Kentucky News Now – March 27th 2015

KENTUCKY GOVERNOR-REPUBLICANS

GOP race for governor heads to northern Kentucky for forum Friday

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's four Republican candidates for governor will participate in a forum at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce meeting on Friday.

Northern Kentucky is strongly conservative and figures to play a prominent role in the May 19 Republican primary. Scheduled participants include former U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, former Louisville Metro Councilman Hal Heiner and former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott.

The candidates will likely address efforts to replace the Brent Spence Bridge, a decaying artery for Interstates 71 and 75 that has sparked a political debate about tolls. Concern about tolling was one of the reasons state lawmakers did not pass a bill this year that would have allowed the state to partner with private companies to pay for transportation projects.

DEMOCRATIC SPOKESMAN

Democrats hire spokesman ahead of 2015 governor's race

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Democratic Party has hired a new communications director as it prepares to support Jack Conway's campaign for governor in November.

David Bergstein started his new job on Thursday. He had similar duties for the Florida Democratic Party during the 2012 presidential election cycle. He is a former regional press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and has experience working on campaigns in California and nearby Indiana.

Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Patrick Hughes said Bergstein is a valuable addition to the party as it prepares to wage an aggressive campaign for governor. Conway, the current attorney general, faces little-known candidate Geoff Young in the May 19 Democratic primary.

Four people are seeking the Republican nomination: Matt Bevin, James Comer, Hal Heiner and Will T. Scott.

INTERNET CRIMES

Kentucky lawmakers OK bill to protect children

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers have given final passage to a bill aimed at strengthening efforts to protect children from Internet predators and human traffickers that is now before Gov. Steve Beshear.

The bill cleared the House on a 100-0 vote Tuesday before heading to the governor for consideration.

The measure would increase money flowing into the Kentucky State Police's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The additional money would come from a $10 fee assessed as part of court costs in criminal cases. The fee would apply to felony and misdemeanor cases but not to violations.

Another part of the bill seeks to crack down on human trafficking. Under those provisions, people charged in human trafficking cases could no longer use as a defense that they were mistaken about a young victim's age.

POLICE CHIEF INDICTED

Former Falmouth police chief indicted on theft charges

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A former northern Kentucky police chief has been indicted on charges of theft and abuse of a public trust.

Attorney General Jack Conway's office says Mark Lane Posey was also indicted Tuesday on 70 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Posey was police chief in Falmouth, about 40 miles south of Cincinnati, from March 2008 until he resigned in February.

No phone listing could be located to reach Posey for comment.

Conway's office said Posey is accused of taking more than $10,000 in funds from a drug task force account and of buying a gun with police department funds and selling the weapon to a friend for a larger amount.

The attorney general's Office of Special Prosecutions is handling the case.

BOURBON EXPANSION

Four Roses plans new bottling plant in Bullitt County

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The company behind Four Roses Bourbon is planning another expansion in Bullitt County.

Gov. Steve Beshear's office says the company plans to build a new bottling facility. The $8 million project is expected to create up to 30 new jobs.

The 60,000-square-foot operation at the Four Roses Bullitt County Warehouse location will contain two bottling lines, bottling support areas and office space. Four Roses expects the facility to be operational by the spring of 2018.

This is the second Four Roses expansion in Bullitt County in the past year. Last September, Beshear and company officials cut the ribbon on the bourbon brand's new visitor center. The 2,500-square-foot center expects to attract more than 20,000 guests annually.

Four Roses has distilling and warehousing operations in Lawrenceburg and Bullitt County, respectively.

ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY

Group hopes to fund film about Ky. chemical weapons crusader

RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Environmental Foundation is launching an online fundraising campaign for a documentary about the group's founder, Craig Williams.

Twenty-five years ago Williams helped organize a grassroots coalition with an aim toward safe disposal of the deadly chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot. Known as the Chemical Weapons Working Group, it has since helped pass federal legislation that ultimately forced the government to find a safer disposal method for weapons stored at four sites around the U.S.

Williams won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2006.

The documentary is titled "NERVE," and will be directed by Kentucky filmmaker Ben Evans.

The online fundraiser is being hosted by Indiegogo.com.

MOUNTAIN PARKWAY EXPANSION

Road being closed as work continues on Mountain Parkway

SALYERSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Construction on a bridge west of Salyersville that is part of the Mountain Parkway Expansion will require an extended road closure starting next week.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says contractors expect to close Gifford Road beginning Monday.

After the road is closed, motorists north of the Mountain Parkway will be able to access U.S. 460 to reach Salyersville, and traffic to the south of the parkway can access the parkway at Exit 72 by traveling Kentucky 3337 to Kentucky 30.

The closure will speed construction of the bridge, which will be part of a new interchange near mile point 70 of the parkway, about five miles west of Salyersville.

Construction on the bridge is expected to start in a few weeks. The speed limit in the area has been reduced to 45 miles per hour.

MISSING GIRL

Uncle sentenced in 1999 death of Bullitt County girl

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Bullitt County man to 20 years in prison in the death of his niece, who disappeared from her driveway in 1999.

Media report the sentence for Stanley Dishon was handed down Thursday in Bullitt Circuit Court.

Dishon entered an Alford plea in January to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 17-year-old Jessica Dishon. In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn't admit guilt but acknowledges there is sufficient evidence for conviction.

He was originally charged with murder.

A neighbor was charged with killing Dishon in 2001 but was freed a couple of years later when a judge declared a mistrial, and the charges were dismissed.

Dishon was charged in 2013 after new evidence came to light.

FOLLOWING DANIEL BOONE

Michigan man retraces Daniel Boone's trip into Kentucky

FORT BOONESBOROUGH, Ky. (AP) — Keeping up a quick pace to the end, Curtis Penix didn't look like someone who walked nearly 240 miles in the footsteps of frontiersman Daniel Boone. The trip through the Appalachian terrain was inspired by his family's pioneering Kentucky roots.

The Michigan steel mill worker completed his 16-day backpacking journey Thursday.

It started in Tennessee, wound into Virginia and took him to hallowed ground in Kentucky — the place where Fort Boonesborough was built in 1775 after Boone and his band of axe men carved out Boone Trace. The path became an early artery for settlers heading westward.

Penix, 46, said he feels fine and could keep going, but didn't want to.

His journey started March 10 near Kingsport, Tennessee — the place where Boone's group left in March 1775.