NEWS IN BRIEF

Ducommun contract to add jobs in state

Ducommun Inc. said Tuesday that a $5.6 million contract with Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron Inc., will mean work for its plants in Huntsville and Joplin, Mo.

The contract is to provide electronic assemblies and wiring harnesses for the V-22 Osprey military aircraft through January 2015. The electronic subassemblies will be made at the company’s Huntsville plant, which employs 190.

The wiring harnesses will be constructed at its Joplin operation, which has 320 workers.

The V-22 Osprey is an aircraft that uses tiltrotor technology to mix the range and speed of a fixedwing aircraft with the vertical performance of a helicopter.

  • John Magsam

Entergy hearing set on ’13 plant fatality

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with Entergy Operations Inc. officials May 1 to discuss two preliminary enforcement actions in connection with the fatal March 31 heavy-equipment handling accident at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville.

Entergy Operations, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., operates the nuclear plant. Entergy Arkansas is an owner of the plant.

In the accident, Wade Walters, 24, was killed when a 525-ton piece of equipment being transported by a crane fell 30 feet.

The accident had the highest safety significance measured by the commission.

The meeting will be in Arlington, Texas. No decision on the final safety significance will be made at the conference.

  • David Smith

Stocks rebound, but Arkansas Index dips

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, slipped 0.19 to 332.49 Tuesday.

“Stocks snapped a two day losing streak as investors responded positively to largely better-than expected economic data,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

The financial-services sector was active with First Federal, Simmons First and Bank of the Ozarks comprising three of the top four performing stocks, Williams said.

Simmons reached a 52-week high a day after announcing that it would buy Delta Trust & Bank of Little Rock.

On the downside, P.A.M. Transportation shares fell more than 4.5 percent, Williams said.

Volume was 23.9 million shares.

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 25 on 03/26/2014

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