Other days

100 years ago

May 19, 1917

TEXARKANA -- Clyde J. Merritt, aged 23, teacher of the Buchanan rural school several miles southeast of here, was shot and instantly killed at 11 o'clock this morning during recess at the school, while a score or more of his pupils looked on. He was shot by William S. Kirby, a farmer of the community, who is a first cousin of United States Senator William F. Kirby of Arkansas. Kirby used a shotgun at close range and literally blew the teacher's brains out.

50 years ago

May 19, 1967

• Jim Johnson suggested in another confidential memorandum mailed to members of the Democratic State Committee Wednesday that he would run against Orval E. Faubus if the former governor seeks a statewide office next year. Johnson mentioned a Faubus candidacy as an irresistable temptation in a four-page document that largely repeated an attack on the governor and his friends made in a secret memorandum in April. This one, however, introduced the suggestion that Faubus and Governor Rockefeller were allies. It refers to the "Faubus-Rockefeller regime."

25 years ago

May 19, 1992

• A local state employees union has not ruled out striking over the Department of Human Services' decision to cut back on the hours of its 8,300 employees. The department is cutting back by one day a week, or 20 percent, the employees' paid hours for seven weeks to help overcome an anticipated $40 million shortfall in Medicaid between now and June 30, the end of the budget year. Medicaid is the state-administered medical program for the poor.

10 years ago

May 19, 2007

• The Arkansas State Police showed off its new $4 million airplane Friday and Gov. Mike Beebe released a new policy on its use stating that his office would, in most cases, reveal the purpose of each trip. Lt. John Sparks, the pilot, said the plane does what nothing else in state government can do: Make time. "We can have him [the governor] anywhere in the state in 30 minutes," he said. "You don't get much work done sitting in a car all day." Beebe has said previously he had no plans to use the plane for personal or political purposes, but if he did he'd reimburse the state. But his office and the state police said Friday that federal regulations complicate those plans.

Metro on 05/19/2017

Upcoming Events