Lexington-area duo to run “Amazing Race”

        LEXINGTON - A father-son team from central Kentucky has made the final cut for the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race 3.”

        Dennis Hyde and his son Andrew outlasted thousands of other applicants and will appear beginning Wednesday on the series that sends 12 duos racing around the globe for a $1 million prize.

        Pairings in the past seasons have included siblings, law school buddies, a married couple and a pair of soccer moms.

        In the Hydes, the show gets a father who is a conservative Southern Baptist and his openly gay cheerleader son.

        In previous seasons, the teams faced challenges such as bungee jumping, rappelling down a mountain and tiptoeing through a temple of rats. In nearly every episode, the team that arrives last at the appointed destination will be, in the TV show's parlance, “eliminated.”

        Dennis, 48, is a manager and part-owner of Lexington Ice Center.

        Because of his commitment to the TV show, the 21-year-old Andrew is sitting out this semester at Eastern Kentucky University, where he is a cheerleader and a broadcasting and electronic media major.

        Knox County jail upgrades in time

        BARBOURVILLE - The Knox County jail has met a state-imposed deadline for moving inmates out.

        The Kentucky Department of Corrections had ordered the jail emptied by Monday night because of safety concerns.

        Jailer Preston Smith said Monday afternoon that all the inmates have been moved to the Clay County jail in Manchester.

        Smith had argued that the county could not afford to pay others to house its inmates, but the state's ultimatum left no alternative for the jail that was built less than 20 years ago to house 31 inmates.

        Concerns cited by state inspectors were the absence of a backup generator or an adequate system for controlling smoke. In the state's worst-case scenario, a fire would knock out the jail's electricity. Smoke would billow and spread. With no emergency power, jail doors could not be thrown open to let inmates spill into an outdoor holding area.

        Smith said the generator now has been installed, and a smoke-evacuation system is in the works. He said once it is completed within the next two weeks, he will ask state inspectors to consider allowing the jail to reopen.

        Man's death on ATV state's 26th this year

        INEZ - A 27-year-old man was killed after he lost control of the all-terrain vehicle he was driving on Wooten Road off Kentucky 40, authorities said.

        Chris Hale, 27, of Tomahawk, was traveling north at 12:18 a.m. EDT Sunday when he wrecked going around a curve, causing the ATV to flip, according to the Martin County Sheriff's Department.

        A sheriff's spokesman said witnesses told police that Hale was speeding.

        Hale's death brought Kentucky's ATV death toll for this year to at least 26. At least 12 of those killed were on a public highway at the time.

        Group launches plan to save Indiana forests

        NASHVILLE, Ind. - An environmental group is launching a program aimed at encouraging landowners to protect the forests in Brown County and neighboring areas.

        The Nature Conservancy has obtained a grant for a two-year effort to preserve an area known as Brown County Hills that extends into Morgan, Monroe, Lawrence, Jackson, Bartholomew and Johnson counties in southern and central Indiana.

        “What we will be trying to do with the money is preserve one of the largest contiguous forest blocks in the state of Indiana,” said Betsy Smith, the group's development director.

        The area is an excellent example of the types of plants and animals found across the Midwest, Smith said.

        Studies by The Nature Conservancy say the area is important because of its migratory songbirds, diverse biology and its large wooded area.

        “What we are hoping to do is work with land owners, private and public, and encourage them to place land-use restrictions on their property,” Smith said. “In effect, we are looking for a promise not to subdivide the land or deforest it in the future.”

        The complete two-year project is estimated to cost about $250,000. It will begin with the formation of an advisory committee of representatives from many of the groups already working to preserve land.

        The Nature Conservancy currently operates Hitz-Rhodehamel Woods, a 263-acre nature preserve about five miles northeast of Nashville, that is within the Brown County Hills area.

        The group has already worked with the Sycamore Land Trust and Bean Blossom Bottoms to protect other endangered areas.

        Protesters decry Purdue's “sprawl” out

        CROWN POINT, Ind. - More than 1,000 people lined a highway to protest Purdue University's plan to build a high-tech center outside of Lake County's northern cities.

        The Interfaith Federation of Churches staged the rally Sunday to protest the location in suburban Merrillville of the center to assist companies in northwest Indiana.

        Church leaders from Gary, Hammond and East Chicago said the location was an example of “killer sprawl” and that it would pull investment from the cities.

        “That is where we need public investment,” said the Rev. Juan Rodriguez of the Iglesia Del Pueblo in Hammond.

        U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., has secured $7 million in federal money for the center, which Purdue wants to build on 400 acres already owned by its foundation along Interstate 65 about 10 miles south of downtown Gary.

        The protest organizers said they wanted Visclosky to seek a study on the impact of building the center the suburbs.

        The congressman, however, does not believe such a study is needed, Visclosky spokesman Cliston Brown said.

        “To do an impact study, which is not going to change the location, would set us back a year or more. The fact is people need jobs now,” Brown told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.

        Hammond Mayor Duane Dedelow and East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick participated in the protest along Ind. 55 and said they hoped for a compromise, with Purdue building the center in Merrillville but having satellite locations in the cities.

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