Fugitive arrested near Interstate 75

An Indiana man wanted by U.S. marshals was captured Monday evening after an off-duty Kentucky State Police trooper spotted him.

Wayne Devon Spears, 40, of New Castle, led Boone County sheriff's officers on a chase north on Interstate 75 just before the Richwood exit to a motel parking lot, and on foot into the woods near the motel.

Beginning around 6:30 p.m., Trooper Chad Mills followed the gray van Spears was driving until other officers arrived, after verifying it was the same one mentioned in a watch report he read earlier that day.

Since December, Spears had been wanted by the U.S. marshals on a probation violation for a conviction on damaging property in San Antonio. He was also wanted on possession of a firearm, a felony, by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A K-9 unit was needed to help find Spears in the woods, as troopers and Boone County sheriff's deputies surrounded the area.

Spears was jailed in the Boone County Detention Center, and additionally charged with operating on a suspended license, fleeing or evading police, and resisting arrest.

Fletcher cracks down on use of cell phones

FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher has ordered his cabinet secretaries to review the use of state cell phones.

The state spent $1.9 million last year on 5,283 cell phones - one phone for about every seven state employees, according to figures the administration released Tuesday.

Fletcher's chief of staff, Daniel Groves, said the administration canceled 144 phones that were being paid for but never used, along with 16 phones considered high usage.

Groves said savings from those and other changes would be "in the thousands of dollars" - not a huge amount but, it was hoped, the beginning of greater efficiency and cost avoidance.

"The most important thing we can do is bring cultural change to state government," Groves said in a news conference. "One of the things we're trying to do is change the way people think in state government."

Campbell Fiscal Court changes meeting site

NEWPORT - The Campbell County Fiscal Court has announced a new site for the meeting at 5:30 p.m. on June 16.

Instead of meeting at the fiscal court's Newport offices on 24 W. 4th St., the meeting will be on the second floor in the Circuit Court judge's chambers on 330 York St., Newport.

State offices close to honor Reagan

Kentucky state offices will close Friday in memory of President Reagan, but county and city governments will remain open in Northern Kentucky. Gov. Ernie Fletcher said Tuesday that state government offices will close "in reverence and thanksgiving to the memory of President Reagan." Fletcher and First Lady Glenna Fletcher plan to attend the state funeral planned for Reagan on Friday in Washington. The governor also ordered that American flags over state buildings fly at half-staff through July 5.

Nominees chosen for advisory panel

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will have a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Boone County High School to select nominees to represent the Fifth Wildlife District on a nine-member citizens advisory panel. The commission helps set season dates, approves department budgets, and approves hunting, fishing and wildlife conservation regulations. Anyone who has legally hunted, fished or registered a boat in Kentucky for the past two years is eligible to participate in the meeting. The following counties are in the Fifth Wildlife District: Boone, Campbell, Kenton, Gallatin, Grant, Pendleton, Bracken, Owen, Carroll, Harrison, Robertson and Trimble.