Kentucky News Now

NOAH'S ARK PARK

Billboard campaign promotes Noah's Ark attraction

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The Christian ministry building a massive wooden ark in northern Kentucky has launched a billboard campaign promoting the project.

Answers in Genesis says in a release that the campaign is a response to opponents of the project, including "anti-Christian activists." Construction crews have been moving earth and pouring concrete at the Grant County site to make way for a 500-foot-long ship modeled after the biblical story of Noah.

The first billboard is up in Lexington, and others are planned in Frankfort and Louisville. Answers in Genesis, which also built the popular and controversial Creation Museum, says the campaign will include a digital board at Times Square in New York.

The project was announced in 2010, but slow fundraising stalled the plans until a groundbreaking was held earlier this year.

COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

New system speeds commercial vehicle inspection

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A regional organization has given an award to Kentucky's technological screening program for large commercial trucks.

The Intelligent Transportation Society of the Midwest gave the 2014 Project of the Year award to Kentucky Automated Truck Screening, or KATS.

The Transportation Cabinet says the program uses a license plate reader, a U.S. Transportation Department and Kentucky Highway Use license number reader, and scene camera technology to collect and process information identifying a commercial vehicle as it approaches a weigh station.

The cabinet says the goal is to inspect trucks quickly and efficiently. Five KATS systems are already in operation, and four more are in the works to be in use by the end of this year.

The cabinet's Department of Vehicle Regulation, the Kentucky Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky and the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement division of Kentucky State Police are involved in the project.

WHOOPING CRANES

Protected whooping cranes showing up in Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources says the federally protected whooping crane has been showing up in Kentucky and warns hunters the species is off-limits.

The agency says wildlife biologists have confirmed presence of five whooping cranes in Hopkins County and a sixth in Barren County.

Whooping cranes are similar in silhouette to sandhill cranes, but sandhills have gray bodies and are smaller. Whooping cranes may associate with sandhills, so the agency advises caution in hunting.

Kentucky's sandhill crane season begins Saturday and runs until Jan. 11 or until 400 sandhills have been taken. The Courier-Journal says biologists have proposed extending the length of future sandhill crane hunting seasons to 60 days but maintaining the maximum harvest.

DISTILLERY-INCENTIVES

Jim Beam asking incentives for Louisville facility

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

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Jim Beam is asking for state incentives to bring an Urban Stillhouse to downtown Louisville.

The attraction is proposed for Fourth Street Live, the city's entertainment and dining district. Jim Beam already has the American Stillhouse at its distillery in Clermont outside Bardstown.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says the distiller's application for preliminary approval for up to $1.3 million in incentives goes before the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority on Wednesday. The Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet says the company is proposing a $5.2 million investment.

Downtown Louisville is home to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. Several other attractions are planned or in the works, including Old Forester, Angel's Envy, Michter's and Peerless.

TORSO FOUND

Autopsy reveals few clues about Jessamine remains

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

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A coroner says the condition of human remains found near the Kentucky River in central Kentucky leads him to believe the person apparently died as a result of homicide.

Jessamine County Coroner Michael Hughes says a passerby who was hiking or fishing found the torso Saturday near the Madison County line.

Hughes told the Lexington Herald-Leader that an autopsy Sunday didn't determine the cause of death or the person's identity and gender. He says authorities aren't sure when or where the person died.

He says the remains have probably been in the water and washed up because of recent rain.

Hughes said the fact that the body isn't intact and the condition make the death appear to be the result of a homicide.

BUDGET CHAIRMAN

Lt. gov. candidate named Senate budget chairman

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A northern Kentucky state senator running for lieutenant governor is the new chairman of a powerful committee in charge of spending the state's $9 billion budget.

Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel of Taylor Mill was named chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee on Monday. He will replace outgoing Sen. Bob Leeper, who retired this year. Republican state Sen. Stan Humphries of Cadiz is the committee's new vice chairman.

McDaniel might not get to write a state budget. Lawmakers won't craft another budget until 2016. McDaniel is the running mate of Republican gubernatorial candidate James Comer. If he wins, McDaniel would resign his Senate seat to become lieutenant governor in 2016.

McDaniel said he is honored to be named chairman and will work to address the state's long-term debt.

RAND PAUL-MISSISSIPPI

Paul: Miss. GOP reuniting after 'spirited' primary

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says Republicans are reuniting after a divisive party primary for Senate in Mississippi.

The potential 2016 presidential candidate was in Jackson on Monday to speak at a $250-per-person fundraising luncheon for the Mississippi Republican Party.

During a news conference before the event, Paul was asked about the division between establishment Republicans who supported the re-election of Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran and tea party Republicans who backed Cochran's unsuccessful primary challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

Paul says he believes the GOP was united by the November general election, when Cochran received 60 percent of the vote and defeated Democrat Travis Childers and the Reform Party's Shawn O'Hara. Paul also says Mississippi was not alone in having a "spirited" Republican primary this year.