A12 Th e Bul l eTin • Th ur s day, Jun e 24, 2021 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 TODAY FRIDAY TONIGHT HIGH 91° LOW 58° Mostly sunny and hot Mainly clear and mild 92° 57° 97° 64° Hot with brilliant sunshine Record-tying temperatures with sunshine ALMANAC TEMPERATURE Yesterday Normal Record 93° 74° 97° in 2020 57° 43° 28° in 1920 PRECIPITATION 24 hours through 5 p.m. yesterday 0.01" Record 0.53" in 1914 Month to date (normal) 0.46" (0.58") Year to date (normal) 2.61" (5.60") Barometric pressure at 4 p.m. 29.92" SUN, MOON AND PLANETS Rise/Set Today Fri. Sun 5:23am/8:52pm 5:23am/8:52pm Moon 9:25pm/5:02am 10:24pm/6:04am Mercury 4:36am/7:13pm 4:33am/7:11pm Venus 7:14am/10:28pm 7:16am/10:28pm Mars 8:13am/11:00pm 8:12am/10:57pm Jupiter 11:54pm/10:29am 11:50pm/10:25am Saturn 11:04pm/8:47am 11:00pm/8:43am Uranus 2:32am/4:44pm 2:28am/4:40pm Full Last New First Jun 24 Jul 1 Jul 9 Jul 17 Tonight's sky: Full "Strawberry" Moon is at its lowest altitude of the year at 18 degrees above the southern horizon. Source: Jim Todd, OMSI UV INDEX TODAY 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 5 10 10 5 The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index ™ number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low, 3-5 Moderate; 6-7 High; 8-10 Very High; 11+ Extreme. POLLEN COUNT Grasses High Trees Moderate Weeds Absent Source: Oregon Allergy Associates SUNDAY MONDAY 104° 65° Very hot; dangerous heat EAST: Sunny, breezy and very warm Thursday. Mostly clear Thursday night. Sunny and hot Friday. Astoria 68/56 97° 61° An afternoon thunderstorm possible Record-tying temperatures with sunshine Hood River NATIONAL WEATHER As of 7 a.m. yesterday Reservoir Acre feet Capacity Crane Prairie 47488 86% Wickiup 43067 22% Crescent Lake 24874 29% Ochoco Reservoir 8005 18% Prineville 70198 47% River fl ow Station Cu.ft./sec. Deschutes R. below Crane Prairie 113 Deschutes R. below Wickiup 1120 Deschutes R. below Bend 131 Deschutes R. at Benham Falls 1450 Little Deschutes near La Pine 82 Crescent Ck. below Crescent Lake 52 Crooked R. above Prineville Res. 2 Crooked R. below Prineville Res. 255 Crooked R. near Terrebonne 65 Ochoco Ck. below Ochoco Res. 11 -0s 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s NATIONAL EXTREMES YESTERDAY (for the T-storms Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. Rain Showers Snow Flurries Ice Warm Front Stationary Front Cold Front Source: USDA Forest Service Energy Continued from A11 “The market is driving the boom,” said Mark Zwieg, Hec- ate Energy’s development man- ager in charge of the Bonanza project and other proposals. “Our cost of materials is going down every year.” A megawatt of solar power capacity requires about 5 to 10 acres and costs about $780,000 to $910,000 to install at the util- ity scale, depending on the tech- nology. The Bonanza project alone is projected to increase Oregon’s solar capacity by 150-300 mega- watts, depending on the config- uration of the final design. Though installation has grown cheaper, siting remains a challenging aspect of the solar development process. Projects require suitable land that’s close enough to transmission lines and substations to make eco- nomic sense. “You may start seeing clusters of solar facilities in one area be- cause of those attributes,” Zwieg said. Resistance from surrounding landowners is a less tangible but very real impediment to devel- oping a solar facility. Hecate Energy is still con- ducting its due diligence on the Bonanza site, which was cho- sen partly because a natural gas Restaurants Continued from A11 In the Tampa, Florida, area, restaurateur Andrew Koumi bumped up his menu items by 2% to 4%. Koumi, founder of a six-lo- cation chain called Green Mar- ket Cafe, tries to keep food and paper costs below 35% of his menu prices, but lately his computers keep flagging items that go above that parameter. He’s paying twice as much to buy chicken as he was in Janu- ary, and other meats and paper products have gotten more ex- pensive, too. Koumi isn’t too worried about standing out with his price increases, because “every- one’s doing it. Some people are doing it really drastically,” he facility was approved there by Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council nearly 20 years ago. The many objections to the project — including the loss of irrigated land, wildlife habitat and cultural heritage — will be worked through as the com- pany discusses the details with stakeholders, Zwieg said. “We want to be good neigh- bors. We want to minimize our impacts,” he said. “You don’t want to look at all the projects the same. Your approach to op- position needs to evolve with each project.” ‘Really big problem’ Even so, the controversies re- peatedly encountered by solar projects in Oregon have taken a toll on the industry, experts say. “Anecdotally, we’re hearing from developers that it’s a really big problem,” said Max Greene, regulatory and policy director for the Renewable Northwest nonprofit, which advocates for solar, wind and geothermal projects. Unless Oregon comes up with a way to make the public more comfortable with solar projects, it will be difficult or even impossible to build new facilities in the state, he said. “I don’t think we’re there yet. We’re at this flashpoint,” he said. “It’s a sign we need to do some- thing to get people together and said. “Could it go up more? It’s scary. I’m hoping that it levels.” For now, there’s no sign of abating. Chipotle recently raised menu prices by as much as 4%, after increasing average pay to $15 an hour and hiring thousands of workers to keep up with demand. American homestyle chain Cracker Bar- rel Old Country Store Inc., which earlier this year raised menu prices by 2.8%, is bump- ing up that increase to about 3% amid continued pressure from wage and commodity ex- penses, including pork for sau- sage and bacon. McDonald’s Corp., which raised its hourly wage by about 10% in May, hasn’t announced any jump in prices yet but said early this year that franchisees Yesterday City Hi/Lo/Prec. Abilene 97/73/0.00 Akron 77/50/0.00 Albany 70/46/0.00 Albuquerque 97/71/0.00 Anchorage 60/53/0.00 Atlanta 84/62/0.00 Atlantic City 72/54/0.00 Austin 94/73/0.00 Baltimore 78/51/0.00 Billings 94/68/Tr Birmingham 87/60/0.00 Bismarck 101/61/0.00 Boise 92/60/Tr Boston 75/59/0.04 Bridgeport, CT 75/54/0.00 Buffalo 73/53/0.00 Burlington, VT 73/48/0.00 Caribou, ME 68/47/0.23 Charleston, SC 84/70/Tr Charlotte 82/63/0.00 Chattanooga 86/60/0.00 Cheyenne 92/57/0.00 Chicago 79/65/0.02 Cincinnati 76/51/0.00 Cleveland 75/52/0.00 Colorado Springs 94/61/0.00 Columbia, MO 85/63/0.00 Columbia, SC 86/69/0.04 Columbus, GA 86/64/Tr Columbus, OH 79/50/0.00 Concord, NH 73/50/Tr Corpus Christi 93/76/0.08 Dallas 95/75/0.00 Dayton 77/56/0.00 Denver 97/64/0.00 Des Moines 87/62/0.05 Detroit 74/51/Tr Duluth 81/53/0.00 El Paso 102/81/0.00 Fairbanks 84/58/0.00 Fargo 92/59/0.00 Flagstaff 71/54/Tr Grand Rapids 72/48/0.14 Green Bay 77/49/0.00 Greensboro 78/60/0.00 Harrisburg 78/49/0.00 Hartford, CT 75/50/0.00 Helena 85/68/0.00 Honolulu 87/73/0.00 Houston 94/76/0.35 Huntsville 84/59/0.00 Indianapolis 77/58/0.00 Jackson, MS 90/68/0.00 Jacksonville 87/72/0.18 Today Hi/Lo/W 98/76/s 84/66/s 78/52/s 89/67/pc 62/53/r 81/66/pc 73/66/pc 94/76/pc 79/58/s 87/57/pc 86/70/pc 88/61/pc 95/64/s 76/60/s 75/61/s 84/66/s 81/60/s 77/51/s 84/68/pc 83/60/s 87/66/s 78/55/t 81/70/t 86/69/s 85/68/s 86/57/t 87/75/t 83/61/s 82/67/t 87/68/s 79/50/s 92/79/s 96/78/s 86/70/s 85/58/t 83/71/t 85/70/pc 80/57/c 101/77/pc 80/54/pc 85/60/pc 71/45/pc 79/68/t 79/67/t 79/57/s 81/54/s 80/56/s 85/55/c 86/72/s 94/79/pc 87/68/s 84/71/c 91/74/pc 82/71/t Amsterdam Athens Auckland Baghdad Bangkok Beijing Beirut Berlin Bogota Budapest Buenos Aires Cabo San Lucas Cairo Calgary Cancun Dublin Edinburgh Geneva Harare Hong Kong Istanbul Jerusalem Johannesburg Lima Lisbon London Madrid Manila 67/49/pc 94/76/s 59/48/s 111/83/pc 96/81/pc 75/67/t 83/75/s 68/57/t 65/48/pc 98/69/pc 63/49/sh 84/75/pc 97/74/s 68/53/pc 89/79/t 68/47/c 68/50/sh 70/54/t 71/50/pc 85/80/t 83/70/pc 82/67/s 63/45/s 66/63/pc 86/63/s 69/58/pc 84/58/s 92/81/t Friday Hi/Lo/W 97/75/s 84/69/t 77/63/pc 92/68/s 62/53/c 85/68/c 75/70/pc 94/75/pc 82/69/pc 78/57/pc 85/69/c 77/60/t 94/67/s 75/67/pc 74/67/pc 85/67/pc 82/68/pc 76/61/pc 82/73/t 81/67/t 88/68/c 64/51/c 82/68/t 81/70/c 82/68/t 78/55/t 92/75/t 83/69/t 87/70/t 85/70/t 76/60/sh 93/77/pc 95/77/s 81/70/t 75/55/t 82/69/t 78/67/t 77/56/c 101/75/s 75/53/pc 81/61/t 78/44/s 77/65/t 79/62/t 78/66/t 83/66/pc 77/65/c 81/57/pc 88/72/s 93/79/pc 86/69/c 78/69/t 89/72/t 85/71/t City Juneau Kansas City Lansing Las Vegas Lexington Lincoln Little Rock Los Angeles Louisville Madison, WI Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Nashville New Orleans New York City Newark, NJ Norfolk, VA Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Palm Springs Peoria Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland, ME Providence Raleigh Rapid City Reno Richmond Rochester, NY Sacramento St. Louis Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Fe Savannah Seattle Sioux Falls Spokane Springfi eld, MO Tampa Tucson Tulsa Washington, DC Wichita Yakima Yuma Yesterday Hi/Lo/Prec. 63/50/0.00 89/68/0.00 74/48/0.12 91/87/Tr 76/47/0.00 93/64/Tr 87/57/0.00 81/63/0.00 81/58/0.00 78/56/0.04 85/62/0.00 92/75/0.78 81/59/0.01 88/58/0.00 84/56/0.00 88/78/1.48 76/55/0.00 80/55/0.00 74/67/0.00 91/67/0.00 93/70/Tr 92/72/0.74 100/86/0.03 83/60/0.32 77/54/0.00 93/83/0.17 76/45/0.00 70/52/0.05 76/57/0.02 79/59/0.00 98/51/0.40 89/61/0.00 77/59/0.00 74/45/0.00 86/58/0.00 87/65/0.00 95/76/0.00 94/78/Tr 74/67/0.01 74/63/0.00 78/61/0.00 95/59/0.00 90/71/0.00 76/55/0.00 95/61/0.00 89/69/0.00 83/59/0.00 88/77/0.17 99/77/0.29 91/68/0.00 78/57/0.00 93/67/0.00 95/64/0.00 102/82/0.00 Today Hi/Lo/W 59/54/r 91/75/t 82/68/c 97/78/s 84/66/s 91/71/t 93/76/pc 76/61/pc 89/73/s 76/68/t 91/76/s 85/80/t 77/69/t 88/67/c 90/71/s 89/78/t 78/62/s 79/62/s 76/66/c 95/76/s 90/72/t 86/73/t 104/75/s 79/70/t 80/60/s 104/84/s 82/61/s 74/54/s 76/60/s 81/61/s 85/59/t 85/62/s 80/56/s 83/62/s 85/57/s 89/76/t 79/64/t 93/78/pc 73/64/pc 73/59/pc 75/56/pc 89/58/pc 85/68/t 80/62/pc 89/66/c 89/65/s 91/75/pc 88/75/t 99/75/s 96/81/pc 80/61/s 100/77/c 96/66/s 104/74/s Friday Hi/Lo/W 61/56/r 92/70/t 79/66/t 100/80/s 80/68/c 86/67/t 92/76/pc 77/63/pc 82/72/c 80/66/t 89/75/c 87/80/t 79/67/t 84/66/t 86/72/c 89/77/t 76/68/c 79/69/c 82/72/t 94/74/c 84/67/t 86/73/t 106/76/s 82/71/t 82/69/c 106/82/s 83/65/s 69/61/sh 77/65/pc 80/68/t 67/54/t 91/65/s 82/69/pc 86/65/c 90/59/s 91/78/t 86/64/t 95/77/pc 72/63/pc 71/59/pc 77/57/s 89/59/s 85/72/t 87/66/pc 80/63/t 93/66/s 92/75/t 88/76/t 102/74/s 96/78/pc 82/70/pc 95/72/t 101/69/s 106/71/s 107/84/0.00 74/60/0.41 72/50/0.00 91/68/0.00 71/54/0.00 89/79/0.04 104/86/0.00 84/68/0.10 72/54/0.00 72/43/Tr 62/55/0.00 73/66/0.26 86/66/0.00 52/43/0.14 64/55/0.00 75/56/0.14 81/63/0.04 91/72/0.00 90/79/0.04 70/54/0.03 71/52/0.00 84/75/0.53 83/73/0.00 76/69/0.05 73/48/0.00 72/57/0.00 83/68/0.00 81/68/0.00 106/81/pc 70/58/t 83/61/pc 94/72/pc 73/53/pc 88/78/t 102/85/pc 82/70/pc 70/52/pc 82/63/pc 68/51/pc 76/65/pc 84/66/pc 56/42/pc 75/59/pc 72/60/sh 81/67/pc 90/74/s 87/76/t 70/56/pc 69/53/sh 89/79/t 84/73/s 79/70/pc 82/67/pc 71/61/pc 92/65/t 86/64/t 106/81/pc 70/55/t 84/68/c 93/71/pc 72/53/pc 88/78/s 102/83/pc 83/70/c 68/50/c 81/66/c 73/58/pc 79/66/pc 83/63/pc 52/36/sh 78/59/pc 75/58/sh 82/67/c 88/75/pc 87/77/t 71/58/pc 65/47/s 90/80/sh 87/74/s 80/71/c 80/66/t 78/64/s 79/63/s 72/59/t INTERNATIONAL 48 contiguous states) National high: 109° at Tucumcari, NM National low: 26° at Bodie State Park, CA Precipitation: 1.58" at Punta Gorda, FL FIRE INDEX Moderate Very high High High Moderate Partly sunny and hot NATIONAL Yesterday Today Friday Yesterday Today Friday Yesterday Today Friday City Hi/Lo/Prec. Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W City Hi/Lo/Prec. Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W City Hi/Lo/Prec. Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Astoria 66/54/Tr 68/56/pc 74/59/pc La Grande 90/63/0.04 88/61/s 93/63/s Portland 83/58/0.00 85/62/pc 93/69/pc Baker City 90/51/0.13 89/53/s 94/57/s La Pine 87/42/0.00 87/49/s 88/57/s Prineville 90/48/0.00 93/60/s 88/63/s Brookings 63/50/0.00 63/52/s 66/53/s Medford 94/59/0.01 96/63/s 98/69/s Redmond 94/55/Tr 92/55/s 95/59/s Burns 88/42/0.03 91/56/s 91/55/s Newport 61/54/0.13 61/53/s 63/54/pc Roseburg 89/58/0.00 90/60/s 93/63/s Salem 86/58/0.00 87/60/s 93/66/pc Eugene 86/55/0.00 89/57/s 92/62/s North Bend 64/55/0.02 65/56/s 67/56/s Sisters 88/50/0.00 91/56/s 94/62/s Klamath Falls 88/44/0.00 88/49/s 90/55/s Ontario 95/58/0.03 99/68/s 99/68/s The Dalles 95/67/0.00 93/68/s 104/70/pc Lakeview 86/41/0.00 85/53/s 88/59/s Pendleton 94/65/0.00 93/65/s 99/65/s Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice, Tr-trace, Yesterday data as of 5 p.m. yesterday -10s 97° 63° TRAVEL WEATHER Umatilla 97/69 Rufus Hermiston 89/66 97/69 96/71 Arlington Hillsboro Portland Meacham Lostine 96/68 86/58 85/62 86/56 Wasco 88/57 Enterprise Pendleton The Dalles CENTRAL: Mostly Tillamook 86/56 92/68 93/65 Sandy 93/68 McMinnville 69/56 sunny and very warm Joseph Heppner La Grande 83/61 Maupin Government 88/59 Thursday. Fair weather 88/61 86/57 Camp 95/65 Condon 88/64 Union Thursday night. Sunny Lincoln City 86/61 76/55 89/58 Salem 64/55 Spray and hot Friday. Granite Warm Springs 87/60 Madras 93/61 Albany 80/55 Newport Baker City 93/59 94/59 Mitchell 61/53 85/58 89/53 WEST: Mostly sunny Camp Sherman 88/56 Redmond Corvallis John Yachats Unity and warm Thursday. 90/56 92/55 81/57 Day Prineville 87/56 Clear and comfortable 62/54 Ontario Sisters 93/60 Paulina 89/58 99/68 Thursday night. Sunny Florence Eugene 91/56 Bend Brothers 88/52 Vale and turning hot Friday. 65/55 89/57 91/58 86/51 Sunriver 98/70 Nyssa 89/54 Hampton Cottage La Pine 98/70 Juntura Oakridge Grove 87/49 87/52 OREGON EXTREMES Coos Bay Burns 96/58 86/57 91/58 Fort Rock 67/55 91/56 Riley YESTERDAY Crescent 89/51 89/56 High: 99° 85/49 Bandon Roseburg Christmas Valley Jordan Valley at Hermiston Beaver Frenchglen Silver 65/55 90/60 89/50 88/54 Low: 41° Marsh Lake 90/55 Port Orford 86/47 89/49 at Lakeview Grants Burns Junction Paisley 67/56 Pass 91/61 Chiloquin 87/54 98/64 Rome Medford 87/51 Gold Beach 96/63 94/59 63/54 Klamath Fields Ashland McDermitt Lakeview Falls Brookings 92/59 92/64 88/49 89/55 63/52 85/53 Seaside 68/55 Cannon Beach 67/55 WEDNESDAY 96° 53° Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. 541-683-1577 WATER REPORT Bend Redmond/Madras Sisters Prineville La Pine/Gilchrist TUESDAY OREGON WEATHER Bend Municipal Airport through 5 p.m. yest. High Low SATURDAY figure this out.” Solar projects are among the most commonly approved non- residential uses in farm and for- est zones, according to the state Department of Land Conserva- tion and Development. At 966 megawatts, solar ca- pacity in Oregon grew by more than 30% in 2020 alone, accord- ing to the Solar Energy Indus- tries Association. The industry is expected to expand by 1,646 megawatts during the next five years. A megawatt is enough to power about 190 homes for a year, according to the associ- ation. “Solar energy development is rapidly growing in Oregon,” said the state Department of Land Conservation and De- velopment. “Many utility scale solar facilities are opting to lo- cate on land zoned (exclusive farm use) due to proximity to high-voltage powerlines and substations with interconnec- tion opportunities, lower land acquisition or lease costs, avail- ability of unobstructed sunlight, and ease of development due to flatter slopes.” Statewide inventory The Oregon Farm Bureau believes a statewide inventory or map of lands available for so- lar development could expedite those projects that are broadly beneficial, said Samantha Bayer, the organization’s policy counsel. Co-locating new solar facili- ties with continued agricultural uses — known as agrivoltaics — offers one possibility for com- promise. Chad Higgins, an associate professor at Oregon State Uni- versity, began studying the sub- ject after noticing some sheep congregating under solar panels at a campus installation. His research has determined that grass below the panels grows slower but reaches dor- mancy later in the season, con- suming less water while extend- ing the pasture’s productivity in summer. The growth rate of sheep isn’t reduced if they graze beneath the panels, which they preferred to do because of the shade. Higgins is now comparing several agrivoltaic arrange- ments at another site, though he acknowledges the co-location strategy may face obstacles and limitations. “Any grower who looks at an array, their first question is: How do I get a tractor in there?” he said. Farmland preservationists say the idea is worth exploring, though they’re concerned that solar panels may permanently hinder the types of crops and equipment a property can sup- port. could handle labor inflation “between judicious pricing on the menu as well as just think- ing about productivity savings.” Historically, restaurant oper- ators tend to raise menu prices a few times a year. Between 2015 and 2019, that amounted to increases of about 2.5%, ac- cording to BTIG analyst Peter Saleh. This year, the rate may reach about 4%, Saleh wrote in a note to investors. Although food costs will likely moderate once sup- ply bottlenecks are resolved, higher wages and labor short- ages will persist even after pan- demic relief has dried out, be- cause people are yearning for greater work-life balance and flexibility in a post-COVID-19 world, Saleh wrote. That will create “inflation that in our view is not transitory,” Saleh said. Some chains are coming up with creative solutions to avoid raising prices. Wingstop Inc., for one, is only planning its typical 1% to 2% menu price increase this year. To save costs, the com- pany is now buying whole birds instead of cut-up legs and breasts, selling less-used thigh pieces from a new delivery and takeout brand. “The big price increases — the 4% price increases you’re seeing other chains do, that won’t be us,” Chief Executive Officer Charlie Morrison said in an interview. “Large price increases that are promoted and then passed on to the con- sumer tend to have a negative reaction.” 63/54/0.00 92/73/0.00 53/44/0.00 108/82/0.00 95/81/0.04 86/68/0.07 81/75/0.00 70/56/0.00 66/48/0.02 95/66/0.00 59/54/0.03 89/74/0.00 95/73/0.00 73/55/0.00 90/80/0.04 66/50/0.64 68/52/0.06 76/59/0.27 68/48/0.00 85/81/2.00 78/70/0.00 82/63/0.00 62/45/0.00 67/63/0.00 77/59/0.00 70/46/0.00 75/59/0.00 90/77/0.14 65/57/c 94/76/s 61/53/c 113/83/pc 95/81/t 82/66/c 86/75/s 73/58/t 65/49/pc 88/64/s 60/48/s 86/75/s 98/74/s 79/62/pc 86/77/t 57/49/sh 55/48/sh 73/54/t 73/48/s 88/82/t 84/72/s 85/68/s 66/47/s 66/63/pc 86/61/s 66/55/sh 91/63/s 90/81/t Mecca Mexico City Montreal Moscow Nairobi Nassau New Delhi Osaka Oslo Ottawa Paris Rio de Janeiro Rome Santiago Sao Paulo Sapporo Seoul Shanghai Singapore Stockholm Sydney Taipei City Tel Aviv Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Vienna Warsaw AstraZeneca Continued from A11 It ordered $1,872,000 in noneconomic damages for emotional distress and harm to reputation and $510,423 for lost wages after a weeklong trial before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo in the Mark O. Hat- field United States Court- house. “Suzanne alerted Astra- Zeneca to bad behavior and, instead of fixing the problem, the company pun- ished her,” said Anita Ma- zumdar Chambers, one of her lawyers. “Today, a jury of regular people told Astra- Zeneca that’s not acceptable in our society.” The jury did not find the company had discriminated against Ivie based on her age, as she had alleged. She was one of the older staff members at 51. Nor did it find AstraZeneca liable un- der the False Claims Act after Ivie had alleged her supervisor encouraged the use of prescription drugs for unapproved, or off-label, purposes. Ivie said she complained in December 2018 that a supervisor appeared to be promoting “off-label mar- keting” for two prescription Big Tech Continued from A11 The legislation, passed 29- 12 and sent to the full U.S. House, would increase filing fees for proposed tech merg- ers worth more than $500 million and cut the fees for those under that level. A second bill would give states greater powers over companies in determining the courts in which to pros- ecute tech antitrust cases. Many state attorneys general have pursued antitrust cases against big tech companies, and many states joined with the U.S. Justice Department and the FTC in their anti- trust lawsuits against Goo- gle and Facebook, respec- tively, last year. The measure medicines to treat pulmo- nary disease, Bevespi and Daliresp. She said she faced retal- iation in response. She was removed from leadership jobs, wrongly accused of not completing a certain number of hours of coach- ing her sales representatives, pressured to work weekends and had her bonus reduced, she said. AstraZeneca’s lawyer Me- linda S. Riechert countered that Ivie was fired because she wasn’t doing the work expected of her as a district sales manager. She said the company’s compliance unit found that Ivie’s allegations regarding off-label drug marketing of the two drugs were “unsub- stantiated.” “Ms. Ivie was fired for not meeting the expectations of the job,” Riechert said. After the jury was dis- missed, Reichert, Astra- Zeneca’s lawyer, raised to the judge the company’s previously unsuccessful ar- gument that Oregon whis- tleblower law shouldn’t apply to Ivie, who is not an Oregon resident. Ivie’s law- yers countered that Ivie per- formed some work in Or- egon, entitling her to relief under the law. drew many Republican votes and was approved 34-7. The panel then dug into a complex measure that would require online plat- forms to allow users to communicate directly with users on rival services. Pro- ponents said it also would give consumers more power to determine how and with whom their data is shared. The advance of the mas- sive, bipartisan legislation comes as the tech giants al- ready are smarting under federal investigations, epic antitrust lawsuits, near-con- stant condemnation from politicians of both parties, and a newly installed head of the powerful FTC who is a fierce critic of the industry.