Hot weather is fast approaching, bringing higher temperatures, humidity and higher electricity usage as Arkansans try to keep cool. Many elderly, low-income residents need some extra help with electricity costs during summer.

Thanks to the generosity of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. customers, employees, retirees and shareholders, those customers having trouble paying their electric bill do have a place to go for help – Entergy’s The Power to Care fund.

At an employee luncheon today, Entergy Arkansas officials handed over a check for $169,655.61 to officials of the Southern Good Faith Fund, the administrator for The Power to Care program. This was the company match to a portion of customer and employee contributions in 2009, which totaled over $497,000 that will be used to help Entergy Arkansas customers in 2010.

On Wednesday – St. Patrick’s Day – various college, community, and state agencies partnered to provide students at PCCUA – Helena-West Helena with opportunities to obtain money for college during a financial aid fair in the college’s Bonner Student Center. Among those providing resources were the PCCUA Financial Aid Office, PCCUA Scholarship Office, PCCUA Student Support Services, Career Pathways, Single Parent Scholarship Fund, Workforce Centers of Arkansas, Southern Bancorp, GEAR-UP, Vocational Rehabilitation, and the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

Microlending came to the forefront of the world stage in 2006, when Muhammad Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the microlending organization he founded in Bangladesh, Grameen Bank. That company alone has lent money to more than 7.6 million people around the world.

Raising funds to help secure State Police sub-station

Here’s some bad news for local criminals. With the support of the Delta Bridge Project and State Rep. Clark Hall, Phillips County law enforcement agencies have formed a countywide crime task force. The objective of the task force is twofold – to better coordinate crime fighting efforts and to raise funds to establish an Arkansas State Police substation in the county.

Like the rest of the Delta, Clarksdale and Coahoma County are struggling with a troubled economy, but residents also feel the area is better off than many other places in the nation. With renewed excitement in Downtown Clarksdale, a strong tourism industry and numerous educational opportunities creating a strong workforce, Coahoma County has much to offer.

Though still feeling the loss of Delta Wire in 2009, Director of the Clarksdale and Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce Ron Hudson remains focused on recruitment and retention.

“We do see signs of activity and things picking up,” he says. “It seems like we might be punching through the other side of this recession.” Hudson is seeing some prospect activity, and he hopes those become fruitful and start adding manufacturing, distribution and similar types of employment opportunities.

In 2009, about 2 percent of visitors to Arkansas went to a rock or pop concert, according to a report by Longwoods International, a marketing research and consulting firm.

While that number might not seem significant, these visitors spent nearly $107.6 million in the state. And several recent and pending music-related developments could increase the number of music tourists – and revenue – coming to Arkansas.

Southern Bancorp and its nonprofit affiliate Southern Good Faith Fund in partnership with the IRS are offering the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to the residents of Phillips County and surrounding areas beginning.

An Arkansas based bank invests in people. Part of Southern Bancorp’s mission is to revitalize rural communities. They say it’s working, but they have a long way to go and in some areas, time it running out.

Southern Bancorp is a billion-dollar bank, first funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Its mission is to revitalize rural communities. A recent investment of $11 million by the Kellogg Foundation is intended to help.

On Jan. 26 the Economic Development Corp. of Clark County presented the Henderson State University Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) with a check in the amount of $12,500 to begin implementation of a Business Retention and Expansion Program. Southern Bancorp provided an additional $12,500 for the program.