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Apple and Xbox raising prices, Oregon prosperity council recommends lower tax, less regulation and more land development, Glacier National Park employees vote to unionize, Seattle University gets new President, Forest Service announces plans for emergency clearing 5M acres.

RIP is off for some mountain biking next week. We’ll be back on the 7th!

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‘Prosperity Council’ wish list for Gov. Tina Kotek: lower taxes, less regulation, more land (OPB)

“People love Oregon; they do not love what’s going on in Oregon,” said Renée James, a tech executive who co-chaired the Prosperity Council alongside Curtis Robinhold, executive director of the Port of Portland. “We’re just not competitive. That’s not even a judgment – it’s just fact.”

James’ outlook mirrors that of business people around Oregon, who have argued for years a lopsided tax structure, onerous permitting and heavy-handed regulations are making the state increasingly unappealing to people hoping to start or grow a company.

James and Robinhold say Oregon’s recent economic performance speaks for itself.

The state shed 19,000 jobs in the last year – a 1% drop only rivaled by Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., which all lost jobs under President Trump’s push to pare down the federal workforce. Oregon’s unemployment rate sits at 5.2%, in line with its West Coast neighbors but well above the national average.

Short-term tax changes. The council has a slate of recommendations that business owners (and legislative Republicans) will cheer. They include:

Everett OKs use of eminent domain if stadium project advances (HN)

“The city of Everett now has the authority to move forward with eminent domain proceedings to acquire properties at the site of a proposed stadium in the city’s downtown, following a city council vote Wednesday.

The ordinance’s approval does not mean the use of eminent domain is a certainty. Staff say negotiations with property owners — their preferred method to acquiring any properties — are still ongoing. The stadium project itself would still need to receive final approval before any property sales can close.

To build the stadium, Everett would need to buy 15 pieces of property on the stadium site. It has signed agreements with the owners of at least five parcels, has pending agreements with the owners of three more and is continuing negotiations with the owners of seven others, city staffer Scott Pattison said earlier in June. The city has relocated four businesses from the stadium site and is working to relocate five more, Tarver wrote Wednesday.

Everett has allocated just under $18 million to the stadium project since 2023, which would host the Everett AquaSox and United Soccer League teams if built. Work to study the possibility of a new stadium began in 2022 after Major League Baseball announced new regulations for its minor league ballparks — Funko Field, the team’s current home, didn’t meet those requirements. With the fear that the minor league team could leave the city, officials studied the possibility of renovating the stadium or building an entirely new ballpark.”

Howard Dahl spent decades building the machines that feed America. His family invented the Bobcat skid steer. The air drills planting nearly every commodity crop globally? Those too. Now Dahl is manufacturing weed-cutting robots for Greenfield Robotics out of his Fargo factory, and he wrote his own check on top of it. 

Greenfield's current fleet is sold out, with over $1 million in total revenue and robots in the field since 2020. Chipotle’s venture arm and KingsCrowd Capital are also on board. The robots slice weeds with centimeter precision, replacing herbicides linked to environmental damage and rising health concerns among farmers. 

Greenfield is now in Test the Waters under Reg A+. Reserving shares today locks in a 5% bonus that can grow to 20% the week the round opens to the public.

Reserve Your Shares

_{Greenfield Robotics is Testing The Waters under tier 2 of Regulation A. No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response will not be accepted. No offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the offering statement filed by the company with the SEC has been qualified by the SEC. Any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time before notice of acceptance given after the date of qualification. An indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. “Reserving” shares is simply an indication of interest. There is no binding commitment for investors that reserve shares in this manner to ultimately invest and purchase the shares reserved of the company, or to purchase any shares of the company whatsoever.}

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