Teen accused of threatening to bring gun to school

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky authorities say a teenage boy has been arrested for a social media post in which he allegedly threatened to bring a gun to school.

Kentucky State Police said Monday the 13-year-old boy is being held on a terroristic threatening charge. The teen is a student at Clay County Middle School in eastern Kentucky.

The boy is accused of posting on his Facebook page that he was going to bring a gun to school on Monday. State police say they were notified Sunday about the threat.

State police said the teen was arrested shortly after sending the post. He is being held in the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center.

Police said the investigation is continuing.

Governor files suit to defend Medicaid waiver

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration has filed its own lawsuit in response to a legal action challenging Kentucky’s first-in-the-nation work requirement for Medicaid.

Bevin administration officials said Monday their suit filed in federal court in Kentucky seeks a ruling that the state’s Medicaid waiver fully complies with federal law.

The action comes after three nonprofit groups recently sued the federal government, asking a judge to block Kentucky’s Medicaid waiver granted by the Trump administration.

Bevin’s administration says its own lawsuit is meant to ensure the state’s voice is heard and that reasons for creating the Medicaid rules are fully considered.

The federal government recently said it would let Kentucky be the first state to require many of its Medicaid recipients to have a job or do volunteer work in order to keep their health coverage.

Police: 2 teens accused of terroristic threats

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Police say two Kentucky teenagers have been arrested on charges of making terroristic threats after they allegedly used another teen’s image on social media to threaten a school district.

Media outlets report Nicholasville police arrested 19-year-old Tristan H. Kelly and 18-year-old Cody T. Ritchey on Sunday.

Nicholasville Police Officer Kevin Grimes says the threats were made on Snapchat. He says an image was used of a boy with a gun who was not involved with the threats. An accompanying text read, “Be ready for school monday Jessamine County.”

There were no classes scheduled in the county Monday due to the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Grimes says Kelly and Ritchey had attended public schools in Jessamine County but he did not know whether they had graduated.

Rand Paul makes appearance to back Senate candidate

(AP) — Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has appeared in Arizona to embrace the U.S. Senate candidacy of former state legislator Kelli Ward, praising her as a fellow “constitutional conservative” who supports privacy rights.

Ward is running in a hotly contested Republican primary to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.

Paul told the approximately 80 people attending a rally Friday night in Scottsdale that Ward “will not be afraid of the establishment, and they will not boss her around…”

Others in the GOP primary race include U.S. Rep. Martha McSally and former Maricopa County Joe Arpaio.

The Arizona Republic reports that Paul before the rally said he hopes Republican Sen. John McCain can return to the Senate.

McCain is fighting brain cancer. Ward has said McCain should step down for health reasons.

Man charged with selling stolen cattle

(AP) — Officials say a man has been charged with selling stolen cattle in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture says Jason Andrew Witherspoon bought 11 head of cattle at the Kentucky-Tennessee Livestock Market in Guthrie, Kentucky, with a worthless check on Jan. 31.

Officials said Friday that Witherspoon then drove to the Dickson Regional Livestock Center in Middle Tennessee, where he sold the cattle to the sale manager for $7,200.

The manager at the Dickson center told an investigator that Witherspoon had contacted him to sell more cattle. Witherspoon was arrested on theft of property charges when he returned to the center.

Witherspoon, of Lebanon, also faces charges in Wilson and Trousdale counties in Tennessee, and in Todd County, Kentucky. It was not immediately clear Saturday if he had a lawyer.