Other days

100 YEARS AGO March 24, 1921

■ Whether the probe of penitentiary affairs begun during the session of the legislature is to be continued will be decided today at a conference between Senator Townsend of Pike county, Representative Gates of Lonoke county and Prosecuting Attorney George W. Emerson. The legislators were chairmen, respectively, of the Senate and House Committees on Penitentiary, and with Prosecutor Emerson began an investigation of charges of graft that had been made against the former Penitentiary Commission.

50 YEARS AGO March 24, 1971

■ Governor Bumpers is leaning toward a veto of a bill (HB 406) that would require all automobile licenses to be purchased between January 1 and February 15, the Joint Budget Committee was told Tuesday. The Revenue Department has said that the change from year-round motor vehicle registration would cost $600,000 to implement. The Joint Budget Committee decided Tuesday that it needed to know the governor’s plans on HB 406 before acting on the Revenue Department’s appropriation. It dispatched Representatives Lacy Landers of Benton and G. W. (Buddy) Turner Jr. of Pine Bluff to the governor’s office to find out.

25 YEARS AGO March 24, 1996

■ An errant trash fire fanned by light winds Saturday became a brush fire that threatened four homes near the Saline-Pulaski county line and consumed about 20 acres of undergrowth, firefighters said. Bob Franklin, North Saline County Fire Department chief, said about 35 firefighters were sent to fight the blaze near the Lake View Country Club at 8500 Castle Valley Road about 10:40 a.m. Saturday. There is no burn ban in place for Pulaski and Saline counties, but Franklin said there probably should be one. “Until we get a good four or five days of rain, we should be discouraging people from making open fires,” Franklin said.

10 YEARS AGO March 24, 2011

■ It’s time to add more beds at the jail, Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines told Quorum Court members this week. The county has the money — about $3 million in a public-safety reserve fund that’s set to grow to $5 million this year — and should expand the jail before inflation drives construction costs up again, Villines said in a memorandum that he and Sheriff Doc Holladay sent Wednesday to mayors in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Sherwood and Maumelle. The 2008 estimate of about $4 million to expand the jail by 240 beds has grown to $5.3 million, Villines said.