Business

The latest polling of Washington voters shows that optimism has taken “nose dive” to an all-time low.

Voters surveyed in The Elway Poll – an independent, nonpartisan analysis of public opinion – were less likely to think things were “getting better” than at any time since the survey began in 1991.

The architect of the survey, Stuart Elway, said people may be openly entertaining the idea that America has entered a “malaise” or “a new normal” of long-term high unemployment, weak spending and, simply, a plain old bummer of an economy like the one Japan suffered for more than a decade.

Cooler temperatures this year have given Washington’s wheat famers a boost. The cool wet spring combined with good ripening conditions in July and August have increased yields here. At the same time, severe drought has diminished the harvest in the nation’s Plain states. 

As a result, Washington is expected to surpass Texas and Oklahoma in winter-wheat production this year, making it second only to Kansas.   

At the news of Steve Job's departure from Apple's top job, Mark Anderson – KPLU's "The Digital Future" commentator and CEO of Strategic News Service, the first subscription-based newsletter on the Internet – told his subscribers to sell sell sell.

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc. says Steve Jobs resigning as CEO, effective immediately.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – Boeing workers in North Charleston are assembling the first new 787 to be made in South Carolina.

A new law giving distillers the opportunity to set up tastings in state-run liquor stores goes into effect Sept. 1 and runs for a year.

The “spirits tasting pilot” was established by the Washington Legislature in response to a request from the Distillery Representative Association of Washington (DRAW).

Boeing has received safety clearance from the U.S. and Europe for the 747-8 freighter, clearing the way for the plane to be delivered to its first customer next month.

Another oil company is eying the Inland Northwest as a potential corridor for oversized shipments to the Canadian oil sands. That's despite prolonged legal wrangling that has delayed the other so-called "megaloads."

A panel discussion in Seattle this week hosted by Barokas Public Relations and GeekWire sparked a lively debate around the intersection of two questions:  Why are Facebook, Google, HP, Zynga and Salesforce.com building big shops in Seattle? And, Is Microsoft vulnerable to engineer-poaching because of its culture?

The late train from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, will no longer be coming to a stop.

The nightly service was scheduled to end on October 31, when Canadian officials said they expected Amtrak to start paying for the extra border staff it requires. The Canada Border Services Agency wanted $1500 a day to compensate for keeping patrol agents around later into the evening, according to Railway Age Magazine: