LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - On the eve of what some had said would be the most difficult election of Mitch McConnell’s career, the Senate minority leader scarcely mentioned the tea party-backed challenger who tried to capitalize on the anti-incumbent fervor that has toppled others in recent years.
McConnell crisscrossed the state Monday, focusing not on GOP opponent Matt Bevin but on President Barack Obama. The strategy hints at how he’ll approach the general campaign against likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes, who McConnell will no doubt try to link to the president who is deeply unpopular in his home state.
“No administration has been worse for Kentucky than this one. Virtually everything they have done has been bad for us,” McConnell told a group of supporters in Louisville, the first of seven scheduled stops on a campaign fly around the day before the election. “There’s nothing the president and his allies would like better than to defeat the guy you are looking at.”
Recent polls have shown McConnell in a virtual tie with Grimes. The Democratic Secretary of State told a group of about 50 people in Shelbyville Monday afternoon that she would be an independent voice in Washington.
“I’ll work with anybody if it’s best for this state,” she said. “But if you seek to undermine the good jobs that … we need here in the commonwealth, you will find no stronger opponent.”
But before McConnell can take on Grimes, he first must defeat Bevin in Tuesday’s primary. Bevin has criticized McConnell for not being a true conservative, citing his votes on the 2008 Wall Street bailout and several votes during his tenure to raise the debt ceiling. But Bevin ran into trouble for a 2008 document from his investment firm that called the bailout a “positive development” and for getting caught on tape saying he thought it was wrong to outlaw cockfighting.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The Executive Branch Ethics Commission has settled cases with five officials of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
The Courier-Journal (https://cjky.it/RPYMY5https://cjky.it/RPYMY5 ) says the five admitted to ethics violations Monday. In March, former Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Jonathan Gassett settled nine violations, including directing state workers to do personal chores for him on state time. He was reprimanded and fined $7,500.
In the cases settled Monday, four involved violations including having employees deliver fish from a state hatchery to private ponds. The four are Benjamin T. Kinman, former deputy commissioner; Mark Roberts, game management foreman; Gerald Buynak, assistant director of fisheries; and Steve Marple, manager of the Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery.
In the fifth case, Ronald C. Brooks, director of fisheries, was accused of directing an employee to acquire a a controlled chemical for Gassett’s personal use.
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Information from: The Courier-Journal, https://www.courier-journal.comhttps://www.courier-journal.com
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a Guatemalan national has been sentenced in Nashville to 37 months in prison for his role in a fraudulent tax refund conspiracy that stole almost $650,000.
U.S. Attorney David Rivera announced Monday that 37-year-old Juan Castro-Castro, who once lived in Shelbyville, Kentucky, received the prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring with others to bring fraudulently acquired tax refunds to Nashville.
Authorities say testimony at the sentencing showed that Castro-Castro and others used false names to submit more than 100 fraudulent tax returns in Kentucky that claimed refunds were owed. The refund checks were mailed by the IRS to one of four Kentucky addresses.
Authorities say an accomplice in Nashville cashed the refund checks several times each week.
Prosecutors say Castro-Castro is in the country illegally.
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PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - An animal nutrition company plans to begin operating a distillery and brewery in eastern Kentucky.
The Lexington Herald-Leader (https://bit.ly/1qPs6Oq) reports Alltech has agreed to purchase a former funeral home in downtown Pikeville that will serve as the location.
The company already operates a brewery and distillery central Kentucky and a distillery in Ireland, where Alltech founder Pearse Lyons is from.
Some leaders in economically depressed eastern Kentucky are looking to tourism to help reinvigorate the region, and they are using the success of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, as a model.
One major draw to that area is the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery.
Alltech has diverse interests, but recently has focused efforts in Ireland.
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