Kentucky News Now – April 24th 2014

KENTUCKY SENATE

APNewsBreak: Grimes wants Keystone pipeline OK'd

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes called Wednesday on President Obama to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline as she tries to defeat an incumbent Republican in the heart of coal country.

Grimes' statement to The Associated Press comes on the day a group committed to blocking the pipeline announced it will spend $500,000 setting up field offices in Kentucky to try to defeat U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Grimes has criticized the administration's energy policies before. But she had yet to take a position on the pipeline — a key issue in Senate races pitting the value of economic development versus protecting the environment. Eleven incumbent Democrats wrote Obama earlier this month urging approval.

McConnell's campaign has criticized Grimes for not saying whether she supported the pipeline's construction.

MICHELLE OBAMA-VETERANS JOBS

First lady announces one-stop job site for vets

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama has announced a new online effort to link soldiers leaving the military with jobs that match their skill sets.

She said Wednesday that the new Veterans Employment Center provides one-stop shopping for troops as they transition to civilian life.

The move comes as the U.S. winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the administration seeks to lower unemployment among veterans.

Mrs. Obama, joined by Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill, made the announcement at Fort Campbell along the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

SOLDIER'S REMAINS

Soldier's remains returned to Paducah for burial

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — The remains of a Paducah soldier, who disappeared during World War II, have been sent home.

WPSD-TV reports the remains of William T. Carneal, which were discovered in Saipan, arrived back in Paducah on Tuesday. He will be interred Friday after a ceremony.

Carneal's remains were found in 2013 along with dog tags, a high school ring and American coins.

Sandy Hart of the Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum in Wickliffe said Carneal enlisted in October 1941. He was reported missing in action in 1944 and declared dead a year later.

His great-niece, Suzanne Roberts, says the family is grateful that the remains were found and returned.

BAND OF BROTHERS-INACTIVATED

Piece of 'Band of Brothers' gets new commander

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — The original "Band Of Brothers" has a new commander and will be getting a new home.

The 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment executed a change of command ceremony at Fort Campbell on Wednesday. At the end of the week, the regiment will move from the 4th Brigade Combat Team to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. The move is being made as the Army shrinks its overall size as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wrap up.

The 4th Brigade, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division, became famous in a book by historian Stephen Ambrose and a subsequent HBO miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

It will be inactivated on Friday.

The 1st Battalion was recognized for its role during the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969.

Labor Dept. cuts levels of allowable coal dust in effort to reduce black lung disease

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Wednesday it is cutting the amount of coal dust allowed in coal mines in an effort to help reduce black lung disease.

"Today we advance a very basic principle: you shouldn't have to sacrifice your life for your livelihood," Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said. "But that's been the fate of more than 76,000 miners who have died at least in part because of black lung since 1968."

Perez was one of several top government officials to announce the long-awaited final rule Wednesday at an event in Morgantown, W.Va.

Black lung is an irreversible and potentially deadly disease caused by exposure to coal dust, where the dust particles accumulate in the lungs.

The rule by the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration lowers the overall dust standard from 2.0 to 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter of air. For certain mine entries and miners with black lung disease, the standard is cut in half, from 1.0 to 0.5.

CHILD ON BUS

Bus driver, monitor resign after child left on bus

LA GRANGE, Ky. (AP) — An Oldham County school bus driver and bus monitor have resigned after a preschooler with special needs was left on the bus for at least three hours.

Oldham County schools spokeswoman Tracy Harris said driver Gregory Clickner and monitor Sharon Machi resigned Wednesday.

School Superintendent Will Wells told The Courier-Journal that drivers and monitors are trained to inspect buses after each route but that procedures weren't followed Monday.

Harris said the child was in good health as of Wednesday.

The child's father told police the child was picked up by a special needs bus at about 10:40 a.m. but wasn't at school to be picked up shortly after 2 p.m. The child was found in the bus around 2:30 p.m. at the district's bus depot in La Grange.

NELSON DEATHS

Deaths of 2 females ruled double homicide

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Police say the case of a mother and daughter found dead inside a central Kentucky home is being investigated as a double homicide.

Kentucky State Police said that 48-year-old Kathy Netherland and her 16-year-old daughter were pronounced dead at the scene on Tuesday.

Police did not release the cause of death.

Neighbors told media that a woman and two teenage daughters live in the home in Nelson County near Bardstown.

Police did not release any other information about the investigation on Wednesday.

State police were asking anyone who has recorded video surveillance of Kentucky 150 between Bardstown and the Botland community to contact the KSP post in Elizabethtown.

SUPREME COURT-DEATH PENALTY

Court won't overturn death sentence for Ky. man

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says there will be no new sentencing hearing for a man who confessed to kidnapping, raping and killing a 16-year-old girl in Kentucky.

The justices in a 6-3 ruling Wednesday refused to overturn Robert Keith Woodall's death sentence for abducting and killing Sarah Hansen on Jan. 25, 1997, after forcing her from a convenience store in western Kentucky.

A federal court ruled that the judge at Woodall's state trial should have instructed the jury not to draw any negative conclusions about his refusal to take the stand at his 1998 capital sentencing hearing. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.

But the high court reversed, finding that trial judge was under no obligation to instruct the jury about drawing adverse conclusions.

WRITERS' DAY

Poets laureate to read at Capitol for Writers' Day

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Poets laureate will fill the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda with readings to celebrate Kentucky Writers' Day on Thursday.

Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker will be joined by past poets laureate Maureen Morehead, Gurney Norman, Jane Gentry Vance, Sena Jeter Naslund, Joe Survant and Richard Taylor for the free program beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

Writers' Day is held each year on or around April 24, the birthdate of Kentucky native Robert Penn Warren, the first U.S. poet laureate.