Tuesday, February 22, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...2-22-'11
- Kentucky State Police say Curley Chapman, 66 of Kimper, in Pike County, was pronounce dead at Pikeville Medical Center Friday afternoon after a car driven by 28 year old Tabitha Akers, he was riding in, crossed the center line on Kentucky Highway 194, hitting a pickup truck driven by 34 year old Leslie Todd. Both Akers and Todd were treated and released from PMC.
- Pikeville Mayor Frank Justice II and the chairman of the Expo Center Board signed a lease agreement at a special commission meeting, putting the city of Pikeville one step closer to taking over the East Kentucky Expo Center. Officials say the next move will be to sign a contract with a management company
- About 20 people held a protest outside the American Electric Power offices in Pikeville Monday as protesters voiced concerns over higher electric bills this winter, some as high as one thousand dollars. Protesters were hoping to get the attention of lawmakers. Officials, including Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford, met with the protesters.
- Kentucky State Police are searching for a man they believe was involved in an eastern Kentucky homicide. Trooper Walt Meachum says a UPS employee found 67 year old Katherine Mills of Dewitt in Knox County dead. Evidence at the scene indicates Mills was robbed and killed on December 20, 2010. Witnesses described a white man with long hair and facial hair, wearing jeans and a hunting coat with a Mossy Oak camo pattern with a hood walking around the corner of the home where Mills was found. The man got in a blue car, which was later seen in the Stinking Creek community. Meachum says the man may have changed appearances or disposed of the car. The state police post in Harlan is handling the investigation.
- Ricky Allen Shepherd, 23, of Montgomery Creek, in Knott County was killed Monday after he was thrown off his motorcycle after colliding with a car on Kentucky Highway 1102, right off Highway 80.
- In President Obama's budget proposal, 50 percent of the Community Service Block grant that provides C.A.A. services would be cut, meaning Community Action Agencies could be forced to cut heating assistance, work release, and head start programs. Lawmakers are expected to make a decision on the budget by March 4th.
- Forty-five year old Sylvester Lee Groves was found dead in Hinkston Creek within the city limits of Mount Sterling Sunday afternoon after being missing since Friday. Police would not say how they believe Groves died. His body was sent to the medical examiner's office in Frankfort for an autopsy on Monday.
- Police say they've arrested a man they believe robbed Thompson Drug off U.S. 25 in London Saturday at knifepoint, stealing more than 5,000 pills. Thirty-three year old Bradley Hale has been charged with the robbery.
- Police in Knott County are searching for 51 year old Richard Strong who has not talked to his wife, Darlene Strong, since 3:00 Friday afternoon, when he was dropping off a neighbor at his house. Police say, later that night, Richard Strong was with a group of people on top of a strip mine site above Highway 899 in Raven. Officer Ken Amburgey with the Knott County Police Department says the last time witnesses saw Strong he was wandering away from the campsite following an alleged altercation with another person. Police found Strong's car a couple of miles away.
- Monday morning, the Kentucky Parole Board denied a parole request for 44 year old Elizabeth Turpin, who was convicted of planning the murder of her husband, 22 year old Michael Turpin, which was carried out by her girlfriend, Karen Brown, and Keith Bouchard. Police say the women hoped to get $60,000 from life insurance. Michael Turpin was stabbed 19 time, and his body dumped in a pond at Jacboson Park in 1986. Turpin was sentenced to life in prison. She will not be eligible to seek parole again for 10 years.
- The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has appealed Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd's decision to allow four environmental groups to intervene in a settlement of water pollution violations by the state's two largest producers of surface-mined coal. Shepherd ruled February 11th that Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Kentucky Riverkeeper, New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance and North Carolina-based Appalachian Voices, which triggered the state's investigation of Frasure Creek Mining and ICG of Hazard and Knott County by filing a notice of intent to sue under the federal Clean Water Act, have a right to be heard. The state's appeal calls Shepherd's order "unprecedented" and "novel" and says the state court has no jurisdiction over the environmental groups' federal Clean Water Act claims.
- An audit has found the Kentucky Workers' Compensation Funding Commission paid about $510,000 to a private financial adviser when the law requires it to use state-employed advisers. Auditor Crit Luallen says the commission has paid Morgan Stanley Smith Barney $40,000 to $50,000 a year since 1999. State law requires the commission to use the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet's Office of Fiscal Management. The commission, which manages more than $350 million in assets, has agreed to begin using the Office of Fiscal Management as its financial adviser.
- Jonathan Steiner, who became the new executive director of the Kentucky League of Cities in November, says he's considering closing the organization's office near the state Capitol in Frankfort. Steiner says the office is primarily used by lobbyists for KLC legislative issues and is most heavily used during legislative sessions, and nothing would happen with the office, a two-story Victorian house, until after the General Assembly adjourns in early March. Property records list the site's value at $250,000. The Lexington-based League of Cities represents more than 300 cities.
- The Governor's Task Force on Transforming Education in Kentucky presented Governor Steve Beshear with its final report Monday. Thirty-five recommendations for changes to Kentucky's education system include raising the dropout age to 18, funding to expand programs to recruit better teachers and the idea of establishing a steering committee to develop a new model of secondary and technical education, with a focus on career technology programs and having it ready for consideration in the 2012 General Assembly. Beshear tapped parents, teachers, superintendents and lawmakers for the committee, which was co-chaired by Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holiday.
- A Frenchburg woman hired to pay bills for the disabled and elderly has been indicted on claims that she stole more than $16,000 from them. Commonwealth's Attorney Larry Cleveland says 35 year old Melanie Hill, who worked at Community Alternatives, wrote herself checks between July 15th and December 10th with money that was supposed to be used to pay bills for clients. Adult Protective Services contacted state police after noticing irregularities. Hill faces a charge of theft by unlawful taking of $10,000 or more.
- A central Kentucky farmer has had triple the calf pleasure twice in a decade. A cow owned by Mark Rogers of Paint Lick had triplets on Valentine's Day, the second time in the last 10 years one of his cows gave birth to a trio of calves. Madison County Extension Agent Brandon Sears says about one birth in every 125,000 produces triplets. Rogers says the triplets born on April 1, 2001 needed to be bottle fed for about two weeks, but the newest additions haven't needed any assistance. The mother weighs about 1,300 pounds, and the calves weigh roughly 40 to 50 pounds, which is about half the weight of a normal calf their age. The calves most likely will be sold at market when they reach one year of age.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 12:03 AM 
