Subject: Thursday Morning Briefing
From: Talk Business <[email-masked]>
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Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:39:40 +0000
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MERCY NORTHWEST ARKANSAS ANNOUNCES $247 MILLION EXPANSION, 5-YEAR PLAN TO ADD 1,000 JOBS: Officials with Mercy Northwest Arkansas on Wednesday (April 27) announced a five-year, $247 million expansion that will add 1,000 jobs and add four clinics in the growing economic region. Mercy has earmarked more than $200 million of the expansion costs, and a capital campaign will be launched soon for the remaining $40 million, according to Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas.

A bulk of the expansion will be a new 7-story patient tower at the main hospital in Rogers. The new facility will add about 150 beds to the hospital, with an end goal of 360 beds to “accommodate future inpatient growth.” The expansion also includes four new clinics in the near future: two in Bentonville, one in Pea Ridge and one in west Bella Vista. Three other clinics are planned for the longer term. Hospital officials said they had 38 acres under contract in northern Washington County, that would also be part of the expansion plan.

Read more at this link (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=30b0977971&e=b5f4886f5f) .

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FEDERAL RESERVE KEEPS INTEREST RATES STEADY, CITES CONCERNS ABOUT U.S. ECONOMIC GROWTH: The Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to maintain its “accommodative” monetary policy as the nation’s fiscal chiefs voted to leave the key interest rate at the current level in hopes that the U.S. economy picks up steam sometime this year. In a statement following the end of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting, the fiscal panel said although labor market conditions have improved since the last FOMC meeting in March, economic activity in the U.S. appears to have slowed. Read more here (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=3161e4bc85&e=b5f4886f5f) .

BEAR STATE BANK BULKS UP EXECUTIVE RANKS WITH NEW PRESIDENT AND CFO: Bear State Financial Inc. continues to solidify its executive bench with this week’s announcement (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=e058325e09&e=b5f4886f5f) that the bank’s board of directors made key promotions to its management ranks. James Machen, currently Bear State’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, was promoted to president of the Little Rock financial holding company’s banking operations. In addition, Sherri Billings, the bank’s executive vice president and chief accounting officer, will take on a senior executive position as CFO and chief accounting officer of the holding company and operating bank subsidiary.

THE SUPPLY SIDE: WALMART ENFORCES NEW ‘SUPPLIER ONLINE ASSORTMENT’ INITIATIVE - Suppliers who sell products in Walmart’s brick and mortar stores have been told to provide the retail giant with photographs, written descriptions and other content such as user comments for the Walmart.com site regardless of whether the supplier sells online. This “Supplier Online Assortment” (SAO) initiative is to be completed by suppliers for every item they sell at Walmart by the end of May. While many large suppliers already have complied, thousands of smaller suppliers have yet to do so. Walmart recently held a summit in Bentonville for non-compliers to help them get onboard. Read more here (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=7ffeede32a&e=b5f4886f5f) .

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PARAGOULD JOB ANNOUNCEMENT SET FOR THURSDAY: Arkansas economic development leaders will make a jobs announcement in Paragould on Thursday at 11 a.m. AEDC executive director Mike Preston will join local and company leaders for what is billed as a "job creation announcement." The address for the announcement is home to the offices of Cyient, a global engineering firm that does work for Dassault Falcon, Boeing and others. Cyient was originally founded as Infotech Enterprises, which acquired Wellsco Inc., a Paragould-based telecom engineering company, in 2010. Talk Business & Politics will report on the announcement on Thursday.

EDUCATION COMMISSIONER KEY: ‘BAKER DID EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED HIM TO DO’ - In an interview with TB&P's Steve Brawner, Education Commissioner Johnny Key discussed his decision to replace Little Rock School Board superintendent Baker Kurrus with Bentonville superintendent Mike Poore. Read the full Q&A at this link (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=0d6acfdf59&e=b5f4886f5f) .

HIGHWAY PLANNERS DISPLAY VISUAL SIMULATIONS OF 30 CROSSING PROJECT: 3-D visual simulations of the 30 Crossing project show the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s six-lane option creates much smoother traffic flow than an eight-lane alternative. The 30 Crossing is a $630.7 million project that is widening, reconstructing and rehabilitating parts of Interstate 30 and Interstate 40 through North Little Rock and Little Rock. The project will include widening the Arkansas River bridge. Sixty-four percent of the project is funded by the Connecting Arkansas Program, which comes from a 10-year half-cent sales tax passed by voters in 2012. Read more on the controversy and the new plan at this link (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=3779a83cfe&e=b5f4886f5f) .

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TECH PARK APPROVES RESOLUTION ENDORSING 30 CROSSING PLAN: The Little Rock Technology Park Authority on Wednesday during a specially called meeting unanimously approved a resolution to throw its support behind the “split diamond plan” for the controversial I-30 Crossing project proposed by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department. The Tech Park board endorsed the newer proposal with the caveat that it would redesign the relationship between the Fourth and Sixth Streets and Capitol Avenue to maintain downtown’s Capitol Avenue as pedestrian-friendly traffic flow. The Highway Department sent a letter to the Tech Park board requesting the authority’s public endorsement, officials said.

STINSON AND LANE LEAD CO-WORK SPACE FOR THE INNOVATION HUB AND ACCELERATOR COHORTS: With new co-working space available for use at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in downtown North Little Rock, the startup and maker lab has added new staff. Jeff Stinson and Kim Lane have joined the Hub crew and will be helping with some of the accelerator programs and advisory services for new companies. Read more on their roles and what's being offered at this link (http://talkbusiness.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4403c46412536341322b6e88c&id=cabc0650c4&e=b5f4886f5f) .

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"It was professional. I wouldn’t call it serious. And it wasn’t a determining factor in anything. … The timing makes it look like it was, but it wasn’t. And Baker and I both, we agree that charter schools are here; they’re part of the fabric. His concern of the impact down the road that he was looking at, we just disagreed on the magnitude of that impact, and really that was it." - Education Commissioner Johnny Key on whether or not differing charter school philosophies led to the ouster of LRSD superintendent Baker Kurrus.

“Against this backdrop, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent. The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting further improvement in labor market conditions and a return to 2% inflation.” - Statement from the Fed's Open Market Committee, which voted to not raise short-term interest rates.

“Our hospital and clinics have been serving the community at a very high capacity. To ensure we carry out our mission and continue to meet the needs of Northwest Arkansas, we developed this $247 million community presence plan that will allow us to serve our patients into the future by providing additional access to quality care and advancing the region as a healthcare destination." - Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas.
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