Steilacoom’s ferry terminal building will close for a four-month renovation beginning Tuesday night, but Pierce County’s ferry to Anderson and Ketron islands will continue to operate.

Passengers will be able to purchase tickets at a temporary building in the parking space near the terminal or online at www.piercecountywa.org/ferry, said the county’s ferry administrator, Deb Wallace.

A portable restroom and a temporary covered waiting area will be available outside for passengers during construction. The updated terminal is expected to be completed in mid-May, in time for Memorial Day traffic.

“We

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In a November 29 News Tribune article regarding a nationwide peanutbutter shortage, supermarket executive John Boyle was misidentified.

He is senior vice-president at Haggen Foods, not Metropolitan Market.

A former construction supplies marketer and his wife, a computer technology manager, plan to open a store specializing in backyard birdfeeding and nature specialty items on Puyallup’s South Hill.

Greg Cole said today he and his wife Kecia, will open a Wild Birds Unlimited store about March 1. The site, in the Meridian Place Shopping Center at 4621 S Meridian St., formerly housed a jewelry store. The Coles are remodeling the store now.

Greg Cole said he and his wife had always had a strong interest in nature. When the construction business softened, they decided to buy a franchise for …

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Transaero, a Russian airline based in Moscow, said today it has signed an order for four Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The new-technology, composite-bodied aircraft will replace a like number of Boeing 767s in Transaero’s fleet.

The Transaero aircraft will be configured with four first-class, 14 business-class and 244 economy-class seats.

The airline said the order is part of its program to update its fleet with state-of-the-art aircraft. Transaero has made tentative commitments for Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, for Boeing 747-8s and for Airbus A320neos.

The 787s will be built either at Boeing’s Everett or North Charleston, S.C. factories.

Unless Boeing rounds up a few hundred more airliner orders in the next week, it will make its poorest showing versus its competition in recent memory.

While Boeing has gross orders for 894 airliners this year, its European competitor, Airbus, stands to end the year with nearly 1,600.

Blame that discrepancy mostly on Boeing’s dithering over whether to build an all-new single-aisle plane or to update its existing 737. Airbus decided on the upgrade for its A320 aircraft more than nine months before Boeing opted to re-engine the 737 as the 737 MAX.

In the meanwhile, Airbus collected hundreds …

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Thanks to the National Retail Federation and the U.S. Census Bureau, here’s a look at Christmas in America – By the Numbers:

$469.1 billion: Revised total of expected U.S. holiday retail sales
3.8 percent: Expected increase over 2010 in retail holiday sales
14 percent: Amount of total 2010 retail sales by department stores
20 percent: By jewelry stores
$34 billion: Value of retail sales by electronic shopping and mail-order houses in December 2010
21,891: Number of electronic shopping and mail-order houses in business in 2009.
150,205: Clothing and clothing accessories stores in 2009
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A $1 million donation from the former co-owners of a longtime Tacoma scrap metal business will help fund holistic care at MultiCare Regional Cancer Center locations in the South Sound, the health care provider announced this week.

The donation is from Norman and Barbara Simon of Gig Harbor. The Simon family operated Tacoma’s Joseph Simon & Sons metal recycling business from 1925 through mid-2008 when family members sold it to a Canadian investment firm.

The Norman and Barbara Simon Endowment for Holistic Care will provide healing resources at the MultiCare Regional Cancer Center at Tacoma General Hospital and at Good …

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The first plane rolling down Boeing’s newest assembly line reached a significant milestone in its production this week.

The 787 Dreamliner rolled to the next position on the assembly line for the first time at Boeing’s North Charleston, S.C. plant. That “wheels down” event is a prelude to the beginning of electrical, mechanical and hydraulic testing for the plane. Next, workers will install the plane’s engines and interior.

That aircraft is the first to be produced in South Carolina in Boeing’s newest factory. The aircraft is due to be delivered in …

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