Business
Regulators end week like they started — tamping down fears, rescuing a bank
Financial regulators, policymakers, and bank executives spent the week trying to abate fears that a banking crisis will spread across the U.S. financial system. On Friday, President Joe Biden released a statement calling on Congress to take action to make it easier for regulators to hold senior bank executives accountable for their mismanagement. “It should […]
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse differs from our last financial crisis
After the largest U.S. bank failure in more than a decade, regional bank stocks plunged on Monday as the federal government — with the 2007-2008 financial crisis still a fresh memory for many — rushed to reassure Americans that the U.S. banking system was stable. President Joe Biden told Americans that the risks taken on by failed […]
Powell signals higher interest rates. Here’s why Friday’s jobs report will affect Fed’s decision.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that interest rate increases could be higher and come faster if Friday’s unemployment data shows the nation’s labor market isn’t cooling off. Stock indexes fell after his comments. That’s been a familiar pattern over the past year as the federal bank has tried to combat inflation. A […]
U.S. agriculture secretary unveils initiatives aimed at small and midsized operations
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday announced new steps the Department of Agriculture is taking to recenter U.S. agriculture and benefit small and midsized operations, including a proposed new “Product of USA” labeling rule and an $89 million expansion of the USDA intermediary lending program. At the National Farmers Union conference in San Francisco, […]
Looking beyond the fence at Standard Lithium’s ‘South West Arkansas Project’
Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts examining the promise and possible environmental peril of lithium extraction in Southwest Arkansas. You can find the first part here. Just about an hour west of El Dorado, where Standard Lithium debuted its demonstration plant, lies the foundation of the company’s “South West Arkansas (SWA) Project.” […]
Southwest Arkansas and the promise of ‘green’ lithium extraction
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series looking at the promise and possible environmental peril of lithium extraction in Southwest Arkansas. At 4:30 p.m., Jan. 10, 1921, the Busey No. 1 well drilled 2,233 feet and sent a thick black column of gas, oil, and water through the top of the derrick, […]
Arkansas public notice bill gets delayed for fiscal impact study
An Arkansas House committee delayed action Wednesday on a bill that would allow local governments to publish certain public notices online instead of in a local newspaper. Republican Rep. Frances Cavenaugh of Walnut Ridge pitched House Bill 1399 as a cost-saving measure for county and municipal governments, which are now required to publish notices of […]
Food sanitation company fined $1.5 million for illegal child labor
A company responsible for cleaning meatpacking plants across the country has paid $1.5 million in civil penalties for making children as young as 13 work in dangerous conditions. The fine, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, followed an investigation by the agency into Packers Sanitation Services Inc., at 13 plants in eight states, […]
Proposed federal rule would lower credit card late fees
As Americans continue to struggle with high credit card rates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a rule to help lessen some of their financial burden — in the form of lower late fees. The new rule would limit late fees to $8. Currently credit card companies can charge as high as $41 — […]
Migration to NW Arkansas fuels state’s population growth in 2022
BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Jasmine Hudson never thought she would be a long-term Arkansas resident after moving to the Bentonville area to take a job with Walmart Inc. The Tennessee State University graduate joined the Arkansas retail giant nearly a decade ago. She left the company during the COVID-19 pandemic to start her own business with […]
Motley marijuana laws drive consumers — and revenue — across state lines
SOUTH BELOIT, Ill. — Less than half a mile south of the Wisconsin border in Illinois, the Sunnyside Cannabis Dispensary bustles with activity. Cars with license plates from Wisconsin, Minnesota and other pot-banning states slide in and out of the shop’s expansive parking lot. The bright and airy retail store is an easy hop off […]
Sanders names directors of economic development, environmental quality
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday appointed two state agency veterans to be directors of the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Caleb Osborne will serve as director and chief administrator of environment at ADEQ, and Clint O’Neal will lead AEDC as executive director, Sanders announced in press statement. Osborne […]