By Traci Scott, BIZ Reporter According to a recent Nielsen consumer survey, 66 percent of fine dining patrons admit they are going out less often compared to a year ago. This trend was echoed by 65 percent of nightclub patrons, 55 percent of bar patrons, 59 percent of casino and […]

Betsy Earls Associated Oregon Industries Oregon largest business lobby Health insurance mandates are thick on the ground this session, although not all of them have had hearings.  Those that have had hearings will have to move out of committee in the next few weeks; others may turn into study groups […]

Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting Today’s headlines sound gloomier than the data–once again.  The Wall Street Journal says, “U.S. Retail Sales Show New Weakness.”  Yahoo Finance says, “Stocks slip as retail sales data disappoint.”  So how bad is the new data?

Mark G. Neil, KBNP Business radio host President Northwest Wealth Advisors Welcome to the middle of April.  March began with stocks heading even further into the doldrums, falling over 9% in the first week of trading. The turnaround in share prices can be pinpointed to a single catalyzing event: On […]

Northwest Natural Gas Company, dba NW Natural (NYSE:NWN), today announced a tariff filing has been made with the Public Utility Commission of Oregon (OPUC) to provide a $32 million credit to its Oregon customers as a result of a recent decline in wholesale natural gas costs.

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 […]