Kentucky News Now – July 21st 2015

OPERA DIRECTOR-CRASH

Kentucky Opera director dies in car crash in Illinois

The Kentucky Opera says its director has died in a car accident in Illinois.

A report from the Illinois State Police says 56-year-old David Roth was killed Sunday night at about 9 p.m. when his car ran off the road. He had been travelling east on Interstate 74 in Piatt County when his Hyundai Elantra struck a ditch, became airborne and hit a tree head on. Roth was transported to Carle Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Opera spokeswoman Heather O'Mara says Roth had been returning to Louisville after taking a business trip to Des Moines, Iowa, and visiting family in Wisconsin.

She says Roth came to the opera in 2006 and was able to strike the perfect balance between artistic quality and business acumen.

DEM 2016-MCCONNELL-CLINTON

McConnell: 'Gender card' alone not enough for Clinton

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Senate's top Republican says the "gender card alone" won't be enough to propel Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton to the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech Monday in his home state of Kentucky that a Clinton strategy centered on the argument: "Vote for me because I'm a woman" won't be enough to get her elected president next year.

McConnell said Clinton is smart and capable and said there are millions of Americans who want a woman as president.

"But the question is, a woman president to do what?" McConnell told a business group. "And I think inevitably, Hillary Clinton's campaign will be four more years of the last eight."

McConnell said there's "not a dime's worth of difference between Clinton and President Barack Obama.

MCCONNELL

McConnell talks up presidential race, mum on governor's race

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is handicapping next year's presidential race, but the Kentucky Republican didn't mention his home state's pivotal campaign for governor in a speech to a business group.

McConnell later told reporters Monday his absence of comments about the governor's race didn't reflect a lack of enthusiasm for GOP nominee Matt Bevin. Bevin last year tried but failed to wrest away McConnell's seat in a bruising Republican Senate primary.

McConnell said he enthusiastically supports Bevin, though he didn't mention his one-time rival by name.

Bevin faces Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway in November.

McConnell had plenty to say about the presidential campaign in his speech in Bullitt County. He said there's not "a dime's worth of difference" between Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Barack Obama.

GAY MARRIAGE-COUNTY CLERKS

Clerk prayed over decision to stop issuing marriage licenses

COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A county clerk in Kentucky says she prayed and fasted for months before deciding to stop issuing marriage licenses once the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis testified Monday in a federal hearing stemming from a lawsuit brought against her by two gay couples and two straight couples. She says the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives her the right to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because it violates her religious beliefs.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union say Davis' rationale would mean local officials could also deny marriage licenses to people who have been divorced or committed other actions that some consider sinful.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning says he will decide the case by the middle of August.

OBIT-MANSFIELD

Former AP correspondent Duncan Mansfield dies at age 62

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Duncan Mansfield, a veteran reporter whose 20-year career as Knoxville, Tennessee, correspondent for The Associated Press included coverage of a massive coal ash spill from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant, has died. He was 62.

Gentry Griffey Funeral Chapel in Knoxville confirmed he died Thursday.

Mansfield served as AP's Knoxville correspondent from 1989 to 2009, focusing on breaking news and enterprise in east Tennessee. He was the news cooperative's last correspondent in Knoxville when AP eliminated the position in 2009.

In all, he worked about 24 years for AP with earlier assignments in Boston and Columbia, South Carolina. He also worked as a business editor and political editor for the Lansing State Journal in Michigan.

Mansfield most recently served as a public relations consultant and editor at TVA.

TRAFFIC DEATHS

Murder charges filed in 2 vehicle-crash

SEBREE, Ky. (AP) — Authorities say a western Kentucky man has been charged with murder in the deaths of two people killed in a two-vehicle crash.

Kentucky State Police say the victims were killed Sunday afternoon in Webster County while aboard a motorcycle. Police say their motorcycle was struck head on by a pickup truck along a curve on Kentucky 132.

Police say the driver of the motorcycle, 24-year-old Johnathan G. Gray of Utica, and his passenger, 26-year-old Paula M. Hamilton of Livermore, were killed. Police say neither victim was wearing a helmet. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say the driver of the pickup, 43-year-old Christopher S. Duncan of Dixon, was charged with two counts of murder and driving under the influence.

Duncan was being held in the Webster County Detention Center.

MEDICAID AUDITS

Kentucky caregivers criticize Medicaid audits

(Information in the following story is from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Some companies that provide Medicaid-funded homes and services for Kentucky adults with disabilities are warning that state audits of their businesses could force them to cut back services or go out of business.

The Courier-Journal reports that the businesses say the state is demanding repayment of millions of dollars for what amounts to minor paperwork errors.

The companies say the audits defeat the purpose of the program Kentucky started in 2007 to try to get adults out of institutions such as nursing homes or Oakwood, a state-run facility in Somerset.

Officials with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services say they are simply following a federal mandate to perform regular audits of billing for such programs.

ANIMAL SHELTER DAMAGED

Storms damage buildings at no-kill animal sanctuary

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

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Flooding from last week's storms damaged the buildings and grounds at Eden, a no-kill animal sanctuary in eastern Kentucky.

Randy Skaggs, operator of Eden in Elliott County, tells the Lexington Herald-Leader that high water pushed a building under construction off its foundation. He says the storm caused thousands of dollars of damage to the structure that will house a clinic, apartment and offices.

Skaggs says high winds knocked down several trees and branches along the property, and flooding exposed wiring on the grounds and damaged walking bridges. Skaggs fears it could cost up to $25,000 to fix the damage, but repair estimates haven't been made. He says the property was not insured.

No animals were harmed during the flooding.

The sanctuary is home to more than 250 dogs, cats and chickens.