Larry Brooks vacates job as development head
Larry Brooks has left his job as economic development director and transit director in Walker County, county spokesman Joe Legge said Thursday.
Walker, who has headed the Walker County Development Authority for most of the past dcade, stepped down on Wednesday. Legge said “his departure was amicable.”
“Since this is a personnel matter, there will be no further comment from the Commissioner’s office,” Legge said.
Robert Wardlaw, the chair of the development authority and head of the group’s six-member board, has agreed to serve as a point of contact for industry while the county seeks a permanent replacement for Brooks.
Brooks did not return a telephone call Thursday.
Critics blast EPA for Syngenta fine
Critics are blasting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for dramatically lowering a fine on agribusiness company Syngenta for violations of pesticide regulations.
Syngenta, under a settlement announced this week, will pay $150,000 for improperly using the pesticide chlorpyrifos at a seed corn field in Hawaii in 2016 and 2017. It will also spend at least $400,000 to train farmers, particularly small-scale growers, in pesticide use.
The EPA initially proposed a fine nearly nine times larger – or $4.9 million – for just one incident. This amount was proposed in December 2016, under the Obama administration.
Syngenta “got off with a ridiculously small fine,” said Paul Achitoff, managing attorney for mid-Pacific office of Earthjustice, an environmental law organization.
Sears sales decline but still profitable
Sears Holdings Corp. says sales dropped during the critical fourth quarter, but the ailing retailer expects to earn a profit, helped by a windfall from U.S. tax reform.
Sears, which operates Kmart stores and its namesake, said Thursday in a regulatory filing that comparable revenue fell 15.6 percent. The metric measures sales in stores open at least a year.
Total revenue dropped 38 percent to $4.4 billion from $6.1 billion a year earlier.
The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company expects net income between $140 million and $240 million in the three months ended Feb. 3.
Uber CEO aims to pare losses
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is focused on cutting the company’s massive losses and “getting the love back” after a year of damaging revelations about the ride-hailing service’s sometimes heartless treatment of its employees, drivers, regulators and rivals.
He conceded it’s proving to be a more difficult task than he anticipated after Uber hired him five months ago to replace its embattled co-founder, Travis Kalanick.