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.