WQXE News
Hardin County Schools and Elizabethtown Independent Schools are partnering this summer on “Mother Goose on the Loose,” a summer program for parents of children entering kindergarten or younger to help children recognize the sound, rhyme, and rhythm of words.
The school districts asked community leaders and local elected officials to record nursery rhymes to play on the districts’ social media pages. Families are invited to come find nursery rhymes attached to “porch geese” on display at Cecilia Valley, Creekside, G.C. Burkhead, and North Park elementary schools, Panther Academy, and the Hardin County Public Library, as well as find activity packs for families to complete together.
North Park Elementary Principal Laura Beth Hayes and Panther Academy Principal Carla Kuhn appeared with their respective superintendents, Terrie Morgan and Phil Mullins, at the Hardin County Public Library to kick off the program Thursday. Hayes said phonological awareness is crucial to a child’s literacy skills development.
“While a lot of the phonics skills may be there, we’re still really struggling with what we call PA,” Hayes said. “The PA skills are still really lacking at times. A child can actually learn to read, but they’ll be lacking some of the PA skills, and that affects them on down the road.”
Morgan said the project encourages families to reduce screen time for children and connect.
“The most important part is that connection,” Morgan said. “The fringe benefit is going to be that they learn these skills that are so valuable when they start school.”
Find more information on the Goose on the Loose in Hardin County Facebook page.
Fort Knox is advising its neighbors that the cicadas are not the only thing making some noise this summer.
The installation is advising that military training set to take place now through June 19 may result in increased noise and vibrations. According to a post on the U.S. Army Fort Knox Facebook page, “Exercises involving aircraft, maneuvers, and weapons firing in daytime and nighttime hours are an important aspect of maintaining critical capabilities and readiness of all units.”
More noise comes on the heels of more people on the scene as the first regiment of cadets arrived for summer training last week.
“It is the biggest Army summer annual training event,” said Fort Knox Garrison Command Sergeant Major Alex Licea. “We have over 8,000 young cadets from colleges and universities across the country right here at Fort Knox. In addition to these amazing cadets, we have 5,000 soldiers from across the Army supporting that training, so we are really, really excited to house them at Fort Knox.”
Follow the U.S. Army Fort Knox Facebook page for more updates.
The Hodgenville Police Department and the Livin’ Well LaRue Coalition are partnering with local pharmacies to give area residents the opportunity to safely dispose of expired or unneeded medications.
Hodgenville Police Chief James Richardson said making pharmacies available as a drop off site is less intimidating for some residents.
“We’ve always had a pill return,” Richardson said. “I’ve been here for 12 years, and it was here before I got here, so we’ve always had that option at the police department, but kind of like with the Narcan that we started offering free at the police department, folks sometimes don’t want to come to the police to drop off drugs and stuff.”
All three pharmacies in LaRue County are participating.
“What we’ve done is we purchased two drop boxes and furnished those free of charge to the two pharmacies that didn’t have one, and then the police department has taken on the responsibility to empty those once a month, and then we dispose of the drugs,” Richardson said.
Richardson said many of the pills illegally obtained on the street were originally legally prescribed and obtained, and families often are left with medication from a loved one when they die.
“A lot of people just toss them in the trash or flush them down the toilet, or they don’t know what to do with it, so we’re happy to be able to give them the opportunity to have somewhere safe so we can dispose of it properly so it doesn’t wind up in the hand of somebody that doesn’t deserve it or it gets into the environment and does damage that way,” Richardson said.
The HPD says the first emptying of the drop boxes netted 21.6 pounds of pills.
Five days after a jury in Warren County found him guilty of Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence, lawyers for Steven Lawson are asking for a new trial.
Lawson’s defense attorneys filed a “motion for new trial and judgment notwithstanding the verdict” with the Nelson Circuit Court Wednesday. The motion states that Lawson should be granted a new trial or granted a judgement of acquittal after he was denied a fair trial.
The defense argues that the trial court did not give the jury proper instructions on how to deliberate on the Conspiracy to Commit Murder charge. The defense also raised concerns once again on the court’s denial of a motion to test two hairs found in Crystal Rogers’s vehicle in 2015, and again argued they did not have adequate time to prepare for trial given the large amount of discovery in the case.
The defense argues that Judge Charles Simms III’s order on “proper decorum” was violated because “a plethora of people in the gallery were wearing pink.” The defense says pink is emblematic of the “Team Crystal” movement that formed after Rogers’s disappearance, so wearing pink in the courtroom violates the order’s restriction on clothing expressing a message on the case.
Prior to jury selection for the trial, defense attorney Darren Wolff motioned for a continuance stating that the defense had not completed its review of discovery in the case. Wolff also indicated while scheduling the August 6 sentencing hearing that the defense would be appealing the jury’s verdict.
The defense’s filing notes that the motion “need not be heard and instead may be taken under submission unless the court deems otherwise.”