German industrial giant Siemens is selling off most of the old Mentor Graphics campus in Wilsonville, consolidating into a single building and closing the on-site daycare.
Parents are scrambling because they were given little more than three months to find alternatives for their kids.
Huge data centers are changing the landscape of some Oregon communities.
In The Dalles, residents are wondering if Google is also changing their weather.
Portland had an astonishing number of traffic deaths in 1937. Looks like close to 70, mostly pedestrians.
Rough math suggests traffic fatalities per capita were about 4x higher in 1937 than last year.
With Intel shares above $60 for the first time since April 2021, Wall Street appears to be betting that the chipmaker's opportunities now outweigh its considerable risks.
It's telling, perhaps, that the News-Review posted news of its closure on Facebook but not on the Roseburg newspaper's own website.
www.oregonlive.com/business/202...
(Credit to Uplift Local for documenting the mayor’s comments. The port says it doesn’t record its meetings.)
Richard Mays, mayor of The Dalles, says it was “probably” a mistake to sue The Oregonian to hide Google’s water use.
“I was part of the team fighting The Oregonian in settling that, and now that decision is haunting us,” the mayor told the Port of The Dalles commission last month.
Google’s Oregon data centers drank a lot more water in The Dalles last year – they now use 40% of all the city’s water, and climbing.
City leaders and conservationists disagree about the implications of Google’s enormous thirst.
But they agree the company’s secrecy continues sowing distrust.
Amazon will pay $20.5M to settle a lawsuit over its role in the nitrate pollution crisis in Morrow County.
Other minority owners revealed, and one name jumps out: Jennifer Gates, Bill Gates eldest daughter.
Blazers maintain a link through ownership to Microsoft.
Oregon communities are allocating land for 9,100 acres of new data centers — including the state's first "exascale" project, an Amazon site near Boardman that could be the size of 1,000 football fields and use up to 1,300 gallons of water per minute.
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Amazon paid a small rural Oregon firm owned by local officials more than $100m while seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in data center tax breaks from some of those same public officials.
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
"leaders have only secured $5.5 billion for the bridge replacement, leaving lawmakers from both Oregon and Washington wondering where they will find the money to complete the project, which is now not expected to be finished for TWO DECADES."
via @carlosfuentes.bsky.social
Oregon lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a one-year moratorium on data centers’ eligibility for one major property tax break this week, the first time the state has taken any step to rein in the industry's extraordinary incentives.
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Yes, I think that's what they have in mind. And I get the value of "agility". It's a powerful word.
But it's not at all clear to me that "humanoids" is a better word to describe their product than "robotics"
They say the new name followed "extensive brand audit and period of creative development."
"Agility represents flexibility, durability, and forward motion – qualities our customers need as they integrate humanoids into real operations.”
Agility Robotics says it'll now call itself...Agility.
The Salem-based company now describes itself as providing "commercially deployed humanoids."
(Previously, it said, "Agility's humanoid robots are deployed today in manufacturing, distribution, and logistics.")
The Oregon Legislature is moving toward imposing a 1-year moratorium on major new tax breaks for data centers.
This is a big, surprising reversal. Gov. Kotek had been pushing to expand data center inventives.
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Camas-based nLight Corp., whose lasers can shoot down attack drones, is up 17% in early trading this morning to an all-time high, $65.82/share.
As Oregon's data center tax breaks have grown they've become more expensive to manage.
Counties want help covering those costs. They're not getting it, so they're opposing Gov. Kotek's economic development bill (which further expands data centers' tax breaks.)
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Gov. Kotek says data centers’ impact on Oregon is “not sustainable” at the current growth rate, citing impacts on water, energy and community resources.
But she's pushing ahead to expand tax breaks through a program that primarily benefits data centers.
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Many states are considering reining in tax breaks for data centers, citing rising energy costs and environmental impacts.
Gov. Tina Kotek's economic development bill would take Oregon in the other direction, substantially boosting the state's data center giveaways.
This is the kind of quirky, insightful, distinctly Oregon bit of whimsy that only @editorswindler.bsky.social can deliver.
“I wasn’t going out like that.”
After winning his third 3-Point Contest, Blazers All-Star Damian Lillard says he’s “representing strength” as he fights back from Achilles injury:
www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2026...
The government is pouring billions into leading-edge chip factories. But without advanced R&D in the U.S., too, those plants would rely entirely on overseas tech — “stuck in time” in case of a disaster in Asia.
Intel’s Oregon researchers could be the solution, if they can deliver.
a) Everyone has known for a long time that the NBA was going to demand Moda renovations
b) The city/state/county had no one to deal with while the ownership was in flux
c) Now that there's a (almost) a new owner, someone (the league? the new owner?) apparently wants immediate action.
Reuters says Intel's deal to buy SambaNova is off.
The chipmaker would invest $100m-$150m instead, according to Reuters.
(Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is, of course, an SambaNova investor and the company's chairman.)
The NBA has Portland at a distinct disadvantage. With employment and business activity down and its national reputation damaged, the city can ill-afford to lose a major franchise.
Portland -- and MultCo, and the state -- do have leverage. It'll be interesting how and if they coordinate to use it.
