The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

Business News Note: This Tuesday Washington voters will vote on Measure 1183 which changes the state liquor laws. Measure 1183 would close state liquor stores and allow private stores licensed through the state. These private stores would have 10,000 square feet or more of retail space to sell and distribute liquor. Measure 1183 has a 17 percent fee from retailers on all liquor sales and on other fees from distributors. Below are some four of the ads from both sides.

The Faces of Lawsuit has put out a great video of a small business Mexican restaurant in California that was hit with a legal threat about their bathrooms not being ADA compliant. It turns out that the handicap person never visited the restaurant as stated . Even worse, their were multiple restaurants hit with the same letter.

MSNBC goes through the book and the book’s author and looks at some of the tough statements Steve Jobs said about competitors Bill Gates of Microsoft and Google’s Android phone (see video below). On another front, Jobs criticized Michael Dell saying, “CEOs are supposed to have class [...] I can see that isn’t an opinion you hold.” Steve Jobs was kinder to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Steve Jobs said “You know we talk about social networks in the plural but I don’t see anybody other than Facebook out there. It’s just Facebook. They’re dominating this. I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out. For wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

State Risk of Recession from Europe’s Financial Crisis
By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting

The greatest risk to the United States economy right now is a recession triggered by the European financial crisis. Even though my best estimate is that we will avoid a recession, the risk is certainly high.

I’m writing an article for bankers on this topic, and I wondered how much states varied in their exports to Europe. My own state of Oregon has a fairly high level of exports relative to GDP, but a relatively light share of its exports head to Europe. As a data guy, I did the obvious: grab some numbers and command Excel to do the long division. (Exports are from http://tse.export.gov/TSE/TSEHome.aspx, and GDP comes from http://www.bea.gov/)

Exports to Europe

First Circuit Case Becomes One of First Successful Attempts to Assert Data Breach Class Action Liability
By Erin Nedenia Reid
Davis Wright & Tremaine LLP
Oregon law firm

In a departure from the recent trend of courts refusing to allow data breach claimants to seek mitigation damages, the First Circuit recently held in Anderson v. Hannaford Bros. Co. that credit and debit card payment processors may be held liable for mitigation damages in the wake of targeted card-number theft by a criminal enterprise. In Hannaford, the appeals court reversed a decision below that dismissed negligence and implied contract claims arising out of a 2007 breach of grocer Hannaford’s electronic payment processing system, which resulted in the theft of 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers. The First Circuit’s decision suggests credit and debit card payment processors may be at a higher risk than previously thought of facing viable class action claims in the wake of data breaches.

Business News Note:

An IHS Global Insight analysis showed projected annual employment growth for the period 2011 to 2017.  The West is home to some of the largest projected employment gains with Arizona, Utah and Idaho in the top 5 growth states.  The North East dominates much of the weakest project employment growth with Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut among the weakest five states.  Oregon and Washington are projected to grow on average 1.8% through 2017.

Senator Wyden is cosponsor of Digital Surveillance Legislation
Press Release of Senator Wyden , Oregon

Washington, D.C. – Surrounded by technology that was considered cutting edge when major digital surveillance laws were written, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) welcomed U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R- Ill.) as a cosponsor of the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act (GPS) which provides sorely needed legal clarity for the use of electronically-obtained location data that can be used to track and log the location and movements of individual Americans. The GPS Act was introduced in June by Wyden and Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

Business News update: Last week the Portland Business Alliance recently released responses to its first round of candidate questionnaires. We list two key small business questions from the questionnaire to show how the candidates responded. Please view the whole report and all questions here

BUSINESS LICENSE TAX: The City of Portland and Multnomah County are two of only a small number of communities nationally that have a local business income tax. The Alliance has been working for years to reduce the burden of this tax on small, owner-operated businesses that are particularly hard hit. While some progress has been made, the conversation has stalled during the recession.

Business Tax Question: Do you support reducing the impact of the business license tax on small businesses by increasing the Owners Compensation Deduction to $125,000?

By Cascade Policy Institute

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, almost $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error over the last three years. Oregon paid an estimated $392 million in error ― about 12.2% of all state unemployment benefits paid during that period.

The Labor Department’s report only examined the mispayments within state programs, which usually last up to 26 weeks. These figures do not include the federal unemployment benefit extensions that allow many workers to claim up to 99 weeks (almost two years) of unemployment benefits.

New camera allows you focus after picture taken

Business News Note: California camera company Lytro has introduced a new camera that allows you to adjust the focus after you have taken the picture. Interestingly, Lytro is not rolling this out as a new feature but as a new camera to compete equally with the other major camera manufacturers. Some of these cameras hold up to 16GB worth of memory. CNN does a short interview and demonstration of the new Lytro camera.

Housing bottom? Not yet.
By CLU Center for Economic Research & Forecasting

Weakness in housing activity and housing prices continues to be a major drag on the overall economy. My colleagues at CERF have long maintained that the homeownership rate (HOR) needs to fall back to its historical norm of 64% before housing can recover. Their view has been that the attempt to increase the HOR by loosening credit standards contributed to creating financial instability. In a classic case of unintended consequences, the attempt to improve the homeownership rate contributed to rising home prices which ended up lowering affordability for first-time buyers.

Theft rings push shoplifting rates to 5-year high
By Oregon Small Business Association

Shoplifting appears to be a growing problem for America’s retailers, and thieves are growing in their sophistication. That’s according to the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a prominent industry trade group that recently released its annual report detailing the latest trends in retail industry related crime.
According to RILA’s report, individuals acting alone and organized crime rings are targeting retailers with growing frequency— up 41 percent and 60 percent, respectively, from last year.
Though not surprising, the increase in retail related crimes such as shoplifting and gift card fraud stands in sharp contrast to recent declines in violent crime statistics. Violent crimes dropped dramatically last year by 12 percent, a figure that has surprised many experts who predicted such crimes would only increase as the economy continued to struggle.

Press Release below by Congressman Greg Walden

WASHINGTON, D.C. —…[I]n letters to Oregon’s job creators this week, Rep. Walden is asking, “What stands in the way of you creating one more job?” He will highlight some of the submitted ideas in speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives in the coming weeks so his colleagues can hear what Oregonians think about how we can get private sector jobs going again…

“What will it take for you to be able to create one more job? What are some ideas you have about how to reform the tax code and cut unnecessary government red tape?” Rep. Walden is asking.

Chemical Regulation May Move From State to Local Level
Balkanization of regulatory programs in Oregon?
Betsy Earls
Associated Oregon Industries

Following recent events in California, there are emerging efforts in Oregon to move regulatory controls from the state level down to the hundreds of local governments. A current example is Multnomah County’s attempt to ban the sale of products containing Bisphenol-A (BPA).

When a legislative ban on the sale of products packaged in materials containing BPA failed to pass the 2011 Legislature, Multnomah County executive Jeff Cogan proposed a local ban on the product. Cogan appointed a workgroup to look into how such a ban would function; the workgroup will report its findings later this fall.

By Patrick Emerson
Oregon Economics Blog

Recently, The Oregonian ran an article about the potential economic damage to the area economy if the NBA season were delayed or canceled. Since they have already canceled the first part of the season it is worth thinking carefully about how big an impact it will have.

From Joe Freeman’s article in The Oregonian:

by Steve Lutes
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Good news for job creators. Legislation to repeal the onerous 3% withholding tax took a major step forward today with approval by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Comments by Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) as well Congressmen Wally Herger (R-CA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), all champions of the effort, underscored the bipartisan support this bill enjoys.

Forbes magazine has issued their top 10 nations to do business and the news is both good and bad for the United States. The good news is that U.S. made the list. The bad news is that ranked at #10 and has been beat out by Sweden and Ireland. The #1 business friendly nation will surprise you.

Post Office TV Commercial tries to pull online customers away
By Guest Opinion
Oregon Small Business Association

The latest U.S. Post Office TV commercial is trying to get the public to take a great leap backwards by not engaging in online transactions. The Post Office commercial tries to strike a wedge between online and postal commerce by using the security card. Here is what the post office TV commercial says as it shows families putting important letters on the kitchen refrigerator and corkboard:

“A refrigerator has never been hacked. An online virus has never attacked a corkboard. Give your customers an added feeling of security of printed statement that a receipt provides. With mail.”

Reasons behind the new car sales surge
Jose Mesa
José Mesa Auto Wholesale, LLC 

The data has been collected and it’s official that US new car sales were up in September from one year ago. Chrysler, Nissan and General Motors led at 27%, 25% and 20%, respectively. They were followed by Hyundai at 12% and Ford Motor Company at 9%.

Toyota Motor and Honda Motor Company were not so lucky since they were hit with falling sales of 17% and 8%, respectively. They are still feeling the effects of the earthquakes and tsunamis with limited inventory. It really is hard to sell vehicles when you do not have the product and because of this Hyundai and Nissan along with others have been able to sell more vehicles.

Treasurer Wheeler seeks transparency of corporate political spending Treasurer asks SEC to require reports to provide openness for shareholders such as Oregon
By Oregon State Treasurer

SALEM – State Treasurer Ted Wheeler is seeking increased transparency about corporate political spending, which will make companies more accountable to their shareholders.

The Treasurer sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today requesting new rules to require regular reporting by publicly traded corporations about political activity. A copy of that letter is attached. Shareholders such as the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund and Oregon Common School Fund have a right to know if their companies are spending heavily on lobbying, candidates and political activism, he said. Corporations have the right to be involved in political activity. The Treasurer is not asking the SEC to limit the ability of companies to engage in political speech, but rather to report the costs of it.