Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2021)
A5 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021 p DOW 35,120.08 +225.96 p bendbulletin.com/business NASDAQ 14,714.66 +172.88 p S&P 500 4,441.67 +35.87 q 30-YR T-BOND 1.87% -.01 q p CRUDE OIL $62.32 -1.37 General Motors on Friday issued a new re- call that expands to all Chevrolet Bolt EVs and the new EUV for fire risk and will provide custom- ers with an eight-year warranty on new battery modules for the affected cars. The high voltage bat- teries used in the Bolts are made by LG Chem’s Ochang, South Korea, facility though GM dis- covered manufacturing defects in certain battery cells produced at LG man- ufacturing facilities be- yond the Ochang, Korea, plant, GM said. Last month, GM re- called 68,600 of the model year 2017-19 all-electric Bolt hatch- backs for the second time in less than a year because of a potential fire risk. Until customers in the new recall population re- ceive replacement mod- ules, they should: • Set their car at a 90% state of charge limitation using Target Charge Level mode or have their dealer do it. • Charge their vehi- cle more frequently and avoid depleting their bat- tery below 70 miles of re- maining range. • Park their vehicles outside immediately after charging and do not leave their vehicles charging indoors over- night. COFFEE BUZZ: Dutch Bros seeks to raise $100M in IPO BY MIKE ROGOWAY • The Oregonian D utch Bros formally filed for its initial public offering Friday afternoon, with the Southern Oregon coffee chain reporting that it hopes to raise $100 million by selling stock on Wall Street. The company said it will use the proceeds to pay down $192 million in long-term debt. ‘Jeopardy!’ host steps down Mike Richards stepped down Friday as host of “Jeopardy!” following re- ports of a number of in- appropriate comments he made on a podcast several years ago, bring- ing more turmoil to the iconic TV game show. Richards, the executive producer of the iconic quiz show, announced the change in a memo shared by the show’s pro- duction company Sony Pictures Television. He will remain in his produc- tion role. As a result, the pro- gram will continue to search for a permanent host to replace Alex Trebek, who died in No- vember. But the ongoing controversies surround- ing the process of finding a successor has tarnished a broadcasting institution beloved by several gener- ations of viewers. — Bulletin wire reports SILVER $23.11 -.11 p EURO $1.1696 +.0019 Emergency protection for workers put farms to test BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press SALEM — Farmworker advocates are so far pleased with emergency rules ad- opted by Oregon OSHA to protect workers from ex- treme heat and wildfire smoke, though they say more education is needed to make sure everyone is aware of the new mandates. On July 8, the state’s work- place health and safety agency announced a rule re- quiring employers to provide sufficient shade and drinking water when the heat index exceeds 80 degrees Fahren- heit, and regular rest periods when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees. The rule came on the heels of a “heat dome” that envel- oped the Pacific Northwest in late June, with tempera- tures above 100 degrees. One farmworker, 38-year-old Se- bastian Francisco Perez, died of an apparent heat stroke in 104-degree weather June 26 at Ernst Nursery and Farms in St. Paul, Ore. Oregon OSHA wasn’t done there, adopting two more rules on Aug. 2 establishing safeguards for workers in heavy smoke and high heat in employer-provided housing. The smoke rule requires farms and businesses to pro- vide outdoor workers with N95 masks when the Air Quality Index, or AQI, ex- ceeds 201. AQI is a measure of air particle pollution using a scale from 0 to 500 — any- thing below 50 represents good air quality, and any- thing above 300 represents hazardous air quality. As for worker housing, farms must provide cooling areas for workers if they can- not maintain an indoor tem- perature of 78 degrees or less. All rules are temporary and will remain in place for 180 days. An advisory com- mittee is now working with Oregon OSHA to adopt per- manent heat and smoke pro- tections. Reyna Lopez, executive director of the farmworkers union Pineros y Campesi- nos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, said the rules are hav- ing a positive impact. During the week of Aug. 9, which brought another multi-day, triple-digit heat wave, she said they did not hear of any more heat-related fatalities or injuries. “The tone was just a lot more positive than it was that week of the heat dome,” Lo- pez said. See OSHA / A6 Mark Graves/The Oregonian A “broista,” as the baristas at Dutch Bros Coffee are known, makes coffee at a Portland location in July. The offering has been in the works for months, but Friday’s filing spells out details of its plans and previously secret details about the company and its financials. Dutch Bros, based in Grants Pass, didn’t estimate how Wall Street will value the business, though, or set a timetable for going public. Dutch Bros did report that its sales totaled $327.4 million last year — up 27% from the year behind. The busi- SOUTHERN OREGON ness booked $5.7 million in profits last year amid rapid growth. Prior re- ports had indicated that investment banks hoped Dutch Bros would be worth $3 billion on the public mar- kets. The company said it intends to trade on the New York Stock Ex- change under the ticker symbol “BROS.” See Dutch Bros / A6 Oregon labor leader elected 1st woman to head AFL-CIO BY JEFF MANNING The Oregonian PEOPLE ON THE MOVE • Dr. Connor King has joined the Center Ortho- pedic & Neuro- surgical King Care & Research, a provider of orthopedic, neuro- surgical and physical medicine and rehabili- tation care. Dr. King is a fellowship trained joint replacement surgeon specializing in treating patients with conditions of the hip and knee. • Dr. Poornima Rao has joined Summit Health today announced the addition of board-certi- fied, fellowship-trained surgical oncologist spe- cializing in gastrointes- tinal malignancies and common cancers. q OREGON OSHA | NORTHWEST HEAT WAVE BRIEFING GM expands recall to all Chevy Bolts GOLD $1,781.00 +.80 Shuler Liz Shuler, an Oregonian who rose quickly through the ranks of U.S. orga- nized labor, was elected president of the AFL-CIO Friday. She is the first woman to hold the post, generally considered the top job in American unions. The AFL-CIO is a federation of 56 unions with 12.5 mil- lion members. “It’s still settling in,” Shuler said. “It’s bittersweet.” The election was staged earlier than originally planned because Richard Trumka, longtime president of the federation, died unexpectedly early this month. See Labor / A6 Investigators suspect human trafficking, forced labor at pot farm BY SOPHIA PRINCE Jefferson Public Radio The Josephine County Sheriff’s department raided a ranch in Southern Oregon’s Illinois Valley this week as part of an investigation into illegal cannabis cultivation, involuntary servitude, human trafficking and forced labor. The raid was part of a larger investigation that be- gan with the death of a man from a different suspected illegal cannabis farm, located in Cave Junction. In that case, the man was driven to a Chevron gas sta- tion in critical condition and left there. The man later died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Within two days of his death, that Cave Junction farm had been har- vested, and the workers had moved to the Illinois Val- ley ranch raided this week, which goes by the Q Bar X Ranch. The allegation of human trafficking followed multiple 911 hang-up calls that came from the property, as well as information from a source who is remaining anony- mous for their own safety. Jo- sephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel said that on these farms, which have the ear- marks of a cartel, the workers are often victims. “We’ve heard of the threat of harm to your family if you don’t go with us,” Dan- iel said. See Pot farm / A6 Climate risk becomes urgent issue for insurance industry BY KEITH LEWIS CQ-Roll Call Climate risk, a growing fo- cus for environment, social and governance-minded in- vestors, has morphed into an urgent issue for insurers as wildfires ravage the U.S. and Europe and natural disasters destroy property and cost lives worldwide. In the U.S., more than 2.4 million acres have burned in more than 100 large fires and complexes in 12 states this year, according to the National In- teragency Fire Center. Wild- fires also are raging across Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Russia and Lebanon, fueled by some of the hottest tempera- tures in recorded history. A report this month from the UN Intergovernmen- tal Panel on Climate Change found that human-produced greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for the rise in ex- treme weather, heat waves and drought. On the hook for more claim payouts, the insurance indus- try should be doing more to prepare for climate-related risk, according to Dave Jones, California’s insurance com- missioner from 2011-19. Jones is now director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the Center for Law, Energy and the En- vironment at the University of California, Berkeley Law School. “The role of insurance com- missioner is to protect con- sumers and supervise the fi- nancial stability of insurance markets,” Jones said . Insurance is essential for consumers and businesses, but the industry faces cli- mate-driven physical risk to covered assets as well as transi- tion risk in their reserve port- folios, he said. The risks include invest- ments in fossil fuel compa- nies and other greenhouse gas emitting industries that are expected to decline amid the carbon transition and could become stranded assets, he said. During his tenure in Cali- fornia, he was the first financial regulator to evaluate insurance companies’ reserve portfolios for climate risk. As commissioner, Jones asked companies to voluntarily divest holdings in thermal coal based on economic indicators that projected its decline. He mandated that insurers within the state disclose investments in oil, gas, coal or utilities that are more than 50 % derived from those sources. “As an insurance regulator, one of my responsibilities was to ensure companies were in- vesting in assets that retain value, so they have adequate reserves to pay claims,” Jones said. See Insurance / A6
