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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2021)
A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2021 q DOW 34,599.82 -30.42 BRIEFING Washington offers ‘joints for jabs’ Licensed marijuana stores in Washington state can offer free joints to promote on-site COVID-19 vaccine clinics, officials said Monday. The state Liquor and Cannabis Board is calling the effort the “Joints for Jabs” program. The board says licensed adult-use marijuana retail shops can give away a single pre-rolled joint to anyone over 21 who gets a shot at an on-site vaccine clinic held by July 12. The board has already allowed breweries, win- eries and restaurants to offer free drinks in exchange for proof of vaccination — though alcohol-serving estab- lishments have not had to host a clinic on-site to give out product. The board said the marijuana stores must buy any joints they in- tend to give away from licensed producers or processors and they must keep records of any prod- uct given away. Websites go down after outage Dozens of websites went down briefly around the globe Tuesday, in- cluding CNN, The New York Times and Britain’s government home page, after an outage at the cloud computing service Fastly, illustrating how vital a small number of behind-the-scenes com- panies have become to running the internet. San Francisco-based Fastly acknowledged a problem just before 6 a.m. Eastern. About an hour later, the company said: “The issue has been identified and a fix has been applied.” Most of the sites soon appeared to be back online. The company said in an emailed statement that it was a “technical is- sue” and “not related to a cyber attack.” Fastly is a content-de- livery network. It provides vital but behind-the- scenes cloud computing “edge servers” to many of the web’s popular sites. These servers store, or “cache,” content such as images and video in places around the world so that it is closer to us- ers, allowing them to fetch it more quickly and smoothly. Job openings up to record 9.3 million U.S. employers posted a record 9.3 million job openings in April with the U.S. economy reopening at break-neck speed. The number of job openings soared 12% from the 8.3 million counted in March. But employers hired just 6.1 million, up 1% from March, according to a Labor Department re- port Tuesday, suggesting that positions are open- ing faster than companies can fill them. “More than a year af- ter horrific job losses and wage cuts, job seekers have a strong hand in the labor market again. Demand for workers is surging as the broader economy starts to emerge from the pan- demic,” said Nick Bunker, director of the Hiring Lab. “At the same time, supply is restrained as workers are slow to find their post-pandemic nor- mal. The result is a labor market that has snapped back quicker than many expected.” — Bulletin wire reports p bendbulletin.com/business NASDAQ 13,924.91 +43.19 p S&P 500 4,227.26 +.74 q 30-YR T-BOND 2.21% -.04 p CRUDE OIL $70.05 +.82 q GOLD $1,892.20 -4.60 q SILVER $27.72 -.28 q EURO $1.2180 -.0015 COVID-19 | Oregon regulations Four businesses fined for ‘willful’ violations The Associated Press PORTLAND — The state of Oregon has fined four more businesses a combined $44,600 for what the state con- siders “willful” violations of regulations meant to protect workers from COVID-19. The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health administra- tion has issued 159 citations to employers for violating COVID-19 safety require- ments since the pandemic be- gan, The Oregonian reported. Cork Cellars Wine and Bis- tro in Sisters was fined $17,800 for willfully allowing indoor dining at a time when it was banned. The restaurant has appealed the fine. Owners Tom and Jeannie Buck told the newspaper they look forward to their day in court. Officials hope to have about 600 units by end of 2022 SCOTT GREENSTONE The Seattle Times I n an 8,000-square-foot Seattle warehouse, about a dozen volunteers plan to work six days a week to build at least 10 shed-sized homes a month for homeless people. Sound Foundations NW and other build- ers are producing 100 tiny houses, expected to hold up to 130 people, this summer. The houses will sit on two sites in North Seattle and potentially double the size of another vil- lage. Seattle included these villages as part of its record $167 million 2021 homelessness budget. The materials for each house nor- mally cost around $2,500, although they’re $4,500 right now because of a national lum- ber shortage, according to Josh Castle, advo- cacy and community engagement director for the Low-Income Housing Institute, the city’s main contractor for village operations. It costs an average of $600,000 a year to run each vil- lage, with case management and food, Castle said. The city is capitalizing on an infusion of federal money to relieve the growing frustra- tion among community members and busi- ness owners around visible homelessness. While shelters that hold many people to- gether in one space were considered the most cost-effective option, data from nonprofit outreach providers has found that people liv- ing outdoors would usually rather go to a tiny house than an emergency shelter. The villages being assembled this summer are just the beginning of a broader shelter push. There are 298 houses in eight villages across the city. Barb Oliver, director of oper- ations and volunteer coordinator at Sound Foundations NW, and other boosters hope to double that number by the end of 2022, using philanthropy and state and federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Said city Councilor Andrew Lewis, “I’d like to do more than that, but that’s as fast as the overstretched [Human Services Department] team can do.” Lewis, runs the council’s com- mittee on homelessness and launched a cam- paign earlier this year to get businesses to do- nate startup costs for villages. He dubbed the campaign “It Takes a Village.” Seattle is leaning more on the tiny house vil- lage model than perhaps any other city, though Los Angeles County hopes by the end of the year to have 425 portable, prefabricated com- posite plastic pods, which are made in Everett, Washington, that can be set up in minutes. Last Stop Saloon in The Dalles was issued an $8,900 fine for willfully allowing indoor dining when it was banned. The bar didn’t imme- diately respond to a request for comment but has appealed. Country Bakery in Halsey was issued an $8,900 penalty for failing to ensure that face coverings were worn and not posting a “COVID-19 Hazards Poster.” Country Bakery has not yet appealed and declined to comment. Portland’s Creative Wood- working Northwest Inc. was issued an $8,900 fine for will- fully failing to ensure that face coverings were worn, accord- ing to the state. It has hired a lawyer and appealed the fine. Hope Redmond, executive administrator for Creative Woodworking Northwest, said some employees cited health concerns related to masks and the business opted to respect those concerns. Oregon OSHA said Monday that it will lift face covering and distancing rules for busi- nesses and other institutions when 70% of Oregon adults are at least partially vacci- nated. Seattle is building tiny house villages for homeless A portrait of Barb Oliver, director of operations with Sound Founda- tions NW, is taken in one of their tiny homes in Seattle Thursday. Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times Oregon requires COVID-19 vaccines for farmed mink BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press SALEM — Oregon’s cam- paign to vaccinate the public against COVID-19 is extend- ing to the animal kingdom. The state Department of Agriculture has filed an emer- gency temporary rule requir- ing coronavirus vaccines for as many as 212,700 farmed mink to reduce the risk of new in- fections, virus mutations and possible animal-to-human transmission, the agency an- nounced recently. Mink farmers have until Aug. 31 to vaccinate their cur- rent animals. Any mink born or imported after that date must be vaccinated within 120 days of birth, or within 60 days of being brought into Oregon. Farms must also agree to participate in additional sur- veillance testing per ODA and U.S. Department of Agricul- ture guidelines. “ODA is taking the nec- essary precautions to reduce the risk of infection in captive mink, as well as reduce the risk of potential mutation of the vi- rus and the potential for virus transmission back to humans,” said Ryan Scholz, state veteri- narian for ODA. “It is critical that owner-operators vaccinate their mink against the virus.” The rule comes after one mink farm in Oregon was placed under quarantine for more than two months be- tween late November and early February after multiple ani- mals tested positive for the vi- rus. Scholz said the mink had likely contracted the virus from workers at the farm. ODA did not identify the farm for security reasons. The positive tests prompted concern about the possibility of a “viral reservoir” among captive mink spilling into the wild and infect- ing related species like river ot- ters, fishers and martens. After two consecutive rounds of follow-up testing at the farm revealed no new cases, the quarantine was lifted on Feb. 11. Michael Whelan, executive director of Fur Commission USA, said mink farmers were already working toward vac- cinating their animals even before the Oregon rule was an- nounced. “Oregon was quicker to make an emergency rule be- cause of the outbreak, but all mink in the country will be vaccinated before the end of July,” Whelan said. Lake Oswego biotech executive sentenced for insider trading BY MIKE ROGOWAY The Oregonian Former Oregon biotech executive Mark Ahn faces six months in prison and an addi- tional six months of home de- tention after pleading guilty to two counts of securities fraud. In 2017, Ahn had been working as a biotech consul- tant for a company in New York, advising it in its efforts to buy a Massachusetts firm called Dimension Thera- peutics. Prosecutors say Ahn learned that Dimension would be acquired by a dif- ferent company and bought Dimension stock based on in- sider information. When Dimension an- nounced its sale, its stock jumped 262% in one day. Ahn, 58, continues to live in Lake Oswego. He pleaded guilty in March to two charges connected to the stock pur- chase. In addition to Ahn’s prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns on Monday ordered Ahn to for- feit $49,421 — the approxi- mate value of his profits from the stock — pay a $5,500 fine and make additional restitu- tion to be determined later. He also faces two years of su- pervised release. Under a separate deal with federal securities regulators reached in April, Ahn is pro- hibited from serving as a board member or executive with publicly traded compa- nies. Ahn was previously CEO of Galena Biopharma, a Lake Oswego company.