A7
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, JULY 2, 2021
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DOW
34,633.53 +131.02
BRIEFING
Jobless claims
fall to 364,000
The number of Amer-
icans applying for unem-
ployment aid fell again
last week to the lowest
level since the pandemic
struck last year, further
evidence that the job
market and the broader
economy are rebounding
rapidly from the coronavi-
rus recession.
The Labor Department
reported Thursday that
jobless claims dropped
by 51,000 to 364,000. Ap-
plications for unemploy-
ment benefits have fallen
more or less steadily
since the year began.
The rollout of vaccines
has sharply reduced new
COVID-19 cases, giving
consumers the confi-
dence to shop, travel, eat
out and attend public
events as the economy
recovers.
Last week’s drop
in jobless claims was
steeper than economists
had expected. Appli-
cations for unemploy-
ment benefits have now
fallen in 10 of the past 12
weeks.
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TAX FRAUD CHARGES
Trump Organization, CFO indicted
BY MICHAEL R. SISAK
AND TOM HAYS
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Donald
Trump’s company and its
longtime finance chief were
charged Thursday in what a
prosecutor called a “sweep-
ing and audacious” tax fraud
scheme that saw the Trump ex-
ecutive allegedly receive more
than $1.7 million in off-the-
books compensation, includ-
ing apartment rent, car pay-
ments and school tuition.
It is the first criminal case
New York authorities’ two-
year investigation into the
former president has yielded.
According to the indictment
filed Wednesday and unveiled
Thursday, from 2005 through
this year, CFO Allen Weissel-
berg and the Trump Organiza-
tion cheated the state and city
out of taxes by conspiring to
pay senior executives off the
books.
Weisselberg and lawyers
for the Trump Organization
pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutor Carey Dunne de-
scribed a 15-year scheme “or-
chestrated by the most senior
executives.”
Trump himself was not
charged at this stage of the in-
vestigation, jointly pursued
by Manhattan District Attor-
ney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New
York Attorney General Letitia
James, both Democrats.
Dunne asserted politics
played no role in the decision
to bring charges.
“Politics has no role in the
jury chamber, and I can assure
you it had no role here,” Dunne
said.
The indictment says that
Weisselberg, 73, concealed
that he was a New York City
resident to avoid city income
tax.
See Trump / A8
COVID-19 | Restriction lifted
ASTORIA COLUMN REOPENS
Construction
spending falls
0.3% in May
U.S. construction
spending fell 0.3% in
May. Growth in housing,
the economy’s standout
performer, slowed while
activity in areas most di-
rectly impacted by the
pandemic showed fur-
ther weakness.
The Commerce De-
partment reported Thurs-
day that the May decline
followed a slight 0.1% rise
in April and left overall
construction spending up
7.5% from a year ago.
Housing construction,
which has been a driving
force for the economy
during the pandemic,
posted a tiny 0.2% gain
in May as single-family
home construction rose
0.8% while apartments
and other multifamily
construction was flat.
Over the past year, hous-
ing construction is up
28.7% with single-family
construction up a sizzling
46.1%.
Nonresidential con-
struction activity fell 1.1%
in May with hotel and
motel construction and
the category that covers
shopping centers, two
areas heavily affected
by the pandemic shut-
downs, both falling. Over
the past year, nonresiden-
tial construction is down
5.8% while the hotel and
motel category is down
23.2%.
Spending on govern-
ment projects dipped a
slight 0.2% in May and
is down 8.7% over the
past year, reflecting the
squeeze many levels of
government have felt
from falling tax revenues
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
The stairs and railing inside the Astoria Column were cleaned before the reopening.
BY ETHAN MYERS • The Astorian
V
isitors can once again climb the narrow, 164-step spiral staircase to see the views atop the Astoria Column. The Column closed during the
coronavirus pandemic due to the difficulty of regulating social distancing and sanitizing surfaces inside the monument. The Friends of the
Astoria Column, a nonprofit that oversees the park on Coxcomb Hill for the city, worked closely with the Clatsop County Public Health
Department to determine when it was safe to fully open, according to Willis Van Dusen, a former Astoria mayor and treasurer for the Friends group.
The Column reopened on Saturday.
“We were excessively careful,” Van
Dusen said. “It just made sense.”
Fred Pynes, the park host, said they
were ready to reopen for some time and
spent much of the closure cleaning the
stairs and railings inside the Column in
anticipation for the return of visitors.
“People can regulate themselves and
wear a mask if they’d like,” he said.
But due to the close quarters inside
“It’s great to see the kids at the top throwing off airplanes again. You
can hear the adults, too ... It feels great to be getting back to normal.”
— Fred Pynes, the host of the park on Coxcomb Hill
the Column, Pynes said they withheld
announcing the reopening widely in
hopes of avoiding a “stampede” of vis-
itors all at once. They plan to make an
official announcement on Thursday.
Pynes said the sales of parking passes
atop Coxcomb Hill, which cost $5 for a
calendar year, dropped significantly last
year due to the closure of the Column.
Some visitors complained they had to
pay to park but could not climb up to
the viewing deck of the 125-foot high
landmark.
“It was inconvenient and a little bit
of an irritant having the monument
closed,” Van Dusen said.
But as most coronavirus restrictions
in Oregon are lifted, Pynes and Van
Dusen are thrilled visitors can return to
witness a “360-degree view.”
See Astoria / A8
Vancouver biotech
firm files for IPO
Absci Corp., a Vancou-
ver-based biotech firm,
said Wednesday it’s filed
for an initial public of-
fering.
The company, founded
in Portland, aims to use
computer technology
to identify new pro-
tein-based drugs known
as biologics, then synthe-
size them using specially
engineered bacteria as
factories. It moved to
Vancouver in 2016 after
Washington Gov. Jay In-
slee invested $200,000
from his office’s strate-
gic reserve fund. The
company has to date
attracted $230 million in
investment, including a
$125 million round earlier
this year.
— Bulletin wire reports
What could be cooler? Heineken
device trails along — with beer
BY DALVIN BROWN
The Washington Post
Cargo-carrying robots
have yet to go mainstream,
but they certainly make for
appealing internet videos.
They tote groceries
around the supermarket
and hold your luggage at
the airport. In one wild dis-
play, someone retrofitted a
tank of beer, a nozzle and
a camera onto a robotic
dog, which then showed a
unique “peeing” function-
ality.
See Cooler / A8
Heineken’s
cooler in-
novation,
powered
by robot-
ics and
artificial
intelli-
gence, is
supposed
to fol-
low users
around.
Heineken
via The
Washington
Post
WASHINGTON STATE
Darigold to build
$450 million facility
BY MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
PASCO, Wash. — Darigold
announced Thursday that
it plans to build a $450 mil-
lion dairy processing plant in
Pasco, Washington.
The plant will produce a
new specialized protein pow-
der and butter at what the
company and Port of Pasco
officials are touting as “the
most sophisticated large-scale
milk protein facility in North
America.”
“It’s great news for ag and
all of Washington State, keep-
ing a processing plant of
this size and scope,” Randy
Hayden, executive director
of the port, told the Capital
Press.
“(It) will support not just
the manufacturing jobs at the
plant — all of the jobs at the
farms and transportation in-
dustry. It’s great to have these
facilities here supporting our
farmers.”
See Darigold / A8