News Around the State
Published 10:21 am Monday, December 10, 2018
Gov. Bevin chosen to lead US trip to India
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Commerce has chosen Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin to lead an economic development trip to India.
The trip is scheduled for January and the delegation will include members of the U.S.-India Business Council and co-leaders of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The group will visit the Gujarat Global Summit 2019. The governor’s office said more than 25,000 delegates from over 100 countries attended the summit in 2017.
The delegation is also scheduled to visit India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. There, members will attend meetings surrounding the national holiday of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which celebrates the contributions of Indian citizens working abroad.
Bevin said the trip is an incredible opportunity to showcase Kentucky’s growth as an “epicenter for global companies.”
Sheriff: Uncle cut 3-year-old girl’s throat
ALBANY, Ky. (AP) — A 3-year-old girl whose uncle authorities say cut her throat has died in a Kentucky hospital.
Citing a Fayette County Coroner’s Office release, news outlets report Josephine Bulubenchi died Sunday evening, more than a day after she was attacked.
Clinton County Sheriff Jim Guffey says 33-year-old Emanuel Fluter is charged. He had been living with the family.
Guffey says Josephine’s father heard her scream on a baby monitor Saturday morning and rushed in to try to disarm Fluter, receiving a cut on his hand.
According to the arrest citation, there were four other children in the room when Josephine was attacked.
Fluter was initially charged with two counts of first-degree assault and four counts of wanton endangerment. Additional charges are expected.
It’s unclear whether he has a lawyer.
Man accused of misspending $332K of mom’s money
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man has been charged with spending more than $332,000 intended for his mother’s nursing home care.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports a federal grand jury Friday indicted John Jerome O’Hara of Lexington on bank fraud, wire fraud and access device fraud charges.
The indictment says O’Hara was acting as his mother’s power of attorney when he wrote checks to himself and others from her bank accounts for expenses such as vacations, entertainment and cell phone plans.
The indictment says he wasn’t authorized to spend his mother’s assets for his own use.
It says O’Hara failed to pay his mother’s living expenses at a retirement community, forcing other family members to pay her bills. He also failed to make mortgage payments on his mother’s home, which went into foreclosure.
Victims of Gander crash being remembered at ceremony
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Fort Campbell is holding a memorial service for 248 soldiers who were killed 33 years ago in a plane crash.
A statement from the U.S. Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee line says the service will be held Wednesday at the Gander Memorial Site. It will be the final service at the memorial’s current site, which will be moved next year.
The plane crashed Dec. 12, 1985, at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada. The soldiers were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. They were headed back to the post from a six-month peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula.
Plans calls for the memorial site, which includes a stone and several trees, to be re-located near the Brig. Gen. Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum.
Police investigate video of officers slamming, punching man
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Video posted to social media that appears to show police officers in Kentucky slamming and punching a man has prompted an investigation.
Louisville Metro police spokesman Dwight Mitchell tells news outlets that the department is “in the process of collecting all body camera footage from officers who were present” at the gas station Sunday afternoon.
A video posted to Facebook by a bystander shows three officers bringing a man to the ground next to a car, before one officer repeatedly punches him.
Mitchell says the department reviews every case where officers use force. He didn’t provide further details, or information regarding the man handcuffed in the video.
University, professor settle lawsuit alleging retaliation
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The University of Kentucky has settled a lawsuit filed by a former public health dentist who said he was fired from the school for publicly criticizing Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the settlement calls for longtime professor Raynor Mullins to get $620,000 and to be able to return to the university. School officials did not admit that College of Dentistry Dean Stephanos Kyrkanides shut out Mullins from his work.
A joint statement issued with the settlement says both parties desire to resolve their differences in a positive manner and move together a shared goal of improving health in Kentucky.
U.S. District Judge Robert Weir ruled in October that a jury should decide whether Mullins’ constitutional right to free speech had been violated.