News in brief

Tyson sends food to storm-hit N.C.

Tyson Foods is sending five freight loads of food and water and response teams to prepare meals for people reeling from Hurricane Florence after it made landfall Friday in North Carolina.

"With more than 6,000 team members throughout the state of North Carolina, the damage left ... hits close to home," Debra Vernon, Tyson's senior director of corporate social responsibility, said Wednesday in a statement.

In response to the damage, Springdale-based Tyson shared plans to send its 53-foot "Meals on Wheels" semitruck and more than 100,000 pounds of food, bottled water and bagged ice to the East Coast for hurricane relief.

Teams of Tyson workers from other parts of the country -- including some from Clarksville and Texarkana -- agreed to help prepare free meals this week for victims, volunteers and first responders.

A distribution network also is being established with local authorities and disaster-relief groups so meals can be delivered to flood victims in the Fayetteville, N.C., area, Tyson said.

People can pick up their free, hot meals at a Walmart store in Fayetteville beginning at 11 a.m. today.

-- Nathan Owens

Farm-disaster aid set for 2 counties

Farmers in Monroe and Arkansas counties are eligible for emergency loans related to damage caused by storms on July 20-21 that produced hail and high winds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week named the two counties as primary natural disaster areas, making farmers eligible for the help from the USDA and its Farm Service Agency. Emergency loans can be used for replacing essential equipment and livestock, reorganizing a farm or refinancing certain debts.

Producers in the contiguous counties of Desha, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln Lonoke, Phillips, Prairie, St. Francis and Woodruff also are eligible to apply. The deadline to apply is May 6. Loans are based on severity of losses, the security available and repayment ability.

-- Stephen Steed

State index rises 1.77; 9 stocks gain

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.77 to 461.56 Wednesday.

Nine stocks gained ground and seven were down.

"Equities edged higher with the financials sector outperforming as U.S. government Treasury 10-year rates continue to advance above the 3 percent level," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

Total volume for the index was 16.4 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 09/20/2018

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