Forum to feature women in agriculture
Arkansas Women in Agriculture will hold its annual conference Tuesday and Wednesday at the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in North Little Rock.
Melissa Beck, the organization's outgoing president, said she expects 75 to 100 people to attend the conference, featuring seminars ranging from the trendy (Canning 101) to the hip (smartphone apps for farming) to the utilitarian (surviving low cattle prices).
Founded in 2005, the group is registered as a nonprofit and has about 120 members. The group is in the middle of its latest membership drive, said Beck, who runs her family's stocker cattle operation near Hope.
Registration is available at the door, starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, there were 5,485 farms, totaling more than 790,000 acres, in Arkansas operated by women. Women were the full owners of 4,481 of those farms, part owners of 764 farms, and tenants on 240.
More women, especially married ones, tend to become full-time operators during economic downtowns, Beck said. "In agri, when we get hit hard, if someone has to leave the farm to go into town to get a job, that someone tends to be the man because there's better money," she said. "Their wives will stay on the farm and run things." Women also tend to outlive their partners and become the primary operators of farms after deaths or disabilities, she said.
The keynote speaker is Amberley Snyder, a barrel racer and inspirational speaker who was paralyzed in an automobile accident but who has returned to the barrel-racing circuit.
-- Stephen Steed
Didn't break tax laws, Caterpillar says
WASHINGTON -- Caterpillar, a week after its headquarters and other facilities were raided by a number of federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, denied that it had broken any federal tax laws.
"The IRS has challenged Caterpillar's taxes for years 2007- 2012," the company said Friday. "We disagree with the IRS' position, have cooperated for requests for information, and believe that we are compliant with tax laws and stand by our financial reporting."
Caterpillar has been challenged for some time by federal agencies in regard to its accounting practices and last week the company said that the raids may have been related to a Swiss business, called CSARL.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, Caterpillar said the IRS had informed the company that it owed $2 billion in additional taxes for the years 2010 to 2012 because of profits from that Swiss unit.
Caterpillar is one of the world's largest makers of construction and other heavy equipment and had revenue of $38.54 billion last year.
-- The Associated Press
Nation's oil, gas rig count rises in week
HOUSTON -- The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by 12 this week to 768.
A year ago, 480 rigs were active.
Houston oil-field services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that 617 rigs sought oil and 151 explored for natural gas this week.
Louisiana increased by five rigs, Colorado and Oklahoma each were up three, Ohio and Wyoming rose by two and California gained one.
Alaska declined by three and New Mexico dropped one.
Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and West Virginia were all unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out last May at 404.
-- The Associated Press
Iowa train derailment raises concern
GRAETTINGER, Iowa -- Environmental experts were checking for ethanol leaks Friday after a freight train derailed and burst into flames as it crossed a trestle bridge over a northwest Iowa creek that empties into the Des Moines River.
The derailment happened around 1 a.m. near the small community of Graettinger, about 160 miles northwest of Des Moines, the Palo Alto County sheriff's office said in a news release. It said two crew members escaped unharmed and no injuries have been reported. Officials asked area residents to evacuate, although they acknowledged that no one appeared to live within a half-mile of the rural site.
Palo Alto County emergency management director Mark Hunefeld said at least 27 of 101 cars derailed. Several of the cars were still burning at noon Friday and officials planned to let the fire burn itself out, although that decision was to be reviewed later Friday afternoon, Hunefeld said.
Iowa Natural Resources Department field office supervisor Ken Hessenius said he doesn't yet know whether any ethanol leaked into Jack Creek. Each tanker carries about 25,000 gallons.
Raquel Espinoza, a spokesman for Union Pacific, confirmed that the train was operated by that railroad company, but she declined to say more, referring questions to the National Transportation Safety Board.
-- The Associated Press
India convicts factory workers in '12 riot
NEW DELHI -- A court in north India convicted 31 workers Friday for taking part in violence at a factory run by the country's largest automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, that led to the death of a manager, news reports said.
Another 117 men were acquitted of charges of criminal conspiracy and murder, New Delhi Television reported. A dispute between workers and management at the factory in Manesar in Haryana state resulted in rioting in 2012.
The subsidiary of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. operates two factories in India.
A day after the violence broke out in July the body of Avnish Kumar, the human resources manager, was found badly charred in a conference room. Dozens of managers and executives were also injured with several suffering broken bones, the company said at the time.
According to the company, the unrest broke out when a worker beat up a supervisor and the workers union prevented management from disciplining the worker and blocked exit gates.
The Maruti Suzuki Workers Union said a supervisor had abused and made discriminatory comments to a low-caste worker, leading to the violence.
The convicted workers have not been sentenced but could face life in prison.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 03/11/2017