LR company ranks 6th on national list
Team SI, a digital marketing agency in Little Rock, ranked sixth on the list of the 100 fastest-growing inner-city companies in the U.S.
Compiled by Fortune magazine and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, the list recognizes successful companies and CEOs in urban communities. Other recipients this year of the distinction, which has been awarded for 18 years, include Pandora Media and Angie's List.
"We're honored that we're recognized as an Inner City 100 winner because it recognizes both business success and a commitment to further innovative success," Tim Whitley, CEO and co-founder of Team SI, said in a news release. "Innovation is Team SI's core value because it is the center of everything we do. We are thrilled to share this recognition with our clients, partners and employees."
Team SI, which has 43 employees, was founded in 2010.
-- Chris Bahn
Farmers' co-op obtains $600,000 loan
Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative in Clinton said it has obtained a $600,000 loan to expand its 13-farm operations across 10 Arkansas counties.
The loan, from RSF Social Finance in San Francisco, was announced Friday by Heifer USA, a division of Heifer International in Little Rock, which provides the co-op with technical, organizational and financial support.
A $400,000 line of credit will help the co-op buy animals from member farms and process them. Another $200,000 loan will help the farmers purchase feed and raise animals that eventually will be sold back to the co-op. Many of the co-op's members are first-generation farmers.
Cody Hopkins, the co-op's general manager and a co-founder, said the loan will help his organization become a model for new, like-minded co-ops across the state. "We're creating economically viable livelihoods that will take care of the land, lift up people and their communities, and produce delicious, healthy meats," Hopkins said in the co-op's news release.
The co-op was founded in 2014 to train and mentor new farmers and to help them transport, process and market their goods.
RSF Social Finance, founded as Rudolf Steiner Foundation Inc., said it has made more than $450 million in loans, grants and investments in community-based programs in agriculture, education, arts and ecology since 1984.
-- Stephen Steed
Uber told its robot cars need state's OK
PITTSBURGH -- The state agency that regulates taxicabs and transportation businesses in Pennsylvania says it doesn't have jurisdiction over free trips in self-driving cars being offered by Uber, but it will have jurisdiction once the company starts charging money.
The Public Utility Commission said Thursday that it wants a review of the regulatory, legal and technical issues raised by autonomous vehicles.
Uber began a test program of the vehicles in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
The regulatory agency said any business that wants to transport people for money has to prove it's safe and get approval before starting the service.
The ride-hailing company is offering free rides by invitation, with human drivers along as a safety precaution.
The state Transportation Department is looking at the issues through the Autonomous Vehicle Task Force, established in June.
-- The Associated Press
Oil tanker bound for Libya faces delay
An oil tanker that's supposed to collect crude from a key Libyan export terminal for the first time in almost two years is encountering a slight delay, an official said.
The Seadelta is having to wait longer than anticipated to load its cargo from the port of Ras Lanuf for unspecified "technical reasons," an official said Friday. The tanker should load today at the latest, according to the official, who helps organize oil movements at the port. The tanker, meant to arrive Thursday, remains at sea, tracking data show.
The loading, assuming it proceeds, will mark a key milestone in Libya's oil-market rehabilitation amid a conflict that's lowered output to about a sixth of what it was four years ago. The state's National Oil Corp. lifted export restrictions this week and said it has been handed control of the terminal by one of the nation's military factions.
Shipments from Ras Lanuf and nearby Es Sider were halted since December 2014 because of conflict that followed the overthrow and death of former leader Moammar Gadhafi. There have been at least a dozen failed pledges to resume sales to overseas buyers.
-- Bloomberg News
EU's key natural gas producer runs low
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The European Union's biggest natural gas producer is running out of reserves.
The Netherlands, also the region's largest trading hub for the fuel, has used up almost 80 percent of its natural gas reserves, the Netherlands' Central Agency for Statistics said on Friday. Production fell 38 percent over the previous two years and is set to fall further as the government limits extraction because of earthquakes in Groningen, the province that houses the EU's largest gas deposit, it said.
The nation of about 17 million people is struggling to contain tremors linked to gas production by a joint venture of Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell that have damaged thousands of homes. The government budget has been hit by the caps on extraction and declining wholesale prices, with gas accounting for just 3 percent of state income in 2015, down from 9 percent two years earlier, the Dutch agency said.
Groningen's decline also has broader implications for the European gas market, which will be more reliant on outside countries to meet its energy needs.
-- Bloomberg News
Firm says it warned Tesla of Autopilot
DETROIT -- The company that made software that controls Tesla Motors' Autopilot system said it warned the automaker not to allow drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while using the system but was ignored.
Mobileye of Israel made the statement Friday, escalating a spat between the companies that surfaced after a May crash in Florida that killed a driver who was using Autopilot.
Mobileye says its chairman warned Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in May of 2015 against hands-free use of Autopilot, and was assured the system would be "hands-on." But the product Tesla released allowed drivers to take their hands off the wheel for minutes at a time.
Tesla said Mobileye's account is inaccurate.
Government investigators are looking into Autopilot's role in the Florida crash.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 09/17/2016