LITTLE ROCK — Teachers voting to oust Wal-Mart board
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System will vote its 5.3 million Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
shares against the entire board’s re-election amid a probe into purported bribery in Mexican operations.
The board failed to respond to indications of unethical conduct, and Wal-Mart’s leadership may have “actively suppressed” an internal investigation, the system’s Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes said Tuesday in a prepared statement disclosing how the shares will be voted.
The move shows mounting pressure against Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, over its corporate-governance practices in advance of the company’s annual meeting June 1 in Fayetteville. The New York City Pension Fund and a major adviser to investors also have urged investors to vote against some directors in the wake of bribery allegations.
State to get cash for wetland projects
Arkansas and six other states will get about $32 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for water quality and wetlands improvement projects, according to a press release Tuesday.
The department’s Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and partners will provide funding for financial and technical assistance to five projects in seven Mississippi River Basin states, according the release.
The projects are supposed to decrease flooding, prevent sediment and nutrients from entering waterways and improve bird and fish habitat.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will receive $2,178,316 to fund the Boeuf River Watershed project; the Craighead County Conservation District will receive $214,748 to fund the Cache/ L’Anguille project; and The Nature Conservancy will receive $3,030,000 to fund the Cache River and Lower White-Bayou Des Arc wetlands restoration.
Also, about $20 million will go to Mississippi River Trust and five other states.
State index dips 1.12
as 12 stocks slide
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, slipped 1.12 to 221.48 on Tuesday.
“Markets reversed course late in the day over news, once again, that Greece might leave the euro and problems could spread to other countries in the region,” said Chris Harkins, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
“The Arkansas Index slipped a bit as only fourstocks edged higher, while 12 declined.”
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 31 on 05/23/2012