Landscaper plans to open NLR nursery
Landscape designer Chris Olsen, owner of Botanica Gardens in Little Rock, is planning a North Little Rock nursery, Plantopia Home Garden Center Inc., at 3101 N. Hills Blvd., once occupied by Lakewood Nursery.
A zoning change requesting special use of the residential property is expected to go to the North Little Rock City Council on Monday. Lakewood Nursery had the same special-use permit when it operated there more than a year ago, but because the property has been vacant for so long, a new permit is needed, Assistant Planning Director Shawn Spencer said.
The parcel is 7 acres, with 4 acres taken by the nursery.
Olsen said he plans to debut the nursery and its offerings at this weekend's Arkansas Flower and Garden Show at the Statehouse Convention Center.
-- Cyd King
Builder names complex after daughter
Developer Brandon Huffman has named his new Little Rock apartment complex on Kanis Road after one of his daughters, McKenzie. Permits were recently obtained for the last four of seven 27,000-square-foot apartment buildings plus a 4,000-square-foot clubhouse and swimming pool. The latest additions are valued at $4.75 million, the permits said.
The complex at 14201 Kanis Road will be called McKenzie Park Apartments, Huffman said.
"We struggled with what to call them, we really did," he said of the 168-unit complex. The apartments should be ready for lease this summer. It's one of four projects Huffman is working on.
Huffman and a partner are also widening their side of Kanis Road in accordance with the city's master street plan, which calls for Kanis to eventually expand to four lanes to accommodate an influx of apartments in the area near McKenzie Park Apartments.
-- Cyd King
Fed minutes suggest lid tight on rates
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve policymakers don't appear ready to start raising interest rates anytime soon, with officials expressing concerns about inflation and lingering weakness in the labor market.
Minutes of the Fed's Jan. 27-28 meeting released Wednesday show that officials struggled to determine the appropriate timing for a rate increase. The Fed's benchmark interest rate has been at a record-low near zero since December 2008.
The minutes indicate that officials were concerned about dropping the word "patient" to describe how long they were willing to wait, fearing that could cause an financial markets to overreact. Some officials noted that wage growth has remained weak even as the unemployment rate has declined. Others noted that inflation remains below the Fed's 2 percent target.
The minutes were released after the customary three-week delay.
Many economists believe that the Fed will not start raising rates until June, and recent developments that have pushed inflation even further below its 2 percent target have some analysts moving the start of rate increases even further into the future, possibly September.
-- The Associated Press
Actavis plans name change to Allergan
Drugmaker Actavis is planning to change its name as it draws closer to finishing another big deal, the $66 billion purchase of Botox maker Allergan that it announced last fall.
Actavis said Wednesday that it will adopt the Allergan corporate name after securing Actavis shareholders' approval for the switch at its annual meeting later this year.
Ireland-based Actavis outbid Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals for Allergan with an offer of about $219 in cash and stock for each share. Both Actavis and Allergan shareholders are to vote on the deal March 10. Allergan is based in Irvine, Calif.
Actavis plans to use its new corporate name for its global portfolio of branded drugs, but it will keep Actavis for certain regions and products.
Actavis CEO Brent Saunders said in a statement from the company that the change will help ensure "that our corporate identity reflects the dramatic evolution of our company within the pharmaceutical industry."
-- The Associated Press
Atlantic City to add nongambling draws
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Making good on its vow to seek new, nongambling attractions, Atlantic City has announced redevelopment plans that include a giant Ferris wheel and zip line next to the Steel Pier, along with restaurants, a rebuilt Boardwalk and an elevated walkway in its inlet neighborhood.
The plans come as Atlantic City has lost four of its 12 casinos and is trying to make its tourism-centered economy less dependent on gambling.
The City Council is expected Wednesday night to approve an expansion of the iconic Steel Pier to make way for an already-approved observation wheel with enclosed, climate-controlled cars, and a zip-line ride.
It is also to approve a plan for the Northeast Inlet neighborhood that would add restaurants, rebuild the Boardwalk and install the walkway to draw new business there.
-- The Associated Press
Duke: Near to U.S. ash-spill settlement
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy said it expects to pay $100 million to settle an ongoing federal criminal investigation that began after a big coal ash spill at a North Carolina plant.
The details are contained in an earnings report filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The U.S. attorney's office in Raleigh began the investigation after a spill a year ago at Duke's Eden plant coated more than 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.
U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker has declined to comment. But the extent of records sought by subpoenas in the case suggests that prosecutors are looking not only at the spill but also at the relationship between Duke and state regulators going back for many years.
-- The Associated Press
N.Y. suit claims UPS ran untaxed smokes
ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York authorities have accused United Parcel Service in a federal lawsuit of shipping 700,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes in the state between 2010 and 2014 despite an earlier agreement to stop.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and New York City Corp. Counsel Zachary Carter are seeking $180 million from Atlanta-based UPS, saying the cheap cigarettes increased smoking by New Yorkers while also costing $29.7 million in lost tax revenue.
The lawsuit claims UPS shipped unstamped cigarettes from at least six unlicensed vendors on Indian reservations.
UPS denies it knowingly shipped cigarettes, saying it agreed in 2005 to stop delivering cigarettes to consumers nationwide.
The civil suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan seeks an injunction to halt the shipping along with damages and penalties for contraband cigarette trafficking and treble damages for enterprise corruption.
-- The Associated Press
Cuba cuts price of Net access for a while
HAVANA -- Cuba has temporarily reduced the hourly charge for using state-run Internet cafes in the country's first small but substantive public move to increase online access since the declaration of detente with the U.S.
Virtually all home Internet connections remain illegal and getting online at government centers remains prohibitively expensive, with the cheapest hour now costing roughly 10 percent of the average monthly salary of $20.
Users nonetheless hailed the decision to cut the rate by 50 percent until April 10 in state centers that previously charged $4.50 an hour. The promotion gives Cubans two hours and 16 minutes for $5.
President Barack Obama said late last year that Cuba had promised to increase Internet access, although U.S. and Cuban officials have since provided few specifics about what that could mean.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 02/19/2015