News Note: As Portland is becoming the first Oregon town to push a plastic bag ban, California has been rejecting a ban on the state wide level on the concern of the damage it has for local businesses. For third straight year, California legislature rejects plastic bag ban By Mike […]

By Oregon Small Business Association, There are a lot of good things happening in Oregon, but recently we have been making news for all the wrong reasons. Forbes Magazine ran an article on capital gains state tax rates and the chart featured Oregon as having the highest capital gains tax […]

Monitoring Employee Internet Use—Where to Draw the Line With Privacy By National Federation of Independent Business We’ve all done it. We start reading a website during lunch and before we know it, it’s 2 p.m.—a good part of the workday has been spent on the Internet.  Even the boss gets […]

By Patrick Emerson Oregon Economics Blog The family decided to spend Labor Day at PGE Park attending the latest of the Beavers farewell season closers.  Absolutely picture perfect weather and an entertaining game: it was great.  For the first time in recent memory, the crowd was actually paying attention to […]

U.S. Chamber Offers Voters Five Questions for Candidates about Job Creation — With a Series of Events, Ads, and Studies, Campaign for Free Enterprise Hits High Gear Ahead of Elections By U.S. Chamber of Commerce WASHINGTON, D.C.—Building on the momentum of July’s Jobs for America: Summit 2010 and leading up […]

Oregon startups to get a jumpstart with financing help from the Oregon Growth Account –Board approves new $1.5 million investment in the Oregon Angel Fund State Treasurer Office TIGARD – The Oregon Growth Account is investing in the state’s promising startup companies.  At its quarterly meeting, held Tuesday in Tigard, […]

By Tim Duy, Oregon Economic Forum sponsor, KeyBank. The University of Oregon Index of Economic Indicators™ fell 2 percent to 86.4 (1997=100) from a revised June figure of 88.1. Compared to six months ago, the UO Index declined 4.7 percent (annualized), and more than half the components have declined over […]

Congress has passed 27 tax increases so far By Oregon Tax News, Congress has raised taxes by $670.341 billion since the new President Obama administration took office in January of 2009.  The list below outlines the major new and extended taxes passed by the federal government: 1. Individual Mandate Excise […]

Does the FCC need to rescue the internet? By Tom Gurr, Pacific Technology Alliance Is the Internet broken?  It appears the FCC would like you to believe that it is.  They are in the midst of pursuing an aggressive regulatory overhaul to “fix” the Internet that we all use and […]