd., once written off as dead, surprised Wall Street Thursday by returning to profitability and shipping more BlackBerry 10 phones than expected in the most recent quarter.
The number of people applying for new jobless benefits rose more than expected in the most recent weekly report, which contained mixed data on an employment environment that has seen substantial gains in recent months.
A decade after they built the first major residential structure on Tacoma’s redeveloping Thea Foss Waterway, a Tacoma-area group is proposing a $31 million project to restart the waterway’s transformation.
A Port of Tacoma longshore worker was in the hospital Wednesday night after he fell on a ship at the Husky Terminal.
A master-planning process that began in the fall of 2011 has produced a deep look at downtown Tacoma’s Brewery and Dome districts, full of ideas for the way it should develop during the next several decades to accommodate major population growth. It’s your turn to comment.
South Miami Recovery – an outpatient treatment center for substance abuse – has seen an increase in patients who say their alcohol consumption has become a problem since the start of the recession, according to Howard Lerner, the center’s director. Many of those with economic anxiety found too much comfort in what Lerner calls the oldest drug known to man: the ethanol in alcohol that slows the human heart and creates a euphoric feeling.
Order a bowl of turkey chili at a St. Louis-area Panera Bread cafe and it’ll cost you a penny. Or $5. Or $100. In other words, whatever you decide.
Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Wednesday that federal regulators are reviewing its application to sell a new type of treatment for grass pollen allergy that gradually reduces allergy symptoms over time, rather than just temporarily relieving the sneezing and itching.
Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in February, but the level stayed near a three-year high, and analysts believe sales of previously occupied homes will keep rising in the coming months.
Walmart Stores Inc. said it is “probable” that the world’s largest retailer will incur a loss because of ongoing bribery investigations by itself and government agencies, but it says it is too early to speculate on the size of the damage.
Banks in Cyprus are to open for the first time in more than a week today, operating for six hours from noon, but restrictions will be in place on financial transactions to prevent people from draining their accounts.
NEW YORK – No “downward-facing dog” is required.
The Pierce County Council unanimously approved a measure Tuesday calling for foreclosed homes to be registered and abandoned residential properties to be maintained.
The Tacoma City Council acted Tuesday to give local businesses a little help to land city contracts.
The Pierce County economy shed 3,100 jobs in January and added 900 jobs in February; combine the two and the economy looks much like it has for some time: slow growth.
Supervalu is eliminating about 1,100 jobs nationwide, or about 3 percent of its workforce, less than a week after the supermarket operator completed the sale of five grocery chains.
Cypriot businesses were under increasing strain to keep running on Tuesday after financial authorities stretched the country’s bank closure into a second week in a an attempt to stop depositors from rushing to drain their accounts.
American Express and Walmart announced Tuesday that their prepaid debit card accounts will now be backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., making them one of the last major providers to sign on to the government backstop.
Blackstone Group and billionaire Carl Icahn are offering to buy Dell without retaining Michael Dell as chief executive officer, spurring debate over whether the personal-computer maker would be better off without the entrepreneur who founded it three decades ago.
Warren Buffett’s company will likely become one of the biggest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. later this year, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. won’t even have to part with any cash to do so.
SAN FRANCISCO — Meet Nick D’Aloisio, the 17-year-old British entrepreneur who just sold his popular news-reading app to Yahoo Inc. for close to $30 million, instantly becoming one of the world’s youngest self-made millionaires.
TOO FEW EMPLOYEES Margaret Hancock has long considered the local Walmart superstore her one-stop shopping destination. No longer.
The company that employed a 57-year-old longshore maintenance worker who died Monday at the Port of Tacoma commented Tuesday on his death.
Port of Tacoma's local shipping report for Wednesday, March 27
After unemployment rates fell in Pierce County to end 2012, the new year is not off to a good start as the jobless rate in the county rose to 9.7 percent in February from a revised 9.2 percent rate in January, new state Employment Security Department data show.
The Port of Tacoma halted all operations Monday morning after another longshore worker died at a port terminal. The worker’s death was the second this month at a Tacoma port terminal.
The stock market at record levels – despite economic storm clouds – can be a test for investors.
NEW YORK – The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that it has approved a plan by the Nasdaq stock exchange to pay $62 million in reimbursements to investment firms that lost money because of technical problems during Facebook’s initial public offering last year.
Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that the Federal Reserve’s low-interest-rate policies are helping to boost growth around the world, rejecting criticism that they could lead to a global currency war.
The India unit of Ford Motor Co. has apologized for advertisements decried as demeaning to women, including one depicting Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a trio of bound women in the trunk of a car.
Apple has bought WiFiSLAM, a startup that has been developing a way to use WiFi hotspots to help smartphones navigate large indoor spaces, like stores, airports and conference centers.
Federal pipeline regulators have proposed $1.7 million in penalties against Exxon Mobil Corp. for a pipeline rupture that spewed crude oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River.
BlackBerry shares tumbled Monday for a second straight day after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the smartphone maker, citing a disappointing debut for the company’s Z10 phone in the United States.
The saddest news of the week (at least in stories not involving some sort of human misbehavior) was the story of the closing of Affairs, the local chocolate and dessert purveyor.
Kiplinger’s looks at the strategy of a woman nearing retirement age.
WASHINGTON –
A jobs lottery designed to create a list of 226 workers to enter Tacoma’s longshore union work force generated huge interest, but lottery officials aren’t talking about the specifics of the process or its results.
Outdoor-gear retailer REI said Thursday it has laid off a “limited number” of employees at its Kent headquarters and in stores throughout the country.
Tiffany says fourth-quarter net income edged up less than 1 percent, but still beat Wall Street predictions as strong customer demand in Asia for its pricey baubles offset weakness in the U.S.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said Friday that he’s stepping down in the “coming weeks,” after a four-year tenure that’s garnered mixed reviews for him and tangible progress in the industries he oversees.
Investigators said Friday they wrongly identified a Chinese Internet Protocol address as a source of hacking against South Korea.
PepsiCo Inc. says it isn’t interested in any big acquisitions after a report suggested a mega-snack food deal could bring its Doritos under the same roof as Oreos.
U.S. stocks rose Friday, paring the second weekly drop of the year for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, as Nike and Tiffany & Co. beat earnings estimates and optimism grew that Cyprus will pass a plan to qualify for a bailout.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An Internet video that shows a meat company employee swearing at animal activists before shooting a horse in the head highlights the increasing emotional intensity of the national debate over whether a southeastern New Mexico plant should be allowed to resume domestic horse slaughter.
The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps will be forced to reopen their tuition assistance programs — and the Coast Guard likely will be pressured to follow — under a late-hour Senate amendment to a stopgap budget bill.
NEW YORK – Pepsi is rolling out a new shape for its 20-ounce bottle for the first time in about 17 years.
Coca-Cola may be missing from Passover feasts for the second year in a row in California.
Sears Holding Corp. has signed a contract with Edward Lampert to keep him on as CEO of the company at a salary of $1 per year.
Mayors from communities along the Mississippi River said Thursday that they would work with federal lawmakers to sharpen the national focus on the waterway after two years in which shipping has been threatened by flooding and then drought.
Initial jobless claims ticked up last week, but still indicated an improving labor market as the four-week average hit its lowest point in five years.
Michael Dell is about to find out if other bidders think his company is worth more than he does.
For the third month in a row, Washington state unemployment didn’t budge, holding steady at 7.5 percent in February, according to preliminary jobless data released Wednesday by the state Employment Security Department.
Walmart Stores Inc. is expanding a test of a new checkout program that allows shoppers to scan items with their smartphones and then pay at self-checkout terminals.
J.C. Penney Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson, struggling to overhaul the department-store company, risks making his task harder by hiring at least nine key executives who live a plane ride away.
Freddie Mac sued Bank of America, UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a dozen other banks over alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, saying the mortgage financier suffered substantial losses as a result of the banks’ conduct.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the U.S. economy has shown improvement in recent months, but that the Fed won’t alter its aggressive stimulus policies until it is convinced the gains can be sustained.
Researchers at Hewlett-Packard Co. have developed a way to put glasses-free 3-D video on mobile devices with a viewing angle so wide that viewers can see an object more fully just by tilting the screen.
Finally, Raymond is famous.
Anyone who orders something off the Internet, TV or from a catalog usually expects to pay some sort of shipping and handling fee unless, of course, there’s a special promotion.
Even cyberwar has rules, and one group of experts is putting out a manual to prove it.
Carnival Cruise Lines says the Carnival Triumph will be out of service longer than first expected after it was crippled by an engine fire in the Gulf of Mexico last month, leaving 4,200 people stranded for five days.
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