Oktoberfest, Schmocktoberfest. Around these parts, it’s Oregon Beer Showdown time. Yup, for the next few weeks, we’ll be tallying votes as the state’s beer fans put in for their favorite brewers. You can vote yourself here. Here’s what else is happening in and around this berg we call the Rose City. Building hope A few new stories landed this morning as we bustled to choose our wardrobes. One of them actually hit our radar yesterday: Portland wants to develop an Old Town block for affordable…

The company says no announcement about the company’s second headquarters search will be coming on this trip to the Nation’s Capital, which is a finalist for Amazon’s second headquarters.

The concern, even for some council members who voted for the study, is that despite its housing shortage, San Jose still has many more residents than jobs, which is the opposite of the situation in many surrounding cities.

Apple continued to grow its fleet of self-driving cars over the summer, adding four cars and 28 safety drivers to its fleet, which remains the state’s third-largest, behind autonomous fleets operated by General Motors Co. and Alphabet Inc.-owned Waymo, according to DMV data first spotted by MacReports. There are now 57 companies with permits to operate 556 self-driving cars on California’s roads. This group employs a total of 1,917 safety drivers. As of this week, Apple is testing 70 autonomous…

Hardware entrepreneurs say new levies on Chinese imports of up to 25 percent could be the “death knell” for their inventions.

The Port of Portland is losing its CFO. Cynthia Nichol will take over as Sacramento County’s airport system director on Oct. 22. County supervisors voted to affirm the appointment Tuesday. Nichol has more than 30 years of executive experience in airport management, in both the private and public sectors, according to the county. Since 2012, Nichol has served as chief financial officer for the Port of Portland, working on a team that manages three airports, port terminals, an industrial park and…