LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You can go to roadside stands throughout the western part of the state, and they’ll try to sell you Karo syrup and swear it’s sourwood honey.”
Charles Heatherly,
a North Carolina beekeeper Article, 1D
U.S. rig count falls by 11; state up 2
HOUSTON - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. dropped by 11 this week to 1,650.
Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that 967 rigs were exploring for natural gas and 673 for oil. Ten were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago this week, the rig count stood at 1,017.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas lost 12 rigs, Louisiana dropped by 4, while New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wyoming each lost two rigs. North Dakota lost one rig. Alaska, Arkansas, California and Colorado each gained two rigs. Oklahoma and West Virginia remained unchanged.
The rig-count tally peaked at 4,530 in 1981, during the height of the oil boom. The industry posted a record low of 488 in 1999.
Blockbuster CEO to assess all stores
Blockbuster Inc. Chief Executive Officer James Keyes said he will evaluate “every single store” in the video-rental chain as it reorganizes to compete with competitors that provide movies online and by mail.
The 25-year-old company filed for bankruptcy Thursday in New York after losing sales to Netflix Inc.’s Web and mail-order movie service and Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox DVDrental kiosks. Revenue dropped 20 percent to $4.06 billion last year, when Dallas-based Blockbuster reported a $558.2 million net loss.
As of Aug. 29, Blockbuster had about 5,600 stores worldwide, including 3,300 in the United States, according to court papers. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said the company may have to cut U.S. locations to about 2,000 to increase annual sales per store to at least $1 million. In 2002, that figure stood at $1.1 million, he said.
“No one can predict what the market will look like for them going forward as Netflix and Redbox continue to take market share, so they are shooting in the dark,” Pachter said.
Leverage faulted in slow recovery
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said excessive borrowing by banks and investment in real estate leading up to the recession make the U.S. economic recovery slow and difficult.
“You had this huge growth in leverage in the financial system, huge overinvestment in real estate in parts of the country, and those things made the crisis much more acute.
But more relevant for us now, they make the recovery harder,” Geithner said Friday at a U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce conference in Dallas. “They make it slower, longer, more uneven, and that’s the challenge we’re dealing with today.”
Parts of the economy, including exports and private investment, are “really quite strong” even if “it is a very tough economy still,” Geithner said.
Orders for U.S. capital equipment rebounded in August, signaling a slowdown in business investment may be less severe than some economists projected. Bookings for goods such as computers and communications gear climbed 4.1 percent after a 5.3 percent decline in July that was smaller than previously estimated, figures from the Commerce Department showed Friday in Washington.
Total orders dropped 1.3 percent, depressed by volatile demand for aircraft, and bookings excluding transportation equipment rose more than forecast.
Hertz says its Dollar Thrifty bid final
NEW YORK - Hertz says its last bid for Dollar Thrifty was its final offer, one day after its rival Avis topped it.
Hertz says it is standing by its offer valuing Dollar Thrifty at $50.25 per share, compared with an Avis bid valued at $53 per share, or about $1.52 billion in cash and stock.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc.
have been in a fight over Dollar Thrifty, which caters to leisure travelers that both companies want access to.
Shares of Dollar Thrifty fell $1.39, or 2.7 percent, to $50.95 at the opening bell.
Shareholders of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc.
are scheduled to vote on Hertz’s offer Thursday.
Agency sues Dillard’s, claims age bias
Little Rock-based Dillard’s Inc. this week was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations of age discrimination at a Cary, N.C., store.
The commission in its suit alleges that Dillard’s discharged a 61-year-old woman from her area sales manager job because of her age, according to a release from the agency.
Virginia Keene had more than four years of experience in her job, but was terminated and replaced by a 24-yearold worker who had four months experience as an area sales manager, the lawsuit alleges.
Keene was recommended for promotion two times and ranked second in sales out of six area sales managers at her store, the release said. While Keene was working for the retailer, her managers told her she was too old for a sales job, the release said.
The commission alleges Dillard’s violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the agency seeks items including back pay for Keene, reinstatement and/or other compensation. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Western Division. Dillard’s spokesman Julie Bull declined comment.
Lawsuit alleges racial bias at rehab
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit Friday on behalf of a former employee of Stoneridge Health and Rehab Center LLC in College Station.
The commission alleges Stoneridge fired Bertha Okoye after she complained about racial discrimination.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, says Okoye complained that Zahid Abbasi, a facility administrator, made “comments regarding the eating of watermelon and chicken by the majority black staff ... no matter what the staff happened to be eating.”
Stoneridge conducted an investigation and determined that Okoye had made a malicious complaint and discharged her, the lawsuit says.
The commission said that Stoneridge acted with malice and reckless indifference toward Okoye.
The suit is seeking to recover back pay for Okoye, as well as punitive damages.
Nobody was available for comment at Stoneridge on Friday evening.
Business, Pages 32 on 09/25/2010