Morning News – 01/23/15

CYNTHIANA / HARRISON

Heroin was a topic for discussion at a community meeting hosted by the Harrison County Search and Rescue Team at Cynthiana Christian Church, yesterday evening. Guest speakers from the Heroin Impact Response Team educated citizens, first responders and hospital workers on the drug and how to know when someone’s using. After the meeting, members of the Heroine Impact Response Team handed out overdose emergency response kits that included two doses of NARCAN; NARCAN is a medicine administered to overdose patients to reverse the effect of the heroine. Health experts at Thursday’s meeting said there were 230 deadly heroin overdoses in 2013 statewide and they expect that number to triple for 2014 once the final numbers are reported. The rise in heroin abuse and addiction in the area has also resulted in a corresponding rise in missing person searches where the drug has played an important role, according to Re’Jeana Craft, chief of the Harrison County Search and Rescue Team.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150625131315/http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/City-leaders-working-to-fight-Cynthianas-heroin-problem-289533471.html

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Seven jury trials are scheduled for February in Harrison Circuit Court; the first two taking place on Feb. 5, when a jury will hear the cases against Christopher Wilson and Joshua Fryman. Wilson is charged with second degree burglary, theft by unlawful taking $500 or more but less than $10,000, theft by unlawful taking under $500 and third degree criminal mischief. Fryman will stand trial for receiving stolen property under $10,000. The slate of jury trials for Feb. 19 are primarily drug- and sex-related charges. Additional trial dates set for the year include trials for:

• Larry C. Browning. Browning’s charges include first degree sexual abuse, victim under 12 years old (three counts), first degree indecent exposure, alcohol intoxication in a public place, second degree disorderly conduct, and second degree indecent exposure.
• Mercedes Clem.  Clem’s charges include second degree possession of a controlled substance (drug unspecified), theft by unlawful taking (firearm),and theft by unlawful taking or disposition of controlled substance under $10,000.
• Osie Jackson. Jackson’s charges of first degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin), tampering with physical evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Joshua Griffieth. Griffieth has one trial set for a charge of theft by unlawful taking $500 or more but less than $10,000; a second trial is set for the charges of first degree trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin), tampering with physical evidence, second degree possession of controlled substance, third degree possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Nicholas Harney. Harney is charged with flagrant non-support.

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The special election set to fill the seat of Wayne Blevins Jr. on Tuesday, March 3, will take place at Cynthiana’s National Guard Armory at 1497 New Lair Road. The election date was announced earlier this year, by Governor Steve Beshear, following Blevins’ resignation as representative of the 27th Senatorial District; Blevins resigned his senatorial position to serve as Rowan County judge-executive. Harrison County Clerk Linda Furnish said all Harrison County precincts will be voting at the armory instead of more familiar polling locations due to sheduling conflicts with the Harrison County school district.

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KENTUCKY

Condolences were a plenty for a Kentucky politician who passed away Thursday morning. Wendell Ford, former Democratic Governor and U.S. Senator, died Thursday morning at his home in Owensboro at the age of 90. At the time of his retirement, Ford was Kentucky’s longest serving senator, a title now belonging to Sen. Mitch McConnell.

“Wendell Ford first came to the Senate in the 1970s, calling himself just a ‘dumb country boy with dirt between his toes,’ but over a distinguished two-decade career this workhorse of the Senate would prove he was anything but,” McConnell said.

http://wuky.org/post/wendell-ford-remembered

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7bE0A86A8A-3A37-4192-8905-3347DA23C947%7d&activityType=PressRelease

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7bB9422423-2946-4856-A98C-7AAE5EB7BBB1%7d&activityType=PressRelease

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7bFFE3B00E-16FC-4E30-A14C-05AAF9EED441%7d&activityType=PressRelease

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7b3D2A4C3D-2E29-40C8-AE86-859ED64C313F%7d&activityType=PressRelease

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First-term agriculture commissioner, James Comer (Rep.),  has officially filed to run for governor; Comer has been raising funds for a campaign since September–along with running mate state Sen. Chris McDaniel–however, yesterday marked the official start of his 2015 campaign. Comer is the second Republican to file for governor following former state Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott. Former Louisville Metro Councilman Hal Heiner also plans to run but has not officially filed yet. Attorney General Jack Conway and former congressional candidate Geoff Young are the only Democrats to have filed so far. Candidates have until 4 p.m. Jan. 27 to file for statewide office.

http://wuky.org/post/comer-files-kentucky-governor

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
• 1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.
• 1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London.
• 1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic University in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)
• 1855 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
• 1870 – In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.
• 1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
• 1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
• 1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee”.
• 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
• 1968 – North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated its territorial waters while spying.
• 1973 – President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
• 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
• 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
• 2002 – “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody.
• 2002 – Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered .
• 2003 – Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10.