Free Republic

Three Berea men are among the ten men that were arrested earlier this week on charges of illegally buying, selling and possessing wildlife. 30-year-old Brian Fryer, 46-year-old John Rowland and 21-year-old Jerrod Allen were all arrested as part of a two year investigation by state wildlife officials called "Twice Shy." Members of Fryer's family told 27 NewsFirst that they believe he captured the snakes in the wild and took them to services at the Harmon's Lick Holiness Church in Berea. They also say they doubt Fryer had any idea that he was doing anything illegally. Fellow church members also describe...

LONDON, KY (WSAZ)-- A federal grand jury has indicted two Floyd County men on charges they operated a chop shop in Floyd and Pike counties. According to the US Attorney, the 104 count indictment was returned against 50 –year old Marty Keith Hamilton and 52-year old Gary D. Keathley. Both men are from Betsy Layne. The indictment alleges that between February of 2001 and August 2007, Hamilton, stole approximately 50 vehicles while he worked as a detail specialist for an automotive group in Pike and Floyd Counties. The indictment further alleges that Hamilton kept duplicate keys from the cars brought...

To Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell, the piercing sounds of a warehouse rising in the Kentucky countryside are the sounds of prosperity. "As long as you see work going on — and the construction, and increasing your size — you know your business is doing well," said Russell, who started working for the bourbon maker in 1954. Distillers are expanding their bourbon production and storage and dispatching sales teams around the world, bullish for a traditionally Southern beverage gaining popularity worldwide. Surging exports, the weak U.S. dollar and rising popularity among younger Americans are driving the boom. "It's an...

FORT WRIGHT, Ky. — Police in northern Kentucky arrested a woman who officers say traded sex for gasoline. Police in Fort Wright set up a prostitution sting and said one of the suspects they arrested engaged in sex for a $100 gasoline card and other gifts. Angela Eversole, 34, of Fort Wright is charged with prostitution and doing business without an occupational license. She pleaded not guilty at a Tuesday arraignment. Police also arrested a man they said paid Eversole. He is 50-year-old Kenneth Nowak of Avon, Indiana.

Sen. Barack Obama did patriotism yesterday, today it is faith and by the end of the day both speeches will have been done in back-to-back states that swing: Missouri and Ohio. The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator plans to go to Zanesville, located in eastern Ohio, to visit a church program that provides food and clothing assistance to those in need.

United States Senator Mitch McConnell has a seven-point advantage over Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Kentucky voters. It’s McConnell 48%, Lunsford 41%.

Later this year, a plant in China will begin churning out liquid fuel made from coal, a technology that -- if all breaks right for the coal industry -- is headed to American shores. From the CTLtec Americas 2008, which begins today at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown, to Capitol Hill, coal-to-liquids is a popular topic, spurred by rising gasoline prices and this country's ever-present need to wean itself from oil imports. Coal-to-liquid proponents insist that the technology would strengthen national security and be a cheaper alternative than current petroleum. Estimates vary widely, but Richard Bajura, director of the...

WASHINGTON, DC. — With gas prices continuing to linger above $4 per gallon going into the July 4th congressional break, Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to immediately bring an end to a shortsighted prohibition, which denies federal agencies from contracting for or using coal-derived fuels. Rogers joined like-minded Members of Congress in signing a discharge petition to bring up legislation to repeal Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act. “With skyrocketing gas prices, it is absurd the reticence of Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team to deny consideration of diversifying our fuel stock and easing...

Lexington, KY (LifeNews.com) -- More details have been revealed in the case of Kentucky abortion practitioner Hamid Sheikh, who recently had his medical license suspended after the state medical board found a host of problems. The investigation of his abortion center came after he was accused of Medicaid fraud on wrongly billing abortions. Hamid Hussain Sheikh pleaded not guilty in November to charges that he wrongly billed the state for abortions at his business.Then, as LifeNews.com reported last week, the Kentucky medical licensure board talked with numerous former patients who said he treated them poorly. It also found problems...

A factory worker with a reputation for not getting along with co-workers went on a shooting spree at a Kentucky plastics plant early today after getting into an argument with his supervisor, police told ABC News. The gunman killed five other employees before shooting himself to death, police said. A seventh person who was wounded is listed in critical condition.

A Kentucky judge has confirmed what Duke fans have known for years: their football team is as bad as it gets. Bad enough that Louisville should have to find another football team to replace the Blue Devils without penalty after Duke pulled out of the final three games of a four-game contract last season. In a lawsuit filed late last year, Louisville asked for $450,000 in damages and any additional damages the court saw fit. But Duke's lawyers argued that the Blue Devils' performance on the field was so poor that any Division I team would suffice as a replacement....

Ky. grand jury indicts Ohio man in rock dispute June 19, 2008 FRANKFORT, Ky.: An Ohio historian could face hard time, all because of a rock. A Kentucky grand jury indicted Steve Shaffer on Thursday for leading efforts to pull an 8-ton boulder known as Indian Head Rock from the Ohio River. The indictment accuses Shaffer of breaking Kentucky law by removing a protected archaeological object, a felony. He could face one to five years in prison if convicted. "I'm really surprised," Shaffer said. "It's not about historic preservation, we all know that. It's about revenge." The rock's removal triggered...

Lexington, KY (LifeNews.com) -- A Kentucky abortion practitioner engaged in such shoddy practices that state officials have temporarily suspended his medical license. The action comes after Hamid Hussain Sheikh pleaded not guilty in November to charges that he wrongly billed the state for abortions at his business.Sheikh was arrested after Attorney General Greg Stumbo conducted an investigation and found he erroneously reported abortions as ultrasounds in Medicaid billing records.He was indicted on four counts of billing Medicaid for abortions and could face 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts.In the course of the investigation, the Kentucky medical...

The Senate confirmed three district court nominees today: Mark Davis of Virginia and Stephen Limbaugh and David Kays of Missouri. Sen. McConnell took the opportunity to chastise the Democrats about their obstruction of circuit nominees and to again make good on his pledge to slow down the Senate until the obstruction is eased. From McConnell’s office: Although the Majority fulfilled their commitment from last week to confirm three more District Court nominees today …, Leader McConnell did not feel these actions were sufficient in light of the continued lack of circuit court confirmations. … Therefore, Leader McConnell invoked the two-hour...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dropped by our offices in New York this week. Republicans face potential electoral disaster this fall, but he says a few issues could turn out to be lifesavers. Case in point: Gas prices, at more than $4 per gallon for the first time in history. Mr. McConnell notes that a new poll shows Americans now favor drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge 57% to 41%. That's up from a nearly even split before consumers were getting socked at the pump. Asks Mr. McConnell: "At what point does the hammerlock the Sierra Club...

FRANKFORT — Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, said a coal-to-diesel facility under consideration for construction near Paducah could “change the whole picture of energy in the United States.” Bunning, during a conference call Tuesday with Kentucky reporters, said he’d known about tentative plans for such a plant “for a long time and I’ve kept my mouth shut.” The Paducah Sun’s Bill Bartleman recently reported that a consortium of five major companies is looking at constructing a $3.5 billion facility near Paducah, which could convert coal to diesel fuel. Bunning said if the facility clears permitting hurdles, he will push federal legislation...

Shannon Grossman admitted she may be naïve about how others don’t share her progressive way of seeing the world. But she said she was stunned when she was let go from a job over bumper stickers espousing her politically and socially progressive bent. Grossman, 39, was born near Evansville and grew up in Muhlenberg County, Ky. She moved here last fall to care for her sister, Erin Vu, who has CIDP, the chronic form of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Grossman has 12- and 17-year-old sons and said she spent most of her adult life as a stay-at-home mother. She has limited job...

SOUTH SHORE, Ky. — It’s an 8-ton boulder that for decades sat, mostly forgotten, in the middle of the river that separates Ohio and Kentucky. It was a navigation marker for boaters that became the canvas for such fine art as a stick figure-like face with two dots for eyes and a dot for a nose chiseled into it. Was it marked by Native Americans? Or was it more of an amusement for the people who plastered names on it such as Kinney, D. Ford, F. Ayers and J. White? Now, this lowly piece of sandstone taken from the Ohio...

Even some of Sen. Hillary Clinton's most devoted supporters now privately concede the inevitability of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's winning the Democratic presidential nomination. One hint to understanding the mind-set of candidate Clinton and her devoted loyalists (the ones who refuse to acknowledge the nonexistence of any semi-plausible path to the nomination) may be found in a story popular in Spain as that country's then-aging dictator lingered in critical condition. The year was 1975, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the ruthless strongman who with an iron hand had ruled Spain for four decades, lay on his deathbed. The joke then popular...

Lexington, which touts itself as the Horse Capital of the World, now has a less appealing nickname: Bigfoot. A first-of-its-kind study of the carbon footprints of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas being released by the Brookings Institution on Thursday puts Lexington at No. 100 -- the worst of them all.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds an 11-point lead over his Democratic opponent, businessman Bruce Lunsford, according to the McConnell campaign’s internal polling released today. The poll shows McConnell leading Lunsford 50 to 39 percent in a head-to-head matchup, The numbers are unchanged in McConnell’s internal polling since Lunsford won the Democratic primary this month. “This is remarkable since the survey was done at a time that Republicans were slipping nationally, and at a time that Lunsford was spending significant sums of money on advertising,” McConnell’s pollster Jan van Lohuizen wrote in the polling memo. “So no movement at...

In Kentucky, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows John McCain leading Barack Obama by twenty-five percentage points, 57% to 32%. The candidates remain evenly matched nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. McCain attracts 83% of the Republican vote but also attracts 37% of Kentucky Democrats and leads by a two-to-one margin among unaffiliated voters. Obama earns just 48% of the vote from Democrats. This result is similar to the exit poll finding which showed that just 50% of Kentucky’s Democratic Presidential Primary voters would support Obama over McCain.

NEW: MAY 23 ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) -- It's the final chapter in a story that, thanks to the internet, became a world wide sensation. Formal sentencing was Friday morning for Boyd County robber Kasey Kazee, better known as the duct tape bandit. A judge sentenced Kazee to 10 years in prison for trying to rob Shamrock Liqours in Ashland with his head wrapped in duct tape. WSAZ's Dave Benton talked to Kazee after his sentencing. "Casey, anything you want to say?" asked Benton. "I don't know man," said Kazee. "I just didn't want to say, I'm cool." "How do you...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - When Evelyn Burwell put on a cap and gown to accept her high school diploma, she knew someone wasn't in the audience , her dad. The 18-year-old's father is serving in Iraq, like so many other parents of her classmates at Fort Campbell High School, the largest high school on an American military base. His service has meant missing two of his children's high school graduations, countless anniversaries and birthdays, and this year, his daughter being crowned prom queen.

Karl Rove, now a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal, believes the Democratic nomination will go to Sen. Barack Obama, but Rove is amazed that Obama can’t put Hillary Clinton away. “It’s awfully close,” he told the cast of "Fox & Friends" this morning on the Fox News Channel, “and yet, he can’t put it away,” Rove says. “I think what [Obama] saw in Oregon was the rumor that the polls were closing, and that‘s why he spent most of last weekend in Oregon rather than going on the offensive and trying to...

Outlook 1. Sen. Hillary Clinton's landslide primary victory Tuesday over Sen. Barack Obama in Kentucky is cause for at least a little Republican cheer in a bleak political landscape, despite Obama’s healthy win in Oregon.There is substantial voter rejection of Obama, with half of Kentucky's Democrats (as reflected in exit polls) saying they cannot vote for Obama in November. 2. Obama's quasi-victory speech from Iowa Tuesday night was intended to accelerate the impression he has been trying to make for the last month: that the fight for the nomination is really over, and it is time for Democrats to turn...

It isn’t just West Virginia. We saw those same lopsided majorities for Clinton -- three and four to one -- in southwestern Pennsylvania, western counties in Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. We’ll see more such blowouts in Kentucky’s eastern counties on May 20. Who are these people and what are they thinking? They live along a geographical belt of the country roughly corresponding to the Appalachian Mountains stretching from upstate New York to Alabama. Many call the area Appalachia and describe the people as “backward”. Such characterizations are both unfair and inaccurate. These people have been there a long time. Migration...

Hillary Clinton scored a consolation win in Tuesday's Kentucky primary, but Barack Obama remained on course to surpass a milestone toward the Democrats' White House nomination.The former first lady was projected to be the big winner in the bourbon and horseracing state of Kentucky, whose blue-collar voters and older women formed the same kind of pro-Clinton coalition seen in other states.The New York senator vowed anew never to give up until after the closely fought Democratic primary season ends on June 3."It's not just Kentucky bluegrass that's music to my ears. It's the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence...

Another overwhelmingly white state backed Hillary Clinton with a landslide victory early today. The former First Lady won by as much as 30 points in Kentucky just a week after she trounced Barack Obama by 41 per cent in West Virginia. Seven in ten white Kentucky voters sided with Mrs Clinton, according to exit polls. The carbon copy triumph in a southern state dominated by rural, low income families once again highlights fears that Mr Obama has failed to win over key white voters. But it did little to dent the Illinois senator's almost invincible lead in the race for...

In today's Kentucky presidential primary John McCain received 72% of the vote. Huckabee 8% (dropped out). Ron Paul 7% (did not campaign). Uncommitted 5%. Mitt Romney 5% (dropped out). Rudy Giuliani 2% (dropped out). Alan Keyes 1% (did not campaign).

Even before I heard Chris Matthews mention it, it struck me too . . . Among the visuals a big-time campaign carefully choreographs is the human backdrop when the candidate speaks—particularly when it's a matter of an important, nationally-televised speech. So it's very hard to imagine that it was coincidence that the crowd visible behind Hillary this evening as she gave her Kentucky primary victory speech . . . was comprised 100% of people of pallor. Kibitzing with co-anchor Keith Olbermann immediately after Clinton's comments, Matthews mentioned it. CHRIS MATTHEWS: I thought a giveaway line was "who is best positioned...

There has been speculation that Hillary Clinton might drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination following today's primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, even as Clinton herself has insisted that she will fight on. Now her campaign has released a new ad in South Dakota, where voters don't have their say until June 3rd. It's a signal that Clinton has no plans to leave the race anytime soon – one that the campaign underlines in its press release touting the ad, which notes that the spot "comes two weeks before South Dakota voters head to the polls." The...

LOUISEVILLE, Ky. (CBS) ― Hillary Rodham Clinton will win the Kentucky Democratic primary, CBS News projects according to exit polls. Clinton and Barack Obama also compete in Oregon on Tuesday, the latest contests in a historic Democratic presidential race moving inexorably his way. Before vote counting began, Obama had 1,911 delegates, little more than 100 shy of the 2,026 needed to become the first black presidential nominee of a major party, in the latest CBS News count. The former first lady had 1,715. According to CBS News early exit polling, in Kentucky, eight in ten Clinton voters said they would...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton's camp warned Barack Obama not to declare "mission accomplished" in the Democratic nominating battle Monday, on the eve of two primaries likely to cement his command of the race. Republican presidential pick John McCain, eyeing a potential general election foe, meanwhile sharpened a foreign policy assault on Obama, accusing the Illinois senator of recklessly minimizing the threat from Iran. Clinton's campaign took Obama to task after his aides noted he would likely emerge from primary votes in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday with a majority of pledged nominating delegates, and looked towards a November clash...

WHITESBURG, Ky. -- In analyzing the returns from last week's West Virginia Democratic primary, a phalanx of reporters and commentators have explained Hillary Clinton's landslide victory by pointing out that West Virginians are a special set of Democrats, white, low income and undereducated.

(CBS/AP) Barack Obama competed with Hillary Rodham Clinton in Kentucky and Oregon primaries on Tuesday, the latest contests in a historic Democratic presidential race moving inexorably his way. Before vote counting began, Obama had 1,911 delegates, little more than 100 shy of the 2,026 needed to become the first black presidential nominee of a major party, in the latest CBS News count. The former first lady had 1,715. According to CBS News early exit polling, in Kentucky, eight in ten Clinton voters said they would be dissatisfied if Obama was the Democratic nominee. Obama voters were about evenly split on...

Female supporters of Hillary Clinton sprang to her defense Tuesday, insisting she speaks for all women and should stay in the Democratic primary race to the bitter end. "Not so fast," read a full page ad in The New York Times, amid calls for Clinton to bow out of the race to help unify the Democratic party after a gruelling race pitting the former first lady and New York senator against Illinois Senator Barack Obama. "Hillary's voice is OUR voice, and she's speaking for all of us," said the ad, purchased by a group not affiliated with the Clinton campaign...

I think Oregon has mail in system, but do they open the polls as well or allow people to mail votes tommorrow. Kentucky has a closed primary that anyone voting had to be registered Dem by early this year I believe.

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Senator Hillary Clinton, in advance of the possibility that the Obama campaign will declare victory on Tuesday based on an advantage in pledged delegates, told a crowd Monday morning that a Democratic nominee will not be determined by tomorrow.  "This is nowhere near over. None of us is going to have the number of delegates we're going to need to get to the nomination. Although I understand – my opponents and his supporters are going to claim that - and the fact is we have to include Michigan and Florida." Clinton continued, "We cannot claim...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama turned up the heat on his faith outreach in Kentucky, which holds its primary on Tuesday, by distributing fliers of him speaking in front of a big illuminated cross. Enlarge this Image The Obama campaign distributed fliers of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama speaking from a pulpit with a big illuminated cross behind him in Kentucky ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. The flier is the latest push by the likely Democratic presidential nominee to court religious voters. The faith flier coupled with TV and radio ads that began running in...

Can it be coincidence that on the day it's reported that Keith Olbermann is feuding with Chris Matthews, the Hardball host goes out of his way to shine up the clown prince of Countdown? As NewsBuster Noel Sheppard has noted, the New York Post, in the course of reporting today that Olbermann has been "lashing out" at his network's talking heads, states that Olbermann's "feuding with 'Hardball' host Chris Matthews is nothing new." So on this evening's Hardball, how does Matthews promote tomorrow night's primary coverage that he will be co-anchoring with Olbermann? CHRIS MATTHEWS: Remember, tomorrow night with Keith...

When things couldn't be looking worse for Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency in 2008, as her rival Barack Obama closes in on gaining enough delegates to secure the nomination, the former first lady attended a church service in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday featuring a sermon about lust and adultery. The hour-long sermon focused on the sin of committing adultery -– as outlined in Mathew 5:27-32. Clinton, D-N.Y., has often said her faith pulled her through the difficult time when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Paul Fryman of the...

Clinton Sits Through Sermon About Adultery May 18, 2008 12:42 PM ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: When things couldn't be looking worse for Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency in 2008, as her rival Barack Obama closes in on gaining enough delegates to secure the nomination, the former first lady attended a church service in Bowling Green, Ky., Sunday featuring a sermon about lust and adultery. The hour-long sermon focused on the sin of committing adultery -– as outlined in Mathew 5:27-32. Clinton, D-N.Y., has often said her faith pulled her through the difficult time when her husband, former...

Bill Clinton Causes Protestors To Be Ejected At Hillary Rally Over Peter Paul Question The First American Citizens to Publicly Challenge the Clintons About Hillary’s Refusal To Admit Soliciting and Hiding More than $2 million in Illegal Contributions from Peter Paul To Win Her Senate Seat ===================================================================== Bill Clinton Stumps Murray; Protestors Ousted Saturday, May 17, 2008 Murray, KY (WKYX) – Former President Bill Clinton’s visit to Murray was the first presidential visit to the area since Harry Truman, says the Murray Ledger. Murray was just one of his many stops ahead of Tuesday’s primary, stumping for his wife at...

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), looking to shore up support with the once-hostile National Rifle Association (NRA), used his speech to the group’s national convention to blast Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Seizing on what has come to be known as Obama’s “bitterness” comments, McCain on Friday said the Second Amendment “isn’t some archaic custom that matters only to rural Americans who find solace in firearms out of frustration with their economic circumstances.” In his prepared remarks, McCain also hit Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), though to a noticeably lesser degree. McCain said Democrats will dress up...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, facing a likely defeat in next Tuesday's primary election, won't travel to Kentucky before the voting, but said he hopes to have much more time to win over Kentucky voters before the November general election. He also blamed Fox News for disseminating "rumors" about him and said that that and e-mails filled with misinformation that have been "systematically" dispersed have hurt him in Kentucky. "When we're able to campaign in a place like Iowa for several months and I can visit and talk to people individually, I do very well. That's harder...

Barack Obama's campaign hopes it will. They're putting out the word that they hope to announce on the night of May 20, after the results come in from the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, that their candidate has the 2,025 votes needed for the Democratic nomination. That would mean that the nomination would be settled before the May 31 rules committee meeting on the status of the disqualified Michigan and Florida delegations; this would deprive Clinton of a grievance but would not deprive Obama of the nomination. The June 1 primary in Puerto Rico, in which it seems possible Clinton could...

The Popular Press is lined up outside the tuxedo rental places here in Your Nation's Capital, to get ready for what they all assume will be the Coronation of Sen. Barack Obama as the Nominee for President of the Democratic Party after the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. The endorsement of John Edwards yesterday, one assumes, also brings his eleven delegates with him. That would put Obama, according to CNN's count, at 1,910 delegates only 115 short of the 2,025 to have a majority. Kentucky (60 delegates) and Oregon (65 delegates) will hold their primaries on Tuesday. Assuming Obama and...

Hey sweetie, are you bitter? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Perfect Sen. John McCain bumper sticker: Hey sweetie, are you bitter?

What about Al? There is a rumor among those close to the Obama camp that this weekend will bring a big endorsement for the Illinois Senator. We can scratch John Edwards off that list, he is yesterday's news. Probably the only thing 'bigger' than Edwards would be former Vice-President Al Gore -- who will be in Pittsburgh this Sunday (May 18) to give the commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University. Gore, after his unsuccessful run for president in 2000, took an environmental path, rather than political, and has become a cult-like figure among the left and environmentally correct.