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Study links poor health to mountaintop mining
A study that compared the health of Floyd Countians to residents of Rowan and Elliott counties concludes that there is a link between mountaintop removal coal mining and overall poorer health of those living in close proximity to such mining operations. The study, “Personal and Family Health in Rural Areas of Kentucky With and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining,” authored by Dr. Michael Hendryx, of the Department of Health Policy, Management a...
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New trial date given in attempted murder case
HAZARD – The trial for a woman who allegedly stabbed two people and attempted to stab another while trying to rob a Perry County business was delayed until September. Lilli Nichole Hurt, 20, of Bonnyman, has been lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard since Sept. 27, 2012, after police said she entered the BP station on Grapevine and attempted to take money from the store’s cash register. During the course of the robbery, poli...
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Jobless rates spike in Perry, other eastern counties
HAZARD — While jobless rates for the state of Kentucky fall to some of the lowest numbers seen in years, the rates in Southeastern Kentucky continue to rise — and at exceedingly steep rates in some counties. The unemployment rate for the state has fallen from 8.8 percent in January 2012 to 7.9 percent in January 2013, the lowest it has been in four years; Perry County, though, has seen an increase in unemployment for that same time frame, g...
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<p>photo by Amelia Holliday | Hazard Herald</p><p>Cynthia Chrisitan, right, gets ready to have her pulse checked at the Perry County Public Library on Wednesday for the heart health screenings offered by UK’s Operation Heart.</p>

UK students offer health screenings during spring break
HAZARD — Heart health in Eastern Kentucky has been an issue addressed many times by many organizations and physicians in the last two decades; however, heart disease rates in this area still double that of the state as a whole. As part of the college’s Operation Heart community service event, “Hearts for KY,” University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy students and faculty volunteered to spend part of their spring break in Hazard earlier thi...
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Trial pushed back again for Leslie man
HAZARD — The trial of a Leslie County man indicted on multiple sexual abuse charges has received another continuance. Jerry Joseph, 55, of Cutshin, was indicted in October 2011 on 20 counts of first-degree sexual abuse for allegedly using force to sexually abuse another person several times from 2007 to January 2011. Joseph’s trial was originally set for Dec. 10, 2012, but was pushed back to March 11. At that time, the current Assistant C...
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Vicco opting against reality TV deal
VICCO – Officials in Vicco say a reality show on day-to-day life in the city will not be forthcoming, and all negotiations for one have halted. Vicco gained national notoriety early this year when the city council approved a fairness ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, making Vicco, a town of just over 300 people along the eastern border of Perry County, only the fourth city in the state...
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<p>photo courtesy of WSGS</p><p>Flood waters covered Hazard’s downtown area on March 12, 1963, after four inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period.</p>

Hazard marks 50th anniversary of ‘63 flood
HAZARD – It was 50 years ago this week when just over four inches of rain fell on Eastern Kentucky in a span of 24 hours, resulting in what was called then the second worst natural disaster in Hazard’s history, behind the flood of 1957 which ravaged Perry County just six years before. The Hazard Herald reported on March 14, 1963, that Hazard was among the towns hardest hit in the flood, as the Kentucky River crested at 37 feet, only two f...
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<p>Cris Ritchie | Hazard Herald</p><p>Police in Hazard say they seized approximately two ounces of marijuana and different pieces of drug paraphernalia during an arrest Sunday on Jordan Street.</p>

Hazard men charged with selling marijuana
HAZARD – Two Perry County men were arrested and charged with trafficking in marijuana this past weekend. Police had previously received several complaints about a residence on Jordan Street prior to Sunday evening, noted Det. Adam Baker with the Hazard Police Department. That’s when officers returned the house while responding to a noise complaint. Baker said when he arrived at the residence he heard children playing inside, and when a ma...
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Assault case against Perry man dismissed
HAZARD – An indictment against a Perry County man alleging assault was dismissed last week in Perry Circuit Court. Freddie W. Messer, 39, of Hazard, was indicted in February on charges of second-degree assault and DUI, after it was alleged that he was driving under the influence when he collided with another vehicle on March 31, 2012. Messer was in court on Thursday when Commonwealth’s Attorney John Hansen made a motion to dismiss the cas...
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Local school districts prepare for sequester cuts
HAZARD — Sequester, sequestration, the “snowquester.” No matter what news channel has been on in the last few weeks, Americans have been bombarded with the fact that their country is on the brink of a financial meltdown. The sequester, which took effect on March 1, is a set of automatic spending cuts — to the tune of $1.2 trillion over the next nine years — put into law by the Budget Control Act to apply pressure to Congress to come up with...
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Shivani Pampati (left) and Josi Stidham awaited their results during the 39th Annual Harvard Speech & Debate Tournament at Harvard University last month.

Hazard students rank nationally in debate competition
HAZARD — Imagine giving a speech in front of a room full of your peers, however, you know none of them because you are the only one there representing your state. Now imagine that speech is part of an invitation-only, national competition in which you have to debate everyone you are giving your speech in front of. Now, imagine doing all of this as a 16-year-old. Josi Stidham and Shivani Pampati, both juniors at Hazard High School, had just ...
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Kentucky’s jobless rate falls below 8 percent
FRANKFORT — For the first time in more than four years, Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate dropped below 8 percent to 7.9 percent in January 2013, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. The revised December 2012 state rate was 8 percent. Kentucky’s unemployment rate has not been below 8 percent since November 2008 when it was ...
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State child care cuts could take a toll locally
HAZARD – Administrators with child care agencies across Kentucky are bracing for a round of funding cuts that some say will ultimately cost the state more in the long run. Officials with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced in January that child care assistance to low-income families would be reduced to help shore up an $86.6 million budget hole for the Department of Community Based Services. As a result, no new app...
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Knott County judge removed from office
PRESTONSBURG – Residents in Knott County are currently without a judge-executive after a circuit judge in Floyd County removed Randy Thompson from office on Friday. Thompson, who is serving a 40-month prison sentence in Pennsylvania, was convicted by a federal jury in 2008 of using public funds to influence the 2006 general election. He began serving his sentence late last year, at which time Deputy Judge Greg Mullins began fulfilling Thomp...
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Plea deal will have man serving 6 years for shoplifting
HAZARD – A Perry County man labeled as a persistent felon is looking at serving the next six years in prison on allegations of shoplifting. William G. Feltner, 35, appeared in Perry Circuit Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to stealing merchandise valued at over $500 from the Hazard Walmart on Aug. 25, 2012. Feltner was indicted by the Perry County grand jury in October on charges of theft and second-degree persistent felony offen...
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Man gets 10 years for selling pills
HAZARD – A 10-year prison sentence was handed down to a Perry County man this week who was arrested as part of an investigation into narcotics trafficking. George Hagan, 35, pleaded guilty early this year to charges of first-degree trafficking after admitting that he sold the drug oxycodone, a painkiller, to a cooperating witness on two occasions in April and May 2011. Hagan appeared in Perry Circuit Court again on Thursday, where Judge W...
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Governor signs tweaks for ‘pill mill bill’ into law
FRANKFORT — Some doctors and patients in the Kentucky won’t be forced to wade through as much red tape when prescribing and receiving treatment for pain any longer. Kentucky House Bill 217 was signed into law on Tuesday and is meant to be an amendment to what was dubbed the “pill mill bill,” HB1, passed last year. Governor Steve Beshear said in a press release on Tuesday that since the passing of HB1 “real and substantial changes” have ha...
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Letcher woman dies in crash
Slick road conditions are being blamed for a fatal a crash in Whitesburg on Wednesday evening that killed a Letcher County woman. Kentucky State Police responded to the two-vehicle collision on Highway 119, where it was determined that 43-year-old Felecia Ramsey, of Neon, was traveling north when she lost control of her vehicle on an icy roadway and struck another vehicle being driven by a woman identified as Martha Ratliff. Police say Ra...
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Safe child exchange bill gets new language in House panel
HAZARD – A bill that would give judges presiding over custody disputes a new option for child exchanges may have a difficult time becoming law after a House panel attached additional legislation on Tuesday. Sen. Brandon Smith filed Senate Bill 141 after a shooting at Hazard Community and Technical College on Jan. 15 left three people dead. Police alleged that Dalton Stidham, 21, shot 20-year-old Caitlyn Cornett as they were supposed to meet...
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Escaped inmate still on the loose
HAZARD — Police in Perry County are still searching for an inmate who escaped last week while on work release. Christopher Colwell, 37, of Lower Second Creek, allegedly walked away from the work detail in the Pigeon Roost community of Perry County on Feb. 25. Colwell was being lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail on traffic charges, and was due to be released on the same day he escaped. Officials with the jail said Colwell has not...
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<p>Cris Ritchie | Hazard Herald</p><p>Hazard’s backwoods and downtown areas were still covered in snow late Wednesday morning.</p>

Winter visits again in E. Ky.
Another round of winter weather passed over Eastern Kentucky Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, making for some beautiful scenes outside. While the National Weather Service is forecasting a potential for more snow in the coming hours with a winter weather advisory in effect until midnight, the temperature is expected to rebound Thursday with a potentially sunny and mild weekend ahead.
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Man gets five years for assault
HAZARD – A Knott County man was sentenced last week to serve five years in prison for assaulting a deputy jailer. Christopher Hale, 27, was arrested and lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail in Hazard on July 10, 2012, but it was what happened while at the jail that resulted in a five-year sentence. That’s when Hale, according to the arrest citation, became belligerent and began to fight against two deputy jailers as they escorted him ...
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Board sets timeline in superintendent search
HAZARD — Citizens of Perry County may soon be seeing advertisements for the county school board’s superintendent search. The Perry County Board of Education met for a special-called meeting over the weekend to set a time line for the search as well as to finalize ads for it. Mike Oder with the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA) met with the board Saturday morning to assist in the planning of the next steps in the process. The board v...
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<p>Mayor Nan Gorman joined The Rising Center staff at a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the new rape crisis center. The center has changed its name to The Rising Center after being called the Rape Crisis Center for over 20 years with the idea of giving more hope to those victims who come to the center. Program facilitator Jill Martin said the new name came from a Maya Angelou poem.</p>

Rising Center opens new doors to sexual assault victims
HAZARD — The Kentucky River Community Care (KRCC) Rape Crisis Center, newly named The Rising Center, opened the doors for its new facility on Morton Boulevard in Hazard this month, which is also Sexual Assault Awareness month in the state. Jill Martin, project facilitator, said it has been a long road for the center, which started in 1992 as just a small office in the Hazard ARH. Now, the center has its own building, making it easier for th...
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Man pleads guilty to receiving stolen antenna
HAZARD – A Hazard man charged with illegally receiving parts from a stolen radio antenna pleaded guilty in the case on Thursday. Hank B. Baker, 33, appeared in Perry Circuit Court last week where he entered a guilty plea to one count of receiving stolen property over $500, an amended charge. In exchange for his plea, Baker will serve up to two years in prison. Baker was originally indicted in September 2012 on one count of receiving stole...
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Feds award $5.2 million to aid laid-off miners, spouses
HAZARD — The Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), based in Hazard, was awarded a $5.2 million grant on Monday that will be used to assist the region’s out-of-work coal miners return to the workforce. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the grant in a press release Monday afternoon, noting that the funds will not only go to help the more than 2,000 coal miners affected by several rounds of layoffs in 2012, but also th...
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Plea deals entered in meth cases
HAZARD – Two people entered pleas in Perry Circuit Court on Thursday in a case related to the manufacturing of meth. Julieanne Davidson, 33, and Jonathan N. Caldwell, 36, both of Hazard, were indicted by the Perry County grand jury in August 2012 on charges of manufacturing meth and possession of drug paraphernalia. According to the indictment, the two were in possession of “equipment for manufacturing methamphetamines” with the intent to s...
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