Kentucky News Now – April 4th, 2014

SEVERE WEATHER-KENTUCKY

Flood watch, thunderstorms in Kentucky forecast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Much of Kentucky is under a flood watch as showers and thunderstorms cross the state.

The watch expires Friday morning in western and central Kentucky and winds up in eastern Kentucky in the afternoon.

The National Weather Service says to expect showers and thunderstorms throughout the day with winds gusting up to about 35 mph in some areas. By Friday night lows will drop to the mid-30s to lower 40s statewide.

Saturday look for mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid- to upper 50s.

FRUIT OF THE LOOM-PLANT CLOSING

Fruit of the Loom closing Jamestown plant

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — More than 600 workers will lose their jobs as Fruit of the Loom says it plans to close its plant in Jamestown.

The company said it was moving the plant's textile operations to Honduras to save money. The company plans to close the plant in phases from June 8 through Dec. 31.

Chief Operating Officer Tony Pelaski said in a news release the decision was the result of a competitive global business environment and not a reflection on the efforts of the Jamestown employees.

Fruit of the Loom is headquartered in Bowling Green.

State Rep. Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, tweeted Thursday that he was devastated about the move.

COUNTY SEATS

Governor's Mansion adding handcrafted chairs

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Governor's Mansion is acquiring 120 new chairs made by Berea College students.

Gov. Steve Beshear's office says chairs were made using locally sourced and sustainable maple wood from Daniel Boone National Forest. Berea student-artists designed, built and upholstered the chairs, one for each Kentucky county.

Governor's Mansion Executive Director Ann Evans says the chairs are to replace ones that were used for large events. Evans says those chairs were in bad shape and unsafe.

The 100th anniversary celebration of the mansion is underway, and officials decided it was a good time to get new chairs. They were creative when it came to funding, asking each county to take part by sponsoring one of the chairs. Each county privately raised $1,000 for the project, and each chair will have a county name plaque placed on it.

OIL SPILL

Crude oil storage tank spills in eastern Ky.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Workers in eastern Kentucky are trying to clean up thousands of gallons of crude oil that has spilled into a tributary of the Big Sandy River.

Pike County Emergency Management Director Doug Tackett says a landslide broke the piping off a storage tank sometime overnight, releasing the oil inside the tank into the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy. He says an estimated 4,200 gallons spilled from the tank.

Tackett says the spill is downstream from Pike County's water intake valves and the water supply isn't affected.

An environmental cleanup company has been brought in, and WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., says officials believe the spill can be cleaned up with booms that float on the water and collect oil.

BOURBON TAX

Kentucky to offer bourbon tax credit

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — State lawmakers have effectively eliminated a tax on aging barrels of bourbon in a move to protect one of the state's signature industries.

Kentucky spends that tax money on public education, making it difficult to eliminate the tax completely. This week lawmakers approved a tax credit that would offset the cost of the tax. Public schools would still get their tax money, but overall state revenues would decrease by about $14 million in five years once the tax credit is fully implemented.

Kentucky distillers have increased their inventory of aging bourbon by more than 1 million barrels since 1999. State tax collections have more than doubled since then.

The law requires Kentucky distillers to spend the savings from the tax on improving facilities in Kentucky, including remodeling to promote tourism.

MIA RETURNS

Missing Korean War veteran's remains return to Ky.

(Information in the following story is from: The Paducah Sun, http://www.paducahsun.com )

La Center, Ky. (AP) — Army Cpl. William F. Day was reported missing in North Korea on Dec. 2, 1950. Nearly 64 years later, his remains have been brought home to Kentucky.

The Paducah Sun reports that Day's daughter, Gloria Shonrock, was only four years old when her father went missing.

She began searching in earnest for information about Day in 1992. His remains were eventually found among boxes of remains given to the U.S. by North Korea in the early 1990s.

DNA provided by Shonrock and her father's niece helped with the identification.

Day's remains flew to Nashville on Wednesday, where Shonrock, her husband and other family members met them and accompanied them to La Center. Day will be buried next to his mother on Monday in a service with full military honors.

RECORDS PRESERVATION

State grant to help Boone County preserve records

BURLINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Boone County is getting a grant for more than $44,000 to preserve and manage local government records.

The Kentucky Enquirer reports the grant is from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.

Clerk Kenny Brown plans to use the money to transfer important public records and digital images to microfilm.

The Library and Archives Department says Boone County's Local Records Grant is one of 51 awarded in fiscal year 2014.

Gov. Steve Beshear said in a statement that over the grant's 28-year history, the funds have enabled local agencies in all 120 Kentucky counties to ensure that citizens have access to important public records, both now and in the future.

The department provides records assistance in county and city offices, school districts and health departments.