LR Port's work data
dives from July 2019
The Port of Little Rock worked 14 barges in July, a 70% drop from the 44 barges what it worked during the same month last year.
The port handled 21,000 tons of cargo compared with the 73,000 tons it handled in July 2019, a 71% decline.
"We know that there has been a slowdown in the steel coil industry and that is one of our larger imports," port executive director Bryan Day said.
For the year, barges worked and tonnage are both down for the first seven months of 2020, according to port data.
The port worked 244 barges and handled 370,000 tons of cargo through July. In the same period last year, the port worked 308 barges and handled 471,000 tons of cargo, declines of about 21%.
The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which runs 455 miles between near Tulsa, and the confluence of the White and Mississippi rivers in southeast Arkansas, moved 6.1 million tons of cargo in the first eight months of 2020, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The total is a 29% increase over the tonnage moved on the system during the same period last year when much of the upper half of the system was closed because of flood damage.
-- Noel Oman
Cruise line says hack
accessed guest files
MIAMI -- Carnival Corp. said that it was the victim of a ransomware attack that likely gleaned some personal information about the cruise company's guests and employees.
The attack was first detected Saturday. The attack accessed an encrypted portion of technology systems for one of the cruise line's brands and certain data files were downloaded, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Carnival operates Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and other lines, but the company didn't say which was affected.
The SEC filing also didn't say how many people's personal information may have been accessed, and spokesman Roger Frizzell said in an email that the company wasn't releasing any information other than what was in the securities filing.
Carnival said it is investigating and notified law enforcement officials. The company said that it has reinforced the security of its information systems.
-- The Associated Press
Day's decline of 2.95
puts index at 442.37
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Tuesday at 442.37, down 2.95.
"The S&P 500 closed at a record on Tuesday, bringing an official end to Wall Street's shortest bear market and, to some, confirming the comeback rally as a new bull market," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.