100 years ago
May 26, 1918
MENA -- A jury in Circuit Court here today found Eli Daffron, a German-born farmer, guilty of first degree murder. The jury did not fix the penalty, and under the law the judge will have no alternative except to sentence the man to death. Sentence will be pronounced Monday. On that day Mike Daffron, brother of the doomed man, will go on trial, also charged with first degree murder. The two brothers are charged with having killed D. A. Boatner, a school director of the district west of Grannis, near the Arkansas-Oklahoma line. Boatner had called on the brothers, asking them to sign cards pledging themselves to raise larger food and feed crops as a war measure. A quarrel followed, and Boatner was shot in the back.
50 years ago
May 26, 1968
• Forrest Rozzell, executive secretary of the Arkansas Education Association, called on "all friends of public education" Saturday to let their senators and representatives know they favor increased taxes on cigarettes, tobacco and liquor. These increases, Rozzell said, would bring in enough revenue to guarantee the state's public school teachers the $500 pay increase they have been promised for the second year of the current biennium; to increase funds for state colleges and universities by $2 million, and to "more adequately finance other essential services of state government."
25 years ago
May 26, 1993
• Violent crime in Arkansas for the first quarter of 1993 rose compared to 1992, but property crimes followed a more familiar downward trend, state figures released Tuesday show. The rise in violent crime may reflect a nationwide trend toward more violent behavior by juveniles, said Dr. Jeffery Walker, assistant professor of criminal justice for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Juveniles in recent years seem more willing, if not eager, to commit violent acts, he said.
10 years ago
May 26, 2008
GRADY -- As Mitchell Harper waited in line for his diploma, he grinned, passing a thumbs-up to his parents. He was part of Arkansas' largest graduating class on Thursday, one of 873 who passed the test for a GED, or General Educational Development, diploma. Unlike most graduation ceremonies, this wasn't held in a school gymnasium. This was held at the Cummins Unit, an Arkansas Department of Correction prison in Lincoln County that holds more than 1,500 inmates. This graduation marks 10 years since the Board of Corrections mandated that all inmates without a high school diploma or GED must work on obtaining one.
Metro on 05/26/2018