Angela Hatton, Kentucky Public Radio

Mental health service provider The Pennyroyal Center has linked its phone lines to a national crisis number. People in the Pennyroyal Center’s eight-county service region who call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number will route back to the local agency's RESPOND call center. Quality Management Director Jamie Nichols says Louisville used to be the closest national crisis line link.“Our staff are knowledgeable about what resources are available in the region, and we can be more helpful in trying to link them to those resources," said Nichols. "If they called a center that was in Louisville or they got linked to somewhere else per se, they would not know what was available to the people in our region.”

A northern Kentucky medical examiner is moving to Madisonville to fill a similar position in Western Kentucky. The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet announced Dr. Greg Wanger accepted the position this week. The office has been vacant for over a year. Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown says the move is good news for the region.

This past week, hundreds gathered at Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site to close a chapter in the Native American history of our region.  They witnessed a ceremony honoring the reburial of the remains of Mississippian-era mound builders who lived in our area almost a thousand years ago.  For over 50 years, the owners of the land that now makes up the historic site displayed them as part of a tourist attraction called Ancient Buried City. 

Marie Colvin believed in telling real people’s stories, said Bill Mulligan, Murray State University history professor. Colvin was killed Feb. 22, in Homs, Syria, on a reporting assignment for the London Sunday Times. Colvin was a veteran war correspondent with 25 years with the newspaper reporting on conflicts around the world, and most recently in the Middle East. The bombing that took her life also killed French reporter Remi Ochlik. Colvin was Mulligan’s first cousin, younger by eight years.

Time Warner Cable has agreed to buy New Wave Communication operations in western Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee. The 260 million dollar deal will transfer more than 70,000 customers to Time Warner. Company spokesman Alex Dudley says the only difference customers will notice at first will be sign changes. Dudley says service upgrades could come later, though he says Time Warner is happy with the current quality of the network. Dudley couldn’t comment on future employment shifts. He says none are planned for the short term. Dudley says the deal will close later this year.

Wildlife management officials say they can’t test bats again for white nose syndrome until November. In April, officials confirmed the first cases of the fungus at a cave in Trigg County.  Right now, Wildlife Diversity Program Coordinator Sunny Carr says bats are mating and raising young, and they can’t be studied. However, Carr says it is possible they can spread the spores that cause white nose.

Children born in 2010 will cost Kentucky families between $130,000 and $150,000 to raise. That's well below the national average. The USDA publishes a report on child-rearing costs each year. This year, costs went up two percent from 2009. On average families in the lowest income group spend $206,000 dollars on a child in before they graduate high school. But that number drops in rural regions. Terry Brooks is Director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. Brooks says for everyone housing takes up nearly a third of expenses.

The emergence of a brood of 13-year cicadas in western Kentucky could mean trouble for landscapers.  Brood 19 spans from Muhlenberg to McCracken counties. University of Kentucky Extension Office Entomologist Doug Johnson says the bugs emerge from underground at the end of 13 years to mate and lay eggs.

Flood waters have receded from some homes in western Kentucky’s river counties. Teams are assessing damage to determine whether some counties may be eligible for F-E-M-A individual recovery assistance. FEMA’s Nick Morici says it’s OK for people to start cleaning up before their homes have been assessed.