Archives

March 31, 2014 - New rules on employee criminal-credit background checks

Davis Dwight & Tremaine LLP Oregon business law firm New Guidance for Employers Conducting Background Checks By Angela Galloway Employers who investigate workers’ criminal or credit backgrounds may want to review federal guidelines released March 10. The joint publication of the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides detailed […]


March 28, 2014 - Lessons from Colorado’s pot tax

By Jeffrey Miron Director of undergraduate studies at Harvard, Director of economic policy studies at Cato The Colorado Department of Revenue earlier this month released its first data on the tax, fee and license revenue from legalized marijuana sales in the state. For January, the figure is $3.5 million when […]


March 27, 2014 - Oregon’s war on vaping

By Jabob Grier, Portland Writer Liquidity Preference Blog The Oregon legislature recently failed to pass completely sensible restrictions on selling e-cigarettes to minor, an effort undermined by more extreme anti-smokers who were more intent on banning vaping in workplaces, bars, and restaurants. In today’s Oregonian, I write about lawmakers’ misguided […]


March 26, 2014 - Oregon set for 100x web speed project

By Oregon Tax News, Portland is one of 34 cities slated by Google for Google Fiber expansion, which means its residents could soon browse the Internet at speeds 100 times faster than current broadband capacity allows. Google Fiber refers to the fiber optic broadband infrastructure Google plans to deploy strategically […]


March 25, 2014 - Good-bad of state economic trend

By Economist Dr. Eric Fruits, Econinternational State employment numbers came out this week. This ultimately leads to press releases and prognostications that now, things are starting to look better for job seekers. The good news: At 6.9 percent, Oregon’s unemployment rate fell its lowest rate in more than five years. The […]


March 24, 2014 - World leading web firm lands in Portland

By Business Oregon A partnership of economic development organizations welcomes the news that Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company, is opening its North American operational headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Airbnb will employ 160 people at its new offices, expected to open later this summer. The Portland Development Commission (PDC), […]


March 21, 2014 - Medical Device Tax may have cost 100,000 jobs

By Nat Hentoff Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Cato Institute When I first became a reporter in 1945 for a Boston radio station, a veteran journalist commanded me: “Kid, when you’re on a good developing story, stay on it. Keep digging and updating.”  But now the majority […]


March 20, 2014 - Searching for CRC bridge solutions

Searching for CRC bridge solutions By Richard Leonetti, Oregon Tax News The CRC failed (as pointed out by the Editorial Board) due to the inclusion of light rail. Why not analyze the objection to the light rail and discover that it is a very expensive expenditure for a tourist train. […]


March 19, 2014 - Ore. economy improves – Service, financial sectors lag

University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes By Tim Duy Oregon Economic Forum University of  Oregon The Oregon economy began 2014 on solid footing. Highlights of the report include: – The Oregon Measure of Economic Activity was 0.26 in January, compared to an upwardly revised 0.38 the previous month. The three-month […]


March 18, 2014 - Portland’s income drop due to missing college-ed. workers

By Portland Business Alliance Value of Jobs Coalition reveals $2.7 billion earnings gap between Portland-metro college-educated workers, U.S. metro average The Value of Jobs coalition released a groundbreaking study examining Portland-metro’s decline in personal income per capita relative to the U.S. metro average. The findings show that Portland-metro’s college-educated workers […]