Kentucky News Now – September 16th 2015

TROOPER KILLED

Friday funeral planned for trooper shot and killed in western Kentucky

EDDYVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky State Police trooper shot and killed after a traffic stop turned into a high-speed chase will be buried in a veterans' cemetery later this week.

State police Trooper Jay Thomas said the funeral for Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder will be Friday at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Thomas said burial will be at a Kentucky Veterans Cemetery.

Ponder served in the Navy before joining state police. He had been on the state police force less than a year when he was killed late Sunday.

State police Trooper Jay Thomas confirmed Tuesday that the 25-year-old suspect, Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks of Florissant, Missouri, posted a Snapchat video Monday morning in which he expressed regret over the shooting. The suspect was later shot and killed when police closed in on him in woods near where the trooper was slain.

KENTUCKY CROPS

Fall harvest may yield Kentucky's largest soybean crop ever

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky farmers may be poised to produce the state's largest soybean crop on record as the fall harvest gets under way.

The latest figures from the National Agricultural Statistics Service show that soybean production in Kentucky is forecast at 92 million bushels. That's unchanged from the August forecast but up 10 percent from 2014.

Statewide corn production is forecast at 224 million bushels, up 1 percent from the August forecast but down 1 percent from the previous crop.

Corn yield is estimated at 172 bushels per acre, up 14 bushels from last year's level.

Soybean yield is projected at 50 bushels per acre, up 2 bushels from a year ago.

Burley tobacco production is forecast at 118 million pounds, down 28 percent from 2014. Yield is projected at 1,900 pounds per acre.

COAL MINE RESCUE

Mine rescue teams from around US competing in Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Mine rescue teams from 12 states are in Kentucky for a competition that helps train first responders in deadly situations underground.

The National Coal Mine Rescue competition is being held in Lexington this week. The event includes individual and team competitions in first aid and mine rescue and ends with a banquet on Thursday.

The event is sponsored by the National Mining Association and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. There will also be exhibits from companies and suppliers of coal-mining equipment and services.

The banquet will feature remarks by National Mining Association CEO Hal Quinn and U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration director Joseph Main.

The events begin each day at 7 a.m. at the Lexington Convention Center.

CHILD ABUSE CASES

Officials to seek funds to beef up Kentucky social services

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's commissioner of social services has announced that her agency will seek millions of dollars to address problems affecting social workers that they she acknowledges have been overworked and underpaid.

The Courier-Journal reports that Teresa James announced Monday that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services plans to present a substantial request for funds to the Kentucky General Assembly when it meets in 2016 to begin drafting the state's next two-year budget. James says she wants to hire more workers, boost salaries and improve working conditions.

James' agency, the Department for Community Based Services, has undergone about $50 million in budget cuts since 2009.

Child advocates have long argued the state's social service system needs more money and more workers to better manage increasingly complex child abuse and neglect cases.

FREEDOM PARK RENAMED

University renaming park to honor first African-American faculty member

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The University of Louisville's Freedom Park is being renamed in honor of the university's first African-American faculty member.

Charles H. Parrish Jr. taught for 20 years at U of L's segregated Louisville Municipal College. U of L's website says Parrish was the only tenured black faculty member retained when LMC was absorbed into U of L's College of Arts and Sciences in 1951.

Parrish was born in Louisville and educated at Howard University, Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He chaired the U of L sociology department from 1959 to 1964 and was involved in founding the Southern Police Institute.

The park will be rededicated in Parrish's honor Wednesday morning.

PASTORS PROTEST

Kentucky clerk's husband to speak at Nashville pastors rally

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The husband of Kim Davis — the Kentucky county clerk who went to jail for her refusal to issue marriage licenses — will be part of a Thursday rally in Nashville organized by the Tennessee Pastors Network.

The event takes place at the capitol and promises to address issues like gay marriage, immigration, terrorism, education, health care and religious liberty.

In addition to Joe Davis, the rally will include Rafael Cruz, the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and presidential candidate. Also speaking will be Richard Land, who led the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm for 25 years before leaving to become president of Southern Evangelical Seminary.

MAGISTRATE CHARGED

County magistrate charged with solicitation to commit murder

PINEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Bell County magistrate has been charged after police say he tried to arrange to have another person killed.

Multiple media outlets report 51-year-old Ricky Goodin of Pineville was arrested Friday. He is charged with solicitation to commit murder.

In a statement, Kentucky State Police spokesman Shane Jacobs says that detectives received information about threats made by Goodin to arrange for the death of another individual.

Goodin is being held at the Bell County Detention Center on a $1 million cash bond. It isn't immediately clear if he has an attorney.

In March, Goodin was arrested on multiple charges after authorities say he sold prescription drugs and methamphetamine out of his pawn shop.

BUSH VISIT-KENTUCKY

Kentucky GOP chairman says Jeb Bush will visit Louisville

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Republican Party Chairman Steve Robertson says Jeb Bush will visit Louisville later this month.

Robertson told The Courier-Journal that the Republican presidential candidate will attend an afternoon fundraising reception at a private residence on Sept. 24. The event will benefit the state Republican party.

Robertson said the visit shows the party's central committee made a good decision when it voted to select Kentucky's Republican presidential delegate next year during caucuses on March 5 instead of the traditional May primary.

The change was initiated by Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and allows him to run for president and re-election to his Senate seat at the same time without violating a law that bans candidates from appearing on a ballot twice in the same election.

Robertson said he expects the change to bring "a great number of presidential hopefuls" to Kentucky.

BRISKET BROUHAHA

Flying brisket whacks woman amid beef at barbecue festival

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police say a woman was hit with a hot flying brisket when a contestant's temper flared during a beef over a shared cooker at a central Kentucky barbecue festival.

Danville police say they were called to the Kentucky State BBQ Festival after a dispute was reported between contestants who were sharing a cooker Sunday.

Mary Berry of Bardstown told officers she was hit in the shoulder, neck and head by the slab of hot meat, which was estimated to be between 200 and 250 degrees when it was thrown.

Police said 42-year-old Mike Owings of Cunningham told officers he threw the brisket because he lost his temper but "didn't mean for anyone to get hurt."

Now, police say he faces a misdemeanor charge of wanton endangerment.