HEBRON — Northern Kentucky election coverage will be televised tonight beginning at 6 p.m. on Insight Cable Channel 16 in Boone and Kenton counties and Channel 21 in Campbell County.

        The cable access programming will feature results and analysis from all three courthouses in Northern Kentucky.

        The program's hosts will be former state lawmakers Ken Harper of Crestview Hills and Bill Donnermeyer of Bellevue. Courthouse coverage will be presented by:

        • Boone County, Judge-executive Gary Moore and Florence Mayor Diane Whalen.

        • Kenton County, Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd and lawyer Chris Mehling.

        • Campbell County, Judge-executive Steve Pendery and county Commissioner Bill Verst.

        The program will be produced and presented by the cable access group Cable-1, the Kenton-Boone Office of Cable and the Campbell County Cable Board, with support from Delta Air Lines and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
       

Boone County seeks
adjustment member

               WALTON — The Boone County Planning Commission is seeking candidates to fill a vacancy on the Walton Board of Adjustment. A five-member board meets as needed reviewing various permit and zoning applications. Those interested should send a letter outlining qualifications and reasons interested by Nov. 27. Call (859) 334-2196 for information.
       

Battling spouses
inspire hit song

               BOWLING GREEN — For Philip Douglas, witnessing a fight between spouses turned out to be inspiring.

        The Bowling Green man wrote country musician Aaron Tippin's hit “Kiss This,” after watching a tiff between Mr. Tippin and his wife, Thea.

        The result was a song that for two weeks was No. 1 on Billboard magazine's hot country music chart.

        According to Billboard's Web site, the Nov. 4 edition of the magazine has the song ranked fourth, after 24 weeks on the hot country chart.

        Regardless of its position on the charts, Mr. Douglas is proud of the breakup tune, Mr. Tippin's version of which recently went gold after selling 500,000 copies in two months.

        “It's wonderful,” Mr. Douglas said. “I had two top 10s with Aaron — "My Blue Angel' and 'Working Man's Ph.D.' No. 1's are hard to come by.”

        That's especially true when popular singers such as Garth Brooks are standing in your way.

        “Garth kept us off the charts the last time,” said a chuckling Mr. Douglas, who is on a first-name basis with many of country's best and brightest.

        A staff writer for Curb Music Publishing in Nashville, Tenn., Mr. Douglas has written songs for Tim McGraw, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Van Shelton, Jim Nabors and Chris Cummings. Mr. Douglas' song for Mr. Cummings, “The Kind of Heart That Breaks,” was No. 1 in Canada.
       

Three men indicted
on fraud charges

               LOUISVILLE — A federal grand jury on Monday indicted three men in a scheme to defraud various insurance and fi nance companies out of millions of dollars.

        Anthony Huff, 39, of Louisville, is charged with mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Marion Huff, 60, of Louisville, Anthony Huff's father, is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Bryan Kerwick, Sr., 42, of Leitchfield, is charged with mail fraud.

        The indictment alleges that between March 1995 and March 1996, Anthony Huff masterminded a scheme “to defraud and obtain money and property belonging to various insurance companies and premium finance companies, by means false and fraudulent.”

        Mr. Huff, with the help of a commercial interstate carrier, acquired millions of dollars in premium financing loans, purportedly to pay for large insurance policies for trucking companies, the indictment alleged. Instead of paying off the policies, the indictment said. Mr. Huff used the loan proceeds for his personal use, the payment of various debts and the financing of other unauthorized business deals, it said. Marion Huff also received some of the loan proceeds, the indictment said.

        Mr. Kerwick's role was aiding Mr. Huff in a scheme to defraud Liberty Mutual and Imperial Premium Finance between November 1995 and February 1996, the indictment said.
       

Suspect posts bond
in murder case

               LOUISVILLE — A 70-year-old woman charged with murder in the shooting death of her husband on Friday is now staying with relatives.

        Elma Render posted $1,000 of a $10,000 bond and is on house arrest, said Diane Curtis, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Corrections Department.

        Ms. Render is accused of shooting her husband of 46 years to death. Police found Melvin Render, 69, dead in the couple's home on Friday with multiple gunshot wounds in his chest.

        The couple had a tumultuous marriage with a history of verbal abuse, family members said, but arguments had never turned physically violent.

        Funeral services for Melvin Render will be today..
       

Veteran reporter
dies in Louisville

               LOUISVILLE — George Hackett, an Associated Press newsman who chronicled Kentucky for most of six decades, died Monday after a brief illness. He was 82.

        Mr. Hackett started his AP career in 1944 as a Wirephoto operator, and later held a number of supervisory positions including news editor. He most recently was bureau enterprise editor.

        “George Hackett arguably wrote more stories read by more people than any other journalist in Kentucky,” said Ed Staats, Hackett's 13th bureau chief during his years as a wire service reporter. “Hackett, as he was known by everyone, also was a voracious reader and book reviewer whose reviews were distributed nationally by the AP.”

        Through his long years of service to the news agency, all in the Louisville bureau, Mr. Hackett rose to become the fifth longest-serving employee in the AP's global staff of more than 3,500.

        “George trained a generation of young AP writers and editors, and he was the real stability on the staff of the AP news organization in Kentucky for longer than I have been in the craft,” said David Hawpe, editorial director of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, who said Mr. Hackett was his first real boss in journalism.

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