A loophole large enough to drive your truck through while jabbering on your cell phone has been nailed shut.

Should budding entrepreneurs strike out on their own? Or is it more effective to pool resources with like-minded business owners? That was the dilemma facing the “micro mercantes” tamale vendors, a group of low-income Latinas who participate in a microenterprise program sponsored by Hacienda Community Development Corporation.

For decades, people have been sweating and stretching as an instructor leads the way (think Jazzercise, step aerobics or Jane Fonda). As long as misery loves company, it seemed group fitness classes would endure. But in the past few years — since the recession — group classes have become even more in vogue, a trend that’s buoyed a Portland-based startup.

A scaled-down plan for importing liquefied natural gas at Bradwood Landing is quietly working its way through the regulatory system after the failure of a proposed $650 million LNG project at the same location.

Shipping improved at the Port of Portland in 2010.

  All “latest” numbers are for May 2011 unless otherwise noted. Latest Month Previous Month Previous Year Annual Change EMPLOYMENT/BUSINESS LISTINGS Total employment State of Oregon, thousands 1,801.2 1,796.1 1,768.5 1.8% Total unemployment State of Oregon, thousands 179.2 187.0 207.7 -13.7% Unemployment rate Ore. civilian labor force, seasonally adjusted 9.3% 9.5% 10.9% -1.6 Portland/Vancouver MSA; … Read more

Independent neighborhood pharmacies are shrinking, battered by big-chain competition, changing laws and consumer defection.

One of the most ambitious rural job creation ideas in Oregon comes from a Ph.D. scientist eight years past retirement age who has figured out a way to run coal burning power plants on—plants.

Medford is an unlikely hub of broadcast activity. As the stations struggle to survive, consolidation, combined newsrooms and other partnerships are possible. That would irreparably change a very special small American TV market.