Other days

100 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1913 CONWAY - As a means of further discouraging the Sells Pluto circus from playing at Conway on the day following the closing of the Faulkner County Fair, steps will be taken by officers of the association before the City Council. Mayor Duneau has already refused to allow the circus to exhibit within the city limits, but it is said there is a possibility of an ordinance being passed to prohibit the show from unloading its paraphernalia within the city limits, or to use the city’s streets in giving a street parade.

50 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1963 WASHINGTON - Rep. Paul A. Fino, R-N.Y., said today illegal gambling in Arkansas may approach $1 billion yearly and has made Little Rock and Hot Springs well known gambling centers. He called this a neat, lucrative, tax-free monopoly which Arkansas is subsidizing because of its failure and refusal to control and regulate gambling. “The state of Arkansas is guilty of subsidizing the forces of organized crime and permitting the crime syndicates to continue to fatten their criminal treasuries and expand their nationwide web of dirt,” Fino said. His statement was another in a series in his attempt to obtain support for his bill to create a national lottery. 25 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 1988

Legislators, fearing school officials would “go berserk” if the state considered consolidating school districts, refused Thursday to study three proposals on the subject. Rep. Doug Wood of Sherwood and Sen. Jerry Jewell of Little Rock asked members of the Joint Interim Committee on education to undertake three studies on consolidation. Two proposals called for consolidation of some districts across the state and a third focuses only on the three Pulaski County districts.

10 YEARS AGO Sept. 23, 2003 Rhoda Mae Kerr, a third-generation firefighter with two decades of experience in Florida, was hired Monday as Little Rock’s fire chief, making her the first woman to head the city’s Fire Department. Kerr, Fort Lauderdale’s deputy fire chief, will start work in January, replacing Chief Phil Johnston who announced his retirement in May and will leave the post Friday. Kerr’s hiring makes her only the 15th woman in the country to head a fire department, according to Women in the Fire Service Inc., a Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization that tracks women in firefighting.