The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • D2

What about you, the consumer, who likes to find what looking for in stores or online and get free shipping from Amazon? will be no imme- diate consumer impact as the truckload transportation market is massive and even together these two compa- nies have a relatively small share of that wrote Smith, via email. term, consoli- dation needs to happen in this market to find effi- ciencies that will support ecommerce ship- ping. Otherwise retail prices for online purchases will have to go up to sup- port sustainable trucking rates that allow truckers a reasonable And, with new push for precise deliv- eries, the industry is losing time buffers. Enter the robots. THE FUTURE AND YOU Two years ago, Daimler got permission to test a self-driving rig in Nevada.

And a semi delivered beer from Fort Collins-area brewery to Colorado Springs after driving fully automated for 125 miles on a Colorado interstate. Meanwhile, self- driving freight push is not going smoothly, now caught up in a lawsuit over trade secrets linked to its purchase of Otto last year. For now, Washington Employment Securi- ty Department believes an additional 510 heavy truck driver jobs will be created statewide by the second quarter of next year. And, if drivers are still needed in the trucks, not all of the jobs will exactly vanish overnight. Meanwhile, the automa- tion march, not just in trucking, is giving Elon Musk pause.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, sees artificial intelligence, unregulated, as a fundamental threat to civilization, with transportation operators on the front line as the first to see jobs go away. Eventually, skills could be better than all of ours, he believes, with an emphasis on all. Not just truck drivers. Debbie Cockrell: 253-597-8364, Kate Martin: 253-597-8542, FROM PAGE 1D TRUCK 2D SUNDAY JULY 23 2017Business THENEWSTRIBUNE.COM he House and Senate affairs commit- tees are moving with surprising speed and unanimity to correct ineq- uities under the GI Bill and boost or restore education benefits for thousands of veterans and select groups of depend- ents and survivors. Those who stand to gain from GI Bill reforms mov- ing toward enactment include: victims of for- profit colleges that have closed; Reserve and Guard members activated under that trigger GI Bill eligibility; Purple Heart recipients whose wounds resulted in shorter tours and reduced GI Bill benefits, and survi- vors who qualify for GI Bill Fry Scholarships but are excluded from a Yellow Ribbon feature to cover full tuition costs at private colleges.

Another change would boost GI Bill benefits by another nine months, to a total of 45 months, for veterans enrolled in STEM (science, technology, engi- neering or math) five-year degree programs. The enhanced STEM benefits would be capped at $100 million annually but still be the reform most costly provision. The reform drawing the most attention, however, would not help current service members, veterans or survivors but only future generations. New entrants into the military would begin to earn a GI thanks to major groups and the two VA committees sup- porting the removal of restrictive language that benefits must be used within 15 years of exiting the military. the first time in the history of the GI said Rep.

Phil Roe chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Commit- tee, beneficiaries will be able to carry these benefits with them throughout their Extending the same lifetime rule to all veterans eligible for GI Bill benefits was viewed as said one group repre- sentatives who helped to shape the final package. In mid-June, the Senate Veterans Affairs Commit- tee held the first hearing on the hefty mix of GI Bill reforms that veteran com- mittee staffs have been working on for months, guided by a coalition of veteran service organizations. This week the House committee took the lead, unanimously approving and sending to the House floor the first major reform package for the GI Bill since 2011. an amalgam of 17 separate bills and 28 provisions to improve the education benefits. Roe titled the package the Harry W.

Colmery Veterans Educa- tional Assistance Act of 2017 (HR 3218) to honor a former American Legion commander who is cred- ited with drafting the World War II-era GI Bill. The cost of HR 3218 is estimated at $3.4 billion over 10 years. The VA committees and vet groups had to decide how to cover that cost through a match- ing cut in VA spending. They settled on damp- ening for future GI Bill users their monthly hous- ing stipend by adopting the same lower Basic Allow- ance for Housing rate that the Department of De- fense uses. In other words, future VA stipends will reflect a series of one- percent caps on annual BAH adjustments that Congress is imposing on the military over five years.

not a cut to anyone and that was important to said William Hubbard, vice president of govern- ment affairs for Student Veterans of America. Hubbard and other vet- eran group representatives lauded HR 3218 during an unusual evening hearing of the House committee last Monday. I first saw the text of this bill, I thought: If student veterans sat down to write a bill, it would look like Hub- bard told the committee. It so many essential solution-oriented provi- sions that increase access to education, address the inequities of this earned benefit and look forward to the future well beyond our own generation. Passage of this bill will represent a new era for education for At the same hearing House members testified on behalf separate bills they had introduced to address weaknesses or inequities in the GI Bill and which Roe had agreed to make part of the reform package.

Here are highlights of core provisions in HR 3218 that vet groups believe the Senate committee will embrace too and forward for full Senate consid- eration: School Closure Relief: Tens of thousands of GI Bill users who enrolled in for-profit col- leges, such as ITT Tech- nical Institute and Corin- thian Colleges saw the schools close, leaving students with depleted education benefits and credits not transferable to fully accredited degree programs. Congress previously granted relief from for- profit school closures to Pell Grant recipients and other federal aid students. The House reform bill would make GI Bill users whole too, Roe said, requiring that any veterans who attended these schools would be able to have any of their credits that were not transferrable to another school fully restored for GI Bill eligi- individuals going Roe added, their school closes, then they will receive back their GI Bill entitlement for the semester that they were enrolled when the school closes as well as a bridge payment for up to four additional months of living crediting Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Luke Messer (R-Ind.) for their strong advocacy on this issue. Reserve, Guard Acti- vated Under Orders: Since 2012, roughly 6,000 reserve component members have been activated under or- ders that allow service secretaries to use drilling reserve forces without an emergency call-up by the president or secretary of defense.

Due to a legal glitch, however, such or- ders do not qualify mem- bers for the GI Bill benefits. The bill would correct this inequity and award GI Bill and other denied benefits ret- roactively to this pop- ulation. Purple Heart Recip- ients: Until now, service members, particularly reservists, who saw active duty tours shortened by war wounds might not qualify for full GI Bill ben- efits. The reform bill would provide 100-percent GI Bill eligibility to Purple Heart recipients back to Sept. 11, 2001, if they served at least 30 days on active duty and were discharged for a service-connected dis- ability.

VA would be direct- ed to implement the change by August 2018. The retroactive effect would help about 1500 Purple Heart veterans now ineligible for full GI Bill benefits. Fry Scholarship Yel- low Ribbon Benefits: Survivors and families of fallen service members qualify for GI Bill benefits under the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship. But Fry schol- ars are ineligible for the GI Yellow Ribbon pro- gram under which VA offers to pay half of private college tuition not covered by the GI Bill if the college waives the other half. The bill would make Fry schol- ars eligible for this en- hanced coverage effective August 2018.

In describing core provi- sions of HR 3218, Roe said they scratch the surface of the benefits that our veterans and survivors will receive under this To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email or twitter: Tom Philpott COMMENTARY GI other reforms would benefit thousands of vets BY TOM PHILPOTT Military Update A Dr. Vanessa Ceglia, optometrist, has joined Pacific Northwest Eye Associates in Tacoma. She specializes in ocular dis- ease, with experience in diagnosing and managing diseases, including mac- ular degeneration and glaucoma. During her residency, she was trained to perform advanced low vision care and is skilled at performing vision tests on patients with brain injuries prescribing the right glasses and prism for their individual needs, as well as creating effective vision therapy programs.

Ceglia earned her op- tometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and complet- ed her post-doctorate residency at the VA Bos- ton Healthcare System. A Joy Del Calzo is the new residential health services director for Tim- ber Ridge at Talus senior living in Issaquah. She will be assisting Timber Ridge residents with navigating the avail- able serv- ices that create the bridge be- tween inde- pendent living and nursing care, based on their individual needs. Del Calzo has been in the senior living industry for more than nine years and previously served as director of independent resident services at The Kenney. She earned a degree from the University of Puget Sound and is certified in geron- tology and care manage- ment from the University of Washington.

A JayRay Ads PR in Tacoma, has received two Distinction Awards through the Communi- cator Awards program given by the Academy of Interactive Visual Arts. The awards were given for the work on a cam- paign to unveil a new gym for the Boys Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound and for branding and logo work with Symphony Tac- oma. A Dubreezy Entertain- ment in Tacoma, was recently selected for the 2017 Best of Tacoma Award in the disc jockey service category by the Tacoma Award Program according to Hayes, president and owner. The Tacoma Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achieve- ments and accomplish- ments of local businesses throughout the Tacoma area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented pro- grams to generate compet- itive advantages and long- term value.

A Rotary Club of Tac- oma recently selected its new officers for the 2017-2018 Rotary Year. They are as follows: presi- dent, Mark Anderson of the Anderson Law Firm; president elect, Linda Kaye Briggs of The Briggs Group; secretary, Jim Henderson; treasur- er, Jeremy Fogelquist of Johnson, Stone Pagano; immediate past president, Becky Fontaine of the American Red Cross. Kathi Willis remains as club administrator. A Mary Dunaway, executive director of de- velopment for public radio KNKX, was recently named Development Pro- fessional of the Year by the Public Radio Asso- ciation of Develop- ment Offi- cers. The honor is in recognition of her lead- ership of all-encompassing, history- making fundraising cam- paign to raise $7 million in less than five months to buy the station from Pacif- ic Lutheran University and become an independent, community-licensed enti- ty.

A Steve Fryer of John L. Scott in Puyallup, has completed the real estate residential con- struction course to earn his dual national certifica- tions as a Residential Construc- tion Certi- fied profes- sional and Certified New Home Specialist. The training covered architectural de- sign and planning, blue- print reading, topography, building site design, eval- uating quality construc- tion, materials, methods, construction terminology and scheduling as well as marketing systems. A Bennish Brown, president and CEO of Travel Tacoma Pierce County has been elected to the Board of Trustees of Destina- tions In- ternational. He is being recognized his dedica- tion to pro- moting tourism in the Pierce County area, and his expertise in desti- nation marketing and organizational leadership.

COMPILED BY MARY ANDERSON, STAFF WRITER The News Tribune pub- lishes hires and promotions at the professional and management levels. It recog- nizes honors at the state or national level awarded by independent professional or trade associations and appointments to corporate or civic boards. To submit information go to thenewstribune.com/ business, go to People In Business and select Add an announcement. All submis- sions become the property of The News Tribune and may be published in any form. SOUTH SOUND BUSINESS PEOPLE Steve Fryer Joy Del Calzo Bennish Brown Mary Dunaway DEBBIE COCKRELL: 253-597-8364, KATE MARTIN: 253-597-8542, HOW TO REACH US Friday 1 year ago Prime rate 4.25 3.50 Federal Target Rate 1.25 0.50 3-month Treasury bills 1.15 0.32 6-month Treasury bills 1.12 0.44 10-year Treasury notes 2.27 1.57 30-year Treasury bonds 2.83 2.29 BLOOMBERG.COM AND U.S.

TREASURY KEY RATES Here is what Puget Sound-area banks and thrifts were offering on key consumer-loan and deposit instruments on Friday. All yields are annual. DEPOSITS MMA: Rates and yields on money-market accounts with a balance of $2,500. CD: Fixed rates and yields on one-year certificates of deposit of $5,000. IRA: Fixed rates and yields on 18-month ac- counts.

LOANS Auto: Fixed rate for a $10,000, 60-month, new-car loan and for a $7,000, 48-month, used-car loan for a 1- to 3-year-old model. Actual rates might change with variations from the scenario, and fees and other costs at loan initiation. DEPOSITS AUTO LOANS Institution MMA CD IRA New Used America's CU 0.20/0.20 0.35/0.35 0.45/0.45 4.990 4.990 Chase 0.01/0.01 0.01/0.01 1.940 1.930 Columbia Bank 0.03/0.03 0.06/0.06 0.07/0.07 3.556 3.628 HomeStreet Bank Western 0.45/0.45 0.35/0.35 0.35/0.35 NO NO KeyBank 0.04/0.04 0.15/0.15 0.10/0.10 3.240 3.890 Qualstar C.U. 0.25/0.25 0.40/0.40 0.50/0.50 2.740 2.490 Sound Credit Union 0.20/0.20 0.35/0.35 0.55/0.55 3.040 2.740 Tapco Credit Union 0.03/0.03 2.740 2.490 U.S. Bank 0.04/0.04 0.10/0.10 0.15/0.15 5.039 4.640 Verity C.U.

0.10/0.10 0.35/0.35 0.43/0.43 3.040 2.890 Washington average 0.14/0.14 0.24/0.24 0.33/0.33 3.369 3.299 Change in average 0.040 0.050 NA: Not available NO: Not offered Source: Informa Research Services 818-880-8877 Ext. 266 not have a bank, thrift or credit union charter; all products are FDIC insured MONEY RATES But they all be needed. The original strategic plan sees a reduction in internation- al container acreage from 1,080 to 800-850 by 2025. The excess acreage could go to deliveries of cars and other vehicles, logs, bulk commodities, domestic cargo and con- tainers, or for maritime- related industrial uses. Says Mattina: rially zoned land on deep water is incredibly valua- Each of those alterna- tive uses has its own growth prospects and dynamics, and in some cases a boatload (sorry) of political issues come with them.

The strategic plan men- tions as a potential high-growth market. Ask the Port of Tacoma commissioners about public receptivity to last few proposed projects of that type. Bill Virgin is editor and publisher of Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News. He can be reached at bill.virgin@yahoo.com. FROM PAGE 1D VIRGIN.