A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021
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CRUDE OIL
$65.49 -.78
The federal govern-
ment has seized $3.6 mil-
lion from the bank account
of a Eugene company
involved in a deal to sell
$4.5 million in overpriced,
counterfeit N95 masks to
the state of Maine.
The U.S. attorney is
seeking to force the com-
pany, Med-Tech Resource
LLC, to forfeit the money
and reimburse Maine for
1.8 million fake respirators.
But the company’s CEO
already agreed to refund
the state, the Portland
Press Herald reported.
“We’ll do everything in
our power to make every-
one whole,” said Michael
Modrich, founder and
CEO of the 30-year-old
medical supply company.
The National Recall
Alert Center notified
Maine that the state had
purchased masks that
might be counterfeit,
according to a forfeiture
claim filed on Friday.
3M, which manufac-
tures the real N95 masks,
later confirmed the masks
were counterfeit. The
money was seized in
March, according to court
documents.
Shares in biotech
firm plunge
Little-known Vancou-
ver biotech company
CytoDyn lost nearly a
third of its market value
after the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration
found “ no clinical benefit”
for the firm’s purported
treatment for COVID-19.
Further, the FDA said
Monday that data the
Vancouver company had
published that purported
to show a small benefit
from CytoDyn’s Leron-
limab drug were statis-
tically insignificant. The
agency issued an unusual
public statement on the
typically confidential re-
sults , citing “substantial
public interest.”
CytoDyn’s shares fell
76 cents, or 27%, Monday
after the FDA issued its
findings. The stock which
trades over the counter,
was down another 9
cents Tuesday morning,
to $1.95. Even so, the
company still has a mar-
ket value of $1.2 billion.
The company had 19
employees at this time in
2020, when CytoDyn is-
sued its last annual report
to securities regulators.
Home construction
falls 9.5% in April
U.S. home construction
fell a sharp 9.5% in April
and economists attributed
that partially to builders
who delayed projects be-
cause of a surge in lumber
prices and other supply
constraints.
The April decline left
construction at a season-
ally adjusted annual rate
of 1.57 million units, the
Commerce Department
said Tuesday. That was
down from a rate of 1.73
million units in March,
which had been the best
showing since July 2006 at
the peak of that decade’s
housing boom. Applica-
tions for building permits,
considered a sign of future
activity, rose 0.3% in April,
suggesting that the April
dip will be temporary.
The price of lumber
alone has added $35,872
to the price of an average
single-family home, ac-
cording to the National
Association of Home
Builders. Part of those in-
creases are border taxes
imposed by the Trump
administration in a trade
dispute with Canada.
— Bulletin wire reports
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COVID-19 | Federal aid
BRIEFING
Eugene company
slammed over sale
of fake N95 masks
GOLD
$1,867.80 +.30
DATA CENTERS
Pacific Power and
Facebook partner on
renewable energy
Small-business
grants flow to
960 Oregon
restaurants
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Han Ly Hwang is one of
almost 1,000 Oregon restau-
rant owners who shared a
total of $138 million from a
Small Business Administra-
tion program spearheaded
by U.S. Rep. Earl Blume-
nauer and Oregon restaura-
teurs.
He owns Kim Jong Grillin,
a Korean barbecue restaurant
in southeast Portland.
He was among the 960 Or-
egon owners — of 38,000 na-
tionwide — who got shares
in the first round of the pro-
gram totaling $6 billion. SBA
got more than 300,000 appli-
cations for the $28.6 billion
that Congress set aside for
the program in President Joe
Biden’s pandemic recovery
plan. The applications totaled
$69 billion.
Still, after Blumenauer
spent nearly a year craft-
ing the program with help
Submitted image, file
An overview of Facebook’s Prineville data center campus provided in March.
from Portland restaurateurs
— and barely 60 days after
Biden signed the $1.9 trillion
American Rescue Plan into
law — Hwang got help from
the Restaurant Revitalization
Fund. The average grant was
$143,000.
“This is a complete game -
changer. For someone like
myself, being a Korean
American, this money gives
me more of an opportunity
to put my culture first and
to really share it through
the food,” Hwang said Mon-
day during a conference call
sponsored by Blumenauer.
“This is far from over, but
how easy and smooth (Con-
gress and SBA) transitioned
this program from being in
writing to actually being im-
plemented is jaw-dropping.
The help means the world
to us. It means that we’re not
alone, and we really appreci-
ate that.”
See Restaurants / A12
BY SUZANNE ROIG • The Bulletin
F
acebook’s Prineville Data Center is being fueled by a
Oregon hiring stalls
as recovery slows
partnership with Pacific Power support, which fits the
mission of building and operating sustainable centers in the
United States.
Of the 55 new solar and wind
projects Facebook supports across
18 states, 1,033 megawatts are from
projects located in Oregon, Mon-
tana and Utah, including two solar
projects generating 100 megawatts
in Crook County, according to a
Facebook economic impact report
released Tuesday.
“We are proud that our com-
mitment to renewable energy has
brought additional investment and
benefits to communities in the U.S.,
including Central Oregon,” said
Urvi Parekh, head of renewable en-
ergy at Facebook. “We appreciate
the partnership of numerous util-
ities, developers and community
members.
“It is clear that renewable energy
is not only good for the environment
but creates opportunities for busi-
nesses, people and communities.”
In March, the social media giant
announced it would add two new
buildings to its campus in Prineville
that will make it the largest in its
fleet of data centers in the United
States.
The two new buildings will add
900,000 square feet to the campus,
expanding the 11-building cam-
pus to 4.6 million square feet or
the equivalent to nearly 80 football
fields.
“We applaud the data centers for
their commitment to energy ef-
ficiency and the use of renewable
energy,” Prineville City Manager
Steve Forrester said in an email.
“Their commitment has resulted in
Crook County and Prineville hav-
ing the largest solar plant farms in
Oregon.”
Prineville has a more robust
power infrastructure in place to-
day only because of the presence
of data centers, Forrester said. The
community also benefits. More
than 500 high-paying jobs have
been created as a direct result of
the data center, creating the most
economic stability seen in Crook
County since the height of the tim-
ber industry after World War II,
he said.
“The data centers replaced lost
jobs with new industries like tech
and construction and driven our
economy when we needed it most,”
he said.
Data centers are energy-inten-
sive buildings, using large amounts
of electricity to power servers and
cooling equipment, according to
the report.
Generally, they’re built in commu-
nities with low land costs, low and
reliable energy and access to water.
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Oregon added just 2,200
jobs in April — one-tenth as
many as in March. That’s a
worrying sign for the state’s
economic outlook and par-
allels a national hiring slow-
down.
Oregon’s unemployment
rate remained steady at 6.0%,
according to data released
Tuesday from the Oregon
Employment Department.
That’s unchanged from
March, making April the first
month since the pandemic’s
outset that the state’s jobless
rate didn’t improve. The na-
tional jobless rate was 6.1%
last month.
Overall, there are 117,400
fewer jobs in Oregon than in
the month before the pan-
demic hit, a 6% decline.
Government jobs posted
the biggest gains in March, at
2,300, which economists said
reflected school re openings.
Leisure and hospitality added
2,000 jobs, the next-largest
gains. Manufacturing, ware-
housing and retail all lost
hundreds of jobs last month.
Economists across the
country are puzzling over
the hiring slowdown. A
computer- chip shortage has
See Energy / A12
cooled manufacturing by
limiting access to key com-
ponents. Some workers may
be cautious about returning
to their jobs during the pan-
demic, and many parents are
unable to work while schools
are closed or operating on se-
verely reduced schedules.
Employers, though, say
some workers are staying
away because they can make
more from unemployment
benefits than they can at cer-
tain low-wage jobs. In Or-
egon, the value of the aver-
age weekly jobless benefit is
$16.75 an hour, including a
$300 federal bonus paid each
week through Labor Day.
That’s above the minimum
wage, which ranges from
$11.50 to $13.50 an hour, de-
pending on region. But it’s
well below the roughly $24 an
hour that full-time workers
average in Oregon.
Regardless of the reason,
Tuesday’s jobs numbers in-
dicate a slowdown in Or-
egon’s economic recovery.
Economists are divided over
whether it’s a signal of more
trouble ahead, or if it’s a brief
pause ahead of the broad re-
opening now underway as
COVID-19 vaccines become
prevalent.
Enchanted Forest delays reopening after threats
Amusement park requires masks if proof of vaccination is not given
BY JAMIE HALE
The Oregonian
On Monday afternoon, En-
chanted Forest announced on
social media that it would fi-
nally be reopening to the pub-
lic, after the coronavirus pan-
demic, financial woes and an
ice storm all devastated the be-
loved Oregon amusement park
over the last year.
But as word of the reopen-
ing plans got out, some fans
responded with threats and
angry comments, and own-
ers walked back the reopening
plan Tuesday morning.
Park co-manager Susan
Vaslev said most people
seemed to be upset about
the requirement to wear face
masks inside the park, a state
requirement, and Enchanted
Forest’s decision to allow peo-
ple to go without masks pro-
vided they show a vaccination
card upon entry. On Tuesday,
the state released new guid-
ance: Businesses no longer
have to require masks, but vis-
itors must prove they’re fully
vaccinated
“We weighed it all out and
decided that we cannot open
safely,” Vaslev said. “Until we
reach the point where we all
agree how this transition is
going to take place between
mask, unmasked, vaccinated,
unvaccinated and every-
body can be together safely
and commingle — that has
to happen before we can re-
open.”
See Park/ A12
Beth Nakamura/Oregonian file
Enchanted Forest had initially planned to reopen this weekend.