Alcohol in dry counties

It's the subject of two articles in newspapars from around the state today:

From the Searcy Daily Citizen:

A Little Rock television station reported last week that in reality there are only eight “dry” counties left in Arkansas in spite of the obvious intentions of the voters in the 42 counties that elected to be “dry.” I suppose that since the issuance of the liquor license to Kelly’s in Bald Knob there is one less?

From the Van Buren Press Argus-Courier:

For the first time in 65 years, alcoholic beverages will be sold in the historic district of downtown Van Buren. At Thursday's hearing, opponents argued that county residents voted 65 years ago to make the country dry and that many people lived there for that reason.

Down the page, there's a link to Sunday's story in the Democrat Gazette on the state's wet-dry issue (focusing on a particular group in Conway). We rank 4th nationally in the number of dry counties, according to the article.

Click the map to see it full size.