The CitiFinancial office located in Puyallup at 4621 S Meridian St E., Suite A815 will change its name to OneMain Financial on July 1.

Branch Manager, Sandy Abel said the name change will not impact the products and services customers are familiar with, according to a press release today.

The firm remains a part of CitiGroup, Abel said.

“The new name better fits who we are and what we do,” she said.

OneMain Financial employees include Abel, Rubbie Quevedo, and Marco Mabalay. The firm will conduct an official launch celebration on July 13, at 10:00 a.m. at the site. …

Read more »

I know we’ve said this before, but the quaint, historic but deteriorating Ruston Tunnel will be closed permanently soon and filled with soil from construction projects on the old Asarco copper smelter site.

The frequently postponed permanent shutdown is now set for July 13 at 7 a.m. The tunnel has been closed temporarily in the past to construction of new utilities on the old smelter site, but it has reopened again repeatedly despite warnings that its ultimate demise was at hand.

This time Point Ruston developer Mike Cohen says the tunnel will close for good. He did leave himself a …

Read more »

Some 120 employees of Frederickson’s Toray Composites America, this week are taking a break from their usual production jobs to lend a hand in the community.

Toray, a major Boeing Co. supplier, makes composite tape for use as the raw building material for components of Boeing commercial airliners including the 777 and the 787 Dreamliner.

The Japanese-owned company’s Frederickson plant has already met its production goals for the first half of the year, said spokeswoman Stefanie Randolph, which allowed the company to divert volunteer workers to community projects this week.

Those workers, who are being paid their normal wages to …

Read more »

Just a week after Boeing flew its new 747-8 Freighter from Everett to Paris on a 15 percent biofuel-kerosene mixture, KLM has bettered that flight by flying between Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle on a 50-50 biofuel-kerosene blend.

The distance was less for the KLM flight, but the proportion of biofuel to conventional jet fuel was greater in the KLM flight.

The fuel the European airline used was half recycled cooking oil supplied by Dynamic Fuels of the U.S. The fuel mixture was burned in both engines of the KLM Boeing 737-800.

The biofuel used in the …

Read more »

What price did Boeing pay to ensure that it finally won the decade-long contest to build the next Air Force aerial tanker earlier this year?

The answer to that question is becoming clearer as the company faces the reality of actually designing the tanker version of its 767 commercial airliner.

The company recently told the Air Force that costs are rising. But under the fixed-price deal that Boeing agreed on to win the deal, the company could be stuck with paying $300 million out of its own pocket for the contract for development of the tanker and the delivery of …

Read more »

Washington ranks 20th among the states in competitiveness in a new study released this week by the National Association and the Council on Competitiveness.

Virginia ranked first on the list. Texas was second and North Carolina was third.

Rhode Island was at the bottom of the ranking. Alaska was 49th and Hawaii was 48th.

Washington’s lowest rankings in two of the 10 categories, cost of business (43rd) and cost of living (37th).

The state ranked well in technology and innovation (5th), access to capital (8th) and quality of life (13th).

States in the South and in the Midwest excelled in …

Read more »

Thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau, here’s a look at the Fourth of July, by the numbers:

2.5 million: On July 4, 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent United States of America.
311.7 million: The estimated population on this July Fourth.
$3.2 million: In 2010, the dollar value of U.S. imports of American Flags.
$2.8 million: Value of American Flags made in China.
$486,026: Value of U.S. flags exported in 2010. Mexico was the leading customer, purchasing $256,407-worth.
$190.7 million: Value of fireworks imported from China in 2010.
31: …

Read more »

Edgar Martinez is going from The Double (wherein he batted-in the winning runs to secure the 1995 American League Division Series against the Yankees) to another kind of double (which might comprise an upscale mezcal called El Zacatecano).

Martinez will be in Tacoma on July 14 at the Washington State Liquor Store at 3208 S. 23rd. St. to promote, according to a press release, “his latest business venture, a line of artisanal mezcal known as El Zacatecano.”

The former Mariner slugger and third-baseman will be signing autographs – but only on bottles of El Zacatecano.

That evening, Martinez will also …

Read more »