Together with
Good Morning,
NASDAQ hits new all time high, OSU women’s basketball team files to unionize, Seattle Mayor proposes $9B budget, Trump threaten to ‘annihilate’ Iran, World Cup generated nearly $900M in economic activity in King county, Mt. Bachelor sets sights on Dec 4 opening date.
— Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here —
Let’s Rip
PNW Market Look
As of market close 9.22.26
Headline Roundup
Forest Service proposes to fast-track logging Central Oregon wildfire area (OPB)
Texas geothermal company gets $135 million funding boost to continue superhot rock exploration at Oregon’s Newberry Volcano (OPB)
Mt. Bachelor sets Dec. 4 as opening date (BB)
Should college athletes be considered employees? OSU’s women’s basketball players argue ‘yes’ in potentially groundbreaking case (OPB)
Microsoft lays off 268 Xbox employees in Washington state (KUOW)
Trump administration removes around 760,000 Obamacare enrollments, alleging fraud (CNBC)
Trump discloses more than 1,100 July trades, including up to $25 million each in sales of Microsoft, Amazon (CNBC)
Trump administration’s WA voter roll lawsuit dismissed (WSS)
The Federal Aviation Administration last week granted Boeing’s 777 freighter a few more years of production, waiving looming emissions requirements for up to 35 new aircraft. (ST)
Bend-La Pine school employees get first shot at 18 new Habitat homes (COD)
Tumwater sues Olympia Brewing property owner over ‘nuisance conditions’ (TO)
Oregon’s virtual charter schools are booming, helped by financial incentives for home-schooling families (ORL)
Oregon business group releases competitiveness agenda (PBJ)
Mayor Katie Wilson proposes $9.1B Seattle budget with public safety boost, no new taxes (KOMO)
Seattle World Cup festivities generated $889M, hundreds of millions above expectation (KOMO)
$7.9M ISU expansion will add anatomy lab space, bring body donation program to Treasure Valley (BD)
A Message from G.A. Rogers
PNW Rip partners with G.A. Rogers for professional and executive hiring in the Pacific Northwest. If you’re in the area (or moving here), check them out here.
Need a side hustle? G.A. Rogers pays for successful referrals - reach out to learn more.
Community Highlight
Activists to Lead a ‘Moda 500’ Bike Relay to Protest Tom Dundon Deal (WW)
“In August, Portland City Council voted 8–4 to approve a preliminary term sheet that commits up to $120 million to the arena overhaul. (The state of Oregon and Multnomah County will also kick in funding for the renovation.) The term sheet will be used by city negotiators over the next few months to hash out an arena renovation and long-term lease deal with the Portland Trail Blazers and owner Tom Dundon.
In exchange for $120 million in initial city funding for an estimated $600 million renovation of Moda Center, the city is seeking a 20-year lease with the Blazers to ensure they remain in Portland for the foreseeable future.
“What we are saying with the Moda 500 is really this: The Blazers are our team. We love the Blazers and we don’t want them to leave. We don’t believe that comes at odds with a city that works for us that has well-funded schools, parks and roads,” says Byron Kimball, an organizer with Sunrise PDX, the youth climate justice group.
They’re going to ride loops around Moda Center until they’re finished, or until they’re told to leave. So say organizers of the Moda 500, a bike relay and protest happening this Saturday, Sept. 26.
“Because billionaire Dundon is threatening to move the Portland Trail Blazers out of our city, politicians are moving quickly to give away hundreds of millions of dollars with nothing in return…As Trail Blazers fans and taxpayers, we deserve a fair deal that keeps the Blazers in Portland and doesn’t bankrupt our city.”
Rip’s Spotlight
OBI Releases 2027-28 Oregon Competitiveness Agenda (OBI)
*summary via ai
1. Make economic development an explicit statewide priority. OBI proposes a funded statewide economic-development strategy and a new Department of Commerce with direct access to the governor. It also proposes more aggressive industrial-site development, expanded R&D and job-creation tax credits, capital-equipment incentives, and a stronger business recruitment/retention operation.
2. Attack Oregon's affordability problem—especially housing, energy and development costs. OBI argues that high housing, electricity, tax and regulatory costs increasingly affect both households and employers. Among its proposals are modernizing Oregon's 50-year-old land-use system, making urban-growth-boundary expansion easier, accelerating permitting, increasing housing production, and reconsidering regulations it argues increase housing costs
3. Make regulation more predictable and less burdensome. This is one of the most aggressive parts of the agenda. OBI proposes a 20% reduction in regulations by 2030, regular reviews of existing regulations, clearer permitting rules so requirements cannot change midway through an application, greater legislative oversight, and an "arbitrary and capricious" judicial-review standard for agency rulemaking. It also proposes replacing Oregon's existing Climate Protection Program and HB 2021 framework with an economy-wide market-based carbon program that could link with Washington and California.
4. Restructure taxes and impose more discipline on state spending. OBI calls for comprehensive tax reform and longer-term budgeting tied to measurable outcomes. Specific proposals include tying allowable spending growth to an economic measure such as GDP, raising the Corporate Activity Tax threshold from $1 million to $10 million, reducing CAT pyramiding, eliminating the corporate minimum tax, indexing income-tax brackets for inflation, reducing personal income-tax burdens, and restoring several federal business-tax provisions.
On X…
Keep Rippin’