Friday heads

The Department of Correction has fired five employees who were working when two convicted murderers escaped a state prison, wearing guard uniforms that were made in the facility.

Arkansas’ 875th Engineer Battalion is one of three National Guard battalions in the country being considered for a rush deployment to Afghanistan.

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says she prefers private insurance cooperatives to a government-run provider that would compete with the private sector in reforming the nation’s health care system.

Testimony is wrapping up in a hearing challenging the state’s decision to issue an air permit for a $1.6 billion coal-fire power plant in southwest Arkansas.

The House and Senate revenue and taxation committees adopted a proposal by Rep. Mike Burris, D-Malvern, to study completely exempting timber harvesting equipment from the state sales tax.

Arkansas’ site on the Web now has an updated search engine and improved access for mobile phone users.

The total number of people on the unemployment insurance rolls dropped for the first time since early January, the government said Thursday, while new claims for benefits rose slightly.

The $324,000-a-year salary for the Arkansas lottery’s executive director is the third-largest compensation package for chief executives of the nation’s 44 lotteries.

The Arkansas Public Health Laboratory is getting $1.7 million in money and equipment to expand its ability to test the safety of foods, allowing the state to assist in the event of a threat to national food supplies.

Nearly $2 million in federal stimulus money will be spent at units of the National Park Service. The expected results from the windfall will be fixed pathways, repaired buildings and adequate barriers to keep tourists out of abandoned zinc mines.

Ninety-eight public schools will share $1.2 million in nutrition equipment grants funded by the federal stimulus package, the state Department of Education said Thursday.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. confirmed profits are growing and it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy later this year.

Mortgage lenders are busy processing refinance and new purchase residential loans in numbers that mirror volumes of four years ago, some Arkansas mortgage experts said Wednesday.

Bloomberg News reports that Wal Mart may be one of a dozen Western companies joining China’s stock exchanges.

A federal appeals panel has upheld the drug conviction of a man whose commercial vehicle was searched at an Interstate 30 weigh station, even though the officer didn’t have a warrant.

The coroner has said a Sherwood woman killed her daughter yesterday and then shot herself. She left a note, the contents of which haven’t been disclosed,

An additional count of embezzlement and 16 additional counts of mail fraud have been added to the federal case against former Sheridan police chief David Hooks,

Filed under: Arkansas