Business news in brief

LR's CHI St. Vincent again on top 100 list

CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock has been named to the 2017 list of 100 Great Hospitals in America by Becker's Hospital Review.

Other hospitals named to the list by the monthly hospital industry publication are nationally known. They include Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland.

"The hospitals included on this list are renowned for excellence," Becker's said. "They are industry leaders in innovation, quality patient care and clinical research, and have received recognition across various publications and accrediting organizations."

"It's an honor to be listed among the 100 great hospitals in America, and I believe that recognition is largely due to the service and dedication of the medical professionals who help us carry out our mission," Chad Aduddell, chief executive officer for St. Vincent, said in a news release.

-- Noel Oman

$35,000 settles claim on Turner Grain

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a settlement between Rabo Agrifinance Inc. and the bankruptcy estate for Turner Grain Merchandising, ending each side's legal claims against the other.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Phyllis Jones signed the agreement on Tuesday after no creditors opposed the proposal during a 21-day objection period. The settlement will have the Turner estate pay Rabo $35,000.

Based in St. Louis, Rabo said it held a perfected, first-priority, secured claim in all of Turner's assets as collateral of a line of credit it extended to Turner a few months before the Brinkley firm filed for bankruptcy, leaving farmers and other creditors unpaid for millions of dollars in grain deals.

Rabo, in a lawsuit filed in September 2014, said it was owed $985,140. As a secured creditor, Rabo has been paid $1.1 million in principal and interest from the Turner estate since then but sought a final payment of $70,793, plus interest and fees. Turner's bankruptcy lawyer, M. Randy Rice of Little Rock, had argued Rabo wasn't entitled to that payment and had already been overpaid.

Rice said in the March 7 court filing signed by Jones that the $35,000 settlement was in the best interest of all creditors in the case because continued litigation, with an uncertain outcome, only would have cost both sides more money, to the detriment of the Turner estate.

-- Stephen Steed

FDA suspends Kentucky plant over E. coli

ERLANGER, Ky. -- The Food and Drug Administration has suspended a Kentucky facility after it was linked to an E. coli outbreak involving a peanut better substitute.

The Kentucky Enquirer reported the FDA suspended the facility March 28 because items produced at the Dixie Dew Products Inc. in Erlanger could be contaminated.

The facility produces I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter products, which were recalled last month after 12 cases of E. coli were linked to the product.

The Glenview, Ill.-based SoyNut Butter Co. voluntarily recalled its SoyNut Butter products after E. coli cases were reported in Arizona, California, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon.

The newspaper reported that the FDA found unsanitary conditions during a March inspection.

-- The Associated Press

Facebook to add Wi-Fi hot spots in Africa

Facebook has increased the number of its African users to 170 million and plans to expand further by adding Wi-Fi hot spots and laying fiber-optic cables in a bid to spread its reach outside of developed markets.

The figure is 42 percent higher than when the U.S. social network first opened an African office in 2015, Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The rollout of Wi-Fi in Nigeria and Kenya will be done through partnerships with international wireless carriers such as Emirates Telecommunications Group Co., known as Etisalat, and closely held Surf, she said.

"There is no magic bullet to provide the Internet to people on the continent," Everson said. "We are using everything available to us, including rolling out express Wi-Fi, building fiber and testing our Aquila project," she said, referring to unmanned, solar-powered planes that beam down Internet connectivity.

-- The Washington Post.

Buttered freebies advised in Dunkin' suit

BOSTON -- A proposed settlement between a Massachusetts man and Dunkin' Donuts shops calls for free buttered baked goods for hundreds of customers and a healthy payout for his lawyer.

Jan Polanik had sued a cluster of franchises of the Canton, Mass.-based doughnut and coffee house chain, saying he received margarine when he requested real butter.

The Boston Globe reported that the settlement filed in Suffolk Superior Court could mean $500 for Polanik, three free buttered baked goods for 1,400 other customers and $90,000 for Polanik's attorney.

It could be several months before the settlement gets final court approval.

Polanik sued two companies that together own more than 20 stores.

-- The Associated Press

Toiletry-maker yanks 'White is Purity' ad

Nivea has pulled a deodorant ad that declared "White Is Purity" after people protested that the slogan is racist, and after others hijacked the ad's online campaign with comments about white supremacy.

The ad, which appeared in a Facebook post last week, originally targeted the German skin-care company's followers in the Middle East. It was intended to promote Nivea's "Invisible for Black and White" deodorant and depicted the back of a woman's head with long, wavy, dark hair that tumbled over an all-white outfit.

Underneath the woman's locks was the slogan in all caps: "White Is Purity."

The caption on Nivea's Facebook post read: "Keep it clean, keep bright. Don't let anything ruin it, #Invisible."

The post was quickly condemned by those who saw it as promoting racist rhetoric.

Others appeared to praise the ad -- for the same reasons.

The Daily Mail captured an image of a post by a white supremacist group on Nivea's Facebook page that read, "We enthusiastically support this new direction your company is taking."

-- The Washington Post

Business on 04/06/2017

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