Oregon Supreme Court takes away $100 million in punitive damages due to flawed jury instruction Ater Wynne Oregon Law Firm When the US Supreme Court decided Williams v. Philip Morris in 2007, it created a challenge for judges instructing juries on punitive damages.  The Due Process Clause prevents a jury […]

Business opposition appears to have derailed measure Article by: J.L. Wilson Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate AOI sent a letter to the Oregon Congressional Delegation in opposition to HR 5175, the so-called DISCLOSE Act, which aims to limit the ability of business groups to spend on federal elections. […]

Governor Ted Kulongoski Speech before City Club of Portland This is my eighth – and final – address as Governor to the City Club of Portland.  In April I gave what was billed as my last state of the state speech.  If that speech had been a television drama, it […]

by Glenn Spencer U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tomorrow marks three years since the Card Check bill was defeated in the U.S. Senate, falling nine votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Though the bill has yet to come up for debate during this Congress, employers would be […]

Two videos below 1. BP’s new television ad aims to be softer, more local appeal 2. First TV interview by a BP boss (by NBC News) Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

New Interest Rate Forecast: Staying Low through 2011 By Bill Conerly, Conerly Consulting, Businomics, I now forecast that interest rates will continue to be at their current low levels through the end of 2011. The economy has substantial slack.  The level of our GDP is still 1.1 percentage point beneath […]

By Oregon Tax News, Recovery.org has listed their update on where and how federal stimulus dollars are being spent.  When comparing dollars per person, Oregon ends up in the national state average. Oregon is above the average for teh speed at which funds are sent to contractors. 1. CA – […]

Oregon Court of Appeals affirms decertification of class action Ater Wynne Oregon Law Firm Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to decertify a class action against US Bank.  In Belknap v. US Bank, the plaintiffs claimed that defendant employer failed to timely pay a […]

San Francisco Home Values Rise 50%, What About Portland? By Oregon Small Business Association In San Francisco, home and condominium sales jumped 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010 from last year. According to a multiple listings analysis by Terradatum, the median price rose 5.4 percent, to $685,000. The […]

Supreme Court issues Favorable Ruling for Employers in Texting/Privacy Case by Jim Shore Stoel Rives, Oregon law firm The United States Supreme Court issued a long-anticipated decision in City of Ontario v. Quon, unanimously ruling that a search of sexually explicit personal text messages sent by a police officer using […]