Prices at burley auctions rise this week

        LEXINGTON — Kentucky burley growers sold almost 10.5 million pounds of leaf on Tuesday for $20.6 million, an average of $196.54 per hundredweight, according to the Federal-State Market News Service.

        The average is $1.01 higher than the previous sales on Tuesday.

        Danville growers received $200.64 per hundredweight for their leaf, the highest price of the day among the markets reporting sales. Danville sales totaled 614,204 pounds for $1.2 million.

        The lowest price, $192.15 was in Shelbyville, where farmers sold 585,575 pounds for $1.1 million.

        Kentucky's total for Tuesday was 10,497,433 pounds selling for $20,631,335.
       

Former city attorney suspended

        FRANKFORT — The Supreme Court on Wednesday imposed a four-year suspension on Patrick C. Hickey of Edgewood, a former Covington city attorney who pleaded guilty to income tax evasion in March 1999. The suspension is retroactive to the date of his plea.
       

Man arrested in murder of widow, 67

        LAWRENCEBURG — A man was arrested Tuesday and charged with the strangulation death of a 67-year-old widow a month ago.Authorities believe there may be a connection with that murder and others in the area.

        Ronald Bixler, 32, from Lawrenceburg, was charged with murder and theft by unlawful taking.

        The body of Daisy Whitaker, also of Lawrenceburg, was found in the bathtub at her residence Oct. 22, the same night her car was stolen.

        Lawrenceburg and Kentucky State Police officers, state medical examiners, the Anderson County coroner and the Anderson County commonwealth's attorney planned to meet Wednesday to discuss Mr. Bixler's case and examine any possible links he has to three other suspicious deaths.
       

Inspectors find no mine ponds as risks

       

        INEZ— The federal agency that monitors coal-mine ponds has found no imminent danger of another collapse like the one that mired this eastern Kentucky community in 250 million gallons of black sludge.

        The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration sent in spectors to mine ponds across Appalachia after a 70-acre impoundment broke on a mountaintop outside Inez on Oct. 11.

        “We've found nothing earth-shattering,” said Rodney Brown, spokesman for the agency.
       

Poverty rate remains high in Ky.

        Kentucky still ranks among the highest in percentage of residents living in poverty, although poverty statewide declined between 1993 and 1997, according to new census estimates.

        The state's pace of improvement was more than double the national average, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

        Still, seven of the state's counties ranked among the 50 poorest in the nation in 1997. And the percentage of children living in poverty was greater, placing nine Kentucky counties in the top 50. Six counties were among the 50 poorest on both lists.

        Kentucky's percentage of residents living in poverty is among the highest, tying California's at 41st. Kentucky was 46th in 1993 and 43rd in 1995.
       

Rock slide cleared; section of I-75 open

        CORBIN — State highway officials have reopened a quarter-mile section of Interstate 75 in Whitley County that was closed last Thursday after a rock slide.

        The right lane of I-75, about five miles south of Corbin, was closed after a tractor-trailer struck a large piece of rock that had broken from a cliff beside the highway.

        Highway officials promised the road would be reopened in time for the holiday weekend.
       

Court rejects limit on nursing home beds

        FRANKFORT — A state health plan that has decreed that Kentucky needs no more nursing home beds is flawed and should not be regarded, the Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

        Judge John Miller said the state plan is based on invalid statistical criteria and ignores real-life issues.

        “We judicially know many elderly Kentuckians and their families are directly affected by the state health plan,” Judge Miller wrote in the unanimous ruling.

        The state health plan is compiled every three years and reviewed annually. The most recent version was given legislative approval within the last few weeks.

        But dozens of nursing homes around the state sued the Cabinet for Health Services, claiming that the ban on approval for new nursing home beds was based on improper findings. The ruling could open the door for new nursing home beds, which are sought-after but expensive for the state, which pays for many of them through Medicaid.

        In another ruling, the court said the Disabled American Veterans organization is not subject to the law that outlaws employment discrimination based on disability because it is a private club.

        The ruling struck a unanimous three-judge panel as a bit of a contradiction.

        “In sum, although it is certainly ironic that an association of disabled persons should find itself seeking refuge from a law forbidding disability-based discrimination, we are persuaded that DAV has a right to the refuge it seeks,” said Judge William Knopf.

        Vivian Colemire and Connie Kreate worked at the DAV center in Cold Spring where they processed contributions. In 1998, they claimed they were moved to jobs that were difficult to perform because of their disabilities.

        Ms. Colemire and Ms. Kreate claimed they were replaced by younger workers who were not disabled and told to quit and apply for disability. The two sued, alleging disability discrimination, but the DAV said it was a private, social organization that is not subject to discrimination laws.

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Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report