For the 11th time in 12 years, Tacoma General Hospital is where area consumers say they want their health care, according to an award published in Modern Healthcare.

The National Research Corporation Consumer Choice Award is a survey of more than 200,000 households across the nation. Tacoma General is one of 226 hospitals to make the list, out of the 3,200 heath care centers across the nation.

“The staff at Tacoma General Hospital deserves the credit for this award,” said Diane Cecchettini, president and CEO of MultiCare Heath System. “Their hard work and commitment to quality patient care

Read more »

With the Machinists’ Union strike againt The Boeing Co. well into its fourth week, company-paid health insurance for strikers will end at mid-week.

Boeing paid its share of those benefits for September before the strike began, but without their working on the assembly line, some 27,000 workers will see their benefits disappear Wednesday.

The strikers can pay the full cost of the benefits themselves through COBRA, but those costs will be considerable, $364 to $1,538 per month for workers on their families depending on the plan they’ve chosen and the number of family members on the plan, said

Read more »

David Bennett, director of public relations for the Washington Credit Union League called this afternoon to say, "One thing that I haven’t heard any eporting on is the National Credit Union Administration, the NCUA, that administers the credit union insurance fund, the National Credit Union Union share insurance fund."

Let’s change that.

Not unlike the FDIC – which has been much in the news lately and which insures accounts at banks – the NCUA insures the accounts of credit union members.

Bennett also said, "Historically, bad times for banks are good times for credit unions." And these

Read more »

The big malls in Tacoma and Tukwila aren’t the only ones adding new shopping opportunities these days.

Dave Eatwell at the Puyallup Main Street Association tells us that Puyallup’s downtown has added a clutch of new merchants this summer, and others plan to open later this fall:

* Ace Hardware. This new store opened quietly in late July next to Safeway on Meridian in the old Dollar Store space. A grand opening is set for Oct. 17. The owners, Don Heston and his son, Jeff, have years of construction trade and hardware store experience.

* North Pacific

Read more »

The Boeing Co. reported 24 new orders this week bringing total orders for the year to 610 commercial aircraft.

Significant among those orders were nine for Boeing 767 twin jets. That airplane, which first entered service in the early ’80s, had seen its orders dwindle in recent years as Boeing developed the 787 to replace it.

With delays of up to two years in 787 deliveries, the 767 production line is reviving. Boeing didn’t identify the origin of the nine new orders, but reports earlier this week noted that Japan’s All Nippon Airways, launch customer for the 787

Read more »

Let’s hope Boeing vice president Randy Tinseth is correct in his recent prediction about oil prices.

Tinseth, in Australia to visit customers and Boeing facilities, told the media in Sydney that the company expects oil prices to stabilize around $70 to $80 a barrel over the next two decades.

That’s more than $25 less than oil futures have been pegged at this week and half what they hit in mid-summer.

Those high oil prices drove gas prices locally above $4.35 a gallon and put huge dents in airlines’ bottom lines.

Military projects ranging from transparent armor for drivers of Stryker combat vehicles to trauma training for military medical personnel will get an infusion of new funds in a bill passed by the House this week.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, who helped obtain the money, said the projects will improve the readiness of local troops and improve their care and treatment.

Projects totaling some $25 million were included in the defense appropriations bill. They include:

$8.6 million for Washington State Air National Guard’s 262nd Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron to build a new cyber-warfare facility for use by the

Read more »

Tacoma Mall will raise the curtain on its newest addition, a 100,000-square-foot “lifestyle” section, Oct. 4 and 5 with entertainment, prizes and a fashion show.

That addition to the ’60s-vintage mall will add seven new specialty stores, a new Nordstrom department store and a BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse to the mall’s lineup of merchants.

The project, an addition to the mall’s south side, is part of a multiphase updating to the mall structure. That renovation and addition project was announced in the spring of 2006 by the mall’s owner, Simon Property Group. Simon, headquartered in Indianapolis, is the nation’s largest publicly held real estate holding company.

Read more »