Sunday, July 03, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...7-4-'11
- The Bowling Green City Commission has scheduled a vote for Tuesday on a resolution urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to move the case of Iraqi nationals Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi. Alwan, 30, and Hammadi, 23, were arrested May 25th in Bowling Green, and a federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment against the men May 26th. Both entered the country legally as Iraqi refugees, receiving publicly funded housing assistance and health care. Commissioner Melinda Hill says the commission is not trying to use the prosecution of Alwan and Hammadi as a political platform. If the resolution passes, the commission will join U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in calling for the two men to be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Carl Wedekind, a longtime board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, has died at the age of 85. Wedekind became involved in the movement against capital punishment while working on the case of Harold McQueen, who in 1997 became the first person executed in Kentucky since 1962. Last year the Kentucky ACLU gave Wedekind its lifetime achievement award. A memorial service is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. EDT Thursday at the First Unitarian Church in Louisville.
- Lawyers for nine Amish men from western Kentucky filed an appeal Thursday asking the state Supreme Court to overturn their 2008 convictions for failing to display bright safety triangles on their horse-drawn buggies, as required by state law. The men, all members of the strict Old Order Swartzentruber Amish sect, object to the triangles because their colors violated their modesty code. The men want the state to honor their strict religious convictions, which they say prohibit them from using the safety triangles in good conscience. The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the convictions June 3rd.
The Humana Insurance Company has announced they’ll no longer hire workers in Arizona who use tobacco products as part of a trend of employers who are cracking down on tobacco use. Humana will test employees for nicotine use during a pre-employment urine drug screen, but the policy does not apply to the company’s headquarters in Louisville. Kentucky has declared smokers a “protected class”, making it illegal to discriminate against people because they smoke.
- A group called Preservation Louisville is taking aim at Louisville's historic shotgun houses, which have been prevalent in the city's urban neighborhoods for more than a century. The houses are deteriorating because of old age and neglect. The initiative, Preservation S.O.S. "Save Our Shotguns," will revamp the homes in neighborhoods such as Butchertown, Smoketown, Germantown and Portland. The first will be chosen by a panel in July, with work expected to start in the fall. The renovation work will be done using a grant from PNC Bank and volunteer help from Habitat for Humanity and others.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:17 PM 
