OREGON BUSINESS NEWS

International and local small business news on economics and finance

The jet maker asks machinists back to mentor
an influx of younger workers in the Puget Sound area

EVERETT, Wash. -- In order to work on a Boeing 747, 767 or 777 jet, a new machinist has to go through Rick and Tim.

Who are the keepers of the keys to the manufacturing floor of Boeing's Everett factory? Rick Gandee and Tim Spigler said goodbye to the jet maker a few years ago after spending at least two decades each with the company. But about six months ago, Boeing asked the two retirees to come back.

The company is approaching a critical juncture in its history: Half of its work force here in the Puget Sound region will be eligible for retirement within the next decade. With an influx of largely younger employees, Boeing is searching for ways to retain its knowledge base before its experienced machinists and engineers leave.

Continue reading "Boeing's got new teachers -- retirees" »

E-SAN Thai Cuisine -- a family-run business that encompasses three restaurants in downtown and Northwest and North Portland -- is suing one of the newest Thai restaurants in town, claiming the business is trying to mooch off its reputation by using a similar name.

The owners of E-SAN Thai Cuisine filed suit Monday afternoon in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Thai Esan Tasty, a 7-month-old restaurant at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Flavel Street in Portland.

Continue reading "Restaurant name sparks Portland suit" »

Opponents of proposed liquefied natural gas terminals and pipelines in Clatsop County have asked Oregon's secretary of state to investigate what they believe are "illegal push polls" urging voters to vote in favor of the projects in an upcoming election.

State law requires entities spending money on an election campaign to register and report expenses to the Secretary of State's Elections Division. The referendum in question asks voters whether they support allowing gas pipelines to run through county areas designated as parks and open space.

Continue reading "LNG terminal foes seek state inquiry" »

Guerrilla marketing? Not entirely.

Advantageous marketing? Yes.

Smart marketing? You decide.

Continue reading "Ads for 'Fireproof' on burned out Portland house" »

Milky wastewater from Smith Frozen Foods, the company owned by U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, has again reached a creek flowing next to the eastern Oregon plant, a scenario that has cost Smith political points in the past.

Continue reading "Smith Frozen Foods spills into creek again" »

Intel cracked the lid today on a new chip design that is at once a big challenge to smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and an admission that AMD nailed a key design feature before it slipped into a severe financial slump.

Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker and Oregon's largest private employer, showed off the new blueprint, known as a microarchitecture, for its chips at a developers conference in San Francisco.

Though some of the details were already known, the design's formal unveiling represented another demonstration of Intel's advantage over AMD in cranking out new chip designs once every two years, a factor that helped send AMD's stock price down 5 percent in an overall down day for technology shares.

Continue reading "Intel unveils new chip design" »

HP reported strong quarterly results today, but nestled into the data was a sharp decline -- 8.5 percent -- in sales of printer hardware.

The decline reflects, in part, the negative outlook HP has been giving employees at its Corvallis site. But on a conference call with investors, CEO Mark Hurd said the falloff in printer sales is also a function of HP's focus on high-end printers likely to generate big sales down the road of ink and other supplies.

In more competitive markets where prices are falling, Hurd said, HP may take a pass:

Continue reading "HP focused on cost cuts in printer group" »

Brand ambassador?

Not this girl.

Kids' footwear reportedly is a growing niche. But kids may not be the best brand enthusiasts.

Ava Trueworthy left her grandparents' home this morning in Portland with a Keen on her left foot and a Merrell on her right.

"I can't find the other green one, so I wore the pink one," the almost-four-year-old explained.

"It's either a fashion statement or she can't make a decision," said her grandfather, Bob Trueworthy. "And I know she can make a decision."

Join FreeGeek at its SE Portland offices on Saturday for Geek Fair 2008.

The festivities run from noon to 6 p.m., and include, among other silliness:

• Six bands

• Face painting

• The Portland Women's Stilt Walking Group

• And Free Geek will raffle off a laptop loaded with Linux, among other treats

In the mortgage industry, they are called "liar loans" -- mortgages approved without requiring proof of the borrower's income or assets. The worst of them earn the nickname "ninja loans," short for "no income, no job, and (no) assets."

The nation's struggling housing market, already awash in subprime foreclosures, is now getting hit with a second wave of losses as homeowners with liar loans default in record numbers. In some parts of the country the loans are threatening to drag out the mortgage crisis for another two years.

"Those loans are going to perform very badly," said Thomas Lawler, a Virginia housing economist. "They're heavily concentrated in states where home prices are plummeting" such as California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Oregon and Washington, where home prices have not fallen as dramatically, also have high percentages of such loans.

Continue reading "New mortgage deluge: 'liar loans'" »

Owners of Northwest Portland's Hilltop Condominiums at Uptown have won $2.3 million in their long legal battle against prominent local developer Marty Kehoe.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Judith Matarazzo found Friday that Kehoe's company, Uptown Heights Condominiums LLC, was negligent and that it breached its contract to repair some of the decks at the 108-unit complex.

Matarazzo also ruled that Kehoe's company breached its fiduciary duty of loyalty to the buyers of the units. The judge determined that neither Kehoe nor any of his companies committed fraud, as had been alleged by the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs were seeking as much as $7 million.

Continue reading "Portland condo buyers win $2.3 million salve" »