Monday’s Kentucky News – December 9th, 2013

CHEERLEADER LIBEL LAWSUIT

Internet giants weigh in on defamation lawsuit

CINCINNATI (AP) — From Twitter and Facebook to Amazon and Google, the biggest names of the Internet are blasting a federal judge's decision to allow a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader's defamation lawsuit against a gossip website to go to trial.

The Internet giants recently filed briefs in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The briefs are part of a lawsuit involving ex-Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones against an Arizona-based website thedirty.com.

A jury found in July that posts on the site about Jones were substantially false and awarded her $338,000.

The companies say that if upheld, the northern Kentucky judge's ruling to let the lawsuit proceed has the potential to "significantly chill online speech" and undermine a 1996 federal law that provides broad immunity to websites.

REPORTING BULLIES

Students create way to report bullies

(Information in the following story is from: Daily News, http://www.bgdailynews.com)

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Students at a Bowling Green elementary school are coming up with new ways to fight bullying.

Rylee Turner and Hailey Crow, who are sixth-graders at Bristow Elementary School, worked with teachers to create a special form online where students and parents can report bullying incidents.

Fifth-grade teacher Leah Renfrow told the Daily News that the idea stemmed from a meeting with parents about a month ago.

Renfrow says the pro-active approach fits with The Leader in Me curriculum at the school.

Crow says it's a new method that students and use to "tell people when they are being bullied instead of holding it in."

DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION

South Frankfort seeing revitalization

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — For fans of urban revitalization in historic areas, it's the perfect love story.

An impressionistic painter and her jazz musician husband left California for their native Kentucky to make a home and studio on the recently lifeless Bridge Street in Frankfort.

Three doors down, another artist is making an anticipated re-emergence to the city after time spent out of state.

In a potential turning point for the area, private funds are restoring vacant and underutilized properties in the Second Street corridor while the city awaits the final version of a plan to revitalize the area's intersections, sidewalks and community gardens.

WEST LIBERTY SCHOOL

Construction continues on West Liberty Elementary

(Information in the following story is from: WKYT-TV, http://www.wkyt.com)

WEST LIBERTY, Ky. (AP) — Officials say construction is almost done a on a new West Liberty Elementary school and they expect students to be able to return by the start of the new year.

The original elementary school was one of nearly a thousand structures destroyed by two tornadoes last year.

Officials tell WKYT-TV that the outside of the new school is finished, but work is continuing inside. They say crews are putting the final touches on classrooms, the gym and library.

Officials plan to start moving equipment to the new school next month. Class is expected to begin Jan. 6, after students' winter break.