Ad campaign promotes going tobacco-free

FRANKFORT (AP) — Officials with Kentucky’s Tobacco Quit Line are launching a new advertising campaign that encourages people to stop using tobacco products.

The ads are designed to lead people to the state’s free tobacco counseling service, 1-800-784-8669. Bobbye Gray, a registered nurse who administers Kentucky’s Quit Line Program, says the goal is to motivate people to seek counseling to give up tobacco.

The new campaign emphasizes the health and lifestyle benefits of quitting tobacco.

Quit Now Kentucky is a statewide telephone service that provides free counseling and support for people who want to stop smoking or using other tobacco products.

State officials say tobacco use and dependence is the leading preventable cause of death in Kentucky and the nation. They say more than 8,000 Kentuckians die each year because of tobacco-related diseases.

Official: Ky. obligated to reveal investors in company

LOUISVILLE (AP) — Kentucky’s attorney general says the economic development cabinet wrongfully denied a newspaper’s request for the names of investors in a company that received millions in public funding for a new aluminum plant.

The ruling released Monday says the cabinet violated open records law by refusing The Courier-Journal’s request for names of shareholders and investors in Braidy Industries.

The privately held company received $15 million in public funding for the aluminum plant project in eastern Kentucky.

The state released documents identifying only two investors said to own at least 20 percent of the company. The names of Braidy’s other investors were redacted from records.

The AG’s opinion says the identities of Braidy shareholders are “unquestionably a matter of public interest.”

The cabinet says it plans to appeal to Franklin Circuit Court.

City to celebrate its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day

STANFORD (AP) — A central Kentucky community is planning a ceremony and other festivities to recognize Native American heritage.

A statement from the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission says the city of Stanford will celebrate its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Lincoln County Courthouse on Monday.

Angela Arnett-Garner, a Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission member, says the initiative is aimed at bringing perspective and balance to Christopher Columbus Day by highlighting American Indian history and culture.

The event will feature speakers including Stanford Mayor Eddie Carter and music and song by Native Americans who live in the region.

Pilot killed in experimental plane crash

BARDSTOWN (AP) — Officials say a pilot was killed when his experimental plane crashed in Kentucky.

Sheriff’s officials tell WAVE-TV that 68-year-old John “David” Hall died when his Bryant C Crosby Ultra Pup plane went down Thursday in a field just outside Bardstown’s city limits.

Police said Hall was alone in the plane. The cause of the crash is not known. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

Federal Aviation Administration records show Hall had been a licensed pilot since at least 1981.

Boy fatally struck while riding bicycle

COVINGTON (AP) — Police in Kentucky have arrested a motorist after a 6-year-old boy was fatally struck while riding his bicycle.

Media outlets report the boy was struck Friday by a pickup truck in Covington, Kentucky.

Covington police charged 45-year-old Christopher Wells with leaving the scene of an fatal accident.

Officers located Wells at a nearby shopping center.

Police have not released the boy’s identity and say he was killed instantly. At a vigil on Friday night, the boy’s parents identified him as Eli Kindt.

Armed suspect killed during confrontation with police

LOUISVILLE (AP) — Authorities say an armed man was shot and killed in Kentucky during a confrontation with two police officers who were responding to an assault.

Louisville police Chief Steve Conrad tells news outlets the officers were responding late Sunday to a call of an assault in progress and shots fired at an industrial park building.

The officers made contact with the suspect when the shootout occurred.

Conrad says the suspect emerged from the building armed with a handgun. He says the officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, and when he failed to do so, the officers fired to protect themselves.

Conrad says the suspect was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. No officers were shot.

The two officers are on administrative leave while authorities investigate.

Driver wants to rescind guilty plea in DUI death

GEORGETOWN (AP) — A Kentucky driver accused of killing a man during a bicycling event wants to rescind his guilty plea.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that on the day Odilon Paz-Salvador was scheduled to be sentenced to 35 years in prison, he told the judge through an interpreter that didn’t think it was fair for him to plead guilty because “it wasn’t intentional.”

Georgetown police say then-29-year-old Paz-Salvador was driving drunk when he struck 57-year-old Lexington attorney Mark Hinkel in May 2015, flinging him into the bed of his pickup truck.

Paz-Salvador allegedly drove 3 miles (5 kilometers) after the collision.

Judge Paul Isaacs set a Nov. 17 hearing on the request to withdraw Paz-Salvador’s guilty pleas to murder, wanton endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident which resulted in death.