Kentucky News Now – June 24th 2014

KENTUCKY-MULTIMEDIA DEAL

Kentucky signs $210 million multimedia deal

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky has announced a 15-year, $210 million partnership with JMI Sports that includes radio broadcast rights to Wildcats games and naming rights to on-campus athletic facilities.

The agreement will replace Kentucky's current deal with IMG in April 2015, a deal that was worth $80.5 million over 10 years. The school will be JMI Sports' first multimedia rights client, one that CEO Erik Judson said during a Monday news conference presented "the ideal opportunity."

Kentucky's athletic department will receive annual payments starting at $9.1 million in 2015, and increases to $16 million in 2029. The university will also get a $29.4 million signing bonus over the first two years.

GOP FUNDRAISER

New House leader to raise money for Kentucky GOP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Newly-elected House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy will raise money for Kentucky House Republicans trying to gain control of the state's lower chamber for the first time in nearly 100 years.

A spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Kentucky confirmed the fundraiser will happen on July 19th in Bowling Green.

McCarthy was elected the new House majority leader last week to replace Rep. Eric Cantor, who was defeated in the Republican primary by Tea Party favorite Dave Brat. Kentucky House Majority Floor Leader Jeff Hoover said party leaders have been working on getting McCarthy to come to Kentucky for a few months not knowing he would soon be the second most powerful person in the House.

Kentucky Republicans need to pick up at least five seats to win a majority.

KENTUCKY BUDGET

Experts: Revenue shortfall raises risk

(Information in the following story is from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com)

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Some experts are warning that a recently announced shortfall in revenues raises the risk that spending cuts will be needed to balance the 2014-2016 state budget.

Kentucky Center on Economic Policy Director Jason Bailey told The Courier-Journal that a shortfall in one year "has a kind of a domino effect on the next years." He says revenue would have to increase more than expected and that's unlikely to happen.

Gov. Steven Beshear's administration announced this month that a significant shortfall is expected when the fiscal year ends June 30.

Budget Director Jane Driskell says Beshear has several sources of funding that he could use to balance this year's budget without making cuts. She says the bigger concern is that revenues must increase more than expected for the budget to balance next year.

EPISCOPAL SPLIT-NEW ARCHBISHOP UPDATE

Southern US cleric named new Anglican archbishop

LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — A Southern cleric has been picked as the new archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.

The bishops of the conservative church voted Sunday to elevate the Right Rev. Foley Beach to the position at a conclave at St. Vincent College near Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Beach has been bishop of the church's Diocese of the South, which includes 42 parishes in 10 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

He succeeds Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, who became the church's first archbishop in 2009. That's when the Anglican Church broke away from the Episcopal Church over disagreements on the authority of the Bible, the nature of Jesus Christ and the ordination of homosexuals.

Beach will serve a five-year term.

The Anglican Church in North America reports having 113,000 members in nearly 1,000 congregations.

BRIDGE DROP

W. Ky. bridge approach falls

LEDBETTER, Ky. (AP) — The Transportation Cabinet says most of an approach to an old bridge over the Tennessee River in western Kentucky has fallen.

Officials have been monitoring the bridge since April, when they first noticed slippage. The structure dropped another foot on Friday.

Media cited Transportation Cabinet spokesman Keith Todd in reporting that two of the bridge' land-based piers and the spans they supported collapsed early Sunday. Another land-based pier is still standing, but is cracked and "severely leaning." It supports a lone approach span.

The Old Ledbetter Bridge is slated for demolition, but work on the project hasn't begun.

The bridge, which opened in 1931, was closed to traffic last July after a new bridge was completed.

LEAST TERN NESTS

Wildlife officials warn not to disturb tern nests

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking the public not to disturb the nest of least terns, the only endangered species that nests in Kentucky.

According to the department, least terns are nesting now on sand bars in the Mississippi River along Kentucky's western border. Once the Ohio River drops a little, they will nest there as well, from Paducah downstream.

Clean sand bars draw the least terns, but they also attract boaters, swimmers, campers and all-terrain vehicle riders.

Any human disturbance can cause the adults to abandon the nest, allowing predators to steal the eggs.

Workers have been marking nest with yellow signs when they find them. White birds circling overhead are another sign that a nest could be present.

More information is available at fw.ky.gov.

TORNADO TOWN

Money sought for energy-efficient housing

WEST LIBERTY, Ky. (AP) — An initiative started by former President Bill Clinton could support efforts to build energy-efficient housing in an eastern Kentucky town hit by a tornado.

Advocates for the community of West Liberty plan to be in Denver this week for the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting. Bobby Clark, a consultant in the reconstruction project, says the meeting will offer a chance to ask potential donors to help the town recover from the 2012 tornado.

Clark is with Midwest Clean Energy Enterprise of Lexington. He says the goal is to raise $500,000 to build four energy-efficient, single-family homes in West Liberty for low-income residents displaced by the tornado. The houses will include solar and geothermal systems.

A kickoff fundraiser for the project was held last week in Louisville.

FACE RECONSTRUCTION

Doctors to reconstruct face of stricken woman

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A woman left disfigured by radiation treatments for a cancer she never had will undergo reconstructive surgery in Louisville.

Lessya (LESS'-uh) Kotelevskaya (Ko-te-lev-SKY'-uh) could be in surgery up to 24 hours at University of Louisville Hospital.

According to a news release from UofL Physicians, Monday's surgery will be performed by Dr. Jarrod Little, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who is donating his time.

Kotelevskaya was misdiagnosed about a decade ago in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. Her face was disfigured by the radiation treatments, causing a gaping hole in her right cheek and making it difficult to eat and talk. She lost her husband and business and was left homeless.

Her cousin Oleg Sennik eventually found Kotelevskaya and brought her and her young son to Louisville, where he lives.