Lawmakers pass bill to ban abortion procedure after 11 weeks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers have given final passage to a bill that would ban a common abortion procedure when women are at least 11 weeks into their pregnancies.

The House voted 75-13 Tuesday to send the bill to Gov. Matt Bevin, a staunch abortion opponent. The bill drew contentious debate during its journey through the legislature.

Abortion-rights activists warn it would draw a court challenge if it becomes law. They say similar laws in other states have been struck down or blocked while legal challenges proceed.

The bill would ban an abortion procedure known as “dilation and evacuation” 11 weeks or later into a pregnancy, except in medical emergencies.

It’s a common method of second-trimester abortions. The procedure was used in 537 of 3,312 abortions done in Kentucky in 2016, according to state statistics.

Ad buy ‘stays execution’ of Louisville’s student newspaper

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A last-minute ad buy has saved the University of Louisville’s independent student newspaper from folding.

News outlets report the university’s interim president, Greg Postel, pledged $25,000 in advertising from the university’s budget on Tuesday, keeping Louisville from being the lone Atlantic Coast Conference school without a student newspaper.

The Louisville Cardinal’s future became uncertain in September 2017, when university officials announced that a tight budget meant they would no longer purchase advertising, which has accounted for as much as 40 percent of the publication’s income.

The chair of the paper’s board of directors, Jenni Laidman, says she’s happy the university could come up with the additional funding, but compared the $25,000 to a “stay of execution,” saying the 91-year-old newspaper is “still operating on a knife-edge.”

Kentucky school district OKs metal detector wand searches

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky school district serving more than 40,000 students has approved metal detector wand searches of students entering school and at random.

News outlets report that the Fayette County Public Schools board unanimously approved the policy Monday. The policy allows searches of all students entering the premises or random searches, provided a non-discriminatory selection process is used. Individual students could also be searched based on reasonable suspicion.

The district had recently announced that a high school where a student accidentally shot himself in the hand would be the first in the district with fixed metal detectors. Superintendent Manny Caulk said Monday’s vote paves the way for the eventual installation of fixed metal detectors throughout the district.

Students from three high schools were arrested on gun charges this month.

Woman becomes third person to die in Kentucky shooting

LOVELY, Ky. (AP) — A coroner in Kentucky says a third person has died in a fatal shooting near an abandoned strip mine.

Media outlets quote Pike County Coroner Russell Roberts as saying 31-year-old Amber Lockard of Huddy was pronounced dead Tuesday. She had been hospitalized since Friday’s shooting.

Two others killed in the shooting were identified by Kentucky state police as 20-year-old Micah Sammons of Kimper and 26-year-old Derek L. James of Huddy.

Investigators have not identified a suspect.

The road near the strip mine in eastern Kentucky is a popular spot used by residents for riding all-terrain vehicles.

Kentucky man accused of assaulting pregnant girlfriend

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Police say a Kentucky man faces assault charges involving his pregnant girlfriend.

The News Enterprise reports 36-year-old Brandon Farmer of Elizabethtown was charged Sunday with second-degree assault.

According to an arrest report, a woman told Elizabethtown police she was grabbed by the neck, slammed to the floor and choked in a hotel room she lived at with Farmer.

Farmer is being held on $10,000 cash bond in the Hardin County Detention Center.

It wasn’t immediately known whether Farmer has an attorney who could comment on the charge.

Ex-fugitive lawyer seeks dismissal of reinstated indictment

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky attorney who fled the country to avoid going to prison before being captured is seeking to have part of a federal case against him thrown out.

WKYT-TV reports an attorney for Eric Conn asked a federal judge in a motion to dismiss an 18-count indictment that was reinstated after Conn was arrested.

The motion says the original indictment cannot be reinstated because federal prosecutors accepted Conn’s plea deal.

Conn spent six months on the run after pleading guilty to bribing judges and doctors in a $500 million Social Security fraud scheme. His sentencing went on without him last summer, when he was given a 12-year prison term.

Conn was flown back to Kentucky after he was caught outside a Pizza Hut in Honduras in December.

The Kentucky Supreme Court permanently disbarred Conn last month.

Military history group offers passes for Louisville event

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — People interested in learning about war and peace during the Society for Military History’s meeting in Louisville next month may be eligible for an economical community day pass to the event.

The international group is offering $39 passes to its sessions April 6 to 8 for residents of nine counties neighboring Louisville: Jefferson, Bullitt, Shelby, Henry, Trimble, Oldham and Spencer in Kentucky and Clark and Floyd in Indiana.

The University of Louisville’s College of Arts and Sciences and its history department are hosts for the conference, and the theme is “Landscapes of War and Peace.”

About 600 participants are expected, with more than 90 sessions scheduled.

Registration for day passes is available online or at the door.