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‘We Were All Going To Get Rich': Arkansas Business' Best Quotes of 2015

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“A favored haunt of politicians, bond daddies and cocaine whores.”

— An Arkansas businessman fondly describing the 1980s environment at Buster’s Bar & Restaurant, Little Rock’s original “fern bar”

(Little Rock's Original Fern Bar: How Buster's Birthed Dave & Buster's)


“For me, Arkansas really did turn out to be the land of opportunity. I came to town with nothing. I didn’t even own a car. And I got the chance to go all the way — literally — to Wall Street and Times Square.”

— James “Buster” Corley, one-half of the duo who founded Dave & Buster’s

(Little Rock's Original Fern Bar: How Buster's Birthed Dave & Buster's)


“This company is too big to manage.”

— Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a national retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York, about Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

(Retail Analysts Say Wal-Mart's Become Too Big to Manage)


“Families don’t deserve this. There are bodies that have been back there literally three weeks waiting to be cremated.”

— Mike Jones, a licensed embalmer and funeral director, on why he filed a complaint with the Arkansas State Board of Embalmers & Funeral Directors against Arkansas Funeral Care of Jacksonville, his employer for five months

(Jacksonville Funeral Home Under Investigation)


“I guess it goes back to how small Arkansas is. Everybody seems to know something about someone. It seems like everybody has a dark secret with sort of varying levels of how dark, at least one about somebody. And it seems like eventually the person they have a secret about will do something to make them mad and then somebody feels the need to get that story out there.”

— Matt Campbell, Little Rock lawyer and operator of the blog the Blue Hog Report

(Matt Campbell of the Blue Hog Report Keeps on Digging)


“I think there are people in state government taking special pains to behave because of the Blue Hog. And it may be more than state government since he’s delved into Little Rock school issues. I think people know that this guy is liable to turn his attention to them, and if he picks them, they’re in trouble if they’ve done anything wrong.”

— John Brummett, political columnist speaking about Matt Campbell

(Matt Campbell of the Blue Hog Report Keeps on Digging)


“I shouldn’t even be here. This should never have been reopened. How did I do that with no money and no credit? It was a miracle.”

— Daniel Maestri on keeping Mary Maestri’s Italian Grillroom running

(Mary Maestri's Keeps On Cooking in Springdale)


“From all indications and research conducted, it appears Grainster could potentially be Arkansas’ largest startup in the history of recorded capital investment in the state.”

— Grainster, an online grain-trading business based in Conway, in a news release

(Conway Startup Grainster's Boasts Wildly Optimistic Projections)


“It was a cluster mess, you know, is what it turned into.”

— Charles L. “Chuck” Walker, the North Carolina man who persuaded Little Rock credit union president Joyce Judy to invest $1 million in what turned out to be an international scam, describing the scam in a deposition. Walker pleaded guilty in South Carolina in October to wire fraud conspiracy in a different but similar scam.

(How A Trans-Atlantic Investment Scam Ensnared Credit Union President Joyce Judy)


“It was just — you know, how it was all going to work, and we were all going to get rich.”

— Joyce Judy explaining why the scam was so attractive that she stole $500,000 from a credit union customer in order to invest in it

(How A Trans-Atlantic Investment Scam Ensnared Credit Union President Joyce Judy)


“This is American medicine at its worst.”

— Dr. Steven Nissen, the chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, about the rise of clinics that tout they can treat symptoms related to low testosterone in men

(Epoch Men's Clinic Expanding in Arkansas)


“We made so much money in 2011, it took us awhile to get back on the record earnings pace.”

— George Gleason, chairman and CEO of Bank of the Ozarks Inc. on the company’s 2014 return to its record profits after a two-year hiatus

(Gleason: Record Loan Growth, Other Factors Boosted Bank of the Ozarks)


“Dale Bartlett has his story. I’m sure Jason Coleman has his story. And I don’t think we are to the bottom of it yet. I think there’s much to be unraveled here.”

— Lyndsey Dilks of Little Rock, one of the attorneys representing Southern Rice & Cotton LLC of Harrisburg (Poinsett County), which is owed $3.23 million, according to Turner Grain’s bankruptcy schedules

(Turner Grain's Dale Bartlett Claims Ignorance in Company's Collapse)


“The color just drained from my face.”

— Bruce Burrow, developer of Jonesboro’s Turtle Creek Mall reflecting back on the day he learned the project was massively over budget

(Jonesboro Developer Bruce Burrow's Pyrrhic Victory)


“As we did that, as Wal-Mart is known to do, sometimes we go too far. We found the ditch on the other side of the road. We’re trying to get it back to the middle of the road without going all the way to the other ditch on the other side of the road.”

— Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon on raising worker pay after holding too hard a line on expenses

(Doug McMillon: How I Knew It Was Time to Raise Pay at Wal-Mart)


“Why would I come back? I had no choice. I owe them. This university has been my life.”

— UA Interim Chancellor Dan Ferritor, who returned to the job at age 75 after serving as chancellor from 1986-97

(An 'F' in Retirement: UA's Repeat Chancellor Dan Ferritor Says This Time He Means It)


“The businesses have never cash flowed.”

— Roger Rowe, partner in the Little Rock law firm of Lax Vaughan Fortson Jones & Rowe, in a post-forensic audit observation of Sports Card Plus Inc. and the other insolvent business ventures of John Rogers

(Judge Appoints Receiver For 4 John Rogers Businesses)


“Anybody remember Tickle Me Elmo, that darn thing? You just never know what is going to get hot when you’re in retail.”

— Tracy Rosser, senior vice president of transportation for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., talking about the importance of logistics adapting to market conditions

(Transportation, Retail Companies Hoping to Keep Up With Supply Chain)


“I think more people are starting to take a more serious look at whether it might be time to change the system.”

— State Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, about the question of whether Arkansas’ system of electing state Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges needs reform

(Choosing Arkansas Judges: Elections or Selections?)


“He should’ve had enough money to pay everyone. He was trying to do a $6 million job for $3 million. He was just unrealistic.”

— Paul Fleming, president of Fleming Structural, the engineer of record for structural evaluation and renovation of the Main Street Lofts project on Scott Reed’s shortcomings as a developer

(Lawsuit, Liens Hit Scott Reed's Main Street Projects)


“It changed El Dorado, Arkansas. It became a forward-looking community. ... It just breathed life in this community.”

— Sylvia Thompson, the director of the El Dorado Promise, speaking about the program that provides a free college education for every graduate of El Dorado High School

(El Dorado Riding High on Murphy ‘Promise')


“I’ll miss it, but I’ll get over it.”

— Hugh McDonald, CEO of Entergy Arkansas, on his plan to retire in 2016

(Entergy Rolls With Industry Changes in Coal, Gas, Solar)


“We’ve never asked any questions about how our money was spent.”

— Russellville Alderwoman Freddie Harris about how tax money is being spent at the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development Inc.

(Russellville Alderwoman Freddie Harris Questions Development Funds)


“I’ve somehow been given a gift to assemble the right people, in the right place, at the right time. It’s worked out well. I feel I have a great organization.”

— Fort Smith nursing home magnate Michael Morton

(Nursing Home King Michael Morton Expanding His Empire)


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