At the annual Kitsap County Democratic dinner in February, Nancy Nystrom pushed through the crowd looking for Jay Inslee, the seven-term congressman and Democratic candidate for governor of Washington.

When Nystrom spotted him, she marched up, her head barely reaching Inslee’s shoulders, and laid out why Kitsap County needs a four-year college. Inslee listened intently and expressed support for the idea. Then he asked if she had thought about a school mascot. “How about the Ravens?” he said with the slight lisp that softens his blue-eyed, gray-at-the-temples, former-football-player good looks.

For Inslee’s supporters, these brief interactions reflect the man they admire. He is a relentless campaigner who will drive an hour to an event if only to speak for five minutes and banter with a few constituents. He’s a man who focuses on their needs rather than his own agenda. But this style also...]]> 5736 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:24:57 GMT John Stang

Ever since Miller Freeman moved from Seattle to the rural Eastside in 1927, his family’s fate and fortune have been closely entwined with Bellevue’s. Miller Freeman’s son and grandson helped transform the farming hamlet into a bedroom community and then into a major commercial center with its own bustling malls and skyscrapers.

Now, as Bellevue takes the next steps toward becoming a major metropolitan center in its own right, not everybody is sure grandson Kemper Freeman Jr. should play the same pivotal role in shaping the city’s destiny as he has had in shaping its present.

Consider the issue of public transit, deemed critical to the future of Bellevue, which is Washington state’s fifth-largest city (population: 123,000). Last fall, voters defeated a Freeman-backed public referendum to prevent a light rail line from linking Seattle and Bellevue. And in February 2011, Freeman split with...]]> 5735 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:18:34 GMT Bill Virgin The Boston Garden provided a playing home for Beantown’s hockey and basketball teams for nearly 70 years. Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto was home of the eponymous hockey club for about as long. The current incarnation of New York’s Madison Square Garden, opened in 1968, is still in operation as a venue for sporting events, concerts and political conventions as it undergoes yet another renovation.

Granted, those venerable old barns lacked amenities such as food courts and luxury suites. The concourses of older arenas were crowded, the restrooms and locker rooms antiquated and dingy, the seats narrow and uncomfortable, and the pitch of rows in the nosebleed section scarily steep.

Still, they were functional buildings where ticket holders could enjoy a few hours of entertainment, maybe a beer and a hot dog (of admittedly dubious nutritional value or delectability), and actually afford the tickets they’d bought. The focus of attention was what was happening on the ice, the court or the stage, not on...]]> 5734 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:17:02 GMT Leslie Helm

The Norway-born executive achieved national prominence earlier this year when he appeared on an episode of CBS's Undercover Boss, taking on tough assignments like hauling fish on board a catcher-processor in the Bering Sea and cleaning fish guts from equipment at a processing factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bodal is no stranger to hard work. He started in the fishing business as a deckhand and worked his way up to CEO and majority shareholder of American Seafoods, a company with more than 1,600 employees and annual revenues of about $600 million. He is also a bass guitarist who has played with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Roger Daltrey of The Who.

Undercover Boss: They contacted us last summer. I didn’t really know about it, but colleagues thought it would be good exposure for the company. I looked at a couple of episodes and liked what I saw. I...]]> 5733 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:13:16 GMT

“I’ve suddenly gotten a flood of business,” says Christian Schiller, managing director at Cascadia Capital. “It’s like drinking from a fire hose. I’ve canceled my family vacations.”

Schiller says that if Congress is unable to come up with a new tax package before the end of the year, as many expect, capital gains taxes would climb to 20 percent from 15 percent. Throw in potential fees from health care reform and other possible taxes, Schiller adds, and the tax burden from selling a $100 million business could climb from $8 million this year to $20 million next year. For those who have been thinking of selling their businesses, distributing dividends to shareholders or passing ownership on to their heirs, that reality may be...]]> 5731 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:06:46 GMT Kaitlin Groves

Seattle advertising agency Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener (formerly Wongdoody) recently competed for a national account—and lost.

Hey, it happens. But it doesn’t usually happen on TV in front of millions.

The agency’s work, filmed at WDCW’s Los Angeles office, premiered in April on AMC’s new reality show The Pitch. The eight-part series, featuring two agencies competing for major accounts each week, airs Mondays at 10 p.m.

Dozens of agencies declined requests to be on the show, but for WDCW the decision seemed clear. “We ask our clients to take risks, and we told ourselves that we should take a risk,” says Tracy Wong, chairman and executive creative director. Wong adds the company has nothing to hide, so it had little to fear by being on the show.

Still, Wong says he wasn’t thrilled with AMC’s edits. He had hoped...]]> 5730 view Mon, 14 May 2012 18:00:54 GMT Kaitlin Groves

During a recent vacation, Greg Gottesman, managing director at Madrona Venture Group, left his dog, Ruby Tuesday, with a high-end boarder in Seattle. When Gottesman returned, he discovered that Ruby had been injured while he was gone.

That experience inspired Gottesman to pitch the idea for Rover.com, a website connecting dog owners with dog sitters, at Startup Weekend in Seattle. A team of techies took his idea at the 54-hour coding competition last June, won first prize—$250,000 in funding from Madrona—and launched the site on December 1.

The market potential is huge, says Aaron Easterly, who was brought on as Rover’s CEO. Of the 46.3 million dog-owning households in the United States, “80 to 90 percent would never think of using an existing commercial solution,” he says. “They hate the idea of locking their dog in a cage and [current...]]> 5729 view Mon, 14 May 2012 17:41:57 GMT Julia Anderson

If you look at a list of the top patent awardees in Washington state, you might be surprised to find one company few people have heard of: Pacific Market International. The company has quietly established a reputation as a green, innovative business and a great place to work.

Reinvention seems built into its corporate DNA, with fresh approaches that pay off in impressive lineups of new products each year and growing market opportunities. “I always wanted to have a company where people could engage, learn and grow,” Rob Harris, founder and CEO, says at his Elliott Avenue headquarters in Seattle. “What we have today is a highly collaborative and team-oriented culture. It’s good to be part of something that you can call your own.”

For Harris personally, that consideration has meant keeping PMI ownership closely held, growing the business...]]> 5728 view Mon, 14 May 2012 17:35:01 GMT Gianni Truzzi

If you spot SOG’s main offices on a quiet suburban street in Lynnwood, clues about what the company makes are in the design of the building itself. Constructed for the business in 1996, the sleek industrial space and its wedged entranceway suggest the clean, finely honed edges of a precision blade.

That appearance was deliberate, says founder Spencer Frazer, to symbolically celebrate the high-tech styling of the knives he has designed for sporting, military and law enforcement use during the past 26 years. From its austere beginnings in Frazer’s apartment in Santa Monica, California, SOG Specialty Knives & Tools has become a leading brand in outdoors tools, a market that SOG not only helped expand, but also redefine.

Shoppers at retail outfitters such as REI or Cabela’s may be well acquainted with SOG’s field and folding knives of...]]> 5726 view Mon, 14 May 2012 17:18:42 GMT John Levesque Though it never received the national media attention it deserved, the sudden implosion of Washington Mutual Inc. remains a pivotal moment in the economic record of the Pacific Northwest. With colleagues from the Puget Sound Business Journal, Kirsten Grind was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for her dogged coverage of the WaMu collapse in 2008 and its aftermath in 2009. Now a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Grind has turned her meticulous research into a book, The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual—The Biggest Bank Failure in American History. Grind provides a contextually local link to why the Great Recession happened and how it affected thousands of investors, employees and customers. A direct casualty of the collapse of banks like Washington Mutual that were caught up in high-risk mortgage lending was the American dream of home ownership. Jane Hodges, a former reporter for The Seattle Times who now writes about real estate and...]]> 5725 view Mon, 14 May 2012 17:13:29 GMT Allison Austin Scheff

For years, there have been complaints about the lack of (and lacking) Indian food options in Seattle. I’m here to tell you Travelers Thali House is the answer to your prayers. The purple house atop Beacon Hill that once housed Culinary Communion is a homey space, and not just because of the warm, toasty scent of cardamom, cinnamon and cumin in the air. The servers and kitchen staff are genuinely friendly, talkative and welcoming. You’ll want to go with a dear friend to catch up over a deluxe thali ($20), which arrives with 11 ramekins, the larger ones holding offerings such as stewed lentil soup with tamarind and coconut cream, and addictive fried balls (kaftas) of green banana. Another vessel contains the yogurt-based condiment raita, with toasted cumin seed, accompanied by a warm lentil cracker straight from the fryer but greaseless—like a really big, fresh potato chip. Pickles, salads and...]]> 5724 view Mon, 14 May 2012 17:03:50 GMT John Levesque

If all goes according to plan, Great Western Pacific Inc., owner of Pier 57 on the Seattle waterfront, will unveil its 175-foot-high Ferris wheel on June 28. The new attraction, announced nearly two years ago by Great Western Pacific President Hal Griffith, will feature 42 climate-controlled, enclosed gondolas offering 360-degree views of Seattle, Elliott Bay and beyond (on a good day, anyway). The wheel, made by Chance Rides of Wichita, Kansas, will do about 1.5 turns every minute. Hours and prices TBD, Pier 57, 1301 Alaskan Way

Sponsored Report

Globalization is forcing many businesses and individuals to seek economic opportunities outside their home countries. This applies to businesses large and small. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration, since 2003, exporting activity by small businesses has increased by about 80 percent to account for approximately 30 percent of the United States’ export revenues. When an American business decides to distribute its shoes in Germany, it may be prepared to navigate foreign laws and business traditions to reap the benefits of access to a new market. What many businesses may be unprepared for, however, is the U.S. international tax and reporting regime, and dealing with things like PFICs, CFCs, FBARs and FATCA.

If you are operating or investing internationally, or intend to, you need to be aware of the U.S. tax and reporting rules associated with the abbreviations and acronyms listed above. These international tax rules are some of the most complicated in the...]]> 5722 view Mon, 14 May 2012 16:55:44 GMT Amelia Apfel

The spectrum of green building is wide, with innovations in design and construction allowing new structures to meet ever stricter standards for energy use, water consumption and carbon footprint. But it takes a significant amount of extra effort to build green designs without allowing costs to skyrocket. This is the challenge Skanska USA Commercial Development faces with a new building in the Fremont neighborhood that will house Brooks Sports, a leading manufacturer of running shoes and apparel. Brooks currently makes its home in Bothell.

Brooks will occupy 80,000 square feet of Stone34 when it opens in early 2014 at the corner of Stone Way and 34th Street, just off the Burke-Gilman Trail. Five stories covering 120,000 square feet, the project represents a huge step for Skanska USA and the city of Seattle. It is part of Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Project, which allows developers meeting...]]> 5721 view Mon, 14 May 2012 16:40:39 GMT John Levesque

See full illustration at end of article.

If you haven’t heard someone lament the rapid decline of civility, you haven’t been paying attention. Social commentators have been going on about how the next generation is less civil than the previous one since before people were using forks. In 1530, the Dutch priest and scholar Erasmus worried that society was rapidly sliding down the slippery slope—and talk radio hadn’t even been invented yet! (In those days, Rush Limbaugh was simply the Latin term for a swollen pimple.)

Apparently having seen and heard plenty from the medieval equivalent of online and over-the-air blowhards, Erasmus wrote On Good Manners for Boys. He declared: “A polite boy should not provoke a quarrel with anyone, not even with his equals. ... He should not set himself above anyone ... or mock the character and customs of any people ... or spread fresh...]]> 5720 view Mon, 14 May 2012 16:35:53 GMT Leslie Helm When I first came to Seattle in 1989, I enjoyed Seattle Times columnist Emmett Watson’s rants about the swarm of Californians invading this impressionable region. Watson called for a “Lesser Seattle” campaign whose central tenet was also the name of a fictitious organization known as KBO (Keep the Bastards Out).

Watson could just as well have called on the sun to stop rising. Since 1990, Washington state’s population has climbed by more than 40 percent—to 6.8 million. About 4.5 million of those residents were crammed into the Puget Sound region by 2010. Now, two professors from the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center predict that Seattle area number will be 6.3 million by 2040, giving our region the population density of Japan.

For the most part, the additional population will be good news for local residents, the economy and the environment. City dwellers use far less energy per capita, for example, than those who live in the suburbs or in rural areas. A greater population can...]]> 5719 view Mon, 14 May 2012 16:29:53 GMT Dan Wright Tax legislation signed into law in 2001 and 2003 significantly lowered the effective tax rates for many business owners. These changes are informally referred to as the “Bush era tax cuts.” Much of the tax relief provided by these provisions (and subsequent extender legislation) will sunset at the end of this year unless Congress once again provides extended relief. This change leaves business owners facing a potentially higher federal tax burden, with little guidance available as to what the rates/rules will be. Most commentators project that Congress may be too polarized to agree on any substantial tax relief extension in the near future, and that the political exchange occurring during this presidential election year will further exacerbate the stalemate.

Many expiring provisions have the potential to be economic game changers, including:

1. The highest individual rate bracket will return to 39.6 percent (the rate for the highest bracket is now 35 percent).

2. The top capital gains rate...]]> 5718 view Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:59:44 GMT Bill Virgin

Orion Industries, Federal Way

Orion Industries is a precision metal fabricator specializing in aerospace but with customers in defense, automotive, medical and marine industries. Just as important for Orion as the products it makes are the people who makes them. As a social enterprise, Orion provides job training and opportunities for those with disabilities and other barriers to employment: Of its 205 employees, 143 are permanent and 62 are in rotating training positions. Last year, Orion had 182 employees in its manufacturing training program, and helped land 104 in jobs in the community, many of those in aerospace. Program participants are paid minimum wage ($9.04 per hour) as they rotate through departments, production processes and with different pieces of equipment. They do so under the one-to-...]]> 5654 view Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:56:31 GMT Bill Virgin

Ivar’s Seafood, Soup & Sauce Company, Mukilteo

You probably know Ivar’s for its fast-food and sit-down restaurants around the region, and its legendary namesake showman founder, the late Ivar Haglund. A much smaller and quieter offshoot of the company is an operation that was started to make chowder for the restaurants, but which today turns out about 450,000 gallons of chowder and soup each year for supermarkets, warehouse clubs, even other restaurants.

They’re now sold at most grocery chains in Washington and in stores as far away as Texas. Today, Ivar’s chowders, soups and bisques can be found at sports venues, on Amtrak passenger trains and Washington state ferries, at casinos, ski resorts, the Woodland Park Zoo, Boeing and Microsoft. They’re even available online, at ivarschowder.com, for those who want to buy direct.

...]]> 5653