Other days

100 YEARS AGO

Dec. 4, 1922

PINE BLUFF — In an appeal to Jefferson county bankers, E. J. Bodman of Little Rock, chairman of the Arkansas State Bankers’ Association, last night stressed the necessity of the co-operation of the bankers of the county in urging the farmers to diversify their crops. Mr. Bodman said that 3,000 farmers in Jefferson county raised no hay or forage during the past census year, that more than half that number had no dairy cows, and only 500 of the 6,900 raised Irish potatoes. He said that the farmers buy annually thousands of dollars’ worth of foodstuffs which should be raised at home.

50 YEARS AGO

Dec. 4, 1972

CONWAY — The new $2.3 million Jeff Farris Health and Physical Education Center at State College of Arkansas was dedicated Sunday. … Farris was physical education director at SCA when he died in 1961. … The Center, to be used for the first time Thursday night for intercollegiate competition, has a seating capacity of 6,000. The playing floor has a Tartan synthetic surface. The building also contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool, classrooms and space for intermural activities. The building contains 107,529 square feet on two floors. Hendrix College and SCA will play a basketball game as the opening attraction.

25 YEARS AGO

Dec. 4, 1997

■ The taxpayer-funded telephone hot line for reporting fraud and abuse in state government was shut down Wednesday after getting more than 600 calls in two months. … Whether records made as a result of calls to the line are public records is a disagreement between Gov. Mike Huckabee and Attorney General Winston Bryant. Nov. 10, Bryant issued an opinion that the records must be disclosed because the hot line was run out of state Department of Finance and Administration office space and staffed by people paid from the department’s budget. Huckabee contends the records are part of his “working papers,” which are exempt from disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Act. He also fears retribution against whistle-blowers who called.

10 YEARS AGO

Dec. 4, 2012

PINE BLUFF — The Pine Bluff City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Monday night that requires owners of the city’s fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and package stores to install one or more video surveillance cameras inside their stores by Jan. 1. Any business built after that date will be given a six-month grace period. Store owners who don’t comply with the ordinance will receive a misdemeanor citation, along with a $25 fine for each day of operation without a camera system. … Alderman George Stepps sponsored the ordinance with the backing of the Pine Bluff Police Department, which maintains that surveillance cameras inside such establishments can be an important part of a criminal investigation. Stepps has said in previous meetings that the goal of the ordinance was “not to punish businesses, but to help deter crime in the city.”