Other days
100 YEARS AGO June 16, 1922
PINE BLUFF — A statement was issued today from the office of J. M. Herbert, president of the Cotton Belt, denying that there was an impending shortage of coal at the local shops. The rumor that has been circulating in Pine Bluff for several days to the effect that on account of a shortage of coal the Cotton Belt shops here would be shut down soon, is without foundation, it was said. The men employed at the shops now number 1,045, including 730 in the mechanical department. This is by far the largest number employed since the first cut in forces in December 1920.
50 YEARS AGO June 16, 1972
■ The Senate has approved a $4,475,000 appropriation for site acquisition and planning for a new Veterans Administration health facility, combining the VA Hospital on East Roosevelt Road and the North Little Rock VA Hospital, a psychiatric institution, to be located adjacent to the University of Arkansas Medical Center.
25 YEARS AGO June 16, 1997
■ Somehow, two gorillas got out of the cage where they spend their nights at the Little Rock Zoo. Employees found the apes eating apples and vegetables out of a food bucket in a zoo keepers’ service area, Zoo Director David Westbrook said Saturday. Nobody knows how they got out. The gorillas, Tammy and Rocky, had gotten into a room with a sink, a toilet and some cleaning supplies, but they didn’t get into any public areas, Westbrook said. … Westbrook said zoo officials found the cage door locked behind the escaped gorillas. Nothing looked out of place. … Zoo employees shot Rocky with a tranquilizer dart gun, knocking him out. After he woke, they led him back into the cage. Keepers escorted Tammy back into the cage without tranquilizing her. … Because keepers could find no explanation for the gorillas’ brief outing, Westbrook said, the handlers will double check all their safety measures because of the “mystery” behind their escape. Assistant Parks Director Bryan Day said Saturday that he had not heard about the gorilla escape.
10 YEARS AGO June 16, 2012
■ An attorney representing 10 death row inmates argued before the state Supreme Court on Thursday that Arkansas’ lethal injection law is unconstitutional because it gives a state Department of Correction official too much power to decide what drugs to use in executions. Josh Lee, a federal public defender, said the 2009 law violates the separation of powers doctrine because it does not give Department of Correction Director Ray Hobbs reasonable guidance, such as making it clear that the drugs used should result in a painless death… Lee pointed to the state’s animal euthanasia statute, passed the same year as the Methods of Execution Act that applies to humans, as a model with its requirement that an animal’s death be fast and without pain. … “If the general assembly made the same commitment to my clients as it made to animals, we wouldn’t be here today,” Lee said… In response to questioning from the justices, Lee said a pain-free death is not guaranteed by the constitution or the courts’ interpretations, as Assistant Attorney General Joe Cordi had argued.