BEND, OR — Twenty-four Oregon arts organizations have received $200,000 in 2015 Arts Learning grants to support arts education projects statewide. Locally, the High Desert Museum received $11,500 to support a year long arts education program. The grants were approved at the June 27th Oregon Arts Commission meeting held in Newberg.
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Redmond attorneys Gordy Welborn and Anthony Kuchulis were recently honored in the 2014 issue of Oregon Super Lawyers magazine. The publication identified the most outstanding attorneys in the state, as chosen by their peers. Welborn practices professional liability defense, while Kuchulis was selected as a 2014 rising star.
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Phil Ward has been appointed the new state executive director for the USDA Farm Service Agency. Ward, a fifth generation Oregonian, assumed the post in late June.
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Starting August 11th, James Denno will become the Oregon Construction Contractors Board administrator. Denno replaces Craig Smith, who served as the agency’s top executive for 13 years before his retirement in February. The CCB regulates more than 34,000 licensed construction contractors with about 60 employees and a $15.1 million budget for 2013-15.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued a major debt collection law firm on Monday, alleging it is a “mill” that produces shoddy, mass-produced credit-card collection lawsuits. The bureau’s claim, filed in federal court in Atlanta, states that Frederick J. Hanna & Associates has filed hundreds of thousands of lawsuits on behalf of banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One and Discover without doing even basic checks to determine whether the people they sued actually owed debts.
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Fed up with U.S. dominance of the global financial system, five emerging market powers this week will launch their own versions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -the so-called BRICS countries – are seeking “alternatives to the existing world order,” said Harold Trinkunas, director of the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution.
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