Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Police Searching For Pike County Woman
{Kentucky}...Kentucky State Police are searching for 33 year old Brandi Fields, a Pike County woman who has been missing since around 9:00 P.M. Friday when she left her mother’s home in Ransom, Kentucky. Her mother says she saw Brandi get into a purple Jeep Cherokee with a person she believed had recently stolen from her, but the driver of the Jeep denies having her in his car that night. Family members say it is very out of character for Brandi to go missing. There is a $3,000 reward being offered. Brandi weighs about 115 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:51 PM
Pike County Senior Citizens' Center Wins Grant
- {Kentucky}...Toyota will aid the Pike County Senior Citizens Program in regard to its meal services, but the support has nothing to do with a car. Pike County Community Services Director and senior citizens program supervisor Carol Napier submitted a grant application to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) in May requesting funds to help with the direct costs of the program’s meal services. “For fiscal year 2012 we have a projected operating budget of $268,279 for eight centers,” Napier wrote in the grant application. “We plan to serve 88,000 meals to 1,335 eligible senior citizens.” According to the application, direct operating cost include, but are not limited to, raw food and paper products such as meal trays, utensils and napkins. Napier wrote in the application that although utilities and wages are part of the meal services’ costs, the donation will not be used to cover these costs. Nila Wells, TMMK Contributions Program Administrator, notified Napier on June 23 the contributions committee had approved the application and was donating $5,000 to the senior citizens program for meal services. “I am pleased with this large Kentucky manufacturing corporation,” Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford said. “I drive a hybrid Toyota built in Georgetown, Ky. This is a very community-minded corporation.”
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:49 PM
FEMA Hotline Available
{Kentucky}...At the close of the registration period July 18 for Individual Assistance, more than 2,000 Kentuckians had registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for possible assistance in recovering from the severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that struck the Commonwealth between April 12 and May 20. And even though the registration deadline has come and gone with 2,014 registrations recorded in 22 designated Commonwealth counties, Kentuckians can still turn to FEMA for advice on disaster-related recovery or to have questions answered about their applications. FEMA's toll free Helpline allows Kentucky residents to talk one-to-one with knowledgeable recovery specialists about disaster-related needs, inquire about the status of their application or get help understanding correspondence they receive from FEMA. Kentuckians can call FEMA at 800-621-FEMA (3362) to check the status of their application or to ask questions. In addition to the Helpline, survivors also can go online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov. Those with speech or hearing disabilities can call (TTY) 800-462-7585. Help is available in most languages. No matter what option one chooses to use to keep in touch, officials from FEMA and the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management stress recovery is a long-term process both for individuals and for communities and staying informed is an important part of that process.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:48 PM
Triple Shooting In Knox County
{Kentucky}...Kentucky State Police continue to investigate a triple shooting in Knox County that left two people in the hospital and one person dead. Police say shots were fired late Monday night at a home off Houston Broughton Road in the Stinking Creek community. Forty-six year old Christine Engle was pronounced dead at the scene, while 56 year old Alice Taylor and 68 year old Gillis Smith were flown to University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Family members say the two women were sisters and say the shooting could have been out of jealousy. Engle’s body was sent to Frankfort for an autopsy.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:47 PM
Telephone Scam From Jamaica
{Kentucky}...A telephone scam promising prize money prompted warnings Tuesday from Kentucky State Police in London. Police say a victim received a call originating from the 876 area code, which is in Jamaica. The caller identified himself as Bill Johnson and said the victim had won a large sum of money or a prize. The caller told the victim to send money via Western Union to Phillip Samuels in Brooklyn, New York, and a prize would be delivered in exchange for the money. No loss of money has been reported. Police want to remind people to disregard such calls and never send money to obtain a prize.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:46 PM
Whitley County Man Faces Attempted Murder
- {Kentucky}...Whitley County Deputies have arrested 40 year old James Fields on several charges, including two counts of attempted murder. Police say he attacked two people with a machete. Fields says it was an accident. He says he jokingly threatened his brother, his brother's girlfriend, and his own girlfriend with the machete during a drunken argument over the weekend, but his brother, Adam Anderson, says he wasn't laughing. Adam Anderson, says he went towards his brother, trying to take the machete away from him, but suffered a cut to his nose, before falling to his knees and blacking out. Anderson's girlfriend Sandra Shelton was also cut in the arm when she tried to take the machete from Fields. Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell says, "When someone injures two people with a machete, that's not an accident." Fields, remains in the Whitley County Jail without bond. He's scheduled to be in court next week.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:45 PM
Mingo County Man Arraigned
{West Virginia}...James Harrison, the Mingo County man accused of fatally shooting his brother on July 15th in Matewan, was in court Tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. James Harrison remains in jail without bond after being arraigned for shooting his brother, Matthew Harrison, at a home on Rutherford Brand Road. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and the Mingo County prosecutor plans to present the case to the grand jury in September.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:42 PM
Kanawha County Man Faces Sexual Abuse
- {West Virginia}...Robert Smith, a Kanawha County man, is facing 37 charges, ranging from sexual abuse by a parent to incest for allegedly sexually abusing his daughter and getting her pregnant. Prosecutors say the abuse started in 2002 when his daughter was just 9 years old, and he got his daughter pregnant when she was 14. Smith pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors say they have DNA evidence to prove Smith is the father of a 4 year old boy. His bond is set at half a million dollars. Smith faced similar charges in 2004, but prosecutors say a psychologist interviewed the girl and the doctor determined she was in fear and pressured to recant her story.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:40 PM
Daugherty Retires From Social Security Administration
{West Virginia}...Administrative law Judge David B. Daugherty retired from the Huntington office of the Social Security Administration on July 13th after being placed on indefinite administrative leave in late May. A federal investigation was launched in May looking into a questionable number of social security cases he approved. In the last fiscal year, Judge Daugherty heard more social security cases than any other of the 1500 administrative law judges nationwide.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:40 PM
Mingo County Man's Appeal Rejected
{West Virginia}...In a July 13th ruling, the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of George Lecco, a police misconduct as well. His appeal also said the jury should have heard evidence that he helped out in his community. County man serving life in prison after a Charleston jury convicted him of ordering the murder of police informant Carla Collins. The jury found Lecco had suggested Collins become a drug informant, but then turned on her when he resumed dealing cocaine out of his Red Jacket pizza parlor. The appeal argued the jury wrongly heard from an unreliable witness and a co-defendant who pleaded guilty, police misconduct, and the jury should have heard evidence that he helped out in his community.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:37 PM
Raleigh County Sheriff's Deputies Cleared
- {West Virginia}...A federal jury says Cpl. Gregory Kade and former deputy John Hajash, two Raleigh County Sheriff's Deputies involved in the fatal shooting of a Cabell Heights man, didn't do anything wrong. Kade and Hajash say they shot Robert Webb after he pointed a loaded, semi-automatic rifle at them in his driveway of his home on July 4, 2006. A lawsuit filed by Mary Webb, the widow of Robert Webb, claimed the officers were negligent and denied Webb medical treatment as he lay dying. Hajash suggested he and his onetime partner were put in a position where they had no choice but to fire on Webb after they were called to his home in the wee hours of the morning to investigate a neighbor’s complaint he had been firing a weapon toward his house.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:36 PM
Beckley Trooper Arrests Sex Offenders
- {West Virginia}...Trooper 1st Class R.A. Daniel of the West Virginia State Police in Beckley arrested Michael Fernandez, 48, of Beckley, and Greg Lilly, 36, of Crab Orchard, Monday for failure to register as a sex offender. Fernandez is registered in Raleigh County following convictions of first-degree attempted sexual battery and lewd/lascivious acts on a child from 2006 in Sarasota, Florida. The convictions require Fernandez to register for life due to both victims being minors. Lilly is registered in Raleigh County after convictions of first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual abuse of an adult female in Raleigh County in 2006. Both convictions require Lilly to register for life due to the violent offense and multiple convictions. Each felony arrest maintains a possible one- to five-year sentence.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:45 PM
Monday, July 18, 2011
Permanent Injunction Issued Against CAM Mining
{Kentucky}...Friday, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar issued a permanent injunction against CAM Mining's No. 28 mine in Pike County ordering the company not to warn underground workers in advance of safety inspections. The U.S. Department of Labor had requested the action after attempting an inspection at the mine in mid-June after federal inspectors had received reports that miners were smoking in the mine, which has a history of methane gas leaks. Inspectors said underground workers were tipped off to their presence when they arrived. Thapar's order says workers at the mine must be trained on the requirements of the order within 30 days.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:40 PM
KSP Investigating Floyd County Robberies
{Kentucky}...Kentucky State Police in Floyd County are trying to determine if three recent robberies are connected. Police say the first happened late Wednesday night at the Tiger Mart in Prestonsburg, and there were robberies at stores in Minnie and Grethel not long after that. Police say the suspect in the Tiger Mart robbery is in his 20's or 30's, has tattoos on both arms, and was wearing a camouflaged cap with a breast cancer awareness symbol on it.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:36 PM
Man Drowns In Cumberland River
- {Kentucky}...Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell and Coroner Andy Croley have confirmed the body found in the Cumberland River near Maiden Bend Road just east of Williamsburg Thursday morning is 47 year old Bruce Carl Childress, originally from Dayton, Ohio. Harrell said Childress came to Whitley County during the first week of July, and had been staying at his brother's house, about four to five miles from where Childress' remains were discovered. Childress had been missing since July 7th. Dr. Christen Roth autopsied Childress' body Friday morning at the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort and ruled the cause of death as drowning.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:31 PM
Cousins Will Have An Elite Skills Basketball Camp
{Kentucky}...Former UK star DeMarcus Cousins will have an Elite Skills Basketball Camp. It was scheduled for Georgetown College on August 1-3rd. Due to what the Bluegrass Stallions are calling an "overwhelming response" it's been moved to the Kentucky Basketball Academy in Lexington. The camp will be for boys and girls ages 7-16 and will run from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. each day. The camp fee is $149 and includes a personal photo taken with Cousins, an autographed 16x20 photo of DeMarcus, an Official Nike Camp Tee shirt, lunch provided by Papa Johns as well as an Official Certificate of Participation. Campers will also receive basketball instruction by DeMarcus as well as members of the Bluegrass Stallions including Stallions Head Coach and former Pitts standout Jaron Brown. For more information about the DeMarcus Cousins Elite Basketball Camp please call 502-863-6303 or email mdilorenzo@bluegrassstallions.com.# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:29 PM
Lexington Mayor Requests Reconsideration Of Nunn File
- {Kentucky}...At Mayor Jim Gray's request, Lexington's Law Department is revisiting its decision not to release the criminal case file of former state lawmaker Steve Nunn until after Nunn has completed his life sentence in prison. The Herald-Leader had requested the case file under the Kentucky Open Records Act after Nunn pleaded guilty on June 28th. The newspaper could appeal the open records denial to the state attorney general's office, or by going directly to Fayette Circuit Court.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:26 PM
Wayne County Woman Pleads Not Guilty
{Kentucky}...Melissa Hardwick, a Wayne County woman caught on court cameras trying to attack a judge Thursday, pleaded not guilty in the case Monday, waiving her case to the grand jury. Hardwick faces three new charges along with the contempt of court charge that prompted her to lunge at the the judge after she continued to talk after the judge told her to stop. Hartwick, who was in court after her husband filed a domestic violence order against her, lunged at the judge and continued to talk when the judge asked Hardwick's husband to explain the situation.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:25 PM
Confirmed Case Of TB In Huntington
{West Virginia}...A confirmed case of tuberculosis or TB in Huntington has the Cabell-Huntington Health Department taking proactive steps. Elizabeth Ayers, the public health educator with the health department, says they can't release any information about the person involved, but they have contacted those believed to have been in contact with the carrier to request they have a TB skin test. TB is spread through the air, one person to another. When someone with an active case coughs, sneezes or speaks, anyone nearby can breath in the TB bacteria and become infected. Symptoms of TB include a bad cough for three weeks or longer, pain in the chest, coughing up blood, weakness and fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever and night sweats. If you show those signs, you can call the TB hotline at (304) 526-3397 or log on to www.cabellhealth.org. You cannot get TB by shaking someone's hand, sharing food or drink, touching toilet seats or kissing.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:22 PM
Attempt To Settle Massey Lawsuit
{West Virginia}...For the third time, Circuit Judges Derek Swope of Mercer County and Alan Moats of Taylor County are trying to settle a long-running lawsuit that claims Massey Energy Co. and its subsidiary Rawl Sales & Processing poisoned hundreds of drinking water wells in southern West Virginia with coal slurry. The state's Mass Litigation Panel is handling the case against Massey and Rawl Sales. Judges Swope and Moats have ordered lead attorneys for both sides to meet July 25th and 26th in Charleston to discuss a possible deal and avoid the series of trials set to begin August 1st in Wheeling.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:15 PM
Bayer CropScience Entitled To Refund
- {West Virginia}...A federal appeals panel has ruled that Bayer CropScience is entitled to a $10 million refund from the former Massey Energy Company after Bayer claimed Massey overcharged the company for coal at its Institute plant. Central West Virginia Energy had raised Bayer's coal prices after market prices rose, despite the fact that Bayer had a long-term coal supply contract with the company.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:13 PM
Barboursville Man Pleads Guilty
{West Virginia|...Fifty-six year old Randall Keyser of Barboursville, West Virginia pleaded guilty Monday in Cleveland, Ohio federal court to wire and mail fraud for trying to land a six-figure construction management job in Ohio by posing as an Army general with references including the Army chief of staff, vice chief of staff and Army undersecretary. The Akron-based company became suspicious and contacted the FBI. Documents show Keyser was hired under false pretenses in at least four states. Sentencing Is scheduled for September 26th.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:12 PM
Remains Identified As West Virginia Soldier
- {West Virginia}...The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said Monday that remains found in France have been identified as those of Army Pfc. Lawrence N. Harris of Elkins, a West Virginia soldier missing since World War II. Harris was killed along with two other soldiers on October 9, 1944, when their M-10 Tank Destroyer was attacked by German forces during a battle in the Parroy Forest. The remains of Harris and the other soldiers, Cpl. Judge C. Hellums of Paris, Mississippi, and Pvt. Donald D. Owens of Cleveland, will be buried together in one casket at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:10 PM
Man Arraigned For Rite Aid Robbery
{West Virginia}...John Barnett was arraigned Monday morning on a first degree robbery charge after Charleston Police say, while armed with a knife, he robbed the Rite Aid pharmacy near the Little Page apartments on Charleston's West Side in June. Barnett pleaded not guilty, but police say he told them at the time of his arrest that he robbed the pharmacy because he was homeless and needed a place to stay. Barnett's trial is set for August 29th.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:10 PM
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Bowling Green Woman Crowned Miss Kentucky
- {Kentucky}...Twenty-one year old Ann-Blair Thornton of Bowling Green, a student at Western Kentucky University, has been crowned Miss Kentucky 2011. Thornton will represent Kentucky in the Miss America Pageant on January 14th in Las Vegas. Thornton's talent during the pageant Saturday night was a piano performance. She is majoring in English and economics at Western Kentucky and her platform is Alzheimer's awareness and research. As Miss Kentucky, Thornton will receive an $11,000 scholarship and more than $5,000 in clothing certificates, along with jewelry, use of a car for a year, dry cleaning, dental care, personal fitness training and other prizes and services.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:16 PM
Wayne County Woman To Be Arraigned
{Kentucky}...Melissa Hardwick of Wayne County will be arraigned in court Monday afternoon on charges of terroristic threatening, intimidating a participant in the legal process and resisting arrest. Initially, Hardwick was in court last week after her husband filed a domestic violence order against her. When the husband began explaining the situation, Hardwick kept interrupting, then tried to attack the judge. Hardwick has already been sentenced to 120 days in jail.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:12 PM
Police Investigating Fatal Motorcycle Crash
- {Kentucky}...Louisville Police are investigating a fatal motorcycle crash which occurred on the Watterson Expressway around 7:00 P.M. Saturday night. The driver of the motorcycle, 36 year old David Woosley was killed when a car crashed into the motorcycle while trying to merge. His passenger and the driver of the car were taken to University Hospital with unknown injuries.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:07 PM
Attorney General Investigating Student Loans
{Kentucky}...Nationally, student debt and default rates are rising. Of the 81 Kentucky schools eligible for federal student loan programs, 35 showed a three-year default rate for 2008 that was higher than the national average of 13.8 percent. The state's worst default rates are found at private, for-profit "career colleges" and several campuses of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway is leading an investigation with 17 other attorneys general into possible consumer protection violations by for-profit schools and says lawsuits are likely. Conway says high default rates can be a sign that a school produces unemployable graduates.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:06 PM
Dropout Facility To Open
- {Kentucky}...A National Guard school program for at-risk teenagers that has been operating as the Bluegrass ChalleNGe Academy in Fort Knox since 1999 is opening a new facility in eastern Kentucky specifically for Appalachian youth. The Appalachian Youth ChalleNGe Academy is scheduled to open in 2012 in Harlan. The Harlan school will recruit in 23 eastern Kentucky counties, while any remaining spots would be open to teens from the Appalachian region of neighboring states. The new academy will be housed in a former elementary school and will serve 200 to 300 students a year who are either high school dropouts or at risk of dropping out.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:05 PM
Louisville Leaders Want Lawsuit Dropped
- {Kentucky}...Leaders in Louisville are asking the River Fields conservation group to end a lawsuit against the Ohio River Bridges Project between Kentucky and Indiana. Humana co-founder David Jones Sr. likens the group's opposition to those who prevented Reynolds Metals Co. from building an office building in eastern Jefferson County in the late 1950s. Reynolds later left for Richmond, Virginia. Leaders in Louisville say the group is delaying progress, but Lee Cory, president of River Fields' board of trustees, says the group's board is unified in its support for the lawsuit, River Fields is a citizen group exercising its right to hold the government accountable, and River Fields hasn't delayed any part of the project. Cory says the slow-moving venture has languished because of a lack of funding. She says that since there's no injunction in the case, officials have been free to proceed with the project all along. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has asked be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:03 PM
Woman Killed In New River
{West Virginia}...A weekend on the New River turned deadly for Judy Brown, of Cumberland, Maryland who died Saturday morning when she fell from a raft she was riding on in the Upper Railroad Rapid in Fayette County. She was underwater nearly 30 minutes before paramedics could reach her. Brown was taken to Plateau Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:02 PM
Saint Albans Man Sentenced
{West Virginia}...Michael Lacy of Saint Albans was sentenced Friday to 15 to 35 years in prison for sexually assaulting and impregnating an 11-year-old girl. Lacy pleaded guilty to sexual assault after his arrest last July. Lacy will also be subjected to 20 years of supervised release after he gets out of prison and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:56 PM
Former Police Captain Put On Diversion
- {West Virginia}...Myron White, a former Charleston Police captain accused of harassing a woman may be able to avoid having a criminal record after prosecutors put his case on a pretrial diversion. The process lets the charge disappear in one year if there are no further offenses. White also must not have any contact with the 44 year old South Charleston woman who claimed White harassed her at a restaurant in May 2010. White retired last November. The deal does not include any admission of guilt by White.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:54 PM
Former ARC of Three Rivers Worker Gets Probation
- {West Virginia}...Friday, Judge James Stucky sentenced Mary McKinney Haynes to five years of supervised probation and ordered her to pay more than $9,000 in restitution after she was convicted of embezzling almost $50,000 from ARC of Three Rivers. Haynes was responsible for managing the finances of 200 people under the ARC.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:53 PM
Supreme Court Considering OPEB
- {West Virginia}...The state Board of Education has decided to have the legal staff of the state Department of Education prepare a "Friend of the Court" brief in connection with the fight by county school boards over the post employment benefit debt issue which is now before the state Supreme Court. A number of county boards are challenging a ruling from the state that says the local boards must list the debt of future retiree health care costs on their financial books. The state Board of Education says forcing counties to carry the debt on their books will result in large numbers of county boards of education being forced to report deficit balances.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:52 PM
Driver's Licenses Contain Security Features
- {West Virginia}...The state is making changes to driver's licenses to comply with federal law. The federal REAL ID Act of 2005 is nudging states toward a nationwide identification system. West Virginia's DMV says its new licensing vendor, Marquis ID Systems of Fort Wayne, Indiana changed the look of the card and added security features. In addition to the information already on the state's licenses and ID cards - name, birth date, address and license number - a new identification number will be printed just under the resident's birth date. Another security feature not visible to the naked eye is the built-in micro-printing on the front of each card. Officials hope the micro-printing will reduce the number of fake IDs. The federal law requires all residents to provide their full, spelled-out names on their licenses or ID cards.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:52 PM
