News

A drug task force in south-central Kentucky is on the verge of expanding into a third county.

The Bowling Green daily News reports the Barren-Edmonson County Drug Task Force is poised to add Allen County as a partner. The task force is based in Glasgow and investigates drug crimes in Barren and Edmonson counties.

Task force director Jeff Scruggs says the partnership has received approval from city and county governments in Allen County. The final steps are filing and registering paperwork to officially add the third county to the agency.

The Dalai Lama spoke to about 15,000 people at the KFC Yum Center as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists began his visit.

He spoke for about 40 minutes Sunday and then took questions from the crowd. A line started forming around the arena hours before the speech.

The Dalai Lama started his visit earlier in the day by blessing a temple in suburban Louisville. He handed out prayer scarves at the event and told the crowd there that the temple should be known more as a place of learning than of chanting.

Tea party activist David Adams is once again suing Governor Steve Beshear over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This time, Adams is trying to block the expansion of Medicaid.

The expansion will give 300,000 people a chance to join Medicaid beginning next year. Beshear says that will make Kentuckians healthier and boost the state's economy.

Adams disputes that. His lawsuit challenges a decades- old law that gives Beshear the power to accept federal funds freely.

To help pay his legal fees, Adams says he's asking for help from other tea party activists.

"Anything like this, to do it right, winds up to be very expensive. We continue to go out and sell the effort to people and as they see we are actually on very solid legal ground for asserting consumer and citizens' rights on this, those efforts will just expand."

Adams also has a lawsuit pending to block the state-run health insurance exchange Beshear created by executive order a year ago.

A Warren County lawmaker says he agrees with Governor Steve Beshear on the need to get legislative redistricting maps done before the 2014 General Assembly.

Bowling Green Representative Jody Richards told WKU Public Radio he hopes House and Senate leaders can come to an agreement on new maps ahead of a possible special legislative session this fall.

"I hope that everybody gets together, and that we do a five-day session, which is the quickest you can possibly do," said Richards. "We don't need to get up there and argue. Everything needs to be settled before we go."

Richards says two lawsuits filed against the state over the lack of a redistricting plan are adding to the urgency lawmakers feel about getting new maps passed. Those lawsuits were filed by a group of county clerks in northern Kentucky and the state chapter of the ACLU, and accuse the state of violating federal law by not having in place new legislative maps based on the latest U.S. Census data.

The case against a Bowling Green volleyball coach accused of having sex with an underage girl is headed to a grand jury. 

Twenty-eight-year-old Brian Gifford was in Warren District Court Friday and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. 

A Kentucky State Police investigation found that Gifford had sex on multiple occasions with a 15-year-old player that he met while coaching for the Barren River Area Volleyball Organization.  Warren County Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Cohron says the investigation is ongoing.

"Our main concern is to make sure that any children affected by this individual come forward, and if anybody does have information we would ask them to contact Kentucky State Police or the Commonwealth's Attorneys Office," urges Cohron.

Gifford remains in the Warren County Regional Jail.  His attorney Alan Simpson declined to comment Friday.