Latest Oregon Headlines
All the headlines from our Oregon Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oregon Seeks $27M for Dam Repair from Contractors, District
Oct 13 2023 // Oregon officials are seeking more than $27 million in damages over dam repairs they say killed more than half a million Pacific lamprey fish in what they`ve described as one of the largest damages claims for illegal...
People Moves: Kunz Joins Alliant’s Employee Benefits Group in Oregon
Sep 27 2023 // Nicole Kunz joined Alliant Insurance Services as vice president within its employee benefits group. Based in Portland, Ore., Kunz previously served as board president at Total Rewards PDX, as principal at Mercer Health...
Tech Startups in US, France, Germany Help in Fight Against Wildfires
Sep 25 2023 // This year has been a challenging one for Phil Schneider, who hasn’t seen wildfire behavior like this in his 47-year firefighting career. Blazes raged through more than 2,000 acres of wildland in recent months in his...
Berkshire Hathaway Energy Shows Unusual Risk Appetite in Wildfire Court Fight
Sep 21 2023 // Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co.’s PacifiCorp has been battered in an unprecedented court fight over the utility’s failure to prevent massive wildfire destruction in Oregon. The largest grid operator in the...
Oregon Workers’ Comp Costs to Drop 11th-Straight Year
Sep 8 2023 // Oregon employers will pay on average less for workers’ compensation coverage, according to an update from the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. The decline marks 11 years of average decreases in...
SAIF in Oregon Declares $135M Dividend for Policyholders
Sep 7 2023 // The SAIF board of directors declared a $135 million dividend for its policyholders, marking the 14th straight year SAIF has been able to offer a dividend. SAIF is a not-for-profit with a goal of making workers’...
Business Moves
Sep 4 2023 // National Acturis Group, Broker Buddha The software-as-a-service firm Acturis Group has entered the U.S. market with the acquisition of Broker Buddha. Broker Buddha, based in New York City, provides insurance brokers and...
Risk Strategies Acquires Benefit Design Group in Oregon
Aug 31 2023 // Risk Strategies acquired Benefit Design Group LLC in Oregon. The purchase of BDG adds to Risk Strategies’ presence in the Pacific Northwest. It builds upon the firm’s previous acquisition of the Fournier Group,...
Grant Extended to Fire-Harden Homes, Businesses Damaged by Oregon Wildfires
Aug 23 2023 // The Oregon Building Codes Division has partnered with counties on a grant to help homeowners and businesses rebuild after the 2020 and 2021 Oregon wildfires. People who own a home or business damaged or destroyed by the...
California-Oregon Wildfires Prompt Evacuation Orders
Aug 17 2023 // Growing fires near the California-Oregon border have prompted evacuation orders. A Siskiyou County wildfire, the Head Fire, started in the Klamath National Forest after a bout of thunderstorms and lightning. A social media...
Risk Strategies Acquires Bisnett Insurance in Oregon
Aug 16 2023 // Risk Strategies acquired Bisnett Insurance in West Linn, Oregon. Bisnett Insurance offers commercial lines, personal lines and employee benefits products. The firm has operations in the Pacific Northwest including Oregon,...
Oregon OSHA Cites Contractor for Multiple Job Safety Violations
Aug 8 2023 // The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division fined Hillsboro contractor Arm & Hammer Construction Inc. $66,420 for multiple violations of workplace safety rules. In one violation, the company repeatedly failed to...
Blazing a New Trail: Oregon Wildfire Regulatory Compliance
Aug 2 2023 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Due to the ever-changing insurance market, property and casualty insurers across the country face multiple challenges today that can commonly disrupt their business...
Ex-Oregon Prison Nurse Sexually Assaulted Nine Women
Jul 31 2023 // A federal jury found a former nurse at Oregon’s women’s prison guilty of sexually abusing nine women while they were in custody. The jury reached its verdict in the case against 38-year-old Tony Klein last week...
People Moves: SAIF in Oregon Promotes Keefer to Chief Actuarial Officer
Jul 24 2023 // SAIF, headquartered in Salem, Ore., named Olivia Keefer its new chief actuarial officer. Keefer previously served as actuarial director. In her new role, she manages the reserves process, oversees ratemaking and the rate...
Utility Investors Wary of Exposures After Buffet’s PacifiCorp Held Liable for Wildfires
Jul 19 2023 // Destructive wildfires are now an almost routine part of summer in the American West, and electrical utilities have likewise become used to having their power lines and equipment blamed for igniting the blazes. But a jury...
Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp Sued by Oregon Wineries Over Fire Damage
Jul 17 2023 // Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp was sued by Oregon wineries claiming that smoke from wildfires ignited by the utility’s equipment in 2020 destroyed their grape harvests, resulting in tens of millions of...
Oregon Climate Change Lawsuit Seeks $50B, Citing 2021 Heat Wave
Jun 22 2023 // An Oregon county on Thursday sued Exxon XOM.N, Chevron CVX.N, other major oil and coal companies, and industry groups, seeking over $50 billion to counter the harms caused by extreme weather fueled by climate...
Verdict in Oregon Wildfires Case Highlights Risks Utilities Face Amid Climate Change
Jun 20 2023 // A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires – and potentially billions of dollars in damages – is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities take if they fail to...
Oregon Jury: PacifiCorp Must Pay Punitive Damages for Fires, Plus Award That Could Reach Billions
Jun 15 2023 // A jury on Wednesday ordered the electric utility PacifiCorp to pay punitive damages for causing devastating wildfires in Oregon in 2020 – on top of an earlier verdict already expected to amount to billions of...
