Kentucky.com: News
News, sports and entertainment from Kentucky.com

• UK resuscitates pediatric heart program
  The University of Kentucky is launching a major buildup of its heart surgery program for children, including making heart transplants available for young children for the first time.As a first step, UK recently hired Dr. Mark Plunkett, a noted pediatric children's heart surgeon from UCLA, who will perform operations and be co-director of the children's heart center.UK has been doing heart transplants since the early 1990s but has never performed one on anyone younger than 14.UK medical officials say child heart transplants will be a small part of the program, which will be aimed mainly at providing surgical treatment for youngsters born with congenital heart problems. But UK also will reach out to serve a new, emerging group of patients: adults who underwent surgery to repair congenital heart defects as children and now need follow-up care as they move into middle age. Another goal will be strengthening the UK Medical School's training of new cardiothoracic surgeons.The overall program for youngsters eventually will become the keystone of a new Kentucky Children's Heart Center, based at UK's Kentucky Children's Hospital.
• There's more in store
  The Salvation Army added a little blue, and more than a few toys, to its Christmas dinner this year.For the first time it hosted stores where people could get free toys or University of Kentucky items. Centenary United Methodist church and Hands on Originals set up the stores.More than 100 volunteers and members of The Salvation Army congregation spent their Christmas Day hosting dinner and handing out stockings in the Salvation Army's gym on West Main Street. Volunteers also delivered meals to the homebound.
• Accessible playground planned
  Two local groups are trying to ensure that children of all abilities can have the same playtime experiences.The Richmond Civitan Club and the EKU Department of Recreation and Park Administration are raising money to build a playground that will be easily accessible to parents and children with disabilities.Earlier this month, the groups transformed the First Christian Church downtown into Santa's workshop to raise money for the project. For $5, families got a pancake breakfast, a visit with Santa and a big thank-you from organizers for supporting the cause.The groups are trying to raise $30,000, which will be matched by the city of Richmond, said Jon McChesney, associate professor of recreation and park administration at Eastern Kentucky University and organizers of the Breakfast at Santa's Workshop.McChesney said he would like to have all the money for the project raised by next year.
• Crime reports
  Dec. 21-23: Burglary, 500 block of Columbia Avenue.Dec. 22-23: Burglary, 3800 block of Walhampton Drive.Dec. 22: Burglary, 2700 block of Michelle Park.Dec. 23: Burglary, 300 block of Linden Walk.Burglary, 400 block of Smith Street.
• Christmas with parent deployed 'not same'
  For many families in Clarksville, the one Christmas gift they wished for wouldn't come true: having soldiers home for the holidays.This isn't the first time the children of Fort Campbell soldiers have had to celebrate without a mother or a father around.Gabriel Stefanko, 9, is the oldest child out of three siblings and says he's taking the disappointment better than his 7-year-old brother, Gage, and his 5-year-old sister, Carollynn.He's been through many months without his dad, who is in Iraq on his second deployment."It's easier because I know what it's like to have him gone," said Gabriel.
• Covered bridge renovation threatened
  The Johnson Creek Covered Bridge carried thousands of people safely across the northeastern Kentucky waterway during the century it was in operation.The bridge has proven to be even more valuable since it closed in 1966, becoming a major tourist stop and economic boon to the area.But with funding for a much-needed renovation in jeopardy, Robertson County officials, historians and preservationists have decided to do some old-fashioned stumping to make sure the bridge doesn't become another forgotten relic.The Kentucky Heritage Council and Robertson County tourism officials are drafting letters to government agencies asking for money to complete a renovation that began in June.The bridge has been stripped, resupported, chipped and repaired during Phase I of the renovation, designed to save it from collapse and restore it as a focal point for tourism in the area.
• Fort Thomas wants face lift for historic military district
  Much of the historic Midway district of Fort Thomas looks like it did 30 years ago, when Bob Arnzen opened Olde Fort Pub."There is a lot of empty storefronts," Arnzen said.City officials are hoping the National Park Service will help them change that. The Northern Kentucky city is awaiting approval from the park service by March to include some of these buildings in the national historic district that includes what's left of the old Army fort that was once on the site.City staff next month will make a recommendation to the Fort Thomas City Council on how to proceed with $2 million worth of proposed streetscape improvements during the next three years. Among the plans are a park with statues of veterans.The Midway district sprung up around that fort in the 1880s, with businesses aimed at the soldiers who populated the Army post. In recent years, many of the buildings in the district have sat empty, while the central business district has seen investors and beautification projects.
• Green River dam worries officials
  The Rochester dam on the Green River has been eroding for years, leaving officials worried about the water supply for 46,000 people in Western Kentucky.Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields said heavy rain, which washed debris down the river, could put too much pressure on the dam and cause it to break. That would flush out the pool of water it holds to serve Butler, Muhlenberg and Ohio counties.The Army Corps of Engineers in 2004 recommended that the locks at the dam be filled with rock and concrete. Federal funding for that proposal has not been appropriated.The center of the dam is a combination of boulders on top of a wooden structure. The dam has eroded to the point that the pool of available water has dropped several feet during the recent droughts because of leaks and no falling water to replace it, Fields said.The Corps of Engineers didn't see that during its review, Fields said.
• Budget imperils Ky. drug efforts
  Drug task forces across Kentucky are facing severe budget restrictions -- and in some cases closure -- after Congress approved a bill last week that will slash the task forces' largest source of funding.According to the Kentucky Narcotics Officers' Association, the bill -- which is expected to be signed this week by President Bush -- cuts $350 million from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.The Byrne JAG program, which received $520 million in funding during the 2007 fiscal year, was budgeted only $170 million for 2008 in the bill approved by Congress last week, said Tommy Loving, director of the Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force and executive director of the Narcotics Officers' Association.The Byrne JAG program, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, emphasizes helping state and local governments combat violence, hold offenders accountable and break the cycle of substance abuse and crime.Some states use the grant money to fight gangs. In Kentucky, it funds 14 drug task forces. This year, Kentucky received about $2.6 million, Loving said. He said the cuts equate to about a 68 percent decrease in funding. At least four task forces will be forced to close unless they can find another source of money.
• State authorities investigate case of decomposed body
  The state forensic anthropologist will launch a death investigation after state police found an unburied body at a cemetery.State police say they found the human remains Tuesday afternoon at the Old West Irvine Cemetery in Estill County.The body still had clothes on and has partially decomposed.Dr. Emily Craig, the state's forensic anthropologist, is expected to visit the scene today as part of the investigation.
• News briefs from around Kentucky at 5:58 a.m. EST
  Ralph Thompson has a bounty on a sprig of mistletoe.Thompson is offering a $50 reward for proof that the parasitic, kiss-facilitating sprig grows in Grant County in northern Kentucky.Thompson, a Berea College biology professor, and his students have searched the landscape of Kentucky for more than 20 years looking for mistletoe and have found it in 119 of the state's 120 counties. Mistletoe from Grant County has remained elusive."They can't report what they don't have," Thompson said. "But there's got t