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AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling,...

A northern Kentucky man is in jail today – serving a 180-day sentence – because his 18-year-old daughter failed a math test and didn't get her General Equivalency Diploma, or GED, as a previous court order required. Brittany Gegner, the daughter, says if anyone should be jailed, it should be her. [snip] Butler County Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus ordered Gegner to jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor by not following a court order which required Gegner to be sure his daughter got her GED.

New polls Monday predicted landslide wins for Hillary Clinton in two looming primaries, despite pressure for her to cede to Barack Obama's mathematical stranglehold on the Democratic White House race. The former first lady, who is vowing to battle on even as Obama turns his sights on Republican presumptive nominee John McCain, led her foe by 36 points in the latest poll out of West Virginia, which votes Tuesday. In Kentucky, which holds its primary on May 20, Clinton was up 58 to 31 percent, in another poll suggesting Obama faces an uncomfortable two weeks. Huge wins for Clinton in...

(CNN) — Even as her campaign appears to be in its final stages, Hillary Clinton is headed for two sweeping victories in West Virginia and Kentucky, the next two states to weigh in on the prolonged Democratic presidential race. According to new polls released Monday, Clinton holds a 34 point lead in West Virginia and a 27 point lead in Kentucky. In West Virginia, which votes Tuesday, a Suffolk University Poll has Clinton drawing 60 percent of likely Democratic voters compared to Obama's 24 percent. That poll also shows Clinton holds a 70 percent approval rating among West Virginia’s Democratic...

Hillary & Obama: Peaches & Herb? TRIBUNE REVIEW By: Salena Zito Perhaps if you had been in an isolation chamber since the day before Sen. Hillary Clinton's first loss in Iowa, you would think that the poll for tomorrow's contest in West Virginia made sense. Until that moment she was inevitable. Now, not so much. Still the numbers are the numbers and here is what they say about Tuesday's West Virginia primary and next week's contest in Kentucky:

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Despite a weakening position in the Democratic presidential nomination race, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York is very popular among Democrats in West Virginia, the location of next primary, a survey showed on Friday. The poll by TSG consulting showed Clinton lead 63-23 percent over rival Sen. Barrack Obama of Illinois in West Virginia, said the Charleston Gazette, a West Virginia newspaper. The telephone poll of 300 Democratic and independent voters had an error margin of plus or minus 6 percent. TSG president Tom Susman said if that vote held true on May 13,the primary...

To hear Howard Avery describe it, Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie knew nothing of his son when their paths happened to cross at a recent AAU basketball event. As fate would have it, though, that chance encounter led to a scholarship offer from the Wildcats and perhaps the earliest verbal commitment in the history of college basketball's winningest program. Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader from Lake Sherwood, Calif., says he will play for the Cats. Now on with the business of finding a high school. "That's the funny thing," Howard Avery said with laugh. "We've got our college. Now we need...

Clinton and her campaign know that the road to victory for her must include a resolution to the Florida and Michigan votes, something that has been dragging on since both states voted in January in violation of Democratic Party rules. Later this month the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC will meet to discuss the matter... The fund-raiser was interrupted briefly at the beginning when a protestor stood on his chair with a large sign that read "Obliterate Iran? Apologize." The sign referred to some comments Clinton made in regards to bombing Iran if they attacked Israel with a...

DEMOCRATIC White House hopeful Barack Obama said today he could declare victory over Hillary Clinton on May 20, when Kentucky and Oregon may put him over the top in terms of elected delegates. "If at that point we have the majority of pledged delegates, which is possible, then I think we can make a pretty strong claim that we have got the most runs and it's the ninth inning and we have won," he told NBC television, referring to the final inning of a baseball game. "But, you know, I think it is also important for us to, if we...

Munitions pose no danger FORT KNOX — World War I-era munitions found at a construction site at Fort Knox pose no danger, Army ordnance experts determined. Construction workers at the site of the future Human Resources Center of Excellence discovered the mortar shells Friday while moving soil for a sewer system. As an additional safety measure, an expert from the Army Corps of Engineers was brought in to inspect the site and present the post with options for proper site clean up and disposal. Based on inspection findings, Col. Mark Needham, garrison commander, directed an ordnance expert be hired to...

The trainer of euthanized filly Eight Belles said Monday his jockey handled the horse properly during her second-place finish at the Kentucky Derby. Trainer Larry Jones said from Lexington that if the Derby were run again tomorrow, he'd put jockey Gabriel Saez right back on one of his horses. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called for the suspension of Saez, saying the horse must have been injured during the race and he should have pulled her up rather than finish. But Jones said Saez acted exactly as he should have. Saez started whipping the horse to prevent...

Tragedy struck the first filly in the Kentucky Derby since 1999, as Eight Belles went down on the track after her second-place finish today, broke two ankles, and was euthanized. Showing a sisterhood with the female horse, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., during a trip to Louisville this week had said she was going to bet on Eight Belles to win, place, and show. ABC News' Karen Travers reports that Clinton told supporters in Jeffersonville, Ind., earlier this week, "I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me....

Former Gov. Brereton Jones has borrowed heavily from a financially distressed bank that he and several other Democratic Party leaders founded in 2001, according to interviews and bank records. Federal regulators have criticized the directors of Frankfort-based American Founders Bank, including Jones, for inadequate supervision. The bank was badly managed and suffered "hazardous lending and lax collection practices," which left it with far too many unpaid loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Among the specific concerns cited was improper reporting and recordkeeping of insider loans to bank directors and executives. The FDIC issued a cease-and-desist order to the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—The filly Eight Belles finished second behind favorite Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, then collapsed with two broken front ankles and was euthanized after crossing the wire. The field of 20 horses was galloping out around the first turn at Churchill Downs when Eight Belles suddenly went down on both front legs and jockey Gabriel Saez slid off. “When we passed the wire I stood up,” said Saez, a first-time Derby rider. “She started galloping funny. I tried to pull her up. That’s when she went down.” An equine ambulance reached her on the track...

Barack Obama met with reporters Friday in Indianapolis and admitted the obvious: "We've had a rough couple of weeks. I won't deny that." The next couple of weeks will show just how rough. The roiling controversies -- over his remarks about rural voters and his ties to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. -- have cast new doubts over the Illinois senator's ability to win over white working-class Democrats. Tuesday's two primaries will offer fresh data on his appeal. Sen. Obama is strongly favored in North Carolina, while Indiana is seen as a toss-up. If Hillary Clinton gets...

LOUISVILLE, KY — While she said wished she could be in town for the Derby on Saturday, Clinton had some instructions for volunteers going to the race in her stead — telling them “I want everybody to place a little money on the filly.”

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/multimedia/x996195357 Courtesy of Commonwealth's Attorney David Justice

A case triggered by a school district's instructions to students to "shut up" if they held religious beliefs that did not support the practice of homosexuality is being appealed to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Officials with the Alliance Defense Fund have confirmed they are taking the case involving Timothy Morrison to the next level after a panel decided against a judicial ruling endorsing the student's First Amendment rights in the dispute with the Boyd County, Ky., Board of Education. "Christian students shouldn't be prohibited from expressing their beliefs," ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster...

snip ...Frodo Baggins hit fence 5, the Flower Basket, at high speed and had a rotational fall. The course was held for an hour and a half while Ashker was stabilized, and she was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Hospital. She has sustained injuries but is conscious and able to move her extremities. She is being cared for by the emergency and trauma services at UK. Vets attended to Frodo Baggins for some time, and he was transported off the course to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute just across Ironworks Pike from the Kentucky Horse Park [later euthanized] snip Heidi...

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-OH, blamed labor unions and partisan politics for a U.S. House vote this week rejecting an amendment that could have kept the Delta Queen riverboat from having to phase out its overnight cruise packages. The historic riverboat has been operating with a special Congressional exemption from the federal Safety at Sea Act since 1968, an exemption that has been renewed eight times. The safety act bans the use of wooden vessels for overnight cruises. Backers of the exemption claim the Delta Queen deserves special treatment because of its historical significance and recently upgraded fire-safety systems. With...

What happens in Lexington doesn't stay in Lexington, at least not anymore. More and more illegal immigrants who get arrested here are being detained by federal immigration officials and then being deported because of two new policies.  In the past a person like Julio Morales Chacon, a convicted criminal and illegal immigrant, could have served his time in the Fayette County jail, then he could have been released back on the streets. But on April 14th Chacon was turned over to I.C.E. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Marcello Sabino Borges, an illegal immigrant who served his time for DUI...

The Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that the death penalty by lethal injection in Kentucky, which uses a cocktail of three drugs, is not a violation of the Constitution's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment." Other states, which had placed their lethal injection methods on hold pending a court ruling, are now expected to proceed. No news report I saw appreciated the irony of the 7-2 vote, the same margin by which the court decided in 1973 that unborn babies could be killed in any manner, with or without drugs to dull their pain. As death penalty opponents on and...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2008 – A piece of legislation aimed at easing transitions for military children switching schools adheres to an armed forces adage: Recruit the servicemember, but retain the family, a Pentagon official said today. Developed by the Council of State Governments, education experts and the Defense Department, the Compact on Education Transition for Military Children addresses common problems that affect military students as a result of frequent moves and deployments. “The interstate compact is a major new tool and opportunity for the nation really to show its appreciation to military families,” Leslye A. Arsht, deputy undersecretary of...

GUEST COLUMNIST Some liberal commentators have downplayed the effect of Barack Obama's recent fundraising speech in San Francisco. But that's wishful thinking. Along with the revelations about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, his remarks in San Francisco will haunt him not only in the upcoming primaries in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, but also in the general election against John McCain, assuming he gets the Democratic nomination. To win in November, a Democratic presidential candidate has to carry most of the industrial heartland states that stretch from Pennsylvania to Missouri. That becomes even more imperative if a Democrat can't carry...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Sen. Barack Obama, after accusing Sen. Hillary Clinton of "playing gotcha games," declined Thursday to commit to a debate in North Carolina before the state's May 6 primary. "We're trying to figure out what our schedule looks like, but I'll be honest with you, we've now had 21" debates, Obama said in response to an audience member's question at a rally at the state fairgrounds. Clinton has agreed to a debate proposed for April 27 in Raleigh. Over the last three days, Gov. Mike Easley, former Gov. Jim Hunt and Democratic leaders of the state legislature have...

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: A Republican House member Monday sent a letter of apology to Sen. Barack Obama, after calling him "boy" and comparing him to a "snake oil salesman" in attacking his national security credentials at a weekend fund-raising dinner in Kentucky. According to a Lexington Herald-Leader blog item, Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., said Saturday that he had recently participated in a "highly classified, national security simulation" with Obama, and said that exercise showed that Obama can't be trusted to make difficult decisions. "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on...

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a "snake oil salesman" [at a Northern Kentucky Lincoln Day dinner]. He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a "highly classified, national security simulation" with Obama. "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis said. "He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country." -snip-

Burden of proof -- Clinton counts on delegate math By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, April 13, 2008 Every other story written by journalists across the country gives a spreadsheet of reasons why Hillary Clinton should step out of the Democrats' campaign. Yet in the public's eye, there she stands as though she has not a care in the world. One reason may be that the party's super-delegates who remain uncommitted have an unspoken burden of proof to determine whether this race goes on or not. So far, they have not exercised their superpowers.

God, guns and Obama TRIBUNE-REVIEW By: Salena Zito On Friday it was reveled that Sen. Barack Obama told wealthy San Franciscans last Sunday that small-town Pennsylvanians and Midwesterners "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" about their economic status. By today in Muncie, Ind., Obama acknowledged that he "didn't say it as well as I should have."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The growing cost to the United States of fighting the war in Iraq "is not only linked to our economic skid, but is a leading cause of it," a Democratic congressman said Saturday. Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky linked the costly, unpopular war with the growing economic troubles -- some say recession -- in this country. Yarmuth said in the Democrats' weekly radio address that the testimony this week of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the Iraq war served as reminder of the billions of dollars being poured into Iraq as the U.S. economy...

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- Metro police and firefighters are on the scene of a plane crash near Bowman Field. The aircraft is down in the 2600 block of Valetta Road near the Seneca Gardens neighborhood. The 6-seater Cessna P210N went down shortly before 3 p.m. and police officials tell us it narrowly missed a house in the residential neighborhood. Emergency crews pulled two people from the wreckage. They were taken to the hospital. No word yet on their condition. We have a crew on the scene and we'll have the latest coming up on WAVE 3 News.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man wasn’t around when officers seized reptiles from his home. That’s because he was at a hospital having fingers amputated after a snakebite, his wife says. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources seized seven rattlesnakes, a gaboon viper, a king cobra, an iguana, two monitor lizards, two alligators, a boa constrictor and a python. The 36-year-old Campbellsville man faces 15 counts of transporting wildlife into Kentucky without a transportation permit and 10 counts of possessing inherently dangerous animals.

The Clinton campaign is using triple coverage to try to win the Indiana and Kentucky primaries next month. In the past seven days Kentuckiana has had visits from former President Bill Clinton, candidate Hillary Clinton and Tuesday night, their daughter Chelsea was in Louisville. WAVE 3's Mark Schnyder has details on Tuesday night's visit to a gay bar. This wasn't your typical question and answer session in that many of the questions came from people with beer in hand. It appeared some had had a couple beers before Chelsea got there. In fact, the former first daughter had to turn...

NSSF has identified increased anti-gun movement at the state level nationwide, most notably seen in legislation to require bullet serialization in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington. Track all of these bills.

A woman who walked into a health services building with a weapon at the University of Louisville has been disarmed. School spokeswoman Cindy Hess says university police arrived seven minutes after receiving a call and found a hostage situation. Hess says she doesn't know how many people were taken hostage, but there were no injuries. Hess says the woman was disarmed shortly after police arrived. An initial posting on the school's Web site described

Maybe, just maybe, it’s now worth at least asking whether Hillary Clinton might wind up as the Democratic candidate for vice president. When the chatter about a Democratic “dream ticket” began last year, it was easy to dismiss. Either Clinton or Obama would win a clear victory in the primaries and, after what inevitably would be a contentious campaign, each would want as little to do with the other as possible. Clinton, if she emerged victorious, would instead choose some kind of national security graybeard to her political right, a retired general perhaps, or maybe even a Republican. Likewise, Obama...

Kentucky McCain 53 Clinton 43 McCain 64 Obama 28 Missouri McCain 48 Clinton 46 McCain 53 Obama 39 Ohio Clinton 50 McCain 44 McCain 50 Obama 43

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A federal judge has stopped enforcement of a Kentucky law barring non-citizens from carrying concealed deadly weapons. U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell said the law is written too broadly and violates the rights of attorney Alexander M. Say, a British national who has lived in Kentucky for 15 years. Russell issued the decision Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and Kentucky State Police on behalf of Say. The ACLU challenged the citizenship requirement, saying Kentucky lawmakers should not have passed the law. The sheriff's department and state police would have to...

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal. The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

Rasmussen Markets data on Sunday morning shows that Hillary Clinton is expected to win upcoming contests in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The former First Lady is very slightly favored in Indiana. Obama is expected to win in Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, and Montana.

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal. The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal By Kellie Wilson E-mail | Biography Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal. The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each...

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal. The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that. Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down...

A father and son who own two large Lexington apartment complexes have been ordered to appear in U.S. District Court Friday to answer charges that they rented to at least 60 illegal immigrants and hired two without documentation to work for them. A 32-count federal indictment charges William Jerry Hadden and Jamey Hadden with harboring illegal immigrants from 2000 to November 2007 at the Woodridge Apartments and Cross Keys Apartments. Both complexes are located off Versailles Road in an area heavily populated with Hispanic immigrants. Most, if not all, of the 60 tenants named in the indictment are facing deportation,...

Media Bias: When a lame attempt at stirring up a John McCain version of the Gennifer Flowers scandal falls flat, the New York Times raises the silly notion that he could be constitutionally ineligible to be president.The Gray Lady took quite some flak over its quadruple-bylined story last week insinuating a romantic relationship between presumptive Republican presidential nominee and a Washington lobbyist. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which regularly features Times stories, refused to run it because of "serious flaws," according to its managing editor. The story, he said, "used a raft of unnamed sources," didn't have "anything approaching convincing material," was...

UNSEEN WORLD By RACHAEL TOLLIVER Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:58 PM CST JILL PICKETT/The News-Enterprise George Crothers, director of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Office of State Archaeology, finishes collecting ash from torch remains for radiocarbon dating during a February trip into the cave in Hardin County. Local cave enthusiasts chart discovery of pristine formations, prehistoric Indians HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY — Mankind has always dreamed of discovering the unknown — being the first to do something or arrive somewhere — and from those quests leave a legacy that those who follow will envy. Such finds are rare....

Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe has dismissed cornerback Rod Council from the team after Council allegedly robbed a gas station early Wednesday morning. Council, 22, was charged with one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. He was being held on $50,000 bond at the Haywood County Detention Center in Waynesville, N.C., on Wednesday evening.

Summary At least twenty-five states, including several of the nation’s largest, face budget shortfalls in fiscal year 2009. Of these 25 states, specific estimates are available for 20 states; the combined deficits of these 20 states are expected to total at least $34 billion for fiscal 2009 — which begins July 2008 in most states. Another 3 states expect budget problems in fiscal year 2010, although some of those gaps may occur earlier than expected. Many of the other states have not yet released information about their fiscal status. The bursting of the housing bubble has reduced state sales tax...

PETA Opposes Tribute to Fried Chicken Feb 9 08:02 AM US/Eastern FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Animals rights advocates are squawking at a measure that would make fried chicken Kentucky's official picnic food. State Rep. Charles Siler is sponsoring legislation to assign the designation to KFC's "finger lickin' good" chicken, first served by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940. The late colonel's fried chicken deserves the title because of the worldwide attention and economic benefit it has brought to the state, Siler said. KFC, a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., has 11,000 restaurants in more than 80 countries. People for the...

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 6, 2008 – More than 160 National Guard members turned out today to support recovery missions in three states hit by a violent string of tornadoes last night. The National Guard Bureau reported that Guard members were called out to perform search and rescue missions, provide security at traffic control points, and to support civilian authorities in other ways in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of the Guard soldiers who responded were undergoing pre-deployment training at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Ky., about five miles from one of the areas hit by a...