Kentucky News Now

SENATE-KENTUCKY-SURROGATES

Ky.'s Senate race attracts big names in final week

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's U.S. Senate candidates are bringing in a trio of potential presidential candidates to help boost voter turnout in the final week of one of the country's most closely watched Senate races.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will campaign with Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Louisville on Tuesday and Hillary Rodham Clinton will campaign with her on Saturday in Lexington and northern Kentucky. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will appear with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday.

This will be the second trips to Kentucky for Clinton and Warren, who have attracted large crowds at their events.

Jindal will appear with McConnell at the Restore America Rally in Louisville on Wednesday. Other guests include Carly Fiorina, the 2010 Republican Senate nominee in California, and conservative national radio host Hugh Hewitt.

TERRORISM CHARGES

Prosecutors oppose Iraqi getting evidence

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Kentucky are opposing a move by an Iraqi man convicted in a Kentucky terrorism case to gain access to his complete case file.

U.S. Attorney David Hale filed a motion Monday saying 26-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi should not be allowed to have the sensitive information.

Hammadi is seeking access to his file with designs on trying to withdraw his guilty plea to taking part in a plot to ship thousands of dollars in cash and weapons from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to al-Qaida in Iraq.

A co-defendant, 33-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan, pleaded guilty in 2010. The pair was working with an FBI informant who squelched their plans.

Alwan is serving a 40-year sentence and Hammadi are serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

BUGGY CRASH-FATAL

Teen dies when horse drawn buggy crashes

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Sheriff's officials in southwestern Kentucky say one girl died and three others were injured when a car struck their horse drawn buggy as it skittered across a road.

The Christian County Sheriff's Office told WBKO in Bowling Green that 14-year-old Judith Martin dies Sunday afternoon. Deputies say Martin and three other girls were riding in the two-wheeled buggy near Hopkinsville when a semi drove past and spooked the horse.

The horse ran across a four-lane highway quickly and into the path of a car. Deputies say the collision caused all four girls to be ejected.

The three other girls were taken to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Two of them are 14 years old, and the other is 13.

The identities of the surviving girls haven't been released.

OLD TANKER EXPLOSION

Old fuel tank explodes during welding

CORBIN, Ky. (AP) — Residents of a southern Kentucky city got a surprise when an old fuel tank exploded while being cut up for scrap.

West Knox Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Darryl Baker says no one was injured in the Monday morning blast, which happened just outside the Corbin city limits.

Baker told The Times-Tribune the blast shook his house.

Baker says workers were cutting up an old fuel tank for scrap, but failed to remove all the fuel from the tank.

The man who was cutting the tank with a welding torch was blown back from the explosion, but not injured.

Fire officials said the property where the blast occurred was owned by Progressive Rail of Corbin, but is leased to an Indiana company, Three Rivers out of Fort Wayne.

SLAYING-ABDUCTION

Man pleads not guilty after Ohio highway shooting

LEBANON, Ohio (AP) — An Illinois man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he kidnapped and killed a Kentucky woman who was found dead in a vehicle along a highway in southwest Ohio.

The Warren County prosecutor says attorneys for Terry Froman, of Brookport, Illinois, on Monday entered not-guilty pleas for him to charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and firearms discharge. The 41-year-old Froman is being held without bond.

Authorities say he killed his estranged girlfriend's 17-year-old son in Kentucky, then kidnapped and killed her before being arrested Sept. 12 north of Cincinnati. Ohio authorities said they heard gunshots as they approached Froman's stopped vehicle along Interstate 75.

They said Froman had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and 34-year-old Kim Thomas was dead inside the vehicle.

Froman also is charged with murder and kidnapping in Kentucky.

UOFL-THREAT ARREST

Former student pleads not guilty to UofL threat

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former University of Louisville student has pleaded not guilty to making an online threat to shoot a residence hall.

WLKY-TV in Louisville reported that Charles Robb entered the plea Monday morning in Louisville.

Officials say last Wednesday morning Robb posted a threat on a social media website, saying he was going to shoot up Miller Hall.

Robb also wrote in his post he was high on drugs.

A woman saw the post and called police.

Robb is scheduled to be back in court next month.

SHOOTING DEATH-TRIAL

Trial set to begin in 2011 shooting death

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — The trial of a Bowling Green man charged with murder in a shooting in 2011 is set to begin.

The Daily News reports that jury selection is scheduled for Tuesday in the case of 27-year-old Randall Hester in Warren Circuit Court.

Hester is also charged two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment in the Nov. 10, 2011 death of 32-year-old Jonathan Havens of Bowling Green.

He is accused of shooting Jonathan Havens, 32, of Bowling Green, on Nov. 10, 2011.

Havens was found in a driveway after suffering multiple gunshot wounds and taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where he was pronounced dead.

Police arrested Hester on Nov. 14, 2011, in a hotel room. Hester has pleaded not guilty.

FORT CAMPBELL-DEPLOYMENT

Lawmakers ask for clarity on 101st deployment

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Seven Republican Tennessee lawmakers are asking the Defense Department to clarify the mission of Fort Campbell soldiers who were sent to Africa to help stem the Ebola virus.

The 101st Airborne Division took command on Saturday of an operation to build Ebola care centers in the West African nation of Liberia as part of the U.S. military's mission aimed at building care centers and training health care workers. The goal is to stop the spread of the virus.

The Leaf-Chronicle reports U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and six others asked for more information about the scope of the mission and how soldiers based at the post on the Kentucky-Tennessee line will be protected from the disease.

Ebola has infected more than 7,470 in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia and killed more than 3,400.

MURRAY STATE-EBOLA

Murray State deferring applications from Africa

MURRAY, Ky. (AP) — Murray State University in Kentucky is deferring applications from students in West African countries affected by Ebola until the fall of 2015.

Provost and Vice President Jay Morgan says the school is still accepting applications from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but students will not be admitted in January.

Morgan told The Murray Ledger & Times the university has made sure not to plan any study abroad programs for the next six months to a year in any of the three countries.

The university has not traditionally received many applications from the three countries. Morgan says the university is trying to approach international student applications with simple precautions.

Morgan says because Nigeria was recently declared Ebola-free, Nigerian students will be allowed to register for spring classes.