top of page
News
November 13, 2024
Talk Business & Politics: National Cold War Center, Woodrow Wilson Center partner
The National Cold War Center and the Woodrow Wilson Center, whose parent company is the Smithsonian Institution, have announced a partnership to help preserve the story and advance learning about the world’s most protracted and expensive war.
October 25, 2024
AY Magazine: Dining Perfecta: Looking for the Best Cuisine in Arkansas?
“There’s no place like home,” is one of my favorite movie lines of all time because it sums up how I feel about where I am from and reminds me how amazing things can often be found right under my nose. Nowhere is that more true than one of my favorite places in the world, the incomparable Oaklawn Hot Springs, Arkansas.
August 29, 2024
Talk Business & Politics: Blytheville top micropolitan area in Arkansas according to Heartland Forward
August 27, 2024
Arkansas Center for Health Improvement's Wonks at Work: History Lesson with Dr. Sam Taggart
August 7, 2024
KAIT: Lawmakers talk Natural State meat and steel industries in Jonesboro
May 20, 2024
Arkansas Business: Investing in Students’ Futures With ANC President Christopher Heigle
In this Executive Q&A, Dr. Chris Heigle shares how Arkansas Northeastern College is recruiting students, building industry partnerships and ensuring the highest first-year pay for graduates in the state.
May 8, 2024
Commercial Appeal: Le Bonheur unveils completed $95M expansion, featuring cutting-edge medical technology
With a snip of a thick, red ribbon, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital officially opened a state-of-the-art, $95 million expansion that ups the hospital's intensive care capacity and features technology that will position the hospital as one of few worldwide boasting innovative technology for young patients with cardiac complications.
April 18, 2024
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Maker of steel pipes, tubes plans $120M investment in northeast Arkansas facility
Chicago-based Zekelman Industries, North America's largest manufacturer of steel tubes and pipes, is investing up to $120 million to expand a Mississippi County factory and for products made by a subsidiary, Atlas Tube.
February 16, 2024
AMP Top 10: Oaklawn’s Eric Jackson, A Good Run
Having been a part of Oaklawn for more than a third of its 120-year history, senior vice president, board of directors member and Arkansas Business Hall of Famer Eric Jackson has been an integral part of those transformations, both old and new.
October 13, 2023
Talk Business & Politics: New steel line opens at Big River facility in Osceola
The world is changing, US Steel president and CEO Dave Burritt said, and perhaps it is no more evident than in the new line that can produce the thinnest gauges, widest widths and biggest coils in the domestic steel market today.
October 5, 2023
Talk Business & Politics: Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield announces $5.9 million for youth behavioral health
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas is donating more than $5.9 million to five Arkansas organizations to address child and adolescent mental health, suicide and substance abuse issues.
September 5, 2023
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Blytheville exhibition part of greater museum effort underway
BAFB's five galleries are a warm-up act for the planned National Cold War Center. Its indoor-outdoor complex is targeted to open here in 2027 as another potentially major Arkansas visitor attraction.
August 20, 2023
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette High Profile: Republican Ted Mullenix built his career in dark blue Garland County
Whether it was rural labor during his childhood or the challenge of taking office as the first Republican in Garland County since Reconstruction, Ted Mullenix was undaunted by hard work.
July 10, 2023
Arkansas Business: With $3B New Mill, Big River Still Rising
Big River Steel in Osceola is firing up a $450 million electrical steel line early in the third quarter, making thin steel sheets for industrial motors and EV engines. It’s also continuing work on a new $3 billion plant, Big River 2, that owner U.S. Steel describes as one of the most advanced steel mills in the world.
May 15, 2023
Arkansas Business: National Cold War Center Gets $500K Grant From Scenic Byways Program
The National Cold War Center in Blytheville announced it has received a $500,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways program, in conjunction with the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
February 14, 2023
Talk Business & Politics: Leaders explain how steel industry is transforming Mississippi County
U.S. Steel has existed for more than 120 years, and one reason is that the company has embraced technological advancement, Big River Steel (BRS) Chief Commercial Officer Dan Brown told members of the Rotary Club of Little Rock.
February 8, 2023
Talk Business & Politics: VR simulation program aids in Arkansas Northeastern College workforce training
Training for some vocations has been a time and opportunity obstacle for many community colleges for years. But a new virtual reality program at Arkansas Northeastern College could render problems like this moot.
December 19, 2022
Arkansas Business' Top 10 Stories of 2022: Magnetic Quality of Steel (#3)
“The steel-fueled economic development party in Mississippi County" continued with the help of a $3-billion project from U.S. Steel and two new plants from Zekelman Industries, landing both our clients on Arkansas Business' list of top stories for 2022.
July 18, 2022
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Pulaski County government's solar power projects on target to provide 90% of its electricity needs
Twin concerns over rising costs and climate change have prompted some county officials in Arkansas to begin moving power needs to renewable energy sources, with solar power one of the primary alternate sources to keep the lights on.
May 29, 2022
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Wood pellets made in state draw queries
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a global impact on business, and changes in the fuels used to generate electricity in Europe brought on by the war might open up opportunities for a wood pellet producer in Pine Bluff.
April 13, 2022
NASA: Artemis Astronauts Will Ride in Style in New Crew Transportation Vehicles
When astronauts leave their crew quarters at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for their lunar mission, NASA’s Artemis II crew will ride in a new set of wheels: A fleet of shiny crew transportation vehicles provided by Canoo Technologies Inc., will take them to Launch Pad 39B for their historic ride aboard the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.
March 4, 2022
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: McDonald's in Arkansas to hire 564 workers
McDonald's restaurants in Arkansas are looking to hire more than 500 employees next week. According to a news release, the fast-food chain plans to hire 564 workers as part of hiring activities across central and south Arkansas.
February 8, 2022
Governor, U.S. Steel executives break ground on $3 billion steel mill in Osceola
U.S. Steel execs and Arkansas officials broke ground on the largest economic development project in Arkansas history, a $3 billion steel mill at Osceola. U.S. Steel President and CEO Dave Burritt said it will be “the most technologically advanced mini-mill on the planet” when completed in 2024.
March 24, 2021
New AEDC initiative partners with colleges to promote desired industry skills
The Arkansas Department of Commerce today launched a new initiative to designate high-achieving state college workforce training programs that meet specific regional workforce needs in high-demand fields as “Centers of Excellence.”
November 18, 2020
Big River Steel Doubles Capacity
Big River Steel successfully started up the second phase of its Arkansas-based scrap metal recycling and flat-rolled steel production facility. The Phase Two expansion budgeted at $716 million will double Big River Steel's production capacity to 3.3 million tons annually.
August 12, 2020
Arkansas Blue Cross Carries on Through Pandemic
For Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which has called Gaines Street its corporate home for more than 60 years, the pandemic has meant business as usual even if virtually all of the company’s employees are working from home these days.
August 31, 2020
SAP Named a Leader in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools for the 13th Year in a Row
Independent analyst firm Gartner Inc. has named SAP a leader in its Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools* report. This is the 13th consecutive year that SAP has been named a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools.
July 16, 2020
Arkansas Businesses Are Responding To COVID-19
NASL members Mullenix & Associates reports with over 30,000 confirmed cases and over 300 deaths, Arkansas continues to be in a state of emergency and is currently considered a hot spot for COVID-19. We have adapted to working remotely to ensure the health and safety of both our team and clients.
May 18, 2020
Alex Ray Recognized by Walton School of Business for Work on Energy Efficiency Project
Alex Ray, current Executive MBA student and director of business development, for Johnson Controls in Arkansas, played an integral role in the development of an $8 million energy efficiency project in Washington County.
April 26, 2020
Oaklawn Splits Derby Day
In a move believed to be unprecedented in American racing history, Oaklawn will split the 84th running of the Arkansas Derby Saturday, May 2. Thanks to the cooperation of Churchill Downs, both divisions will carry the full 170 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby (G1).
November 19, 2019
Arkansas Northeastern College pushing to graduate more steel workers
The expansion of a steel mill in Osceola has prompted an ever-growing push to hire more qualified candidates. Arkansas Northeastern College (ANC) partners with several corporations in the trade industry such as Big River Steel in hopes of graduating more students to enter the manufacturing field.
November 11, 2019
Big River Steel closes deal with U.S. Steel, values Osceola mill at $2.3 billion
Privately held Big River Steel in Northeast Arkansas has closed on its deal to make United States Steel Corp. a minority stakeholder of the company’s scrap recycling and steel production facility in Mississippi County.
October 1, 2019
U.S Steel to pay $700M for stake in Big River mill
U.S. Steel Corp., based in Pittsburgh, will pay $700 million to take 49.9% ownership of Big River Steel, which was built near the Mississippi River, just south of Osceola, funded in part by Arkansas taxpayers. U.S. Steel has an option to buy the remaining 50.1% of the company within four years, the company said Tuesday in announcing the deal. Big River’s $1.3 billion mill opened in January 2017, after about two years of construction. The mill has about 550 employees, with average annual pay of $75,000, including bonuses. It remains the largest economic development project in state history.
August 17, 2019
Chain rings up big sales in state; McDonald's buys up $676M in goods
Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. buys tons of commodities from suppliers around the world, and yet the super-size orders are filled in Arkansas.
Just last year, the McDonald's system bought more than $676 million in agricultural products from the Natural State, ranging from chickens and canola to soybeans.
August 6, 2019
Green Steel: How Arkansas Became Home To America's Cleanest And Fastest-Growing Steelmaker
Inside cavernous blue hangars set on 1,100 acres of what was once soy fields abutting the Mississippi River, a succession of 300-ton scrap-filled buckets—the remains of old cars and refrigerators—await their turn at the furnace. Wailing sirens pierce the deafening rumble, and sparks fly as blindingly yellow flames rise up from the glowing ladle.
July 30, 2019
Zekelman Industries to build largest tube mill in the world in Blytheville, add 75 jobs
Zekelman Industries, the parent company of Atlas Tube, announced Tuesday (July 30) in Blytheville it will build the world’s largest continuous ERW tube mill on property adjacent to its existing Atlas Tube mill.
June 4, 2019
Big River Steel closes on $800 million debt-equity financing package to expand scrap metal capacity
Big River Steel on Monday (June 3) announced it had closed on a debt-and-equity financing arrangement to expand its scrap metal recycling and flat-rolled steel production facility in Osceola, doubling current capacity to 3.3 million tons annually.
March 8, 2019
Prairie Grove teacher saves student’s life by using an app
A touch of a button is all it took for one Prairie Grove teacher to save her student’s life. Brandy Carte, a special education teacher at Prairie Grove Elementary, credits her live-saving technique to something she holds right in the palm of her hand–her phone.
bottom of page