Free Republic

GEORGETOWN - United Autoworkers hopes its new digs near a Central Kentucky Toyota plant lift the union's presence and garner support from thousands of plant workers. The 900-square-foot office building is an organizing feat for the union, which once used rented hotel space to organize its campaign and failed in prior attempts to establish a union. Larry Moffatt, union organizing coordinator for the Kentucky-Indiana region, said that the building, which opened about a week ago, will be "mainly a working center" for the 150 to 200 workers who volunteer from the nearby Georgetown plant. "It's a place for them to...

Kentucky is No. 2 in the nation in the estimated rate of deaths caused by soot from coal-fired power plants, according to a report released yesterday. The other states in the top five, including No. 1 West Virginia, all border Kentucky. "Dirty Air, Dirty Power" was produced by an advocacy group called Clear the Air. It says soot, also called fine particle pollution, cuts short the lives of nearly 24,000 Americans each year. In Kentucky, the estimated toll is 745 deaths a year. The problem is especially bad in Kentucky and neighboring states because coal-fired plants dominate the region, said...

By spring, Lexington police will respond in person only to life-threatening calls unless the department's staffing levels increase, Chief Anthany Beatty says. In general, the decision means police officers won't respond to reports of non-injury traffic accidents on private property, barking dogs and other nuisance calls, and general complaints of motorists speeding and running red lights reported by citizens after 5 p.m., Beatty said in an interview. Other reports and complaints will be prioritized, Beatty said. For example, someone who calls police about a burglary that is not in progress would be considered a lower priority than a crime in...

Handshaking his way into a Lexington VFW Post 680 meeting room, Democrat Ben Chandler sat down at a table of veterans and pledged, as political candidates have done forever, to fight for them in Washington. It was his first public event in the fast-approaching special election to fill Gov. Ernie Flet-cher's old 6th Congressional District seat. But make no mistake: This was not just another pressing of the flesh. The candidates in this campaign are counting on television advertising, not face-to-face contact, to win votes. So, as Chandler waved his arms and leaned in to punctuate his promises to the...

FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher rushed yesterday to defend his $6.9 million of cuts in elementary and secondary education funding to help balance the state budget, saying the action would cause a minimal amount of pain. But House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said he had assumed from Fletcher's earlier statements that the new Republican administration was planning "to make cuts only in fat and waste. This is not fat and waste." The cuts, ordered on Monday, will reduce the money available for such programs as early childhood development, technical and career education, family resource centers, gifted and talented programs,...

The public furor over Lexington's smoking ban is growing into one of the noisiest and most vigorous brawls rumbling toward Frankfort. That is where three state lawmakers have filed separate bills that would prohibit local smoking bans -- and possibly strike down Lexington's, which was enacted in July but has been blocked under a court appeal. Forces on both sides are summoning their lobbyists for the tactical battle that begins Jan. 6, the first day of the legislative session. Interests from all corners -- from farmers to retailers to county magistrates -- are itching for a punch. "We'll be on...

Most regular churchgoers want to re-elect President Bush. Most non-churchgoers plan to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. That's the finding of a recent poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press -- and it's a finding that Lexington's Albert M. Pennybacker hopes will change between now and November. Pennybacker, a former Lexington Theological Seminary professor, a Disciples of Christ minister and a lifelong Demo-crat, is chief executive officer of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new organization that hopes to mobilize thousands of moderate and liberal religious leaders before the Nov. 2 election. Due to the group's...

Film Release Date: December 25th, 2003 (wide) An electrical engineer, Jennings (Affleck), who has been working on a top secret project for two years wakes up one day to discover that his employer has erased the parts of his memory concerning his top secret work. Trying to collect his "paycheck", he discovers that instead of a cash payment, he had agreed to receive a package of seemingly meaningless objects instead. As he tries to put the "pieces" of his life back together, he also discovers that the government is apparently after him, aiming to put him in jail for something...

If Democrat Ben Chandler runs for the congressional seat vacated by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, as expected, he'll face an avalanche of national Republican money similar to the one that helped beat him in this year's governor's race. A Washington-based GOP organization has quietly pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a special account that it established specifically to help win a special election in Kentucky's 6th District. The group is ready to transfer the cash to the party's candidate -- and continue raising more -- as soon as state Republican delegates name one. They'll make that choice Saturday. Chandler hasn't...

Kentucky's highest court stepped into the fray of Lexington's smoking ban yesterday, unanimously blocking the ordinance for an additional three months -- ample time for the debate to be picked up by the state legislature. The last-minute stay overturned a ruling by an appeals court, which just hours before had agreed to let the ban start today as scheduled. The Court of Appeals had been asked to review a Fayette circuit judge's upholding of the ban, the first of its kind in Kentucky. But the Supreme Court agreed to settle the appeal directly. The justices set a hearing for March...

The $70,000 garage at Lexington's Stonewall Equestrian Estates must come down, the Court of Appeals has ruled. That's the latest in a long-running battle between the neighborhood association and Carolyn and Don Colliver, who built the all-brick garage. Nobody claims it isn't well-built. Nobody disputes that the Collivers, who lived in neighboring Stonewall for 30 years, have put about $110,000 of improvements into their $265,000 house at Stonewall Equestrian, not including the garage. Nobody disputes that the argument has gone on too long: The Collivers broke ground for their garage more than three years ago. What has been hotly disputed...

As the former state cabinet secretary whose duties included overseeing health care, Masten Childers II has spent a lot of time dealing with hospitals. Case in point: Howard Chapman, a patient in whose abdomen UK surgeons left a blue surgical towel, an oversight that was not discovered for more than two years after he had kidney surgery. Chapman, who is represented by Childers, sued UK, two doctors and a scrub technician in September. Since that filing, UK has not denied that its doctors and a scrub technician left the towel behind, or that it caused Chapman serious problems and had...

Unless Lexington beefs up its police force, the public can expect visible consequences such as the end of funeral escorts and the depletion of neighborhood support, Chief Anthany Beatty said yesterday. Although Beatty and police officers have made the pay and staffing issues well known, the chief yesterday offered the Urban County Council's intergovernmental committee a closer look at the ways residents could be affected. If your neighbor's dog is barking, or if your car has been smashed in a non-injury collision, the police might no longer respond, he said. "We've reached the point where we were hoping it never...

FRANKFORT - The special election to replace Governor-elect Ernie Fletcher in Congress figures to get more than the customary amount of outside attention, thanks to its timing. Assuming Fletcher will not delay in issuing the call, the election of his replacement in the 6th District could take place in mid-January. It apparently would be the first Democrat-Republican contest in the nation and, as happened in Fletcher's recent run for governor, would be scrutinized for signs of President Bush's strength or vulnerability. Maybe the Democrats will "make this another referendum on Bush," Brian Goettl, the Jessamine County attorney, said at a...

Jim Dwyer received the highest amount paid per acres for his 205-acre farm on Houston Antioch Road, and used his $864,444 PDR payment to buy another 127-acre farm across the county line in Bourbon County. Lexington's farmland preservation program has plowed through more than $25 million in the past two years, protecting more than 10,000 acres of rural Fayette County from future development. More than $15 million has been doled out to area landowners since July, setting a blistering pace of preservation that few expected from a 3-year-old program designed to preserve 50,000 acres over 20 years. "We're starting to...

A circuit judge yesterday removed a roadblock to Lexington's stalled smoking ban, ruling that the ordinance should begin Dec. 11 because "there is no just reason for delay." A group of restaurant, bar and nightclub owners that had sued the city, however, said it will swiftly appeal Fayette Circuit Judge Larry VanMeter's dismissal of the lawsuit, opening the potential for many more weeks of waiting and possible intervention by the state legislature. The Lexington-Fayette County Food and Beverage Association will ask the court of appeals to review VanMeter's decision and to temporarily block enforcement of the ban, said the group's...

FRANKFORT - Bernie Kunkel waited years for a Republican governor who would appoint conservatives like him to state boards and commissions. He'll have to wait a while longer. With less than three weeks left in office, Democratic Gov. Paul Patton is methodically filling every seat on the more than 300 boards that help decide government policy, steer the huge bureaucracy and regulate industries, from the State Fair Board to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission. Republicans and their incoming governor, Ernie Fletcher, are crying foul. Although Patton has the authority to pack seats with anyone he chooses until Dec. 9, that-doesn't...

<p>Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union filed lawsuits in state and federal courts yesterday alleging that the Jefferson County Republican Party's plan to post Election Day challengers at 59 precincts in the Louisville area is aimed at intimidating African-American voters and violates their civil and constitutional rights.</p>

<p>The Edmonson County attorney, whose home was fired on Saturday night, likely was targeted for a drive-by shooting because of his job, authorities said.</p> <p>''Right now we're investigating this as if he was targeted because he's a prosecutor,'' Sheriff B.J. Honeycutt said yesterday.</p>

------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Sat, Sep. 14, 2002 Bowling Green plant to build new Cadillacs BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Test production of a new line of Cadillac sports cars will create 128 new jobs at the General Motors factory here, although most of them will go to outsiders. The plant is expected to reach full production by April of the Cadillac XLR, a $70,000, two-seat sports car that goes on sale next year. All but about 20 of the new jobs will go to workers already employed by GM in factories elsewhere. The Bowling Green plant was specifically chosen for the production...