A5
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021
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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.
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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
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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