Other days

100 YEARS AGO July 26, 1917

■ The transportation of material through Argenta to Camp Pike is now seriously hindered and a further hindrance is threatened by the proposed reconstruction of the Cato-Batesville pike, Major John R. Fordyce, constructing engineer of Camp Pike, said yesterday. Major Fordyce also said that it is imperative that a community the size of Camp Pike should be connected with communities of the importance of Little Rock and Argenta by more than one road.

50 YEARS AGO July 26, 1967

■ A petition in which Alfred Sturgeon, an inmate at Tucker Prison Farm, sought relief from what he said were “intolerable prison conditions” was dismissed Tuesday by Judge Gordon E. Young in federal District Court. Judge Young granted a motion by the state attorney general’s office to dismiss the petition on the ground that it failed to state a cause of action on which relief could be granted in the federal courts. Sturgeon, 21, of Enola (Faulkner County) had complained that he was forced by two other inmates to commit a homosexual act shortly after arriving at Tucker on May 18.

25 YEARS AGO July 26, 1992

■ About three dozen North Little Rock School District employees were advised Saturday not to sign 199293 contracts because doing so would surrender their current contractual rights. The employees may soon be sending form letters to Superintendent James Smith that state, in part, “Thank you for offering me a contract for less than the contract I already have, but I prefer to stick with my existing contract.”

10 YEARS AGO July 26, 2007

PRESCOTT — An Arkadelphia teenager was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after a Nevada County jury found him guilty of capital murder in the shooting death of a popular area produce vendor. Robert Lee “R. J.” Williams, 19, also was found guilty of aggravated robbery and residential burglary in the July 15, 2004, murder of James “Booger Red” Cummings, 80. For the burglary charge, the jury of five men and seven women recommended Williams receive an additional 20 years in prison and a $1,000 fine. According to testimony, less than $ 1,000 was taken in the robbery.