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Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

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Study: Trucking dispute proves costly

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Americans are paying a very high price for their government’s ugly dispute with Mexico over cross-border trucking – $2.3 billion in higher costs, $2.6 billion in foregone exports, and 25,000 jobs, according to a study released Sept. 15 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, existing restrictions on […]

Metro visits with nursery industry representatives

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Metro, the regional planning agency, recently released its recommendations for which parcels immediately surrounding the Portland area should remain rural – and which should be targeted for urban development – over the next 50 years. Any changes in land use would have a huge effect on the nursery industry, which occupies a fair portion of this […]

Metro chief calls for more infill

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Most of the Oregon nursery industry is concentrated in Clackamas, Marion, Washington, Multnomah and Yamhill counties, around the major metropolitan areas of Portland and Salem. Metro manages future planning for the most urbanized portions of three of those counties (Clackamas, Washington, Multnomah). So it was especially noteworthy for nurseries yesterday when Metro Executive Officer Mike […]

An attorney’s view

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Yesterday, we promised you analysis. Today, here it is. Labor law attorney Ron Guerra takes a look at how the end of the No Match Rule – and the administration’s concurrent support for the E-Verify program – will affect employers.

No Match Rule to be rescinded in favor of E-Verify

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When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (under the Bush Administration) announced its Social Security No Match Rule in August 2007, there was immediate concern about its unfair and far-reaching impacts on employers and workers. The rule intended to crack down on illegal workers, and employers who knowingly hire them, by requiring employers to take […]

A change in focus

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The Department of Homeland Security division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week announced a change in focus in its immigration enforcement efforts. While the Bush Administration staged workplace raids in which illegal workers were arrested, the Obama Administration will stage immigration audits at workplaces instead, with the intent of fining and prosecuting offending employers. […]

Scrapping E-Verify

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The senior U.S. senator from New York – and third-ranking Democrat in the Senate – indicated last week that he would like to scrap the controversial E-Verify system for checking employment eligibility, and replace it with something else: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York and chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, faulted the government system, known […]

Hoop house bill passes House, also

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Yesterday we told you that House Bill 2904 (HTML|PDF) passed the Oregon Senate. Today we can report that it passed the Oregon House by a 59-0 vote. The bill blocks a move by the Oregon Department of Revenue to treat hoop houses as permanent structures on property tax statements. Without the bill, nursery owners would […]

Setting the parameters

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President Obama is holding a meeting today to “launch a policy conversation” on immigration reform. CNN reports: The meeting comes less than a week after the president reiterated his commitment to passing comprehensive immigration reform that paves the way for citizenship for millions of undocumented workers. On Friday, Obama told a Hispanic audience that the […]

Action, not words

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From a commentary by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.): According to a recent poll of 1,000 voters by the Benenson Strategy Group, more than eight in 10 Democratic, Republican and independent voters support Congress passing comprehensive reform, as do 86 percent of voters who are undecided on the 2010 congressional race. Only 14 percent oppose […]