Hussman to address group in Jonesboro
Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is scheduled to speak Tuesday in Jonesboro about the newspaper industry's future in the digital age.
The talk is at noon during a luncheon of the Rotary Club of Jonesboro in St. Bernards Auditorium at 505 E. Washington Ave.
Home delivery of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Craighead County will cease May 31, with people who continue their subscriptions being supplied with an iPad tablet computer that allows access to a daily digital replica.
Delivery of the iPads began last week in Craighead County. Some 64 percent of daily and Sunday print subscribers have agreed to try the digital subscription, Lynn Hamilton, the newspaper's president, said.
The pilot program began in Mississippi County, where delivery to 240 customers ceased on April 1. At least 70 percent of those subscribers signed up for the iPad program. Home delivery also has been stopped in Clay, Greene, Randolph and Lawrence counties, with more than 50 percent of subscribers agreeing to switch to digital.
-- Stephen Steed
Ford F-150s rolling off plant line again
DEARBORN, Mich. -- After being fully shut down for eight days, workers streamed into the Dearborn Truck Plant for the 6 a.m. shift Friday and rolled the first F-150 off the line before 6:01 a.m.
"We build one F-150 every 52 seconds at this plant," said Ford spokesman Kelli Felker, who was on site by 5:30 a.m. "It was beautiful to see, just beautiful."
The single shift is the first of three expected to be fully running by Monday after a May 2 supplier fire in Eaton Rapids disrupted production with a parts shortage. Some 4,000 plant workers in Dearborn were affected.
The F-150 production is targeted to restart at the Kansas City Assembly Plant on Monday. And the Ford team has repaired the Super Duty supply chain, with production scheduled to begin at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville by Monday, too.
Ford is flying in parts from the United Kingdom daily on a 747 aircraft until the Eaton Rapids plant is fully up and running.
-- Tribune News Service
Campbell's Soup CEO being replaced
NEW YORK -- The top executive at Campbell Soup will retire and the company is undergoing a strategic review as it tries to revive sales that have been under pressure due to shifting American tastes and rising costs.
Denise Morrison, who has been has been CEO since 2011, is being replaced immediately by Keith McLoughlin, who will lead the company on an interim basis.
The company, founded almost 150 years ago, is also facing new head winds due to recent changes in U.S. trade policy.
In March, President Donald Trump's administration imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, used to make cans.
The Can Manufacturers Institute, which represents 22,000 workers at manufacturers nationwide, believes the tariffs will harm their industry and consumers alike. The institute says there are 119 billion cans made in the U.S., meaning a 1-cent tariff would lead to a $1.1 billion tax on consumers and businesses.
-- The Associated Press
Oregon pot glut draws look from lawmen
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The black market for marijuana is thriving in Oregon, and an oversupply of weed from growers is flowing to more than two dozen states where pot remains illegal, a top federal law enforcement official said Friday.
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said the state has a "significant overproduction" problem and that he would prioritize enforcement of overproduction, interstate trafficking, organized crime and cases involving underage marijuana use and environmental damage from illicit pot farms.
The comments, which echoed those he made earlier this year, were included in a memo that outlines his plans for enforcing federal drug laws in a state with legalized marijuana. Williams is the first U.S. attorney to issue such guidance after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the guidance from President Barack Obama's guidance on pot-friendly states in January.
The state currently has nearly 1 million pounds of marijuana flower in inventory, a staggering amount for a state with a population of 4.1 million people. That doesn't include 350,000 pounds of marijuana edibles, tinctures and concentrates.
The state has 21 million square feet of legal marijuana growing and a $1 billion market statewide, he said. Of that, about one-third -- or about $300 million -- is diverted to the illegal market within the state, but it is not clear how much is leaving Oregon, he added.
-- The Associated Press
California utility dealt setback over fire
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. suffered another legal setback with a judge saying he won't release the company from a key legal claim over one of the most destructive wildfire outbreaks in California history.
Officials haven't determined the causes of the Tubbs Fire and a series of other blazes that burned through wine country north of San Francisco last year, but analysts have said the utility could face more than $15 billion in claims from the fires.
Pacific Gas and Electric has been challenging a California law allowing private property owners to hold the utility 100 percent responsible for any losses caused by its equipment or power lines even if it didn't act negligently. Edison International, owner of the dominant utility in Southern California, is also facing the prospect of multibillion-dollar payouts under the same law over a record-setting blaze near Los Angeles.
Friday's tentative ruling marks the second time in a month a state judge has refused to spare Pacific Gas and Electric from having to face a claim under inverse condemnation.
"There is no basis for PG&E's argument that imposing inverse condemnation liability" is unconstitutional unless the utility is guaranteed to "automatically recover" its costs through rate increases, Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow said in the ruling.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 05/19/2018