A7
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021
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BRIEFING
COVID-19 in Oregon
Powell’s to reopen
more of its store
Stimulus could mean higher tax bill
Powell’s Books said
Thursday that it will ex-
pand operations at its
flagship Portland store
Friday, reopening the Pur-
ple and Red Rooms on
the store’s second floor to
public browsing.
“Since the holidays, we
have continued our focus
on expanding store op-
erations. And so, it is with
great excitement that
we’re taking this next step
towards fully reopening
our flagship store loca-
tion. We can’t wait to see
customers wandering the
aisles once again in our
Purple and Red Rooms,”
Powell’s Books owner and
president Emily Powell
said in the statement.
The Purple and Red
Rooms contain titles on
history, health, politics,
religion, games, business,
psychology, languages,
travel and more.
The third-level Pearl
Room, which includes
the store’s author events
space, remains closed.
Powell’s hasn’t been
fully open since March. It
reopened its first floor in
August in what it called
an “experiment.”
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Federal
stimulus payments last year
during the COVID pandemic
will generate $112 million in
additional Oregon taxes be-
cause of a quirk in state tax law
and mean many people are on
the hook for a higher tax bill.
The Oregonian reports the
taxes will affect 877,000 Ore-
gonian taxpayers, about half
of all those who received fed-
eral stimulus payments in 2020
and early in 2021. They would
owe an average of about $130
apiece from just the first stim-
ulus payments in the spring;
many lower income workers
would owe $100 or more.
Lawmakers from both par-
ties say that’s unfair, and the
Legislature is examining a fix
that would wipe out the higher
tax bill. But with the April tax
filing date approaching it’s not
clear there’s consensus to make
a change.
Last March, Congress autho-
rized $1,200 in stimulus checks
for adults and an additional
$500 for children, with the
amount declining for wealth-
ier taxpayers. A second round
authorized in December, and
paid early in 2021, paid $600
A mister no more
Hasbro removes gender from its Mr. Potato Head brand
BY JOSEPH PISANI • The Associated Press
NEW YORK —
H
asbro created confusion on Thursday when it removed the gender from its Mr. Potato
Head brand, but not from the actual toy. The company, which has been making the
potato-shaped plastic toy for nearly 70 years, announced Thursday morning that it was
dropping Mr. from the brand in an effort to make sure “all feel welcome in the Potato Head world.”
That set off a social media frenzy over the beloved toy.
US jobless claims
fall to 730K
The number of Amer-
icans seeking unemploy-
ment benefits fell sharply
last week in a sign that
layoffs may have eased,
though applications for
aid remain at a historically
high level.
Jobless claims declined
by 111,000 from the pre-
vious week to a season-
ally adjusted 730,000, the
Labor Department said
Thursday. It is the lowest
figure since late Novem-
ber and the sharpest one-
week decline since Au-
gust. Still, before the virus
erupted in the United
States in March, weekly
applications for unem-
ployment benefits had
never topped 700,000.
The latest figures co-
incide with a weakened
job market that has made
scant progress in the past
three months. Hiring
averaged just 29,000 a
month from November
through January. Though
the unemployment rate
was 6.3% in January, a
broader measure that in-
cludes people who have
given up on their job
searches is closer to 10%.
Twitter to let users
charge to see
premium posts
Twitter announced
a new feature Thursday
called “Super Follows,”
which will let users
charge for extra, exclu-
sive material not shown
to their regular followers
including subscriber-only
newsletters, videos, deals
and discounts.
Users would pay a
monthly subscription fee
to access the extra con-
tent. Twitter did not detail
what percentage of the
revenue it would share
with celebrities and oth-
ers who sign up paying
subscribers.
Super Follows is not
available yet but Twitter
says it will have “more
to share” in the coming
months. Another coming
product, “Revue,” will let
people publish paid or
free newsletters to their
audience. There’s also
“Twitter Spaces,” a Club-
house competitor that
lets users participate in
audio chats. It is currently
in private beta testing,
which means it’s not yet
available to the general
Twitter audience.
— Bulletin wire reports
Later Thursday afternoon, Has-
bro clarified in a tweet that the Mr.
and Mrs. Potato Head characters
will still exist, names and all, but the
branding on the box will say “Potato
Head.”
“While it was announced today that the
POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are
dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm
that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t go-
ing anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS.
POTATO HEAD,” the company tweeted.
Many toymakers have been updating their
classic brands , hoping to relate to today’s kids
and reflect more modern families.
“It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski, edi-
tor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider.
“But kids like
to see themselves in
the toys they are playing
with.”
Barbie, for example, has tried
to shed its blonde image and
now comes in multiple skin tones and body
shapes. The Thomas the Tank Engine toy
line added more girl characters. And Ameri-
can Girl is now selling a boy doll.
Dropping the “Mr.” from its brand name
could encourage other companies to stop as-
signing genders to its toys, a trend that has al-
ready been happening, said Mierzejewski.
See Potato Head / A8
Hasbro, the
company that
makes the pota-
to-shaped plas-
tic toy, is giving
the brand a new
gender-neu-
tral name: Po-
tato Head. The
change will ap-
pear on boxes
this year.
Hasbro via AP
per adult and another $600
per child — again, with the to-
tals declining in more affluent
households.
The stimulus payments
were structured as a tax rebate,
which means they aren’t subject
to federal or state income taxes.
See Tax bill / A8
Biden
directive
expands
jobless aid
BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Unem-
ployed Americans who have
turned down job offers because
they feared their prospective
employers weren’t providing
sufficient protection from the
coronavirus would qualify for
jobless aid under a directive
the Labor Department issued
Thursday.
The measure would also
expand a federal unemploy-
ment-benefits program, estab-
lished in the spring economic
relief package, to cover workers
who have lost hours or who
were laid off because of the
pandemic. It would also cover
school employees who lose
jobs or work hours because of
school closings.
The federal program, known
as Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance, made the self-em-
ployed and gig workers eligible
for jobless aid for the first time.
“Until now, unemployment
insurance benefits during the
pandemic have been too scat-
tered and too uncertain,” said
Patricia Smith, senior adviser
to the labor secretary. “That
begins to change today, with
many more workers now eligi-
ble for unemployment insur-
ance benefits.”
The directive stems from an
executive order President Joe
Biden issued last month. The
White House said it sought
to “ensure that unemployed
Americans no longer have to
choose between paying their
bills and keeping themselves
and their families safe from
COVID-19 by clarifying that
workers who refuse unsafe
working conditions can still
receive unemployment insur-
ance.”
Speaking to reporters, de-
partment officials declined to
estimate how many Americans
would now become newly eli-
gible for jobless benefits.
See Jobless / A8
Legislation seeks to boost Oregon film industry
BY KEVIN HARDEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
New legislation could give
Oregon’s pandemic-battered
film industry a boost.
House Bill 3244, introduced
Tuesday, would increase the
maximum annual tax credit for
certified film productions from
$14 million to $20 million.
That jump could give the state
a leg up in hot competition for
film projects.
“It’s huge for us,” said Tim
Williams, executive director of
Oregon Film, the state agency
that helps attract movie proj-
ects to Oregon. “Every time
we get an increase like that we
see a proportionate increase in
spending across the state.”
Oregon’s film and video tax
credit has been around since
Beverly Corbell/Estacada News/Oregon Capital Insider
Crews in Estacada for the filming of “The Librarians” for TNT take a
break before shooting a scene on Broadway Street.
2005, when it was just $750,000
a year. Each legislative session
the credit has gone up, leading
to more production companies
taking a harder look at Oregon,
Williams said.
“Every year we use up our
$14 million and could really
use at last $7 million or $8 mil-
lion more,” he said.
Oregon’s film incentive pro-
grams are rebates distributed
to film production companies
that spend money in the state
on things like hiring crews, ca-
terers or support staff.
Between 2017 and 2018,
three dozen movie projects
spent about $184 million in the
state, providing about 6,000
jobs. From 2015 to 2017, about
four dozen projects spent more
than $300 million in the state.
Among those were Dean
Devlin’s Electric Entertainment
shows “Leverage,” four sea-
sons, spending $120 million,
and “The Librarians,” four sea-
sons, spending $106 million.
NBC’s “Grimm” filmed in the
Portland area for six seasons,
spending more than $200 mil-
lion. IFC’s “Portlandia” turned
the Rose City into a wacky
backdrop for eight seasons,
spending about $35 million.
Oregon has attracted doz-
ens of film projects during the
past couple of decades, mostly
because it was a short plane
ride from Los Angeles and be-
cause of the state’s thriving film
production industry. Recent
movies filmed here include
“A Stone in the Water,” filmed
near Bend; “First Cow,” filmed
in Portland and Elkton; “The
Last Blockbuster,” filmed in
Bend; “Timmy Failure,” filmed
in Portland; “Sophie Jones,”
filmed on the North Coast and
in Portland; and “One Dead
Dog,” filmed in Black Butte
and Portland.