NEWS IN BRIEF

— Electric co-op gets

Kansas wind power

Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. has started to receive 51 megawatts of wind-generated energy from a Kansas wind farm, the cooperative said Thursday.

The Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm has begun full commercial operation, providing the cooperative with electricity through a long-term power-purchase agreement, the cooperative said.

The 66,000-acre wind farm, which covers parts of Barber, Harper, Kingman and Sumner counties in Kansas, has 294 General Electric wind turbines with the potentialof generating about 470 megawatts of power. It will provide energy to consumers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri.

The cooperative has about 500,000 customers in Arkansas.

  • David Smith Crain buys Northwest Hyundai dealerships

Little Rock-based Crain Automotive Holdings LLC. has made its first foray into Northwest Arkansas, purchasing Kent Dobbs Hyundai dealerships in Bentonville and Springdale, according to a release.

The dealerships will be renamed Crain Hyundai of Springdale and Crain Hyundai of Bentonville.

Terms of the deal were not released. A company spokesman on Thursday said some tasks may shift but no significant job cuts are expected.

Crain Automotive operates nine car dealerships in the state, including Crain Hyundai of Little Rock and Crain Hyundai of North Little Rock.

“We are excited to expand into the Northwest Arkansas market and to continue to grow with the Hyundai brand,” Chris Crain, president of Crain Automotive, said in the release.

  • John Magsam Arkansas Index slips

0.06 amid Fed tiff

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.06 to 251.48 Thursday.

“U.S. stocks ended lower after the release of the Fed minutes revealed some Federal Reserve officials are concerned about the U.S. central bank’s open-ended asset purchases,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc.

in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index moved lower as eight stocks declined and eight advanced.”

Tyson Foods rose 1.9 percent in heavy trading.

USA Truck lost 2.9 percent in below-average trading.

Volume was 27.2 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 26.9 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 23 on 01/04/2013

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