ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT ●A Mighty Wind. Avangrid, a Connecticut-based wind-farm power provider, announced that it has made a deal to provide Amazon with renewable energy from an Avangrid farm in Eastern Oregon’s Gilliam County. The farm will have a capacity of 98.4 megawatts. ●Big Basin. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced that $72 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding will head to the Klamath Basin for ecosystem restoration projects and agriculture infrastructure modernization, in conjunction with a new memorandum of understanding with the Klamath Tribes, Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe and Klamath Water Users Association to address water challenges in the area. ECONOMY & FINANCE ●The Slow Walk to Recovery. The Portland Metro Chamber’s 2024 State of the Economy report painted a cautiously optimistic picture of Portland’s economy. Among the takeaways: Revenue collected by the city is up 26%, and downtown foot traffic is up 14%, but job growth in the metro area has been sluggish relative to the national average. POLITICS ●Walkout Lockout. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled unanimously that eight Republican lawmakers will be blocked from running for reelection after refusing to attend Senate floor sessions for six weeks last year. ●Green Query. The U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a subpoena to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries asking for records related a $500,000 grant made in 2022 by the agency to Endeavor, a cannabis nonprofit founded by Rosa Cazares, cofounder of the embattled La Mota dispensary chain. MANUFACTURING ●Hanging Up the Red Vest. Bob Moore, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill, died at his Milwaukie home at the age of 94. In 2010 Moore — who had by then turned the company into a national brand — announced plans to shift to an employee stock ownership plan rather than sell to a larger buyer. HEALTH CARE ●Broken Engagement. A proposed merger between CareOregon, which oversees care for the Oregon Health Plan’s 500,000 members, and the California-based Medicare Advantage plan SCAN Group ●The Final Frame. Mark Gustafson, the stop-motion animator and film director who won an Oscar in 2023 as co-director with Guillermo del Toro of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, died at 64. ●Get Jazzed. Portland jazz club the 1905, which closed last fall amid allegations of unpaid wages and financial mismanagement, is set to reopen this spring under new ownership. FARMS & FORESTS ●Countryside Shrinkage. Oregon lost 4% of its farmland between 2017 and 2022, and 5.5% of its farms during the same period, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data released in February. ●Half-Full. Per a newly released analysis by wine economist Robert Eyler, the Oregon wine industry’s economic value hit $8.17 billion in 2022, up 12.8% from 2019 — but the number of wine jobs in the state dropped 1.5%. EDUCATION ●Papercuts. Outgoing Portland Public Schools superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero, who announced in December that he is leaving to take a job in Los Angeles, said community members should expect $30 million in cuts for the 2024-25 budget. It was not immediately clear what programs would be cut. ●Virtual Beaver Nation. U.S. News & World Report named Oregon State University the fourthbest school in the nation to obtain an undergraduate degree online. This is the 10th year in a row OSU has made the top 10 in this category, which is based on factors like faculty credentials and graduation rates. was canceled by mutual agreement following criticism from top health care policy officials. RESTAURANTS & RETAIL ●Tipped Off. The U.S. Department of Labor sent a letter to former employees of two McMenamins alleging that the restaurant chain required servers to give assistant managers a cut of their tips, which is a violation of labor law. The DOL alleges that McMenamins owes servers $800,000 in back tips but is stopping short of filing suit against the company. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT ●Fit to Print. The Eugene Weekly, which laid off all its workers in December and halted print publication after discovering tens of thousands of dollars in missing funds due to alleged embezzlement, resumed printing with a new edition hitting the streets Feb. 8. ⁄Newsfeed⁄ It’s amazing what switching to whole grains can do. A Connecticut-based wind farm power provider announced that it has made a deal to provide Amazon with renewable energy from one of its farms in Eastern Oregon’s Gilliam County. JASON E. KAPLAN 8
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