By Associated Press - Saturday, April 19, 2014
Ky. speaker: Hacker tweeted anti-McConnell remarks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky’s House speaker says someone hacked into his Twitter account to post inflammatory comments about U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Democratic Speaker Greg Stumbo took to Twitter to distance himself from the criticism directed at the five-term Republican senator from Kentucky.

Stumbo tweeted he was unaware the anti-McConnell comments had been posted Thursday night until he was notified in a phone call.

The speaker explained that his personal Twitter account had been hacked and he was changing his password.

The anti-McConnell comments were deleted. Stumbo spokesman Brian Wilkerson declined further comment Friday.

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore responded that if Stumbo’s Twitter account was hacked, “I’m certain law enforcement and House officials will want to investigate and report back their findings.

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First lady, Jill Biden to visit Fort Campbell

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Fort Campbell next week to speak with soldiers and their families at a jobs and career fair.

Obama and Biden are expected to be at the military post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line on Wednesday to deliver remarks to more than 1,000 service members and military spouses and over 100 employers at the Fort Campbell Veterans Jobs Summit and Career Forum.

The summit is a public, private, and nonprofit sector collaboration that, in coordination with the active duty military, aims to provide transitioning service members with employment resources.

During the meeting, Obama and Biden will also announce new government tools designed to simplify job hunting for veterans, transitioning service members, National Guard members, Reserve components and military spouses.

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Court reinstates lawsuit over Marine’s suicide

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The family of a Marine who killed himself after a tour of duty in Iraq will be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against the federal government over his treatment by two Veterans Affairs facilities in Kentucky.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Friday that the lawsuit brought by the family of 21-year-old Cameron Anestis of Georgetown shouldn’t have been dismissed. Anestis’ widow, Tiffany Anestis, sued the federal government in 2011, seeking $22.5 million in damages after her husband developed mental and emotional problems.

“You’re just shocked,” said Al Grasch, the attorney for the Anestis family. “The VA turned him away, not once, it turned him away twice.”

Anestis’ family claimed the VA was negligent when it turned away the Marine at two VA hospitals in Lexington when he sought a mental health evaluation and treatment.

A spokesman for the VA declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The VA may ask the court to reconsider its ruling, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or allow the case to return to federal court in Lexington.

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Kentucky officials look for local heroin solutions

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - After a bill aimed at stemming Kentucky’s growing heroin problem failed to pass during the state’s legislative session, officials say local solutions to the statewide problem are limited but that they are pushing ahead

Dr. Bonnie Hedrick is the coordinator of the Northern Kentucky Agency for Drug Abuse Policy. Although lawmakers decided against the bill that would’ve provided a needle exchange program, Hedrick is pushing for needle cleanup efforts. Likewise, first responders did not get authorization to carry an overdose antidote, so she’s urging area doctors to prescribe it to addicts.

“We contacted every police department through our local courts to make the areas where the Easter Egg Hunts are going to be held are clean of needles,” Hedrick said. “If they are held in a public park, for example, or an area where they know there is drug activity and is open to the public, we want to make sure those areas are clean for children and families.”

“We’re going to be tracking those needles, where they are, how many there are, in an effort to educate our legislators and the public in regards to not only their own personal safety but also the need for this type of protection strategy,” said Hedrick, who was recently notified of a police officer being stuck with a heroin needle during a pat-down of a suspect.

Hedrick would like to see the governor’s office or state health department declare a health emergency over the problem. Although she said she isn’t sure whether that would unlock funding or law enforcement options, but that she is “hoping that it would at least draw attention at the very highest levels to establish policy, procedures and funding for the strategies that we know work. We know that this is our only recourse right now.”

Although widely praised across party lines in the Kentucky Legislature, a provision of the anti-heroin bill allowing first responders to carry the antidote Naloxone died when the bill failed to pass at the final hour. Hedrick says her organization’s response has been to push local physicians to prescribe it, as legally permitted, to more heroin abusers and their family members.

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