State's justices block dicamba exemptions
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday put a halt to a judge's ruling that allowed 37 farmers in northeast Arkansas to avoid the state's ban on dicamba.
After the ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said the state's April 16-Oct. 31 ban on in-crop use of the herbicide "is in full force across the entire state."
Circuit Judge Randy Philhours had granted a temporary restraining order for 37 farmers who had filed a lawsuit in Clay County Circuit Court against the state Plant Board's dicamba ban.
Three other circuit judges -- Tonya Alexander in Mississippi County, Christopher Morledge in Phillips County and Tim Fox in Pulaski County -- had issued rulings favorable to farmers, granting the farmers exemptions in each case. The Supreme Court has now halted all four decisions, pending trials and appeals.
In a fifth case, Circuit Judge Melissa Bristow Richardson in Jonesboro refused farmers' request for a temporary restraining order.
The Plant Board instituted the cutoff date after receiving 997 complaints last year about dicamba damage to crops not tolerant of the herbicide.
-- Stephen Steed
Paper delivery to end in Craighead County
Home delivery of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Craighead County will cease May 31, with subscribers who continue their subscriptions being supplied with an $800 iPad that provides a daily digital replica, Lynn Hamilton, the newspaper's president, said Monday.
The newspaper plans to invest up to $800,000 in the iPad program. The pilot program began in Mississippi County, where delivery to 240 customers ceased on April 1. Hamilton said 70 percent of those subscribers signed up for the iPad program.
Home delivery ended Monday in Clay, Greene, Randolph and Lawrence counties, where 54 percent of subscribers have accepted the iPads and continued their subscriptions, Hamilton said.
"When we first started this program, we certainly called it an experiment," Hamilton said. "At this point, we call it a success."
-- Stephen Steed
Arkansas Index falls 3.99, ends at 400.51
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 3.99 to 400.51 Monday.
"U.S. stocks reversed gains, ending on a lower note after rising oil prices and falling health care stocks weighed on investors, as we close out April," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 05/01/2018