By NFIB, Small business optimism remained at one of its highest readings in 43 years, as small business awaits a new healthcare law, tax reform, and regulatory relief from Washington, according to the February National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index, released today. “It is clear from […]

Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm On March 21, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Oregon’s whistleblower statute protects private employees from retaliation for internal reports of possible violations of law.  This is the first case to hold that internal verbal complaints by an employee are a protected […]

By Oregon Employment Department, Benton County had Oregon’s lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February at 2.9 percent. Grant County (7.2%) registered the highest rate for the month. Fourteen of Oregon’s counties had unemployment rates at or below the statewide rate of 4.0 percent and 22 counties were below the […]

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden Oregon, Press Release Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., along with senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.,  introduced three pieces of legislation to preserve the integrity of state marijuana laws and provide a path for responsible federal […]

by Deidra Krys-Rusoff Senior Vice President Ferguson Wellman, A leading Oregon financial firm The Week in Review March 31, 2017 — Most markets, international stocks and the U.S. Dollar ended the week near where they started. Stocks are quietly ending a strong first quarter, with this week leaving the S&P […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Happy Friday! In the showdown you didn’t know you wanted but now glad you have, Oregon’s alcohol cluster has added more jobs than the state’s software industry since the start of the Great Recession. This edition of the Graph of the […]

Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm By Paula Barran The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice issued a guidance formally withdrawing two recent Department of Education guidances on transgender students’ rights. The guidances had been issued in 2015 and 2016 and addressed the position that laws prohibiting discrimination […]

Sixty-one people died on the job in Oregon during 2016, according to a preliminary report issued today by the Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS). That’s up from 2015’s figure of 41 deaths. The numbers are based on a new data collection program, begun in 2015, that is designed […]

Bullard Law, Portland law firm 9th Circuit Says Hugging May Create Sexually Hostile Workplace The Ninth Circuit held that hugging “can create a hostile or abusive workplace, when ‘[i]t is . . . unwelcome and pervasive.’”  Further, the appellate court held that the plaintiff, a county correctional officer, could proceed […]

By Ethisphere Institute Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCHN) has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company®. Recognition honors those companies who lead with integrity and align principle with action. Schnitzer […]