NEWS IN BRIEF

— AT&T faults server

for U-verse glitch

AT&T U-verse customers in Arkansas were among those Tuesday reporting service failures along with other customers in many Southeastern states.

The extent of the failures was not available from AT&T.

“We’re having an issue with a server that supports U-verse. The issue has impacted a limited number of customers in some of our Southwest and Southeast region states,” Anita Smith, AT&T’s Arkansas communication manager, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon. “We have been working aroundthe clock and are making progress on resolving the issue.”

The U-verse service includes telephone, broadband Internet and digital television access.

  • Glen Chase

Bankrupt Hawker,

retirees near deal

In a proposed settlement with an ad hoc group of retired salaried employees, Hawker Beechcraft will set aside $250,000 a year for 10 years to cover shortfalls that beneficiaries represented by the group would sustain as a result of the company’s bankruptcy reorganization, The Wichita Eagle reported Tuesday.

The deal is subject to approval by a judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. A hearing on the Wichita, Kan.-based plane maker’s pension plans is set for Thursday.

The settlement covers about 70 former salaried employees whose benefits would be reduced after the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. takes over their pension plan, according to the newspaper.

The shortfall is projected because the employees receive benefits that exceed the federal agency’s caps on how much retirees can collect in a year.

Hawker Beechcraft filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 3 and plans to emerge as a smaller, restructured company in late February.

  • Jack Weatherly

Index starts week

with gain of 1.18

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 1.18 to 256.28 Tuesday.

“Despite the lowest supply of properties in more than a decade, existing homes sales fell by 1 percent in December and even that couldn’t keep the major market indexes from rising in this abbreviated week of trading,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “Arkansas equities finished strong, with advancing issues outpacing declining stocks by nearly4-to-1.” The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 23 on 01/23/2013

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