Whitney Jones

Tennessee homeowners facing foreclosure now have a free hotline to turn to for help. The Mortgage Assistance Hotline refers homeowners to free foreclosure prevention counseling. The hotline is staffed Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Callers can get free counseling over the phone or get a referral for in-person counseling at a local non-profit.

Kentucky’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform has proposed lowering individual and corporate tax rates, raising the cigarette tax and extending the state sales tax to certain services. Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson says the changes recommended by the group would generate about $659 million in new state revenue each year. Abramson headed the commission and says the changes will make Kentucky more competitive in creating jobs.

From NPR: The Hobbit released this weekend and was the No. 1 movie at the box office. But being the top movie isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be. The ranking doesn’t necessarily mean the movie will make much money. But for the Middle Earth adventure that probably won’t be the case.

Henderson County’s animal shelter has cut its euthanasia rate to 5 percent thanks to work from its new director. Humane Society of Henderson County President Josh Williams credits the decrease to Josh Cromer, who’s been the organization’s director for just over a year. When he started last October, Cromer said his goal was to cut the number of euthanized animals in half. During the first nine months of 2011, the shelter put down 862 animals. For the same time period this year, it’s euthanized just 65.

Western Kentucky is a region whose residents have known the horror of a deadly school shooting. Since the 1997 Heath High School shootings in Paducah where three students were killed and five wounded, state law mandates that every public school have a safety plan. Those plans deal with a range of possibilities: from fire, train derailment, and earthquakes to an armed intruder or angry parent.

Former employees of a veterans charity already under scrutiny in Tennessee say the organization handed out only a fraction of the money it raised in the form of gift cards. Florida-based Veterans Support Organization is under fire for its fundraising methods that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars and for threatening to fire workers if they did not meet fundraising quotas.

Kentucky officials say curtailing prescription-pill abuse will suffer a major setback if a wave of generic painkillers reaches the market without safeguards. OxyContin and Opana ER patents are set to expire next year allowing for generic versions of the powerful drugs. The brand-name painkillers were popular sources for abusers until tamper-resistant formulas were added.

Leaders from Fort Campbell’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade will speak with the media today about their first 100 days of deployment to Afghanistan. The brigade went overseas this year to provide helicopter support throughout two regions of the country, including areas where other Fort Campbell units are deployed.

The clock is ticking for Illinois legislators to come up with a law approving the concealed carry of weapons after a federal appellate court decided last week to throw out the state's ban on concealed guns. The legislature has 180 days to craft a new law and has the option of using a law already in place in one of the other 49 states.

Law enforcement is on the lookout for three men who escaped Calloway County Jail Sunday by jumping over the facility’s barbed wire fence. The three are Terry Hardin, Tab Delancey and Bradley Cathey. Hardin is a 5’ 7” black male, Delancey a 5’ 7” white male and Cathey a 5’11” white male. Hardin and Delancey were both incarcerated for burglary and Cathey for violating probation. The men may be with Lasey Jones and Ashley Bessette in a red 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix.