A new 19,000-square-foot indoor development is being built in downtown La Grande that mixes retail, education space and a business incubator all in one venue.

Downtown Astoria has many assets. It has myriad intact historic buildings from the 1920s, including the lovely renovated Liberty Theater and the Hotel Elliott. There is a great little mix of independent retail shops like Vintage Hardware and Foxgloves. It is a downtown that is real, where you can still shop at J.C. Penney, buy garden supplies and get your shoes repaired. For all those assets, there are challenges, of course.

A violent Mexico and a pricey Alaska meant fewer cruise ships on the West Coast this year, and a subsequent slump in business for the Port of Astoria.

Oregon Business magazine has named its fourth annual 100 Best Nonprofits to Work for in Oregon. The rankings were revealed Thursday night at the Portland Downtown Hilton, along with the October issue of the magazine, which spotlights the winners and the nonprofit sector.

Finally, the day had come to savor the victory. It had been five years of uncertainty, fighting, wrangling, and putting up with going to school in some pretty sorry conditions. But after five years of herculean efforts by the community, supporters, funders and others, Vernonia’s new K-12 school was christened.

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court that left standing the basic provisions of the Obama Administration’s health care overhaul also put the spotlight on Gov. John Kitzhaber and Oregon's own health care reform efforts.

High gas prices have been in the news constantly this spring. For weeks, as Oregon has experienced soaring gas prices, the blogosphere has been awash in claims that refineries are fixing prices. Turns out, the paranoid among us could be right.

For the second year in a row, Oregon Business magazine has been named the best publication in its category by the Society of Professional Journalists of Oregon and SW Washington.

For the first time, there are substantial facts and numbers about the state's nonprofit sector, which employs 166,130 people, or 13% of Oregon’s private sector employment.