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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2021)
A5 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021 p DOW 31,458.40 +27.70 BRIEFING Czech firm buys U.S. gun-maker Colt Czech firearms com- pany Ceska Zbrojovka has signed a deal to ac- quire Colt, the American gun-maker that helped develop revolvers in the 19th century and has since supplied the armed forces in the U.S. and other countries. Ceska Zbrojovka Group SE said Friday that it has purchased all the shares in Colt Holding Company LLC, the parent company of Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC and its Ca- nadian subsidiary, Colt Canada Corp. The deal is worth $220 million and 1,098,620 newly issued shares in Ceska Zbro- jovk and is subject to approval by regulators. The Czech company said it expected the transac- tion to be completed in the second quarter of 2021. The Czech company has some 1,650 workers in the Czech Republic, United States and Ger- many. Airlines fight virus testing for flights Leaders of several major U.S. airlines met online Friday with White House officials to press their case against requir- ing coronavirus tests for passengers on domestic flights, saying it would undermine the already fragile industry. White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed specula- tion that the Biden ad- ministration could soon impose a requirement that passengers on do- mestic flights first pass a COVID-19 test. But she stopped short of taking the idea off the table. The CEOs of Ameri- can, United, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue all took part in the meeting, according to industry officials. The meeting was ar- ranged after Transpor- tation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention, said that a testing require- ment before domestic flights was under consid- eration. — Bulletin wire reports PEOPLE ON THE MOVE • Nadine Sparago, a Red- mond resident and visual design special- Sparago ist, has been named to Mosaic Medical’s board of di- rectors governing the nonprofit community health center. Sparago most recently worked for Habitat for Humanity in Redmond. • Mario Armendariz has been nam ed by Lead i ng Edge Flight Acad emy lead flight Armen- in structor, dariz a position that leads instructors and students. p NASDAQ 14,095.47 +69.70 bendbulletin.com/business p S&P 500 3,934.83 +18.45 p 30-YR T-BOND 2.01% +.06 p CRUDE OIL $59.47 +1.23 q GOLD $1,821.60 -3.30 p SILVER $27.32 +.28 Biden: Governors, mayors need $350 billion to fight COVID-19 BY JOSH BOAK AND KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Pres- ident Joe Biden met with a bipartisan group of gover- nors and mayors at the White House on Friday as part of his push to give financial relief from the coronavirus pan- demic to state and local gov- ernments — a clear source of division with Republican law- makers who view the spending as wasteful. As part of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus package, Biden wants to send $350 billion to state and local governments and tribal governments. While Republicans in Congress have largely objected to this initia- tive, Biden’s push has some GOP support among gover- nors and mayors. “You folks are all on the front lines and dealing with the crisis since day one,” Biden said at the start of the Oval Of- fice meeting. “They’ve been working on their own in many cases.” Republican lawmakers have stressed that some past aid to state and local governments remains unspent and revenues have rebounded after slump- ing when the coronavirus first hit. But state governments have shed 332,000 jobs since the outbreak began to spread in February 2020, and local governments have cut nearly 1 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Miami Mayor Francis Su- arez, a Republican, called the discussion spirited and said the past aid to local governments was insufficient, so more money was needed. See COVID-19 / A6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Interest renewed in accessory dwelling units Erin and Sonny De- guzman stand in the entrance of the ac- cessory dwelling unit they’re building in the backyard of their Los Angeles home. Permits for units are up since California implemented legisla- tive changes. Allison Zaucha/ Washington Post W ith housing prices soaring beyond the reach of low- and middle-income Americans, many cities are moving to cre- ate more affordable rentals by significantly expanding dwell- ings commonly known as ga- rage apartments, in-law suites and granny flats. The official name for the apartments created from con- verted space is accessory dwell- ing units, commonly referred to as ADUs. Affordable housing advo- cates promote accessory dwell- ing units as a way to modestly increase housing stock without drastically altering the neigh- borhoods that surround them, and a steady stream of new city, county and state regulations is making them easier to build. BY HAISTEN WILLIS • Special To The Washington Post “There has been a dramatic uptick in ADU regulatory relaxation over the last few years,” said Kol Peterson of Portland, author of “Backdoor Revolution: The Definitive Guide to ADU Development.” “A number of cities and states have come to the con- clusion that ADUs are a good thing and that they should put forth enabling legislation to hopefully spur their develop- ment,” added Peterson, who is also the owner of Accessory Dwelling Strategies, a company dedicated to accessory dwell- ing unit-related education, ad- vocacy and consulting. Cities that have eased or are looking to ease regulations for these units include Evan- ston, Illinois; Greenfield, Mas- sachusetts; Maplewood and Princeton, New Jersey; and Ed- monds, Washington . Missoula, Montana, home of the Univer- sity of Montana, relaxed acces- sory dwelling unit regulations in October, raising the maxi- mum allowed height to 25 feet, and removing requirements for owner occupancy and parking. Also studying the concept are Chicago, which is allowing accessory dwelling units under a pilot program, and Alexan- dria, Virginia. Perhaps most notably, California and Oregon have passed statewide legisla- tion making accessory dwell- ing units easier to build . “The major factors in favor of ADUs are affordability and flexibility,” said Sam Khater, chief economist and head of Freddie Mac’s Economic and Housing Research divi- sion. “The share of entry-level homes has declined a lot, yet demand has more than out- stripped the declining new supply that’s coming out of the market.” That’s especially true in the high-cost, low-density met- ropolitan areas of the West Coast. Accessory dwelling units fell out of favor starting in the 1950s as suburbanization and zoning codes discouraged their creation. Even so, many were built illegally in the ensuing decades. See Housing / A6 q EURO $1.2116 -.0015 STUDY | TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS Smaller cars may be cause of injuries in women BY KEN SWEET The Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The smaller, lighter vehi- cles that women more of- ten drive, and the types of crashes they get into, may explain why they are much more likely to suffer a se- rious injury in a collision than men, a new study pub- lished Thursday found. Researchers from the In- surance Institute for High- way Safety, a research group supported by auto insurers, looked into whether there was some sort of gender bias in the research into vehicle crashes or whether body type had anything to do with the injuries. They analyzed injuries of men and women in po- lice-reported tow-away front and side crashes from 1998 to 2015. Among the findings were that in front crashes, women were three times as likely to experience a broken bone, concussion or other moderate injury, and twice as likely to suf- fer a serious one like a col- lapsed lung or traumatic brain injury. Men and women crashed in minivans and SUVs in about equal proportions, the researchers found. But around 70% of women crashed in cars, compared with about 60% of men. And more than 20% of men crashed in pickups, com- pared with less than 5% of women. Men are also more likely to be driving the striking vehicle in two-vehicle front- to-rear and front-to-side crashes, according to the re- searchers. “The numbers indicate that women more often drive smaller, lighter cars and that they’re more likely than men to be driving the struck vehicle in side-im- pact and front-into-rear crashes,” said Jessica Jerma- kian, institute vice presi- dent of vehicle research, in a statement. “Once you ac- count for that, the difference in the odds of most injuries narrows dramatically.” Women were also much more likely to suffer leg in- juries compared to men, which may require car safety researchers to start building crash test dum- mies that account more for the physical differences be- tween women and men, the researchers noted. NORTHEAST OREGON 2nd of 3 massive water pipelines is completed BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press HERMISTON — Farm- ers in northeast Oregon have completed the second of three new water pipelines tapping into the Columbia River, part of an ambitious plan to boost the region’s agricultural econ- omy while simultaneously relieving pressure on badly stressed groundwater aqui- fers. On Jan. 28, the Oregon Wa- ter Resources Department signed off on the $47 million East Project, the largest and most expensive of the pipe- line package. With the West Project, which was finished last year, the pipeline will be opera- tional for the full 2021 irriga- tion season. Jake Madison, president of Madison Ranches in Echo and chairman of the North- east Oregon Water Associ- ation, said the projects have led to “a true Mid-Columbia renaissance for future water sustainability.” “We have lived and breathed these projects for the past eight years of our lives,” Madison said in a statement. “While we are not there yet, we have two of three key cor- nerstone projects in place that give us the chance to succeed and implement our vision.” Water woes in the basin date back to at least 1958, when Oregon water regulators first began observing ground- water declines. Between 1976 and 1991, the state water re- sources department desig- nated four critical groundwa- ter areas straddling Umatilla and Morrow counties. Wells were either restricted or cut off entirely, leaving thousands of acres of poten- tially high-value farmland dry. In 2012, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber convened the Co- lumbia River-Umatilla Solu- tions Task Force, which initially proposed using Co- lumbia River water to irrigate farms and allow groundwa- ter aquifers the chance to re- charge. However, the Columbia River is subject to strict en- vironmental protections in Oregon. In order to take wa- ter from the river, it has to be replaced from other sources to avoid harming endangered fish — a standard known as “bucket-for-bucket” mitiga- tion. See Pipeline / A6