A7
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2021
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BRIEFING
COVID-19 | Oregon Worker Relief Fund
US jobless claims
tick up to 745,000
$10M set for immigrant-owned businesses
The number of Amer-
icans applying for un-
employment benefits
edged higher last week to
745,000, a sign that many
employers continue to
cut jobs despite a drop in
confirmed viral infections
and evidence that the
overall economy is im-
proving.
Thursday’s report
from the Labor Depart-
ment showed that job-
less claims rose by 9,000
from the previous week.
Though the pace of lay-
offs has eased since the
year began, they remain
high by historical stan-
dards. Before the virus
flattened the U.S. econ-
omy a year ago, applica-
tions for unemployment
aid had never topped
700,000 in any week,
even during the Great Re-
cession.
All told, 4.3 million
Americans are receiv-
ing traditional state un-
employment benefits.
Counting supplemental
federal unemployment
programs that were es-
tablished to soften the
economic damage from
the virus, an estimated
18 million people are col-
lecting some form of job-
less aid.
Copyright 2021 The As-
sociated Press. All rights
reserved. This material
may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or re-
distributed without per-
mission.
JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
A state fund set up last year to help
workers from immigrant communities
will distribute $10 million to immi-
grant-owned small businesses across
Oregon.
Organizers of the Oregon Worker
Relief Fund announced Thursday that
they had established a new program,
the Oregon Small Enterprise Fund, to
support small-business owners who
have been impacted by the coronavirus
pandemic but have been unable to se-
cure aid through federal programs.
The Oregon Legislature’s Emergency
Board allocated $46 million in January
to set up the fund and provide support
to the Oregon Worker Relief Fund.
Qualifying small-business owners
can receive grants between $7,000 and
$25,000 through the new program.
Qualifying small-business owners
can receive grants between $7,000
and $25,000 through the new
program.
To be eligible, businesses must have
experienced a decline in revenue due to
the pandemic, be actively operating in
Oregon and be at least partially owned
by someone who uses an Individual
Taxpayer Identification Number or
equivalent to file their taxes. The Inter-
nal Revenue Service issues those num-
bers to people who don’t have Social Se-
curity numbers.
Businesses that received funds from
the federal government’s Paycheck Pro-
tection Program will not be eligible for
the state-backed grants.
OREGON | WILDFIRE
PRICE-GOUGING
RAISING
RADICCHIO
Photos: Shawn Linehan/Culinary Breeding Network/capitalpress.com
Radicchio is the focus of a new effort to spark interest in the vegetable from farmers, chefs and consumers.
Pacific Northwest Radicchio Association hopes to increase vegetable’s popularity
BY MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Siri Erickson-Brown first fell in love with ra-
dicchio while she and her husband were work-
ing on farms in Europe in the early 2000s.
They ate a lot of the red winter vegetable
while in Italy, where it is commonly grown.
Erickson-Brown was intrigued.
“What is this weird vegetable that every-
body says is so hard to grow?” she recalled
wondering.
Radicchio is a leafy chicory, often used to
add color to salads.
And, by all accounts, radicchio is an acquired
taste. It’s bitter, which means customers need
some education and recipe examples from chefs,
said Laura Lewis, who runs Washington State
University’s Food Systems Program.
“You may not necessarily want to have a
straight-up radicchio salad,” Lewis said. “But
there are some beautiful radicchio salads that
you mix with things like citrus.”
Erickson-Brown compares radicchio to a
hoppy beer, dark chocolate or coffee — the
taste is hated by kids but loved by adults.
See Radicchio / A8
— Bulletin wire reports
Four Oregon hotels will pay
$105,600 in penalties and re-
imburse at least 100 custom-
ers to settle allegations of price
gouging during September’s
wildfires.
The fires burned more than
1 million acres and forced
thousands of Oregonians from
their homes, many of whom
fled to hotels that had been
nearly empty because of the
pandemic. Some people re-
ported sharply higher hotel
prices, though, and Gov. Kate
Brown issued a directive to
crack down on price gouging.
Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum said Thursday that
four hotels have agreed to set-
tle price-gouging allegations by
paying financial penalties:
• Capital Inn & Suites (Sa-
lem): The Department of Jus-
tice says this hotel typically
charged $60 to $80 a night for
rooms but was charging as
much as $146 during the wild-
fires.
Capital Inn has already re-
funded $1,342 to customers
during the wildfire and has
agreed to reimburse anyone
else who paid more than $92 a
night during the wildfires. The
hotel will also pay a $38,000
penalty to the state.
• Le Chateau Inn (Florence):
The hotel typically charged
$89 to $125 nightly, according
to the department, but raised
rates more than 15% for at least
18 rooms during the wildfires.
See Hotels / A8
US mortgage rates
steady to higher
U.S. long-term mort-
gage rates were steady to
higher this week, as the
benchmark 30-year loan
breached the 3% mark
for the first time since
July 2020. Rates remain
near historic lows as the
economy strains toward
recovery in the pandem-
ic’s wake.
Mortgage buyer Fred-
die Mac reported Thurs-
day that the average rate
on the 30-year fixed-rate
home loan rose to 3.02%
from 2.97% last week. By
contrast, the benchmark
rate stood at 3.29% a year
ago.
While economists ex-
pect modest increases in
home-loan rates this year,
they likely will remain low
while the Federal Reserve
keeps interest rates near
zero until the economy
recovers.
4 hotels
will pay
$105,600
to settle
claims
MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
US productivity
down 4.2%s
U.S. productivity fell
at an annual rate of 4.2%
in the fourth quarter, the
largest quarterly decline
in nearly four decades.
The revised figure re-
leased Thursday by the
Labor Department was
slightly smaller than the
4.7% decline estimated a
month ago. But it was still
the biggest drop since
the second quarter of
1981, when productivity
fell at a rate of 5.1%.
Labor costs rose at
a 6% rate in the fourth
quarter, slightly lower
than the 6.8% first esti-
mated.
Productivity is the
amount of output per
hour of work. The revi-
sions reflected the fact
that the government
made changes to its es-
timate of gross domestic
product, the country’s
total output of goods
and services, to show an
increase of 4.1% at an
annual rate in the fourth
quarter, slightly higher
than its initial estimate of
4% growth.
See Immigrants / A8
Company behind Jordan Cove downgrades project
VICKIE ALDOUS
Mail Tribune (Medford)
The Canadian company pro-
posing a natural gas pipeline
and export facility in Southern
Oregon has downgraded the fi-
nancial value of the project af-
ter announcing it can’t predict
when it might be built.
Pembina reported a $1.6 bil-
lion downgrade for the South-
ern Oregon project, known as
Jordan Cove, plus two other
energy projects.
“We believe the time for
these projects may come; how-
ever, we can sadly no longer
predict with certainty when
that time will be and hence
were compelled to reflect their
impairments in our 2020 fi-
nancial statements through
a non-cash charge,” Pembina
said recently in a press release
OPB file photo
A view of Coos Bay from a spot where the Jordan Cove LNG terminal
would be be excavated, if approved by regulators.
about its fourth quarter and
2020 financial results.
The company reported a
$1.2 billion loss for the quar-
ter and a $316 million loss for
2020.
Pembina said it made the ac-
counting change about Jordan
Cove’s value in light of “current
regulatory and political uncer-
tainty.”
The company wants to build
a 229-mile underground pipe-
line through Klamath, Jackson,
Douglas and Coos counties
to a proposed export terminal
near Coos Bay. Canadian and
American natural gas would
ship overseas to Asian markets.
Pembina has faced a series of
regulatory setbacks, including
the Oregon Department of En-
vironmental Quality’s denial of
a Clean Water Act permit for
the project.
Allie Rosenbluth of Rogue
Climate said there is no viable
path forward for the project,
and Pembina should throw in
the towel on a proposal that
has faced years of opposition.
She said opponents were
excited to see Pembina’s an-
nouncement that the project’s
future is uncertain.
“It’s the result of so many
wins we’ve seen in the last
year,” Rosenbluth said of regu-
latory setbacks for the project.
“The community will continue
to challenge it until it is truly
canceled.”
Opponents say the proj-
ect would damage rivers and
streams, cause pollution, con-
tribute to climate change by
promoting the burning of fossil
fuels, and intrude on the rights
of landowners along the pro-
posed pipeline route.
Pembina has argued the $10
billion project would pump
money into Oregon’s economy,
and says that shipping more
natural gas to Asia would re-
duce reliance on coal, which
produces more greenhouse
gas emissions than natural gas.
The company says it has se-
cured agreements to use land
from most property owners
along the majority of the route.