Business Blog

Arkansas Business is reporting today that Tupelo-based regional banking company BancorpSouth Inc. is asking for voluntary early retirements for some of its workers. The article says the Tupelo-based financial holding company and parent of BancorpSouth Bank is making the offers to those 60 and over and with 10 consecutive years of experience with the company. [...]

Mississippi rice growers have yet to get a quarter of their crop planted but have started May in a holding pattern as rain across the Mid South has forced many growers from their fields. Brandon-based AgFax Media reported Thursday that more cold weather heading into the region will further delay emergence where rice has been [...]

GE Aviation officially opened its second aviation composites factory in Mississippi Tuesday, putting into operation its new 340,000-square-foot facility in South Mississippi’s Ellisville. The plant joins a composite and jet fans plant in Northwest Mississippi. The new plant is to be known as GE Aviation’s Ellisville Composites and will add around 250 jobs, company officials [...]

TUPELO, Miss. — Federal agents of all sorts invaded northeast Mississippi several days ago, on a mission: Find the man who sent a poison-laced letter to the president. But the United States government quickly found itself entangled, once again, in a misunderstood land dominated by squabbling tribes and petty vengeances, the L.A. Times reports. Agents [...]

A 150-year-old lumber company in west Georgia has a new owner, but the business will keep its name — W.T. Harvey Lumber Co. The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports (http://bit.ly/10FCLPr) that Natchez.-based Central Network Retail Group has completed the purchase of the Columbus lumber company out of bankruptcy. With the Harvey Lumber acquisition, CNRG will operate 41 [...]

The Government Accounting Office is muddying the waters with its claim that the government is unnecessarily doubling up on imported catfish inspections, say Republican leaders on both the House and Senate agriculture committees. The GAO insists needless duplication is occurring with mandates that both the Food & Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture handle [...]

If you are a federal worker on furlough this week — or an airline passenger delayed by federal furloughs — you might save your blood pressure, and go read another story. This one is about all the money the U.S. government spends on . . . nothing. As reported in the Washington Post, it is one of [...]

Mississippi vegetable and fruit growers who want to reap the benefits of the nation’s growing appetite for fresh produce need to show they use safe and sanitary harvesting and crop handling practices. The industry standard is U.S. Department of Agriculture certification through Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) audits. The testing certifies [...]

At 7:22 a.m. Tuesday, workers made the first cut to Auburn University’s famed oaks at Toomer’s Corner. From a bucket truck, a worker removed the first branch from the tree on College Street, Mobile’s AL.com reports. Crews then moved back and forth between the two trees, removing large segments of the more than 80-year-old oaks [...]

  Aviation business professionals say it was glaringly obvious what the Federal Aviation Administration was up to with its initiative to cut off funding to “contract” air traffic control towers. If you want to get a politician’s attention, promise to whack contract towers at around 150 regional airports and shut down another 30 or so [...]