Wrap Up The Week With Kentucky News

LBL REOPENING

Land Between the Lakes set to reopen

GOLDEN POND, Ky. (AP) — Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky and Tennessee is set to reopen with the government shutdown ending.

The area will welcome visitors starting Friday at noon CDT.

Officials with Land Between the Lakes apologized to would-be visitors for any inconvenience caused by the shutdown.

The largest inland peninsula in the United States, Land Between the Lakes closed to the public earlier this month when a congressional battle over spending and funding forced the government to close multiple attractions across the country.

The 170,000-acre recreation area is squeezed between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake, about 51 miles south of Paducah.

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER

Ribbon cutting set at emergency operations center

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The new Commonwealth Emergency Operations Center at Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort will officially open on Monday.

Gov. Steve Beshear, Adjutant General Edward W. Tonini and Kentucky Emergency Management officials will attend the ribbon cutting for the new facility.

The former emergency operations center built in the 1970s will be replaced by the new two-story, 26,150-square-foot facility. It was built to withstand winds up to 250 miles per hour and is outfitted with state of the art communications technology.

The National Guard says the new building came in about $400,000 under budget. It was funded at $11.8 million, with nearly $10 million coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. The rest came from the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs and Office of Homeland Security.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER-SUSTAINABILITY

Mississippi River city mayors meet in Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Mayors from cities along the Mississippi River are calling on Congress to increase funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for infrastructure improvements and dredging projects that keep commerce flowing on the waterway.

Leaders of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative and the Delta Regional Authority addressed media Thursday after meeting in Memphis to discuss the Mississippi River economy.

River ports have dealt with flooding and drought since 2011, causing water levels to reach near-record highs and hazardous lows in a span of months.

Mayor Larry Brown of Natchez, Miss., said the Corps does all it can to maintain river commerce, but it does not get enough congressional funding to deal with dredging and infrastructure problems. Some ports relied on local funding for dredging projects in recent years.

DERMATOLOGIST KILLED

Man sentenced in death of Lexington doctor

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

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A 67-year-old man who had worked as a maintenance man in a Lexington doctor's office building has been sentenced to life in prison for the doctor's murder.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports Fayette County Circuit Judge James Ishmael Jr. followed the jury's recommendations in sentencing Marty Roe on Thursday. Roe was convicted in August of killing 55-year-old dermatologist Martha Post on Sept. 1, 2011, in the office parking lot.

The prosecution portrayed Roe as so obsessed with Post that he shot her when she didn't return his affections. Roe was arrested the week after the shooting at a bar in Logan County, Ohio.

Defense attorney Robert Friedman said an appeal will be filed.

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson said he was pleased Roe had been sentenced to prison.

LOCK FUNDING-MCCONNELL

Budget bill authorized funds for river dam project

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A budget deal that ended a partial government shutdown included an authorization for $2.9 billion in funding for a troubled lock and dam project on the Ohio River, a crucial shipping route for goods out of the nation's heartland.

The funds would go to the Olmsted Locks and Dam project, which is between Kentucky, home of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and Illinois, home of President Barack Obama.

The project, one of the most costly in the nation, has been running over budget, and work was in danger of ceasing had the funding level not been authorized.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that targets incumbent Republicans it sees as too moderate, attacked McConnell over the lock and dam provision after he finalized the budget deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday.

RESTAURANT PERMIT SCAM

Officials warn of scam targeting restaurants

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Lexington officials are warning restaurants about a scam seeking money for food handler certifications.

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department says an unidentified person claiming to be a county employee recently called a Lexington restaurant and advised the manager to have employees go online to renew their food handler's certifications.

An employee paid the requested $20 and received a fake permit.

Officials say all health inspectors in Kentucky are required to carry proper photo identification signifying their relationship with federal, state or local health agencies.