UA planning forum on farm bill today
A forum on the farm bill now pending before Congress will be held today at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The event is set for 3:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the campus’s Home Economics Building.
Speakers include James Richardson, co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, Eric Wailes, holder of the L.C. Carter Endowed Chair in agricultural economics at the UA and Brad Watkins, associate professor of agricultural economics at the Rice Research and Extension Center in Stuttgart.
The farm bill, which sets federal food and nutrition policies, is set to expire at the end of the federal fiscal year on Monday. Most farm bill programs will continue through the current crop year. House and Senate leaders are still negotiating on a new bill, and many analysts expect that action on a new five-year plan won’t be complete until the end of the year.
- Glen Chase
Risk-assessment workshops set
The federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will hold two workshops at the Mariott Hotel in downtown Little Rock on Nov. 5-6 for directors of national community banks and federal savings associations.
The workshops - Risk Assessment for Directors, and Compliance Risk: What Directors Need to Know - are designed for directors of institutions supervised by the federal agency. The agency regulates 32 national banks and savings and loan banks in Arkansas.
The risk assessment workshop focuses on the agency’s approach to supervision and ways directors can measure, monitor, identify and control risk. The compliance risk workshop focuses on consumer protection regulations and critical elements of an effective compliance risk management program. Both workshops are taught by agency staff.
The fee is $99 for each workshop. For information or to register, visit https:// www.seiservices.com/occ/ or call (240) 485-1700.
- David Smith
State stocks rise 1.51; P.A.M. up
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.51 to 299.90 Thursday.
“U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday after better than expected [unemployment] claims offset a drop in pending home sales,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
P.A.M. Transportation Services, Inc. shares gained 1.6 percent to finish at $17.35 in heavy trading. Deltic Timber Corp. shares rose 1.2 percent to close at $65.02 in light trading.
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 09/27/2013