Other days
100 YEARS AGO Sept. 25, 1918
FORT SMITH — Newton county draft evaders concealed in the mountains of that county will surrender, their relatives agreed, according to J.H. Parker, United States marshal for the western district of Arkansas, who returned today from that county with Deputy Strange of Texarkana and Deputy J.C. Baker of Harrison, after spending a week there. A meeting was held in the forks of a mountain road Sunday with the relatives of the evaders, and it was agreed that as soon as possible the boys would be surrendered to Deputy Baker. The federal officers were called to Newton county Tuesday of last week to investigate reports that a band of from 15 to 30 armed deserters and draft evaders had taken refuge in the mountains.
50 YEARS AGO Sept. 25, 1968
A Negro man and white woman who are seeking an order in federal District Court directing Pulaski County Clerk R.S. Peters to issue them a marriage license filed a motion Tuesday for judgment based on the pleadings. Michael Higgins and Miss Susan Lane contended that no issues of fact had been raised in the case that would necessitate a trial. They said the only question involved was the constitutionality of an 1838 Arkansas law that prohibits interracial marriages. Higgins and Miss Lane filed suit September 9 after Peters had cited the 1838 law in refusing to grant them a marriage license. They allege that the law violates their rights under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
25 YEARS AGO Sept. 25, 1993
Facing federal indictments, Pulaski County Municipal Judge David Hale turned in his resignation Friday to one of the men he blames in part for his financial and legal crisis — Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. Hale ran Capital-Management Services Inc., a private company that lent federal Small Business Administration funds. The SBA seized the company Sept. 14. Hale was indicted Thursday for allegedly defrauding the agency. In an interview Wednesday, Hale suggested a group of politically powerful individuals, including Tucker and then Gov. Bill Clinton, pressured him for SBA loans from Capital-Management. Hale said the loans weren’t paid back. The White House has declined to comment, and Tucker has denied those allegations.
10 YEARS AGO Sept. 25, 2008
Bingo supporters, mostly from veterans groups in the Fort Smith area facing competition from Oklahoma bingo and casinos, demanded Wednesday that the state stop taxing and regulating the game. They told legislators that the penny-per-card tax keeps them from giving money to widows of veterans, and funding scholarships and baseball leagues for children. “The once proud American fighting men from America’s finest generation who were not defeated at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima or Normandy, in the twilight of their lives they stand defeated by legislation,” said Gene McVay of Fort Smith of the Arkansas American Legion.