The Richmond Register

Defining distracted driving may be problem for lawmakers
So you are one of those superb drivers who can multi-task, right? Well, that might have been what 53,000 Kentucky motorists were thinking when they suddenly found themselves in an auto crash in 2008.
Sadly, 200 of them didn’t survive, according to data provided by Boyd T. Sigler, director of Highway Safety Programs. Many of them were sending text messages, it is believed.
Jails an issue for local government committee
Lawmakers grilled the state Commissioner of Corrections on Wednesday not about state prisons but county jails, and one suggested statutory changes to allow more state inmates to be housed in county jails.
The Interim Joint Committee on Local Government peppered Commissioner LaDonna Thompson about Department of Corrections responses to a management audit of county jails four years ago by state Auditor Crit Luallen.
Coroner: Census worker died at tree in Ky. forest
A part-time census taker died at the tree in a Kentucky forest where his body was found with a rope around his neck and the word “fed” scrawled on his chest, officials said Wednesday.
The naked body of Bill Sparkman, 51, was found hanging from the tree yet in contact with the ground in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest on Sept. 12. Authorities had previously not said whether Sparkman died there or elsewhere and then taken to the secluded area near a family cemetery in rural southeast Kentucky.
Social workers: Work environment still unsafe
Kentucky social workers told lawmakers Wednesday they are still being threatened and in dangerous situations, despite recent heavily touted legislation intended to improve their working conditions.
Key provisions of the 2007 “Boni bill” remain unfulfilled, social workers told a legislative panel Wednesday. Mounting caseloads, combined with insufficient funding and a lack of social workers, have led to some unsafe situations with clients, they said.
Republican senators to offer constitutional amendments on gambling
Two Republican state senators who have been in the thick of the debate about expanded gambling at racetracks said Tuesday they will offer separate constitutional amendments on expanded gambling in the next session of the General Assembly.
Nunn retains Warren Scoville as defense attorney
Steve Nunn, the former legislator and one-time gubernatorial candidate charged in the shooting death of his former fiancé, has retained a new defense attorney.
War monument marks Kentucky’s anniversary effort
On a cold December day in 1861, a few hundred German immigrants in blue Union uniforms squared off against 3,000 Confederates on foot and horseback near Munfordville.
When the withering artillery and musket fire cleared, the rebels fled, and Kentucky’s first Civil War battle ended in victory for the 32nd Indiana regiment known as the “First German.”
But before the regiment marched on, infantryman August Bloedner carved a limestone monument to the 13 Union dead, leaving behind the Civil War’s first monument to fallen soldiers.
Nurse charged in killing patient released from jail
A nurse charged with murdering a patient at a veterans’ hospital was ordered released Wednesday, but under house arrest and electronically monitored pending trial.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Todd said 32-year-old Maria Kelly Whitt would remain in the custody of her mother Bonnie Whitt of Mount Sterling. Todd’s ruling came after a two-part hearing concerning the September 2007 death of 90-year-old World War II veteran Jesse Chain and whether Whitt was a danger to others if released.
Gov. Beshear seeks better dental health
Dr. Mike Porter, the executive director of the Kentucky Dental Association, said, “It’s a start.”
Al Smith, former newspaper publisher, host of Comment on Kentucky and chairman of the Appalachian Research Commission under President Jimmy Carter, called it “a promise kept.”
It is a nearly $2 million state initiative, paid for by grants from the ARC and the Health Resources and Services Administration to improve the dental health of Kentucky’s children, especially those in distressed counties of Appalachia.

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