Coronavirus Aid Relief & Economic Security Act (CARES)

The state of Arkansas provides $13 million to two Arkansas colleges to meet job training needs. read more >

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock is unsure how the fast-moving omicron variant will affect its financial health for its current fiscal year. read more >

Hospitals and medical centers in Arkansas benefited from government relief money last year to offset losses caused by COVID-19. read more >

An analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Services Survey data on hospital visits shows the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital revenue in the United States, notably big declines in revenue during the pandemic’s early days and then big jumps in revenue once Congress approved pandemic relief. read more >

Baptist Health of Little Rock reported an eye-popping $115 million in operating income in 2020, thanks to government stimulus funds. read more >

Money to upgrade broadband infrastructure is being spread across Arkansas at a furious pace after the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the depths of the digital divide and delivered federal dollars to address it. read more >

The Business Interruption Grant program awarded all but 11 cents of its appropriation to 2,136 businesses out of 3,118 applications received during the application period in November. read more >

The Texarkana Regional Airport will hold a groundbreaking June 12 for a $36 million, 37,000-SF terminal as it prepares for a post-COVID-19 future. read more >

The COVID-19 pandemic sent hospitality tax collections in Arkansas plummeting last year, and the blow to some tourism bureaus in the state, which rely on the taxes for revenue, was even worse than those figures show. read more >

The Arkansas General Assembly is expected to pass legislation to forgive taxes on unemployment benefits paid to Arkansans in 2020 and 2021, in part because unemployment scams ran rampant. read more >

At the end of February 2020, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock had a surplus of $22 million. But then COVID-19 surfaced. read more >

Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state epidemiologist, has come to know the “terrible consequences of the current pandemic in a deeply personal way.” read more >

Wednesday is the last day to apply for a pandemic relief program providing up to $250,000 in aid to Arkansas business in the personal care, tourism, travel and hospitality industries. read more >

As a component of the CARES Act, the Federal Reserve established the Main Street Lending Program to provide up to $600 billion in financing to businesses and nonprofit organizations negatively impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. read more >

The tally of Paycheck Protection Program funds that flowed through the 20 largest banks in Arkansas topped $4.4 billion and encompassed more than 50,149 loans. read more >

Bankers get some money back, but federal process should be simpler, they say. read more >

COVID-19 has taken a toll on bank profitability, but the combination of federal relief money and pandemic-induced financial caution created a temporary glut of deposits. read more >

George Gleason, Bank OZK chairman and CEO, is becoming a Texan, in a transient sort of way. read more >

A $100 million renovation of its Little Rock building isn’t the only transformation the Arkansas Arts Center is undergoing; it’s also spending more than $500,000 to upgrade technology. read more >

Arkansas’ hospitals and other industries have urgent concerns for the Legislature to address in the regular session that will commence on Jan. 11, but a key piece of the hospitality industry has needs that are more urgent. read more >