Other days

100 YEARS AGO March 2, 1918

Following a desultory skirmishing between internal revenue agents and alleged moonshiners in Montgomery county for more than two months, Clyde Porter, it was learned last night was shot and killed by revenue men Friday night, February 22, near his home in the Fancy Hill settlement. The government posse consisted of three men and there were probably five in the gang with Porter. The alleged moonshiner with his companions was trailed through the mountains and when the posse called on him to halt as he neared his home, the gang opened up with a fusillade.

50 YEARS AGO March 2, 1968

JONESBORO — A coroner’s jury ruled justifiable homicide Friday in the shooting of Norman Smith, 46, a Craighead County farmer, by his daughter, Lavonda, 16, Tuesday night. Smith was shot once in the back. Mrs. Eunice Smith, his wife, told the coroner’s jury that Smith came home drunk and as she was putting a young son to bed, he grabbed her, struck her and threatened to kill her. Smith was pulling her hair, Mrs. Smith said, when she heard a shot and saw Lavonda holding a .22-caliber rifle.

25 YEARS AGO March 2, 1993

A school principal accused of child abuse must remain on a state registry of suspected child abusers for three years despite a lower court finding that he was innocent, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Monday. The state Department of Human Services, which initiated the investigation against John Heath, principal at Marion Junior High School in Marion (Crittenden County), also has abandoned its complaint of child abuse against Heath. But the agency insists state law mandates that the principal’s name remain on the registry.

10 YEARS AGO March 2, 2008

HECTOR — The helicopter zigzagged overhead, dropping pingpong-sized balls into the forest. The balls bounced into dried grass, hissed and ignited. Wisps of smoke rose as flames consumed fallen leaves. Blackened circles spread as fire crept away from the spots where the balls landed. The fire crawled through the undergrowth in the Ozark National Forest in Pope County. The U.S. Forest Service was performing a “controlled burn” of 1,360 acres of forest north of the town of Hector on Saturday. With a handful of workers, pickups, a helicopter and a lot of planning, the rangers kicked off the spring burning season under a cloudless sky.