Kiva City Initiative going to Little Rock
The Kiva City Initiative, a nonprofit organization that links small business owners with lenders, will announce on Friday the start of Kiva City Little Rock, which will make microloans available to small businesses.
Former President Bill Clinton will aid in the announcement Friday from the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
Kiva City Little Rock is the latest implementation of the Kiva City Initiative, a partnership between Kiva and Visa Inc.
The program helps under served borrowers by connecting them online with lenders who lend as little as $25 to Arkansas businesses at kiva.org/littlerock. The site will not be available until Friday.
Also present at the announcement Friday will be Janie Barrera, chief executive officer of Accion Texas Inc., which financially assists entrepreneurs and small business owners in Arkansas; Premal Shah, president of Kiva; and Douglas Sabo, an executive with Visa.
Lonnie’s Meat Market sued over labeling
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Lonnie’s Meat Market and Catering Inc. on Monday, claiming the shop added ground beef to ground lamb without labeling it as such.
The lawsuit, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, says Lonnie Copeland, owner of the store, violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Lonnie’s Meat Market has locations in Conway and Heber Springs.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors determined that a package of ground lamb bought at the Lonnie’s Meat Market in Conway had components of ground beef, the lawsuit said.
Calls to both locations of Lonnie’s Meat Market were not answered.
Arkansas Index falls 0.91 on slow day
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.91 to 267.46 on Monday.
“Despite a lethargic start, stocks extended their recent winning streak and sent the Dow Jones industrial average to another all-time high and the Standard & Poor’s 500 to within 1 percent of its best-ever level,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “Arkansas stocks generally deviated from the major market averages with declining stocks outnumbering advancing issues by three to one.”
Trucking stocks continued to bring in the best and worst daily returns with P.A.M. Transportation Services gaining 2.6 percent and USA Truck losing 1 percent, Williams said.
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 03/12/2013