Legislative panel
OKs dicamba rule
A legislative panel on Monday gave final approval to the state Plant Board's 120-day emergency rule prohibiting the use of older formulations of dicamba after April 15. The rule will take effect immediately when it is filed with the secretary of state.
The board proposed the emergency rule late last month, to make up for an oversight Feb. 20 when it set a May 25 cutoff date for the in-crop use of three dicamba formulations designed to be less subject to off-target movement. The board failed in the earlier meeting to explicitly prohibit the in-crop use of older, more volatile dicamba formulations after burndown, or pre-planting.
The executive subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council reviewed the rule Monday and let it go forward. Home use of dicamba is exempt from the ban. Its use on pastures and rangeland is allowed, with restrictions.
Farmers faced an April 15 cutoff date last year on using a herbicide linked to crop damage the past three years. The May 25 cutoff pacified some farmers who wanted to spray the herbicide at least once across the top of their dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton but angered others who grow crops that can be damaged by a herbicide more susceptible to off-target movement as temperatures rise.
-- Stephen Steed
Director at Car-Mart
sells 3,000 shares
A director with Bentonville-based America's Car-Mart sold shares of stock late last month valued at more than $275,000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jim Von Gremp, a director since December 2015, sold 3,000 shares at a weighted average price of $92.58 last week. He took home $277,740 after the sale and retains 16,277 company shares after the transactions.
Over the past year, shares of the buy-here pay-here used-car dealer have traded as low as $48.70 and as high as $100.75.
Car-Mart now runs 144 dealerships in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. In February, the company reported a profit of $10.9 million, or $1.55 per share, for the quarter ending Jan. 31.
-- John Magsam
Arkansas Index rises
5.72, ends at 420.93
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed up 5.72 points to 420.93 Monday.
"Stocks strengthened worldwide as strong manufacturing data out of the world's second-largest economy helped offset investor concern about a slowdown in global growth," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 23.9 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 04/02/2019