Sunday, June 26, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...6-27-'11
- Road work on Third Street and Euclid Avenue in Paintsville will begin on Wednesday, June 29 at 8 a.m. Highway District 12 contractor will begin milling on these streets Wednesday morning. This work is necessary to correct some base failures and remove the old pavement prior to resurfacing from Teays Branch Road to Railroad Overpass. Traffic will be controlled with flaggers and roadway signs. Doug Wright, Section
as themselves and their passengers.
Homeowners, renters and business owners in Floyd County are now eligible for federal assistance to help recover from theeffects of the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that struck the
Commonwealth from April 12 to May 20. Floyd joins 21 other Kentucky counties where residents who sustained damages should register with FEMA to start thefederal disaster aid process. Individual assistance is now available in 22 Kentuckycounties: Ballard, Boyd, Carlisle, Carroll, Crittenden, Daviess, Floyd, Fulton, Graves, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Jefferson, Johnson, Lawrence, Livingston,
Marshall, McCracken, McLean, Pike, Union and Webster.
Individuals in these counties who suffered damages are
strongly encouraged to register with FEMA today. The deadline to register is July
18, 2011.
Don't give up on the thought of a summer road trip just yet.Gasoline prices are falling fast. They've dropped 38 cents in the last couple of months to $3.60 per gallon of regular. And analysts say another 25-cent drop is expected over the next few weeks. Economists say a 25-cent-per-gallon drop only saves the typical driver $12.50 per month, but it has a huge effect on the economy and on the minds of the consumers. But don't get used to the lower price. One analyst expects gasoline prices will return to a range of $3.50 to $3.75 per gallon by the end of the year. And some investment banks predict oil prices will rebound next year to levels that would push gasoline above $4 for the first time since 2008.
- The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights board has weighed in on its position on a proposed license plate bearing an image of the Confederate flag. Commissioners on Friday passed a resolution against such a plate and will ask the state Transportation Cabinet to deny such a design. The Tennessee-based heritage organization Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to make a Confederate flag plate available in Kentucky. Groups applying for special plates have to receive approval for the design and collect 900 prepaid orders within two years.
- A cheerleader from Hazard High School has signed a scholarship with the University of Pikeville. Katelyn Duff, who has been part of some very successful cheer teams at the Perry County school, signed with the Bears.
- Thirty-seven year old Lonnie Daughtery of Noblesville, Indiana was lodged in the Hardin County Jail Saturday after his wife, 45 year old Michele Daughtery, and a cat were found dead in a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Elizabethtown. Lonnie Daughtery told police he was helping his wife commit suicide. Daughtery, was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital with what police called "superficial injuries." He has been charged with murder and animal cruelty.
- Friday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove sentenced 52 year old Michael Shook, a Florida doctor, to four years in prison and ordered him to spend three years on supervised release. Prosecutors say Shook acknowledged prescribing approximately 25,000 pain pills to residents of eastern Kentucky who traveled to see him at Lauderhill Medical Clinic in Oakland Park, Florida. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute Oxycodone and Methadone.
- Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who is running for lieutenant governor with Governor Steve Beshear this fall, spent $214,000 between July 2006 and when he left office in December in discretionary funds on items such as a stage for an Orange Bowl victory celebration, t-shirts for an event and supporting a domestic violence summit. Abramson is accused of approving the expenses without any financial oversight by the Metro Council or getting a report on how organizations receiving the money spent the funds. Abramson says the discretionary fund wasn't a secret and the expenditures were listed on the city's website when the Louisville Checkbook was created at the behest of Metro Council Republicans in 2009, and that he always made his discretionary account a line item in the city budget.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:00 PM 
