Kentucky News Now – April 23rd 2014

MICHELLE OBAMA-FORT CAMPBELL

Michelle Obama, Jill Biden to headline job fair for soliders at Fort Campbell

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are visiting Fort Campbell to speak with soldiers and their families at a jobs and career fair.

Obama and Biden are expected to be at the military post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line on Wednesday to deliver remarks to more than 1,000 service members and military spouses and over 100 employers at the Fort Campbell Veterans Jobs Summit and Career Forum.

The summit is a public, private, and nonprofit sector collaboration that, in coordination with the active duty military, aims to provide transitioning service members with employment resources.

During the meeting, Obama and Biden will also announce new government tools designed to simplify job hunting for veterans, transitioning service members, National Guard members, Reserve components and military spouses.

HEALTH OVERHAUL-KENTUCKY

Beshear: 413,000 sign up for health care in Ky

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says more than 413,410 people have signed up for health insurance through Kentucky's marketplace in the first enrollment period that ended March 31.

Beshear announced the numbers Tuesday and said 330,615 people qualified for Medicaid coverage. The Democrat also noted that 52 percent of the enrollees through kynect were under the age of 35.

Beshear's office said about 75 percent of the people signing up for health insurance in Kentucky did not have health insurance prior to signing up.

Beshear described it as "deeply satisfying" that 10 percent of the state's population now has health insurance through the program.

The next open enrollment period opens on Nov. 15, with coverage starting in January.

PAUL-2016

GOP's Sen. Rand Paul promotes school choice

CHICAGO (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is taking his message of a more inclusive Republican Party to Chicago, where he promoted school choice for poor families and planned to meet students at University of Chicago.

Paul is taking the stage this hour at Josephinum Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school made up by a majority of lower-income, Hispanic students.

Paul, who is weighing a 2016 GOP presidential bid, has called for widening the party's appeal to include more racial and ethnic minorities and younger voters, a clear majority of which President Obama won in 2008 and 2012.

Paul is expected to lead an education roundtable discussion at the school, and later speak to University of Chicago students. He'll also take questions from former Obama adviser David Axelrod at the university.

BASKETBALL STAR'S DOWNFALL-AUCTION

Rifles, knives that played role in Richie Farmer probe to be sold

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Customized rifles and pocket knives that helped lead to the downfall of former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer are being auctioned off next month.

Farmer went into politics after a successful University of Kentucky basketball career more than two decades ago. He pleaded guilty last fall in a government corruption case and is serving 27 months in federal prison.

The federal indictment said Farmer used an account that mingled private and government funds to buy rifles and knives for visitors during a 2008 conference and kept many of the gifts.

The Agriculture Department said the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will sell 13 Remington rifles and 16 Case knives in an auction May 5 at agency headquarters. Proceeds will help fund an urban garden project.

POSTAL EMPLOYEE-SENTENCED

Ex-postal employee gets 6 months in prison

OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — A former United States Postal Service Employee has been sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months of house arrest for destroying, hiding and delaying the delivery of at least 44,900 pieces of mail.

U.S. Chief Judge Joseph H. McKinley also ordered 34-year-old William "Brent" Morse of Dawson Springs to pay $14,808.01 for losses suffered by residents and a local bank and for losses to two businesses which attempted to mail commercial circulars.

Morse admitted from March 2011 until March 30, 2013 he destroyed at least 1,000 pieces of mail and stored at least 44,900 pieces of mail at his deceased mother's home and at rented storage facilities in Dawson Springs.

The majority of the mail was meant for Dawson Springs. The recovered mail has since been delivered.

CHILD ON BUS

Police: Special needs preschooler left on bus

BUCKNER, Ky. (AP) — Oldham County police say a preschool student with special needs was found on a school bus after the mother came to pick the child up at the end of the day.

Police say school officials didn't realize the child was missing until the mother arrived. A police news release said the child was located shortly after 2:30 p.m. EDT, still in the bus that picked the child up around 10:40 a.m.

Police say an officer who responded to the school Tuesday afternoon wasn't told the child had special needs or had been left on the bus since arriving at the school in Buckner earlier.

The Courier-Journal reported the bus driver has been placed on administrative leave. Oldham County schools spokeswoman Tracy Harris said the child was taken to a hospital by his parents but is believed to be unharmed.

BEATING DEATH-PLEA

Ky man pleads guilty in beating death of woman

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to murder in the beating death of a woman.

WLEX-TV in Lexington reported that 47-year-old Terrence Allen Cram also entered a guilty plea Tuesday to charges of tampering with physical evidence and fraudulent use of a credit card over a 6 month period.

Police say Cram beat 49-year-old Tena L. McNeely to death in January 2011 at their home in Anderson County. McNeely was Cram's landlord at the time.

The coroner said McNeely died of blunt-force trauma to the head. She was the daughter of state Trooper James McNeely, who died in the line of duty during a flood rescue in Frankfort in 1972.

Cram's sentencing date is scheduled for June 4.

JAIL TOILETS-HOOKS

Ky jail using fish hooks to solve plumbing problem

OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — A western Kentucky jail has hooked on to an idea to stop inmates from clogging up the plumbing by flushing everything from blankets to jeans down the toilets.

The Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro has installed fish hooks inside the pipes to catch items that shouldn't have been dropped into the commode.

Jailer David Osborne told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer that the hooks allow employees to go in and pull out the larger objects.

Before the fish hooks, the Regional Water Resource Agency had to send workers to a lift station behind the jail up to three times a week to unstop clogs.

"Those commodes are capable of flushing anything," Osborne said. "I guess (the inmates) are just bored."

KENTUCKY-RANDLE

Kentucky freshman Julius Randle to enter NBA draft

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky forward Julius Randle will leave after one season to enter the NBA draft, where he is expected to be among the top five selections.

With five days left before the deadline for underclassmen to declare, the 6-foot-9 Dallas native announced the decision many expected even before he arrived as part of Kentucky's best recruiting class ever. Projected as a lottery pick from the outset, Randle solidified his draft stock by leading Kentucky (29-11) to the NCAA final behind a string of double-doubles despite being double- and triple-teamed.

Randle averaged 15.0 points and 10.4 rebounds and was voted to The Associated Press' All-America third team. With Tuesday's announcement, he joins guard James Young, who said last week that he would enter the June 26 draft.

QUILT FESTIVAL

Hundreds of quilts on display in Paducah

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — Thousands of people are expected to visit Paducah this week for the American Quilter's Society's QuiltWeek.

The festivities begin Wednesday and run through Saturday. More than 30,000 people are expected for the display, which will include more than 650 quilts in three locations, as well as a quilter's merchant mall.

The American Quilter's Society is also celebrating its 30th anniversary with a display of three decades of best in show quilts at the National Quilt Museum.

For more information, visit http://aqsshows.com/paducah or call (270) 898-7903.