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$100 million project coming to state Sunday, Feb 26, 2006 By Roby Brock Tetra Technologies, based in the Woodlands, Texas, near Houston, has announced that it intends to commercially develop its brine resources around Magnolia. When completed, the $100 million project will employ over 100 people and will entail brine production wells, a bromine plant, a calcium chloride plant and the expansion of Tetra's existing West Memphis bromide facility. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2009. High court will not consider water case The U.S. Supreme Court has decided it will not take up a dispute between Arkansas and Oklahoma over water quality issues. Attorney General Mike Beebe had petitioned the high court to force the parties to work through the Arkansas River Basin Compact, a long-standing agreement between the two states concerning river issues. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson filed a federal lawsuit in Tulsa last June, after four years of failed negotiations, alleging that Arkansas poultry companies were responsible for polluting the Illinois River watershed. Beebe did not indicate what his next move will be. Wal-Mart profits top $11 billion Wal-Mart reported that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 13.4 percent after aggressive holiday advertising helped boost sales by 8.6 percent. Net income rose to $3.6 billion for the quarter ended January 31, up from $3.2 billion a year ago. For the full year, Wal-Mart said sales were up 9.5 percent to $312.4 billion and net income rose 9.4 percent to a record $11.2 billion. Wal-Mart to alter health care policies Wal-Mart, which has been facing fierce criticism over employee benefits, said it will open more than 50 in-store health clinics this year and make further changes to workers' health care plans. Wal-Mart said that three clinics in Arkansas treated more than 4,300 patients in the first six months of their tryout. Of those treated, nearly two-thirds were women ages 25-49, nearly half were uninsured and almost 20 percent said they would have gone to the emergency room. Wal-Mart also said that it would call for government and business to work together to solve the problem of rising health care costs. The retailer is also expected to announce plans to allow part-time employees to enroll their children in the company's health care plan - something only full-time employees can do now - and cut the period of time that part-time workers must wait before becoming eligible for health care. They currently must wait two years. Dillard's, Wal-Mart rebuilding dilemma In the aftermath of last year's hurricanes, Arkansas-based Dillard's and Wal-Mart still have a total of nine stores closed in the Gulf Coast region. Both firms contend that they plan to re-open stores, but are studying the situation. Demographic shifts are the biggest factor affecting future store openings. For instance, New Orleans (Orleans Parish) had a population of nearly 470,000 people before the flooding but the number has dwindled to about 150,000 residents. Conversely, the population of East Baton Rouge Parish ? which encompasses the Louisiana state Capitol about 80 miles north of New Orleans - has grown an estimated 25 percent from 412,000 prior to the hurricanes. Tax incentives could also play a major role in who rebuilds where. Late last year, Congress approved about $8 billion in "Go Zone" tax incentives to spur more retail activity in the area. Going for the Gold Tyson Foods will sponsor the U.S. Olympic Team through the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. The announcement makes Tyson Foods the official chicken, beef and pork sponsor of the United States Olympic Team and an official supplier to the U.S. Olympic Training Centers. CEO John Tyson also told an analysts' conference that Tyson's its brand awareness is up 99 percent thanks to its "Powered by Tyson" advertising campaign. Jobs in Arkansas The Milken Institute rolled out its "Best Performing Cities Index," which measures communities with the strongest job growth in America. The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers region scored 8th on the list, which was topped by three Florida communities. Little Rock-North Little Rock moved up 12 spots to No. 94. Hot Springs landed at No. 69 on the institute's "Small Cities" list. Jonesboro fell from No. 64 to No. 99 and Texarkana tumbled from No. 65 to No. 103. Pine Bluff also declined in the list's rankings from No. 94 to No. 144. The rankings are based on job growth and salary growth in the areas over a one-year and five-year average. Acxiom hacker gets eight years A Florida man was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison in a computer theft case involving more than 1 billion records that database giant Acxiom Corp. collected in its work for large corporations. Scott Levine, 46, of Boca Raton, Fla., was convicted on Aug. 12, 2005, on 120 counts of unauthorized access to data, two counts of access device fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors and Acxiom officials say that none of the pirated data was used in any identity theft or credit card fraud schemes, but some records were resold to a broker for use in an ad campaign. Pryor targets cell phone data sales U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is sponsoring legislation that aims to shut the door on the growing trade of obtaining and selling cellular phone records over the Internet. Pryor, the chief sponsor of the Consumer Phone Record Security Act of 2006, said his legislation would strengthen what is now a "shadowy, murky effort in the federal law" that inadequately deals with a practice he described as deceptive and illegal. He said his legislation would also give additional authority to attorneys general in all 50 states to prosecute hackers and Internet brokers who engage in the practice. Electrifying the Internet This week, state legislators heard testimony concerning a new potential deployment of broadband Internet service to rural Arkansas. Members of the Joint Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology were told that electric lines may be capable of adding new lanes to the information superhighway. Officials with Entergy Arkansas and the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives say they are researching new technology that transmits high-speed Internet data across power lines. CenturyTel expands calling scope Rural telecom provider CenturyTel has solved a longtime problem for suburban areas in its western, northwestern and northeastern Arkansas territories. CenturyTel announced two new optional unlimited calling plans for its customers in selected communities surrounding the Fort Smith-Van Buren, Jonesboro-Blytheville and Bentonville-Springdale-Rogers service areas. The company introduced an optional Expanded Calling Plan that allows CenturyTel residential customers outside of those areas to place unlimited voice calls to the metro areas plus other selected local CenturyTel exchanges. Alltel buys Illinois cellular company Alltel has agreed to purchase First Cellular of Southern Illinois, a locally owned wireless provider based in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, in an all-cash transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. First Cellular covers a population of 485,000 in 24 Illinois counties and its network includes major transportation corridors connecting population centers in St. Louis, Chicago and Indianapolis. Entergy 'selects' communities Entergy Arkansas has launched a new program called Select Site, which helps communities organize for recruiting new industry. Select Site requires regions to prepare all available plant sites for potential office, manufacturing and distribution projects. When industrial prospects call, initial site selection specifics - which can cover over 50 different criteria - are already pulled into one central resource. Thirteen communities were recognized for meeting requirements of the program. Arkansas Best goes Nascar Fort Smith-based ABF Freight System has signed a limited primary sponsorship with Braun Racing for the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series. The Nicorette 300 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18 will mark the inaugural appearance of the No. 32 ABF U-Pack Moving Chevrolet driven by Jason Leffler. In addition, ABF will be an associate sponsor for the remaining 2006 season. Leffler is a veteran NASCAR driver who is coming off a top 6 finish at Daytona last week. Triad Hospitals profits rise Plano, Texas-based Triad Hospitals reported healthy quarterly revenues of $1.3 billion and net income of $54.6 million, a 4.3 percent increase compared to last year's quarterly results. Triad owns facilities in El Dorado, Hot Springs, Bentonville, Springdale, Johnson, Jonesboro, Russellville, and Hope. For the year, Triad reported revenues of $4.7 billion and profits of $226.0 million, up 4.7 percent on a year-to-year comparison. Fayetteville 'spuds' first well Better get used to the lingo. Maverick Oil and Gas announced that it has "spud" its first well in the Fayetteville Shale acreage. "Spud" is an industry term that means "starting a hole." Drillers once used "spudders," which were rigs used to start surface drilling. Maverick's first well is in Woodruff County. The company expects to report results from the drilling within the next four weeks. ------- Roby Brock, a freelance journalist based in Little Rock, writes weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau. His weekly television program airs at 10 p.m. Sundays in Central and Northwest Arkansas. His e-mail address is roby@talkbusiness.net; his Web site address is www.talkbusiness.net. |
