From staff and wire reports

Miners take on hillbilly stereotype

NEW YORK - Mine workers from West Virginia and Kentucky took their protest of a planned reality television series The Real Beverly Hillbillies straight to the parent company of CBS, calling it discrimination.

"We're tired of the negative image of the Appalachian people," Tom Manuel, an underground electrician from Fairmont, W. Va., said Wednesday outside Viacom headquarters in mid-Manhattan, where the media giant was holding a shareholders meeting.

Across the Appalachian region, people have been voicing strong opposition to the show, a takeoff from the popular The Beverly Hillbillies sitcom.

The United Steelworkers of America, the Association of Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union and 43 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida to Texas have also asked CBS to cancel plans for the show.

Last year, the network sent scouts across the Appalachian region to find a family with two children that was not well-traveled and or sophisticated.

Patriotic musical presented at church

FORT MITCHELL - Fort Mitchell Baptist Church, 2323 Dixie Highway, will present the musical America: We Must Not Forget 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

Admission is free and child care is available for children up to 5 years old.

For information, call (859) 331-2160 or go online at www.fmbc.info.

Mangeot is city's best friend in '03

COVINGTON - Mike Mangeot will receive this year's Friends of Covington 2003 Award for contributing to the city's business and civic communities.

Mangeot, a graduate of Covington Latin and Thomas More College, co-founded Century Construction and served on the Covington City Commission. He has held key roles in groups such as the Jaycees and the Covington Business Council.

An award dinner is 6 p.m. today at the Devou Memorial Building. A portion of the proceeds will go to the charity of Mangeot's choice.

The Friends of Covington is a nonprofit civic organization.

Four-unit building explodes and burns

LUDLOW - Four families were left homeless after an explosion and fire in their apartment building on Tuesday.

The fire was reported late Tuesday in a building at Adela and Linden avenues. No one was injured in the fire, which started in a second-floor apartment. A cause was not immediately available.

The building sustained heavy damage, according to the Ludlow Fire Department, with flames visible in windows when firefighters arrived.

The American Red Cross helped residents relocate.