100 YEARS AGO June 26, 1913
TEXARKANA - The City Council on the Arkansas side last night adopted a resolution directing the chief of police to make examinations and tests, at intervals, of the cider kept on sale at the “soft” drink stands in the city. A large number of “drunks,” it is said, have recently been traced to these soft drink stands, and the officers have developed a strong suspicion that the cider kept at some of the places is heavily “spiked.”
50 YEARS AGO June 26, 1963
STAR CITY - Mr. and Mrs. Roy Harmon of Star City and several other couples from the area have decided to remarry - without having been divorced.They’ve billed the ceremony thus: “Mass wedding. Bring all your children.” The advertisement in a Star City newspaper was placed by the Harmons, who discovered that under Arkansas law, they weren’t legally married. A Social Security Administration announcement in April that it would not pay benefits to widows and wives who were not legally married focused attention on a 1941 Arkansas law. The statute provides that a marriage is invalid if the man was under 18 years of age, or the woman was under 16 when they were married.
25 YEARS AGO June 26, 1988
MARIANNA - Using terms like “welfare whores” and “studs” to describe those getting welfare is giving Lee County Judge Kenneth Hunter political heat stroke. Justice of the Peace Wilbur Peer, who is black, said Saturday he will offer a resolution demanding an apology from the county judge. He said at least two other black Quorum Court members support his resolution. An angry Peer called Hunter “an ignorant S.O.B.,” and said he was a disgrace to both the black and white races. Hunter was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat’s special report on life in the Delta.
10 YEARS AGO June 26, 2003
The next time an Arkansas State Police trooper walks up to a vehicle during a traffic stop and points a flashlight inside, he may be doing more than illuminating the interior. He could be testing the air inside for proof that the driver has been drinking alcohol. One hundred eighteen of the 320 troopers in the state are now carrying “The Sniffer” flashlight, which conceals a “passive alcohol sensor” and alerts officers to alcohol in the air inside a vehicle, Col. Don Melton, director of state police, announced Wednesday. The device looks no different from a regular flashlight.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 06/26/2013