Other days
100 YEARS AGO Feb. 23, 1920
■ The Little Rock School Savings Association, which was suspended during the war on account of the thrift campaigns, is being reorganized, and the plans for its re-establishment probably will be matured at a meeting of the directors March 3, at the School Board rooms, Eighth and Louisiana streets.
50 YEARS AGO Feb. 23, 1970
■ Arkansans are manning noisemakers, tape recorders and traps as they go through their yearly battle against the noisy, unsanitary, potentially crop-wrecking and just plain annoying blackbirds. The blackbirds — a category including the red wing blackbird, the common grackle, the brownheaded cowbird and, loosely, the starling — are native to Arkansas but others migrate from as far away as Canada down the Mississippi River Valley to Arkansas and surrounding states in the winter.
25 YEARS AGO Feb. 23, 1995
■ The Little Rock School Board on Wednesday began arduously slashing $9 million in employee pay and programs from next year’s budget but balked at cutting school nurses and preschool programs for 4-yearolds. “Cutting preschool programs will negatively impact elementary, middle schools, junior highs and high schools,” the board’s Linda Pondexter told administrators. “All the evidence shows that if children get a head start, they will do better in school,” Pondexter added. “Don’t cut their legs out from under them before they even start to walk. Some programs are sacred.” Earlier this month, Superintendent Henry Williams and his staff proposed a list of $5.8 million in cuts, including reduction of the number of 4-year-olds served in the free preschool program. The 720 children served at 20 elementary schools would be reduced to 180 at five schools.
10 YEARS AGO Feb. 23, 2010
■ After more than 30 years of searching Crater of Diamonds State Park, diamond prospector Glenn Worthington recently dug up the largest diamond he’s ever found. Worthington registered the 2.13-carat, tea-colored diamond Thursday — his mother’s birthday. “Most of the diamonds from the park are lustrous. This one has sort of a matte finish, more of a dull finish,” Worthington said. “It’s unique.” He and his wife, Cindy, named the stone the “Brown Rice Diamond” because of the color and elongated shape. According to the park Web site, 22 other diamonds have been found this year. Worthington searches for diamonds in the park’s dirt fields most days of the year along with two other men, Bill and Dave Anderson. This particular diamond was found in a hole in the southern part of the diamond field affectionately named “The Pig Pen” because of how muddy it can get.