By Ken Niezgoda, BIZ Reporter Oregon businesses that may have never considered significant layoffs in the past are facing the prospect of huge staff reductions. Many employers are aware that the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers facing large-scale layoffs to post written notice so that employees can […]

By Alyssa Williams, BIZ Reporter 1. Family Leave Payroll Tax: (SB 966) 2. Employer censorship bill (SB 519) 3. Corporate minimum tax bill With Oregon now having the highest rate of unemployment in the nation, hitting a staggering 12.1 percent in March, the Oregon division of the National Federation of […]

Dr, Eric Fruits, EconInternational, If passed, Oregon SB 80 would establish a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade scheme for the State of Oregon. The Oregon Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will have a public hearing on SB 80 on Thursday April 9, 2009 at 3:00 P.M. in Hearing Room C.  […]

By J.L. Wilson, Associated Oregon Industries, Oregon’s Largest Business Lobby In a packed Senate hearing room, AOI delivered strong opposition this week to a new proposal that would tax Oregon workers to fund a paid family leave benefits program to be implemented by the state.  The new proposal – SB […]

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting, I don’t think we’re headed to depression, but that’s the word used by Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith in a Wall Street Journal article that is well worth reading.  I wrote about how we got into the mortgage mess in a five-part series: Part […]

Miller Nash Oregon and Washington Law Firm Miller Nash LLP, one of the Pacific Northwest’s larger multispecialty law firms focusing on business and litigation, has highlighted key opportunities for businesses in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Signed into law on Feb. 17, 2009, the Act includes incentives […]

By Dunn, Carney, Allen, Higgins & Tongue As Mara, an accounting clerk at a dental supply wholesaler, hung up on the phone, she knew that her coworkers heard everything –another creditor demanded money she didn’t have.  Four months earlier, her husband lost his job and bills were piling up.  Mara […]

By Chris Benson Owner of GeeksAKnockin’ LLC, I use the latest anti-virus software on my computer, so how did I get a virus? I hear this question asked all the time and the short answer is that anti-virus software alone is not enough to mitigate the wide array of threats that […]

Information provided by Timothy Duy   The University of Oregon  Index of Economic Indicators for February 2009 was released on April 6. The Index showed a decline of 0.9% to 85.6. Leading indicators followed were jobless numbers, housing permits, investment capital, and consumer confidence.   The initial jobless claims rose […]

With a business model linked to three of Oregon’s hardest hit industries, Portland-based Rejuvenation is feeling the full brunt of the recession. The nation’s leading manufacturer and retailer of authentic lighting and house parts, Rejuvenation built its business around cutting-edge sustainability practices. It hopes that same type of innovative thinking […]