Department at UA to bear Hunt name
Business students learning about transportation topics at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville will pursue degrees in the newly renamed J.B. Hunt Transport Department of Supply Chain Management.
The 10-member University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approved the name change Thursday after Charles Robinson, UA's interim chancellor, described an unspecified gift from the Lowell-based company.
"Proceeds from the gift will be used to support students from underrepresented communities and also to support our faculty," Robinson told trustees at their meeting in Batesville.
The formal board resolution describes the company's founders, J.B. Hunt and Johnelle Hunt, as "respected and admired business leaders from Cleburne County, Ark., who exemplify the visionary entrepreneurial mindset" of the state and region.
In 2007, the UA opened a five-story building on campus known as the J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. Center for Academic Excellence. A baseball facility is also named in honor of the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt family.
-- Jaime Adame
Launchpad foes ask court to toss license
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Opponents of a proposed launchpad for commercial rockets on the Georgia coast are asking a court to throw out the project's government license, saying the Federal Aviation Administration failed to correctly assess the risks of firing rockets over homes and a barrier island popular with tourists.
Attorneys for the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to revoke the launch site operator license the FAA granted in December to the planned Spaceport Camden. Officials in coastal Camden County have spent the past decade and more than $10 million seeking to build a spaceport for launching satellites into orbit.
The proposed flight path would send rockets over Little Cumberland Island, which has about 40 private homes, and neighboring Cumberland Island, a federally protected wilderness. Residents said they fear fiery debris could spark wildfires.
In March, opponents forced a referendum on the project. The result was a defeat for the spaceport with 72% of voters siding with halting the project.
-- The Associated Press
Index closes at 750 after climbing 23.42
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state closed Wednesday at 750.01, up 23.42.
"Optimistic sales forecasts from retailers boosted investor sentiment as the S&P 500 closed up almost 2% led by the consumer discretionary and information technology sectors," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.