100 years ago
July 17, 1921
• Following the completion of contracts now pending and the readjustment of the plant to use the new fuel, the Arkansas Water Company will abandon the use of gas as a fuel in its plant in favor of oil, S.R. Brough, local manager of the company said yesterday.
50 years ago
July 17, 1971
• Federal Judge J. Smith Henley of Little Rock Friday rejected the Little Rock School Board's proposed 5-3-2-2 desegregation plan as it pertained to the upper seven grades and approved instead a plan submitted -- but not endorsed -- by the Board that would establish three-year high schools at the Central, Hall and Parkview school sites. The approved plan would require extensive busing in the upper seven grades. In approving the alternate plan, Judge Henley specified that he would not allow the Board to operate the Gibbs-Dunbar Junior High School as a predominantly black school.
25 years ago
July 17, 1996
• Folks on both sides of the water separating Arkansas and Mississippi have talked about the Great River Bridge since 1984. Now the old idea has renewed interest, thanks to proposed Interstate 69. For now, the Great River Bridge and I-69 remain separate projects with different origins. The underlying impression, though, of Great River Bridge plans is that the route could double as the interstate location for crossing the Mississippi River. Arkansans and Mississippians will be able to speak up at two hearings this week about the bridge, a proposed crossing to pass through or near Big Island in Desha County. The $456 million, 32-mile highway-rail proposal would link U.S. 65 near Dumas with Mississippi 8 east of Rosedale, crossing the river at Rosedale or south of it.
10 years ago
July 17, 2011
• By Tuesday, the three constitutional officers who make up the state Board of Apportionment are all scheduled to have released their drafts of proposed legislative boundaries. The public will have 10 days to discuss the drafts before the three men vote July 29 on the state House and Senate districts that Arkansas will have for the next 10 years. The board is responsible for drawing 100 House districts and 35 Senate districts that are being reconfigured on the basis of population shifts identified in the 2010 Census. The board consists of Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, both Democrats, and Secretary of State Mark Martin, a Republican.