State accepts complaints on herbicides
This summer's outbreak of dicamba damage across cotton and soybeans in Arkansas has prompted development of a new webpage for the state Department of Agriculture and weekly meetings of the state Plant Board's pesticide committee.
The webpage will offer a daily tally of complaints of possible herbicide misuse and the counties from which they originated, the department said Tuesday. It can be found at www.aad.arkansas.gov.
The department had received about 50 complaints from 11 counties by mid-afternoon Tuesday. The page also will have links to frequently asked questions, pesticide training and applicable regulations.
The pesticide committee of the Plant Board, a division of the department, will meet weekly, starting Friday, through July 21, the department also said. All six meetings between those dates will begin at 10 a.m. each Friday at the department's headquarters on Natural Resources Drive in Little Rock.
Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward said Plant Board inspectors will "have all the tools they need to adequately investigate these complaints" and the department will update the public as information becomes available.
Terry Walker, Plant Board director, encouraged farmers to contact the department with any complaints about misuse of dicamba and other herbicides.
Ward and Walker have been directed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to visit farms that have been damaged and to report back.
-- Stephen Steed
Sears to cut 400 jobs, mostly corporate
NEW YORK -- Sears Holdings says it will cut about 400 full-time jobs as part of the troubled retailer's plan to turn its business around.
The company, which owns the Sears and Kmart chains, says the cuts include some at its corporate offices in Hoffman Estates, Ill., as well as support functions globally, certain field operations positions and jobs related to store closures. The eliminated jobs represent less than half a percent of the 140,000 full-time and part-time employees it had at the end of January.
Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that the job cuts are part of its previously announced plans to save $1.25 billion in costs a year. The retailer, which has been losing money for years, has been closing stores, selling locations and putting some of its famous brands up for sale. The company is reportedly closing an additional 66 stores by early September. That's on top of the 150 stores that closed in April.
"We are making progress with the fundamental restructuring of our operations that we initiated in February," Edward Lampert, chairman and chief executive officer of Sears Holdings, said in a statement. "We remain focused on realigning our business model in an evolving and highly competitive retail environment. This requires us to optimize our store footprint and operate as a leaner and simpler organization."
-- The Associated Press
Spring wheat prices rise on poor crop
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. spring wheat crop is in its worst shape in almost three decades, sending prices for the grain on a tear.
Forty-five percent of the crop, the high-protein variety grown in northern states, was in good or excellent condition as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday after the close of trading. That's down 10 percentage points from the prior week and marks the worst rating for the time of year since 1988.
Futures have surged 13 percent in the past month, outpacing the gains of all 22 components of the Bloomberg Commodity Index. Spring wheat isn't tracked by the gauge.
Dryness has expanded across key U.S. growing states this spring. Sixty-three percent of North Dakota, the top domestic producer, is short or very short on topsoil moisture, the USDA estimates.
"It's pretty likely that we'll get high-protein wheat at harvest -- there just won't be that much of it," Louise Gartner, owner of Spectrum Commodities in New Richmond, Ohio, said in a telephone interview.
Spring wheat futures rose 3.2 percent to $6.20 a bushel in morning trade on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Prices earlier touched $6.2275, the highest for a most-active contract since July 2015. Volumes on the exchange have been climbing this month, and aggregate open interest reached 78,862 contracts on June 9, the highest in three months.
-- Bloomberg News
Verizon closes $4.5B deal for Yahoo
NEW YORK -- Verizon Communications Inc. is finally getting Yahoo Inc.'s Internet services, giving the telecommunications giant access to hundreds of millions of users.
The companies officially closed the $4.5 billion agreement Tuesday after Yahoo shareholders approved the deal last week, the companies said. Yahoo properties including Sports and Finance will become part of a new Verizon unit called Oath, which is home to brands such as AOL, TechCrunch and the Huffington Post. Oath will be overseen by former AOL Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong while Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer, 42, is stepping down.
Verizon -- which acquired AOL two years ago and started an online video application -- is building what it hopes will become a leading digital service that supplements its core business of helping consumers send and receive information on their devices or watch television channels. While the agreement was announced last July, the deal itself was in jeopardy after Yahoo disclosed two security hacks that exposed user accounts and threatened its trust with consumers, eventually slashing the deal's price by $350 million.
-- Bloomberg News
Chinese insurance chairman detained
BEIJING -- A Chinese business news magazine says the chairman of the insurance company that bought New York City's Waldorf Hotel has been detained by regulators.
Tuesday's report by Caijing follows accusations of possible misconduct by Anbang Insurance Group.
The magazine, citing unidentified sources, said Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui was detained last Friday.
Anbang made a high-profile series of foreign acquisitions that included paying $2 billion for the Waldorf in 2016.
Anbang denied accusations in April by another magazine, Caixin, that it improperly used payments from policyholders as capital.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 06/14/2017