LR hospital erecting abuse-victim center
Arkansas Children's Hospital recently took out a building permit to erect a $7 million three-story office building that will house various programs and services for victims of childhood sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
Jennifer Pyron, director of communications and planning for the Arkansas Children's Hospital Foundation, said the foundation raised the money for the 37,000-square-foot building solely through donations.
It will be built at 1210 Wolfe St., on the southwest corner of the hospital campus on land the hospital owns.
As it is now, children and families have to walk all over campus to visit the various offices to seek treatment and assessment. The new building will accommodate them in one location, which is intended increase success rates for recovery and limit the number of times a child has to re-tell his experiences of abuse.
-- Cyd King
Simmons First bank sets conference call
Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings report today.
Interested parties can access a conference call at 3 p.m. where company executives will discuss the first-quarter results.
To listen to the call, dial (866) 298-7926 and ask for the Simmons First National conference call. The conference identification number is 15375652.
In addition, the call will be available live or in a recorded version on Simmons' website at www.simmonsfirst.com.
-- David Smith
Index sheds 0.38 with 9 issues falling
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, slipped 0.38 to 403.21 Wednesday.
"U.S. stocks moved higher on Wednesday after a better-than-expected existing home sales numbers from March and a round of earnings reports," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
"The Arkansas Index moved lower as nine stocks declined, seven advanced and one remained unchanged," Blackwell said.
ArcBest shares rose 1.3 percent in light trading.
America's Car-Mart and USA Truck each lost 0.8 percent.
Total volume of the index was 24.1 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 04/23/2015