The Commonwealth

FRANKFORT - State Librarian and Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Commissioner Wayne Onkst has been recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Kentucky Library Association. The award is given to an individual who has shown continuous, sustained support of the library profession through his or her life.

Patchy to widespread frost is expected late tonight through daybreak on Tuesday in Eastern Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service office at Jackson. Light winds and clear skies over Eastern Kentucky will cause temperatures tonight to drop to between 32 and 37 degrees. Frost will develop tonight over most of Eastern Kentucky and continue through early Tuesday morning.

Danville recently won accolades from a website for being among the Top 10 Mayberry-like towns in America, and it’s not too difficult to see the parallels that connect that bucolic TV town of the 1960s to our fair city’s station in 2012. Mayberry had its town band and its pie-eating contests and Danville has its Great American Brass Band and BBQ festivals. In both locations, friendly crowds gather to hob-nob with their neighbors and guests, there’s hardly a hint of trouble, and a good time is had by all. Mayberry, however, never hosted a vice presidential debate.

Judicial centers will be closed statewide and all court services will be unavailable Monday, Oct. 15, as the Kentucky Judicial Branch shuts down for the third of three furlough days in 2012. The furloughs will affect only non-elected court personnel, who will be off work without pay as part of the Judicial Branch’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Reduction Plan. This includes the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Court, District Court, Offices of Circuit Court Clerk, the Administrative Office of the Courts and all court services, including Pretrial Services, Drug Court, the Court Designated Worker Program, Court Interpreting Services, the State Law Library and driver license branches.

Kentucky has reached a settlement with a coal company accused of thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act. The Kentucky Energy Environment Cabinet, International Coal Group and environmental interveners all agreed to the settlement, which was finalized today. ICG was charged with inaccurately reporting pollution discharge data from several of its mines in eastern Kentucky. The intervening groups—which include Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Riverkeeper Alliance—found identical data in months of reports, and suggested the company had copied and pasted the numbers rather than conducted the required monitoring.

One week from today “DANVILLE, Ky” will be one of the most prevalent datelines in the news business. At the conclusion of Wednesday night’s broadcast of the first presidential debate in Denver, moderator Jim Lehrer informed the audience of a projected 50 million viewers, “The next debate will be the vice presidential event on Thursday, Oct. 11, at Centre College in Danville, Ky.” Now, the cameras and coverage will shift to the meeting between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

FRANKFORT – The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has awarded nearly $41 million in contracts for projects to repave, rehabilitate and repair roads across the state. Most are for state routes, but they include repairs for interstate highways in Jefferson, Carroll, Gallatin and Livingston counties.

FRANKFORT – The Kentucky Public Service Commission has accepted a settlement regarding a proposed environmental compliance plan and associated environmental surcharge request submitted by Big Rivers Electric Corp. Under the settlement, Big Rivers will not construct the most costly emission control projects it proposed in its original plan, thus reducing the total cost by about 80 percent. The modified plan will cost $58.5 million - $225 million less than Big Rivers originally proposed.

Frankfort - In an effort to collect tens of millions of dollars owed to the state in back taxes, Gov. Steve Beshear Monday announced the kick-off of Kentucky’s Tax Amnesty program. Through the end of November, most people and businesses that owe overdue taxes to the state can apply for amnesty. This means they can pay up without facing penalties or fees and owe only half the interest due.

Hosting the Oct. 11 vice presidential debate at Centre College could cost about $3.3 million, though the college's students and the public aren't expected to pay most of it. Just to secure the event, Centre College had to commit a $1.65 million fee to The Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-partisan organization behind the quadrennial events. The commission will use that for its operations and to build a set inside the college's Norton Center for the Arts. Separately, the college is paying for construction of facilities needed by the Democratic and Republican campaigns and the news media. It hopes to recoup much of that cost by billing them.

On Thursday night, TV commentator Nancy Grace featured the late Army PFC Dustin Gross of Montgomery County in her show's regular tribute to a fallen soldier. Grace described Dustin, 19, who died May 7 when a bomb exploded in Afghanistan, as a hero. Dustin's aunt Tracy Brown said she contacted the show for the same reason that she and his mother, Angie Brown, are participating with the Montgomery County High Jr. ROTC in Operation Dustin Gross, a care package project for soldiers. "I don't want anyone to forget him," Tracy Brown said.

Kentucky leads the U.S. in pursuing pharmaceutical fraud, according to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based consumer group, Public Citizen. Since 1991, the state has pursued the most claims against pharmaceutical companies and reached more than 30 settlements. It pursued 17 single-state settlements, the most of any state.

A piece of World War Two history can be spotted in the skies over the Louisville area this weekend.  Kentucky Public Radio’s Rick Howlett took a ride on the restored B-17 Bomber that’s on its first national tour. The Boeing B-17 is better known as the Flying Fortress.  More than 12-thousand were produced starting in 1935.    Many of them took part in missions over Nazi-occupied Europe during World War Two.   Only a dozen are still flying today.

FRANKFORT – Gov. Steve Beshear Thursday announced that Kentucky will again take part in a national prescription drug take-back program to safely dispose of unused, unneeded or expired medications. The Drug Enforcement Administration National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday at locations throughout the state.

FRANKFORT – Gov. Steve Beshear Wednesday announced the 17 members of a panel that will help ensure that state agencies meet the policies and standards expected in cases of child abuse and neglect. Created by an executive order in July, the Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel will conduct comprehensive reviews of child fatalities and near fatalities that are determined to be the result of child abuse or neglect.

The founder of Louisville-based USA Harvest is charged in federal court with mail fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns. Stan Curtis is accused of stealing more than $183,000 in donations he solicited for the charity, which collects and distributes food for the needy. He’s also charged with failing to report the money as income with the IRS, along with more than $370,000 in travel expenses he allegedly charged to USA Harvest.