100 years ago
July 17, 1919
PINE BLUFF -- A Studebaker touring car, stolen Friday night from a Conway garage, and recovered here late yesterday, was returned to Conway today by Constable J. A. King and L. H. Crofton, sales manager of the Frauenthal & Swartz Automobile Company of Conway. ... When officers went to the garage late yesterday they identified the car and waited for the men who brought it to return. When they came, one fled so abruptly at sight of the officers that they failed to overtake him. Patrolman J. B. Middlebrooks fired several shots at the man, who swam a bayou at the edge of town, where the pursuit ended. Officers have a good description of him. The other man, who was arrested, said he did not know the car was stolen.
50 years ago
July 17, 1969
HOT SPRINGS -- The General Cable Corporation plant near here and the striking United Steelworkers of America local have reached tentative agreement on settlement of the 5-month-old strike, it was announced Wednesday. Ed Ball, the union representative, said union members would meet Friday to vote on the company's offer, which he said the union negotiating committee recommended. About 160 steelworkers have been on strike.
25 years ago
July 17, 1994
• A man charged after a raid at a North Little Rock warehouse turned up a ton of marijuana was sentenced Friday to life in prison. John David Whitehead was the last of nine defendants to be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen M. Reasoner. ... Reasoner also forfeited to the government all interest the defendants had in Val-Care Environmental Services Inc. Law enforcement officials said the company -- which purportedly disposed of medical waste -- was a front to disguise the movement of marijuana from southern Texas to Arkansas and then to major urban areas in the northern part of the country. The marijuana was stored in boxes marked "medical waste" until it could be repackaged for shipment, officials said. Law enforcement officials at that time said it was the largest marijuana seizure in North Little Rock history.
10 years ago
July 17, 2009
• Two people in a car in the McAlmont community in Pulaski County suffered gunshot wounds early Thursday, with the driver hit in the head, authorities said. Just after 1 a.m., Deputy Jeremy Fairchild arrived at Jamison Avenue and East 43rd Street to find a silver Ford Taurus engulfed in flames, according to his report. The driver was still inside, unconscious, with blood on his shirt, Fairchild wrote in his report. Fairchild, the sheriff's office's rookie of the year last year who weighs maybe 160 pounds, pulled the 250-pound driver from the car. Fairchild and sheriff's office investigators learned that four people had been inside the car and scattered after shots were fired. One witness told sheriff's office investigators that the gunman was outside the car, carrying a shotgun. Slim and not very tall, he was a former Sylvan Hills High School student who answered to the nickname "Fat Cat," the witness told investigators.
Metro on 07/17/2019