Kentucky News Now – June 17th 2014

HOT CARS-CHILDREN

KSP warns of leaving children in hot cars

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — With temperatures on the rise, Kentucky State Police officials are reminding parents not to leave children alone in hot cars.

It seems like common sense, but every year law enforcement agencies answer calls about unattended children in vehicles.

The National Safety Council says nine children have died in 2014 from being left in hot cars across the country.

KSP spokesman Sgt. Michael Webb says a child's body heats up three to five times faster than that of an adult.

In 2000, Kentucky passed "Bryan's Law," which makes a person liable for second-degree manslaughter or first-degree wanton endangerment for leaving a child younger than 8 in a vehicle where circumstances pose a grave risk of death.

The law was named after an 11-month-old who died after being left in a hot car.

FALLEN OFFICER

Water officer remembered in Frankfort ceremony

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky State Police water patrol officer who died more than 40 years ago searching for two missing teenagers in Frankfort has been remembered during a ceremony at the agency's headquarters.

State police Commissioner Rodney Brewer presented a flag to Roy Childs of Frankfort on Monday in memory of his father, David Thomas Childs. David Thomas Childs died with Trooper James McNeely in April 1972 as they searched for two Louisville teenagers reported missing on a canoe trip.

The officers' boat was swept over the Lock 4 dam in Frankfort by a swift current. The missing teens were eventually found unhurt.

State police assumed responsibility for enforcing boating safety laws in 1968. That was transferred to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in November 1972.

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE

Radio host to run for Kentucky ag commissioner

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky radio host says she will seek the Democratic nomination for state agriculture commissioner in 2015.

Jean-Marie Lawson Spann said in a news release she plans to formally announce her candidacy on Wednesday morning in Frankfort followed by a statewide tour to talk about her plans.

For the past 10 years Spann has hosted the "Jean-Marie Ag Show," a weekly radio program focusing on state and national agriculture news. She is the former secretary of the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee and was a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

The commissioner of agriculture is the only statewide constitutional office not held by a Democrat. Republican James Comer has held the seat since 2012. He is a possible Republican candidate for governor in 2015.

CHEERLEADER LIBEL LAWSUIT

Gossip site wins appeal of cheerleader's lawsuit

CINCINNATI (AP) — An appeals court has found that an Arizona-based gossip website is immune from being sued by a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader over online posts about her sexual history.

The decision from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a Kentucky federal judge's decision allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

Former Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones sued thedirty.com owner Nik Richie in 2012 over anonymously submitted posts about her.

A jury found the posts were substantially false and that Richie had acted with malice or reckless disregard by allowing them to be published. Jones was awarded $338,000.

Jones' attorney says he'll likely appeal.

Internet giants like Google and Facebook have watched the case closely, saying the result had the potential to chill online speech.

SOLDIER'S REMAINS

Family prepares to bury remains of Korean War POW

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

DRY RIDGE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky family is preparing to bury the remains of a Korean War soldier, which were recently identified through DNA testing.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the remains of Sgt. Paul M. Gordon will return to the U.S. on Tuesday and will be interred Friday at the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery North in Williamstown.

Gordon joined the Army in 1949, shortly after graduating from Crittenden High School. He was sent to Korea, where he died in a prisoner of war camp in 1951 at the age of 20.

Family members say they wondered about his fate for decades.

Military officials said scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used DNA from Gordon's sister and brother, as well as other evidence, to make the identification.

UK GRANT-WASTE SITES

UK wins grant to limit impact from waste sites

The University of Kentucky has won a $12.2 million federal grant that will back a research team's efforts to minimize the damaging environmental and health impacts caused by hazardous waste sites.

The award from the National Institutes of Health was announced Monday on UK's Lexington campus.

UK says the grant will support work by more than 50 scientists and students contributing to the UK Superfund Research Center.

The center's environmental science researchers are working to develop new methods to detect hazardous chemicals and clean up contaminated sites. Other researchers are focusing on whether nutrition can help reduce the health impact from exposure to hazardous chemicals.

UK says Kentucky is home to more than 200 federal Superfund sites, including 14 active sites on a list of the country's worst sites.