Business news in brief

110,100 pounds of rice given to charity

The Arkansas rice industry on Monday donated 110,100 pounds of rice to the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock to help feed hungry families across the state.

The donation will provide 1.1 million servings, officials said.

The rice was donated by Riceland Foods Inc. in Stuttgart, Windmill Rice Co. in Jonesboro, Cormier Rice Milling Co. in DeWitt, Producers Rice Mill Inc. in Stuttgart, Riviana Foods Inc. in Carlisle and Specialty Rice Inc. in Brinkley.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared September "Arkansas Rice Month" on Monday. He will lead a delegation to Cuba later this month to look for ways to develop trade ties as relations between the two countries improve.

The Arkansas Rice Depot was established in 1982 to fight hunger. It provides free food and other items to individuals and families in 64 counties.

-- Scott Morris

Subaru plans $140M factory expansion

LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Subaru announced Monday it plans to spend $140 million to boost vehicle production at an Indiana factory and add up to 1,200 jobs in the next two years.

The Lafayette factory will see its production capacity grow by 100,000 vehicles a year from its current 300,000, the company said.

The production increase comes after Subaru sold a record 52,697 vehicles in the U.S. during August and represents a show of confidence by parent company Fuji Heavy Industries in Subaru's only assembly factory outside Japan, said Tom Easterday, Subaru of Indiana Automotive's executive vice president.

About 3,800 people work at the factory that currently builds the Subaru Outback SUVs and Legacy sedans. It is expected to start building Impreza sedans by the end of next year under a $400 million investment in new equipment and other improvements that the company announced in 2013.

Easterday said the factory has already started hiring for the positions that it anticipates having fully in place by 2017.

-- The Associated Press

Macy's to add 85,000 for shopping season

NEW YORK -- Macy's Inc. plans to hire about 85,000 seasonal workers for temporary jobs ahead of the holidays to meet expected higher demand. That is about the same as a year ago.

The announcement comes as other retailers announce their hiring plans ahead of the holiday season. Many companies boost their workforces temporarily to meet increased demand. The pace of hiring at a retailer can serve as an indicator of expectations for the holiday shopping season, which accounts for 20 percent of the industry's annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation.

The positions will be filled at Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide. Cincinnati, Ohio-based Macy's employs about 166,900 people on a year-round basis.

Elsewhere, retailer Kohl's Corp. has said it expects to hire more than 69,000 workers, up from 67,000 in the 2014 holiday season. Toys R Us plans to hire 40,000 people to work at stores and distribution centers around the country, which is down from 45,000 last holiday season.

-- The Associated Press

Gambling tax helps Mississippi sell bonds

Mississippi, the poorest state in the United States, is selling its first bonds backed by gambling taxes after its share of the winnings fell to the lowest since 1997, two casinos closed and its neighbors began looking at expanding into the business.

Investors may still like the odds.

The $200 million of bonds carry Standard & Poor's fifth-highest credit rating because the state's gambling revenue covers the debt service 10 times over, even though it's fallen almost 30 percent from the 2008 peak.

Potential competition from neighboring states, along with closures of a Harrah's casino in Tunica and another on the Gulf Coast, may lead the the state to dangle higher-than-average yields to draw buyers to the offering on Wednesday, said Burt Mulford at Eagle Asset Management.

Mississippi joins states across the U.S. that have seen their share of gambling money dwindle as others expanded the industry to bring in cash after the recession. Last year, casino revenue dropped in 10 of the 12 biggest gambling states, including Mississippi, according to data compiled by the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

-- Bloomberg News

Judge says Uber can't force arbitration

A former Uber Technologies Inc. driver who won a ruling by California's labor commissioner that she should have been considered an employee of the app-based ride service defeated a bid by the company to force her into arbitration.

A state judge in San Francisco sided with the driver Monday after a finding that the company's arbitration clause is unenforceable, echoing a federal judge in the same city who blocked Uber's bid to derail a group lawsuit on behalf of thousands of drivers and force them to fight the company individually in arbitration proceedings.

Uber is appealing in the federal case to avoid facing a class-action trial that could force the startup to change its business model and might erode its $50 billion valuation.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith said Uber's contract with drivers is "flatly inconsistent" because it says in one provision that a private arbitrator decides whether a dispute should be resolved in arbitration, and says in another that the choice is to be made by a judge.

Uber will will ask a state appeals court to review the ruling, Jessica Santillo, a spokesman for Uber, said in an email.

"The Uber partner in this case agreed to resolve disputes of this nature through arbitration when she joined the platform last year," Santillo said. "The right to arbitrate disputes has been confirmed multiple times by the Supreme Court."

Uber said Barbara Berwick agreed to the arbitration agreement before using the company app starting in July 2014.

— Bloomberg News

Business on 09/22/2015

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