As of this afternoon Alaska Airlines has found no missing washers or loose bolts on the slats of its fleet of 56 new generation Boeing 737s.

Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said the airline has inspected 36 of its 56-plane fleet of 737s and found nothing amiss.

The Federal Aviation Administration this week ordered airlines operating Next Generation Boeing 737s to visually inspect the bolts holding on the planes’ leading edge slats. Those slats are part of the wing that can be extended downward from the front of the wing to change the wing’s shape for landing

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One more thing to put a smile on your face as you get ready to celebrate the Labor Day weekend – especially if you’ll be driving anywhere.

This morning, the price of a gallon of regular stands at $2.789. Yes, that’s up from yesterday (at $2.77), but it’s considerably lower than a month ago (at $2.902) and a year ago (at $2.901)

It’s way down from the record high of $3.459 recorded last May, and it’s lower than Seattle ($2.807), Spokane ($2.859) and the perennially high Bellingham ($2.865).

So fill up before you go, be safe, and

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Seattle-based Farecast.com has launched a trial version of a new Web feature that not only lists hotel prices and locations, but rates their prices relative to past prices for the same quality of room at that hotel.

If the Farecast feature works correctly (In my brief experience with it, it fails far more than it produces.) the site will indicate relative bargain-priced hotels by highlighting them in red. Likewise it marks over-priced hotels in a dark blue color on a map.

The service is terrific in theory, but because it has a lot of rough edges, it doesn’t

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I’ve received a few questions from readers about differing numbers put out by the Port of Tacoma regarding the cost of building shipping terminals on the Blair Waterway.

On July 31, the port placed a Request for Qualifications in the News Tribune soliciting surveying firms for its expansion projects on the waterway.

That notice put the preliminary construction budget for the associated marine terminals, road and rail infrastructure at $900 million.

The number I reported today was $812 million for developing of shipping terminals on the Blair Waterway – and sans the land purchases would

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China’s Xiamen Airlines has ordered 25 next generation 737s from Boeing.

At average list prices, the deal is worth $1.9 billion.

The airline also took options on 10 more 737 aircraft. With the Chinese sale, total sales of 737 aircraft amount to 7,153 since the plane was introduced in the mid-60s.

Horizon Air, the SeaTac-based regional airline, is cutting its prices for flights between Seattle and Portland by up to 50 percent.

The new pricing strategy is part of of Horizon’s system-wide repricing plan that it began implementing earlier this year on other routes.

The idea behind the pricing scheme is to cut prices and to make up with volume the revenue it lost by chopping prices.

Now unrestricted prices for a walk-up one-way, fully refundable fare of $99 to $59 each way for advance purchase tickets.

Horizon will operate the flights either with its 76 turboprop

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Husky and Cougar fans will be able to watch football games live this fall on their mobile phones.

Verizon Wireless and MediaFLO USA Inc. have teamed up to bring fans more than 100 games, including 20 bowl matchups.

The schedule includes:

Washington at Syracuse (Aug. 31, ESPN Mobile TV)

Washington State at Wisconsin (Sept. 1, ESPN Mobile TV)

Ohio State at Washington (Sept. 15, ESPN Mobile TV)

The games will air on CBS Mobile, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile and NBC 2Go on V CAST Mobile TV from Verizon Wireless, a service of MediaFLO USA.
Programmers will choose which games to cover based on team performances the previous week.

Read on for a longer list of games.

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Authorities in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan are talking with officials at Sea-Tac-based Horizon Air about establishing air service between the two cities.

Saskatoon, a city of some 207,000 people, wants more air service connections to cities in the Western United States.

The city’s only U.S. airline service is now provided by Northwest Airlines, which connects Saskatoon to Minneapolis.

Horizon isn’t the only airline hearing Saskatoon’s entreaties. The city’s airport authority is also talking with Delta, United and Frontier airlines about initiating service.

Horizon is no stranger to Canada. It connects Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Kelowna, Kamloops and Edmondton to

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