NEWS PAGE TWO (of 4)

Polk County Itemizer Observer: Thompson plans to seek re-election

September 19th 2011 - Written by Admin

...Rep. Jim Thompson is organizing the [winiries] seminar, which will include about 80 wineries at Eola Hill Wine Cellars in Rickreall on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Thompson said the meeting will feature presentations on regional marketing and branding from representatives of Travel Salem and Travel Oregon, Oregon Wine Board and Oregon Wine Growers Association. "It will be an opportunity for cooperative marketing," Thompson said. "I'm trying to bring more wineries together to work on regional marketing."He said individual wineries in the area have been successful, even in a down economy, and he wants to see if they are open to sharing strategies and working together to promote the area as a whole. He said areas such as Napa Valley and Sonoma County in California have been able to market each region as a whole as wine destinations, but that hasn't happened on a large scale in Polk County -- yet...

Click here to read the entire article.

 

 

 

 

2011 Session Roundup

September 8th 2011 - Written by Admin

At the closing of this regular session the 2011 legislature, many important bills come to mind as I try to determine the accomplishments of the session. Rightfully so, the budget adoption is critical to our success as a state and services to its residents. Adopting a balanced budget this year was difficult. Our economy has not recovered; unemployment is still high and there is a very large increase in demands for services, especially health care, children and senior services and education. We had a lot of choices in determining the budget; these choices were about picking the alternatives that were the least harmful. Some of the alternatives that were explored included cutting the corrections budget by releasing inmates earlier than their regular release date, changing the state employees benefit packages and contributions and allowing agencies to raise business and license fees to fund the inflation costs of their programs...

Click here to read the entire 2011 session roundup. We discuss wineries, Health care, and other bills of note.

 

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