NORMANDY, France – Boeing rival Airbus is set to finish 2011 with a record number of aircraft orders, beating out Boeing for the ninth year in a row.

But analysts say Boeing is poised to gain ground against its European competitor in 2012. That's because of a new product that will be built in Puget Sound.

Tomorrow (Thursday, 12-29-11), electronic tolls will kick in on the 520 bridge across lake Washington.

A series of technical glitches caused multiple past delays.  But now, the reader boards are going live and billing drivers on the most popular route between Seattle and the east side.

There are many creative ways to get around the tolls, but you’re bound to have to pay, sooner or later.

I do. So does Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson – but only if they're fried. Others won't eat them at all, no matter how succulently crisp those feathery little hind appendages may be.

A company that provides identity protection services is sifting through the data released by hackers over the holiday weekend and and they're detailing what hackers were able to steal from Stratfor, a security think tank.

If you haven't heard, hackers who claim an affiliation with the group Anonymous broke into the servers of Stratfor, made public some data and used some of the stolen credit card numbers to, in some cases, make charitable donations.

If you've ever lamented the time and effort it takes to brew or procure a cup of coffee, this might perk you up. "Breathable Energy. Anytime. Anyplace."

That's the campaign slogan for AeroShot, a plastic inhaler, roughly the size of a lipstick tube, filled with a powdery, calorie-free mix of caffeine, B vitamins, and citrus flavors. It's slated to hit stores in January, just in time for the New Year.

But some aren't so sure selling caffeine in pocket-sized tubes — and marketing it to young people — is a great idea.

Federal, state and local drug agents uprooted fewer marijuana plants on public lands in the Northwest this year. Police agencies speculate that outdoor pot gardeners are being driven away by stepped up law enforcement pressure.

It's not like the cops and rangers are looking less. Aerial surveillance and boots on the ground during this year's marijuana growing season matched previous years, but they found fewer plants hidden on public forest and rangelands.

Spokane, Wash. – Thursday’s Washington Supreme Court holding that large livestock operations need not have permits for the water they pump could spell ruin for small farmers.

Depleting water levels could mean the death of family farms in Eastern Washington.

During the Holiday Season, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, a lot of people are spending extra hours in the kitchen. And while that used to entail dusting off an old recipe box or paging through a sticky and splattered cookbook – today, more aspiring chefs are using their laptops, tablets or smart-phones to look up recipes online.

And when they do, there will be one Website from Seattle that will serve up more piping hot recipes than any other.

2012 will be a big year for TV, voice recognition and Amazon.com.

Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson has issued his list of top 10 technology predictions for 2012.  He shares some of the highlights on The Digital Future with KPLU's Dave Meyer. 

TACOMA, Wash. — The death of a 54-year-old Jewish man on a snowy slope on Mount Rainier set the stage for a Pierce County court fight pitting religious belief against scientific certainty.

HELENA, Mont. — An Indian reservation in Montana may seem an unlikely place to borrow a quick $600.

But the Chippewa Cree tribe says its new online lending company has already given out more than 121,000 loans this year at interest rates that can reach a whopping 360 percent.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho - At an intersection in the the quaint resort town of Coeur d'Alene, there are two signs for cupcakes. And each one points in a different direction. Downtown Coeur d’Alene is not very big yet it has two cupcake shops. It’s an example of an economic phenomenon that’s actually not that strange -- in fact, we see it everywhere.

Shawna Leonard owns Sweet B cupcakes.

“We have many flavors," she says. "Like red velvet, chocolate, white chocolate raspberry. Candied sweet potato.”

In many families, getting together over the holidays means someone inevitably gets bent out of shape for what someone else thinks is no good reason. New research by Washington State University and Oregon's Linfield College sheds light on knee-jerk reactions to innocent remarks.

Is Uncle Henry giving you the silent treatment, or is he just a man of few words? What did that friend you only see on New Year's Eve really mean when she said you lost weight?

The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, B.C., has all the features you’d expect to find in a fancy hotel: luxurious accommodations, fine dining and a spa.

But the city's landmark hotel also has its very own "artist-in-residence." She's painter Judy McLaren, who typically paints commissioned portraits, scenes of the sea as well as landscapes.