100 YEARS AGO Jan. 17, 1914
DERMOTT - It was rumored today that another petition would be circulated asking for saloons for this place. It is thought that the effort to secure names will meet with very little success, as a very active anti-saloon spirit has developed since the first petition was filed. It is asserted by the prohibitionists that many who signed the first petition will not sign the second petition.
50 YEARS AGO Jan. 17, 1964
Gov. Faubus today created a Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women and asked it to explore social, political, economic and legal problems of women on the state level. He named Mrs.Charlotte Gardner of Russellville as chairman of the 22-member commission. Faubus said studies by the commission “will do much in strengthening family life and encouraging women to assume their rightful full partnership in the continuing development of our state.”
25 YEARS AGO Jan. 17, 1989
A group of lawmakers seeking to eliminate state recognition of the holiday in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee agreed Monday to a compromise. The legislators said they would support a bill that would separate the holiday commemorating the births of Lee and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The birthdays now are concurrently recognized in Arkansas on Jan. 15. Reps. Bill Walker and Jim Lendall of Little Rock and at least one other House colleague were expected to file a bill Monday to exclude Lee from the holiday. Instead, a bill likely will be filed today to maintain the King holiday and set aside the fourth Monday in January to honor Lee. State employees would get the day off for King’s birthday under the proposed law, Walker said. State employees, who currently get a day off for their own birthdays, would have the option to take off their birthday or Lee’s day of observance, he added.
10 YEARS AGO Jan. 17, 2004
An Arkansas State Police trooper will be suspended for five days without pay for reportedly picking up a severed human leg at a fatal-accident scene and pretending to eat it like a “chicken bone.” Trooper Trenton Behnke told a state police investigator that he held John Bradley’s right leg, which had been severed just below the knee, but he denied raising the limb to his mouth and faking a bite, according to an internal affairs file obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week.
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 01/17/2014