Kentucky Morning News Update – 08/08/2013

DROPOUT AGE

Officials celebrate adoption of higher dropout age

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — State officials are celebrating in the Capitol with an event to recognize 120 Kentucky school districts that have voted to raise the dropout age to 18.

Gov. Steve Beshear, first lady Jane Beshear, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Lawrence County High School senior Harley Ratliff are holding a news conference Thursday afternoon to mark the achievement.

A new law that went into effect this summer increases the dropout age statewide from 16 to 18 after 55 percent of the state's 173 school districts signed on.

The higher dropout age becomes a statewide standard by 2017.

The Beshears made increasing the dropout age a top priority after taking office in 2007.

KENTUCKY SENATE-AD

Bevin accuses McConnell of mudslinging in new ad

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican Matt Bevin is criticizing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of slinging mud in his latest TV ad that began running Wednesday.

Bevin is challenging McConnell in next year's GOP primary. The two have been trading political punches on Kentucky television stations for weeks already.

In the new ad, Bevin points to McConnell's support in the past for private-sector bailouts. That was in response to a McConnell ad that has been up for several days accusing Bevin of a history of tax delinquency, a charge Bevin denies.

McConnell, Kentucky's longest-serving U.S. senator ever, is facing a barrage of attacks from outside groups supportive of Democratic front-runner Alison Lundergan Grimes.

PIPELINE FIGHT

Groups protest gas pipeline at Ky. Capitol

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Land owners joined environmental activists at the state Capitol to oppose a pipeline that would carry flammable liquids through several counties in northern Kentucky.

Some land owners spoke during a brief rally Wednesday afternoon about their fear of the proposed underground pipeline, which is being developed by a partnership of two energy companies. The more than 1,000-mile pipeline would carry a byproduct of the natural gas refining process from the northeast to the Gulf Coast.

The residents say they're worried the companies could use eminent domain laws to cut a pathway through privately owned lands.

The group delivered a petition to Gov. Steve Beshear's office that asks the governor to put pipeline-related issues on the agenda for the special session of the General Assembly later this month.

COAL JOBS

Number of Ky. coal jobs lowest since 1927

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The state says Kentucky's coal jobs have dropped to the lowest level in the more than 85 years that the state has kept records of the number.

The Energy and Environment Cabinet says eastern Kentucky mines cut 916 jobs from April through June, while western Kentucky mines added 65 jobs, an increase of 1.5 percent. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the jobs lost in eastern Kentucky followed steep declines in 2012.

The cabinet said the number of people working at coal mines and facilities statewide dropped to 12,342 as of July, the lowest number since 1927.

The report also said eastern Kentucky coal production has dropped more than 41 percent in two years.

TEXTING PENALTY

Ky. drivers could lose licenses for texting

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Motorist in Kentucky could lose their licenses for repeated offenses of the state's law against texting while driving.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced a change Wednesday under which the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will assess "penalty points" against the licenses of drivers convicted of texting behind the wheel.

Each violation would mean the loss of three points. The Transportation Cabinet could suspend the licenses of adult drivers who accumulate 12 points and of minors after seven points.

Beshear said while cell phones have made people's lives and jobs easier, they have also been irresistible distractions to drivers.

Kentucky has had a law since last year forbidding people from sending text messages while driving.

BETWEEN RIVERS HOMECOMING

Families moved 50 years ago gather for homecoming

GOLDEN POND, Ky. (AP) — People who once lived in the Trigg County portion of the western Kentucky area now known as Land Between The Lakes are getting together this weekend for their 42nd annual homecoming.

The event will be Sunday at Fenton, and Between the Rivers homecomings are also planned for Stewart County, Tenn., on Sept. 1 and Lyon County, Ky., on Sept. 21.

Communities in the area were displaced some 50 years ago when residents were moved to make way for the 170,000-acre public recreation area stretching through western Kentucky and Tennessee between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.

FLOYDS FORK WATERSHED

Public comment period extended on Floyds Fork

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The public has several more weeks to comment on a draft report addressing bacteria in the Floyds Fork watershed in Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby and Spencer counties.

The state Division of Water extended the ending date from July 29 to Aug. 29.

The report addresses E. coli and fecal coliform problems of 18 stream segments that affect swimming, boating and wading, as well as nine segments that haven't previously been listed as impaired.

The report is available online at http://water.ky.gov/Pages/PublicNotices.aspx. For a printed copy or to submit comments, contact Andrea Fredenburg at the Division of Water, 200 Fair Oaks Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601, by telephone at (502) 564-3410 or by email at Andrea.Fredenburg@ky.gov.