Author: kg4vma

CYNTHIANA / HARRISON

A Harrison County grand jury indicted a Cynthiana man on charges of sexually abusing a child on four occasions; the first allegedly happening 35 years ago. William “Billy” Hyatt, 57, was arrested Wednesday by the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department after a state police investigation. Tuesday’s indictment said Hyatt had sexually abused a child younger than 12 on four occasions between 1979 and 1981. Kentucky State Police said the investigation is ongoing. Hyatt’s $5,000 bond was paid before he could be lodged in the Bourbon County jail, according to a state police spokeswoman.

Kentucky State Police say that anyone with information about this case, or other similar cases, should contact the nearest state police post.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150511222802/http://www.kentucky.com:80/2015/02/06/3681372/cynthiana-man-indicted-on-charges.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20150729162726/http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Cynthiana-man-accused-of-abusing-a-child-more-than-30-years-ago-291090631.html

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KENTUCKY

The deadline to enroll in coverage through kynect is midnight, Sunday, Feb. 15. Individuals who need health insurance are encouraged to log on to kynect or contact an insurance agent or kynector to see their options for quality, affordable health coverage in 2015 before the Feb. 15 deadline passes. Medicaid enrollment is open at any time. Individuals with income above 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) who fail to enroll in healthcare coverage before Feb. 15 will be subject to an IRS penalty, including those whose income falls between 100%-138% FPL and are eligible for the Medicaid expansion. Individuals whose income falls below 100 percent FPL are not subject to the penalty. The 2015 IRS penalty is $325 per person or 2 percent of household income, whichever is greater. If an individual is uninsured for more than nine months in 2015, the penalty will be deducted from their refund when they file the 2014 tax returns. In many cases, this penalty could exceed the annual cost of insurance.

http://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-Stream.aspx?viewMode=ViewDetailInNewPage&eventID=%7bCC8AA4EF-DCDE-4394-A666-53006A1123C5%7d&activityType=PressRelease

 

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Jay Whitehead is continuing to march forward in his attempts to re-open Forest Hill Military Academy, Kentucky’s only military school. Whitehead–the school’s headmaster–hopes to revive the 121-year-old institution in the wake of sex-abuse charges, receivership, debt, buildings shut down for safety concerns, and alleged interference from the school’s former leadership. For now, the 18-acre campus in northern Bourbon County lies dormant as the college-prep school has temporarily closed. Whitehead hoped to reopen the boarding school in time for the fall of 2015, under the revived name of Millersburg Military Institute.

“I would say the fall of ’15 would be optimistic,” Henry Watson–an attorney appointed to oversee charitable donations–said. “I just don’t know how much demand there is out there for children to want to leave home and come to a military boarding school. I would say 2015 would be extremely optimistic.”

Meanwhile, Whitehead is advertising military adventure camps to be held this summer. The camps, which cost $2,400 for two weeks, have drawn more than 200 students from Asia, Africa and Europe as well as the United States. Eighty percent of the school’s revenue comes from those camps, Whitehead said.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150511132103/http://www.kentucky.com:80/2015/02/07/3683364_planned-rebirth-of-millersburg.html?

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Mark Posey is no longer serving as Falmouth’s chief of police, amid an investigation into his use of city funds. Posey and the city of Falmouth mutually agreed to end his employment as police chief effective at the close of business Friday. Posey, whom was placed on paid suspension on Jan. 29, was served with papers Monday outlining two charges against him. One charge involved the unauthorized sale of six service revolvers when the department bought new weapons. The other charge involves failing to account for $4,000 in city funds advanced for confidential drug buys over a three-year period. An administrative hearing scheduled for Thursday night was canceled at the request of Posey and his attorney.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150813061255/http://www.wcpo.com/news/region-northern-kentucky/falmouths-top-cop-steps-down-amid-investigation-into-use-of-city-funds

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Several crews worked to put out a fire Saturday afternoon at a the Knight’s Inn on Paris Pike in Georgetown. Firefighters say the blaze was contained to one room, which was vacant at the time. That room is now a total loss. The building had to be shut down for inspection, and several people who were staying there have been forced to leave. It’s unclear what caused the fire, but firefighters don’t believe it was suspicious. No injures were reported.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150217024135/http://www.lex18.com:80/story/28052307/georgetown-motel-room-catches-fire

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Police and firefighters from Fayette and Madison County responded to a car accident along I-75 near the county line Sunday evening. The Fayette County coroner says the driver of a northbound vehicle lost control around mile marker 99 just before 9 p.m. The car went off the road and a woman was ejected from vehicle into traffic. The coroner says multiple cars hit the victim, and she died on scene. The coroner says he does not believe alcohol was a factor. Officials have not released the victim’s name.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150624095749/http://www.lex18.com:80/story/28056401/accident-closes-part-of-i-75-near-madisonfayette-county-lines

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams President of the United States.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
• 1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.
• 1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
• 1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
• 1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established.
• 1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
• 1942 – World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
• 1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
• 1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
• 1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
• 1945 – World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway.
• 1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
• 1951 – Korean War: Geochang massacre
• 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The first United States troops with a combat mission, a Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion, are sent to South Vietnam.
• 1969 – First test flight of the Boeing 747.
• 1971 – The Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
• 1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
• 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.
• 1975 – The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
• 1986 – Halley’s Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.
• 2001 – The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.

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.