Concordia University has received a $1.5 million gift from Dr. Robert and Virginia Hilken that will go towards a new $7.5 million athletic complex. The complex will be named the Hilken Community Stadium. A grand opening is scheduled for Saturday, March 3, at noon. The ceremony will be followed by a baseball doubleheader. The complex is at 2715 N.E. Liberty St., in Northeast Portland. It spans four city blocks and includes turf fields for baseball and soccer. The facility will be available for public use roughly 50 percent of the time...

Micron Technology Inc. said its CEO Steve Appleton, 51, was killed in a small plane accident on Friday morning. The Boise-based company (NASDAQ:MU) makes advanced semiconductor technology. The company issue a statement: "Our hearts go out to his wife, Dalynn, his children and his family during this tragic time. Steve's passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large." The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) issued a statement mourning the death of Appleton, who was a member of its board and was given the industry’s highest honor in November, the Robert N...

Erickson Air-Crane’s initial public offering, which was expected next week, has been postponed, according to IPO advisory firm Renaissance Capital. Greenwich, Conn.-based Renaissance — which serves as an advisory firm on IPOs and also tracks the market — said the Portland-based heavy-lift helicopter manufacturer and operator had postponed the offering on Wednesday. The firm had earlier said Erickson’s IPO would hit the market sometime next week. Renaissance principal Kathleen Smith said they were unable to provide any insight as to why the IPO was postponed...

Oregon will receive $6 million in federal funds that state officials say will help add forest management jobs. The money comes from an Agriculture Department initiative called Increasing the Pace of Restoration and Job Creation on Our National Forests. The money will back projects in the Malheur and Fremont-Winema national forests. Specifically, the program will provide $3.5 million to the Lakeview Stewardship Project, in southern Oregon, and $2.5 million for the Southern Blues Restoration Coalition Project in eastern Oregon...

Portland’s city bureaus have submitted proposed budgets that offer glimpses as to what might happen if they’re directed to cut between 4 percent and 8 percent this year. Portland’s City Council will use the budgets as they recommend ways the city could deal with money shortfalls for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Among other warnings, department leaders said: A 6 percent cut to the Portland Parks and Recreation budget would force the city to close the Fulton Community Center in Southwest Portland...

The Portland Business Journal's top law firms list didn’t change a whole heck of a lot over last year’s rankings. But in the areas the list did change, the moves were cataclysmic. Bullivant Houser Bailey PC experienced a big drop, falling from seventh to 14th. The drop wasn’t a huge surprise to those following Portland’s legal scene. What was surprising, though was the huge move made by Kolisch Hartwell PC. The IP firm leapfrogged 28 firms in moving from 47th last year to 19th in 2011...

News that the unemployment rate declined last month — the 5th consecutive month of declines — sent stocks soaring. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week up 156.82 points to close at 12,862, the NASDAQ closed up 45.98 points to 2,905 and the S&P 500 closed up 19.36 points to 1,344. The Davidson 99, which measures stocks in seven western states, including 19 in Oregon, closed up 3.27 points to 176.93. Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ: COLM) managed to post one of the largest percentage increases among area companies, despite warning of slowing growth in 2012...

LaCrosse Footwear Inc. on Thursday reported a 16 percent drop in fourth quarter revenue, in part due to reduced demand from the U.S. military. The Portland-based boot-maker (NASDAQ: BOOT) reported a profit of $2.2 million, or 33 cents per share, on $43.8 million in sales for the quarter. A year earlier, it had a profit of $4 million, or 60 cents per share, on $52.1 million in sales. For the full year, it reported a profit of $3 million, or 45 cents per share, on $131.3 million in sales, compared to earnings of $6...

Portland-based knife brand Leatherman Tool Group Inc. this week named Kris Hamper as the company's new chief financial officer. Hamper will provide financial guidance for both the Leatherman operations in Portland and the LED Lenser flashlight brand, which has operations in Yang Jiang, China, and Solingen, Germany. Leatherman acquired LED Lenser in December 2010. Hamper joins the company from the S Group, a Portland-based brand consultancy where he was also CFO. He was also once controller and director of strategic planning at Adidas, and has held financial leadership positions at Doc Martens, which has its U...

Bidding for the Portland Custom House will close at 9 a.m. Feb. 7 unless a new bid is received before then. The high bid for the historic office building on Portland’s North Park Blocks currently stands at $1.7 million with six active bidders expressing interest. The auction will be automatically extended by 24 hours if a bid is received in the day before the scheduled close. The U.S. General Services Administration tried and failed three times to transfer the historic but obsolete building to a private entity...

Keith Thomajan takes over as president of United Way of the Columbia-Willamette on Monday. The former head of Camp Fire Columbia will succeed interim CEO Jay Bloom. United Way has been without a permanent leader since former president Marc Levy abruptly resigned last March. Thomajan starts the $170,000-a-year post with a full plate. The agency and its stakeholders will begin meeting quickly to oversee distribution of the more than $21 million raised in the 2010-2011 annual giving campaign. Thomajan joined Camp Fire in 2001...

Stoel Rives tops the Business Journal's list of top Portland law firms, with 149 local attorneys. Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt clocked in at No. 2 with 121 local attorneys. You can get a peak at the top-10 firms below and subscribers can view the complete list in the current issue of the Business Journal. Not included in the list, though certainly an indicator of the industry's health, is that a number of firms are planning to hire for various positions in the next six to 12 months. Here are those that indicated they will be hiring: Tonkon Torp plans to hire three entry-level lawyers in fall of 2012...

The Portland area's 3,550 lawyers are paid $102,020 on average each year. According to an On Numbers analysis compiled by the Business Journal, that makes lawyers the second-highest paid legal professionals in Portland. Judges, magistrate judges and magistrates bring home the biggest paychecks, with average annual pay of $112,280. Court reporters landed in the third spot at $96,730, followed by arbitrators, mediators and concilliators at $70,530, and administrative law judges at $70,020. The analysis was compiled using U...

A fear for Facebook as it heads towards an historic initial public offering is that people will grow tired of posting pictures, playing games and connecting on the social network. As the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal reports, a study released Friday by the Pew Research Center could ease that fear.

Struggling Indian air carrier Air India is moving closer to buying 27 Boeing Co. 787 airplanes, with delivery of the first Everett-built plane expected later this month. As Bloomberg reports, a group of Indian ministers is expected to approve the purchase, ordered seven years ago, next week. The airline was supposed to receive its first of the much-delayed 787 in September 2008.

Apple Inc. reported $46.33 billion in revenue and a record $13.06 billion in profit in the fourth quarter, while Amazon.com Inc. reported $17.4 billion in revenue and a profit of $177 million. Is it fair to compare the two companies' performances? As TechCrunch reports, as long as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) expands into selling hardware like the Kindle and Kindle Fire tablet, comparisons will be made with Apple's huge success selling hardware like the iPad and iPhone, and investors will compare the two companies and their profit margins.

Weyerhaeuser beat analysts' fourth-quarter estimates, reporting earnings of $65 million, or 12 cents per share, well above predictions of earnings of 6 cents per share. As the Puget Sound Business Journal reports, Weyerhaeuser reported net sales of $1.6 billion for the latest quarter, up from $1.5 billion a year earlier and in line with analyst expectations.

A new report credits the Affordable Care Act with saving Oregon Medicare recipients $23.5 million in prescription health care costs. The report from the Department of Health and Human Services found that 44,877 Oregon residents with Medicare saved $524 each on average. The Affordable Care Act provides a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and beginning this year, a 14 percent discount on generics. It is designed to help Medicare recipients who hit the prescription drug coverage gap known as the "donut hole...

Health insurance premiums in Oregon continued to rise in 2011 but at a slower rate than in recent years. According to the Department of Consumer and Business Services annual report on Health Insurance in Oregon, the average premium for individuals and employers with two to 50 workers increased 6.6 percent. That's down from an 11.7 percent increase in 2010. The decline was attributed to fewer medical claims being filed last year. Other findings: As of mid-2011, 89 cents of every premium dollar went to pay medical claims, 9 cents went to insurance company operating costs and 2 cents was profit...

Columbia Sportswear Co. ended the strongest year in its history with a 40 percent increase in fourth-quarter profits on record-high sales. The Washington County-based outdoor footwear and apparel company (NASDAQ: COLM) marked its second straight year of double-digit sales growth, with full-year revenue climbing 14 percent to an all-time high of $1.7 billion. But this year’s unseasonably warm winter is likely to break that streak: The company forecast 2012 sales growth in the low single digits...