Kentucky News Now – August 26th 2015

EDUCATION COMMISSIONER

Board of Education advances 5 candidates for commissioner

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Board of Education has advanced five candidates in its search for a successor to Commissioner Terry Holliday, who is retiring at the end of the month.

The Department of Education said in a news release Tuesday it will release the candidates' names later this week if they don't object.

The board met Tuesday and didn't rule out adding additional candidates to its list, to be decided Friday before starting second-round interviews on Friday and Saturday in Lexington.

Board Chairman Roger Marcum said the board wants to name the new commissioner as soon as possible but is more concerned with hiring the right person.

Associate Commissioner and General Counsel Kevin C. Brown will serve as interim commissioner until a new commissioner begins.

ALUMINUM PLANT-SHUTDOWN

Notice filed to idle aluminum smelter in western Kentucky

(Information in the following story is from: Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, http://www.messenger-inquirer.com)

HAWESVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Century Aluminum has filed notice with the state saying it plans to shut down the Hawesville Smelter in western Kentucky on Oct. 24 unless the market changes.

Hancock County Judge-Executive Jack McCaslin told the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro (http://bit.ly/1JXmRGm ) that company officials cited a stagnant aluminum market and low prices for Chinese aluminum. McCaslin said officials indicated if the market rebounds, the shutdown may not occur.

Century said it now has about 565 employees at the smelter.

The company filed notice in 2013 to close the plant over power prices, but that was eventually worked out, and the smelter stayed open.

WDRB-TV in Louisville reported Tuesday that officials plan to remove the site from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "national priorities list," part of the "Superfund" program, because cleanup there by the previous owner is complete.

WILDLIFE CENTER

Wildlife education center adds bobcat kitten, bald eagle

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Salato Wildlife Education Center at Frankfort has added a young bald eagle and a bobcat kitten to its collection of exhibit animals.

The center says it recently acquired the 4-month-old bobcat kitten from a wildlife rehabilitation facility.

The center's acting director, Brent McCarty, says the new arrival will be separated from the center's adult bobcat until the kitten is older.

The kitten is expected to be on exhibit from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time Tuesdays through Saturdays. The center encourages visitors to call ahead to confirm the kitten will be out. The center says it also acquired a new bald eagle. The 3-year-old bird came from a rehabilitation center in Wyoming. The bird still displays juvenile plumage that's mostly brown throughout.

FORT CAMPBELL-SINISE

'Forrest Gump' actor to play Fort Campbell concert

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Actor Gary Sinise is performing with his band at a free concert for Fort Campbell soldiers and their families next month.

Sinise is perhaps best known for playing the wounded Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 film, "Forrest Gump."

Sinise founded the music group, called the Lt. Dan Band, and has performed for the military around the world. A release from Fort Campbell says the group has played more than 300 shows.

The Fort Campbell concert is Sept. 4 at the Division Parade Field.

The show is sponsored by the USO and Gary Sinise Foundation, and is free to all Department of Defense cardholders with valid ID cards.

ENDANGERED MUSSELS

3 species of endangered mussels bolstered in Big South Fork

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The populations of three endangered species of freshwater mussels have been bolstered with more than 100 juvenile members of the species added to the Big South Fork of Cumberland River.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources mussel biologist Monte McGregor and his team raised the mussels at Kentucky Fish and Wildlife's Center for Mollusk Conservation in Frankfort. The mussels came from broodstock collected from the site on the Big South Fork in 2013.

The three species are the Cumberlandian combshell, the tan riffleshell and the littlewing pearlymussel. Fish and Wildlife says the species currently reproduce in low numbers in the river.

The project was a collaborative effort by state Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The mussels were placed Aug. 12

COLON CANCER SCREENINGS

Beshear: Kentucky to get $2.6 million for cancer screenings

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has announced Kentucky will get $2.6 million in federal grant money over the next five years to encourage people in Louisville and Appalachia to be screened for colon cancer.

Beshear said Tuesday that nearly 9,500 people die from cancer in Kentucky every year, the most of any state in the country. Beshear has set a goal of reducing cancer deaths 10 percent by 2019. One of his main strategies for doing this is to increase the number of people who are screened for colon, lung and breast cancer.

The money comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says the five-year survival rate of colon cancer is 90 percent when detected and treated early. Statistics show screenings are lower among the poor, black men and people with low education levels.