Morning News – 01/30/15

CYNTHIANA / HARRISON

Harrison County Schools have announced that school is scheduled to be in session on February 16, 2015. That Monday, President’s Day–which was previously scheduled as a day-off for students–will now be used to make up for time missed for closings and delays.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10152535767916607&id=296254501606

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Champions for a Drug-Free Harrison County has announced that there next meeting will take place on February 9, 2015 at the Cynthiana Christian Church. According to a recent post to the Champions Facebook page, the meetings will continue at the church through the month of February. Champions has been attempting to locate a new home for their meetings.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=839388412768975&id=111571698883987

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KENTUCKY

All of Kentucky’s 173 public school districts have increased the dropout age from 16 to 18; seven public school districts will have the new policy go into effect in the 2017-18 school year, while the majority will put the policy in effect beginning this fall. State legislature created and passed a law in 2013 giving school districts the option of raising the dropout age; once 55 percent of districts did so, it would trigger a four-year deadline for everyone else to raise the age.

The Kentucky Department of Education provided each district with a $10,000 grant to plan for implementation of the higher dropout age.

It is expected that the higher compulsory school attendance age will help drive up Kentucky’s already high graduation rate. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 2012-13 school year, Kentucky had the fourth highest graduation rate in the country at 86 percent, placing Kentucky as tied for ninth-highest among all states. The most recent data from the 2013-14 school year shows Kentucky’s graduation rate improved to 87.5 percent. In recent years, the state also has increased the college/career-readiness rate of its students, which now stands at 62.4 percent, up from 34 percent in 2010.

http://wuky.org/post/all-173-kentucky-school-districts-raise-dropout-age

https://web.archive.org/web/20150805052349/http://www.kyforward.com/reason-to-celebrate-all-173-kentucky-school-districts-have-raised-school-dropout-age-to-18/

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7b52674489-85FF-464D-8C1D-0E3EFCEF105A%7d&activityType=PressRelease

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52-year-old David C. Pierce of Lexington was sentenced Wednesday to more than 175 months in prison for leading a conspiracy in which he and others used stolen identities to file false federal income tax returns that netted more than $600,000. Federal authorities say Pierce was assisted by several co-conspirators over a two year span as he fraudulently claimed over $3.7 million in tax refunds and received over $600,000 in payments from the Internal Revenue Service. Three of Pierce’s co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. Timothy Richard Smith, 51, was also sentenced Wednesday to 70 months or more than five years in jail. Joyce Ann Estes, 44, was sentenced Jan. 22 to 51 months or more than four years in prison. Stephen Lane Woodrum, 24, was sentenced Jan. 21 to 48 months or four years. A fourth co-conspirator Dwayne Ray Smith, will be sentenced Feb. 11.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150201050414/http://www.kentucky.com:80/2015/01/29/3667613_stealing-identities-to-file-false.html?

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Lieutenant Governor Crit Luallen joined federal and state housing and veterans officials yesterday to announce a partnership aimed at sheltering Kentucky’s homeless veterans. The “Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness” involves collaboration between the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) to issue a larger number of permanent housing vouchers for homeless veterans in Kentucky. Additionally, the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs (KDVA) have teamed up to dedicate financial and human resources to end veteran homelessness. Through this partnership, federal and state agencies hope to continue to decrease that number by ensuring every military veteran has a safe and affordable place to live.

“This is an admirable and ambitious goal and one the Governor and I wholeheartedly support,” Lt. Gov. Luallen said. “I applaud the hard work and dedication of all our partners to launch this worthy project for the men and women who served our country.”

To assist with this partnership, more than 170 local officials throughout Kentucky have joined the “Mayors’ Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness,” an effort to solidify partnerships and gain commitments from America’s mayors and other public officials to end veteran homelessness in their cities in 2015.

“We strongly encourage all local officials to join the Mayors’ Challenge to help us with this project,” Lt. Gov. Luallen said. “It’s only by working together that we can succeed.”

In 2014 there were 600 homeless veterans in Kentucky, according to HUD. The number of homeless veterans has steadily decreased from 2008 when there was a reported 1,046 homeless veterans in the state.

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7b727FAEDF-9B79-4D66-B35E-D2200502C217%7d&activityType=PressRelease

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Unemployment rates fell in all 120 Kentucky counties between December 2013 and December 2014, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training, an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. This is the fourth time in the last five months that Kentucky has seen a year-over-year drop in all counties.

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7bB31C10AD-B6B2-4425-8413-D5CF86E7CC25%7d&activityType=PressRelease

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We’re only a month into the year, and Kentucky has already been “kicking ass” according to a recent post published by Kentucky for Kentucky. The post mentions eight news items that garnered attention this month:

• Guntown Mountain
• Lexington’s National Avenue
• Drew Curtis for Governor
• University of Pikeville offering gaming scholarships
• Indoor bike park coming to Louisville’s Mega Cavern
• Kentucky’s craft beer
• Dalton Hayes & Cheyenne Phillips
• Frankfort being listed as a destination in Condé Nast Traveler’s ‘Diamonds in the Rough: 8 Dark Horse Destinations’

https://web.archive.org/web/20160120162328/http://www.kentuckyforkentucky.com/blogs/news/16884460-8-ways-kentucky-and-its-kentuckians-kicked-ass-in-january-2015

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NATION

The Senate voted 62 to 36 in favor for a bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The passage sends the measure back to the House, which passed a largely similar bill this month. House leaders are deciding whether to pass the Senate bill as is or to hold a conference merging the House and Senate versions into a new bill to be voted on by each chamber. It is expected that the bill will be vetoed by President Obama should it reach the White House.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/29/382430179/senate-prepares-to-ok-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline-despite-obama-veto-threat

 

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WEIRD

34-year-old Robin Adelmann, a transgender woman, says Aerosmith’s 1987 hit “Dude Looks Like a Lady” has mocked her at bars and now, at an Ohio police department. Lakewood, Ohio Detective Thomas McLaughlin’s received a verbal warning for playing that rock hit, and the Kinks’ “Lola” as Adelmann was interviewed on shoplifting charges last month. McLaughlin blasted the transgender-themed songs from his work computer “trying to be funny to his co-workers,” a police report stated. Adelmann complained to the agency’s Internal Affairs Unit, which resulted in McLaughlin’s discipline.

“Every transgender person wants to be left alone. We want to blend back into society and be who we are,” Adelmann pleaded. “We don’t even want you to notice us.”

Adelmann has since pleaded no-contest to shoplifting charges and is on probation for one year.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-taunted-transgender-woman-aerosmith-song-article-1.2096920

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
• 1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
• 1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
• 1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.
• 1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
• 1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
• 1911 – The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of Douglas McCurdy ten miles from Havana, Cuba.
• 1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies.
• 1943 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The USS Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy.
• 1944 – World War II: American troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• 1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people in what is the deadliest known maritime disaster.
• 1945 – World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp.
• 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi known for his non-violent freedom struggle, is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
• 1956 – African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and “unsinkable” like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
• 1969 – The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
• 1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner”.
• 1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
• 2013 – Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.

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DUDE (LOOKS LIKE A LADY)