There was an article in Saturday’s business section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette regarding Miscanthus Giganteus, a biofuel grass to be planted in Paragould, Arkansas. The Arkansas State Plant Board has expressed some concerns that the grass to be grown for biofuel has many of the same characteristics of kudzu. Proponents for the biofuel grass say Read More

If you’ve watched any political television lately then you’ve likely seen Republicans, particularly those with a Tea Party lean, cry out with exuberance for “smaller government” and “deregulation of industry.” Last week’s massive Cargill recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey from a plant in Springdale, Arkansas, one of the largest meat recalls in Read More

DuPont has announced that it will recall its widely used Imprelis herbicide after receiving complaints that the product has killed thousands of trees. The company has advised customers to stop using the herbicide around Norway spruce and white pines. The Environment Protection Agency has asked the company to release thousands of confidential documents on Imprelis’s Read More

CVS Pharmacy, Inc. has agreed to pay $45,000 in civil penalties to the Consumer Product Safety Commission for failing to report that the company had sold children’s hooded jackets with drawstrings at the neck. Companies are required by law to notify the CPSC “after obtaining information…that a product contains a defect which could create a Read More

Chrysler has issued a recall of 300,000 minivans to fix problems with the air conditioner that could cause the airbags to suddenly deploy. The recall affects certain 2008 Grand Voyager, Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan vehicles. The company said “condensation from the heating and air conditioner could leak onto a sensor module,” causing Read More

Black & Decker Inc. has agreed to pay $960,000 in fines to the Consumer Product Safety Commission amidst allegations the company “didn’t alert [the agency] about a defective weed trimmer.” Allegedly, the company knew its Grasshog XP electric weed trimmer was defective as early as May 2006, but did not issue a recall until more Read More

Honda Motor Co. has issued a recall of about 1.5 million vehicles in the United States and more than 130,000 in Canada to fix a problem with the transmission software. Company officials said that if the transmission was quickly shifted between gears, the transmission could become damaged. The recall covers four-cylinder Accords, the CR-V crossover Read More

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada have announced a recall of 28,700 lapel pins from the Build-A-Bear Workshop due to high levels of lead in the paint. The paint on the Love.Hugs.Peace lapel pins has lead levels that are higher than federal standards permit. The pins were sold at stores nation wide and Read More

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of 206,000 step stools imported by Target. The agency said that the stools can break under the weight of the user, posing a fall and injury risk. Target has received 26 reports of stools breaking, including nine injuries. Carter Stein