Kentucky News Now – April 30th 2014

SEVERE WEATHER-KENTUCKY

Straight-line winds caused damage in Harlan County

HARLAN, Ky. (AP) — The National Weather Service has determined that injuries and damage in Harlan County were caused by 90 mph straight-line winds.

The weather service said the storm on Monday caused three minor injuries and damaged three buildings in Evarts, including one building hit by a tree. Numerous trees were also reported damaged.

Harlan County Emergency Management Director David McGill said the storm also downed power lines and caused power outages in the county.

KENTUCKY ELECTIONS-COAL

Kentucky coal group targets California billionaire

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Coal Association is warning Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes against taking donations from a California billionaire known for environmental activism.

Grimes attended a meeting in Chicago Tuesday with major Democratic donors. The donors included NextGen Climate Action President Tom Steyer, who has pledged to work against candidates in favor of coal production in the United States.

Association President Bill Bissett said anyone accepting donations from Tom Steyer or his group NextGen Climate Action will signal that candidate is against the production and use of Kentucky coal.

Grimes has said many times she supports the Kentucky coal industry. State and federal campaign records show Steyer and his group have not contributed money to any Kentucky political candidates for the 2014 election cycle.

PARKS-TREES

Trees being planted at Kentucky State Parks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky State Parks are planting more than 10,600 trees this spring thanks to a grant.

Odwalla, a juice and food company, provided the state parks with a $9,500 grant based on an online voting contest held a few years ago as part of the company's "Plant a Tree" program.

Parks officials say the trees are being planted at parks across Kentucky with the help of volunteer groups.

Parks Commissioner Elaine Walker says the funds are being used to replace trees lost in storms and to fill in areas to provide shade.

The state park effort is part of a plan by the Kentucky Division of Forestry to plant 20 million trees over the next 20 years.

DERBY ART

Students decorate blankets for Derby party

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Students from dozens of Kentucky schools put brush to blanket to help Gov. Steve Beshear and first lady Jane Beshear decorate picnic tables for the Governor's Derby Celebration on Saturday in Frankfort.

The Kentucky Arts Council coordinated the project, in which students painted Kentucky Derby-themed blankets to use on tables made to look like horses with heads and tails.

Sometimes students use the blankets as a way to honor a fellow student or causes. The Arts Council says this year, Knox Council Middle School students dedicated their design to a classmate who is undergoing cancer treatment.

The Governor's Derby Celebration runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT in downtown Frankfort, and the blankets will be used on tables on the Old State Capitol lawn.

Photos of the blankets are posted on the Arts Council's Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/1pLTkF6.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS-WOMEN

Women candidates, voters could decide Senate

ATLANTA (AP) — Women voters could hold the key to victory in the battle to control the Senate during the final two years of President Barack Obama's tenure.

Democrats are trying to replicate the "gender gap" that benefits their party in presidential election years by boasting about their female candidates and emphasizing issues like pay equity, insurance coverage for contraception, education and health care. Republicans, too, are running women candidates and bristling at the familiar claim by Democrats that the GOP is waging a "war on women." But Republicans believe 2014 will be a more traditional midterm election year, with an older, whiter electorate that gives Democrats trouble.

They note that Democrats must run Senate races in states where Obama — and his signature health care law — remain unpopular.

KENTUCKY DERBY

Wicked Strong running for Boston in Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Wicked Strong has a built-in fan base for the Kentucky Derby. Like the entire city of Boston.

The colt named in honor of the victims of last year's Boston Marathon bombings figures to be among the favorites for Saturday's race. He's got the credentials, having impressively won the Wood Memorial.

Wicked Strong is owned by a Boston-based partnership that has pledged to donate 5 percent of any money won by the 3-year-old colt during the Triple Crown series to the fund set up for the bombing victims.

The colt is trained by Jimmy Jerkens, a son of Hall of Famer Allen Jerkins, who never won the Derby in three tries.

Jerkens says having the city of Boston supporting Wicked Strong might be an "extra force" to carry him into the winner's circle.

KENTUCKY-HEMP

Comer: First hemp crop in decades set for planting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer says the state's first hemp crop in decades will be planted next month.

Comer said Tuesday he expects hemp seeds to start arriving soon at the state Agriculture Department.

He says eight pilot projects are planned as the crop that once thrived in Kentucky is reintroduced on a small scale.

The new federal farm bill allows state agriculture departments to designate pilot projects for research in states that allow the growing of hemp.

Kentucky lawmakers passed legislation last year allowing hemp to be reintroduced, if the federal government allows its production.

The versatile crop was banned decades ago due to its ties to marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, but hemp has a negligible content of the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.