Kentucky News Today

KENTUCKY-SENATE ADS

Group runs ads promoting Republican Mitch McConnell

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The American Chemistry Council is running a TV ad in Kentucky promoting Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell as a leader who knows how to get results in Washington.

The McConnell ad comes at a time when the five-term incumbent is being attacked by GOP primary foe Matt Bevin. The new ad is running in Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green.

American Chemistry Council spokeswoman Anne Kolton said the group is running similar TV spots this summer on behalf of Democratic Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Tom Udall of New Mexico and Republican Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Mike Simpson of Idaho.

Kolton said the organization is spending "six figures" to run the McConnell ad that will remain on the air for three weeks.

KENTUCKY EXPORTS

Exports from Ky. on the rise so far this year

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky exports totaled $12.1 billion midway through the year, a 12 percent increase over the same period last year.

Gov. Steve Beshear said Tuesday that the state's export growth is significantly outpacing the national average. He said the state is on track to break last year's record $22 billion in exports.

Kentucky companies have exported to 192 countries so far this year, with the top destinations including Canada, Mexico and Britain.

Beshear said only New Hampshire had seen more growth in exports than Kentucky in the first half of the year.

Kentucky has been focused on increasing foreign markets for the state's products. In 2010, Beshear created the Kentucky Export Initiative, streamlining efforts of trade-related agencies and organizations to increase foreign trade.

KENTUCKY CROPS

Record corn, soybean production forecast for Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting record-high corn and soybean production in Kentucky this year.

The USDA said Tuesday that corn production in Kentucky is forecast at 231 million bushels, up 122 percent from last year's drought-stressed crop. Yield is estimated at 154 bushels per acre this year, which would be the second-highest yield on record and up 86 bushels per acre from last year's output.

It says soybean production in the state is forecast at 70 million bushels, up 19 percent from last year. Yield is projected at 44 bushels an acre, which would tie for the second-highest yield on record in the state.

Corn and soybean fields are rated mostly good to excellent across the state. The crops have benefited from plenty of rain and mild temperatures.

KENTUCKY SHOOTING

Police: Former Ky. politician shoots 3, self

PINEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky State Police say a former county politician in southeastern Kentucky shot three people in their home and then took his own life.

The shootings in Bell County left a father and his son dead and the older man's daughter wounded.

Police say the alleged shooter, 51-year-old former Knox County Judge-Executive Raymond Curtis Smith, drove back to Knox County and fatally shot himself at a cemetery.

Trooper Shane Jacobs said authorities responded to a shooting in Pineville at 9:42 a.m. EDT Tuesday and found the three victims. Jacobs says 50-year-old Michael Smith and his 21-year-old son, Mychael Dustin Smith, were dead at the scene. And 21-year-old Robin Smith was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

Raymond Smith was judge-executive in Knox County from 2002 to 2006.

OFFICER CHARGED

Ex-officer sentenced for drug-related crimes

ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) — A former eastern Kentucky police officer has been sentenced in federal court on drug-related charges.

The Independent (bit.ly/17mceVu) reports U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning sentenced 33-year-old Melvin Charles Schoch Jr. on Monday to 75 months in prison. Schoch pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of attempting to possess oxycodone with intent to distribute and possessing a firearm during the commission of a drug crime.

Court documents say Schoch entered a home looking to take prescription pills and money under the guise of serving a search warrant while serving as an officer. Records show that neither drugs nor cash were found.

Schoch apologized for his actions during the hearing and his attorney asked for a lesser sentence, but Bunning said that would depreciate the seriousness of the crimes.

SOLDIERS KILLED

3 Fort Campbell soldiers killed in Afghanistan

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Three Fort Campbell soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense reported the deaths on Sunday of the servicemen, all assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The department identified the casualties as 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Octavio Herrera of Caldwell, Idaho.; 22-year-old Sgt. Jamar A. Hicks of Little Rock, Ark.; and 26-year-old Spc. Keith E. Grace Jr. of Baytown, Texas.

Herrera and Grace died in Paktia Province, Afghanistan, while Hicks was evacuated to Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, and later died.

The soldiers died of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked their unit with indirect fire.

KENTUCKY RAIN

Flash flooding pours water into eastern Ky. school

MCDOWELL, Ky. (AP) — Flash flooding has caused Floyd County school officials to call off classes.

School is canceled on Tuesday after heavy rain caused problems across the eastern Kentucky county.

WYMT-TV in Hazard reported water as deep as 8 inches flooded McDowell Elementary School. Principal Rady Martin said it only took minutes for the water to rise because recent rain had saturated the soil.

Martin said it will take a couple of days to clean the mud from the classrooms.

Elsewhere in Floyd County, a mudslide cascaded down a hill near Highway 680 in the Grethel community. Mud and a large rock washed down and a storage shed was hit. No injuries were reported and the highway wasn't affected.

OBIT-BACKYARD OIL STAR

Star of 'Backyard Oil' Reliford dies at 62

COLUMBIA, Ky. (AP) — One of the stars of "Backyard Oil," Jimmy Reliford of Columbia, has died at the age of 62.

Richard Phelps of Stotts-Phelps-McQueary Funeral Home Inc. in Columbia said Reliford died Saturday at home of an apparent heart attack. Phelps said Reliford had had stents placed a few days before he died.

Reliford owned Jimmy Reliford Drilling Co. and had been featured on the Discovery Channel show during its run, which began in April. The channel's website described him as "one of Kentucky's biggest players in the oil business" and said he had been in Kentucky's oil business more than 30 years.

Reliford's funeral was scheduled for Wednesday. He was survived by two children, a grandson and a sister.