Local job opening

Area Death

Larry Johnson “Lap” Lewis, 71, of Sturgis died Saturday. Whitsell Funeral Home in Morganfield is in charge of arrangements.

Youth writing contest deadline Friday

The Woman’s Club of Marion Youth Writing Contests are open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade and Home Schooled students in Crittenden County.  Deadline for all entries is January 13.
Students can enter in two different categories: Youth Short Story Contest and Youth Poetry Contest.

The Youth Short Story Contest is limited to 2,000 words. The Youth Poetry Contest can include any style of writing with a minimum length of eight lines and a maximum length of 50 lines.

For both contests, entries must be typed, double-spaced and printed on one side of 8.5 x 11-inch paper. Margins must be a minimum of 1-inch on all four sides of the paper.

Entries must not have been published prior to the competition and must be original works by the authors. Entries do not have to be typed by the student.

All entries must include the following on the top right hand corner of each page: author’s name, mailing address and phone number; Woman’s Club of Marion; Category (Short Story or Poetry); title of work; and the category number. Category 1 includes grades kindergarten, first and second grades; category 2 includes grades three-five; category 3 includes grades six-eight and category 4 includes grades nine-twelve.

The first place winner in each category for the local contest will receive $25 and will represent the Woman’s Club of Marion in the General Federation of Women’s Club Kentucky state contest.

Entries are due at 12 Noon, Friday, Jan. 13 and can be submitted in one of three ways: by delivering to the school office; delivering to the Crittenden County Extension Service office; or by email as a Word document attachment to nancy.hunt@uky.edu.  The Crittenden County Extension Service office is located at 1534 U.S. 60 E. in Marion.

Nancy Hunt, Woman’s Club of Marion president said “If school is cancelled on the due date the entry deadline will be the first day students return to class.”

Students in surrounding counties are eligible to enter the Marion competition as long as there is not a Federated Woman’s Club in their county.  These students will need to email their entries instead of turning them into their school office.

For more information or a copy of the rules, contact Hunt at nancy.hunt@uky.edu or by calling (270) 704-0057.

CCMS Chromebook Night Tuesday

Middle school parents and/or guardians and students should attend Chromebook Night Tuesday to sign the user agreement and pay the required technology fee so that the students can begin using their Chromebooks immediately in the classroom. Students cannot get their Chromebooks at school until the user agreement is signed. Chromebook Night is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room on campus.

3 for $5 on Sugar at Conrad's

The savings are even greater than advertised!

There is an error in the Conrad's Harvest Foods grocery circular published in this week's Early Bird.

Instead of a 2-for-5 special on HyTop Sugar (4 lb. bag), the special is actually 3 BAGS FOR $5.

Fort Campbell soldier killed

Gov. Matt Bevin today recognized the sacrifice of a Fort Campbell Soldier, Spc. Isiah L. Booker, of Cibolo, Texas, who died while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.

According to the Department of Defense, Spc. Booker died on Jan. 7 in Jordan, in a non-combat related incident. Spc. Booker was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Service arrangements for Spc. Booker are not yet complete.

Gov. Bevin will order flags lowered to half-staff in honor of Spc. Booker on the date of interment, and encourages individuals, businesses, organizations and government agencies to join in this tribute.

Operation Inherent Resolve is the U.S. military's operational name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including both the campaign in Iraq and the campaign in Syria.

Board working session rescheduled

Tuesday's Crittenden County Board of Education working session has been cancelled and rescheduled as a special meeting beginning at 6 p.m. at Rocket Arena. A disciplinary hearing, which is closed to the public, will be held at 7 p.m.

Another football meeting in Livingston County

There will be a community-wide meeting this week in Smithland for parents, students and community members to discuss the possibility of starting a football program in Livingston County.

This plan will ultimately include youth, middle school and high school football programs.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m., Thursday at Livingston Central High School.

Area deaths

Chad Micheal Lougee, 43, of Marion died Friday. Myers Funeral Home in Marion is in charge of arrangements.

Bettie Cannon Garcia, 76, of Clarksville, Tenn., died Thursday. Myers Funeral Home in Marion is in charge of arrangements.

Beaver Dam rest area closure temporary

A popular rest stop on the Wendell Ford-Western Kentucky Parkway has temporarily closed its doors and switched off the gas pumps as the lease with the current vendor has expired and a recent bid process was terminated due to the bidder's failure to provide complete information.

The Beaver Dam rest area, located in the median of the Parkway at mile marker 75, will be closed temporarily. This stopover is along the Parkway between the U.S. 231 interchange and the William H. Natcher Parkway interchange in Ohio County.

Motorists who plan to travel the Parkway should be aware that no services will be available, including restrooms, food service and gasoline purchases during the closure. Truck parking will also be prohibited.

Because of liability issues, the state decided to close the rest area when an agreement administered between the Finance Cabinet and vendor expired. The closure took effect because the current vendor provided an incomplete response to the state's request for proposals and was non-responsive to the state's request for more information.

“The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is currently in a bidding process. After the current vendor turned in an incomplete application, the Cabinet was forced to actively begin seeking a new one for the Beaver Dam rest area,” said Asa James Swan, chief of staff of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “We are eager to get a new contract in place to reopen this popular rest area as soon as possible."

The Cabinet has not established a timeframe for its reopening, but anticipates, in conjunction with the Finance Cabinet, offering a request for proposal soon. Re-opening the Beaver Dam rest area will be a top priority for KYTC.

In the meantime, KYTC personnel will establish temporary message boards to alert the public and will barricade entry ramps at the site.

Food and gasoline services are available nearby at the U.S. 231 Beaver Dam exit 75 interchange.

KSP issues checkpoints reminder

The Kentucky State Police would like to offer periodic reminders to drivers who travel our roadways. Our agency strives daily to ensure the safety of the motoring public. Some of these proactive measures include various roadside safety checkpoints and saturating known problematic areas in the district through general patrol tactics.

The Kentucky State Police utilizes traffic safety checkpoints to promote safety for motorists using the public roadways and to provide a deterrent for those who violate laws contained in the Kentucky Revised Statutes.

The intent of a traffic safety checkpoint is to provide for a high visibility, public safety service, focusing on operator impairment, vehicular equipment deficiencies (confirming appropriate registration and insurance of vehicles) and the valid licensing of drivers. Other violations of law and/or other public safety issues that arise will be addressed.

These checkpoints will allow the Kentucky State Police the opportunity to periodically concentrate its efforts in checking for violations of Kentucky traffic and regulatory laws that will ultimately increase the safety of the citizens within the Commonwealth.

Traffic Safety checkpoint locations in the Post 2 District may also be located at our web site:  www.kentuckystatepolice.org/posts/press/post2_checkpoints.html

Crittenden County Checkpoint Sites
Location #4: KY 297 at the US 60 intersection
Location #5: US 641 at the Crayne Post Office
Location #6: US 60 at the KY 365 intersection
Location #7: KY 91 at the KY135 intersection

Lawmakers adjust calendar; will meet in session tomorrow

The Kentucky Senate and House of Representatives will convene Saturday under a change in the 2017 legislative calendar approved by legislative leaders.

After working tomorrow, lawmakers will return to their home districts and are scheduled to come back to Frankfort for the second part of the 2017 session on Feb. 7.

The second part of the session is still scheduled for final adjournment, as originally planned, on March 30. However, under the recent change to the session schedule, March 9 has been added to the days on which lawmakers will not be gaveled into session.

The latest version of the 2017 session calendar can be viewed online at http://www.lrc.ky.gov/calendars/17RS_calendar.pdf.

Senate committee advances right-to-work bill

Legislation that would make Kentucky a right-to-work state was approved today by the Senate State and Local Government Committee.

The proposal, which would make membership in a labor union optional rather than mandatory for workers at unionized workplaces, now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The House of Representatives has already approved the measure, known as House Bill 1, a designation given to House leadership’s top priority bill.

Testifying in support of the measure at today’s meeting, House Speaker Jeff Hoover, a primary sponsor of HB 1, said the legislation would boost Kentucky’s labor market.

“Right-to-work is simply the name given to the ability of an employee to negotiate his or her wages and negotiate his or her benefits directly with the employer without being compelled to be a member of a labor union,” said Hoover, R-Jamestown. “I don’t see why government should stand in the way of a worker opting to not join and be given the ability to negotiate on their own if they so choose.”

“…Recent history proves that not only is passing right-to-work not a hindrance to labor union membership, it can actually help labor unions grow. For example, both Indiana and Tennessee … are right-to-work states and they have more union members today then what they had prior to enacting this legislation. That is simply because of the economic development that has been brought to those right-to-work states.”

Hoover said private sector employment grew 17.4 percent in right-to-work states between 2001 and 2013, more than double the 8.2 percent in states that don’t have right-to-work laws.

Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, a primary sponsor of HB 1, said Kentucky has lost job-creating opportunities to other states that have right-to-work laws. “The governor has an initiative to make Kentucky the epicenter of advanced manufacturing in the world. … There’s no reason why we can’t expand our economic opportunities by passing right-to-work legislation,” he said.

Opponents of right-to work legislation testified that Kentucky’s manufacturing sector is already strong compared to neighboring right-to-work states.

“Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that among all states, Kentucky already has the fifth-highest manufacturing employment as a share of total jobs,” said Anna Bauman, a research and policy associate for the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. “A larger share of Kentucky workers are in manufacturing than workers in both Virginia and Tennessee, two of our three neighbors with active right-to-work laws.”

Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, also testified against the right-to-work proposal, emphasizing that unions come to workplaces where a majority of eligible workers vote in favor of them.

“Workers have a variety of options if they are unwilling to financially support or become union members,” he said. “They have the freedom not to seek employment in unionized workplaces if they are displeased that a union was voted in to a workplace by a majority vote. In such cases, the individual can seek employment in the 89 percent of workplaces in Kentucky that are not unionized.”

Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, predicted the state’s economy will quickly enjoy a boost if Kentucky becomes a right-to-work state.

“We will see the results very quickly across this commonwealth as the numbers, the leading economic indicators in this state, start pointing in the right direction,” he said.

House Bill 1 contains an emergency clause, meaning it would take effect immediately upon being signed into law by the governor.

No ballgame tonight at Lyon County

Crittenden County's scheduled Fifth District doubleheader tonight at Lyon County has been cancelled due to current road and weather conditions and the evening forecast.

Rocket coach Denis Hodge said work has begun to reschedule the district matches, but nothing is firm at this point.

Crittenden's boys are scheduled to host Community Christian Saturday night and the girls are to play at Fort Campbell.

Right to work bill, repeal of prevailing wage pass House

Rep. Lynn Bechler, R-Marion
HB 1: Yes
HB 3: Yes

Legislation that would make Kentucky the 27^th right-to-work state by outlawing mandatory membership in a labor union as a condition of employment passed the House today by a vote of 58-39.

Supporters say House Bill 1, sponsored by House Speaker Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown and Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, would boost jobs by allowing employees to negotiate benefits and wages directly with their employers. Committee testimony on the bill yesterday said job growth in right-to-work states has been more than double that in non-right-to-work states like Kentucky in recent years.

Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, whose grandfather worked for 43 years in the coal mines, said he voted in support of HB 1 to try and bring jobs to his district where, he said, 3,000 people are out of work.

“I reluctantly vote yes,” said Fugate, adding some of his constituents are for right-to-work and some are against it. Fugate said he isn’t against unions, but “our coal miners are not working in the mountains in case anybody didn’t know that.”

“I’ll work my rear end off to make sure that I do everything I can for them to get jobs so they don’t have to move to another state or another place to provide for their families,” Fugate said.

Opponents of right-to-work legislation like HB 1, however, claim such bills weaken wages of the working and middle classes. Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Shively told House members that studies show right-to-work legislation hurts the wages of working men and women in Kentucky.

“I proudly stand with my union brothers and sisters and all workers across this Commonwealth and vote no,” said Jenkins.

Also passed by the House today was HB 3, sponsored by House Speaker Hoover and Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger. That legislation, which passed the House 57-40, would repeal the state’s prevailing wage law which guarantees an hourly base “prevailing” wage to construction workers on certain public works projects. Koenig said the process for determining that base wage “is unlikely to yield wages that are representative of market wages.”

Koenig said the only reason the bill was filed is to save the taxpayers money. “That is our motivation for filing this bill,” he said.

Among those voting against the bill was Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, who said prevailing wage was designed to ensure quality work done by local workers.

HB 1 and HB 3 now go to the Senate for its consideration. They both include emergency provisions, which make them take effect immediately if signed into law.

Senate approves bill to prohibit abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy

Sen. Dorsey Ridley, D-Henderson
SB 5: Yes

The state Senate today approved legislation that would prohibit a woman from having an abortion in Kentucky if she is 20 weeks or more into a pregnancy.

The legislation, Senate Bill 5, would “protect pain-capable children from the horror of having an abortion performed on them,” said a primary sponsor of the bill, Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard.

Smith said books for expecting parents describe a 20-week-old fetus as capable of sucking its thumb, yawning, stretching, making faces and responding to pain.

SB 5 passed on a 30-6 vote. It now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, was among the opponents of the measure, arguing that women should be able to make decisions on their pregnancies without the limitations of SB 5.

“My fear is that by adopting this bill that we’re going to ultimately go back to what we saw in the 50s and 60s when we had back-alley butcher shops to take care of situations rather than having a safe medical procedure,” Thomas said.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, a primary sponsor of the legislation, says it focuses on the wellbeing of the unborn child. “We’re not just talking about these women who are seeking abortions. ... We’re talking about the child that is a life. That life deserves a chance to survive. Twenty weeks – that’s five months. … We’re not stopping anyone from getting an abortion. We’re not doing anything that gets in the way of (women’s) conversations with their partner, their spouse, their physician, their priest or minister. We’re not stopping any of that. But we are going to recognize that life exists there.”

Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, a medical doctor, said that medical advances are reducing the age at which fetuses are viable, or able to survive outside the womb. “All we’re trying to do here with this bill is give those children an opportunity to survive,” he said.

Sen. Denise Harper Angel, D-Louisville, voted against SB 5 and urged lawmakers to focus on other issues. “One in four children in Kentucky are living in poverty and over 7,000 live in foster care. Our young people, if they are fortunate enough to graduate from college, come out with huge student loans and can’t find jobs. Four-hundred-thousand people may fall through the cracks and lose their health insurance. My question is: why do we spend our precious time in this body attacking a woman’s right to choose … when Kentucky faces so many more demanding issues?”

While casting his vote in favor of the legislation, Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, also quoted statistics.

“We heard statistics earlier … But I want to say there are also statistics of 58,586,256 abortions that have been performed in the United States since 1973. That’s an average of over 1 million abortions per year,” he said.

SB 5 contains an emergency clause, which would make it effective immediately upon being signed into law by the governor.

Ultrasound bill passes Ky. House, goes to Senate

Rep. Lynn Bechler, R-Marion
HB 3: Yes

Women seeking an abortion would be required to have an obstetric ultrasound and receive a medical explanation of what that ultrasound shows under a bill that today passed the state House of Representatives on an 83-12 vote.

Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Florence, who is a primary sponsor of House Bill 2 along with House Speaker Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, said the ultrasound proposal is about informed consent.

“In this Commonwealth, it is important that we give women full and informed consent. We have moved historically from a time when women were just given the bare information about medical procedures to making sure that we respect their autonomy and their decision-making process in issues…that impact their lives,” said Wuchner.

Any woman seeking an abortion would have to comply with the proposed ultrasound requirement before she could give informed consent for an abortion, according to the bill. Revised in 2016, Kentucky’s informed consent law requires women seeking an abortion to have an in-person or teleconferenced medical consult at least 24 hours before the procedure.

The bill would also require the woman’s physician or health care provider to display the ultrasound images to the woman and allow her to hear her fetus’ heartbeat, although the women would not have to look at the images or listen to the heartbeat. Signed certification would be placed in the woman’s medical record noting that she was presented with the required information and noting if she viewed the images and listened to the heartbeat or declined to do so.

No ultrasound would be required in cases of medical emergency where an abortion is considered a “medical necessity,” according to HB 2. Health care providers who do not comply with the requirement would face fines of $100,000 for a first offense and $250,000 for additional offenses.

Several floor amendments were proposed to the measure, including amendments to outlaw all forms of abortion in Kentucky, provide an exception to the proposed ultrasound requirement in cases of rape or incest and ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation. Each floor amendment called stalled on a procedural vote.

One freshman member who voted against HB 2 was Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, who said half of her constituents are female. “I have spent years mentoring women who are older than me, younger than me and in my own age group and have found the importance of trusting women to make their own decisions,” said Scott. 

Among those voting in favor of HB 2 was freshman member Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill. The former neo-natal intensive care nurse said HB 2 will give pregnant women a clear understanding of their medical condition so they can make informed decisions.

“As a medical professional, it is my obligation to ensure patients have accurate access to medical information regarding their medical diagnosis and that it should be available to them,” said Moser.  “It is with accurate information that a patient can make an informed decision regarding their treatment, whether it is treatment for a brain tumor requiring an MRI or a CT scan, or if it is to determine the health and the progress of a pregnancy through an ultrasound.”

HB 2 now goes to the Senate for consideration.

No school Friday in Crittenden County

There will be no school in Crittenden County Friday. This will be a regular snow day that will have to be made up. It will not serve as the school district's second Rocket Way Snow Day.

Area death

Otis L. Millikan, 84, of Marion died Wednesday. Gilbert Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Local job opening

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