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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2021)
A8 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021 p DOW 34,084.15 +188.11 p bendbulletin.com/business NASDAQ 13,535.74 +236.00 p S&P 500 4,159.12 +43.44 q 30-YR T-BOND 2.34% -.06 q CRUDE OIL $61.95 -1.41 p GOLD $1,881.80 +.50 p SILVER $28.05 +.04 p EURO $1.2219 +.0051 BRIEFING Oregon Health Authority Brown signs rental grace period bill New masks guidance pleases almost no one Oregon tenants who have fallen behind on their rent during the coro- navirus pandemic won’t have to make up their debt until next February. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 282 into law Thursday, ex- tending the state’s grace period for residential tenants to repay missed rent until Feb. 28, 2022. The grace period applies to overdue rent accumu- lated between April 2020 and June 2021. The law ensures that struggling renters won’t have to immediately re- pay potentially thousands of dollars in overdue rent when the state’s morato- rium on evictions expire at the end of June. Under the new law, landlords will also be barred from reporting a tenant’s nonpayment of rent during the pandemic period to consumer credit agencies or from consid- ering missed payments during the COVID-era when evaluating a pro- spective tenant. BY JAMIE GOLDBERG The Oregonian Oregon was left scrambling last week after the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion unexpectedly announced that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks or physically distance in most circumstances. The Oregon Health Au- thority responded to the an- nouncement by trying to walk a fine line, issuing new guid- ance Tuesday that allows peo- ple to go maskless outside and gives businesses the option to either continue requiring masks or allow fully vacci- nated customers that show proof of inoculation to forgo masks indoors. The approach appears to be unique among states reacting to the federal guidelines. But by neither fully lifting nor retaining mask mandates, and instead requiring busi- nesses and other institutions to check vaccinations cards, Oregon has managed to please essentially no one. That’s what a panel of some of the state’s largest business organizations and worker groups told state lawmakers during a House COVID-19 subcommittee hearing Wednesday. “To ask our employees to enforce a mask mandate under these new conditions or verify vaccine status at the door will further escalate confrontations in our communities and is simply not realistic,” said Amanda Dalton, president of the Northwest Grocery Asso- ciation, which represents 300 chain and community gro- cers across Oregon. “We’re not aware of any other state to- day taking the card-check ap- proach to the CDC guidance.” See Mask rules / A9 Jobless claims fall by nearly 1 million Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week — the latest encouraging sign for the rebounding U.S. economy . The number of Amer- icans seeking unem- ployment aid fell last week to 444,000, a new pandemic low, the La- bor Department said Thursday. Jobless claims have now dropped in five of the past six weeks, a sign that the economy keeps strengthening as consumers spend freely again, viral infections drop and business restric- tions ease. About 16 million peo- ple were receiving unem- ployment benefits during the week ending May 1, the latest period for which data is available, the gov- ernment said Thursday. That is down from 16.9 million in the previous week, and it suggests that some Americans who had been receiving aid have found jobs. . U.S. supports a global tax rate The U.S. Treasury De- partment said Thursday that it supports a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15% — be- low the 21% minimum it has been seeking to impose on the foreign profits of U.S.-based com- panies. The offer comes as the Organization for Eco- nomic Cooperation and Development and the Group of 20 major econ- omies seek an agreement on a minimum corporate tax rate. It is part of an ef- fort to end what Treasury calls “a race to the bottom’’ as countries compete with each other to cut corporate tax rates and lure multinational com- panies. The economic coop- eration organization esti- mates that governments lose up to $240 billion a year to companies that shift earnings among countries to lower their tax bills. Competition to cut cor- porate tax rates has been “undermining the United States’ and other coun- tries’ ability to raise the revenue needed to make critical investments,’’ Trea- sury said in a statement, adding that its proposal had been received posi- tively by other countries. — Bulletin wire reports IT’S A BIRD. IT’S A PLANE. IT’S A VACCINE SHIPMENT? Drone companies are preparing to deliver vaccines in rural U.S. BY DALVIN BROWN The Washington Post W hile more than one-third of Amer- icans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there are still millions of people who have yet to receive a single dose. Reasons for not getting a shot vary — some don’t want one at all, while others say they’ll wait a bit longer to decide. And then, there are people who want to get vaccinated but are in too remote of an area to get to a typical vaccination site. They include people working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico or living in rural areas miles from the nearest doctor’s office or pharmacy. Drone companies are positioning themselves to deliver refrigerated medical products to those people. If the plans don’t pan out in time to com- bat the coronavirus crisis, then they hope to be set up to assist swiftly in the world’s next big health scare. Saskatoon, Canada-based Draganfly and San Francisco-based Volansi are among the firms operating drones in the United States right now Daimler Truck says batteries and hydrogen are the future Volansi’s drones are delivering medical supplies and vaccines in Wilson, North Carolina. Volansi illustration via Washington Post with medical delivery partnerships. Draganfly has been around since the 1990s and will begin test flights with coronavirus vac- cines in Texas next month with Coldchain Tech- nology Services, a health care supply chain man- agement company. Volansi, founded in 2015, has been running drones carrying other refrigerated medicines and vaccines with Merck in North Carolina since October. Drones tend to be faster and cheaper at han- dling smaller payloads to remote locations than either trucks or helicopters, according to Wayne Williams, executive director at Coldchain, which is headquartered in Spring Branch, Texas. See Drones / A9 State to start replacing 1990s unemployment computer system Associated Press BY DAVID MCHUGH Associated Press FRANKFURT, Germany — The world’s larg- est truck and bus maker is charting an ambitious zero-emission future and says it’s not that far off — despite higher costs and the current lack of support infrastructure. Daimler AG’s truck division says it plans to shift most of its vehicle development resources to zero-emission vehicles by 2025 and predicts that battery and hydrogen-powered trucks could be competitive with diesels on cost later this de- cade. Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum on Thurs- day underlined the company’s big plans for hy- drogen, even though the technology is not as close to practical use as batteries and vehicle costs remain high. Daimler Truck, with brands including Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz, outlined its strategy for a wide-ranging transition away from internal combustion vehicles after it is spun off as an independent company later this year from Daimler AG. The restructuring would create separate companies for the truck business and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz luxury car division. The headquarters of Daimler Truck North America is in Portland, and the company also has a research facility at Madras Airport. See Daimler / A9 Daimler Global Communications Trucks & Buses Daimler Truck AG and CATL expand their global partnership. PORTLAND — The Oregon Employment De- partment says in July it will start upgrading the ob- solete computer system that pays jobless benefits. That would end a 12-year delay that caused a catastrophic breakdown in distributing aid during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, The Oregonian reported. Oregon’s new system won’t be in place until 2024. Oregon was among the slowest states in the nation at paying jobless benefits during the pan- demic, with laid-off workers frequently waiting weeks or months for aid. The employment department was hindered by a rigid computer system from the 1990s, which was unable to adapt to added benefits Congress added last year. The huge volume of claims — Oregon has paid out more than $9 billion during the pandemic — meant months of delays. Oregon received $86 million in federal aid to upgrade its technology in 2009, but administrative failures in the employment department stopped the work from happening. The state still has al- most all the money the federal government allo- cated for the upgrade. The employment department didn’t say Wednesday how much it expects the project will cost, but past estimates have put the total between $80 million and $123 million.
