Other days

100 YEARS AGO

Feb. 13, 1923

HOT SPRINGS — The bill by Representative John A. Riggs of this county, introduced in the legislature, proposing the ceding of Hot Springs and all of its control to the United States government, was vigorously denounced at a meeting of the members of the local bar here today. The lawyers adopted unanimously a resolution asking the legislature to defeat the bill. A movement to ask the legislature to repeal a former law which ceded joint control to the federal authority here was defeated by only two votes.

50 YEARS AGO

Feb. 13, 1973

■ The state Education Department said Monday that it would take about $13.2 million to properly fund Governor Bumpers’ public school kindergarten program during the next biennium. Mr. Bumpers originally had recommended $10 million but later said he may ask for $2 million more. Enabling legislation to set up the program has been signed but the appropriation has not been considered by either the House or the Senate… Under the kindergarten bill, school districts that provide fullday programs would receive $9,000 for each classroom unit and districts that conduct a half-day program would receive $4,500 for each classroom unit.

25 YEARS AGO

Feb. 13, 1998

OPPELO — A stretch of Arkansas 154 on Petit Jean Mountain remained closed Thursday after a rock slide Wednesday morning left a truck-sized rock in the highway. Nobody was hurt in the slide. “It was a big rock,” said Randy Ort, a state Highway and Transportation Department spokesman. The rock proved too big to move, so workers drilled holes in it, inserted sticks of dynamite and blasted it into smaller pieces. The highway reopened at 5 p.m. Wednesday, but was closed again Thursday morning for more work to ensure against future rock slides.

10 YEARS AGO

Feb. 13, 2013

CONWAY — The Conway School Board revised a policy Tuesday after an out-of-state group called into question a pastor’s visits to one of the district’s middle schools during students’ lunch breaks. The new student-visitation policy allows for “reasonable time, place and manner restrictions” for guests and requires parental consent to visit elementary- and middle-school students. The district’s previous policy for non-student visitors was constitutional, an attorney advising the board said. But the revisions made guidelines for guests such as pastors, college recruiters and mentors clearer… Conway Superintendent Greg Murry temporarily halted the visits and consulted with Liberty Institute, which describes its mission as “restoring religious liberty in America,” on a pro-bono basis after the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote to ask the district to “immediately discontinue allowing any pastor access to students during school hours” after it received reports that a pastor from New Life Church was visiting Carl Stuart Middle School students at lunch.