Mark Friedman

California

Senior Editor at Arkansas Business

Featured in: Favicon

arkansasbusiness.com

linkedin.com Favicon

nih.gov

nytimes.com Favicon

nature.com Favicon

usnews.com Favicon

bizjournals.com Favicon

sagepub.com Favicon

thestar.com Favicon

jamanetwork.com + 56 more

Articles

Dillard’s Chooses Market Share Over Profits Amid Rising Tariffs

5 days ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

As other department stores are warning of tariff-related price increases, Dillard’s Inc. plans to “sacrifice profits to maintain market share,” Bill Dillard III, a senior vice president of the Little Rock department store chain, recently told a group of Arkansans. “From our standpoint, we’ve made a conscious decision.
Slim Chickens Sued by Franchisees Over Alleged Deception and Frozen Chicken

1 week ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

Several Slim Chickens franchise operators have accused the Fayetteville fast-food restaurant chain of providing prospective franchisees with misleading financial information that left them open to widespread losses, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Washington County Circuit Court.
Arkansas Sees Sharp Decline in Attorney Sanctions, Raising Oversight Concerns

2 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

In 2005, Arkansas publicly disciplined 102 attorneys for unprofessional conduct; last year, it punished just eight. Formal complaints against lawyers filed annually through the Arkansas Supreme Court Office of Professional Conduct also steadily fell in the same 20-year period, from 159 to 11, according to OPC data. Asked by Arkansas Business about the sharp decline, the recently installed executive director of the office, Robert Brech, acknowledged the concerning trend and vowed to stop the slide.
Zest Labs Wins $222.7M in Walmart Retrial Over Trade Secrets

2 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

The legal team for a California technology company sidestepped the pitfalls that come with retrying a case already heard by a jury, and the strategy paid off with a $222.7 million verdict against Walmart. That was more than twice the amount a different jury awarded in 2021. A retrial usually favors the defendant “because they’ve done it once before,” said Patrick M. Ryan of Bartko Pavia LLP of San Francisco, the lead trial counsel for Zest Labs Inc. of San Jose, California.
Hope Hospital Rebuilding After Bankruptcy With Critical Access Application

2 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

Southwest Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Hope is working to become a critical access hospital, less than a year after a group bought the 48-bed hospital out of bankruptcy. The rural hospital has applied to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the designation and expects to be inspected this month, said Clay Hobbs, chief operating officer of Pafford Medical Services of Hope, operator of the largest regional emergency medical service systems in Arkansas.
Testing the carbohydrate-insulin model: The data are supportive!

3 weeks ago | cell.com | David Ludwig |Jennie C Brand-Miller |Cara B. Ebbeling |Mark Friedman |Nicholas Norwitz |Adrian Soto-Mota

LetterVolume 37, Issue 6p1239-1240 1New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 3Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA 4Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark 5School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 6Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA 7Metabolic...
State Seeks to Block Garland County Businessman From Discharging $850K in Investor Debts

3 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

The Arkansas Securities Department wants to block a Garland County businessman from discharging debts owed to his companies’ investors, charging that he intentionally misled them and then gambled away some of the money. In November, Larry Joe Rucker filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which allows him to reorganize. Rucker listed his assets at just $28,685. His claims register summary in his bankruptcy case on Tuesday showed 52 claims totaling $849,610.
CEO Confronts Arkansas Blue Cross’ Historic Loss Amid Health Care Crisis

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

After Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield’s worst financial loss ever and forecasts of more red ink this year, President and CEO Curtis Barnett is facing an inflection point in the health industry head-on. “It’s a moment of great promise, but it’s also a moment of great peril,” Barnett said in an interview earlier this month.
Jury Hits Walmart Harder in Trade Secrets Retrial, Awards $222.7M to Zest Labs

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

The retrial of a trade secrets case against Walmart Inc. resulted in a worse outcome for the Bentonville retailer as a Little Rock federal jury on Tuesday awarded a California technology company $222.7 million — more than twice the amount a different jury awarded it in 2021. The jury awarded Zest Labs Inc. of San Jose, California, $72.7 million in compensatory damages and $150 million for punitive damages, making it one of the largest jury verdicts awarded in federal court in Arkansas.
Startup AccuCode AI Tackles Medical Billing Errors With Artificial Intelligence

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Mark Friedman

Nathan Myers grew tired of his friend Scott Roper canceling their Dungeons & Dragons game night because of work at his medical billing company. In health care billing, “you always run into a lot of unique and challenging problems you’re always trying to fix,” said Roper, vice president administration of Professional Consulting Services Inc. of Conway. Myers, who has started a few startup companies, said to Roper, “Can’t we fix this? Can we automate this? Like, what?