OREGON BUSINESS NEWS

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Rick Bowmer/APUnlike this photo from November, Oregon senators weren't holding hands Thursday when the Senate voted to release $350 billion to help financial institutions. Merkley voted to allow the money to be spent while Wyden voted against it.

WASHINGTON -- Oregon's Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley were on opposite sides of a major economic issue Thursday as Wyden voted to deny the federal government $350 billion to help stabilize a tottering economy while Merkley voted for it.

The division came as the Senate considered a Republican-sponsored resolution to deny releasing the second half of the $700 billion rescue package approved last fall. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has come under withering criticism by lawmakers from both parties who said the money was misspent and failed to achieve its primary purpose -- helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The U.S. Department of Labor said today that it has issued a $1.9 million grant to assist 651 employees laid off from Hynix Semiconductor's memory chip factory in Eugene.

Intel was narrowly profitable in the fourth quarter of last year, according to financial results issued this afternoon, and the company said all it knows about the immediate future is that profits will continue to shrink.

"The economy and the industry are in the process of resetting to a new baseline from which growth will resume," Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive, said in a written statement. "While the environment is uncertain, our fundamental business strategies are more focused than ever."

Portland-area Plaid Pantry stores began pulling a popular peanut butter snack off their shelves on Thursday as the list of people sickened in a nationwide salmonella outbreak grew longer.

"We are sending out a memo tonight," said Tim Cote, vice president of marketing for the Beaverton-based company, which has 95 stores in Oregon and four in Washington.

Didja know that when he's not the new Fake Steve Jobs, that Tim Cook sits on Nike's board?

I didn't.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he intends to challenge in federal court Thursday's decision by federal energy regulators to uphold their approval of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas terminal, proposed for 20 miles east of Astoria on the Columbia River.

At its last regular meeting before the change in presidential administration, the The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied requests to rehear its controversial approval of the terminal project.

Motoya Nakamura, The OregonianThe Columbia River could use a more thorough cleaning, the EPA says.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its first comprehensive report on toxic pollution in the Columbia River this morning, concluding that river contamination poses an "unacceptable risk" to people, fish and wildlife.

The EPA report, years in the making, compiled existing information on four contaminants. Decades after it was banned, the pesticide DDT is still showing up at levels harmful to humans in fish near agricultural areas throughout the basin, the report says.

Xerox confirmed this morning what I'd been hearing last night -- that its job cuts have begun.

The news could have been worse. Xerox's cuts fell comparatively lightly on Wilsonville (3 percent there, vs. 5 percent companywide). That's little consolation, of course, for the close to 50 employees who are going to lose their jobs.

Xerox has begun laying off employees in Wilsonville and at other U.S. sites this morning, part of a plan to cut 3,000 jobs companywide that Xerox announced last October.

At its Wilsonville campus, the company plans to eliminate roughly 50 jobs over the next two weeks from a work force that currently numbers 1,550. That's a little more than 3 percent of its Wilsonville jobs, smaller than the 5 percent cuts Xerox targeted overall.

"These are across the board as far as types of position," said Xerox spokesman Bill McKee, speaking from the company's Rochester, N.Y. headquarters.

David ZalubowskiA sign stands outside an existing home on the market near the University of Oregon in Eugene in December.

The global financial crisis and sagging consumer confidence continued to slam the Portland-area housing market in December when home prices tumbled back to December 2005 levels, according to a report released today.

The Regional Multiple Listing Service report, a closely watched measure of the Portland market, shows that the median price for homes sold in December fell to $252,900. That's a 16 percent drop from the August 2007 peak of $302,000.

Melissa Jansson / The BulletinEmployees of Gottschalks unpack and arrange merchandise before the Bend store's opening in October. The Fresno, Calif.-based company will keep its stores open while it determines its future.

Timber funds may aid victims of recession [The (Eugene) Register-Guard]

Is Salem a tourist draw? Absolutely, bureau says [The (Salem) Statesman Journal]

Port of Tacoma might scale back terminal [The (Tacoma) News Tribune]

Foreclosure numbers for Puget Sound region climbing faster [The Seattle Times]

Washington State's economy had bleak year [The Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

NEW YORK -- News that Bank of America Corp. needs another government cash infusion sent stocks sliding today as investors feared that the banking crisis of last fall may have returned.