NEWS IN BRIEF

LR distillery receives international honors

Rock Town Distillery received international awards for its whiskey in three competitions last month, the Little Rockbased company announced in a release Monday.

The distillery’s Arkansas Young Bourbon and Hickory Smoked Whiskey were awarded the Exceptional Gold Medal honors in judging by the Beverage Tasting Institute in Chicago.

Rock Town’s bourbon was named Best Bourbon at the World Whiskies Awards in London, founder Phil Brandon said in the release.

The distillery’s bourbon was given the Double Gold Medal in the Small Batch Bourbon up to 10 Years Old competition at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, which had more than 1,400 entries from 63 countries.

  • Jack Weatherly Agriculture secretary

set to lecture at UA

Tom Vilsack, U.S. secretary of agriculture, will discuss helping rural economies grow while protecting natural resources during an April 23 lecture at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

The speech is part of the Dale and Betty Bumpers Distinguished Lecture Series. It will be held at 1 p.m. at the School of Law’s E.J. Ball Courtroom.

The event is open to the public and free, but tickets are required and can be requested by contacting Trina Holman at [email protected] or (479) 575-2179. Requests will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

  • John Magsam State index tumbles 8.76; Wal-Mart gains

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, tumbled 8.76 to 260.31 Monday.

“The S&P 500 Index suffered its second-biggest retreat this year driven by a steep dive in commodity prices and worse-than-expected data on growth from China and the U.S.,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “It was a volatile day for the stocks in the Arkansas Index with eight issues falling by over 3 percent.”

Despite the broad market sell-off, Wal-Mart shares established a 52-week high early in the session, Williams said.

Also of note, Moody’s downgraded Windstream one notch further into the junk category, commenting on the company’s high leverage and weak free cash flow profile as result of its high dividend, Williams said.

Volume for the index was 28.5 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 22.4 million shares.

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

Business, Pages 25 on 04/16/2013

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