- During a child abuse awareness event in Pikeville Friday, a tree was dedicated to planted in memory of Randy Jones, a popular East Kentucky Broadcasting DJ who died last year. Jones' wife, Paulette and son accepted the tree and then donated it to the city of Pikeville. It will be planted at the Randy Jones Memorial Playground. A bass tournament was held Sunday at Paintsville Lake to raise money for the Universal Park.
- Timothy Marsillet of Floyd County has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the May 2008 death of Thomas Bentley. Marsillet was charged with facilitation to commit murder, arson, and burglary. Police say Bentley was shot to death and then his home in Bull Creek was set on fire. A second man, Richard Adkins, who pleaded guilty to the murder in 2009, is serving a life sentence.
- Kentucky State Police in Hazard received a call last week of an attempted robbery at the Mayking Post Office in Letcher County. An investigation led police to the residence of 25 year old Jeffery L. McClain of Thornton. He was arrested and charged with complicity to commit robbery first-degree. Further investigation and information was obtained about the other suspects involved in the incident. Dustin I. Yeary, age 26 of Mayking was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. Katie Larue, age 27 from Whitesburg was charged with first-degree complicity to commit robbery. All were lodged in theLetcher County Jail. The investigation is continuing by the Kentucky State Police.
- The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights and the Lexington Fair Housing Council are sponsoring training on the Kentucky Fair Housing Act on April 6th. The training will take place at the Pikeville Public Library, 119 College Street, Room 125, from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. CST. Real estate licensees, landlords, social service providers and government employees are strongly encouraged to attend. The training is also open to the public. The fair housing training is part of a statewide campaign during April Fair Housing Month to educate the public about federal and Kentucky fair housing laws. Recent statistics have shown that discriminatory practices based on disability are on the rise.
- Karen Cunagin Sypher will voluntarily surrender Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution, a federal minimum security camp in Marianna, Florida, about 65 miles west of Tallahassee. She will sleep in a dormitory in the 313-bed facility, where the wake-up call is sounded at 6:00 A.M. each morning and inmates are counted four times a day. Sypher will be responsible for making her bed and sweeping and mopping her living area, which she must have ready for inspection at 7:30 A.M. Under federal law, if Sypher, who was convicted of trying to extort money and gifts from University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino and lying to the FBI, shows “exemplary compliance” with institutional rules, she could knock 324 days, about 15 percent, off her 71/4-year sentence. That would make her eligible for release on August 12, 2017, when she is 57 years old. There is no parole for federal prisoners, but Sypher may be moved to a halfway house when she has six months left on her sentence. She will be required to work, most likely in a prison industry that recycles used computer parts, and will be paid 12 cents to $1.15 an hour. The prison camp is next door to a medium-security federal men's prison and was formerly the home of a maximum-security women's unit that housed Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who was then serving a life term for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.
- Richard Edwards, an Edmond, Oklahoma chiropractor who received a double hand transplant last August at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky,says he's grateful to again have two hands and 10 fingers. Edwards' hands were left mangled after a truck fire on February 11, 2006. Edwards is continuing to go through therapy and has had additional surgeries to keep the hands functioning, but he says, while he has not been able to return to his chiropractic practice, he is able to shower, shave one-handed, buckle his own seat belt and hold a coffee cup with one hand. Warren Breidenbach, who led the surgical team at Jewish Hospital, says he's prescribed Edwards a medication because his arteries seem to be thickening. The 17 1/2-hour double hand transplant operation was the third ever performed in the U.S.
- Putney Ranger Station, a Harlan County ranger station built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is being renovated. Work on the 12-room cabin used to house offices for the Division of Forestry is expected to be finished by the end of the month. Renovation plans for the cabin include a visitor's welcome center and a Civilian Conservation Corps museum. Organizers say $150,000 in grant funds have been secured for the project, with the Harlan County Fiscal Court matching 25 percent.
- A state panel has approved tax incentives for a possible expansion at the General Motors assembly plant in Bowling Green. The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved offering $7.5 million in tax breaks if the plant, which makes Corvettes, goes forward with the $131 million project. Local GM spokeswoman Andrea Hales says the company is looking at other sites for possible investment, and there is no pending announcement.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:30 PM