Boone inmates paint timeline of century

        BURLINGTON — Inmates at the Boone County Jail work camp on Bullittsville Road have been making history, so to speak, over the past year.

        Inmates at the minimum-security facility, which houses work-release and other nonviolent prisoners, have been painting a 30-foot-long historical timeline across the wall of the camp assembly room.

        On Dec. 29, Boone County Jailer John Schickel will unveil the mural in a ceremony that will include an inmate musical group presenting a musical timeline from 1900 to 2000.

CONCRETE BENCHES SOFTENED: Jackie Slone of Covington, a volunteer, fashions a mosaic into what will become a park bench at the Covington Community Center. It's part of a national program called Artists and Communities: America creates for the Millennium. The artwork, below, will be installed in benches as part of the new Park Place plaza when it is completed sometime in 2001. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        “The inmates are making a picture history of the last century,” the jailer said. “I think everyone who sees it will be impressed.”

        The work camp has been open about two years and is considered a model for minimum-security facilities in Kentucky. In addition to creating the timeline, inmates do maintainance at the work camp and tend the flower garden.
       

Group sues to get county's first library

               GRAYSON — A Carter County group has brought suit against Judge-executive Alice Joy Binion and five magistrates in an effort to get them to reconsider their decision not to build the county's first public library.

        Friends for Carter County Libraries is asking Circuit Judge Samuel Long to intervene.

        Carter is one of only two counties in the state without a public library. McLean County is the other.

        “I hope the circuit court will realize the fiscal court didn't base their decisions on fact, that it was capricious and arbitrary,” said Mindy Woods of Grayson, chairwoman of the group.

Officer's DUI test delayed three hours

               LOUISVILLE — Louisville police waited more than three hours before administering a Breathalyzer test to an off-duty officer charged with driving under the influence.

        Officer Natalie M. “Shelly” Cunningham, 32, registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.083 when she was finally tested after she crashed her squad car Saturday.

        John Wilmes, chief traffic prosecutor with the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, said the length of time police waited makes the results inadmissible in court under a new state DUI law. But Mr. Wilmes said the case can still be prosecuted.

        “(It) becomes a more complicated and a much less provable case,” Mr. Wilmes said.

        Officer Cunningham crashed shortly after 2 a.m. EST and was taken to jail at 4:42 a.m. Her Breathalyzer test was administered at 5:31 a.m., records show. Officer Cunningham was released from jail shortly after 6 a.m.

        The delay was caused because Louisville police suspended Officer Cunningham's police powers before taking her from the accident scene to the Jefferson County Jail, a police spokesman said.

        “They can't jail (officers) with their police powers,” Detective Bill Keeling said.

        An internal investigation is under way.
       

Man arrested in theft of Indian lithographs

               DANVILLE — A man accused of snatching a rare collection of American Indian lithographs from the Centre College library was arrested in Texas.

        Ross Vince Brewer, 33, also known as David Menz, was arrested Sunday near San Antonio, said Henry B. Hodge, sheriff of Kendall County, Texas.

        Mr. Brewer was indicted by a federal grand jury in Lexington last week on charges of interstate transportation of stolen goods. Authorities in South Carolina, Colorado, Texas and West Virginia have also issued warrants for Mr. Brewer's arrest, Sheriff Hodge said.

        Mr. Brewer allegedly grabbed the lithographs and ran from the college library in October. The 168-year-old lithographs, valued at $50,000, were recovered from a dealer on the Internet later that month.

        If convicted, Mr. Brewer faces 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both on the Kentucky charges.
       

$2M may be split for health studies

               SHAKERTOWN — A foundation focused on state health issues is considering splitting a $2 million endowment to fund positions at the commonwealth's two largest universities.

        Attorney General Ben Chandler suggested that the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky give $1 million to the University of Kentucky to endow a chair for rural health and $1 million to the University of Louisville to endow a chair for urban health.

        Mr. Chandler said awarding grants for the chairs would attract nationally prominent experts.

        The onetime grant would come from a $45 million settlement that the state recouped a year ago as charitable assets from a merger between Anthem and then-nonprofit Kentucky Blue Cross & Blue Shield.
       

23 people screened in UK presidential search

               LEXINGTON — A University of Kentucky committee charged with screening potential candidates to replace the school's outgoing president has spoken with 23 educators about the position.

        Search committee chairwoman JoEtta Wickliffe, a UK trustee, said that the potential candidates include sitting university presidents, provosts, vice presidents and one chancellor from institutions across the nation.
       

Lexington woman named Rhodes Scholar

               Sarah S. Johnson of Lexington was among 32 Americans named a Rhodes Scholar on Saturday. Ms. Johnson is a math and environmental sciences major at Washington University in St. Louis. She will join the other winners in studying at Oxford University in England for two years with all costs paid.
       

Sunday school teacher charged with sex abuse

               SHEPHERDSVILLE — A Bullitt County woman has pleaded not guilty to charges she fondled and sexually assaulted two girls, ages 4 and 5, in her Sunday school class.

        Debra Holthouser, 46, of Eastview, is charged with two counts of first-degree sex abuse, two counts of terroristic threatening and two counts of fourth-degree assault.

        Bullitt Circuit Judge Thomas Waller released Ms. Holthouser at her arraignment Monday on three conditions: She is to have no contact with anyone under age 16 without supervision; she must undergo a psychological evaluation; and she must appear for another pretrial hearing Jan. 22.

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