The Associated Press

The City of Owensboro and Daviess County are restarting their juvenile drug court.  County Attorney Claud Porter says both are putting up 88,000 dollars per year to fund the program. The juvenile drug court was discontinued because of state budget cuts.

The deadline is nearing for delinquent Kentucky taxpayers to take advantage of an amnesty period. Kentucky officials say this is the first amnesty period in 10 years and allows people to pay taxes that are due without paying fees or penalties and having the interest reduced by half.

Kentucky is one step closer to resuming executions. The state Justice Cabinet Thursday sent its proposed changes to the state's lethal injection process to the legislature. A state judge more than a year ago ordered Kentucky to halt executions until it switches from using three drugs to just one drug. The proposal makes some changes based on input from a public hearing in September.

Owensboro officials hope a recent study will put them in the path of a new highway running from Tennessee to Michigan. The report found the proposed Interstate 67 could attract 16 to 30 thousand vehicles a day along most of its length when it’s completed in 2035. The study projects higher volumes along the Kentucky section.

Illinois' home foreclosure rate rose 6 percent in October compared to the previous month, and was 19 percent higher than in October of last year. A RealtyTrac report released Thursday shows Illinois with almost 15 thousand foreclosure filings last month, the third-highest rate in the nation. Filings include default notices, auction-sale notices and bank repossessions. Nationally, October's foreclosure activity rose 3 percent from the previous month but fell 19 percent from October of 2011.

The Illinois firearm deer season begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday.  It will conclude November 29th through December 2nd. Hunters harvested more than 98,000 deer during 2011's seven-day hunt. So far this year, about 334,000 permits have been issued.

Officials are evacuating more than two dozen homes near a train derailment that occurred two weeks ago in southwestern Jefferson County. Louisville-Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Jody Duncan says 31 homes within a half-mile of the derailment are being evacuated to allow workers to remove hazardous chemicals from some of the tanker cars.

Geologists say the 4.3 magnitude earthquake that shook eastern Kentucky over the weekend was not induced by the region's underground mining activity. The epicenter was about 10 miles west of Whitesburg, in the heart of Kentucky's coal country, where underground mining and surface blasting are common.

Tennessee smokers participating in the Great American Smokeout Thursday can quit with free help from the Tennessee Tobacco QuitLine. The QuitLine connects smokers with a personal coach who guides them through the quitting process.

The widow of a Fort Campbell soldier killed in a blast in Afghanistan is suing the National Geographic Society and Fox Cable Networks for airing images of her family in a documentary about a combat hospital. Donnice Roberts filed the lawsuit this month in federal court in Texas.