A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021
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BRIEFING
Boeing says to
ground some 777s
Boeing has recom-
mended that airlines
ground all 777s with the
type of engine that blew
apart after takeoff from
Denver this weekend,
and most carriers that fly
those planes said they
would temporarily pull
them from service.
The U.S. Federal Avi-
ation Administration or-
dered United Airlines to
step up inspections after
one of its flights made
an emergency landing
Saturday at Denver Inter-
national Airport as pieces
of the casing of the en-
gine, a Pratt & Whitney
PW4000, rained down
on suburban neighbor-
hoods. None of the 231
passengers or 10 crew
were hurt, and the flight
landed safely, authorities
said. United is among
the carriers that has
grounded the planes.
FAA Administrator
Steve Dickson said in a
statement Sunday that
based on an initial review
of safety data, inspectors
“concluded that the in-
spection interval should
be stepped up for the
hollow fan blades that
are unique to this model
of engine, used solely on
Boeing 777 airplanes.”
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Biden boosts pandemic lending
to nation’s smallest businesses
BY ZEKE MILLER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Joe Biden announced
changes Monday to target
more federal pandemic as-
sistance to the nation’s small-
est businesses and ventures
owned by women and people
of color.
Biden says a lot of these
mom and pop businesses
“got muscled out of the way”
by larger businesses seeking
federal money in the early
days of the pandemic. He
said changes taking effect
Wednesday will provide long
overdue aid to these smaller
enterprises that he says
are being “crushed” by the
pandemic- driven economic
downturn.
“America’s small businesses
are hurting, hurting badly and
they need help now,” Biden
said.
Under the pandemic-era
Paycheck Protection Pro-
gram, the administration is
establishing a two-week win-
dow, starting Wednesday, in
which only businesses with
fewer than 20 employees
— the overwhelming ma-
jority of small businesses —
can apply for the forgivable
loans.
Biden’s team is also carving
out $1 billion to direct toward
sole proprietors, such as home
contractors and beauticians,
the majority of which are
owned by women and people
of color.
Lockdown in
Other efforts will remove
a prohibition on lending
to a company with at least
20% ownership by a per-
son arrested or convicted
for a nonfraud felony in the
prior year, as well as allow-
ing those behind on their
federal student loans to seek
relief through the program.
The administration is also
clarifying that noncitizen le-
gal residents can apply to the
program.
See Lending / A13
luxury
Portland’s Apple
store reopens
Apple’s downtown
Portland store reopened
Monday for the first time
since May, a signal of pos-
sible revival in the city’s
core.
The store closed in
March at the outset of
the pandemic and then
reopened briefly two
months later. On May 31,
though, Apple’s glass-
fronted store was among
several downtown looted
amid raucous protests
spurred by the Minne-
apolis police killing of
George Floyd.
Apple covered its bro-
ken windows with black
plywood, which artists
promptly repurposed as
a canvas for a civil rights
mural that featured Floyd
and other victims of po-
lice violence. The mural
became a national sym-
bol amid last summer’s
civil rights protests. Last
month, though, the com-
pany donated the mural
to Portland civil rights
group Don’t Shoot PDX.
Data of Fred Meyer
pharmacies hacked
Kroger Co. says per-
sonal data, including
Social Security numbers
of some of its pharmacy
and clinic customers, may
have been stolen in the
hack of a third-party ven-
dor’s file-transfer service.
The Cincinnati-based
grocery and pharmacy
chain, which also owns
Fred Meyer, said in a
statement Friday that
it believes less than 1%
of its customers were
affected — specifically
some using its Health
and Money Services —
as well as some current
and former employees
because a number of per-
sonnel records were ap-
parently viewed.
It says it is notifying
those potentially im-
pacted, offering free cred-
it-monitoring.
Kroger said the breach
did not affect Kroger
stores’ IT systems or gro-
cery store systems or data
and there has so far been
no indication of fraud
involving accessed per-
sonal data.
— Bulletin wire reports
Auberge Resorts Collection via TNS
Wintertime pandemic fatigue is driving people to book multi-month stays at places like Chileno Bay Resort & Residences in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Remote workers flee to $70,000-a-month resorts while awaiting vaccines
BY JEN MURPHY • Bloomberg News
U
nlike the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns,
which sent people on road trips and to second
homes, the second wave has globally triggered a
desire for more permanent, warmer, far-flung escapes.
In the U.K. and Europe, the wealthy have flown to
such warmer climates as Dubai, the Maldives and
Spain to escape winter lockdown, says Justin Huxter,
founder of U.K.-based Cartology Travel. Americans
have more options for tropical bunkers: Hawaii has
eased its travel restrictions and borders are open in
Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and many parts of the Ca-
ribbean. After all, what good is a second home at Lake
Tahoe or Napa, California, when nearby ski lifts, winer-
ies and restaurants are periodically inaccessible, as they
were for much of December and January?
“People with lockdown fatigue have realized they
can continue life in places with a lot less stress and a lot
more room to breathe,” says Jack Ezon, founder of Em-
bark Beyond. He’s seeing East Coast clients flock to lux-
ury hotels and resorts in Florida, South Carolina, and
Turks and Caicos Islands while West Coast clients flee
to Arizona and Puerto Vallarta and Cabo in Mexico—
anywhere with equally good weather and Wi-Fi.
The average cost, he says, is $70,000 a month, with
most clients booking two- to four-month stays.
See Remote / A13
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COVID-19
Women are
dropping
out of the
Oregon
workforce
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
From the start, the corona-
virus recession has been espe-
cially hard on women.
Service industries — restau-
rants, hotels, spas and salons
— were among the hardest hit
by coronavirus shutdowns and
health restrictions. Those low-
wage sectors are where women
are overrepresented, along with
Blacks and Latinos.
As a result, each of those
groups were far more likely to
be unemployed last year. The
gap was particularly striking for
women. In September, for ex-
ample, the unemployment rate
for Oregon women was 9.6%
compared to 6.7% for men.
That gap entirely evaporated
over the next few months —
the jobless rate was 6.4% for
both women and men in De-
cember. That’s partly because
the unemployment rate ticked
up for men, and partly because
women are dropping out of the
job market altogether, meaning
they’re no longer counted as
unemployed.
Both men and women are
leaving the workforce, frus-
trated by bleak job prospects
or pulled into other responsi-
bilities, such as child care. But
women are leaving at a much
faster rate.
Just under 52% of Oregon
women were working last year,
according to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, down 5.3%
(2.9 percentage points) from
2019.
That figure underscores how
trying the recession has been
for families trying to stretch
their budgets, and their time,
as the pandemic increases their
burdens.
“Parents (particularly
mothers) have disproportion-
ately left the labor force,” Gail
Krumenauer, economist with
the Oregon Employment De-
partment, wrote in an email.
And she noted that women
typically make less than men
— 81.5% of what men earn, in
Oregon, according to the latest
federal data — and so if cou-
ples need to choose which par-
ent stops working to care for
kids then the mom may end up
taking on that work.
“Often that labor of care-
giving falls disproportionately
on the shoulders of women,”
Andrea Paluso, executive di-
rector of Family Forward Or-
egon, told The Oregonian in
October.
“There were a lot of women
who were in and out of the
workforce before COVID be-
cause of their caregiving re-
sponsibilities,” she said. “They
just have even fewer resources
to manage those responsibili-
ties now.”
See Workforce / A13
Oregon farmer seeks $2 million for herbicide drift
BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
An Oregon farmer alleges herbicide drift damaged his blueberry bushes.
An Oregon blueberry
grower is seeking $2 million in
damages from alleged herbi-
cide drift from a neighboring
property owned by a major
California-based agriculture
company.
William Vandehey of Corne-
lius has filed a lawsuit alleging
that an employee of Munger
Bros. of Delano, California,
sprayed glyphosate on an ad-
jacent field during sustained
winds of up to 20 mph in May
2020.
Drift from the spray oper-
ation caused “severe and long
lasting damage” to Vandehey’s
blueberry bushes, which lost
at least half their crop during
last year’s growing season, the
complaint said.
Vandehey alleges that a rep-
resentative of Munger Bros.
admitted to using glyphosate
to an investigator from the Or-
egon Department of Agricul-
ture but “misrepresented and
falsified” the spray operation’s
“extent and duration” to cover
up the damage.
Apart from the direct crop
losses suffered last year, the
herbicide damage is expected
to reduce Vandehey’s blueberry
yields for 3 to 6 years, the com-
plaint said.
The complaint accuses
Munger Bros. of trespass and
negligence that caused nearly $1
million in lost profits, income
and other financial damages.
See Drift / A13