Puget Sound Energy said Monday that it is requesting a 6.3 percent increase in natural gas rates to help improve the company’s financial condition and to recover the costs of extending and upgrading its facilities. The Bellevue-based utility, which delivers natural gas service to about 105,000 households and businesses across Snohomish County, also is seeking a rate increase for its electricity customers outside the county. Last fall, PSE’s natural gas rates rose 12.5 percent, but that increase was to pass along higher wholesale costs for the fuel. The latest rate proposal will be reviewed by the state Utilities and Transportation Commission, which also needs to approve the increase.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to allow The Boeing Co. to begin bidding on government rocket contracts again in the next few weeks after banning the company from doing so since last July for illicitly using a rival’s records to help win deals, a published report said Monday. The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, said senior officials from Boeing and the Air Force are putting the final touches on an agreement that would restore the company’s full privileges as a military contractor. Boeing will pay the Air Force’s investigative costs and commit to regular updates to the Pentagon on compliance with new ethics policies, the report said.
The Treasury Department sold three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.93 percent, down from 0.945 percent last week. Six-month bills sold at a rate of 1.03 percent, up from 0.99 percent. The new discount rates understate the return to investors – 0.945 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,976.50 and 1.05 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,947.90. The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 1.23 percent last week from 1.17 percent the previous week.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a lawsuit filed by a Virginia woman who says the makers of Skippy peanut butter stole the name from her father’s Depression-era comic strip. Joan Crosby Tibbetts said she will continue her battle against the multinational conglomerate Unilever. “This case involves a very important principle … ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ” Tibbetts said. “If this case is allowed to disappear, and they succeed in shutting me up, who has won? These big corporations that believe they can just wear others down.” Unilever has insisted Tibbetts’ claims are without merit.
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