Wal-Mart: Pharmacy data likely still safe
Information about customers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s online U.S.pharmacy may have been available to others over a 72-hour period last month, but the Bentonville-based retailer said that it has no reason to believe the data were used inappropriately.
Wal-Mart confirmed a Reuters report in which company spokesman Dan Toporek said a software coding error could have affected as many as 5,000 online pharmacy customers Feb. 15-18. Toporek told Reuters the error occurred during the migration of servers and, once discovered, the company moved quickly to correct the problem.
Customers logged in those days could have seen basic information about other customers, including names, addresses, dates of birth and prescription history. Wal-Mart is contacting some customers and offering them identity-protection services.
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to provide additional details Thursday.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
UAMS building clinic at arm in Fort Smith
Construction started Thursday on a $10.5 million family medical center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences West in Fort Smith.
The 30,000-square-foot outpatient clinic will have 48 examination rooms, X-ray facilities, a laboratory, procedure areas, patient counseling rooms and a children's immunization area, according to a news release. Construction is expected to take 10 months.
UAMS West has operated in a 24,360-square-foot building since 1992. It also purchased a 4,500-square foot clinic in 2011. Sections of the original building will be remodeled and completed in 2017.
The family medical center and renovation project will double UAMS West's interior space, according to the release.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Murphy Oil up 10% as index gains 2.95
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, climbed 2.95 to 322.80 on Thursday.
"U.S. stocks continued higher Thursday after some mostly in-line economic data and ahead of [today's] jobs report," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Murphy Oil jumped 10.1 percent in heavy trading, reaching its highest close in two months.
Total volume for the index was 32.3 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 03/04/2016