Kentucky News Now – April 29th 2014

SEVERE WEATHER-KENTUCKY

Storm barrels through southeastern Kentucky

HARLAN, Ky. (AP) — A strong storm barreling through southeastern Kentucky damaged homes and businesses and left power customers in the dark, but no injuries have been reported.

Harlan County Emergency Management Director David McGill said an estimated 6,700 Kentucky Utilities customers were without power after the storm Monday afternoon.

He said strong winds damaged three businesses and numerous homes in the Evarts community of Harlan County and destroyed one home in the Harlan area.

McGill said Monday night that numerous trees and power lines were down in the county.

Dozens of tornado, flood and thunderstorm warnings and watches were issued Monday around the state. The National Weather Service said rain and thunderstorms, some with damaging winds, were expected to continue statewide into Tuesday.

KENTUCKY LOTTERY ADS

Kentucky Lottery plans new ad campaign

COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Lottery plans a new advertising campaign this summer that focuses on how ticket purchases support college scholarships.

The move comes after the General assembly voted last month to remove a prohibition on mentioning scholarships in ads.

Kentucky Lottery spokesman Chip Polston told The Kentucky Enquirer that the ads will run statewide and will show how much good the game has done. He said that until now Kentucky was the only lottery state that wasn't allowed to advertise that proceeds fund scholarships.

Democratic state Rep. Arnold Simpson of Covington says he disagrees with the proposal because not all proceeds go to fund scholarships.

About $400 million will go toward scholarships over the next two years, but about $81 million will help a variety of other government functions.

TOYOTA-US HEADQUARTERS

Toyota moving US base from California to Texas

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — Toyota said Monday that it will move its U.S. headquarters from California to Texas.

Toyota will break ground this year on a new headquarters in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Small groups of employees will start moving to temporary office space there this year, but most will not move until late 2016 or early 2017 when a new headquarters is completed.

The new campus will bring together approximately 4,000 employees from sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and finance who are now scattered around the country. That includes 2,000 employees at the current headquarters in Torrance, Calif.; 1,000 employees at Toyota's engineering and manufacturing center in Erlanger, Ky.; and 1,000 employees at Toyota Financial Services.

Toyota said it will continue to have about 2,300 employees in California and 8,200 employees in Kentucky after the moves are complete. Toyota makes the Avalon and Camry sedans in Kentucky.

EDUCATION-GOP SPLIT

Education is a rising issue for 2016 GOP class

CHICAGO (AP) — The federal government's role in education is splitting potential presidential hopefuls in the Republican Party, with two prospective candidates personifying the divide.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush supports voluntary performance goals, called Common Core, in math and reading. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, calls the standards shared by 44 states a national "curriculum that originates out of Washington." The statement stokes the conservative grass roots, but Republican governors were among those who shaped the standards.

The argument is a proxy for the larger debate within the GOP over the proper role of the federal government.

NELSON DEATHS

Impala sought in connection to double homicide

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky State Police are asking for the public's help in locating a black Chevrolet Impala that was seen leaving the area where a double homicide occurred.

Kathy Netherland and her 16-year-old daughter were found dead last week inside their Nelson County home. At the time, police asked the public for any recorded video surveillance of Kentucky 150 between Bardstown and the Botland community, where the slaying occurred.

One video shows an Impala traveling from Botland to Bardstown, and police said on Monday that the occupant is a suspect.

Anyone with information about the vehicle should call police in Elizabethtown at 270-766-5078.

BLUEGRASS PIPELINE

Pipeline builders halting Kentucky project

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Two energy companies are halting a massive underground pipeline project for Kentucky that drew heavy opposition from residents and environmentalists.

Williams Co. and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners said in a web posting Monday that they were not able to assemble a large enough customer base for the natural gas liquids that would be delivered by the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline.

Kentucky's portion of the line would travel about 180 miles through more than a dozen counties. The pipeline would have connected the shale gas-rich areas in the northeast to the Gulf of Mexico.

But opposition to the proposal was swift and widespread, coming from activists, residents near the planned route and even a group of Marion County nuns.

In the web posting, the companies say they are "not investing additional capital at this time."

SAVING HEMLOCKS

Ky. landowners urged to save hemlocks

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

WHITLEY CITY, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Department of Forestry has begun an initiative to educate private landowners about a threat to hemlock trees and urge them to help fight it.

A tiny insect called the woolly adelgid has killed thousands of eastern hemlocks since it was first found in eastern Kentucky in 2006. Although state and federal officials have used chemical treatments to fight off the insects, they have continued to spread and are now in nearly 30 counties.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports forestry officials have begun asking landowners to treat hemlock trees in an effort to stop the spread of the woolly adelgid because most of the state's forested land is in private hands.

Forestry officials say the treatment cost would be about $10 for a 10-inch tree.