Other days
100 YEARS AGO Aug. 13, 1921
■ HOT SPRINGS — Two moonshine stills, one of which was new and had been operated but a short time, and the other plant of rather large proportions were destroyed by J. H. Knowles, a government officer, and Sheriff W. R. Downen and deputies today. Three days ago, the officials came across the new still. They waited the greater part of two days for those in charge to appear and begin operations, but no one came so, believing the owners had been “put wise” that their property was being watched, the officers destroyed the plant. That still was located near the Malvern road…the officers also found several barrels of mash, which were likewise destroyed.
50 YEARS AGO Aug. 13, 1971
■ MENA — The Lewis Lumber Company sawmill at Cove (Polk County) was destroyed by fire shortly after midnight Wednesday, authorities said. Paul Lewis, owner of the mill, estimated the loss at $50,000. The fire apparently was caused by an electric storm, Lewis said. The Mena Fire Department dispatched fire trucks to the mill and battled the fire about four hours before bringing it under control. An explosion of hydraulic oil tanks at the sawmill added to the difficulty of controlling the blaze, officials said. Other buildings at the lumber company were not damaged. The loss was only partially covered by insurance.
25 YEARS AGO Aug. 13, 1996
■ Spot the snake has been spotted. And nabbed. “The education coordinator called me about 10:30 this morning and said he has been captured,” Little Rock Zoo Director David Westbrook said Monday of the elusive king snake that’s been slithering free for 19 days. He was cornered and captured in a men’s restroom in the Educational Building. The reptile went back to his display case without a struggle. “In the last week, a couple of people reported seeing four to six inches of snake sticking out of the wall,” Westbrook said. The restroom has a small hole in the wall where a water pipe runs to an exterior water fountain. Spot had slipped into the hollow space between the building’s walls. And instead of the visitors checking him out, he was observing them, making a couple of brief appearances last week. “He was sticking his head and neck out of the wall, basically watching other people,” Westbrook said.
10 YEARS AGO Aug. 13, 2011
■ A rural Arkansas school district asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to reconsider a judge’s decision to toss out its challenge to the state’s method of funding schools. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza in March dismissed the complaint filed by the 363-student Deer/Mount Judea School District in Newton County. Piazza ruled that issues raised in the case were addressed by the 2007 Supreme Court decision in a case brought by the now-defunct Lake View School District, in which Deer/Mount Judea was a party. The same case cannot be retried, he said. Clay Fendley, attorney for the Deer/Mount Judea School District, challenged Piazza’s ruling in a brief filed with the high court Friday. The concerns outlined in the district’s complaint surfaced after the 2007 decision. The court now has the responsibility to consider the case’s merits, Fendley wrote.