Morning Roundup


Photo credit: Bloomberg

Brown faces gubernatorial challenger, controversial Clackamas solar farm approved, and Pendleton aims to enliven downtown.

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If you’re having a hard time breathing this morning, you aren’t alone. Portland’s air quality is now worse than Beijing thanks to wildfire smoke blowing in from British Columbia. The heat wave may be dissipating — albeit just a tad — but it’s still darn hot and smoky out there.

Brown V. Buehler. Republican Rep. Knute Buehler has filed his official challenge to Gov. Kate Brown in the 2018 election. Brown called Buehler a “Trump-in-training” while asking supporters for campaign contributions yesterday. The Bend Bulletin has more.

Controversial Clackamas solar farm approved. Seventy acres of valuable farmland will be converted into a solar farm thanks to a 3-2 vote by the Clackamas Board of Commissioners. The land hasn’t been farmed in 20 years, but opponents to the clean energy project argued high-value farmland soils were important enough to vote against the proposal. The Portland Business Journal has the story.

Can Pendleton’s downtown be revived? The Pendleton Development Commission is trying to do just that: breathe life into a neglected quarter. The PDC is working with architects to show building owners how historic buildings could be modernized. Read more from the East Oregonian.

SureID struggles despite staffing cuts. The Hillsboro tech company says it will need to make additional cuts while securing financial help. SureID laid off 300 employees earlier this year. The company’s financial problems stem from a lost Naval contract in April. The Oregonian has the story.

OB Original Blog: Is our obsession with efficiency slowing us down? OB Editor Linda Baker reports as the sharing economy matures, questions arise about the efficiency of the business model.

ODFW plans 2 more wolf kills. The Department of Fish and Wildlife will remove two wolves this month at the request of a Wallowa County rancher. The wolf takes will take place in the same area where four wolves from the Imnaha Pack were killed last March. The Oregonian has more.

From the Magazine: An unsteady state. A merger between Oregon’s largest business associations exposes divisions in the state’s increasingly fragmented for-profit sector. OB writer Gordon Oliver reports.