Other days
100 YEARS AGO March 15, 1924
WALNUT RIDGE — The Grand Jury today returned indictments of assault with intent to kill against W. A. Russell, mayor of Hoxie, Will F. Gilkerson, marshall of Hoxie, and Cleve Dunn, chief special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. The three men were indicted following an altercation with Roland C. Roberts, who they arrested in the Central hotel at Hoxie. The indictments allege that they struck the prisoner with a blackjack and also attacked him in jail, after he had been imprisoned.
50 YEARS AGO March 15, 1974
■ Teamsters Local 878 filed suit in Pulaski Circuit Court Thursday to recover from Odell Smith, ousted local president, a Cadillac given to him as a gift after he lost a bid for re-election. … Smith, 68, of Little Rock, was president of the local for 37 years. He was defeated in the election by Alfred Pickering. The “lame duck” board gave Smith the car because he was retiring. The suit said that the “gift” was “abuse of discretion” on the part of the board, because Smith was not voluntarily retiring.
25 YEARS AGO March 15, 1999
■ Cold, wet weather did not deter state, county and local officials who gathered in College Station on Sunday at a groundbreaking ceremony for a community center to replace one destroyed by a tornado two years earlier. The 4,500-square-foot building, which will also house a health center, is just one of the many things the community is lucky to receive after the storm ripped it apart March 1, 1997, said Rep. Wilma Walker, D-College Station. The storm killed four College Station residents and caused irreparable damage to many buildings.
10 YEARS AGO March 15, 2014
■ A federal judge on Friday permanently struck down part of a 2013 state law outlawing most abortions at or after 12 weeks of pregnancy but left intact other parts of the law requiring abortion candidates to have an abdominal ultrasound and be told the medical probability of the fetus’ survival if brought to term. U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright’s ruling on the 12-week issue was expected, in keeping with a preliminary injunction she issued May 17 enjoining the state from enforcing the “clearly unconstitutional” ban. She said it contradicted the law of the land stemming from the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that establishes a woman’s right to obtain an abortion until the fetus is viable, or capable of living independently outside the womb. At the same time, Wright had left open the possibility that other sections of the law could stand on their own, even if the unconstitutional part fell. She asked attorneys on both sides of a lawsuit brought by two doctors who perform abortions to address the severability issue in written briefs, leading to Friday’s 17-page written order.