FLORENCE — The Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky UK Alumni Clubs will hold a June 27 reception featuring new UK football coach Guy Morriss.

        Mr. Morriss will discuss prospects for the coming year as well as his coaching philosophy. This fall will be Mr. Morriss' first season as head coach. He is replacing Hal Mumme.

        The reception will be 6:30 p.m. at the Turfway Park “Racing Club,” 7500 Turfway Road in Florence. Tickets cost $5 for members of the UK Alumni Association and $8 for non-members.
       

Trucking school routine can continue

               FRANKFORT — A Franklin County Circui judge Monday ordered the Transportation Cabinet to resume giving driver's licenses to trucking school students, even if they may be in the state for only a few days.

        Pat Foley, a lawyer for the cabinet, acknowledged the longstanding practice, though federal authorities recently questioned it.

        “You've been doing this for years. So how can it be a big deal,” said Judge William Graham.

        There are about 15 schools in Kentucky that people attend to become commercial truck drivers. Most of them provide three- week intensive programs that take students from the classwork to prepare them for the tests to obtain a license permit to the road work to prepare them for the actual driver's test.

        Mr. Foley said of the 3,000 students enrolled in those schools in recent months, 2,100 of them were from outside Kentucky.

        The standard practice for those students on their arrival in Kentucky is to turn in their driver's licenses from their home states and then take the permit tests as soon as they can. On completion of their schools and passage of their tests, they obtain commercial driver's licenses from Kentucky. When they return home, they turn those Kentucky licenses in for licenses from their resident states.

        Mr. Foley said the examination for commercial driving privileges is the same across the country, so the students are not trying to get a break in that way. The complaints about Kentucky practice may have originated with trucker schools elsewhere.
       

Fire damages college building

               LEXINGTON — Faulty electrical wiring sparked a fire in Cumberland College's administration building Saturday morning, making it the third Kentucky college to see its chief building suffer serious damage in the past month.

        The fire on the small, picturesque campus was spotted about 8 a.m.. Heavy smoke was pouring out of the building's attic when the Williamsburg Fire Department arrived on the scene a few minutes later, said Chief James Privett.

        For three hours, almost three dozen firefighters from Williamsburg and nearby communities worked the blaze. Firefighters managed to contain most of the fire damage to one room in the three-story building. Other parts of the building were damaged by smoke and water.

        A fire gutted the administration building at the University of Kentucky n May 15. That fire started when a worker using a blowtorch on the roof ignited dry tinders.

        Ten days later, walls at Berea College's 115-year-old Lincoln Hall caused two interior hallways to collapse.
       

Consultant to assist sick-worker program

               WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has tapped a Clinton appointee to help administer a program to compensate sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers.

        Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced Monday that she had hired former Assistant Secretary of Energy David Michaels as a consultant.

        “I am honored that Secretary Chao has asked me to help the Department of Labor implement this very important program,” Dr. Michaels said. “These workers were harmed in the service of their country.”

        Lawmakers who represent districts with Cold War-era weapons plants urged the administration to bring Dr. Michaels on board.

        “I have worked closely with Dr. Michaels over the last two years in creating this historic compensation program and have a great deal of respect for his dedication and attention to detail,” said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky.

        Ms. Chao also filled several other positions that are expected to help get the compensation program up and running by the end of July.

        The program approved last year by Congress offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing workers who were employed in the nuclear weapons complex, at factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test sites in Alaska and Nevada.

        The program is limited to those with cancer associated with radiation, silicosis or chronic beryllium disease.
       

Maneuvering continues in court

               FRANKFORT — The wrangling in leadership of the General Assembly is boiling over into a legislative showdown with the executive branch over administrative regulation authority.

        The general counsel for the Legislative Research Commission was in Franklin County Circuit Court Monday asking a judge for an extra two months to file an answer to the Natural Resources Cabinet's lawsuit challenging legislative oversight of regulations.

        John Schaaf said the legislative branch has not yet hired a lawyer to represent it in the case, filed in May.

        Mr. Schaaf said the legislature is not set up to litigate lawsuits. And, he observed, “We have some political difficulties on the third floor of the Capitol.”

        Judge William Graham wondered jokingly if that meant Gov. Paul Patton would get a default judgment, which happens when one side in a lawsuit fails to pursue the case.

        Mr. Schaaf asked for an extension until Sept. 4 to file an answer to the suit. Judge Graham gave him an extra two weeks.

        The suit questions the constitutionality of the manner in which the legislature rejects administrative regulations created by the executive branch.
       head DAYBOOK

        Government and schools

        Burlington: Boone County Fiscal Court, 5 p.m., 2nd floor, Room 203, Boone County Administration Building, 2950 Washington St.

        Dayton: City Council, 7 p.m., city building, 514 Sixth Ave.

        Highland Heights: City Council, 7:30 p.m., city building, 175 Johns Hill Road.

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