A2 The BulleTin • SaTurday, January 8, 2022
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COVID-19 data for Jan. 7
Deschutes County cases: 29,044 (940 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 221 (6 new deaths)
Crook County cases: 3,843 (35 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 60 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 4,727 (63 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 69 (6 new deaths)
Oregon cases: 459,700 (10,451 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 5,761 (33 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at St. Charles Bend on
Friday: 36 (3 in iCu).
The Bulletin had been tracking the seven-day average case
count based on state data since local cases were first reported,
until the state stopped providing county-level data for
weekends or holidays. When data is available, The Bulletin will
continue to publish information about the pandemic.
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PORTLAND METRO | COLUMBIA RIVER
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Planning funds for bridge OK’d
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JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
The Oregonian
The Portland-area Metro
Council voted Thursday to
funnel $36 million of state
money toward the planning of
a new Interstate Bridge over
the Columbia River.
Five of the six councilors for
the regional governing body
voted in favor of releasing
funds that will allow the proj-
ect to move forward, reviving
efforts to build a new Interstate
5 bridge following the 2014
failure of the Columbia River
Crossing project.
Even as project manag-
ers characterized the vote as a
formality, several councilors
expressed hesitation about al-
lowing the project to move for-
ward without more information
about the capacity of the pro-
posed bridge or what they char-
acterized as adequate attention
to climate and equity issues.
Nonetheless, the elected
council members said they
felt the pressure to approve
the funds in order to conduct
more research on the proposed
bridge, and to focus on other re-
gional transportation projects.
The council also voted to
adopt a “Values, Outcomes
and Actions” motion, which
lays out specific goals that the
Interstate Bridge Replace-
123rF
The Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge on Interstate 205 crosses the Columbia River.
ment Project must follow to
win Metro’s support for future
funding and approvals. That
document was shaped in part
by demands from climate ac-
tivists and land use planning
groups.
They include that the Inter-
state Bridge project team must
conduct an analysis of how to
reduce the number of vehicle
miles traveled through mea-
sures like rush-hour tolling
and high-capacity transit.
And it must also conduct a
health impact analysis of air
quality of the corridor between
downtown Portland and Van-
couver.
It must also conduct an “in-
vestment-grade” traffic analysis
ahead of any decisions about
the bridge design, which would
allow for a clearer sense of how
big the bridge should be.
Mary Nolan, the only coun-
cilor to vote against allocating
the $36 million, asked Johnson
directly if he would commit to
conducting studies and look-
ing at alternatives that meet the
council’s expectations.
Johnson initially hesitated to
make the commitment.
“We are once again trying to
find what is the best solution
to create a multi-modal cor-
ridor to convert single occu-
pancy trips into transit, bike,
walk and roller trips,” he said.
“Those are the things we are
looking at to make this foot-
print as small as possible. But
if you’re asking us to go out
and build something that is go-
ing to fail, that is not a success
story for anyone trying to build
any project.”
Nolan took issue with that
characterization.
“I’m not even asking you to
do a less significant project,”
Nolan said. “I’m asking you
to commit to including mod-
ifications that dramatically
switch the modal split, reduce
greenhouse gases. I’m asking
whether, essentially, everything
we’ve done today has struck a
chord with you.”
A few speakers also sup-
ported funding the project,
including a coalition of more
than 20 Portland-area busi-
ness associations, chambers of
commerce and land develop-
ment companies such as the
Portland Business Alliance,
the Greater Vancouver and
Washington County chambers
of commerce and Travel Port-
land.
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CORRECTIONS
COVID-19 relief
Man who defrauded programs gets 4 years in prison
Andrew Aaron Lloyd bought Tesla stock, rental properties valued at a combined $18M
BY ZANE SPARLING
The Oregonian
An Oregon man who created several
hundred employees out of thin air and
then fraudulently obtained $3.4 million
in COVID-19 relief funds has been sen-
tenced to four years in prison.
Andrew Aaron Lloyd invested his
ill-gotten gains and won big — even-
tually purchasing more than 15,000
shares of Tesla stock and 25 rental prop-
erties in Oregon and California, valued
at a combined $18 million.
Lloyd, a 51-year-old Lebanon resi-
dent, has been ordered to pay $4 mil-
lion in restitution, give up the real estate
assets and forfeit his stock in the electric
car manufacturer.
His sentencing marks Oregon’s larg-
est closed case of COVID-19 relief
fraud, according to a U.S. Attorney’s
Office spokesperson. West Linn dentist
Salwan W. Adjaj was charged with bilk-
ing nearly $8 million in December, per
court records, and remains in custody
on a pretrial release violation.
In a sentencing memo calling for a
harsher 65-month sentence, federal
prosecutors called Lloyd an “opportu-
nistic fraudster” who got lucky as a day
trader.
“The seriousness of the offense is not
diminished by sheer dumb luck,” As-
sistant U.S. Attorney Gavin W. Bruce
wrote. “Lloyd did not return these
funds voluntarily; law enforcement
recovered the funds before he could
spend them or lose them.”
Court records show Lloyd transferred
a $1.8 million slice of his Paycheck Pro-
tection Program funds to a brokerage
account, which grew to $13 million as
Tesla stock soared. Lloyd also obtained
a fraudulent $160,000 Economic Injury
Disaster loan from the U.S. Small Busi-
ness Administration.
Over 60 days, Lloyd submitted more
than a dozen phony applications for
home care, shopping and construction
businesses, often duplicating the same
list of 56 “fictitious” employees while
claiming millions of dollars in phony
payroll expenses, court documents say.
He closely tracked the various rounds
of Paycheck Protection Program fund-
ing, at one point assuring an accomplice
that the ruse would work because Con-
gress would add “another [$]300 billion
very soon,” the documents say.
Lloyd was indicted last January and
pleaded guilty in June to charges of
bank fraud, money laundering and wire
fraud. He was sentenced this week.
His accomplice, Russell Anthony
Schort, submitted another fake applica-
tion crafted by Lloyd in exchange for a
$295,000 cut of the proceeds, according
to prosecutors.
But Schort, 39, of Myrtle Creek, was
“not the mastermind” of the plot, prose-
cutors said. He served 14 days in prison
and was sentenced in November to time
served, as well as restitution of the cash
and three years of probation. Schort
and Lloyd are among the 10 total people
who have faced federal charges for per-
petrating or participating in COVID-re-
lief fraud schemes, according to the U.S.
Attorney’s Office spokesperson.
The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all
stories are accurate. if you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
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Shortages caused by surge shut down 3 Portland schools
COURTNEY VAUGHN
Pamplin Media Group
At least three Portland
schools announced closures
Friday due to staffing shortages
and student absences as an-
other surge of COVID-19 in-
fections took hold.
On Thursday, Parkrose
School District announced
Prescott Elementary would
close Friday, citing “excessive
staff and student absences and
not enough substitutes avail-
able.”
In a Jan. 3 message to fam-
ilies from Parkrose Superin-
tendent Michael Lopes Serrao,
Serrao warned of likely staffing
shortages due to illness and ab-
sences.
“Due to the rapid rate of
infections, we anticipate that
Parkrose staffing and support
will be impacted,” Serrao stated,
noting an uptick in student
cases during the weeks prior.
“However, in an emergency
situation where we cannot
safely provide service to stu-
dents, we may have to an-
nounce an emergency closure
due to the spread of the virus.
We will only do this as a last
resort, but please be prepared
this winter for announce-
ments regarding the status of
COVID-19 in our community.”
Hours after that announce-
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Comfortable living space to feel at home.
ment, Portland Public Schools
announced Leodis V. McDan-
iel and Cleveland high schools
would also close Friday and
temporarily transition to dis-
tance learning starting Monday
until at least Friday.
Portland schools cited “a sig-
nificant increase in the number
of COVID-related absences for
both students and staff.”
“After closely monitoring
the data over the past few days,
the district is seeing a signifi-
cant increase in the number of
COVID-related absences for
both students and staff,” Marga-
ret Calvert, regional superinten-
dent of secondary schools, said
in an announcement Thursday.