EKB News

• Kentucky freshman basketball player Enes Kanter said Friday he didn't know he was doing anything wrong when he and his family accepted excessive benefits while he played for a club basketball team in his native Turkey as a teenager. Kanter, who gave interviews after throwing the first pitch Friday at a Kentucky baseball game, was declared permanently ineligible on Jan. 7 when the NCAA ruled he accepted $33,033 more than his actual and necessary expenses while playing with the Turkish club Fenerbahce. The 6-foot-11, 262-pound center from Istanbul is still in classes at Kentucky and said he will finish his semester before going to Chicago to prepare for the NBA Draft with trainer Tim Grover. He said he's eager to play again since he hasn't played in a real game since last April's Nike Hoop Summit. Kanter says he'll stay away from baseball. He had never picked up a ball before Friday, he said, noting that Turkey "doesn't have that sport." His first pitch bounced about 10 feet from home.

• Kentucky is moving toward a statewide health care system that uses federal Medicaid dollars and puts one or more companies in charge. The initiative began with a request on Thursday for proposals from vendors, according to The Courier-Journal of Louisville. It is a quick response to a special legislative session that concluded Wednesday. The plan would put most of the state's public health care program in the hands of established providers. The newspaper reports that officials with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services declined comment, saying procurement rules limit what they can say. Records show Medicare serves more than 800,000 Kentuckians who have low incomes or are disabled. As many as 550,000 people now on Medicaid may be eligible for managed care services under the new plan.

• The U.S. Postal Service is moving more than two dozen jobs out of Bowling Green. The mail processing jobs will be sent to Nashville, Tenn., and Evansville, Ind., according to WBKO-TV in Bowling Green. Postal Service spokesman David Walton says it's a cost-cutting move forced by a reduced mail volume, but isn't a reduction in the workforce. The 26 jobs will continue, but in the other cities. While the agency says no one is being laid off, some workers might choose not to move with the jobs. Operations support clerk Dan Darrow told the station it's usually younger workers who are more likely to follow jobs to other cities. The changes are effective July 1.

• Grants totaling $400,000 have been awarded for 31 Kentucky playground projects. The funding comes from Kentucky's Waste Tire Trust Fund, which was set up by the General Assembly in 1998 to receive a $1 fee for each new tire sold in the state. The fund manages 4 million scrap tires generated in Kentucky each year and helps develop markets for recycled tire products. Gov. Steve Beshear said in a statement that the playground projects will use recycled Kentucky waste tires. Crumb rubber, made from recycled scrap tires, is used for mulch on playgrounds to make them more durable and safer. The statement says the material is also used for fitness or walking tracks, landscaping and for its safety benefits and reduction in soil degradation on athletic fields

• A mother and father from Somerset, Kentucky are behind bars, charged with abusing their one-year-old and two-year-old daughters. 21-year-old Melinda Barger and 21-year-old Fred Sears were arrested after police and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services conducted an investigation. Authorities said the kids suffered numerous bruises and abrasions.

• Police say Laura Marcum, 45, of Pinch, was driving northbound on Elk River Road  in Elkview Friday morning when she veered across the yellow lines and collided head on with a KRT bus. Police say Marcum's vehicle spun and flipped on its side after the collision, while the bus went off the road and into an embankment. Marcum was pronounced dead on the scene. The driver of the bus and two passengers were taken to Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital.

• International Coal Group Senior Vice President Gene Kitts says those in the coal industry are looking for reasonable regulations when it comes to mountaintop removal mining operations, and they also believe there has to be a balance between environmental protection and the development of natural resources. Kitts was on Capitol Hill Thursday to testify in front of a subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Mineral Resources Committee, the group that oversees the budget for the federal Office of Surface Mining. The Office of Surface Mining is handling attempts to revise surface mining rules that have been in place for decades. Kitts says he told them such revision attempts was essentially misguided and ill advised, and mountaintop removal mining is being unfairly targeted. Kitts says mining is being done in a responsible manner, that reclamation is being accomplished successfully and that the industry has adapted to properly mining the coal reserves left in Appalachia.

• Severe storms hit central and southern West Virginia Friday, leaving behind plenty of damage. At one point, Interstate 64 near the Oakwood Road exit in Charleston was flooded, bringing traffic to a standstill while city workers removed debris that was covering the drain to allow the water to recede. In South Charleston, downed trees and power lines closed Jefferson Road at Davis Creek for hours. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for Putnam, Boone, Lincoln, Cabell, Logan, Wayne and Kanawha counties. Those storms included up to golf-ball sized hail and winds up to 70 miles per hour. A tornado watch was issued for 15 counties Saturday. Counties under the tornado watch were: Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam, Raleigh, Summers and Wayne.

• Sandra Shaffer, the woman who owns the Sissonville property that Charleston Police have had sealed off while digging for about two weeks, is preparing paperwork that will seek damages for property taken and destroyed from her home during the investigation into a 2003 sniper shooting death. Charleston Police obtained a sealed search warrant on March 28th to search Shaffer's 53 acre Hughart Drive property. In the search warrant, Charleston Police are looking for a Dodge pickup truck, a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition believed to belong to 35 year old Shawn Lester, the Kanawha County man charged with the 2003 sniper shooting death of Jeanie Patton. Patton, along with Okey Meadows Jr. and Gary Carrier Jr., were killed sniper style with a rifle during a one-week period in August 2003, but, so far, Lester has only been charged with Patton's murder.

• After deliberating for less than an hour, a Fayette County jury acquitted Billy Spade of Hico Friday of battery charges for spitting on a member of the Westboro Baptist Church during a protest outside Charleston Catholic High School, across from Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral, last April. In the wake of the explosion that killed 29 miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, Westboro members traveled from Kansas to stage protests at various locations in the area, including the April 11th event in downtown Charleston. Spade says, after seeing signs saying "Thank God for dead coal miners" and "Thank God for dead Marines," he took aim at Shirley Phelps-Roper's sign and spat at it.

• Friday, the jury in the Clayton Jackson murder trial recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 2004 deaths of the three Sturgill children and 50 years in prison on arson. Jurors convicted Jackson Wednesday of killing 4-year-old Michael, 3-year-old Robert and 18-month-old Jordan Sturgill, but were deadlocked and could not decide if he murdered the parents, Chris and Amanda Sturgill. The children died along with their parents. Police say the couple died after being shot with a bow and arrow. The children died of smoke inhalation when their mobile home was set on fire.

• State Police have released the identity of a woman they say was shot and killed by a neighbor in Hardin County Thursday afternoon. Police say Toni Ballard, 35, was shot by her neighbor, 24 year old Joshua Hines. Police say the shooting may have stemmed from an earlier dispute. Hines is charged with murder and is being held in the Hardin County Detention Center.

• Cody Clark, of Parkers Lake, in McCreary County, who escaped from a work release program in Clay County, was captured April 6th in Batavia, Ohio. He is charged with two counts of burglary, theft of a firearm and resisting arrest. Clark was convicted in September 2009 in connection to a May 2009 home invasion which occurred on Vanover Ridge. Clark was serving a three-year sentence for first-degree robbery. In January, a parole hearing for Clark was deferred for 12 months.

• Jason Anderson, a Whitley County man who was one of eight family members indicted in connection with a 2008 homicide, has pleaded guilty to criminal facilitation to commit murder in connection to the June 2008 death of 34 year old Larry Jones. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors recommend a five-year prison sentence on the facilitation charge and seven years for an unrelated drug charge. Two of Anderson's family members, James Allen Anderson and James W. Anderson, were initially indicted for murder and complicity to commit murder in Jones' death. Jones was found lying in a ditch beside Cane Gap Road.

• The spring meet opened at Keeneland Friday afternoon. New this year is a mobile-friendly website. Keeneland.com on Smart Phones offers a variety of useful information, from a guide to the concession stands to handicapping information and Trakus. Also new is a free Facebook game at www.playkeeneland.com. Players earn points based on their picks. Prizes are awarded daily and at the end of the meet.

• The Obama administration is releasing $311 million to states to help poor families struggling to pay high home energy bills. Officials said Thursday that the latest money for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program brings the total to $4.2 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30th. The program is expected to help a record 8.9 million households for the current fiscal year.

• Mine Safety and Health Administration official Dave Chirdon said Friday that U.S. coal mine operators are falling well short of meeting a 5-year-old congressional mandate to equip underground mines by June with high-tech communication and tracking systems for miners. The mandate was imposed after the January 2006 deaths of 12 miners trapped at West Virginia's Sago Mine following an explosion. Rescuers couldn't contact them, nor did they know where to look for them. The National Mining Association surveyed mines in 2009, and found that nearly all had bought the necessary equipment and had installed MSHA-improved interim systems, spokeswoman Carol Raulston said in an email. She also said that limited suppliers have slowed compliance. Chirdon says figures show 64 percent of more than 500 underground coal mines haven't yet fully installed the required equipment. MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere says mines that miss the June 15 deadline face unspecified enforcement action. All 529 underground coal mines across the country have submitted plans for these systems that MSHA has approved.

• Kentucky is seeing a surge in people carrying guns into the Capitol. State police documented 53 instances in which visitors carried guns into the Capitol between January 1st and March 31st, more than twice the number that had been brought in during the previous 18 months. The state legislature was in session during most of that three month period, debating a number of emotional issues, including illegal immigration and mountaintop removal coal mining. Gun rights proponents consider it no big deal that people can stroll through the Capitol armed. But critics believe they should have to leave their weapons at home.

• Kentucky is moving toward a statewide health care system that uses federal Medicaid dollars and puts one or more companies in charge. The initiative began with a request on Thursday for proposals from vendors. The plan would put most of the state's public health care program in the hands of established providers. As many as 550,000 people now on Medicaid may be eligible for managed care services under the new plan. Officials hope by July 1st to have one or more contracts that will coordinate health services better, improve quality and control costs. Proposals are due May 25th.

• Joseph T. Burch, a man who spent more than 40 years at the University of Kentucky serving in various roles, has died. Some of the positions Burch filled before he retired in 2001 include dean of students, deputy general counsel, director of police and campus safety and vice president for university relations. Burch graduated from Holmes High School in Covington and enlisted in the Army in 1956. Upon his return, he enrolled at UK and received his bachelor's degree in economics in 1962 and his law degree in 1966.

• Toyota announced Thursday afternoon that it would idle production for as many as five days at its North American plants, including its largest, in Georgetown, beginning next week because of a lack of Japanese parts after the March 11th earthquake. Plants will operate on a reduced schedule, with production suspended April 15, 18, 21, 22 and 25th. Production will take place on April 21st at Georgetown, which produces the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Venza and Avalon. The shutdowns will affect about 25,000 workers across North America. The company's North American engine and component plants will follow the same schedule.

• The Kentucky Retirement Systems on Thursday fired its executive director and replaced its longtime board chairman. Christopher Tobe, a member of the KRS board of trustees, cited pending inquiries into KRS' business activities by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and State Auditor Crit Luallen. Also, Attorney General Jack Conway ruled this week that KRS violated the Kentucky Open Records Act by refusing to divulge staff salaries to a state retiree who requested them. KRS oversees about $13 billion in assets to provide benefits for state and county government retirees. The KRS board meeting started Thursday by seating a new member, Louisville banker Thomas Elliott, who was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to replace W. Lewis Reynolds III, an appointee of former Governor Ernie Fletcher. With its new member, the board voted 5-3 to replace Chairman Randy Overstreet, a retired state police officer, with Louisville attorney Jennifer Elliott. Overstreet will keep his board seat. The board later voted 5-4 to fire Robert Michael Burnside, who had been KRS executive director since 2007.

• Teach for America will recruit 30 teachers to eastern Kentucky next school year to try to close the achievement gap between Appalachia and the rest of the state and will add 60 more over the following two years. Teachers will apply for open positions in Floyd, Knox and Martin counties, organizers announced Thursday at a news conference. Executive Director Will Nash said a decision whether to hire Teach for America teachers in Whitley county schools will be next week. The organization will hire an additional 30 teachers for each of the following two years and make efforts to expand its presence in the region. Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo attended the conference. First lady Jane Beshear, a former teacher, applauded the effort in a video statement.

• An elderly Garrard County man has been found dead not far from his home. An alert had been issued for 78-year-old Donald Scully on Thursday morning. Scully's wife had called police because she was out of town and hadn't heard from her husband since last Friday. Later Thursday, searchers found his body about 50 yards from where Scully's pickup truck was lodged in a sinkhole on his property. An autopsy has been conducted to determine the cause of his death.

• Highway fatalities in Kentucky dropped to an 11-year low in 2010. The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety said Thursday there were 760 fatalities on roadways last year, down 31 from 2009. It's the lowest total since 1999, when the death toll was 729. It's the fifth straight year highway fatalities have declined in the state.

• Celebrate Derby season and show off your Hat-A-Tude with the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS)! The evening of fashion, food and friends is set for 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 28 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort.  This year marks the second year for the event and a new line-up of activities.   After cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres, fashionistas of all ages will enjoy a runway show featuring Derby apparel for every occasion and through the decades provided by Polly Singer Couture Hats and Veils, Lexington; Bella Rose Boutique, Lexington; Images Model & Talent Agency, Lexington; and Rosie’s Consignment Boutique, Louisville.  Make-up for the models will be provided by Ana Crane Simpson.  Singer has created unique fashions for a myriad of high-profile events, including horse races, polo matches, weddings and other social and charitable functions.  Her work has been featured internationally. Singer’s new line, Kate, which will be featured in the fashion show, was inspired by the hats worn by Kate Middleton and others at Royal Ascot.

• The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the Cobalt's Westchester Mine in McDowell County where Spike TV’s show “Coal” was filmed. During the March 30th premiere episode of the show, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors noticed a miner using a 12-inch pick hammer to pull down loose roof rock for a dramatic collapse that was caught on camera. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said the tool was too small for the job and put workers at risk of being struck by falling rock. Another violation was issued for the mine’s continuous mining machine being moved when it was not in the process of cutting coal and allowing a worker to walk alongside, creating the potential for a crushing injury.

• The coal industry's growing demand for younger miners can mesh with the constant push to improve safety underground. That was the message from both industry and labor leaders Friday during a West Virginia conference on mining health and safety. Patriot Coal President and Chief Executive Rick Whiting said the industry expects to enjoy growth over the next several years. But at the same time, a significant number of experienced miners are reaching retirement age. He touted his company's training programs, including a six-week course for new miners. United Mine Workers Union President Cecil Roberts said the companies will reap rewards by promoting safety early among new miners. He said operators will benefit if their apprentice red hat miners believe everyone from the CEO on down wants a safe work place.

• A Kanawha County magistrate has approved a motion to postpone Friday's preliminary hearing for accused murderer Shawn Lester, who allegedly shot and killed Jeanie Patton outside the Speedway in Campbell's Creek. Patton's death was one of three in the 2003 Kanawha County sniper shootings. The same gun was used in all three deaths, but Lester has, so far, only been charged in connection with Patton's death. The defense sought the continuance because of a scheduling conflict. Lester remains in jail without bail, while awaiting a preliminary hearing rescheduled for April 25th.

• The jury in the case against Misty Dawn Linger of Buckhannon has deadlocked, prompting the judge to declare a hung jury. Linger was charged with child neglect by a parent, guardian, or custodian resulting in death after her 3-year-old son was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. Police say Linger called 911 in May 2009 after finding her son in a car outside her home with the windows rolled up. After opening statements, the judge allowed the jury to visit Linger's home so they could consider whether the statement she gave police was plausible.

• Shawn Davis, 27, from Detroit, has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in December to distribution of heroin in Charleston. Davis admitted to participating in an arranged drug transaction on April 22, 2010, with a confidential informant working with law enforcement. Davis admitted to giving the informant a quantity of heroin and two 80-milligram Oxycontin pills in exchange for $280 in cash.

• Charles Lester, owner of Porky's Bar in Welch, in McDowell County, was arrested by state tax agents Thursday night on charges of failing to keep records of gambling and possession of alcoholic liquors on an unlicensed premise. Welch Police officers executed a search warrant at the bar last Friday, and, during that raid, Fred Renko, of Welch, was arrested and charged with obstructing an officer. Glen Kirk, of Welch, was charged with obstructing an officer and possession of Oxycodone, and Samatha Justice was charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

• Federal prosecutors in West Virginia say they've charged two Ohio men involved in a large-scale, interstate prescription drug ring. Forty-two year old David Lee Kidd of Martins Ferry and 24 year old Christopher Grigg of Bridgeport were both recently arrested in Volusia County, Florida. They are charged with possession and intent to distribute Oxycodone and other prescription drugs in Marshall and Ohio counties between May 2010 and March 26, 2011. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld says they acquired tens of thousands of pills from pain clinics in Florida and other southern states, then sold them in Ohio and West Virginia.

• A 15 year old male student at Buckhannon Upshur High School has been charged with second-degree arson after allegedly setting a fire in a high school bathroom. The fire caused about $5,000 in damage. If tried as an adult, the student would face one to 10 years in prison.

• Shane Blake Peck, 19, of Sissonville and Joseph Michael Gibson, 18, of Charleston. two teenagers accused of beating and robbing 79 year old Geraldine Gibson of  Big Chimney, have each pleaded not guilty. Peck and Gibson have been held at South Central Regional Jail since they were arrested a few days after the March 3rd attack on Gibson. Police said Gibson was tied up and beaten and her home was ransacked. She suffered numerous injuries, including fractures, and was hospitalized. Kanawha Circuit Judge Louis "Duke" Bloom set a May 16th trial. Peck and Gibson will go on trial Monday after being indicted by a grand jury in February on charges of burglary, conspiracy and breaking and entering an automobile.

• Michael Lee Crist, 35, of Oak Hill, was awaiting arraignment in Fayette Magistrate Court about 5:00 P.M. Wednesday on charges of driving on a suspended license and failure to pay child support when he  jumped out a window and escaped on foot. Crist was found within half an hour near the White Horse Bed and Breakfast in Fayetteville and was taken to back to Magistrate Court to face a further charge of escape from custody. While looking for Crist, authorities discovered his girlfriend, Leslie Miller, 28, of Gauley Bridge, was allegedly trying to help him escape. Authorities found Miller nearby and arrested her on a capias warrant for failure to appear for a court hearing on driving on a revoked license.

• MSHA official Dave Chirdon says, since 1984, equipment has fatally crushed 70 miners, all but five in coal mines, leaving federal regulators pushing for ways to warn miners of nearby machinery. Nearly half the deaths involved continuous mining machines, most of those victims had remote controls that operate the machines. Speaking at an industry conference in West Virginia Friday, Chirdon said his agency is seeking information on proximity detection systems. These can include devices miners can wear on their belts that would flash lights when they're too close to machinery.

• For the first time in West Virginia, election ballots are in the mail. The city of Morgantown is pilot-testing the state's first vote-by-mail program with its municipal elections this month. The city hired Morgantown Printing and Binding to print the ballots, and city and state elections officials oversaw the process. The packets include an instruction sheet, a ballot and two envelopes, one to protect the voter's identity and one to return the ballot.

• There's going to be some additional work for crews hired to renovate Building 2000 on the campus of the new Higher Education Research Park in South Charleston which was damaged in Monday evening's storm. HEPC Vice Chancellor for Research Dr. Paul Hill says one side of the building has been open to aid in an asbestos abatement project, and that may have helped the heavy winds do their damage. The wind entered the building and pushed out the end of the south wing where the damage occurred. Several toppled  trees in the park bent exhaust pipes on a few other buildings. The research park, formerly owned by Dow Chemical, now belongs to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Building 2000 will be home to Kanawha Valley Community and Technical College starting with the fall semester in 2012.

• The Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority is feeling the pinch of increasing fuel costs. Authority officials budgeted about $480,000 to cover fuel costs, but Joe Lynch, executive director of the Ambulance Authority, says the agency is running about 13 percent over the amount allotted to cover fuel costs so far this fiscal year. Lynch says he believes the agency will be able to cover its fuel costs, but, if not, services provided by the ambulance authority would have to be cut. Those services could include non-emergency transports for senior citizens who use the service to get from nursing homes to doctor's appointments. Lynch says the agency responds to about 30,000 non-emergency calls a year. The authority is currently paying $2.40 per gallon for gasoline and $2.50 per gallon for diesel fuel.

• During a meeting Thursday, some members of the state Ethics Commission voiced concerns that some public employees could circumvent a new ethics law by becoming independent contractors. The law, which goes into effect July 1st, requires state-level elected officials and agency chiefs, and even some staffers, to wait a year before becoming lobbyists. It also increases public officials’ financial disclosures. A legislative lawyer who works as a per-diem staffer asked the commission whether the ban would apply to him if he becomes an independent contractor before the law takes effect. Commissioners tabled the lawyer’s request, saying they want the commission’s lawyers to do more research.

• West Virginia University athletic director Oliver Luck wants the Board of Governors to consider allowing controlled beer sales at Mountaineer football games. Luck said Friday he believes fan behavior will improve with controlled sales inside the stadium. Luck said many college stadiums, including all of WVU's Big East counterparts, are selling beer in some capacity, and, with responsible serving practices and proper vendor training, coupled with the elimination of stadium re-entry, he believes the consumption of alcohol can be controlled. Board chairwoman Carolyn Long says allowing sales would require changes to existing policy. Details of the proposed changes will be available on the board's website sometime next week and will be subjected to a 30-day comment period. Beer has never been sold for general consumption at Mountaineer Field. 

• Teach for America will recruit 30 teachers to eastern Kentucky next school year to try to close the achievement gap between Appalachia and the rest of the state. The organization will hire an additional 30 teachers for each of the following two years and make efforts to expand its presence in the region. Teachers will apply for open positions in Floyd, Knox and Martin counties, organizers announced Thursday at a news conference attended by Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo. Executive Director Will Nash said a decision whether to hire Teach for America teachers in Whitley county schools will be determined next week. First lady Jane Beshear, a former teacher, applauded the effort in a video statement.

• Clayton Jackson could face the death penalty after being convicted for the murders of three Leslie County children. Listening to opening and closing statements and witness testimony in the beginning of the penalty phase for Jackson Thursday, a Clay County jury heard pleas from both sides involved. The jury will receive instructions from Judge Oscar Gayle House Friday morning and hear closing statements from the defense and prosecution. They will deliberate until a sentence is passed.

• The Red Cross is stepping in to help Floyd County tornado victims who are cleaning up and looking for new places to live after their homes were damaged or destroyed when an EF-1 tornado touched down on Smokey Branch Road in Teaberry Monday. The Big Sandy Red Cross Chapter is accepting donations to help the storm victims, while other agencies are planning to help them get a new home and belongings.

• Twenty-three year old Larry Brewer and 36 year old Sonya Jones, both of Bulan, in Perry County, are facing theft charges after Hazard Police caught the two stealing merchandise from K-Mart at Town and Country Plaza. Brewer and Jones admitted to five other thefts. Police recovered around $450.00 worth of stolen items from the back of their vehicle.

• Wiley M. Smith has filed a lawsuit against several officials alleging he was injured while in custody of Corbin Police and in the Whitley County Detention Center. Corbin Mayor Willard McBurney, Corbin Police Chief David Campbell, Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Junior, and Whitley County Jailer Kenneth Mobley are named in the suit along with three police officers and a deputy jailer.

• Kayem Pharmaceutical in India that supplied sodium thiopental, a key lethal injection drug, to at least one U.S. state and reached out to a half dozen others announced Thursday it was no longer selling the drug to American prison officials. Mumbai-based Kayem says it made the decision to refrain in selling the drug where the purpose is purely for lethal injection and its misuse because it cherished the “ethos of Hinduism. Nebraska announced in January it had acquired 500 grams of the drug from Kayem, and a company salesman said he also sold the drug to South Dakota prison officials. A spokeswoman for the South Dakota attorney general said the state bought 500 grams for $5,000 but wouldn’t say what company the state purchased the drug from.

• Kentucky has a new license plate, this one celebrating the 75th anniversary of Keeneland. First lady Jane Beshear unveiled the plate Wednesday in Lexington. The track opens its spring meet on Friday.  The green-and-white plate is available at local county clerk offices by taking current registration, proof of insurance and the previous license plate. The cost is $39. Beshear said the plate helps promote a "distinct part of Kentucky's identity" and said the track "encompasses all that is Kentucky: horses, beauty and hospitality."

• After being closed for five weeks, a western Kentucky ferry that connects Kentucky and Missouri has reopened. The Dorena-Hickman Ferry had been closed since March when Mississippi River floodwaters covered the Kentucky landing. The ferry connects Kentucky 1354 at Hickman with Missouri Route A and Route 77 near Dorena, Mo. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says Missouri and Kentucky are the only border states not directly connected by a road, and the ferry is the only direct route between the two states. The ferry resumed normal service on Tuesday

• Kentucky appears to be a moderately peaceful place, according to an index put together by the Institute for Economics and Peace. The group released its 2011 Peace Index on Tuesday. It ranks Kentucky 20th, better than all the states that border it, except West Virginia, which finished 18th. Tennessee was nearly last, finishing 49th with Louisiana 50th. Maine was ranked the most peaceful state. The index is based on five indicators: number of homicides per 100,000 people, number of violent crimes per 100,000 people, number of jailed population per 100,000, number of police officers per 100,000 and availability of small arms. The Institute for Economics and Peace says it is an independent research institute founded in 2007 to improve understanding of what creates peace and its economic effects.

• Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway's office says that a public agency responsible for overseeing $13 billion in assets to provide benefits for state and county retirees must publicly disclose employee salaries.Kentucky Retirement Systems refused to honor state retiree Eva Smith-Carroll's request for its "current payroll records" under the Kentucky Open Records Act. Mike Burnside, who is the executive director of KRS, says there was ambiguity in releasing the information because KRS members are protected from public record releases and many employees are KRS members. He said the ruling clarified the question and the board will make a decision  about making records publicly available online. KRS reserves the right to appeal the case to Franklin County Circuit Court.

• A Kentucky man has died after being choked in a fight with another man in Oak Grove. First responders found 22-year-old Terry Lee Yocum face-down and unresponsive early Monday. He was taken to Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at nearby Fort Campbell, Ky. and then transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He died about 4 p.m., according to The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, Tenn. Police say Seneca Demingo Moore told officers he and Yocum were fighting and he put the victim in a sleeper hold until Yocum passed out. Moore was arrested on an assault charge and was held in lieu of $25,000 bond Wednesday morning at the Christian County Jail in Hopkinsville. 

• A band with eastern Kentucky ties is getting national attention. Several songs from "Cumberland River" were heard on the hit FX series "Justified" during Wednesday’s show. The band has roots in Harlan County. Many in the community came out to show their support for the group during a community viewing of the show. According to their website, the band's upcoming new project will include songs written by the band and their family members taken from their life experiences and campfire stories from Harlan County.

• A Louisville man is accused of breaking into a home with his 3-year-old son in tow. Shively homeowner April Harris says she spotted an unfamiliar gold Cadillac in her driveway when she got home Tuesday shortly before noon. She then found her flat-screen TV, an Xbox, games and movies on her back porch. Harris said Green walked out of her home with the toddler and told her he was looking for a man who owed him money and had the wrong address. He left and Harris called 911. Green pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to burglary and endangering the welfare of a minor. His next court hearing is on April 18. Police said the 3-year-old is staying with a relative.

• During Wheeling Jesuit University's 4th-annual Mining Health and Safety Symposium at the Charleston Civic Center, Davitt McAteer, a longtime safety advocate who leads an independent team of experts, said Thursday the U.S. coal industry needs to adopt more effective dust-control measures and comprehensive monitoring for explosive gases to avoid disasters like the one that killed 29 miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine. McAteer also said criminal mine-safety statutes need to be broadened and federal regulators need to abandon closed-door investigations after major accidents. McAteer said, "Disasters are not an inevitable part of the mining cycle. We can mine coal safely." Former Governor Joe Manchin appointed McAteer to perform the review after the April 5, 2010, explosion. McAteer said his team would release its report within a few weeks. McAteer says Congress should pass legislation making it a felony for anyone to "subvert the inspection system" by warning workers or mine management that government inspectors are on their way to a mine or headed underground. He also outlined other recommendations at the meeting.

• Kanawha County's Prosecutor Mark Plants is making changes in his office as it prepares to try the Kanawha Sniper case. Plants said Wednesday his office will move people and furniture to accommodate those working on the case and the seven and a half years' worth of evidence that comes with it. Assistant prosecutors Maryclaire Akers and Don Morris, who primarily handle felony and homicide cases, will be assigned exclusively to the case against Shawn Thomas Lester, the 35-year-old Charleston resident charged in the 2003 sniper-style shooting of Jeanie Patton.

• Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College has broken ground on a $6 million addition at its Williamson campus. College officials say the 25,000-square-foot Applied Technology Center will train students for future jobs and try to enable them to complete state license exams on campus. Completion of the center, next to the main campus building, is expected in August 2012.

• Twenty-four year old Raymond Stoumile of Beckley, a suspected shooter on the run for three months, was arrested earlier this week. Stoumile is charged with attempted first- degree murder and wanton endangerment in connection with the January 28th of 24 year old Anthony Johnson. Police say Johnson was shot in the chest after a fight at Club Phoenix in Mabscott. Stoumile's preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 13th. He's free on a $75,000 bond.

• Trial began Wednesday in Upshur County Circuit Court for Misty Dawn Wimer Linger, a Buckhannon mother charged with child neglect resulting in death. Her 3-year-old son was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. Police say Linger called 911 in May 2009 after finding her son in a car outside her home with the windows rolled up. After opening statements, the judge allowed the jury to visit Linger's home so they could consider whether the statement she gave police was plausible.

• Putnam County Deputies have charged Joyce Midkiff of Hurricane with malicious wounding after she shot her ex-husband James Midkiff at a residence on Scary Creek Road Thursday morning. According to the criminal complaint, Midkiff says she and her ex-husband started fighting after she found text messages from other women in his cell phone. Joyce Midkiff allegedly asked her ex-husband for a .22-caliber pistol that had belonged to her stepfather, which James threw onto a dresser. Joyce Midkiff told Putnam sheriff's deputies that she got the gun off the dresser, her ex-husband turned her around to face him and she shot him in the chest. Midkiff was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital, where he was under evaluation late Thursday afternoon. Joyce Midkiff was placed on a $100,000 cash bond.

• Richard Taylor was transported to Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital Thursday after being stabbed at a residence on Witcher Creek Road in Belle. Fifty-four year old Jennings Hancock was charged with malicious wounding after Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputies say he stabbed his neighbor with a pocketknife as he was trying to get into his car following an argument. Hancock was placed on a $25,000 bond.

• Kanawha County Deputies arrested Odie Lee Reveal, 51, of Rand, Wednesday after searching his Midland Drive residence and finding 4.2 pounds of marijuana, 120 Valium pills and 36 OxyContin pills, valued at more than $22,000, as well as $2,700 in cash. Reveal was charged with felony possession with the intent to distribute. Deputies went to his home to serve a family court warrant.

• Two men lost appendages in two separate accidents when they were struck by trains Thursday in Huntington. Huntington police say 20 year old Matthew Corrigan was hit by a CSX train near the Hal Greer Boulevard underpass about 3:30 A.M. Police believe a domestic dispute may have prompted Corrigan to run toward a moving train. Officers do not believe Corrigan was involved in the dispute. Corrigan was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition Thursday evening. Authorities say he lost fingers in the accident. A 22 year old man is expected to recover after his arm was severed when he was struck by a train about 6:30 P.M. Huntington Police Sgt. John Williams says the man appeared to be jumping trains on the CSX train tracks over the 20th Street underpass near 8th Avenue when he was struck by a westbound train. Authorities were able to locate the “remains of the arm” a few hundred feet west of the incident.

• Charleston Police charged Kanawha County resident Shawn Lester last week for the August 2003 sniper shooting death of Jeanie Patton. The criminal complaint alleges Lester told a friend he shot Patton because she and her boyfriend stole a vehicle engine stuffed with meth supplied by Mexican national Gilberto Cruz Lopez, also known as Tito. Court documents show Lopez was indicted along with his brother Jaime Lopez in October 2008 for allegedly selling 500 grams of cocaine and 50 grams of a drug, which included a mixture of meth, from 2002 to October 2003. Federal charges against Tito and his brother were dismissed by a federal judge in March 2010 without prejudice, which means they could be filed again. Tito Lopez was also named in a November 2003 arrest warrant in Kanawha County for allegedly stealing an ATV, but he was never arrested.

• Congress voted 88-12 Wednesday to reject a proposal sponsored by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency from regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants. Another proposal concerning EPA also died Wednesday. Legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell R-Ky, which would have prevented EPA from enforcing any regulations regarding greenhouse gas emissions died on a 50-50 vote. Rockefeller's proposals would have been limited to only two years, while McConnell's would have been indefinite. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin voted for both proposals, saying he believes it is fundamentally wrong for any bureaucratic agency to go around the will of the people and try to regulate what lawmakers have not legislated. EPA is expected to begin implementing new regulations next year.

• A city agency approved a street-closing plan Wednesday that will allow Yeager Airport to lop off the top of Coal Branch Heights and improve the flight path for planes taking off from the airport. Airport Director Rick Atkinson asked members of the Municipal Planning Commission to close A Street and Ox Street, plus a series of paper streets and alleys -- all on Coal Branch Heights, the hill southwest of the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration has already set aside grant money to acquire property for the project, , including three homes in the disturbance zone and four next to it. The others are undeveloped vacant lots. One of the larger property owners, has not signed any agreements yet. Yeager officials also hope to obtain FAA funding for construction -- an estimated $15 million.

• About 1,000 judges and lawyers will descend on The Greenbrier for a judicial conference in June -- but they won't be gambling in the resort's new $80 million underground casino. The Greenbrier will close the casino during the three-day conference at the request of the event's sponsor, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. It will be the only time the Casino Club has shut its doors -- other than Christmas Day -- since opening last July.

• Work has started on a project to reduce flooding in the Island Creek basin in Logan. Heeter Construction Inc. of Spencer was awarded a $5.8 million contract for the project's initial phase. The entire project will create an 80-foot-wide channel along 3,600 feet of Island Creek upstream from its confluence with the Guyandotte River. Several major floods have occurred in the creek basin in the last few years.

• More than 17 percent of West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents rely on Medicaid for health care. Families USA, a health care advocacy group, said Thursday that, among the states most dependent on Medicare and Medicaid, West Virginia stands to lose $16 billion over the next decade under a Republican plan for the federal budget. Deputy Executive Director Kathleen Stoll estimated during a Wednesday interview that between half and two-thirds of the state’s Medicaid budget covers nursing home, community-based and in-home care for around 40,200 West Virginia seniors who receive these and other Medicaid services that Medicare does not provide. Stoll says, if West Virginia continues its Medicaid program, they will have about 33 percent less federal support to do the program. West Virginia draws down around $2.80 in federal Medicaid funds with every dollar it provides from its own revenues. The new state budget that kicks in July 1s includes $2.05 billion in federal funds for Medicaid, an amount roughly equal to half the main, general revenue portion of the budget.

A Clay County Circuit Court jury on Wednesday found 30-year-old Clayton Jackson guilty of murder and arson in the deaths of 4-year-old Michael Sturgill, 3-year-old Robert Sturgill and 18-month-old Jordan Sturgill in 2004 in Leslie County. The jury deliberated for about eight hours over two days but could not reach a decision in the deaths of Chris and Amanda Sturgill. The couple died after being shot with a bow and arrows. The children died of smoke inhalation after their mobile home was set on fire.

Karen Cunagin Sypher, 51, checked into the minimum-security federal women's prison in Marianna, Florida at 1:50 P.M. on Wednesday to begin serving a sentence of more than seven years.  Sypher's attorneys have made repeated requests for her to remain free while she appeals convictions on charges of extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliating against a witness in connection to a 2003 sexual encounter with University of Louisville coach Rick Pitino.. On Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied Sypher's latest request to stay out of prison, siding with a lower court judge who rejected the request last week. Sypher's attorneys have asked the appeals court to reconsider the ruling.


Police arrested Bill Crider at the EZ Pawn Shop in Prestonsburg Wednesday afternoon.  Crider was indicted on drug trafficking charges.  Police say undercover officers made several buys of illegal prescription pills at the store. Last June, police raided the business and found pills, $17,000 in cash, and guns. Police closed the store, but it can reopened if Crider is released on bond.


After passing a series of non-binding veto resolutions  to shore up the state's Medicaid budget, the Senate adjourned late Wednesday, ending what had become a lengthy and costly special legislative session. Lawmakers had been caught in limbo when the House adjourned and the Senate took a two-week legislative recess, an unusual circumstance that required the state to continue paying the salaries of all 138 members of the General Assembly even though they weren't at the Capitol. The cost of salaries and expenses during the legislative recess were estimated at more than $600,000. House Speaker Greg Stumbo blamed those costs on the Senate for not adjourning sooner. Senate leaders insisted Wednesday that they won't accept pay for the legislative recess.


An Amber Alert was canceled Wednesday afternoon after  6 year old Shelly Bailey was found safe. Larry Bailey took her from an apartment in the Loyall community of Harlan County Tuesday. Shelly Bailey was ordered into protective custody, although Larry Bailey presented a birth certificate in court that showed he was the father. Despite Bailey's repeated claims, "She's my daughter," authorities say the kidnapping charges will hold for now.


The future of Kentucky Kingdom is uncertain after the city of Louisville said it won't help pay for the amusement park to reopen this year, according to businessman Ed Hart, who heads the group trying to reopen the park as a public-private partnership. Hart recently asked the city to approve a $20 million bond issue to help open part of the park in 2012, but the city declined the request. Mayor Greg Fischer's spokesman, Chris Poynter, says the city decided the deal was "too risky for taxpayers."
Hart says the earliest the park could open is 2013 and that is questionable. Six Flags abandoned the park in 2009 after going into bankruptcy.



The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has awarded six contracts totaling more than $7 million for eight highway projects impacting four counties in the Department of Highways District 10.

• A $493,509.77 contract to resurface 2.71 miles of KY 205 in Morgan County. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. Hinkle Contracting Corp. was the successful bidder.
• A $587,587 contract to resurface 6.15 miles of KY 7. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. Mountain Enterprises, Inc. was the successful bidder.
• A $2,911,145.71.71 contract to correct a rockfall hazard on KY 7 in Perry County near Fusonia. The project is to be completed within 160 working days after work begins. Philmor Contracting, Inc. was the successful bidder.
• A $158,921.95 contract to resurface 0.48 miles of KY 11 and 0.73 miles of KY 214 in Powell County. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. The Walker Company of Kentucky, Inc. was the successful bidder.
• A $691,171 contract to resurface 3.04 miles of KY 28 and 2.06 miles of KY 463 in Perry County. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. Mountain Enterprises, Inc. was the successful bidder.
• A $1,229,280.10 contract to build a low water bridge on Meadow Branch Road (CR 1339) across the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Dunraven. The project is to be completed within 75 working days after work begins. Bluegrass Contracting Corp. was the successful bidder.
• A $550,082.76 contract to resurface 4.82 miles of KY 30 in Owsley County. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. Hinkle Contracting Corp. was the successful bidder.
• A $440,777.77 contract to resurface two sections of KY 80 totaling 1.47 miles and 2.48 miles of KY 699 in Perry County. The project is to be completed by Nov. 15. Mountain Enterprises, Inc. was the successful bidder.
• The Department of Highways District 10 consists of 10 counties – Breathitt, Estill, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Morgan, Owsley, Perry, Powell and Wolfe – in east-central and southeastern Kentucky. The district office is located in Jackson.

The City of Pikeville Board of Commissioners will meet in regular session on Monday, April 11, at 6:00p in the public meeting room at City Hall on College Street.


The Kentucky state fire marshal's office has concluded that a man who was killed in last week's explosion at a plant in Ashland triggered the explosion when he opened an access panel to a high-pressure gas line. The fire marshal's office released that finding on Tuesday and said 61-year-old Forrest Finley of Milton, W.Va., had intended to work on a nearby electrical panel instead at AK Steel's coke plant. Finley worked for a contractor, Dixon Electrical Systems and Contracting.



The University of Kentucky will award five honorary degrees at the school's May commencement. The recipients will be engineer and educator Robert Drake Jr., researcher Pearse Lyons, journalist Al Smith and South African activists Ahmed Kathrada and Barbara Hogan. Drake oversaw the development of UK's College of Engineering as its dean and later became special assistant to UK President Otis Singletary He also was a driving force in creating the high-tech company Projectron. Lyons is the founder and president of Alltech, a global animal health company based in Kentucky. Smith's journalism career spanned 60 years. He's best known as the founder, host and producer of "Comment on Kentucky" through 2007. The weekly round table is aired on Kentucky Educational Television.


An annual report from the Kentucky Center for School Safety says student policy violations have decreased by 23 percent in the last five years. That decline was despite an increase of 20 percent in Louisville schools during the same period. The report said 16 percent of Louisville students violated school policy, compared with a statewide average of 10 percent in 2009-2010. Violations include such problems as fighting, disturbing class and defying authority.The annual report measures student discipline in each Kentucky school district, separating the data as violations of school policy and crimes committed by students. Statewide, the rate of students breaking laws has remained relatively unchanged at 1 percent since 2005-2006.



Jockey Robby Albarado has pleaded not guilty to charges that he assaulted his wife in Kentucky. Albarado entered the plea Tuesday in Jefferson District Court. A judge ordered him not to have any contact with his wife, Kimberly. Albarado was charged last week with wanton endangerment, domestic assault and intimidating a witness after an incident at the couple's home in Louisville.



Two environmental groups that pressure banks to stop funding mountaintop removal coal mines say Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo have the strongest lending policies. The Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club issued their second report card Tuesday, ranking 10 of the world's largest banks in their dealings with coal companies. Since January 2010, the report says those 10 have provided more than $2.5 billion in loans and bonds to companies that use the highly efficient and highly destructive form of strip mining in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. The report says five banks adopted policies on mountaintop removal after last year's report -- Chase, Wells Fargo, PNC, UBS, and Credit Suisse.  It gave Deutsche Bank and GE Capital an F for having no policy.

West Virginia's State mine safety director C.A. Phillips said Wednesday emergency refuge chambers that survived the deadly Upper Big Branch mine worked properly when tested last week. Phillips said  it's an important finding because it tells miners they can rely on shelters if they're trapped. State and federal officials and Massey Energy Co. tested the three Upper Big Branch shelters last Thursday.
West Virginia and later the federal government mandated airtight underground refuges after 12 trapped miners ran out of air and died following the Sago Mine explosion in 2006. Federal rules now require refuges with four days of food, water and air at all underground coal mines.


Swiss eye care products maker Alcon Inc. has opened its expanded West Virginia manufacturing operation. Alcon President and CEO Kevin Buehler told the State Journal that the new plant just north of Huntington is expected to bring 300 new jobs over the next few years. The company employs 750 at its other plant in Huntington. The plants manufacturer intraocular lenses, which replace the clouded natural lens removed in cataract surgery.


The widows of two men killed in a coal mine fire are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit against the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield asked the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to take the case Wednesday. U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver Jr. dismissed it last July, ruling that MSHA wasn't liable for the men's deaths. The lawsuit was filed in April 2010 by the widows of miners Don I. Bragg and Ellery Elvis Hatfield. The men died in a conveyer belt fire at Massey Energy Co.'s Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine on Jan. 19, 2006. The lawsuit accused MSHA of negligence in its regulation of the mine and argued that federal inspectors should be liable under West Virginia law.


Fort Gay is without a police department after the Wayne County town's new mayor fired the police chief and an officer. Rose Devaney took the action Tuesday night during a town council meeting following her appointment as mayor. A former officer, firefighters, Wayne County Sheriff's deputies and others gathered outside the meeting to protest the firings. Devaney declined to disclose her reasons. She says the officers' services are no longer needed.


Three Charleston men were robbed early Wednesday morning on the city's West Side. Sgt. Eric Hodges of the Charleston Police Department said Dillon King, 18; Timothy Smith, 21 and Corey Cantley, 19, had just pulled into the driveway of a house on Hunt Avenue at a little past midnight when a gold-colored Chevrolet Cavalier pulled up behind their car. Hodges said two men allegedly got out of the Cavalier, pulled guns and ordered the three men out of their car. They were robbed of an undisclosed amount of cash and other valuables.


Deborah Joyce, 38, of Hurricane, who admitted she participated in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme in the Stonegate subdivision in Hurricane, was sentenced to almost four years in prison Wednesday. In September, Joyce pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors put the losses associated with the Stonegate mortgage fraud at more than $2.3 million. According to court filings, Joyce provided inflated appraisals of several Stonegate properties to a Salt Lake City-based company called 100X, which lined up customers to buy them as investments. Because of the scheme, the new buyers were immediately underwater, and some of the properties were later foreclosed.


As Appalachian Power workers tried to restore power to those still affected by Monday's storms, at least 600 residents lost power on Wednesday for the first time since the storms. But the additional outages aren't unusual, especially after windstorms, according to Appalachian Power spokesman Phil Moye.  As of 10:30 A.M. Wednesday, about 10,000 Appalachian Power customers in Southern West Virginia -- mostly in Kanawha County -- had no power. By 1:30 P.M., that number had dropped to 6,705 residents. But less than an hour later, the number jumped to 8,426 people without power.
During repairs, Moye said, crews will sometimes deactivate a live power line so they can safely restore power to other customers without the risk of electrocution.


Three health centers in West Virginia are receiving federal funding to continue and improve operations.
U.S. Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin announced the funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday. The funding includes $140,662 for Belington Community Medical Services Association, $462,157 for Martinsburg-based Shenandoah Valley Medical System, Inc., and $313,048 for Beckley-based Community Health Systems, Inc.


West Virginia's Chamber of Commerce is supporting three candidates in the upcoming primary for governor. The business group endorsed acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin on Wednesday. He's among six Democrats seeking the party's nomination. The chamber also is backing two of eight Republicans running: Betty Ireland and Bill Maloney. The chamber called Ireland and Maloney leaders in the business community who understand the struggles of employers. It said Tomblin has long been a steady voice for lower taxes and a supporter of jobs and economic development. The primary is May 14th.


The families of a mother and two teenage girls who were killed in a head-on collision in Cabell County in 2009 have sued the doctor who wrote prescription after prescription for pain medication for the driver of the other car. In separate lawsuits filed April 1 in Kanawha Circuit Court, the families of Carole Lynn Crawford and Meaghan McGuire Crawford and Kelsey Rebecca Kuhn allege that Dr. Anita Dawson ignored signs that her patient Erma Marie Brown was dangerously addicted to prescription narcotics



Massey Energy Co. announced a new severance package as it begins its merger with Alpha Natural Resources, but Massey officials say they have no plans to lay anyone off. Massey has sent letters detailing the plan to an undetermined number of administrators and office staff. The notices weren't sent to the company's coal miners. Massey, based in Richmond, Va., employs about 7,300. Alpha, also based in Virginia, employs 6,400 people and is acquiring Massey in an $8 billion deal. Massey's letters are dated April 1. Massey also filed the letter and a detailed severance package plan with financial regulators on the same day.  A day later, Alpha and Massey said in a joint statement they had received antitrust approval for their merger, meaning the companies have overcome a key hurdle.


Thers' no doubt the campaign season is underway in Mingo County with visits from two candidates for the Governor of West Virginia. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin was in Gilbert; Rick Thompson visited Matewan. Tomblin, who became governor when Joe Manchin was elected to fill Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat after Byrd’s death, explained he has three main planks in his political platform. “We need to make sure we are financially stable,” Tomblin said. “When I attended the Governor’s Association convention, I was proud to be able to say West Virginia has a surplus.” Tomblin went on to explain the other areas he is focusing on during the campaign are education and bringing jobs to the state. He said the state has the highest high school drop out rate in the nation.


Kanawha County sheriff's deputies each got a check for $1,000 this week. Chief Deputy Johnny Rutherford said he and his brother, Sheriff Mike Rutherford, decided to take $99,000 from the county's pistol permit fund to give each deputy in the department $1,000. When state lawmakers put county sheriffs in charge of issuing concealed weapons permits, they gave the sheriffs discretion over how to spend leftover money from processing the permits. Many sheriffs rely on extra pistol permit money to buy equipment or supplement their budgets. Sheriff's officials previously took about $70,000 from the pistol permit fund to help buy new cruisers and four-wheel-drive vehicles for the Sheriff's Department.


West Virginia's business tax collections were up 700 percent in March compared to the same month last year, a sign that West Virginia's economy continues to improve significantly.  The combined collections of the state's corporate net income tax and business franchise tax stood at $55.7 million last month, exceeding projections by $25.6 million. The taxes raised $6.7 million in revenues for the state in March 2010.

Two Huntington residents pleaded guilty in federal court to crack charges. Stephen Hicks, 48, pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine base, also known as crack.
Lakasia Woolfolk, 24, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the distribution of crack. In June 2010, an undercover agent arranged through Woolfolk the purchase of two 8-balls of crack cocaine to be delivered by Hicks to Smokin' Aces in Huntington. Hicks admitted to arriving at the store to deliver the crack cocaine and while inside, called Woolfolk to discuss the details of the drug transaction. Hicks also admitted to the amount of crack sold to the undercover agent was short of the original agreement. Hicks also admitted to making additional sales of crack cocaine at the same location three other times in June 2010. Both Hicks and Woolfolk face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when they are sentenced on July 11, 2011.


A Charleston man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell more than 3.4 million contraband cigarettes. Basim Ali Talouzi also pleaded guilty Monday to distribution of oxycodone. He faces up to 25 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine when he is sentenced June 27 in U.S. District Court in Huntington. According to prosecutors, Talouzi conspired with others to buy, transport and sell contraband cigarettes between July 2010 and last month. The total tax loss to West Virginia on the 17,112 cartons of contraband smokes was just over $94,000. Talouzi also admitted selling oxycodone pills to undercover federal agents.


A jury has found a Charleston man not guilty of domestic battery after he punched his pregnant girlfriend in the belly. The victim, Nastacha Caudill, told jurors that Timothy Paul Burdette was so mad that she wouldn't give him money that he also threw pizza at her and jerked her out of a recliner chair.  Caudill called police after the altercation at a Sixth Avenue home and became ill while being questioned. She miscarried the three-month fetus a few days later. Prosecutor Mark Plants originally charged Burdette, 25, with murder under the state's Unborn Victims of Violence Act. He became the second person in Kanawha County charged under that law.  But the charge of murder against Burdette was dismissed in September when Plants said a report from the state Medical Examiner did not confirm that the fetus died as a result of the punch. Burdette denies he punched Caudill, and on Monday his defense attorney insisted to the jury that prosecution did not introduce evidence sufficient to convict him.  His court-appointed defense attorney, Barbara Brown, told the jury Caudill's testimony was inconsistent and should not be believed, saying  he never struck that woman.


Frederick Thomas Butts, 42, of Charleston, was supposed to go on trial this week, but a circuit judge agreed to postpone to give defense attorneys more time to prepare. He's charged with 274 counts of sexual abuse and incest. The trial is now scheduled for May 2nd.  In the meantime, an assistant prosecutor asked Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King to limit Butts' phone calls and visits at South Central Regional Jail. Erica Lord told King that Butts and his sister, Lori Butts, had conspired in telephone calls to intimidate a witness and do everything possible to keep her from coming to the trial.
The victim was 5 years old when the alleged sexual abuse began, and she told police it occurred every weekend for years. Now 15, she is in the custody of Child Protective Services. King agreed to the limitations on Butts, who is being held without bond. King denied a motion to reduce that.  Butts has pleaded not guilty.


Central Appalachia's largest coal producer idled dozens of mines across three states for a time to honor the 29 miners who died at one of its West Virginia mines a year ago.  Massey Energy's action was to honor the victims of last April 5th's Upper Big Branch mine explosion. Public and private memorial services were held in the state Capitol, Beckley and Whitesville throughout the day. A candlelight vigil was held for the evening in Whitesville. Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis participated during the day. The explosion was the deadliest to strike the U.S. coal industry since 1970. Regulators and federal prosecutors are still investigating. Massey operates mines in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.


Authorities are urging Kanawha Valley residents to check their credit and bank statements after
Charleston police have received numerous complaints of debit and credit card fraud in the past two to four weeks.
The  U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Attorney's Office are investigating the thefts.


Two Kentucky men and one West Virginian have been sentenced to one year and one day for conspiring to steal diesel fuel worth more than $900,000. The men were sentenced Monday in federal court in Huntington. They are 47-year-old Darrell Glen Deerfield of Rush, Ky.; 52-year-old Joey Williams of Greenup, Ky.; and 40-year-old Paul David Smith of Barboursville. The defendants pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to transport and sell goods stolen from interstate shipments. According to prosecutors, Deerfield worked for a company that transported diesel fuel to be used by CSX trains. They say Deerfield conspired with Williams and Smith to steal fuel from a facility in Russell, Ky., and that Smith then sold the fuel to businesses and individuals in West Virginia and Kentucky.  


A major storm ripped through the area causing over 29,000 customers to lose power in Kanawha County Monday night.  Monday's severe storms left a mark on several homes throughout the area, as well as Kanawha County's Metro 911 phone service. According to Metro 911, phone calls made to 911 were not able to connect. As of 8:18 p.m., according to Metro 911, their  line was back and working.  According to Appalachian Power, several counties reported power outages.  As of 11:03 p.m., according to Appalachian Power's website, over 26,000 customers in Kanawha County are without power.  At one point, Kanawha County was reporting over 29,000 customers without power.

A missing 68-year-old man from Pike County, Ky. has been found dead.  A Golden Alert was issued for Robert Hamilton Monday night after he was last seen in the Virgie area Monday morning.
Kentucky State Police Trooper, Shaun Little says Hamilton was found dead around 1:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon about a mile from his residence. Search crews from the Pike County EMS and the Shelby Valley Fire Department took part in the search for Hamilton.


 More arrests have been made and officials are searching for six more in a Floyd County drug roundup. Sheriff's deputies say all of the people are accused of bringing pills from Florida and Georgia to Floyd County to sell.
The round-up ends a three-month undercover investigation.
Officers say the suspects are allegedly selling Roxies, a new drug they say they are starting to see a lot of in our region.
The following is an updated list of arrests:
• John Sherman Moore, McDowell
• Gregory Moore, McDowell
• Estill Newsome, Jr., McDowell
• Scott Hamilton, Teaberry
• Victor Rhea
• Carol Bryant, Weeksbury
• Elizabeth Shapiro, Wheelwright
• Gregory Salisbury, McDowell
• Darvis Newsome, Prestonsburg
• Crystal Dawn Newsome, Auxier
• Harry Skeens, Allen
• Brandon Leslie, Allen
• Muril Moore, McDowell
• Wendell Burchett, Harold
• Mary Burchett, Harold
• Talsha Bentley Clover Fork
• Jimmy John Adkins, Betsy Layne
• Louann Bartrum, Martin


Bush & Burchett of Allen plans to begin construction of a bridge connecting the community of Concord in Johnson County to KY 40 on April 18. The Floyd County company was awarded the $3.4 million contract March 1 and held its preconstruction meeting with Highway District 12 officials last week.  There has never been a bridge connecting KY 1145 to KY 40, said Doug Wright, resident engineer for Highway District 12.  This new bridge will provide much faster and safer access to US 23 and US 460.  Access to Concord and Thealka by first responders and other service providers will also be enhanced.


Through  Apr. 3, preliminary statistics indicate that 141 people have  lost their lives on Kentucky roadways during 2011. This is 28 fewer than reported for this time period in 2010. Of the 117 motor vehicle fatalities, 67 victims were not wearing seat belts. Of the four
motorcycle fatalities, three were not wearing helmets. Two of the three ATV fatalities were not wearing helmets. Seventeen pedestrians have been killed. A total of 19 fatalities have resulted from crashes involving the suspected use of alcohol.



The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) and the Kentucky Genealogical Society (KGS) will host a free family-history workshop focused on KHS cemetery preservation resources from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort.  Ann Johnson, KHS cemetery preservation program coordinator, will discuss KHS resources available to family historians and cemetery preservationists. These resources include tracking databases, advice on legal issues governing property and descendent rights, stone cleaning and rubbing techniques and cemetery mapping practices.  The workshop will also feature Phil DiBlasi, staff archaeologist at the University of Louisville, who will discuss the use of GPS to document cemeteries.  There will also be an on-site visit to Frankfort Cemetery for a stone cleaning and GPS demonstration.



As part of a national level EXERCISE on May 16, 2011, a major earthquake will rock the mid-South and unleash an unprecedented level of destruction upon more than eight states.  Unlike other forecasts of doom, this prediction is based on the certainty of a National Level Exercise (NLE) scheduled to put local, state and federal officials through the paces of responding to a catastrophic earthquake in the heart of the United States. Unlike the weather, experts cannot predict when and where an earthquake may occur.  However, we can tell you with certainty what will happen in Kentucky during the EXERCISE on May 16, 2011:  A 7.7 earthquake will strike the New Madrid Seismic Zone in Western Kentucky and the impact on the Commonwealth during the EXERCISE will include:
        Approximately 235,000 people will seek shelter
        330,000 households will be without power
        Approximately 6,500 will be injured
        Approximately 300 deaths will occur
        68,500 buildings will be damaged
        Critical infrastructure will be damaged or destroyed
        250 bridges damaged or destroyed, limiting transportation into and out of the impacted area
        Communications will be greatly impaired or fail
        Emergency responders will scramble to get information from the area and local emergency management will be  limited getting information out
The Tier I exercise, known as NLE 2011, will simulate the decisions and actions that top officials should be prepared to take in the first 96-hours after such a devastating earthquake. This is the first NLE to focus on a natural hazard, rather than a terrorism-focused scenario.
"Is Kentucky ready for a 7.7 earthquake? No.


A public workers rally -- billed as a "block party" -- was held in downtown Louisville as part of a national day of solidarity to defend the public sector. About 200 people attended the Monday evening event to support collective bargaining rights for Kentucky's public sector workers. Musicians, including the Grammy-nominated Nappy Roots, played to a home crowd in a show of support. The rally was relocated to the Kentucky International Convention Center from an outdoor venue at Jefferson Square due to rainy, windy weather.


Keeneland is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a new book about the history of the central Kentucky race course. "Keeneland: A Thoroughbred Legacy" is the third in a series and includes 12 chapters written by local authors. Veteran Kentucky journalist Al Smith says the book is a reminder that Keeneland is a special source of pride to the community. The 231-page book sells for $39.95. Profits are to be distributed through the Keeneland Foundation to various community non-profit organizations. The book is available at the gift shop at Keeneland, which opens Friday for its three-week spring meet.


Top University of Kentucky officials say they're in the final stages of the school's presidential search and hope to make the selection May 3. In a campuswide e-mail Monday, UK Board of Trustees Chairman Britt Brockman and search committee Chairman Jim Stuckert laid out a tentative schedule leading to the selection of the next president. They said the search committee will meet April 11 in hopes of forwarding three to five finalists to trustees. Under their timetable, trustees are scheduled to meet April 30 in northern Kentucky to review the finalists, then interview them the next day. That evening, the trustees will vote for a preferred candidate who will be introduced. The finalist will visit the Lexington campus on May 2, and the next day will come a final decision.


The death toll has risen to six people after fast moving storms hit the South with high winds, hail, lightning and power outages.
Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Lisa Janak says four people have been killedin Georgia, two of them, a father and son who died when a tree fell onto a home in Butts County. Dodge and Colquitt counties also each had a death.
Tennessee and Mississippi also each have reported a death related to the storms.


A fourth mistrial has been declared in the case of a former Fort Campbell sergeant accused of killing his estranged wife and her former mother-in-law. Jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision after deliberating through the afternoon and into the evening Monday, Brent Burke was being tried on murder charges in the death of Tracy Burke and Karen Comer in 2007 in Rineyville. The trial started three weeks ago. It is the fourth time Burke has faced the charges. Two mistrials were declared when witnesses were unavailable, and a jury last year was unable to reach a verdict. A new hearing is scheduled for April 26. Prosecutors wouldn't comment since the case is continuing, and the families of Traci Burke and Comer left without commenting.


Paintings, lithographs, mixed media works and photographs by 26 Kentucky artists are on display in the Governor's Derby Exhibit through May 10 in the Capitol Rotunda. The show's theme is spring, and it is part of the Governor's Derby Celebration More than 200 entries were submitted to be considered for the show. The exhibit is open during public visiting hours at the Capitol, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and during the Governor's Derby Celebration on Kentucky Derby Day, May 7.