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Guest Feature: Portland Seeks Public Comment on Affordable Housing Bond Framework
Thanks to our friends at HFO Investment Real Estate for this important notice regarding new developments from the Portland Housing Bureau regarding the Affordable Housing Bond.
The Portland Housing Bureau released a report written by the Affordable H...
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Panel Discussion: The Opioid Epidemic & The Building Industry
We would like to inform those of you in the Oregon/SWWA building industry about a special panel discussion being hosted by the Daily Journal of Commerce on Thursday, August 24, 2017. The presentation is titled "The Opioid Epid...
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Washington Subcontractors Can Seek Bond for Early Release of Retainage
Governor Jay Inslee recently signed into law Washington House Bill 1538 which authorizes subcontractors on public projects to request the prime contractor submit to the public owner a bond to release its portion of the retainage before the public pro...
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A Light in the Darkness: The “Small Business Know-Before-You-Bid Construction Transparency Act of 2017”
Federal government contracting comes with a myriad of challenges, not the least of which are sometimes opaque procedures for getting paid (or taking action if you’re not getting paid). A bill has just been introduced in the House of Representatives t...
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IRS: "Shea It Ain't So!" The Ninth Circuit Opens The Door For Real Estate Developers to Defer Income Tax
In a coup for real estate developers, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the U.S. Tax Court's approval of a real estate developer's strategy to defer income in Shea Homes, Inc. v. Commissioner, 834 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2016). The strategy appears fairly narro...
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Chapter 2: Ending “Drive-By” Lawsuits Under the ADA
We wrote about the plans to amend the Americans With Disabilities Act on January 31, 2017, to deal with so-called drive-by lawsuits claiming that there are illegal physical barriers to access. Now we have the language in the proposed bill, HR 620. Th...
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