Money missing, employee fired

FRANKFORT - Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Northern Kentucky Republican, said Thursday that one of his office employees was fired, and Kentucky State Police were investigating whether she stole office cash. A termination letter to Tina Bates said $1,055 was unaccounted for from Jan. 14 to April 16. The money was paid for copies of documents, according to the letter, which Grayson released under the Open Records Act. Bates was put on leave when the investigation began May 5. A telephone number listed for Bates was disconnected. Grayson also said he was asking state Auditor Crit Luallen for an audit of the cash-management procedures in the records department of his office.

Holiday weekend brings checkpoints

Kentucky State Police will set up traffic-safety checkpoints this holiday weekend along highways that have a statistical history of serious crashes. Some of the local checkpoints include I-75 between mile markers 143.7 and 165.4; Ky. 22 between mile 0.4 and mile 15.6; and U.S. 25 from mile 0.0 to mile 23.2, all in Grant County; Ky. 17 between mile 0.2 and mile 13.6, and Ky. 22 between mile 0.5 and mile 18.7, in Pendleton County.

Union man injured after vehicle rolls over

UNION - A Union man was critically injured after losing control of the car he was driving late Wednesday.

Richard Parker, 37, was in critical condition at University Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Authorities said the accident happened at 11:13 p.m. on Ky. 338 one-quarter mile west of U.S. 42. Parker was driving west at a high rate of speed when he lost control, ran off the right side of the road and rolled the car over, according to sheriff's deputies.

Suspects sought in Covington shooting

COVINGTON - Police are looking for suspects in the shooting of a man on a Covington street corner early Thursday.

The victim was released after treatment at St. Elizabeth Medical Center North, said Lt. Col. Mike Kraft, a spokesman for Covington police. He did not release the man's name, citing the federal health privacy law.

Kraft said nearby residents called police just after 4 a.m. to report the shooting at Pike Street and Holman Avenue.

Assistant manager resigns city position

COVINGTON - Andy Riffe, the city's assistant city manager for economic development, has resigned to take a job in the private sector, said City Manager Greg Jarvis.

Riffe, who could not be reached for comment, submitted his resignation from his $82,183-a-year city post on Wednesday.

Hired in May 2003, Riffe recently was instrumental in persuading Club Chef to move its business with more than 350 jobs to Covington. He also worked on many smaller projects as well as plans to improve the city's image and revitalize Covington's Eastside.

"I'm sorry to see him go," said Commissioner Alex Edmondson.

Jarvis said other staff will assume Riffe's duties for now.

Riffe came to Covington after serving as vice president of operations at Cincinnati's Phillips Edison & Co., a privately held, multistate owner and operator of shopping centers. Before that, he worked as area facilities manager for Target Corp. in Cincinnati from 1998 to 2001. As vice president of operations for Liquor Outlet Inc., Riffe oversaw the $15 million transformation of the vacant Bavarian Brewing building off Interstate 75 in Covington into the Jillian's entertainment complex.

UK student charged with murder kills self

LEXINGTON - A University of Kentucky graduate student who was charged with murdering his girlfriend died Thursday morning after a suicide attempt, jail officials said.

Dong Zhang, 24, had been hospitalized in critical condition since he tried to hang himself in the Fayette County jail June 21, spokesman Don Leach said. Doctors pronounced him dead at 11:31 a.m..

Zhang led authorities to the body of 24-year-old Yan Gu in a shallow grave in Seymour, Ind.

Authorities said Gu was killed May 31 near the University of Illinois at Chicago, where police charged Zhang with murder on June 20. He tried to commit suicide the next day.

Zhang, a Chinese national, was initially charged in Lexington with tampering with physical evidence and falsely reporting an incident after he told police Gu was missing June 4.

Streicher reorganizes police command staff

Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher has reorganized his top command staff after the retirement of an assistant chief.

Lt. Col. Rick Biehl, who already moved on this spring to become director of the Community Police Partnering Center, officially leaves the police department Saturday. That left two of the four assistant chief positions vacant - the other vacant since Lt. Col. Ron Twitty was accused two years ago of lying about damage to his city-owned car.

Twitty's position had been filled by Capt. Vince Demasi, who's in charge of investigations. Biehl's had been filled by Capt. Dan Gerard, boss of the internal investigations unit.

The city has not filled either position permanently because of ongoing litigation over Issue 5, the 2001 referendum voters approved that allows the city to go outside the department to hire chiefs.