A long-simmering dispute among Boeing, GE Aviation Systems and Crane Co. over brake control monitoring software was settled this week with an agreement to pay Crane and a new relationship between the software maker and Boeing.

Crane and GE Aviation had sparred over who should foot the bill for the new software. Under the arrangement announced Wednesday, Crane will receive $18.9 million in payments next year and will work directly for Boeing, not for GE.

Crane says it will begin work on the new software almost immediately. The brakes on the 787 are the first on a commercial airliner to …

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Tacoma auctioneer Randy Ehli, head of the reconstituted Ehli Auctions, said today that his firm will next week conduct an online sale of the fixtures and fundamentals of Il Fiasco Italian Restaurant.

The restaurant, located at 2717 6th Ave., will close this week, Ehli said. There was no one to comment at Il Fiasco Thursday afternoon and the news of closure had not been posted at their Web site.

Ehli said the auction will be conducted entirely online, with opening bids taken beginning on Tuesday and running a week, through 2 p.m. on Jan. 12.

Among the items up for …

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The Federal Reserve Bord of Governors today released the text of an agreement signed with Spokane-based Sterling Financial Corp. demanding that the company make certain adjustments to its management and capital plans.

The Fed, Sterling’s principle regulator, said among other things that the company has agreed  to several orders. Among them:

• The company will submit a plan to strengthen risk management, including considerations of such matters as the effectiveness of its board of directors and the adequacy of risk assesments.

• The company shall not pay dividends unless given permission.

•  Sterling and its subsidiaries shall not incur, increase …

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Sea-Tac Airport is offering Seahawks fans commuting to Qwest Field for Sunday’s Hawks-Tennessee Titans game via the airport’s new light rail Link a discounted rate in the airport parking garage.

Fans who park on the garage’s fourth floor “Terminal Direct” parking area will receive a 50 percent discount for Sunday parking. That discount reduces the parking rate to $2 an hour.

The airport’s new Link light rail station opened Dec. 19. That station, near International Boulevard, is connected to the parking garage by a new pedestrian bridge at the north end of the garage.

From the new station, Qwest Field …

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Gas prices in Tacoma jumped nearly five cents a gallon overnight to an average of $2.792 a gallon for regular unleaded as crude oil prices toyed with the $80-a-barrel level.

Though the connection between crude prices and pump prices is complicated and indirect, gas prices have trended upward lately as both crude oil and gasoline inventories fell.

In overnight trading in New York, a barrel of crude oil for February delivery briefly hit $80, but later settled back slightly below that figure. Crude prices are still a long way from the $145-a-barrel they hit in the summer of 2008.

In …

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The low-cost division of India’s Jet Airways, JetLite, is postponing deliveries of nine Boeing 737s in an effort to closer match its traffic with its capacity.

The Indian Web site hindubusinessline.com reported today that the deliveries of the Renton-built 737-800 jets formerly set for between 2010 and 2012, have been deferred to between 2012 and 2015.

The airline’s executive director, Saroj Datta, said last summer that deferrals were likely to happen because of “the downturn and the need to cut capacity.”

Earlier, the airline had planned deferral of only four jets, but added five more recently.

For the past 11 years the state’s minimum wage rate has begun the New Year with an increase. Not so in 2010.

The state Department of Labor & Industries has issued a press release reminding employers (and employees) that the minimum wage in Washington will not increase in 2010. It will remain at $8.55 an hour – because the Consumer Price Index did not increase in the past 12 months.

The agency says employers may continue for the next 12 months using the current minimum wage poster.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week issued an updated list of enforcement actions taken against financial institutions in November. Four Washington banks were among those noted as receiving a Consent Order from the agency.

The four Washington institutions were Viking Bank, of Seattle; The Bank of Washington, of Lynwood; American Marine Bank, of Bainbridge Island; and Regal Financial Bank, of Seattle.

The banks  were variously ordered, among other things, to maintain professional leadership; ensure safe levels of capital; better manage problem loans; and develop plans aimed at success.

A consent order is not necessarily an indication that a bank …

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