Kentucky News Now

EDUCATION COMMISSIONER

Board chooses firm to search for new education commissioner

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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Board of Education has chosen a firm to search for the state's next education commissioner.

The board met Thursday and chose Florida-based Greenwood/Asher and Associates Inc. The Department of Education said in a news release it is the same firm that conducted the search for Commissioner Terry Holliday, Council on Postsecondary Education President Bob King and University of Kentucky presidents Lee Todd and Eli Capilouto.

The firm's bid to conduct the search was for $80,000 plus expenses.

Holliday is retiring at the end of August. He has served in the position since 2009.

The release said the board is putting together a draft list of characteristics it seeks in the next commissioner and will present it to the public for input.

BURNING CAR-BODY

Oldham police identify man whose body found in burning car

LA GRANGE, Ky. (AP) — Oldham County police have identified the person whose body was found inside a burning car and say the death is being investigated as a homicide.

Police said Thursday the man was 44-year-old Dwayne L. Hale of Louisville.

A news release from the police department said the medical examiner's office determined the death was not from natural causes. No other information is being released.

The fire was reported April 28 along a wooded, remote stretch of Kentucky 393. The body was found inside the vehicle when the flames were extinguished.

Police said at the time investigators suspected foul play.

STUDENT KILLED-KENTUCKY

Grand jury sent case of University of Kentucky student death

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

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The case of two men charged with killing a University of Kentucky student during a robbery last month has been bound over to a grand jury.

Fayette County District Judge Megan Lake Thornton heard evidence during a preliminary hearing Thursday. A third person charged in the case is 17 years old, and juvenile cases are closed to the public.

Charged with murder and robbery in the April 17 death of Jonathan Krueger are 18-year-old Justin D. Smith and 20-year-old Efrain Diaz. Smith and Diaz have pleaded not guilty.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Lexington police Detective Reed Bowles testified Thursday that Diaz and Smith told police they think the juvenile shot Krueger.

Bowles said Krueger and a companion who managed to get away tried to resist their assailants.

COAL-GRANT MONEY

McConnell: $7.5 million federal grant to help coal miners

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Labor has approved a $7.5 million grant to help out-of-work coal miners in eastern Kentucky.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the grant on Thursday. The money goes to the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program and is used to train former coal miners to help them find new jobs. Executive Director Jeff Whitehead said similar funds have helped 2,300 workers, with 1,100 of them finding new jobs.

This is the second time the federal government has given money to the program, following a $5.2 million grant in 2013.

McConnell wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez earlier this year in support of the grant application. McConnell said the new grant is enough money to train about 700 workers.

HIV OUTBREAK-INDIANA

Indiana officials hopeful HIV outbreak may be nearly over

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A top Indiana health official says the dwindling number of new HIV cases in a rural southern county could mean the state's largest-ever HIV outbreak is ending.

Deputy State Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall said Thursday there have been 149 confirmed HIV cases and one preliminary positive case in Scott County and adjacent areas since December, but only about 15 new cases over the past two weeks.

The county about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky, normally sees only about five new HIV cases annually.

Walthall says officials are relieved by the recent trend and hope the outbreak could be "seeing its conclusion."

Nearly all of the outbreak's HIV cases have been traced to needle-sharing among intravenous drug users. A needle-exchange program is operating in Scott County to combat the outbreak.

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER

2 lawmakers competing for GOP nomination for ag commissioner

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Two Kentucky lawmakers with deep family roots in farming are competing for the Republican nomination for state agriculture commissioner.

State Reps. Ryan Quarles and Richard Heath are touting their rural pedigrees while campaigning for the job of running the Department of Agriculture.

The 31-year-old Quarles joined 4H and FFA while growing up on his family's farm in Scott County. He raised crops to help pay for college, where his focus included agricultural economics. The 59-year-old Heath took over his family's farm after high school, obtained an ag degree in college and managed Graves County Co-Op for years before starting a business that builds barns and other farm structures.

The Republican nominee in the May 19 primary will run against Democrat Jean-Marie Lawson Spann, who is unopposed in the primary.

OBIT-JOHNSTON

Elwood 'Bud' Johnston, thoroughbred breeder and owner, dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Elwood "Bud" Johnston, who bred and raced Eclipse Award-winning Acclamation, has died. He was 77.

He died in his sleep Tuesday, a day before his 78th birthday, the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association said Wednesday. He had attended morning workouts at Santa Anita as recently as last week.

Acclamation won 11 of 30 career starts and earned $1,958,048 before retiring in 2012 as Johnston's all-time leading money winner. The horse's best year was 2011, when he won five consecutive graded stakes, including the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar under trainer Don Warren. Acclamation missed the Breeders' Cup that year because of injury, but won the Eclipse as champion older male.

Johnston and wife Judy took over management of his father's Old English Rancho in Ontario, California, in 1957. They later sold the property and relocated the farm to Sanger, California, near Fresno, in 1997.

The farm was named California's leading breeder 13 times. Old English Rancho has bred over 200 stakes winners and been home to such prominent stallions as Acclamation, Unusual Heat, Big Bad Leroybrown and Surf Cat.

Johnston was a director of the CTBA for 25 years and once served as president.

Besides his wife of 58 years, Johnston is survived by two daughters.