A13
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
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DOW
31,188.38 +257.86
BRIEFING
Portland startup
receives $20M
Conversa Health, a
Portland startup that
helps health care pro-
viders evaluate patients
online, said Tuesday it has
added $8 million to a $12
million investment an-
nounced last summer.
The 6-year-old com-
pany has now raised $34
million altogether. That’s
a large sum for an ear-
ly-stage company, at least
by Portland’s modest
standards.
Telehealth compa-
nies have been booming
during the pandemic,
helping clinicians treat
patients online. Conver-
sa’s technology enables
“digital triage” to evaluate
whether patients need a
phone or online consul-
tation, or an in-person
exam.
Conversa employs 34
total, 22 of them in Port-
land. CEO Murray Broz-
insky works in San Fran-
cisco, but Conversa says a
number of top executives
work in Portland. They
include Chairman West
Shell and Chief Strategy
Officer Phil Marshall, the
company’s co-founders.
Builders VC and North-
well Ventures led Con-
versa’s latest investment
round.
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Oregon sheds 25,500 jobs in first
jobless rate increase since April
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Oregon’s unemployment rate
climbed to 6.4% in December,
up from 6% the prior month.
It’s the first increase in seven
months as the state hunkered
down amid a sharp increase in
COVID-19 infections.
The state shed 25,500 jobs
last month, according to data
out Wednesday from the Or-
egon Employment Depart-
ment, with the biggest losses
in the leisure and hospitality
sector. Gov. Kate Brown or-
dered restaurants and bars shut
down to indoor service in late
November as the infection rate
soared to unprecedented levels.
“December’s job losses
reflect the devastation
COVID-19 continues to
inflict on the lives and
A MOVE THAT
MAKES CENTS
livelihoods of Oregonians. Ten
months into the pandemic,
Oregon has regained just 37%
of the jobs lost in this reces-
sion,” said Gail Krumenauer,
economist with the employ-
ment department.
See Jobs / A14
California
pot firms
to get more
banking
services
Keystone XL permit
revoke by Biden
Construction on the
long disputed Keystone
XL oil pipeline halted
Wednesday as incoming
U.S. President Joe Biden
decided to revoke its
permit.
Biden’s Day One plans
included moving to re-
voke a presidential permit
for the pipeline.
The premier of the oil-
rich Canadian province of
Alberta called it an “insult”
and said the federal Cana-
dian government should
impose trade sanctions if
it is not reversed.
The 1,700-mile pipe-
line was planned to carry
roughly 800,000 barrels of
oil a day from Alberta to
the Texas Gulf Coast, pass-
ing through Montana,
South Dakota, Nebraska,
Kansas and Oklahoma.
“Advancement of
the project will be sus-
pended,” the Calgary,
Alberta-based company
said in a statement.
Keystone XL President
Richard Prior said over
1,000 jobs, the majority
unionized, will be elim-
inated in the coming
weeks.
“We will begin a safe
and orderly shut-down of
construction,” he said.
Markets hit records
as hopes build
Wall Street marked
the dawn of President
Joe Biden’s administra-
tion with stocks rallying
to record highs as hopes
build that new leadership
in Washington will mean
more support for the
struggling U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4%,
topping its previous all-
time high set earlier this
month. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average, Nas-
daq composite and Rus-
sell 2000 index of smaller
companies also notched
record highs, powered by
gains in technology, com-
munications, health care
and most other sectors.
Biden, now the na-
tion’s 46th president has
pitched a plan to pump
$1.9 trillion more into the
struggling economy.
Spiraling coronavirus
counts and deaths have
more workers applying
for unemployment bene-
fits and shoppers feeling
less confident.
— Bulletin wire reports
Jae C. Hong/AP file
Bundles of $20 bills are placed on a table as Jerred Kiloh, owner of the Higher Path medical marijuana dispensary, prepares a trip to Los
Angeles City Hall in 2017 to pay his monthly tax payment in cash in Los Angeles.
BY MICHAEL R. BLOOD • The Associated Press
“Since
California
legalized
cannabis,
operators have
faced
significant
struggles with
banking and
payment
services, given
the federal
government’s
continued ban
on cannabis
products.”
— Statement from the
California Cannabis Industry
Association
A
California cannabis industry group announced
Tuesday that it reached an agreement with a state credit
union that will provide checking, wire transfers and
other banking services for more marijuana companies, helping
ease what has been an obstacle for many businesses.
Most Americans live in states
where cannabis is legally available
in some form, and broad legal mar-
ijuana sales began in California in
2018. But there’s been a problem
when it comes to banks: Many don’t
want anything to do with money
from the cannabis industry for fear
it could expose them to legal trouble
from the federal government, which
still considers marijuana illegal.
As a result, many marijuana
companies in California’s multibil-
lion-dollar market have been left to
do business largely in cash, making
them appealing targets for crime.
Under the partnership, the Cali-
fornia Cannabis Industry Associa-
tion said its members will gain ac-
cess to banking services through the
California-based North Bay Credit
Union.
“Since California legalized canna-
bis, operators have faced significant
struggles with banking and payment
services, given the federal govern-
ment’s continued ban on cannabis
products,” the group said in a state-
ment.
See Banking / A14
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EURO
$1.2107 -.0018
Just before
Trump left,
Hammond
Ranches
got permit
BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
In one of his last acts before
leaving office, outgoing Inte-
rior Secretary David Bernhard
on Tuesday granted Hammond
Ranches Inc. a 10-year grazing
permit, curtailing any potential
administrative appeals in the
face of vehement opposition
from environmental advocacy
groups.
“It’s great news they’ve is-
sued the final decision and
issued the grazing permit to
the Hammond family,” Alan
Schroeder, the family’s attorney
told the Capital Press. “The
fact it’s been restored will cer-
tainly stabilize this livestock
operation that’s been around
for 50 years.”
In February 2014, the fed-
eral agency rejected the Ham-
monds’ renewal application,
citing the criminal convictions
of father Dwight Hammond Jr.
and his son Steven Hammond
for setting fire to public land.
Paul Ruprecht, the regional
Nevada-Oregon director of
Western Watersheds Project,
said the granting of the permit
just before President Donald
Trump leaves office “puts poli-
tics before land stewardship.”
“It is outrageous — although
sadly predictable — that the
Trump administration has
reached down into the Burns
Field Office of the Bureau of
Land Management and seized
control to make sure they
could give the Hammonds
preferential access to public
lands,” Ruprecht said in a pre-
pared statement.
The environmental protec-
tion group contends the re-
newed grazing will harm sage-
grouse habitats in the region
and increase invasive weeds
and the likelihood of destruc-
tive fires.
“It’s clear that the Bureau of
Land Management was told
by on high to get this done
before the Trump Admin-
istration leaves tomorrow.
It’s corruption, down to the
fact that they raced through
the weekend to get this rub-
ber-stamped before the inau-
guration.”
The U.S. Bureau of Land
Management had proposed
on New Year’s Eve returning
grazing rights to Hammond
Ranches for 10 years, citing
among other reasons their “ex-
tensive historic use” of the al-
lotments and what the federal
agency characterized as their
“past proper use of rangeland
resources.”
Susie Hammond, the matri-
arch of the Hammond family,
said Tuesday afternoon, “Well,
we don’t have any cows on it
yet, so we’ll see.”
Asked about the timing of
the permit just before Trump
is set to leave office, she added,
“You don’t suppose that was
strategic?”
See Hammond / A14
Jorden Cove natural gas terminal plans hit snag
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Plans for
a major West Coast liquified
natural gas pipeline and export
terminal hit a snag Tuesday
with federal regulators after a
years long legal battle that has
united tribes, environmental-
ists and a coalition of residents
on Oregon’s rural southern
coast against the proposal.
The Federal Energy Regu-
latory Commission ruled that
energy company Pembina
could not move forward with
the proposal without a key
clean water permit from the
state of Oregon. The U.S. regu-
latory agency gave its tentative
approval to the pipeline last
March as long as it secured the
necessary state permits, but the
Canadian pipeline company
has been unable to do so.
It had appealed to the com-
mission over the state’s clean
water permit, arguing that Or-
egon had waived its authority
to issue a clean water certifica-
tion for the project and there-
fore its denial of the permit was
irrelevant.
But the commission found
instead that Pembina had never
requested the certification and
that the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality “could
not have waived its authority to
issue certification for a request
it never received.”
See Gas / A14
OPB file photo
A view of Coos Bay from a spot where the Jordan Cove LNG terminal
will be excavated, if approved by regulators.