Other days
100 YEARS AGO June 27, 1922
■ One of the largest schools of instruction ever conducted by the Arkansas National Guard is in progress at Camp Pike, where 85 officers of the guard and 700 noncommissioned officers are taking a four-day course of intensive training in military matters. The university system of lectures is employed, and the instructors include experts from both the guard and the regular army. Col. Heber L. McAlister of Conway, commanding officer of the 153rd Infantry, is in charge of the school.
50 YEARS AGO June 27, 1972
JONESBORO — A new access route to the U.S. Highway 63 Bypass in West Jonesboro will be provided by extension of Washington Avenue. It will provide faster traffic flow for employees at industrial and retail firms. John Kinzer, engineer for the State Highway Department, inspected the project here during the week. … County Judge Nill Clark is supervising the job, which is funded by county and federal funds. Completion is expected about October 1.
25 YEARS AGO June 27, 1997
■ President Clinton’s popularity in his home state is at its highest level in almost five years, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette poll. Clinton got a favorable rating from 56 percent of Arkansans surveyed, although many of them said they weren’t sure whom to believe in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the president by former state employee Paula Corbin Jones. Mason-Dixon Political/Research Media Inc. of Columbia, Md., surveyed 829 registered voters who vote regularly in state elections. The results of the Arkansas survey mirror recent national public opinion polls that suggest Clinton, six months into his second term, continues to ride a wave of economic prosperity and general contentment across the land. “It is clear this is not a pressing issue with people here,” said Del Ali, senior vice president for Mason-Dixon. “People are saying, ‘Look, something probably happened, but, one, it’s not serious and, two, both of them don’t have halos on their heads.’”
10 YEARS AGO June 27, 2012
■ Arkansas’ 7-year-old human-trafficking law is weak and no one has ever been prosecuted under it, an assistant attorney general and several anti-trafficking groups said Tuesday. The remarks were made at the beginning of a two-day human-trafficking meeting designed to find ways to toughen Arkansas’ law and build a coalition against trafficking. … No one has been charged under the state’s trafficking law, Arkansas Code Annotated 5-11-108, since it went into effect in 2005, Assistant Attorney General Bart Dickinson said. … Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, who wrote the 2005 legislation, agreed the state law needs to be strengthened. … Beyond changing the law, Dickinson said, prosecutors and law enforcement need to change how they approach victims of sexual abuse. For instance, if a police officer catches a teenager selling sex, the officer should ask whether the teen is being forced to do so, Dickinson said.