If you take a cup of uncertainty, add a measure of mild panic, fold in a spoonful of speculation, combine with a refinery fire and cook under the hot media lights, what do you get?

If the last few days of gasoline price escalation here and across the country are an accurate indicator, the result of that recipe is a rocket ride for gas prices at the pump.

Take gas prices in Tacoma, for instance. Filling a 15-gallon tank today in Tacoma on average cost 75 cents more than it did yesterday and $2.55 more than it did just a …

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Boeing’s worldwide promotional tour for its game-changing composite-bodied 787 Dreamliner has announced destinations for the fourth leg of its route.

Those destinations include cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Here’s the lineup:

* March 1-4: Toronto, Canada, to visit Air Canada and local suppliers.
* March 4-5: Boston, Mass., in support of Japan Airlines, which has announced that it will offer 787 service on the Tokyo-Boston route.
* March 5-7: Newark, N.J., to visit United Airlines and its local stakeholders.
* March 7-9: Mexico City, Mexico, to visit Aero Mexico.
* March 9-12: Phoenix, Ariz., …

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Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler today announced he has has issued fines and enforcement actions to nine insurance agents or companies.

The violations involved offenses ranging failing to handle consumer complaints properly to misappropriating funds.

Here’s Kreidler’s list of offenders and their punishments:

* National Title Insurance Co. and Chicago Title Insurance Co.: Fined $100,000 for wrongfully offering discount club memberships to people who were in a position to send title business to the companies.

* Aetna Life Insurance Co.: Fined $20,000 for failing to promptly handle appeals from consumers.

* Charter Warranty Services, Inc., Mechanical Breakdown Protection, Inc., and

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Good news at the Port of Tacoma. Container shipping traffic at the Port of Tacoma was up last month reversing a 6.6 percent decline in December.

That improvement over January 2011′s results was propelled by an 8.3 percent increase in foreign containerized cargo imports. The volume in domestic containers between Tacoma and Alaska and Hawaii, continued weaker by 5 percent, the port said. Overall international and domestic volumes together totaled 109,597 container units, a 4.1 percent over January 2011′s 105,289.

Will January’s improvement carry on through the year? If this year is like last, it won’t be easy. Last …

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Southwest Airlines is adding a new destination, Houston’s Hobby Airport, and returning to a familiar destination, Nashville, to its summer schedule from Sea-Tac Airport.

And Southwest’s merger partner, AirTran Airways, is adding two daily roundtrips this summer to Baltimore from Sea-Tac.

Those flights go away for the winter in November. And AirTran’s Sea-Tac-Atlanta flight likewise goes into hibernation for the slower, colder travel season, the airlines announced today.

Sea-Tac has year-round service to Houston’s Bush Airport on United/Continental and on SeaTac-based Alaska Airlines. On the Atlanta route both Alaska and Delta offer 12-month service.

No other airline offers non-stop …

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If last week’s gas prices increases made you wince, don’t expect to be smiling anytime soon.

Retail gasoline prices continued to move upward today in Tacoma and nationwide in the wake of fire late last week at a Ferndale refinery, continuing tension in the Middle East and speculative buying in the oil market.

The average price of gasoline in Tacoma at mid-afternoon Tuesday was $3.717 a gallon, up about a cent from Monday. That price was 11 cents higher than a week ago and 21 cents greater than a month ago.

Compared with this time last year, the gas price …

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The first passenger version of Boeing’s newest 747, the 747-8I, will be delivered next week, Boeing said today.

The first passenger jet in the new series will go not to an airline, but to an undisclosed VIP customer.

Typical 747-8I VIP bedroom

747-8I Living Room

747-8I Boardroom

The delivery is scheduled for Feb. 28. If the VIP 747 is typical of most VIP aircraft, the plane will go first to a custom outfitter for installation of

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A shipping company with major operations at the Port of Tacoma has pleaded guilty to pollution violations involving a containership that regularly calls on the port.

Horizon Lines LLC pleaded guilty last week in San Francisco to felony charges connected to violations of oil pollution laws that occurred aboard the Horizon Enterpise.

That ship provides service between Tacoma, Oakland and Honolulu.

The ship calls at the port’s APM Terminal on the Sitcum Waterway. In addition to the Honolulu service, Horizon connects the port with Anchorage with other container vessels.

The Charlotte, S.C.-based shipping line pleaded guilt to making false statements …

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