Car-Mart names new finance chief
America's Car-Mart Inc. has tapped a new chief financial officer and is opening a new lot in Northwest Arkansas, the company said Friday.
Top executive Vickie Judy will become the Bentonville-based used car company's chief financial officer at the first of the year. She's been with Car-Mart for seven years. During a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings for the company's fiscal 2018, Chief Executive Officer Hank Henderson said Judy is highly respected by her peers in the company.
Henderson also said the company is adding a new car lot in Centerton, bringing the company lot total to 141. Car-Mart has operations in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
-- John Magsam
Monsanto updates dicamba-ban lawsuit
Monsanto on Friday updated a lawsuit it filed last month against the state Plant Board, to reflect the board's vote Nov. 8 to ban the in-crop use of a herbicide next year.
The amended complaint, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, also alleges that the makeup of the board is unconstitutional, a claim first made by a six farmers in a separate lawsuit Nov. 10. Nine of the board's 16 voting members are appointed by agriculture trade groups; seven are appointed by the governor.
Monsanto sued the board on Oct. 20 for action it took in 2016 that kept a Monsanto dicamba off the Arkansas market this year. Its amendment Friday asks a judge to overturn the board's vote earlier this month that prohibits dicamba spraying next year between April 16 and Oct. 31.
As weeds grew resistant to glyphosate and other herbicides, Monsanto developed cotton and soybeans tolerant of dicamba, a chemical harmful to other varieties of soybeans, as well as fruits, vegetables, and ornamental shrubs and trees.
The Plant Board received nearly 1,000 dicamba damage complaints this year.
Monsanto's lawsuit is assigned to Circuit Judge Chris Piazza. The farmers' lawsuit is assigned to Circuit Judge Tim Fox.
-- Stephen Steed
Car seller rises 9.4% to lead index up 0.69
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.69 to 388.21 Friday.
Nine stocks declined, eight rose and one was unchanged.
America's Car-Mart Inc. jumped 9.4 percent and hit a 52-week high.
Total volume for the index on Friday was 39.4 million shares.
For the week, 12 stocks advanced and six 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 11/18/2017