The Nation - News from July 3, 1988

Rain fell over parts of the nation’s Farm Belt but not enough to break the back of the dry spell, and Virginia farmers who were helped two years ago by donated hay returned the favor to a village in Ohio. The drought also created a controversy in Illinois, where Gov. James R. Thompson declared today “a day of prayer for rain.” Thompson’s action angered American Atheists, a group in Austin, Tex., who said in a statement that the government “must stop telling citizens when to pray, what to pray, how to pray or even if they should pray.” Showers and thunderstorms spread during the morning from northwestern Texas and the Panhandle into southwestern Oklahoma and from Arkansas across western Tennessee, northern Mississippi and Alabama. More than an inch of rain fell on parts of central and northern Arkansas, flooding some streets in North Little Rock.