Sonja Hall, director of communications for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, will leave her job May 15 and begin anew a week later in the communications department at Tacoma Public Utilities.

Meanwhile, the chamber is looking for someone to fill Hall’s position. The specific job description is being revised. Pay is negotiable and comes in somewhere in the 40′s, Hall said.

Resumes, applications and expressions of interest should be addressed to Chamber President David Graybill, 950 Pacific Ave., Suite 300,

Tacoma, WA 98402.

The totals are now in, and the past week, which began so auspiciously for Boeing with news of a big order for 787 Dreamliners from Air Canada, has lived up to it’s promise.

Orders at list prices for the week total $7.8 billion for 56 planes.

The customers range from leasing companies to an emerging African airline.

The customers and their orders:

&bull Air Canada: 23 787s.

&bull Arik Air of Nigeria: three 787-9s, two 777-200LRs, two 777-300ERs.

&bull Oak Hill Capital Partners: six 777 freighters.

&bull S7 Group of Russia: 10 737-800s.
…

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You need a license to give customers a shave, but not to prepare their taxes. That may change.

On Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced a bill (S. 1219) that would require the Treasury Department to set standards for commercial tax-return preparers and obligate professional preparers to pass a competency exam and take continuing education classes.

The National Association of Enrolled Agents (enrolled agents are licensed by the Treasury to represent taxpayers) supports the bill. Asks NAEA Immediate Past President Frank Degen, "When you assume your barber is licensed, you are probably right, but when you assume your

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From the Book of We-Told-You-So: Congratulations to those South Sound drivers who filled their tanks yesterday, when regular gasoline reached an all-time record of $3.209 per gallon.

Today, there’s a new record: $3.247. That’s up almost four cents per gallon in one day, or 80 cents per tank, or collectively enough to buy every driver in Pierce County a bus ticket to Spokane, where the state’s lowest price hit a mere $3.039. (Just be glad you’re not in Bellingham, where a gallon this morning goes for $3.289.)

And remember, these are average prices as compiled by AAA. You

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Bill Casper, of Dupont, has announced he will run for the Port of Tacoma commission seat being vacated by longtime commissioner Jack Fabulich.

Casper is founder and a principal with the Tacoma engineering firm Casper, Phillips & Associates, which specializes in cargo container handling equipment. Casper has 40 years of structural engineering experience, with an emphasis in crane engineering, he said.

Three others have also announced they will run for the same commissioner position. Incumbent Clare Petrich is currently running unopposed.

Sweet ride.

More than 218,000 alternative fuel cars were on Washington’s roads last year, according to information released today by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

That marks a 19 percent increase from 2005. The breakdown includes:

&bull18,736 hybrid electric cars

&bull64,453 enthanol-capable cars

&bull135,158 clean diesel autos

This is what it must have been like in the days of Weimar, when citizens needed wheelbarrows filled with currency when they went out grocery shopping. It was best to spend the money today because you didn’t know what it would be worth tomorrow.

It’s like that with the price of gas. Fill those tanks, brothers and sisters, because tomorrow may bring another record.

Just like the one reached on Thursday.

In Tacoma, the price of a gallon of regular hit a new high, marking $3.207 – up from $3.192 on Wednesday. Vancouver and Bremerton also saw

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Olympia-based Heritage Financial Corp., parent of Heritage Bank, has posted first-quarter earnings of $2.37 million compared to $2.56 million recorded for the first quarter in 2006. Per-share earnings were 36 cents versus 40 cents a year ago.

Return on average equity slipped to 11.92 percent compared to 15.20 parent for the quarter ended March 31, 2006. Average equity for the first quarter of this year increased to $80,708,000 from $68,435,000 for the first quarter of 2006, and the bank reported that $5.7 million of the increase is due to stock issued in connection with last June’s acquisition of Western

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