http://www.richmondregister.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:07:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_323070821.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_323070821.html Before Kentucky faced a crumbling budget and the bottom fall out of tax collections, lawmakers were looking ways to save money on a growing prison population.Two years later, the state budget has been cut by more than $800 million; it faces a $161 million shortfall in the current year; and economists predict as much as a $1.3 billion hole in the next two year budget after federal stimulus money runs out. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:36:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_322083727.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_322083727.html Gov. Steve Beshear conceded to a convention of Kentucky’s county officials Tuesday that another round of state budget cuts is going to be painful and may force some cuts in priority services.One area dear to county officials’ hearts and local budgets will be spared for now at least. There are no plans for the present to cut the county jail bed allotment, state funding for jail operations separate from the per diem payment the state makes for state inmates housed in county jails. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:09:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_309091015.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_309091015.html If gambling enthusiasts could guess the outcome of waters as predictably as Kentucky political leaders react to questions about expanded gambling, a lot of them would be on easy street.Gov. Steve Beshear, Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, saw Ohio voters’ approval of a referendum to allow four metropolitan casinos — including one in Cincinnati across the Ohio River from northern Kentucky’s Turfway racetrack — as a threat to horse racing in Kentucky. Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:40:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_308084059.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_308084059.html 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. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:05:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_302090615.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_302090615.html 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. Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:04:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_302090505.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_302090505.html 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. Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:14:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_295071441.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_295071441.html 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. Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:58:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_294065829.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_294065829.html 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. Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:57:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_294065736.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_294065736.html 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. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:12:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_292081356.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_292081356.html 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. Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:43:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_288094350.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_288094350.html 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. Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_287090101.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_287090101.html 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. Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:19:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_286071950.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_286071950.html Even after cutting nearly $1 billion from the enacted state budget, revenues are likely to fall as much as $161 million short of that budget’s projections. Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:08:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_281220902.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_281220902.html Kentucky’s Public Health Commissioner says people in Kentucky should be careful and watchful about H1N1 flu but not panicked. Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:07:00 +0000 http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_281220755.html http://www.richmondregister.com/statenews/local_story_281220755.html Since Tuesday, Steve Nunn has been undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in LaGrange.