A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021
p
DOW
31,613.02 +90.27
BRIEFING
Facebook blocks
Australians from
accessing news
CANBERRA, Australia
— Facebook announced
Thursday it has blocked
Australians from viewing
and sharing news on the
platform because of pro-
posed laws in the country
to make digital giants pay
for journalism.
Australian publishers
can continue to publish
news content on Face-
book, but links and posts
can’t be viewed or shared
by Australian audiences,
the company said in a
statement.
“The proposed law
fundamentally misunder-
stands the relationship
between our platform
and publishers who use
it to share news content,”
Facebook Regional Man-
aging Director William
Easton said.
Communications Min-
ister Paul Fletcher said the
government would not
back down on its legisla-
tive agenda.
“This announcement
from Facebook, if they
were to maintain this po-
sition, of course would
call into question the
credibility of the platform
in terms of the news on
it,” Fletcher told Australian
Broadcasting Corp.
Copyright 2021 The As-
sociated Press. All rights
reserved. This material
may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or re-
distributed without per-
mission.
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NEVADA | NEAR THE OREGON LINE
Rancher sues to block lithium mine
BY SCOTT SONNER
The Associated Press
RENO, Nev. — A long-
time Nevada rancher is su-
ing U.S. regulators over the
approval of a lithium mine
on federal rangeland he says
would violate environmental
laws and undermine changes
he has made in his own live-
stock grazing practices to help
threatened fish and wildlife.
Edward Bartell and Bartell
Ranch LLC say the Bureau
of Land Management relied
“entirely upon flawed and er-
ror-laden findings” in environ-
mental assessments prepared
by the mine’s own contractor.
Bartell maintains the review
masks the real effects that he
says would lower the groundwa-
ter table, harm the federally pro-
tected Lahontan cutthroat trout
and greater sage grouse and
“transform much of our private
lands into barren desert.”
A consultant for Lithium
Nevada, a subsidiary of the
Canada-based Lithium Amer-
icas Corp., prepared “a one-
sided, deeply-flawed” analysis
of the project, according to the
lawsuit filed last week in U.S.
District Court in Reno.
“The project consultants
relied upon grossly inaccurate,
incomplete, and inadequate
data for constructing base-
lines and models purporting
to estimate impacts to water
resources” caused by ground-
water pumping associated with
the mine, it said.
See Lithium / A12
End of an empire
Former Trump casino where stars played goes out with a bang in Atlantic City
U.S. retail sales
jump 5.3%
Those $600 stimulus
checks got Americans
shopping again.
After three months
of declines, retail sales
soared a seasonally ad-
justed 5.3% in January
from the month before,
the U.S. Commerce De-
partment said Wednes-
day. It was the biggest
increase since June .
The $600 stimulus
checks, sent out at the
very end of last year,
pushed people to buy
new furniture, clothing
and appliances.
How long spending
will continue without
more stimulus checks re-
mains to be seen.
Retail sales slumped in
the last three months of
2020 as stimulus money
dried up, job growth was
nonexistent and a surge
in virus cases kept people
away from stores during
the critical holiday shop-
ping season. In fact, the
Commerce Department
said Wednesday that De-
cember’s drop was ac-
tually larger than it first
reported, revised to be
down 1% instead of a de-
crease of 0.7%.
Wholesale prices
surge 1.3%
U.S. wholesale prices
surged by a record 1.3%
in January, led by big
gains in health care and
energy prices.
The bigger-than-ex-
pected increase in the
producer price index,
which measures inflation
pressures before they
reach consumers, was
the largest one-month
gain on records that go
back to 2009, the Labor
Department reported
Wednesday. It followed
much milder inflation
readings of 0.3% in De-
cember and 0.1% in No-
vember.
The increase reflected
1.2% jump in health care
services and a 5.1% rise
in energy prices, the big-
gest gain since a 9% rise
in June.
— Bulletin wire reports
Seth Wenig/AP
A spot on the Atlantic City Boardwalk
Trump Plaza casino was imploded after
started to collapse in a wave from back to
where movie stars, athletes and rock stars
falling into such disrepair that chunks of
front until it plunged straight down in a giant
used to party — and a future president honed
the building began peeling off and crashing
cloud of dust that enveloped the beach and
his instincts for bravado — was reduced to
to the ground. A series of loud explosions
Boardwalk. Overall, it took the structure less
a pile of rubble on Wednesday. The former
around 9 a.m. rocked the building, which
than 20 seconds to implode.
Intel discriminated against older
Reebok struggles
workers in 2015 layoffs, EEOC finds to remain relevant
as Adidas gives up
MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission has
concluded that Intel discrimi-
nated against eight older work-
ers during mass layoffs in 2015,
according to an agency docu-
ment obtained by The Orego-
nian.
The commission’s finding
follows a five-year investigation
triggered by employee com-
plaints, which cited investiga-
tions by The Oregonian into
Intel’s layoff practices.
“There is reasonable cause
to believe that eight individuals
over the age of forty (40) were
laid off or otherwise separated
by Respondent (Intel) in 2015
based on their age and in vio-
lation of the” Age Discrimina-
tion in Employment Act, the
federal commission concluded.
The EEOC indicates it is work-
ing with Intel to resolve the
issues on behalf of the laid-off
workers.
The EEOC declined to com-
ment on the case , except to
note that it has not formally
sued Intel. That’s the next step
JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
The Oregonian file photo
Intel’s Ronler Acres campus is in Hillsboro.
in the commission’s enforce-
ment process.
Intel laid off nearly 1,200
U.S. workers in 2015 and cut
as many as 15,000 jobs compa-
nywide the following year, the
biggest downsizing in the com-
pany’s history. In each case,
analyses by The Oregonian
found the cuts were heavily
skewed toward older workers.
Intel denied discriminating
against older workers in either
round of layoffs and reiterated
that position Tuesday.
“Personnel decisions in our
2015 and 2016 actions were
based solely upon business
needs.
Factors such as age, race, na-
tional origin, gender, immigra-
tion status, or other personal
demographics were not part
of the process when we made
these decisions,” Intel said in a
written statement.
“The EEOC has concluded
its investigation into our 2015
action,” the company said, “and
offered to work with Intel to
address its concerns.”
See Intel / A12
Reebok, for a brief mo-
ment the kingpin of the ath-
letic footwear industry, is
now being cast off by a rival
that couldn’t turn the brand
around.
Adidas said Tuesday that
it will sell Reebok after the
hoped-for synergy between
the two brands never mate-
rialized.
“It’s a brand that lost its
purpose,” said Steve Wynne,
who headed Adidas America
from 1995 to 2000. “Reebok
produced that beautiful white
aerobics shoe that took the
market by storm.”
The brand spent the next
30 years trying to replicate
that magic, without success.
“It was kind of like an LA
Gear,” Wynne said, referring
to the 1990s brand that won
over a generation of kids with
a heel that lit up. “If you asked
people what Reebok stood
“It’s a brand that lost its
purpose. Reebok produced
that beautiful white
aerobics shoe that took
the market by storm.”
— Steve Wynne, who headed
Adidas America from 1995 to
2000
for, no one could give you an-
swer.”
It’s unclear whether the sale
will have any impact in Port-
land, home of Adidas North
America. Company officials
could not be reached for
comment.
The decline of the Reebok
brand has been spectacular.
Adidas paid $3.8 billion for
Reebok in 2006. It may get
$1.2 billion for it now, accord-
ing to anonymous investment
banking sources quoted in in-
dustry publications.
See Reebok / A12