A contractor has obtained a Little Rock building permit to begin $830,000 worth of work at the state's largest airport that includes adding a Chick-fil-A outlet to the passenger concourse.
The work by Flynco Inc. also involves a new Burger King outlet at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, according to airport spokesman Shane Carter.
The project comes as construction wraps up on the new Chili's outlet on the concourse, which is scheduled to open Wednesday, Carter said.
The Chick-fil-A and Burger King outlets will go across from the Chili's restaurant in the space now occupied by Ouachita Landing Bar & Grill, which is scheduled to close tonight and go behind a construction barricade, he said.
The restaurant work is part of nearly $4 million project to upgrade the airport's food, beverage and retail offerings. HMSHost, which holds the food and beverage concession contract, contributed $3 million to the project. The airport is kicking in $750,000.
The Chick-fil-A and Burger King outlets are scheduled to open in January, Carter said.
-- Noel Oman
Walmart meeting to be webcast today
Walmart Inc.'s annual investment community meeting will be webcast live today from 8 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. It can be viewed on the company's website.
The meeting will include presentations as well as a question-and-answer session with the Bentonville retailer's top management. The company is expected to include updated guidance for the current fiscal year.
In reporting its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 16, Walmart raised its guidance for fiscal 2019 to adjusted earnings per share of $4.90 to $5.05. Those figures excluded any impact from the acquisition of Indian online retailer Flipkart Group, which was not yet finalized. The deal closed Aug. 18.
The retailer will report its third-quarter earnings before the markets open on Nov. 15.
Walmart's shares fell 99 cents, or 1 percent, to close Monday at $93.82 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded between $81.78 and $109.98 in the last year.
-- Serenah McKay
Fearful of wildfires, utility cuts power
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. has deliberately left customers in the dark for the first time as a precaution to prevent wildfires from breaking out.
Almost 60,000 customers in six counties across the Sierra Nevada foothills and Northern California wine country were blacked out Sunday during a windstorm, according to Melissa Subbotin, a company spokesman. Service was expected be restored beginning late Monday and continuing into today.
The utility owner could be on the hook for as much as $17.3 billion in liabilities if its equipment is linked to 2017's blazes, JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated in August. Investigators have already said that PG&E violated state laws in 11 of last year's fires. The company took a $2.5 billion pretax charge in the second quarter that was tied to some of those blazes. The state still hasn't released its report on the Tubbs fire, the deadliest one last year.
PG&E plans to inspect each affected power line for wind damage before restarting it. Inspection crews were deployed early Monday morning, Subbotin said. The region was buffeted with wind gusts over 50 miles per hour Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric utility has shut down electrical lines during windstorms for years, but PG&E had long resisted taking that step. San Diego Gas & Electric cut electricity to 360 customers Monday morning after warning about 4,000 customer scattered across San Diego County's mountainous backcountry that they could lose power.
-- Bloomberg News
Business brisk at Oklahoma Rx-pot firm
FAIRFAX, Okla. -- The operator of one of Oklahoma's first medicinal-marijuana businesses says he's selling all of the seedlings he can produce.
Scott Huffman owns Wild Herb LLC in Fairfax, about 89 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. Huffman says the business produces about 40 cannabis seedlings a week and planned to sell seedlings to as many as 30 patients Saturday.
Huffman's business was among the first to apply for a medical-marijuana license after Oklahoma voters approved its use in June. Huffman says his business sold its first seedling Sept. 24 and plans to produce about 1,000 seedlings a week by the end of the year.
-- The Associated Press
U.K. fracking restarts, draws protesters
LONDON -- Protesters have gathered near a shale gas exploration site in northwestern England, as fracking began in the U.K. for the first time since 2011.
Hydraulic fracturing had been stalled in the country after two earthquakes in the same area led to legal challenges. Environmental campaigners failed last week in Britain's High Court to keep the work in Lancashire from proceeding.
Energy firm Cuadrilla said in a statement Monday that it was "pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site."
The company plans to drill at two horizontal exploration wells for about three months. Demonstrators say they'll monitor the site around the clock.
-- The Associated Press
Bank of America's 3Q profit jumps 32%
NEW YORK -- Bank of America said Monday that its third-quarter profits rose by 32 percent from a year ago, as higher interest rates allowed it to charge more for loans, and lower corporate tax rates helped it save hundreds of millions on taxes.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant said it earned a profit of $7.17 billion, or 66 cents a share. That's up from $5.42 billion, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. The results topped the forecast of Wall Street analysts, who were looking for the bank to earn 62 cents a share. Net interest income rose 6 percent from a year earlier to $11.9 billion.
While Bank of America had to pay more for deposits in the quarter, the bank was more than able to make up for it by charging borrowers more to take out loans. The bank's net interest spread, which is the difference between how much banks pay for deposits compared with what it charges to loan money out, widened to 2.42 percent in the quarter. Bank of America paid roughly 0.50 percent on interest-bearing deposits, up from 0.38 percent a year earlier, among the lowest of the major banks to report this quarter.
The bank also paid significantly less on taxes in the quarter. While the bank's pretax profits rose by more than $1.3 billion in the quarter, the amount of money the bank set aside to pay taxes fell by $300 million.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 10/16/2018