Tuesday, April 19, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...4-20-'11
- Police in Knox County are investigating after two people were shot on Hedden Flats Road in the Woodbine community around 1:45 P.M. Tuesday afternoon. Investigators say James Bargo, 57, of Woodbine, shot his girlfriend, 30 year old Charity Carter of Woodbine, and Harold Croley, age 60 of Corbin, the man he caught her with in what police describe as a lover's quarrel. Kentucky State Police say Bargo walked up to a vehicle parked in a wooded area and shot the two multiple times and fled the scene. Carter managed to make it to Hedden Lane where she was found by people passing by. Carter and Croley were flown to UK Hospital.
- Four Prestonsburg High School students are charged with arson and criminal mischief after allegedly setting a fire in a bathroom setting off the sprinkler system during school. Police say Monday morning four girls were mad at school officials about some suspensions due to a fight. Police say the four girls, age 15 and 16, hung toilet paper from the sprinkler head, sprayed it with hairspray, and set it on fire. The sprinkler quickly put out the flames, but water flooded the bathroom, hallway, and nearby classrooms. The school was evacuated for nearly four hours. Police took them to the Juvenile Detention Center in Breathitt County.
- Appalachian Regional Healthcare registered nurses in Kentucky and West Virginia voted Tuesday to ratify a new three-year contract. The contract covers more than 750 ARH registered nurses represented by the Southern United Nurses and will be effective May 1st.
- Prosecutors laid out evidence Tuesday in the death of 21 year old Jamie Stice, whose body was found last week in a wooded area. Kentucky State Police charged 33 year old Kathy Michelle Coy in the death. She remains in custody at the Warren County Jail in Bowling Green. Hospital employees called investigators after Coy showed up at a Bowling Green hospital with a baby. Kentucky State Police Detective Chad Winn testified Tuesday in Warren County District Court that Coy had told Stice they were going shopping for baby supplies. Winn said Coy used a stun gun to subdue Stice before attacking and killing her with a drywall knife. After attacking Stice with the stun gun, Coy slit Stice's throat and wrists, then cut the baby out of her abdomen. Coy took the baby to a friend's house, where the friend called EMS. Warren County District Judge Sam Potter sent the case to the grand jury. The case could qualify for the death penalty.
A new national strategy has been unveiled by the White House drug czar to combat the prescription drug abuse epidemic and aims to reduce misuse of powerful painkillers like Oxycodone by 15 percent within five years. The plan was unveiled Tuesday in Washington by drug czar Gil Kerlikowske. It focuses on areas such as education for prescribing physicians and the public, pushing for tracking databases in all 50 states, better methods of throwing out unused or expired prescriptions, and more intense training and focus by law enforcement on illegal pill mill clinics. Florida is the epicenter of the deadly rise in prescription abuse. Doctors in Florida prescribe 85 percent of all Oxycodone in the U.S.
- Kentucky State Police have arrested 18 year old David Howard of Manchester on charges of burglary, theft by unlawful taking over $500.00 and criminal mischief for breaking into the Manchester Elementary School on north US 421 in Clay County. Police say two men entered the school illegally, caused property damage and removed several items including an undisclosed amount of cash.
- As part of a budget proposal that includes the first pay raises in three years for faculty and staff, University of Kentucky students would dig deeper to cover a 6 percent tuition increase next school year. The tuition boost would amount to an extra $259 per semester for lower-division undergraduate students from Kentucky, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said in a campus-wide e-mail sent Tuesday. Higher tuition would generate nearly $14.8 million in revenue, still leaving a $20 million budget hole. The proposed tuition hike must be approved by UK trustees and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The tuition proposal goes before UK trustees on May 3rd on the Lexington campus. UK's budget proposal includes a pool of $11.2 million to reward non-UK HealthCare faculty and staff with an average 3 percent salary increase, Todd said. The raises would be awarded based on merit.
- The Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents has approved a tuition hike at the Richmond school to the maximum allowed by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The council has not yet set the maximum percentage. It meets April 28th. A news release from Eastern Kentucky University says the board of regents voted for the undergraduate tuition increase Monday in a regular session meeting. The board also approved a graduate tuition increase and a 3.75 percent increase in meal plan rates.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul has already filed to seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016. The Kentucky Republican who has been talking about possibly running for president next year filed a statement of candidacy to run for a second term in the Senate on March 21st, some three months after taking office. Paul, the son of Texas congressman and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, won the GOP primary in Kentucky last year over a Republican establishment candidate and followed that up with a general election win over an establishment Democrat. Rand Paul has suggested he may run for the Republican presidential nomination next year if his father doesn't. While his father hasn't officially announced another presidential run, he has been testing the water.
- Sixty-three year old Jerry L. Cannon, a former pastor at the nondenominational Church of God in Dry Ridge, Kentucky pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of distribution of child pornography. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began an investigation after Fairhope police referred a complaint made by a resident who reported seeing child pornography on a Facebook page. Authorities say Cannon used a total of 13 phony accounts in addition to his real profile, and had more than 600 pornographic images linked to his accounts.
- Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobbie Holsclaw filed a financial report Tuesday showing she raised $22,774 between January 25th and April 15th. The disclosure shows that Holsclaw, who faces state Senate President David Williams and Louisville businessman Phil Moffett, doesn't have nearly enough to mount an effective TV advertising campaign before the May 17th primary. During a news conference, Holsclaw, the Jefferson County clerk, plugged expanded gambling as an option that protects the horse industry, while funneling a fresh source of revenue into the state's education system. She touted choice as a key component in improving education. Holsclaw was the last of three candidates to enter the GOP primary race.
- Five remaining stores in the Joseph-Beth Booksellers' chain in Kentucky and three other states are going on the auction block. Lawyers in the case expect several bidders will want to buy and operate the chain. Four of the chain's nine stores have closed as part of a bankruptcy, and company leader Neil Van Uum had hoped to emerge a healthier bookseller without the under-performing stores. But some creditors rejected his plan, making an auction necessary. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in November after suffering declining sales the past five years.
- A May 10th trial date has been set for a Missouri man charged with fatally shooting a western Kentucky man two years ago. Graves County Commonwealth's Attorney David Hargrove says the new date was set on Monday for the murder trial of Robert James "Jimmy" Arnold. Originally scheduled for January, the trial was postponed after a defense attorney had to withdraw for financial reasons. Arnold is charged with shooting 37-year-old Donald Dwain Morris of Hardin in February 2008 and dumping his body under a bridge. Police arrested Arnold in December 2009 in Charleston, Mo, where he moved after Morris' death. Authorities said the men were friends and they and their families were living together when Morris was killed.
- A Louisville woman faces a potential life sentence after her conviction in the death of an 11-year-old boy who was killed while riding a bicycle. Prosecutors argued that 31-year-old Angela Baumia was driving drunk and not paying attention to the road when she hit Dylan Geitgey last June. Defense attorney Elgin Crull argued that Baumia hit him after swerving to avoid another child riding a bicycle. Jurors deliberated about four hours Monday before returning a verdict of guilty on charges of murder, first-degree wanton endangerment, criminal mischief and drunken driving. She faces 20 years to life in prison.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:41 PM 
