100 years ago
Dec. 13, 1923
TEXARKANA --Wholesale indictments were returned by the Arkansas side Federal Grand Jury here today against Smackover and El Dorado oil field operators. Indictments against more than 100 person were returned, and it is reported that nearly all charge using the mails to defraud in connection with oil field enterprises. Only six of the indictments containing names of 23 defendants were made public, other persons not being in custody.
50 years ago
Dec. 13, 1973
Two youths robbed a clerk at Randle's 59-Minute Cleaners at 4511 East Broadway, North Little Rock, of $85 about 10:20 a.m. Wednesday. Five minutes later, Patrolmen Harold Hatfield and Larry DuBose stopped a car at Tie Plant fitting the description of the one used by the two youths. They took into custody its driver, 17, of North Little Rock, and a 15-year-old Little Rock passenger. A .357-magnum pistol was taken from under the car's dashboard. ... Mrs. Billie Bell, the clerk, told the police that the youths entered the store and the younger one drew the pistol on her -- and told her it was a "stick up." They both went to the cash register and took its contents.
25 years ago
Dec. 13, 1998
ST. PAUL --The Arkansas National Guard will truck 10,000 gallons of water to St. Paul today to help residents battle a depleted water supply. Late last week, the Madison County town of about 165 people lost its water after two wells dried up and the third well became contaminated with black sulfur. The wells are St. Paul's only water source, and the town's schools had to close Thursday and Friday because they represent half of the town's water consumption. The town uses about 12,000 gallons a day, said Richard Eoff, Madison County's Office of Emergency Services director. Eoff said he doesn't know why the wells failed or why there were no signs that the wells were about to fail.
10 years ago
Dec. 13, 2013
A pair of Chinese agricultural scientists, one of whom lives in Arkansas, were arrested by federal investigators Wednesday and are accused of conspiring to steal trade-secret seeds from a biopharmaceutical company in Kansas and hand them over to a Chinese delegation that visited this summer. Wengui Yan, 63, a research geneticist at the Agriculture Department's Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart since 1996, appeared in federal court in Little Rock on Thursday on one count of conspiring to steal trade secrets. According to federal prosecutors, the case will be tried in the U.S. District Court of Kansas, where another scientist, Weiqiang Zhang, 47, appeared Thursday morning on the same charge. If convicted of the conspiracy charge, Yan and Zhang could face up to 10 years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine.