Other days

100 YEARS AGO Dec. 31, 1917

PINE BLUFF — Fire, with plain evidences of incendiarism, caused a loss estimated at $25,000 at the wholesale house of Mann-Tankersley Drug Company at 6 o’clock this morning. The interior of the new two-story brick building was badly damaged and a big portion of the large stock was ruined or damaged. It is believed the fire was started by a fiend or professional thief, who first stole a big quantity of morphine, opium and other narcotics and then fired the building.

50 YEARS AGO

Dec. 31, 1967 HELENA — The first kilowatt-hours have been produced at Arkansas Power and Light Company’s Robert E. Ritchie Steam Electric Generating Station near here. A $44 million expansion project to install a 550,000-kilowatt generating unit is near completion, and the first power from the new unit went on the line December 15. The turbine was rolled with steam for the first time at 11:34 a.m., December 15, and at 6:48 p.m. on that date the breaker was closed to tie the new unit in with the AP and L system. The additional unit will increase the Ritchie Station’s capability to 907,000-kilowatts, enough electrical energy to supply 90 cities the size of Helena.

25 YEARS AGO Dec. 31, 1992

m Highland Park Residents heckled Little Rock police Wednesday, forcing them to call for backups, as officers recreated a patrolman’s shooting the previous night of a Little Rock man. Herbert Davis, 43, was in serious condition Wednesday at University Hospital after being shot once in the upper back by patrolman Michael R. Davis, 26. The bullet passed through his back and lodged in his right shoulder, police said. Police issued warrants Wednesday charging Herbert Davis with felony possession of a firearm, felony fleeing, and aggravated assault, Lt. Charles Holladay said.

10 YEARS AGO

Dec. 31, 2007

m A constitutional challenge has been filed in federal court against ordinances that ban pit bulls in four central Arkansas cities — Jacksonville, Lonoke, North Little Rock and Beebe. “Breed-specific legislation is growing like wildfire, kind of like the fires in California,” Roger Schnyer, founder and director of a nonprofit animal welfare group, Responsible Owners of Arkansas Dogs, said Friday, explaining why his group is seeking court scrutiny. He said that a lot of misinformation is behind the bans, which are often passed by cities without proper legal input.