2 alumni to receive awards from UALR
Two alumni of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's College of Business will be honored Oct. 1 for their work in the Little Rock business community at UALR's Distinguished Alumni Award luncheon.
Mark Langston will receive the 2014 College of Business Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award. Langston is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Little Rock holding company Life & Specialty Ventures. Langston graduated from UALR in 1984 and has worked in finance and strategy for more than 30 years.
Susan Parke, who owns Little Rock women's clothing store Beyond Cotton, will receive the Dean's Award for Excellence. She graduated from UALR in 2004 with an executive Master of Business Administration. Parke has worked in insurance sales, commercial real estate and boutique retail.
Tickets to the luncheon can be reserved online at http://ualr.edu/development/ or by calling (501)-569-3208 until Sept. 26.
-- Claire Boston
UA professor honored by poultry group
A University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professor has been named industry leader of the year by The Poultry Federation.
Michael Kidd, director of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and head of the department of poultry science in the UA Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, was honored during the 55th annual Poultry Festival in Rogers.
"It's an absolute personal honor," Kidd said. "I can't get over being honored like this. We are working hard to get more students trained to become great leaders and placed in key industry jobs, as well as supporting our research and extension programs."
The Poultry Federation is a trade organization representing the poultry and egg industries in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The award, which has been presented since 1955, recognizes the outstanding achievements of poultry and egg executives and their contribution to the industry.
"Dr. Kidd has revitalized the poultry science department at the University of Arkansas by increasing the number of students and increasing their participation," said Marvin Childers, president of the federation. "In doing this, he is also developing future poultry industry leaders."
-- Brian Fanney
30-year mortgage rate dips to 4.13%
WASHINGTON -- Average U.S. mortgage rates declined slightly this week, with rates remaining near historic lows.
Mortgage company Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the nationwide average for a 30-year loan dipped to 4.13 percent, down from 4.15 percent last week. The average for the 15-year mortgage, a popular choice for people who are refinancing, edged down to 3.23 percent, compared with 3.24 percent last week.
Mortgage rates are below the levels of a year ago, having fallen in recent weeks after climbing last summer when the Federal Reserve began talking about reducing the monthly bond purchases it was making to keep long-term rates low.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was 0.6 point, down from 0.7 point last week. The fee for a 15-year mortgage was 0.5 point, down from 0.6 point last week.
-- The Associated Press
Sugarcane aphid invades east Arkansas
Grain sorghum growers in east Arkansas are contending with an unwelcome visitor -- the sugarcane aphid.
The insect has been showing up since June in Ashley, Chicot, Desha and Phillips counties, and it's likely to spread to nearby areas, according to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. The aphid can cause yellow to reddish brown leaf discoloration and leave behind a sticky residue that damages plants and equipment.
"Management of this insect could pose a challenge, as it has the potential to rapidly multiply," Nick Seiter, an extension entomologist, said in a release. "Heavy infestations can kill early vegetative sorghum plants and reduce grain yield indirectly due to reductions in plant vigor."
The aphid began appearing on grain sorghum last year in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. Seiter said previously affected areas reported yield losses up to 50 percent in extreme cases.
Chemical control options are limited, though the Environmental Protection Agency recently granted an emergency exemption allowing the use of the insecticide Transform WG in Arkansas against the sugarcane aphids.
"If moderate to large colonies of aphids are easily found in your field, and sticky honeydew is starting to appear, it is probably time to spray," Seiter said. "If small colonies or individual aphids are found sporadically, wait and continue to monitor the field."
-- Brian Fanney
Tesla asks hackers to report car's flaws
TOKYO -- Tesla Motors Inc., whose Model S sedan is the target of a hacking contest in Beijing that began Wednesday, said it will investigate and rectify any vulnerabilities discovered as a result of the competition.
Qihoo 360 Technology Co. has found ways to remotely control the Tesla car's locks, horn, headlights and skylight while the car is in motion, the Beijing-based Internet security company said in a posting on its Sina Weibo account. Wu Jing, a director of investor relations for the company, said its information technology department conducted the experiment, without elaborating.
"While Tesla is not associated with the conference and is not a sponsor of the competition, we support the idea of providing an environment in which responsible security researchers can help identify potential vulnerabilities," Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla said in an email. "We hope that the security researchers will act responsibly and in good faith."
Tesla's billionaire Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said last month that the automaker's patents will be "open source" and available at no charge as it seeks to expand adoption of electric cars. The company began China deliveries of its flagship sedan in April, and Musk has said its sales volume in the country may match that sales in the U.S. as early as 2015.
The SyScan +360 conference is offering $10,000 to anyone who successfully hacks into the Model S, according to its website.
-- Bloomberg News
Poll: Most voters say market's rigged
WASHINGTON -- Nearly two-thirds of voters say the stock market is rigged against them, and a majority say Wall Street and big banks hurt average Americans, according to poll results released Thursday by a pro-regulation group.
The survey commissioned by Better Markets also found that 60 percent of voters support stricter federal regulation of banks and other financial institutions.
About 74 percent of Democratic voters and 56 percent of independents favored tougher oversight, while just 46 percent of Republicans did, according to the nationwide poll of 1,000 people likely to vote in this fall's elections.
The poll was conducted by Democratic firm Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner Research and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
The poll showed that voters are strongly dissatisfied with federal oversight of Wall Street and large banks nearly six years after the 2008 financial crisis.
About 89 percent of respondents said the federal government does a poor or fair job of regulating the financial industry.
-- Los Angeles Times
Business on 07/18/2014