Morning News – 02/06/15

CYNTHIANA / HARRISON

Cedar Ridge will be hosting a 10-year anniversary celebration at its campus on Tuesday, Feb. 10 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. to thank the community for its continuing support. Trilogy Health Services’ Cedar Ridge Health Campus is among the first campuses that the company began operating in Kentucky.

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KENTUCKY

A proposed statewide smoking ban at workplaces and public buildings has picked up bipartisan support in winning approval from the House Health and Welfare Committee, and is being advanced to the House floor; Democratic Rep. Susan Westrom says she’s confident her bill can pass the House if it comes up for a vote. Doubts exist as to whether the bill would pass the Senate, according to Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer.

http://wuky.org/post/proposed-workplace-smoking-ban-clears-kentucky-house-panel

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Drivers convicted of DUI in Kentucky would have it on their record for 10 years under a bill the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Thursday.

Presently, it takes four driving under the influence convictions within five years to be charged with a felony in Kentucky; increasing the time the convictions stay on record to ten years would potentially mean more felony DUI convictions.

In the last year, nearly 24,000 Kentuckians were convicted of a DUI offense. Most of those were for first-time offenses, but 137 were convicted for the fourth time in a five-year period.

http://wuky.org/post/bill-would-count-dui-offenses-10-years-instead-5

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A Kentucky House committee agreed to send Speaker Greg Stumbo’s minimum wage bill to the House floor Thursday. Stumbo is asking the legislature to approve an incremental increase that would raise the minimum wage up to $10.10 over a period of three years – a move he says makes economic sense, even if the idea has becoming polarizing.

“It’s become a political issue if you want to know the truth. It started obviously with the debate in Washington and it became a partisan issue and it’s filtered down here,” he told reporters.

But opponents, including Shannon Stiglitz with the Kentucky Retail Association, maintain raising the wage carries real costs, not just to businesses but to shoppers.

“Consumer prices will increase or tough decisions will have to made among retailers,” she said. “Do they cut hours? Do they have fewer employees? How do they cut benefits?

The bill easily passed committee with three “no” votes, all from Republicans.

http://wuky.org/post/minimum-wage-moves-full-house

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Attorney General Jack Conway, Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and several state lawmakers spent the morning at the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday rallying Kentuckians to join the fight against hunger.

According to the USDA, one in six Kentuckians is food-insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle.

Commissioner Comer encouraged Kentucky taxpayers to “check the box” for hunger relief. 2015 marks the second year that Kentucky state income taxpayers can donate a portion of their refund to the Farms to Food Banks Trust Fund. Administered by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the fund provides grants to nonprofits for the distribution of Kentucky-grown surplus agricultural commodities to low-income individuals.

The Kentucky Association of Food Banks’ Farms to Food Banks program helps farmers recoup losses for product that would not otherwise be sold because of cosmetic imperfections or overproduction. The produce is distributed to hungry Kentuckians throughout the state through the food bank network. It is fresh, healthy food that would otherwise go to waste.

http://kyfbnewsroom.com/conway-comer-grimes-encourage-kentuckians-to-help-solve-hunger/

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The Christian ministry building a Noah’s Ark theme park has filed for a federal lawsuit in which it claims that Kentucky tourism officials violated the group’s First Amendment free speech rights by denying an $18 million tax incentive.

The tourism incentive was meant for the Ark Encounter, a theme park plan that will be built around a 500-foot-long wooden ark modeled after the Bible’s story of Noah. State officials said in December that the project’s mission had changed from tourist attraction to ministry, and denied the benefit.

The Answers in Genesis ministry says in the lawsuit filed Thursday that religious beliefs should not bar the group from participating in the tax incentive plan.

The suit names the tourism cabinet and Gov. Steve Beshear. A spokeswoman in Beshear’s office declined to comment.

http://wuky.org/post/kentucky-sued-christian-group-over-lost-tax-incentive-noahs-ark-park

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
• 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
• 1815 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.
• 1862 – American Civil War: forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
• 1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
• 1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.
• 1942 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Thailand.
• 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
• 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
• 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
• 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
• 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
• 1976 – In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
• 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4″ an hour.
• 1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
• 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
• 1996 – Willamette Valley Flood of 1996: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
• 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, and all 189 people inside the airplane are killed. This is the worst accident/incident involving a Boeing 757.
• 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.