Category Business
Two Salem businesses have yet to pay hefty fines for pandemic citations, pushing appeals
Courthouse Club Fitness in west Salem. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter) Over the last year, two Salem businesses were assessed hefty fines by Oregon’s workplace safety agency for openly flouting regulations intended to protect workers from Covid. But neither business has paid any money, and it could…
Marion County among the highest in the state for back rent, new analysis shows
Patience and social distancing are two requirements for cashing in bottles and cans at Salem’s BottleDrop centers. Customers cash in at the center on Northeast Commercial Street on Friday, May 1. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Marion County has the fifth-highest amount of past-due rent of any…
SALEM ECONOMIC INDEX: Salem sees housing market reach new highs and signs that hiring is picking up
A home is seen under construction on Vine Maple Drive Southeast above a row of completed homes on Thursday, April 8, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The housing market in Salem and Keizer remains hot. Fewer people in the Salem area are receiving unemployment benefits, more…
Oregon’s economy expected to come roaring back from pandemic-induced recession
A ‘Now Hiring’ sign in front of the Boon’s Treasury McMenamin’s location on Monday, April 26. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) With “no real signs of permanent damage or economic scarring” from the pandemic, Oregonians’ incomes are expected to grow and the labor market is expected to…
Salem Reporter earns top journalism honors for fire coverage
The Oak Park Motel sign in Gates on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. The iconic photo was part of an award-winning photo essay by Amanda Loman of Salem Reporter. Reporting on the wildfires that struck the Santiam Canyon last fall earned Salem Reporter top journalism honors…
Employment Department will bring back job-seeking requirements for laid-off Oregonians
Oregon Employment Department. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) In another sign the pandemic is waning, the Oregon Employment Department announced a shift in requirements for people receiving unemployment benefits: they’ll have to start actively looking for work. David Gerstenfeld, the department’s acting director, made the announcement on…
City adds grant money to help downtown Salem businesses with security
A security camera outside Salem Center mall in downtown. The camera was paid for with a grant from the city. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter) The city of Salem’s Urban Renewal Agency has added more money to a grant program that helps businesses pay for security upgrades…
Documents shed new light on crash that left three farmworkers dead and triggered a federal investigation
The stop in Salem was only to be brief for the 16 seasonal workers. They had worked all day loading Christmas trees into delivery trucks at a Corvallis farm and now, at week’s end, they were on their way to homes they shared in Woodburn…
Throughout the pandemic, the Latino Business Alliance in Salem kept its focus on connections
A pre-pandemic Café Y Pan Dulce, a monthly networking event hosted by the Latino Business Alliance that will resume in May 2021. (Courtesy/Latino Business Alliance) Jose Gonzalez recalled how during the Great Recession of 2008 he and a handful of other business people in Salem’s…