Kentucky News Now – August 14th 2014

LOUISVILLE-EXTORTION ATTEMPT

Mississippi man convicted of extortion in Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Mississippi man has been convicted of extortion in a case involving threats against the University of Louisville Athletic Association's reputation and a demand for $3.5 million.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Kentucky says 36-year-old Thomas E. Ray of Jackson, Mississippi, was convicted Wednesday after a 1 ½-day trial in U.S. District Court.

The prosecutor's office said Ray used the alias "Melinda White" and sent an email from his home on April 23, 2013, shortly after Louisville won the NCAA men's basketball championship. His email was sent to two U of L employees.

He faces up to two years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 and a year of supervised release. He will be sentenced Nov. 3.

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich said Louisville participated in the investigation and is pleased with the verdict.

KENTUCKY AGRICULTURE

Corn, soybean production drop forecast in Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A double-digit drop in corn and soybean production by Kentucky farmers is being predicted in a new report.

Corn production in the state is forecast at 200 million bushels, down 18 percent from the prior year.

Soybean production for Kentucky is forecast at 67.6 million bushels, a 17 percent drop from 2013.

The predictions are in a report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service's field office in Kentucky.

It estimates statewide corn yield at 138 bushels per acre, down 32 bushels from 2013.

Soybean yield is estimated at 40 bushels per acre, down 9.5 bushels from a year ago.

Kentucky burley tobacco production is forecast at 153 million pounds, up 4 percent from last year.

Hay production is forecast to be down from last year due to lower yields.

MCCONNELL BUS TOUR

McConnell says wife won't resign from board

GREENVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said his wife will not resign from a board that has given $50 million to a campaign dedicated to closing coal-fired power plants.

WDRB reports that McConnell defended his wife during a campaign stop in Muhlenberg County in western Kentucky.

Yahoo News reported last week that Elaine Chao, McConnell's wife and the former labor secretary under President George W. Bush, joined the Bloomberg Philanthropies board in 2012. In 2011, the board committed to give the Sierra Club $50 million for its "Beyond Coal" program.

Monday, several eastern Kentucky Democrats called on Chao to resign. Wednesday, McConnell said Chao would not resign, adding Bloomberg Philanthropies does a lot of good things and that his wife does not approve of their efforts in the coal industry.

KENTUCKY-EXECUTION VIDEO

Documents: Video made of moments before executions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky officials videotaped condemned inmates heading for the death chamber in two of the state's executions.

The Associated Press learned of the existence of the tapes through public records requests.

The Kentucky Attorney General's Office and the Department of Corrections are locked in a dispute with public defenders over access to the execution chamber as part of ongoing litigation over how the state carries out lethal injections.

The records show that a surveillance camera video exists of Harold McQueen's transfer to the execution chamber at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville on July 1, 1997, but not his actual death. A letter rejecting a public records request for that tape and similar videos of the lead up to the executions of Eddie Lee Harper in 1999 and Marco Allen Chapman in 2008 acknowledges their existence.

The videos haves never been made public.

NATURAL GAS PLANT

Natural gas plant in western Ky. canceled

(Information in the following story is from: Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, http://www.messenger-inquirer.com )

CENTRAL CITY, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric have announced that plans for a natural gas power-generating plant in western Kentucky won't go forward.

The Messenger-Inquirer reports the utilities announced on Tuesday that they were pulling out of the venture planned in Muhlenberg County, but said they intend to keep pursing a solar generating facility.

A statement from the companies said the move came after nine municipal utility customers gave notice that they intend to terminate wholesale power contracts with KU in 2019.

Muhlenberg County Judge-Executive Rick Newman was disappointed. He said the jobs would have made up for the job losses expected at a coal-fired power plant that is slated to close.

PRIVATE PRISON-OVERTIME

Prison company pays $260K in lawsuit settlement

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The largest private prison company in America paid $260,000 to a group of shift supervisors in Kentucky to settle claims that they were denied overtime.

Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tennessee, paid the money last year to end a lawsuit. The former employees took $129,000 of the settlement. Plaintiff's attorneys received $131,000.

The case involved workers at the now-shuttered Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary's, Kentucky. The group claimed in a 2012 lawsuit that CCA denied them overtime after forcing them to work extra hours. CCA has denied the allegations.

The settlement was originally sealed, but the nonprofit Prison Legal News sought to have it unsealed. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn in Louisville granted that request Wednesday.