Kentucky News Now

STUDENT STATUES

Students-turned-statues bring history to life

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — As Lone Oak Elementary third-grader Selena Smith has told her mother many-a-time, she just wants to be an artist.

During a recent class project, she got her wish. She was famous French post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau.

Leading up to the project, Selena and the rest of Beth Hovekamp's third-grade students each had to choose a historic figure, research that individual and then write a paper about his or her life.

Then, they got to dress and pose as their chosen historic figures in a "Living Museum" in the school's library where the students were not only the statues, but the teachers.

BIG BONE LICK-ARTIFACTS

Ohio museum, university create artifacts for Kentucky site

CINCINNATI (AP) — A museum and a university in southwestern Ohio are working together to create artifacts for a new display at a northern Kentucky historic site.

Xavier University in Cincinnati will use 3D scanning and printing technology to create replicas of fossils and molds from collections at the Cincinnati Museum Center as part of a revitalization project for Big Bone Lick Historic Site.

Mastodons, mammoths and ground sloths once roamed the Kentucky site. Fossilized remains of the ancient creatures were discovered there in 1739 and displayed at museums worldwide.

Three artifacts from the Cincinnati Museum Center's collections will be scanned and printed as part of a new display revitalizing Big Bone Lick's visitor center. They include a mastodon molar, an ancient bison tooth and a jaw fragment from a ground sloth.

APPALACHIAN AIR

Marketing approved for Appalachian Air after slow take off

(Information in the following story is from: Appalachian News-Express, http://www.news-expressky.com)

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Nearly five months after Appalachian Air celebrated its first flight from Pikeville, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, officials say a marketing campaign is necessary to try to jump-start the airline's slow take off.

Consultant Luke Schmidt told the Pikeville-Pike County Airport board last week that continued low ridership is spurring the move. He recommended a $220,000 proposal that would include cable TV commercials.

Ridership hasn't been near projections. There were 78 passengers in the month of December, less than half of what was expected. In February, there were only 17 passengers; ridership was projected at 139.

The Appalachian News-Express reports board members approved spending $160,000 for the marketing plan and said it would seek partners for the rest.

Officials hope that bringing commercial air service to eastern Kentucky will help the economy.

FOUR KILLED

Coroner identifies 4 killed in Kentucky vehicle collision

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A coroner has identified four people who were killed in a two-vehicle crash in Kentucky's Bourbon County.

According to WKYT-TV, Bourbon County Coroner Dee Gee Roe has identified the victims in Friday's crash as 38-year-old Julio Barrios and 22-year-old Javier Henriquez of Galax, Virginia, and 70-year-old Margaret Franklin and 75-year-old James Henry Stevens of Bourbon County.

Roe says Barrios, Henriquez and Franklin died at the scene. Stevens died at Bourbon Community Hospital. Two other people were taken to the hospital.

Investigators believe the car carrying Barrios and Henriquez crossed the center line on Cane Ridge Road and collided with a van carrying Franklin and Stevens.

Authorities say multiple people were ejected from the vehicles, and it did not appear as though they were wearing seat belts.

FLOOD-BODY

Police recover body of Ky. man swept away by flood current

(Information in the following story is from: WHAS-TV, http://www.whas11.com)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police say they have recovered the body of a man who was swept away in flood water in the Louisville area.

According to WHAS-TV, Prospect police said Friday they have found the body of 67-year-old Stephan Miller.

Authorities say Miller was using a canoe to get to his car, which was stuck in flood waters in the Transylvania Beach neighborhood, when he lost his footing and was swept away by the strong current last week. Water in that area had risen to 14 to 15 feet because of the recent snow thaw and rain.

A dive team recovered the body from standing water that remains in the area.

An autopsy is complete but officials did not release a cause of death.

BOOK DONATION

Former student gifts each child at Greysbranch with a book

LLOYD, Ky. (AP) — There's just something about opening a new book, its spine still stiff, cover shiny and uncreased, pages redolent of freshly milled paper.

Every student at Greysbranch Elementary School went home last week with a shiny new book and the promise of that extra touch of anticipation that goes along with turning the pages for the first time.

The books, more than 350 of them, were courtesy of Brent Craft, a former Greysbranch student who practices law in Cincinnati. Craft, whose family still lives in Greenup County, visited his old school and some of his former teachers during the spring book fair.

Craft knew about the book fair because his aunt, Jenny Weaver, is the Greysbranch librarian. He wondered about children whose families couldn't afford new books.

LAND PRESERVATION

Trust begins fundraising drive for land preservation

(Information in the following story is from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com)

BEREA, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Natural Lands Trust has begun a fundraising drive to purchase two properties in southeastern Kentucky in an effort to preserve the largest known tract of old-growth forest in the state.

Hugh Archer, executive director of the trust, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he expects to finalize a deal this spring to add 1,200 acres to Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve in Harlan County. In addition, the group has identified another 7,800 acres it wants to protect on Pine Mountain.

A statement says the effort to raise funds has been seeded with large contributions from the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation in Louisville, Thomas Dupree Sr. of Lexington, and the Forecastle Foundation

The Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission says the preserve currently is made up of 3,124 acres.