EBOLA DOCTOR

Doctor who survived Ebola speaking in Louisville

(Information in the following story is from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An American doctor who recovered after contracting the Ebola virus while treating patients in Liberia will speak at a Louisville church next month.

Dr. Kent Brantly will appear at a missions health conference at Southeast Christian Church.

The conference is expected to attract thousands of medical professionals, missionaries and medical students to the church's campus. It begins Nov. 6.

The Louisville conference will include five breakout sessions that address Ebola.

Brantly made a full recovery this summer at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. He made headlines again this week when he gave plasma to a Dallas nurse who contracted the virus. Doctors say antibodies in the blood of a survivor may help a patient fight off the germ.

MINIMUM WAGE

Stalled policies find new life in Ky. counties

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's local governments are reviving a pair of proposals that have been bogged down at the state and federal level.

The Louisville Metro Council's Democratic majority is trying to increase the county's minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. In more conservative areas, Republicans have pushed back by trying to pass local laws that would weaken unions.

The issues are playing heavily in the fall elections that could determine who controls the U.S. Senate and the state House of Representatives. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes has campaigned to raise the minimum wage while Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell says he opposes the increase because he says it would cost jobs.

Republicans have promised to pass right-to-work laws should they win control of the state House of Representatives.

BABY SISTER SLAIN

Woman convicted in sister slaying gets 12 years

(Information in the following story is from: Richmond Register, http://www.richmondregister.com)

RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) — A central Kentucky woman who confessed to smothering her baby half-sister to death has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Jessica Marcum pleaded guilty in August to first-degree manslaughter in an agreement with prosecutors. A Madison County grand jury had indicted her on a charge of wanton murder after the case was transferred from juvenile court.

The Richmond Register reports Madison Circuit Judge Jean Logue imposed the sentence recommended by the prosecution.

Marcum was 17 when her sister, nine-month-old Bella Rose Marcum, died in her care in June 2013. Initially, she claimed the death was accidental, but prosecutors pursued criminal charges in adult court.

Madison Commonwealth's Attorney David Smith says he did not want to run the risk of acquittal or having a jury convict Marcum of a lesser crime.

BOY KIDNAPPED

Georgetown 5-year-old kidnapped during drug deal

(Information in the following story is from: WKYT-TV, http://www.wkyt.com)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Georgetown man is facing charges after he took his son to a drug deal and the boy was kidnapped.

According to WKYT-TV, 30-year-old William Hanks is charged with first-degree wanton endangerment.

Investigators say Hanks had the 5-year-old with him on Saturday when he got into a sport utility vehicle with three people for a drug deal.

Officers say shortly afterward they robbed Hanks, then threw him out of the vehicle. Police say the boy was found about an hour later when a woman looking out her window saw him crying on the sidewalk.

The boy is now in the custody of his mother. Hanks was released from the Fayette County Detention Center later Saturday.

Investigators continue to search for the man and two women in the SUV.

METH ARREST

Laurel County, Ky. man faces meth charges

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — A Laurel County, Kentucky, man is facing charges for allegedly cooking methamphetamine inside his home.

Police arrested 39-year-old Richard Ehlers around 4 a.m. Sunday at his residence in East Bernstadt, about 10 miles north of London.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found a black cooler in the bedroom under a baby bed containing several baggies of suspected meth, three glass pipes containing suspected meth residue, two baggies of marijuana and seven packs of Suboxone strips.

Police say there were a 15-month-old child and a 9-year-old child present in the residence.

Ehlers' charges include possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, wanton endangerment, and possession of marijuana.

He was being held in the Laurel County Correctional Center on $1,000 bond. Jail records do not list an attorney for Ehlers.

HONEY'S HIGH DEMAND

Hobbyists face large demand for local honey

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — A blanket of bees recently paid little attention to Michele Boling as she opened their hive and pulled out a thin wooden frame to examine the contents of tiny hexagons of beeswax.

Some were filled with glistening honey, and others had been capped with wax, indicating they were full.

Boling was checking to see how far along the hive was in storing honey for the winter.

With three beehives in her backyard in Bowling Green, Boling is among an "explosion" of hobbyist beekeepers that Kentucky State Apiarist Tammy Horn has seen in recent years.

She says that rise in hobbyists has coincided with a leveling off in the number of commercial beekeepers.

MURDER ARRESTS

Son, mother arrested in eastern Kentucky slaying

WEST LIBERTY, Ky. (AP) — A mother and son in eastern Kentucky have been charged in the slaying of a Morgan County man in his home.

Kentucky State Police say 20-year-old Christopher S. Peyton was arrested on Friday and charged with murder. He is charged with killing 33-year-old Randy Williams, whose body was found on Thursday at Williams' home in West Liberty. Williams had been shot multiple times in the chest.

Peyton's mother, 55-year-old Kimberly D. Peyton, was charged with complicity to commit murder in Williams' death.

State police say both were arrested without incident on Friday. They were jailed in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center.

ATV DESTRUCTION

Covington park damaged by ATV riders

(Information in the following story is from: The Kentucky Enquirer, http://www.nky.com)

COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — All -terrain vehicle riders are ripping up trails in a conservation area of a northern Kentucky park, even though the four-wheelers are banned.

Bill Cappel Park is tucked in the city of Covington and attracts hikers and children to its forest, wetlands and wildlife.

But Scott Fennell, director of Northern Kentucky University's Center for Environmental Restoration, says the ATV riders threaten the natural area. He says the vehicles are also a danger to visitors who hike and play in the park.

Covington is working on an ordinance that would add enforcement to the signs that prohibit ATV use. Officials say they believe some of the riders live in the area and others are trucking in their vehicles.

 

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.

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