Society

Earlier this year, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame inducted three west Kentuckians to the ranks of other great Kentucky Journalists: D.J. Everett of WKDZ/WHVO radio in Cadiz, Murray State University professor emeritus Dr. Robert McGaughey, and Chip Hutcheson of The Times Leader and The Eagle Post. Today we continue a series of conversations with these gentlemen.

For Hutcheson, journalism is a family business. His parents bought what was then the Princeton Leader when he was 10 months old, and he grew up helping in the newspaper offices.

After three months of stepped-up enforcement on Kentucky's highways, police say the project resulted in apprehension of 41 fugitives as well as thousands of drunken-driving and drug arrests.  The effort, called Operation B.L.U.E. Lights, began June 1st and ended Labor Day. Kentucky State Police held over 1,600 safety checkpoints across the Commonwealth to draw attention to unsafe driving and reduce traffic deaths.  Over 2,000 D-U-I arrests and almost 1,500 hundred drug arrests were made.

Little damage is being reported throughout western Kentucky in the wake of a line of strong thunderstorms that passed through the area last night.  The storms lasted for about two hours, producing rain and high winds that downed trees and power lines.  The National Weather Service reports those winds gusted as high as 50 and 60 miles per hour in McCracken, Graves, and Marshall counties.  Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman Keith Todd says a motorist in Calloway County struck a tree that had fallen across the road.  Otherwise, no injuries were reported last night.  N-W-S meteorologists

A proposed ordinance in Paris, Tennessee could put an end to what locals call perpetual yard sales. City Manager Carl Holder says some people were running the yard sales like a business, and it was becoming an eyesore. He says,

“The problem is that very often they simply throw a tarp on them and leave them out there sometimes for weeks or months. So it is the purpose of the ordinance to limit the number of times a year you can have a yard sale…”

The U.S. corn harvest continues ahead of schedule with some states nearly half-finished at a time when they usually are just getting started.  In its weekly crop update, the USDA says little has changed in the condition of drought-damaged corn and soybeans. That's because the plants are too far along for recent rain to make a difference.  Corn was planted several weeks earlier this year and matured more quickly in the summer heat, allowing farmers to start harvesting early.  Tennessee has almost half of its corn in, compared to the usual 21 percent.