Big-Laurel News

“I intend to remain engaged in the debate over how Kentucky should meet the energy and environmental challenges that will do so much to determine our state's future”

Chairman Mark David Goss will leave the Kentucky Public Service Commission early next month. via Lexington Herald-Leader

Light rain showers will continue to fall across the region through the rest of this evening. via WKYT-TV Lexington

The mayor of a small eastern Kentucky town dropped plans to resign two weeks after saying he would walk away from the job. via WKYT-TV Lexington

“And it's just a quicker, more effective way of getting a hold of folks rather than depending on them to listen to the radio or some other means”

On stormy days, schools may consider dismissing students early, but how do you get that message to all parents at once? One Eastern Kentucky school system is finding a way to keep everyone informed at a moments ... via WKYT-TV Lexington

Legislators line up for pork despite 'bare bones' budget That squealing noise you hear coming out of Frankfort is the millions of dollars in "pork barrel" projects members of the Kentucky General Assembly ... via Independent

“It was just frustrating that we couldn't get enough revenue coming in to pay the bills.”

The mayor of a small southeastern Kentucky town has resigned after saying he couldn't get cooperation from the city council. via WKYT-TV Lexington

“That way I had it on either side”

A sheriff's deputy in Harlan County supplied the gun used to murder a sheriff's candidate in 2002 and the cash to pay the killer, according to a major drug dealer involved in the plot.

The deputy, Roger Hall, who was taking payoffs from drug dealer Dewayne Harris, was concerned that if Paul L. Browning Jr. became sheriff, Hall would lose his position, Harris testified Thursday.

'Roger said (Browning) had to go,' Harris told jurors in the trial of the man charged with murdering Browning. 'He had to be made away with.' Read more

“She says that when he pressed her against the building and pinned her face to the building, that he stuck something against her back. She did not see a weapon, he did not mention a weapon, but he told her 'give me the money and I won't hurt you”

A search is underway after police say a man robbed and roughed up an eastern Kentucky fast food manager. via WKYT-TV Lexington

By Brad Hicks / Staff Writer A London man is facing multiple charges after allegedly striking a police cruiser and attempting to flee the scene last weekend. via TheTimesTribune.com

Attorneys are selecting jurors in the trial of a man accused of murdering a former eastern Kentucky Sheriff in 2002. via WBKO-TV Bowling Green

“We were in a '41 Chevrolet driving across Daisy Lane in New Albany, and my late father said, 'How would you boys like to have your own business?”

James W. Robinson says he'll never forget the day he and his brother entered the business world. via The Courier-Journal

A local man, Mike Gooch, was recently named the 2007 Nat Sanders Educator of the Year by the Kentucky Association of Realtors. via Winchester Sun

“I know you are mad, but Teresa I want you to know that I still love your Daddy and I am right now trying to get away from Pat for good.”

Members of a Harlan County family have lived 31 years not knowing what happened to a loved one after she vanished like a ghost in the night and was never heard from again. via Harlan Daily Enterprise

A winter storm has dumped several inches of snow across eastern Kentucky, with smaller accumulations in the rest of the state but enough to cancel school in several counties. via WLEX-TV Lexington

“There's people that come in here that don't have dentures. They'd just be gumming it otherwise.”

They've been called bootleggers and outlaws. But such accusations against denturists -- non-dentists who make and fit dentures -- didn't stop Ralph Thurmond of Louisville from visiting one seven years ago, ... via The Courier-Journal

“A lot of people have this misconception that your teeth just last so long and then you have them out”

Worst tooth loss

States with the most toothless residents, 65 and older:

1. West Virginia

2. Kentucky

3. Tennessee

4. Mississippi

5. Louisiana

6. Oklahoma

7. Alabama

8. Maine

9. Missouri

10. Pennsylvania

Tops in heart disease

States with the highest percentages of residents reporting coronary heart disease:

Ricky Ray woke the night of Sept. 22 gasping for breath. At the emergency room in Middlesboro, doctors identified the problem: His heart was failing, overworked from a birth defect Ray didn't know he had. Read more

Figuring out what to do with his free time is not hard for Gary Grant - it usually involves big wheels and a lot of mud. via Harlan Daily Enterprise

“I originally thought the kitten was dead when it first got here. The fact that it is still here is absolutely amazing”

Animal cruelty in Harlan County is currently at an all-time high, according to local officials. via Harlan Daily Enterprise

“I think you learn something - not just from the fact that they were arrested - but also what got them to this point. That is what we want to know - what's behind it.”

"Good Morning America" co-anchor and Kentucky native Diane Sawyer was in Harlan County on Friday to collect information for a story that she says will air in a couple of months. via Harlan Daily Enterprise

“We are all trying to focus on the same common goal - to eradicate the majority of the drug problem in this county. We are trying to get the drug problem under control - it has been out of control for a while.”

Continuing problems with illegal drug sales throughout Harlan County resulted in a roundup targeting 51 individuals on Friday. via Harlan Daily Enterprise