A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
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DOW
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BRIEFING
Exxon execs lose
in climate battle
Exxon Mobil’s share-
holders have voted to
replace at least two of
the company’s 12 board
members with directors
who are seen as better
suited to fight climate
change, bolster Exxon’s
finances and guide it
through a transition to
cleaner energy.
The results, which
Exxon called preliminary,
were announced by the
company after its annual
shareholder meeting
Wednesday.
Regardless of the fi-
nal tally, the outcome
represents a setback for
Exxon’s leadership. It coin-
cides with growing pres-
sure on publicly traded
companies to more ur-
gently revamp their busi-
nesses to address what
critics see as a intensify-
ing global crisis.
Across the economy,
climate-related initiatives
are gaining momentum
in corporate board rooms.
At least 25 climate-re-
lated shareholder propos-
als made it onto share-
holder ballots this year.
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SOUTHERN OREGON
Cannabis boom creates fears of increasing illicit trade
BY ERIK NEUMANN
Jefferson Public Radio
GRANTS PASS — On a
sunny spring day in Southern
Oregon’s Illinois Valley, Mason
Walker is showing off rows of
neatly planted marijuana.
“We have a permanent trel-
lising system that’s installed
almost in a vineyard style,”
Walker, co-owner of East Fork
Cultivars, told Jefferson Pub-
lic Radio. “We put labels up at
the end of the rows so people
know what they’re looking
at, just like you might walk
through the pinot noir section
of a vineyard.”
On their 33-acre farm,
Walker and a team grow 1
acre of marijuana and 9 acres
of USDA organic hemp, pro-
cessed for CBD. Both Walker
and the farm’s co-founder,
Aaron Howard, have noticed
a rapid increase of marijuana
grown in the area in 2021.
“I first came to Southern
Oregon in 2008 and a 48-plant
garden was huge,” Howard
says. “And now in 2021 there’s
80 acres at two thousand
plants per acre. So, the scale
is really hard for me to even
wrap my head around and the
impact on the local commu-
nity is kind of mind-boggling
to me.”
Cannabis has been grown
in this corner of Oregon for
decades. It’s a fixture of the
region’s counterculture past.
But residents and public offi-
cials agree this year is different
for cannabis agriculture. The
farms are bigger, and so are the
affects on the surrounding ru-
ral communities.
“What I’m learning is that
it’s actually people just grow-
ing without any license what-
soever under drug trafficking
organizations or cartels, and
that is overwhelming Southern
Oregon right now,” says state
Rep. Lily Morgan, R-Grants
Pass, who represents much of
Josephine County in the Leg-
islature.
See Cannabis / A12
THE INDUSTRIOUS
FUNGUS
PG&E to pay $43M
more for wildfires
Pacific Gas & Electric
will pay $43.4 million to
government agencies in
three Northern California
counties to cover bills left
behind from wildfires ig-
nited during the past two
years by the beleaguered
utility’s long-neglected
power grid.
The settlements an-
nounced Wednesday will
cover some of the costs
incurred by 10 govern-
ment agencies during the
Kincade Fire in October
2019 and the Zogg Fire in
September.
The counties are part
of a sprawling territory
where PG&E provides
electricity to about 16
million people.
The settlements won’t
wipe PG&E’s slate entirely
clean, though.
The San Francisco
company is still facing 33
criminal charges of inad-
vertently injuring six fire-
fighters and endangering
public health in Sonoma
County for the Kincade
Fire — accusations that
PG&E denies.
PG&E’s neglect has at
times had catastrophic
consequences, most no-
tably during 2017 and
2018 when a series of
wildfires blamed on its
equipment burned down
more than 28,000 build-
ings and killed more than
100 people.
Oregon’s wild truffles
can be found deep in the
forests. Stephani Gordon/OPB
How the Oregon truffle became a lifestyle and more
BY FRANCISCA BENITEZ
Oregon Public Broadcasting
O
regon’s truffles are true home-
town heroes. These superabun-
dant mushrooms can fetch up to
$800 a pound. Plus, they help Or-
egon’s forests thrive, all while de-
lighting adventurers, chefs, foodies and truffle
dogs alike. Their culinary appeal is no accident:
Truffles make their living by getting animals to
do their bidding.
“It’s thought that there are as many truffles
fruiting below ground, as there are mushrooms
above ground. There are truffle members of ev-
ery major lineage of mushrooms,” said Charles
Lefevre.
Lefevre is a world-renowned truffle scientist,
hunter and cultivator and co-founder of the
Oregon Truffle Festival.
Truffles are mushrooms that grow under-
ground, where they can be safe and sound
from the weather. Underneath the soil, they
produce an aroma that lures animals and
insects to come and eat, proliferating their
spores. It’s that very aroma that makes truffles
so intriguing.
Stephani Gordon/OPB
Oregon has four native, world-class culinary species
of truffles, more than any other part of the country.
“I think it’s fascinating that this fungi, on
the molecular level, is so compelling to peo-
ple that we’re going to carry the story around,”
said Christian DeBenedetti, owner of Wolves &
People Brewery in Newberg, a spot known for
its innovative use of Oregon truffles.
“We’re going to wander through forests,
we’re going to try to figure out ways to try to
harness it, celebrate it, capture it and share it,”
he said.
Oregon has four native species of truffles,
more than any other part of the country.
The season for harvesting spring white truf-
fles runs from May through July.
Thousands of years of cultivation of the land
helped the truffles thrive in the region, Lefevre
said.
“We do have a rich diversity, a tremendous
abundance, and this lineage of this tradition of
knowledge uniquely in this region,” he said.
“Gradually, it was planted with Douglas fir,
and those young Douglas fir on that pasture
land became the source, the habitat for our na-
tive Oregon truffles.”
The fungi has a mutually beneficial associa-
tion with its environment, meaning as the for-
est thrived, so did the truffles, and vice versa.
“They are actually providing an essential
service to the tree. And in return, the tree is
providing all of their energy. So the forest can’t
exist without some fungi performing that role,”
Lefevre said.
Oregon’s love for hunting and selling other
wild mushroom varieties, like chanterelles and
porcinis, also helped the state’s truffle industry
get started.
See Truffles / A12
WHO: Long hours
are killing people
Overwork is killing
people worldwide, some-
times decades after they
finish putting in the long
hours, a new study indi-
cates.
Specifically, putting in
long hours led to 745,000
stroke and ischemic heart
disease deaths in 2016,
29% more than in 2000,
the World Health Organi-
zation said this month.
The study, conducted
by WHO and the Inter-
national Labour Orga-
nization and published
in Environment Interna-
tional, was the first global
analysis of loss of life and
health related to long
hours, the global bodies
said.
In 2016, 398,000 peo-
ple died of stroke and
347,000 from heart dis-
ease as a result of having
worked 55 or more hours
a week, the researchers
said in a statement. Heart
disease deaths due to
overwork increased by
42% from 2000 to 2016,
and 19% for stroke.
— Bulletin wire reports
Why Amazon buying MGM Game on! Dick’s rallies
on return of team sports
is a watershed moment
BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN
Associated Press
BY RYAN FAUGHNDER
AND WENDY LEE
Los Angeles Times
After years of waiting, pre-
dictions that a tech giant
would buy a legacy film and
TV studio are finally coming
true.
Amazon said Wednesday
it is acquiring Metro-Gold-
wyn-Mayer Studios for $8.45
billion — snapping up a li-
brary of more than 4,000
movies and storied franchises
including “James Bond,”
“Rocky” and “The Pink Pan-
ther” — a watershed moment
in the collision of Hollywood
and big tech.
The deal is the Seattle on-
line retail giant’s second-largest
purchase ever, and its biggest
since its $13.7 billion acquisi-
tion of Whole Foods in 2017.
It comes at a pivotal time
Susie Allnutt/MGM/Columbia Pictures/EON Productions
Daniel Craig stars as James Bond in “Spectre.” The Bond franchise is
now among Amazon’s holdings.
as competition ramps up
among streaming services
like Netflix, Disney+ and
HBO Max, where hit shows
are key to driving consumers
to subscribe. MGM’s library
includes 17,000 episodes of
TV programming and a stable
of film properties that could
be mined for reboots, and
some of which already have.
See Amazon / A12
A year after safety fears led
to the cancellation of baseball
and other team sports, Dick’s
Sporting Goods is having a
comeback year as bats, balls
and jerseys fly off shelves.
First-quarter sales more
than doubled to $2.92 billion
and the company raised its ex-
pectations for sales and profits
in 2021.
Sales at established stores
surged 115%.
The company, based outside
of Pittsburgh , did a lot bet-
ter than many other retailers
during the pandemic as fami-
lies turned to camping, water
sports and other socially dis-
tanced activities.
With the return of team
sports, first-quarter profits
surged to a record.
Dick’s “saw a resurgence in
our team sports business as
kids began to get back out on
the field after a year in which
many youth sports activities
were delayed or cancelled,” said
CEO Lauren Hobart in a pre-
pared statement.
Shares jumped 13% at the
opening bell Wednesday.
Dick’s earned $361.8 million,
or $3.41 per share, swinging
back from a loss of $143.4 mil-
lion, or $1.71 per diluted share,
a year earlier.
Removing one-time costs
or benefits, per-share earnings
were $3.79 per share, more
than triple what analysts polled
by Zacks Investment Research
had been expecting.
Revenue also exceeded ex-
pectations.
It appears that momentum
will continue, industry analysts
said.
See Dick’s / A12