News

Southbound access to Interstate 65 has been restricted in Hardin County from Elizabethtown south toward LaRue/Hart County. Additional freezing rain is falling and continues to compound hazardous road conditions. 

Department of Highways road crews are treating roads in the region but are also having a difficult time navigating the roads and getting around accidents. Other state maintained routes are also experiencing similar icing conditions in Grayson, Hardin, Hart, LaRue and Green Counties.

All lanes of the Western Kentucky Parkway are blocked between mile markers 82 and 84 in Ohio County. Emergency crews are on hand after a semi trailer overturned due to the icy road conditions.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet reports the entire roadway is covered in ice, and advises motorists to stay home unless they absolutely have to be on the road.

WKU Bowling Green campuses will open today at 11:00 a.m. with classes beginning at 11:30.  The Board of Regents meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m.

WKU Elizabethtown/Radcliff/Ft. Knox campuses will remain closed all day Friday. Saturday classes are still on schedule.

WKU Glasgow campus will open at 12:00 p.m.

WKU Owensboro campus will open at 10:00 a.m.

The Kentucky Kingdom amusement park will open in spring of 2014 under an agreement approved Thursday. The Kentucky State Fair Board unanimously approved the pact that would require investors, led by former park operator Ed Hart, to put up $45 million, including $25 million that they would borrow.

The Courier-Journal reports the deal is contingent on investors securing the loan. The investment group behind the effort, the Kentucky Kingdom Redevelopment Corporation, would have a lease on the state-owned property for 50 years.

The group would control 57 acres and another four acres for a potential expansion of Kentucky Kingdom’s water park. When the park was open, it employed between 800 and 1,000 summer workers.

Tea party activists are pushing to dismantle Kentucky's new health insurance exchange before it even gets off the ground.

Activists said Thursday after a board meeting for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange that they are supporting a bill to require legislative approval of the exchange, which was created by executive order of the governor.

Meanwhile, exchange executive director Carrie Banahan told board members that progress is being made in setting up a website that's supposed to make picking health insurance similar to buying an airline ticket from an online travel site. The site will allow consumers to compare costs and benefits.

Exchanges are a key part of the President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul. Banahan predicts about 300,000 people will purchase insurance through Kentucky's exchange.