Judge: Entergy can be sued in accident
Pope County Circuit Judge Dennis Sutterfield has ruled that Entergy Arkansas can be sued by the families of a worker who died and another who was injured in an accident at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville last year on Easter Sunday.
Wade Walters was crushed to death when a crane collapsed at the power plant. Jess Clayton was injured in the same accident.
Entergy Arkansas and two other defendants filed motions to dismiss the cases because, they argued, Walters and Clayton were special employees of Entergy Arkansas, therefore making Entergy Arkansas immune from the lawsuits.
But Sutterfield said both Walters and Clayton were covered by workers’ compensation insurance provided by Precision Surveillance Co., a subcontractor, the day of the accident.
- David Smith
Industrial firm, EPA settle clean-air case
LSB Industries Inc., which owns El Dorado Chemical Co. in El Dorado, has agreed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by meeting emission limits that are the lowest in the industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
LSB, based in Oklahoma City, and its four nitric acid producing subsidiaries in Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas will pay a penalty of $725,000 to resolve a complaint that they violated the Clean Air Act.
The complaint claims that El Dorado Chemical, Cherokee Nitrogen Co. in Cherokee, Ala., and El Dorado Nitrogen Co. in Pryor, Okla., constructed modifications to their plants that resulted in increased emissions of nitrogen oxides.
The complaint doesn’t allege any violations at El Dorado Nitrogen Co. in Baytown, Texas, the fourth subsidiary.
- David Smith
Only 4 stocks gain as index sheds 1.71
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 1.71 to 332.82 Wednesday.
“U.S. stocks moved lower on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen outlined an end to the monetary stimulus program, signaling the potential for rising interest rates,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index pulled back as four stocks advanced, 11 declined and two remained unchanged.”
Shares of Acxiom fell 1.9 percent in light trading and Dillard’s shares lost 1.6 percent in below-average trading.
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 27 on 03/20/2014