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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 2021)
A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021 p DOW 30,829.40 +437.80 BRIEFING Brown appoints diversity chief Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday she will appoint Sophorn Cheang to run the state’s economic development agency after two years leading Oregon’s office of diversity, equity and inclusions. Pending confirma- tion by the state Senate, Cheang will take over for acting director Chris Cummings, who has led Business Oregon since Chris Harder quit nearly 15 months ago. Harder’s tenure was marked by allegations of discrim- ination and misman- agement; investigators hired by the state found only “low morale” at the agency. Before 2018, Cheang was director of the Asian Family Center for the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organiza- tion. She has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Portland State University and an MBA from Willa- mette University. “Her combination of experience will serve the agency well as we look to recover Oregon’s economy from COVID-19 and make our state a more inclusive place for all people and busi- nesses,” Brown said in a written statement. Amazon to fund affordable housing Amazon has an- nounced $2 billion in loans and grants to se- cure affordable housing in three U.S. cities where it has major operations, including a Seattle sub- urb where the online retail giant employs at least 5,000 workers. Amazon said it would give $185.5 million to the King County Hous- ing Authority to help buy affordable apart- ments in the region and keep the rents low, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday. The agency is ex- pected to pair bond funding with the $161.5 million in loans and $24 million in grants from Amazon to fund its re- cent purchase of three apartment buildings, including 470 units in Bellevue, about 10 miles west of Seattle. In the latest effort by Amazon, money also was directed to Arling- ton, Virginia, and Nash- ville, Tennessee, where it has hubs. Company officials projected the $2 billion would preserve or create 20,000 affordable housing units over the next five years. Grants aid battle against pests Four western states have received nearly $24 million in USDA grants to target pests ranging from Asian giant hornets to potato cyst nema- todes. Overall, the agency gave nearly $70 million to support 383 projects in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. USDA provides the funding under the Plant Protection Act Section 7721, according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Ser- vice. Washington received $3.5 million, California received $17.1 million, and Idaho received roughly $1.57 million. — Bulletin wire reports q bendbulletin.com/business p NASDAQ 12,740.79 -78.17 S&P 500 3,748.14 +21.28 p 30-YR T-BOND 1.82% +.12 p CRUDE OIL $50.63 +.70 q Pacific Power rates drop for irrigation customers BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press PORTLAND — Oregon regulators have approved lower electric rates for Pacific Power customers in 2021, thanks in part to cheaper fuel and tax credits from wind and solar energy, according to the utility. That comes as welcome news for irrigators already struggling financially with the coronavirus pandemic and wa- ter shortages due to extreme drought. Most of Pacific Power’s 615,000 Oregon customers will see a 5.2% rate reduction, including an estimated 3.5% reduction for agricultural pumping. The utility has 7,984 irrigation customers statewide, about half of whom are in the drought-stricken Klamath Ba- sin. Ben DuVal, power commit- tee chairman for the Klamath Water Users Association, said the group is pleased with the outcome following months of deliberations. See Power / A12 GOLD $1,906.90 -45.80 q SILVER $26.97 -.60 EURO $1.2307 +.0004 Few businesses heed call of mayor of Sandy to defy restrictions JAMIE HALE AND JAMIE GOLDBERG The Oregonian Sandy Mayor Stan Pull- iam has kept busy this winter, playing pied piper to Oregon businesses that want to defy the state’s restrictions during the pandemic — but it doesn’t appear he has succeeded in sparking broad resistance. While a handful of vocal objectors have made head- lines refusing the state’s di- rectives, the vast majority of businesses appear to be com- plying with Oregon’s restric- tions and closure orders. And regulators appear to be tak- ing a light touch with most of those who are not. See Sandy / A12 MIKE HASSON 1954-2020 BOEING IN WASHINGTON STATE Founder of Portland’s Hasson Co. real estate dies at 66 Mike Siegel/ The Seattle Times One of two 25-by-90-foot autoclaves at Boeing’s Ad- vanced De- velopmental Composites research center in Seattle. BY JANET EASTMAN The Oregonian STORIED CENTER FOR MANUFACTURING R&D SET TO CLOSE F p BY DOMINIC GATES The Seattle Times rom outside the Boeing secu- rity fence, the giant windowless, box like building across the road from the Museum of Flight looks un- remarkable, if mysterious. For decades, drivers passing by have wondered what exactly goes on inside such a large structure. Soon, the answer will be: nothing at all. In yet another sign of Boeing’s shrinking local footprint, managers told affected employees just before Christmas that in the next four to six months the facility, known as the Ad- vanced Developmental Composites center, will be shuttered. Just 10 years ago, Boeing expanded the facility and portrayed it as a hub of future innovation for in-house manu- facturing capabilities. Though relatively few people work at the facility right at this point, its symbolism will add to worry about the future of the jet maker in this re- gion. This is where for decades Boe- ing conducted its most important and secretive manufacturing research pro- grams, both military and commercial. Key technologies for building crit- ical pieces of the B2 Stealth bomber and the 787 Dreamliner were devel- oped here. The facility features two massive high-pressure ovens known as autoclaves, used to bake carbon composite materials to hardness, and robotic equipment for fabricating large composite structural pieces. Boeing, on a drive to sharply reduce its real estate holdings while it grap- ples with the drastic downturn in its business due to the pandemic, down- played the significance of the closure. “This is one of several steps we’re taking to streamline our operations and make more efficient use of our facility space,” the company said in a statement, adding that some noncom- mercial airplane work will continue in the building “for the time being.” With Boeing commercial airplane work at a low point, the number of people directly affected by the closure is relatively small at this point. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace union said it has only 29 members currently work- ing at the center. Yet union spokesman Bill Dugovich said news of the closure is worrisome and the union is seeking more infor- mation from the company. “We are certainly concerned about this, not only for the loss of the exist- ing work, but also for upcoming work on any new future airplanes,” he said. Boeing denied that moving work out of the region is part of the motivation. Its statement said the development of advanced composites for future products currently completed at the center will continue, but “will transi- tion to other Boeing facilities, mostly in the Puget Sound.” A storied history of secret work In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Boeing workers inside the Advanced Developmental Composites center fab- ricated large composite parts of the B-2 Stealth bomber, and in the mid-2000s the wings for the F-22 Raptor jet fighter. In the early 2000s, it’s where engi- neers perfected the methods used to fabricate the wings of Boeing’s last all- new jet, the 787 Dreamliner — and trained visiting engineers and me- chanics from Japan and Italy to do the production work. In 2004, Boeing Vice President Frank Statkus, then head of manufacturing technology on the 787 Dreamliner pro- gram, took reporters on a rare tour of the facility — no cameras allowed — to show off the first prototype tooling for that incipient all-composite airplane, at the time known as the 7E7. That day, he declared that “nobody in the world” could match the technology on display. See Boeing / A12 Mike Hasson, the son of a Portland grocer and a self- taught salesman who founded one of Oregon’s most successful independent real estate compa- nies, died Dec. 31 from meso- thelioma, a cancer that affects the lungs. He was 66. The Lake Oswego resident, civic leader and former CEO and founder of Hasson Com- pany Realtors was diagnosed 10 years ago with a malignant tu- mor caused by inhaled asbestos fibers, according to his family. Michael Hasson was born Oct. 16, 1954, in Portland to Bob Hasson, a World War II vet and vegetable seller, and Marilyn Hasson, who would later help manage her son’s real estate offices. Mike Hasson received his real estate license in 1977, and in 1983, Hasson and two part- ners founded Handel, Hasson & Jones, a residential real estate firm in Lake Oswego. In 1991, he started Hasson Company Realtors with 12 carefully selected real estate agents and a saying that he didn’t know the “magic sauce,” except that people and connec- tions mattered. Mike Hasson never compro- mised quality over growth, said Steve Studley, whom Hasson named CEO three years ago. And yet it succeeded. In 2020, the company had $2.2 billion in sales among 165 agents in offices in Lake Os- wego, Northwest and Northeast Portland, Vancouver, Clack- amas, Wilsonville, Cannon Beach, Hood River and Bend. Since its founding, the com- pany has transacted more than $26 billion in total sales and has ranked in the top 10 real estate companies in the nation and in the top five in the Pa- cific Northwest, according to Studley. DOJ, federal court system hit by Russian hack BY ERIC TUCKER AND FRANK BAJAK Associated Press The Justice Department and the federal court system dis- closed on Wednesday that they were among the dozens of U.S. government agencies and pri- vate businesses compromised by a massive, months-long cy- berespionage campaign that U.S. officials have linked to elite Russia hackers. The extent of the damage was unclear. The department said that 3% of its Microsoft Office 365 email accounts were poten- tially affected, but did not say to whom those accounts be- longed. There are no indica- tions that classified systems were affected, the agency said. Office 365 isn’t just email but a collaborative computing en- vironment, which means that shared documents were also surely accessed, said Dmitri Alperovitch, former chief tech- nical officer of the cybersecu- rity firm CrowdStrike. Separately, the Adminis- trative Office of U.S. Courts informed federal judicial bod- ies across the nation that the courts’ nationwide case man- agement system was breached. That potentially gave the hack- ers access to sealed court doc- uments, whose contents are highly sensitive. The Justice Department said that on Dec. 24 it detected “previously unknown mali- cious activity” linked to the broader intrusions of federal agencies revealed earlier that month, according to a state- ment from spokesman Marc Raimondi. Separately, the court office said on its website that “an ap- parent compromise” of the U.S. judiciary’s case management and electronic case file system was under investigation. The Department of Home- land Security was scouring the system, it said, and cited a particular risk to sealed court filings, whose disclosure could jeopardize a lot more than ac- tive criminal investigations. “The potential reach is vast. The actual reach is probably significant,” said a federal court official who spoke on condi- tion of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information. The official confirmed that the scope of the compromise was national but it was not clear how wide- spread. See Hack / A12