Other days

100 YEARS AGO March 8, 1924

PINE BLUFF — The Civitan Club, at its meeting today, showed further hostility toward Governor McRae’s proposed state income tax law. This club at a meeting some time ago adopted resolutions protesting the proposed new tax, and later a letter was received from Governor McRae, who urged that the Civitans change their attitude because the funds to be derived from the new tax would be used for improving the educational facilities in this state. At the meeting today, B. W. Benton and the Rev. V. H. Coffman, members of the committee appointed to send resolutions to the governor, were instructed to tell him that the Civitan Club is not opposed to better educational advantages, but does not believe that the proposed tax increase is just.

50 YEARS AGO March 8, 1974

FORT SMITH — Whirlpool Corporation officials at Fort Smith announced that the plant was adding another refrigeration product that would increase employment from 2,800 to 3,400. Sam Bateman, general plant manager, said that equipment was being moved into the refrigeration plant and production was scheduled to begin March 25. He said that a new 33-inch refrigerator would include a 19-cubic freezer section — and be the first to be manufactured. A 22-cubic foot, side-by-side model is scheduled for production by May and 22-cubic foot, with top mount, is scheduled to be manufactured by this fall.

25 YEARS AGO March 8, 1999

■ Feel like criticizing chicken, razzing rice or — heaven forbid — trashing tomatoes? Better think again. If a bill before the Legislature becomes law, it would be illegal to falsely “disparage” perishable agricultural products in Arkansas. “It’s needed to protect agriculture producers from people that may want to willfully harm their product, to cause problems that are not true,” Rep. Jim Milum, R-Harrison, said of his bill. Leave it to a constitutional law expert, though, to give Milum’s proposal a big fat raspberry. “This bill makes it an offense to negligently libel an agricultural product,” said John DiPippa of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock W.H. Bowen School of Law. “The Supreme Court has said, in other libel cases — when you’re talking about libeling a human being — that the standard is much higher. It’s got to be reckless indifference to the truth.”

10 YEARS AGO March 8, 2014

■ A program set to start this summer at Arkansas’ largest law school aims to offer a few prospective students from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds a second chance for admission to the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The Legal Education Advancement Program (LEAP) hopes to provide a dozen or so promising applicants who previously were denied admission a free, six-week training program in becoming better students. Those who succeed will get a second look from the law school’s admissions committee.