Economic Effects of Health Care Reform: Insurance Costs with Pre-existing Conditions By Bill Conerly, Conerly Consulting, Businomics, Today’s topic is health insurance cost impacts due to the access provisions.  The new bill mandates “immediate access to insurance for uninsured individuals with a pre-existing condition,” and eliminates “pre-existing condition exclusions for […]

Native Oregonian Greg Zerzan, former Acting Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury, wrote an excellent review of the financial reform bill that was featured in teh Wall Street Journal.  Here is his review: Greg Zerzan– On Monday the Senate Banking Committee passed the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of […]

New Obama Health Care Bill Explained 2010 Barran Liebman LLP Oregon Law Firm, 3/22/2010- In what is being called a landmark move, the House of Representatives voted to pass the Senate’s health care bill along with a budget reconciliation bill containing several important changes on Sunday night. The Senate’s bill […]

States Consider Holding Tax Returns to Save Money — New York’s Governor Paterson froze $500 Million in refunds By Oregon Tax News, USA Today reported that California, Hawaii, Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas, Idaho and New York are considering delaying issuing refunds because the states did not have the cash on […]

Workplace deaths continued to decline over past decade 2009 figure ties record for lowest in Oregon history By Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (Chart by Oregon Business Report) (Salem) – Thirty-one people covered by the Oregon’s workers’ compensation system died on the job during 2009, the Department of […]

Top 50 list of the Forbes Billionaire list. Full list here. 1. Carlos Slim Helu & family, Mexico, 53.5 (Net worth) 2. William Gates III, USA, 53 3. Warren Buffett, USA     47 4. Mukesh Ambani, India     29 5. Lakshmi Mittal, India     28.7 6. Lawrence Ellison, USA, 28 […]

– Fewer Workers Say They are Late to Work This Year Than Last Year – 34% employers have fired employees over late arrivals By Career Builders, CHICAGO,  – A tighter job market may be contributing to increased punctuality at work. A new CareerBuilder survey reveals that 16 percent of workers […]

Matthew D. Lowe O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP During its February, 2010 special session, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 1045, which bars employers from using information contained in an employee’s credit history in making employment-related decisions about that employee.  If signed into law by the Governor, which is fully […]

Bill Containing Tax Breaks and Other Hiring Incentives Headed to President’s Desk For Signature Barran Liebman LLP Oregon Law Firm, The U.S. Senate passed President Obama’s so-called “jobs bill,” a package of economic incentives designed to spur hiring and job growth in the midst of the economic downturn. Because the […]

Five encouraging signs for Oregon in the past 10 days. By Oregon Small Business Association (1) Jobs: The Oregon Employment Department reported this week that the state unemployment rate fell form 11% to 10.5%.  Economist are talking about Oregon passing the turning point in the economy. (2) Metro Recovery: The […]