Vancouver’s face lift begins, while Gov. Brown throws her support behind another ballot measure.
OREGON NEWS
— Vancouver marked a new phase in downtown development yesterday as crews broke ground on the 32 acre waterfront redevelopment project. When complete, 21 blocks will be overhauled, making way for 3,300 residential units and 1.25 million square feet of retail and office space. With a $1.5 billion price tag, it’s the largest development project in Vancouver’s history. Read more about the project from The Oregonian.
— Meanwhile, the Port of Vancouver has abandoned plans to turn the vacant Red Lion Hotel into a laboratory building. The Portland Business Journal reports this decision comes after the Portland biotech company, AbSci, backed out of the deal to occupy the space.
— Days after throwing her support behind the proposed corporate tax increase, Gov. Kate Brown announced she is also supporting Measure 99, known as the Save Outdoor School initiative. The measure proposes using 4% of state lottery proceeds to fund an outdoor school program for every fifth and sixth grade student. The Statesman Journal has more.
— Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has proposed a law to improve pubic records access and transparency. The law has been in the works for sometime as a task force made of legislators and media representatives discussed the issues at hand. Public bodies would be required to respond to requests within 5 days, instead of “as soon as practicable,” as the law requires now. Read the other proposed changes from the Statesman Journal.
— Despite layoffs earlier this year, Intel is expanding its business. Intel announced yesterday it purchased a California-based startup, Nervana. The company developed machine learning, to give computers the ability to develop human-like qualities in order to improve performance. Read more from The Oregonian.
— Fred Meyer has spent the past year rolling out a curbside delivery service, known as ClickList. The service is about expand further into Central Oregon. ClickList allows shoppers to place orders online and park in a designated area at their store while groceries are brought to their cars: for a $4.95 fee. The Bend Bulletin has more.
NATIONAL NEWS
— Tilt, a targeted crowdfunding app, may look to surpass Venmo in one-on-one payments. Founder James Beshara said he never intended to use Tilt for peer payments, but users began demanding it. With the global market already in hand, Tilt could push Venmo out of the marketplace. Read more from Fast Company.
— Another vehicle crash has occurred in a Tesla using autopilot mode. The crash is the first for Tesla in China. Fortunately, this crash was not fatal like a similar accident in Florida earlier this year. Reuters reports this crash was more of a scraping against a parked vehicle. But the accident brings Tesla’s self-driving vehicle into the negative spotlight once again.
