Tuesday, May 17, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...5-18-'11
- The Pike County Fiscal Court has scheduled a special called meeting for May 23rd to discuss the budget and layoffs. During a meeting Tuesday, Pike County Magistrates said there will be employee layoffs to balance the county budget, but they do not know which departments will be affected yet. The Pike County Fiscal Court agreed to cut more than one million dollars from payroll and layoff some county employees, but they disagree on which jobs to cut and how many. Officials say less coal severance funds and property taxes led to the more than three million dollar budget shortfall. The Fiscal Court must have a balanced budget approved and in place by July 1st, but magistrates say they cannot vote on a budget until they agree who to layoff.
- Eighty-three year old Serur Frank Dawahare Jr., one of the principals in a former Kentucky retail clothing dynasty, died Monday at his home in Lexington, apparently of complications from leukimia. Dawahare was vice president of the former Dawahare's Inc., a family business that operated a string of clothing stores across Kentucky and in West Virginia, Tennessee and Ohio for decades. He was in charge of the men's clothing departments in the stores, the last of which closed in 2008. He also handled the S.F. Dawahare estate, which includes the family's real estate holdings. His first job, at age 12, was sweeping the floors of the Dawahare's store in Whitesburg. He made a quarter a week. Later, he worked with his brother, Harding, at the family's Pikeville store for about 20 years. After that, Serur Frank Dawahare Jr. and his brother, Woodrow, opened stores in Lexington. The last Dawahare's clothing store closed in 2008.
- Low turnout made for a slow day Tuesday in the primary election, which featured a Republican gubernatorial nomination battle among three candidates, Senate President David Williams, Louisville businessman Phil Moffett and Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw.
Governor (R) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
David L. Williams * 68,540 48.2
Phil Moffett 53,950 38.0
Barbara Holsclaw 19,644 13.8
Secretary of State (D) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
Allison Lundergan Grimes * 85,563 55.3
Elaine N. Walker 69,077 44.7
Secretary of State (R) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
Bill Johnson * 66,429 50.4
Hilda Legg 65,332 49.6
State Auditor (R) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
John T. Kemper III * 70,874 57.3
Addia Kathryn Wuchner 52,876 42.7
State Treasurer (D) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
L. J. 'Todd' Hollenbach * 106,194 71.0
Steve Hamick 43,457 29.0
Agriculture Commissioner (D) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
Robert 'Bob' Farmer * 45,666 30.4
John Faris Lackey 31,560 21.0
B. D. Wilson 29,011 19.3
Stewart Gritton 25,003 16.6
David Williams 19,007 12.7
Agriculture Commissioner (R) - Statewide (100 % of precincts reporting)
Candidate Votes % Votes
James R. Comer * 86,527 66.7
Rob Rothenburger 43,142 33.3
- Voters in the Letcher County community of Jenkins showed strong support Tuesday when they chose to allow alcohol to be sold at certain restaurants within the city limits. Mayor G.C. Kincer says he had talked with business owners and believed alcohol sales would help draw more jobs to the area.
- The man found floating in the Big Sandy River in Boyd County last week by a worker at the Redbud Coal Dock, about three miles south of Catlettsburg, has been identified as Brian Jacob Gayheart, 20, of Van Lear, Kentucky. Gayheart was reported missing by his mother on May 1st after he was last seen in the Goble-Roberts area. The Boyd County Coroner says he still does not have a cause of death, but there is nothing to suggest foul play. The body was believed to have been in the river for 3 or 4 days. Police believe his body was in the water in Prestonsburg and floated to Boyd County. Prestonsburg Police are investigating how Gayheart died.
- Thirty-one year old Bass Webb was found guilty on two counts of attempted murder Tuesday for trying to run down Bourbon County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Barkley and pretrial officer Josh Mason outside the Bourbon County Detention Center in 2009. Webb then sped off, and police arrested him four miles away when his Geo Tracker caught fire. The jury deliberated for about three hours before finding Webb guilty. The jury recommended Webb spend 25 years in prison on each attempted murder count, with the sentences to run consecutively. Webb will be formally sentenced July 27th.
- Police say an unidentified middle-aged woman sneaked into Corbin Elementary School Friday, stole credit cards and went on a shopping spree. Officials say the woman appeared to be familiar with the building's layout and teacher schedules. Darrell Tremaine, the assistant superintendent for Corbin City schools, says the thief seemed to know exactly where she was going and what she was looking for when she took credit cards from two teacher's purses, which were tucked away in their classrooms during recess. Police believe the same woman, described as a black woman, between 30 and 40 years old with shoulder-length hair and no upper teeth, was spotted later that day using the stolen cards at a nearby Walgreen's. Police say the driver, a black male, drove the woman around to several stores, waiting outside while she used the stolen cards to rack up thousands in charges.
- A Jackson County High School basketball coach has been suspended, pending an investigation, after he allegedly had inappropriate contact with a student. School sources say Mitchell Madden coached the Jackson County High School girls' basketball team this past season. He is not allowed on school grounds or to have any contact with students.
- The U.S. Postal Service was more than $2 billion in the red for the first three months of this year and is facing an $8 billion loss for the fiscal year, which could force it to default on some payments to federal accounts. Senator Tom Carper, D-Del., said Tuesday he is introducing a bill to restructure postal finances and ease some of the restrictions that limit its flexibility. During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on federal financial management, Carper said the Postal Service, the Postal Service's inspector general, the Postal Regulatory Commission and two independent actuaries have all come to the conclusion that the Postal Service has overfunded its obligations to the Civil Service Retirement System by between $50 billion and $75 billion. Carper, chairman of the subcommittee, said he has introduced legislation that would allow the post office to use the overpaid money to make advance payments to cover future retiree health benefits - taking upwards of $5 billion off its books each year. In addition, the bill would provide for new postal services such as delivering alcoholic beverages, currently banned in the mail, and provide more flexibility in closing offices.
- Governor Steve Beshear has announced Modern Distributors, a full-line convenience store distributor, will expand its Somerset footprint, constructing a new 12,500 square-foot cooler-freezer facility. The expansion, which will allow the company to remain competitive in the wholesale grocery business, will result in 20 new jobs for the community. Modern Distributors began its Somerset operation in 1965 as a small, family-owned vending company and has grown into an organization designed to serve the wholesale grocery, coffee/ beverage and foodservice needs of convenience stores. Known as “Team Modern,” the company currently has approximately 1,300 vending, coffee and wholesale customers and employs 179 people between its Somerset headquarters and satellite office in Louisville.
- The cost of a study into how drivers will react to tolls in the Ohio River Bridges Project is burgeoning and is now nearly 10 times the amount allocated by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Invoices show state officials have paid Wilbur Smith Associates of Columbia, S.C., $765,218 to date and the total cost is now about $1 million. The cost has mushroomed from the initial allocation of $127,214. The company says the study was broadened to include a computer model showing greater detail that is expected to counter flaws that have skewed past estimates on toll roads elsewhere. The study is needed to determine toll rates for the new bridges.
- The father of a 23-year-old man who died after being shot during a home invasion in Lexington was among the first to testify in the trial of a man accused of participating in the crime. Marion County Judge-Executive John G. Mattingly Jr. described the final 47 days of John Graves Mattingly III, who was shot in the head on May 25, 2006 and died July 10th without regaining consciousness. Mattingly testified in the trial of 31-year-old Adrian Lamont Benton, who is accused of murder and other charges in the case. A co-defendant, 29-year-old Larry Wright, pleaded guilty to murder and complicity to commit robbery as the jury was being selected. Benton's attorney, Casey Holland, told jurors during his opening argument Monday, that his client "is mentally retarded" and did not pull the trigger.
- Crews in Paducah are taking down the city floodgates, now that the Ohio River is receding after a flood. The National Weather Service predicted the river would drop below 45.5 feet Tuesday afternoon and drop to 43 feet on Friday. The unofficial crest was 55.3 feet, reached on May 5th. City Engineer Rick Murphy says 45 of the 47 gates, including all of those downtown, should be removed by the end of the week. Murphy says a few gates not used by the general public will likely remain sealed or have their sills raised. The city is also removing a temporary levee built to keep floodwater from reaching the Julian Carroll Convention Center and the Paducah-McCracken County Expo Center. Neither was flooded.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:47 PM 
