Newspaper president Nelson to retire
Todd A. Nelson, president of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, announced his retirement Monday, effective April 1.
Nelson worked at newspapers and in publishing positions from Texas to Nebraska before moving to Northwest Arkansas in 2014.
"This is a beautiful place that's very progressive, has tons of activities and is a great newspaper market," Nelson said of the region. "It's my favorite stop, and I've lived in a lot of places. It's really, really hard to leave."
Nelson, 61, and his wife, Kim, plan to move to Nebraska to live near their first grandchild, who was born in June, he said.
The business that is now the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published five different daily newspapers in the region when he arrived, Nelson said. Creating the single Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette brand that is also a quality product is the newspaper's most important accomplishment during his time here, Nelson said.
Long-time Finance Director Sandy Thompson has also announced her retirement plans. Her retirement date depends on finding and training a replacement, she said. Thompson went to work as chief finance director at what was then the Northwest Arkansas Times in 1983.
-- Doug Thompson
Oil futures prices dip as supplies grow
Oil fell the most in a week amid reports of swelling crude stockpiles and disappointing economic activity in the U.S.
Futures declined 1.3 percent on Monday in New York. Supplies at a key crude storage hub in Cushing, Okla., jumped by almost 1 million barrels last week, data provider Genscape Inc. was said to report. Meanwhile, the U.S. government said factory orders unexpectedly fell in November, a warning sign for demand.
Since the start of this year, crude-oil prices have recovered about half of what they lost in the final three months of 2018 as the impact of OPEC-led production cuts have been somewhat offset by economic growth concerns. A jump in the value of the dollar on Monday added another hurdle, undermining the appeal of commodities priced in the greenback.
West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery dropped 70 cents to $54.56 at the close of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent for April settlement fell 24 cents to $62.51 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude was at a $7.62 premium to West Texas Intermediate for the same month.
-- Bloomberg News
O'Hare once again busiest U.S. airport
CHICAGO -- O'Hare International Airport is once again the nation's busiest in terms of total flights, surpassing Atlanta for the first time since 2014, according to federal data.
O'Hare's total flights last year topped 900,000 for the first time since 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration reported Monday. The busiest days for flights at O'Hare occurred during June and July, and the busiest day was June 27, with 2,847 arrivals and departures.
Total flights at Midway Airport were down compared with 2017.
O'Hare saw 903,747 flights in 2018, up 4.2 percent compared with the previous year, while Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport hosted 895,502 flights, up 1.8 percent, the FAA said. Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth and Denver were in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively. Chicago Midway placed 26th.
-- Chicago Tribune
EPA, California 'far apart,' official says
President Donald Trump's administration and California clean-air officials remain "pretty far apart" in their bid to strike an agreement on automobile fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions rules as federal regulators race to finalize a key proposal for the auto industry, the U.S. EPA chief said Monday.
"We certainly hope to have a 50-state solution but at the end of the day we have to move forward with regulation," Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler told Bloomberg Television in an interview Monday. "California is an important player -- an important part of this -- but this is not a two-sided negotiation for a national standard."
The sides have been on a collision course since August, when the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed capping efficiency standards at a roughly 37 mpg fleet average from 2020 through 2026 -- instead of allowing them to rise to almost 50 mpg by 2025 under the existing rules written by President Barack Obama's administration.
Wheeler said the administration must finalize the requirements by early April.
"But we do have some hard deadlines," he said, "and we are pretty far apart."
-- Bloomberg News
Slack files stock plan with regulators
Slack Technologies Inc. filed with regulators to go public in the U.S. without disclosing details of its share-sale plans.
The messaging platform company, previously reported to be pursuing a direct listing of its stock, said in a statement Monday that it had submitted a confidential filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Slack is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co. on the share sale, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the matter wasn't public.
Slack plans to forgo a traditional initial public offering and instead intends to sell its shares to bidders in a direct listing, a person familiar with the matter said last month.
The company was valued at $7.1 billion in a $427 million funding round in August.
-- Bloomberg News
Tesla battery systems set for stations
Tesla Inc.'s battery systems will be installed at more than 100 electric-vehicle U.S. charging stations this year.
Electrify America, created by Volkswagen as part of a settlement from the automaker's emissions-cheating scandal, said in an emailed statement Monday that it plans to add the Tesla Powerpack systems at charging stations across the U.S. The 210-kilowatt battery systems will each have about 350 kilowatt-hours of capacity. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, and a Tesla spokesman declined to comment.
Tesla is also taking steps to enhance the energy systems in its cars. The company agreed to acquire battery-technology company Maxwell Technologies Inc. for about $218 million in stock, in a deal announced Monday. Maxwell's lithium-ion capacitors may assist with faster car-charging capability.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 02/05/2019