LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "We simply cannot walk away from
the worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression and not do everything in our power to reform the system that contributed to this breakdown." Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary Article, 1D
Metropolitan Bank sues over 4 loans
Metropolitan National Bank has filed a lawsuit in Washington County Circuit Court seeking more than $27 million from the estate of Bob L. Gaddy for nonpayment of four loans, plus court costs and attorneys' fees.
Gaddy, a Fayetteville businessman and philanthropist, died Sept. 21, 2008.
The lawsuit says the loans were executed between 2004 and early 2008, and were modified several times.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Jeff L. Gaddy and Linda A. Gaddy, representatives and trustees of the Bob L. Gaddy Estate and Bob L. Gaddy Trust; Gaddy Investment Co.; Gaddy Properties LLC; and Vestamerica Inc., a real estate firm incorporated in Colorado but with its primary place of business in Washington County.
In late July, Metropolitan reported a $32.5 million loss for the second quarter, writing off $33 million in loans, mostly in Northwest Arkansas. It was the third losing quarter in a row for the lender. The federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sanctioned Metropolitan last year for financial trouble linked to the Northwest Arkansas real estate market.
Federal trial set in Tyson Foods suit
OMAHA, Neb. - A January 2011 federal trial is set for a class-action lawsuit filed against Tyson Foods by Nebraska workers who argue they weren't paid for prep work.
Former and current hourly employees at Tyson's processing plant in Lexington say they weren't paid for time spent sanitizing equipment, dressing in protective gear and gathering tools to do their jobs, among other activities.
The lawsuit filed in 2006 says Tyson pays workers for four minutes a day for such activities, although employees spend more than 30 minutes a day completing them.
It also says the compensation issue has likely affected more than 2,000 employees going back to 2001.
The Springdale-based company denies violating labor laws or willfully denying wages to employees.
HP renames firm founded by Perot
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co. is re-branding Electronic Data Systems as HP Enterprise Services, roughly a year after buying the company in a $13.9 billion deal.
The buyout of EDS, founded by former presidential candidate Ross Perot, more than doubled the size of HP's technology-services business and made it the second-largest company in the market behind IBM Corp.
HP cast the renaming Wednesday as an important step in integrating the company, a process that has included nearly 25,000 layoffs.
It comes as rival Dell Inc. is set to make a similar push into technology services, buying Perot Systems Corp., another Perot company, for $3.9 billion.
HP shares fell 8 cents to close at $46.93.
Cooper Tire plant adds 78 workers
TUPELO, Miss. - A Cooper Tire and Rubber plant in Mississippi has added more than 70 workers since a company restructuring led to the closing of a Georgia facility, company officials said.
Cooper Tire officials spoke at a ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday for a 32,000-square-foot expansion of its plant in Tupelo in north Mississippi.
The $7 million project could create as many as 150 new jobs, said Pat Jodon, the plant's manager. Hiring could extend into the first quarter of next year.
Officials said 78 jobs have already been added in Mississippi since Cooper Tire closed its 1,300-worker plant in Albany, Ga., after reviewing its North American operations last year.
The Mississippi plant was spared during the restructuring along with facilities in Findlay, Ohio, where Cooper Tire is based, and in Texarkana.
State and local officials in Mississippi offered the company $30 million in incentives to keep the Tupelo plant open.
Cooper Tire employs about 1,250 workers in Tupelo, plus an additional 400 contract workers.
Airline tickets to aid U.N. health fund
MINNEAPOLIS - Travelers will soon have the chance to donate $2 or more to help fight AIDS in developing countries when they buy an airline ticket.
The money will go to the Millennium Foundation, which is working with the United Nations to fund health goals, including fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
They're calling the donation effort MassiveGood. This is the first big fundraising effort by the Geneva-based Millenium Foundation, founded in 2008 to find innovative ways to finance U.N. health goals. It's working with U.N.-funded UNITAID, which supplies low-cost drugs to the developing world.
The three major ticket distributors - Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre Holdings Corp. - announced Wednesday that they've agreed to make the donation an option for ticket-sellers and buyers starting early next year.
Mutual fund to dole out $1 billion
BOSTON - A money-market mutual fund that held more than $60 billion before it notoriously "broke the buck" a year ago said Wednesday that it will hand out $1 billion in a fifth distribution to investors from the fund's remaining assets.
The $1 billion distribution, the smallest of five partial payouts since the Reserve Primary Fund's collapse, will be made to shareholders on or about Oct. 2, said New Yorkbased Reserve Management Co., which ran the fund.
After the distribution, it will hold about $3.5 billion, not including a separate $3.5 billion reserve created to cover pending litigation costs.
The fund had held more than $64 billion shortly before Sept. 16, 2008, when its net asset value fell below the $1 level needed to ensure investors a dollar-for-dollar return of their principal put into the fund. The fund declared $785 million that it held in Lehman Brothers debt worthless after the investment bank's bankruptcy filing. That sank the fund's net asset value to 97 cents, leading to the fund's collapse as institutional investors demanded cash back and fund managers were forced to sell assets at steep discounts amid plunging markets.
Business, Pages 28 on 09/24/2009