NEWS IN BRIEF

LITTLE ROCK — Economic Breakfasts set Aug. 18 at 7 sites

The Arkansas Economic Breakfast Series will be held Aug. 18 at seven sites around the state in coordination with Accelerate Arkansas and universities in the state.

Accelerate Arkansas is a volunteer group of business and education leaders dedicated to raising the per-capita income of Arkansans to the national average.

The breakfast events will be held at the Arkansas State Library, 900 W.

Capitol Ave. in Little Rock; the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; the Reynolds Room of the Smith-Pendegraft Campus Center at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith; the Business Support Incubator and Office Complex at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; the Fred Taylor Library conference room at the University of Arkansas at Monticello; the Delta Center for Economic Development at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro; and the Donald W.

Reynolds Campus and Community Center Grand Hall at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.

The fee is $20. More information is available from Neva Wayman at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock at (501) 569-8551 or nfwayman@ualr.

edu.

Table-grape growing UA workshop’s focus

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Fruit Research Station will hold a workshop Aug. 12 on growing and marketing table grapes.

Table grapes are a good fit for small-scale farmers looking to sell at farmers markets and “U-Pick” operations, said Elena Garcia, an extension horticulture specialist.

Registration deadline is Aug. 9 and the fee is $20, which includes a light meal. The workshop will run from 3 p.m. till 8 p.m.

at the station, which is north of Clarksville on Arkansas 818.

Registration is available by contacting Katie Hanshaw at (479) 754-2406 or at khanshaw@uark.edu.

Arkansas Index falls 1.80, ends at 178.29

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 1.80 to 178.29 Wednesday.

“U.S. stocks retreated on Wednesday after the morning’s disappointing durable-goods report and the afternoon’s release of the Beige Book, which indicated economic growth had slowed in some areas over the past two months,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index moved lower as 12 stocks declined and five advanced.” The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.