News in brief

Commercial drivers' minimum skills set

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released a final rule this week that sets out a comprehensive national minimum training standard for hopeful commercial driver's license holders.

"This new rule represents the culmination of a sustained and coordinated effort to identify appropriate pre-licensing CDL standards that will enhance safety on our Nation's roads," the agency's administrator, T.F. Scott Darling III, said in a release.

The agency has been working on the issue since 2007.

The rule consists of skills-based minimum proficiency in knowledge and behind-the-wheel curricula on a driving course and public roads. There is no required number of hours of training, something many in the industry opposed. Trainers will determine whether license applicants meet the new standards.

The rule takes effect in February, with full compliance by February 2020.

-- Emma N. Hurt

Farm Bureau honors Clarksville couple

Mark and Shay Morgan of Clarksville are the 2016 Arkansas Farm Family of the Year, the Arkansas Farm Bureau announced.

The Morgans farm 600 acres of hay, have 300 head of beef cattle and operate "Peach Pickin' Paradise," a 17-acre, self-pick orchard of 3,500 peach and nectarine trees near Clarksville.

The family is active in the local School to Farm program, in which Shay Morgan is a registered dietitian who shares her knowledge of nutrition and food safety with visitors during farm tours and at community gatherings.

The Farm Family of the Year program is in its 69th year. The competition opens with the selection of a champion family in each of the state's 75 counties and narrows to eight district winners.

The Morgans will be among 10 farm families from across the southeastern United States vying for the 2017 southeastern farm family of the year. That winner will be announced in October.

-- Stephen Steed

State index off 1.44, while 6 stocks peak

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.44 to 378.37 Friday.

Eleven stocks declined and seven advanced.

Bear State Financial rose 2.9 percent in heavy trading.

ArcBest dropped 3.1 percent on high volume.

America's Car-Mart, ArcBest, Bank of the Ozarks, Deltic Timber, Home BancShares and J.B. Hunt Transport each hit 52-week highs Friday.

For the week, 16 stocks gained ground and two fell.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 12/10/2016

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