Kentucky News Now – August 1st 2014

KENTUCKY SENATE-IMMIGRATION

McConnell offers immigration amendment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to put strict conditions on transporting migrant children into the country's interior.

The Kentucky Republican filed an amendment Thursday to the Senate's border legislation. The amendment would require the Obama administration to consult with a state's governor before unaccompanied immigrant children are temporarily relocated to that state.

The amendment would block such relocations unless the federal health and human services secretary certifies the children would not pose a public health threat or economic burden.

The relocations also could not delay the children's return to their home countries.

Immigration has been an issue in Kentucky's hard-hitting Senate race pitting McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Grimes' campaign manager, Jonathan Hurst, called the amendment a gimmick and says McConnell should support comprehensive immigration legislation.

EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY

Feedback sought on education initiative in Ky.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's Department of Education is asking for feedback on efforts by schools to prepare students for college or the workplace.

The department's Unbridled Learning College/Career-Readiness for All Accountability Model has been in place since the 2011-12 school year. The model includes multiple measures for determining school success.

Between now and Aug. 20, an online survey will be available for stakeholder input on various components of the system and how determinations of school and district successes are made.

The department says the feedback will inform the state's education commissioner and the Kentucky Board of Education on any future action that may be taken regarding the accountability system.

FANCY FARM-CROWD

Fancy Farm organizers want tamer crowd

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Organizers of the Fancy Farm picnic say they want to tone down the heckling that has come to define Kentucky's signature political event.

Saturday's picnic in western Kentucky has always had raucous crowds that interrupt politicians' speeches in a no-holds-barred atmosphere that has been known to rattle even the state's most seasoned politicians. But organizers say the 2013 picnic was so loud that it was difficult for people to hear the speeches.

Political Director Mark Wilson says he has had conference calls with the campaigns of Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes to ask them to rein in their supporters this year. The Senate race is this year's marquee matchup and is expected to attract people and media from across the country.

WATER ACT VIOLATIONS

Canadian company to pay $3 million for violations

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Canadian mining company will pay $3.2 million to settle allegations of Clean Water Act violations in western Kentucky.

Elgin Mining of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the U.S. attorney's office in Louisville reached the agreement Thursday. Under the terms of the settlement, Elgin Mining will pay $3,071,292.00 to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources' Wetland and Stream Mitigation In-Lieu Fee Program, which provides mitigation credits for impacts to Kentucky's wetlands and streams associated with discharges of dredged or fill material. Elgin Mining is also required to pay a civil penalty of $150,000 to the United States.

The government alleged that the company failed to mitigate the dumping of waste into streams and wetlands in Muhlenberg and Crittenden counties, resulting in the loss of the waterways.

HEROIN DEATHS

Heroin overdose deaths continue to rise

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A new state report shows more people continue to die from heroin overdoses in Kentucky.

The Office of Drug Control Policy says 230 people died from heroin overdoses in 2013, a 60 percent increase from 2012. In 2011, 22 people in Kentucky died from heroin overdoses.

State lawmakers failed to pass a bill this year that would have paid more for substance abuse treatment and strengthened sentences for heroin traffickers.

State Sen. John Schickel has filed a bill for the 2015 legislative session that would increase criminal penalties for heroin traffickers. State Rep. Tom Burch says he is working on a bill that would focus more on treatment programs than incarceration.

It cost taxpayers $21,798 a year to incarcerate someone versus $6,000 a year to treat someone for substance abuse.

PAIN PILL APPEAL

Appeals court upholds conviction in pain pill case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the 15-year prison sentence of a Louisiana businessman for distributing oxycodone and methadone in eastern Kentucky illegally through pain clinic patients.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Thursday ruled that 48-year-old Michael Leman of Slidell, Louisiana, had raised no grounds to overturn the conviction.

A jury in Lexington convicted Leman in March 2012 of using pain clinics in three states to distribute medications to bogus patients in Kentucky's Appalachian region.

The court also upheld an order for Leman to pay $1 million in restitution to an agency handling crime victim compensation and one dealing with substance abuse.

Leman is housed at Forrest City Correctional Complex in Forrest City, Arkansas.

ELEVATOR DEATH

MSHA blames company in Louisville elevator death

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Federal regulators say the operator of a Louisville cement plant is responsible for the death of an employee who fell 51 feet down an elevator shaft.

In a report made public this week, regulators said Filipe Mata Vizcaya's death in February was more than two years after CEMEX was made aware that the elevator doors were defective and should be replaced.

The Courier-Journal reported Thursday that the report was from the U.S. Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration.

CEMEX spokeswoman Sara Engdahl and other CEMEX officials didn't respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.

The newspaper said repairs were made to the doors in the days before the accident.

Mexico-based CEMEX has been cited for a safety violation. MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere said penalties are still being determined.

ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES-LAYOFFS

1,100 layoffs planned at Alpha coal mines in W.Va.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Alpha Natural Resources expects to lay off 1,100 workers at 11 West Virginia surface coal mines by mid-October, with the company citing dismal markets and federal regulation.

An Alpha news release says the company notified employees Thursday afternoon that it expects to idle mines and related facilities.

Alpha says the mines produce about 75 percent thermal coal for power generation, and 25 percent metallurgical coal for steel production.

The company cited weak domestic and international coal markets and federal limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

In the past three years, the Bristol, Virginia-based company says it has laid off 4,000 employees and idled 60 mines and 35 million tons of production.

Alpha is one of the country's biggest coal suppliers. It also has mines in Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.