Morning News – 01/02/15

KENTUCKY

Executive Assistant to the Governor, Colmon Elridge, is considering entering his bid for a run as Kentucky State Treasurer. Elridge would be the second African-American to attempt to win a state office in Kentucky. Elridge has been working in the Governor’s office as an assistant to the Governor since 2007. Elridge is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, and Harrison County High School.

http://wuky.org/post/beshear-senior-staffer-hoping-make-ky-electoral-history

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/colmon-elridge/8/9ab/322

A Nelson County youth’s suicide is being blamed on bullying that she had received online. Twelve-year-old Reagan Carter took her life two days prior to Christmas, apparently after harassment received from other girls of Bardstown Middle School became too much for the youth to handle. “They don’t think about the long term consequences about what that’s doing to another human being, who has feelings and who has thoughts, and who has a really big heart,” said Megan Hack, Reagan’s mother. Bardstown police say they’re investigating Reagan’s death.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150501135152/http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Nelson-County-mother-blames-bullying-for-daughters-death–287309781.html

NATION

Three time New York Governor Mario Cuomo passed away yesterday evening in Manhattan, due to heart failure. Cuomo was 82. Cuomo’s death came hours after his son and current New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, gave his second inauguration address at the Erie and Buffalo County Historical Society.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/02/us-usa-politics-cuomo-idUSKBN0KB00F20150102

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lost-giant-former-new-york-gov-mario-cuomo-dies-n278256

General Motors is recalling roughly 92,200 trucks and SUVs for defective ingnition lock systems. GM says that the issue comes from lock acutators being set a bit wide, resulting in difficulty in turning the key when the temperature of the vehicle’s interior is exceedingly hot. Vehicles included in this recall are Chevrolet Silverado light-duty and heavy-duty pickups; Avalanche, Tahoe and Suburban; GMC Sierra light duty and heavy-duty pickups; and Yukon and Yukon XL; Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV and Escalade EXT. For more information on the current recalls, please visit:
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/images/US/Release_Images/2014/05-2014/recalls/Recalls-Running-Total.pdf
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gm-recalling-83000-more-vehicles-according-to-reports/

 

WEIRD

Seventy-five year-old Arthur Lampitt is recovering following surgery related to injuries sustained in a car accident that occurred 51 years ago. After lifting and moving concrete blocks a week or so ago, Lampitt reported feeling great pain in his arm–radiating from an area where he had discovered nearly a decade ago that an unknown metallic object had been embedded. When Lampitt previously discovered the unknown object by passing through a metal detector, Doctors advised him to let it be, as it caused no pain and wasn’t creating any danger at the time. Once his arm began to “grow” this time around, Lampitt decided it was time to have the object removed. What surgeons discovered was a seven-inch turn signal lever from Lampitt’s former 1963 Thunderbird–a vehicle he had totaled half a century ago. Lampitt hasn’t decided what he’ll do with the signal lever, but he’s stated that he will keep it as a trophy of some sort.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
• 1920 – The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.
• 1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.
• 1945 – World War II: Nuremberg, Germany (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces.
• 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1967 – Ronald Reagan sworn in as Governor of California
• 1974 – United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
• 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, which results in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, resulting in at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.
• 2006 – An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.