Unem­ploy­ment in the area is fol­low­ing a statewide trend over the past year, with most coun­ties tak­ing a drop in the num­ber of peo­ple with­out work. The Ken­tucky Office of Employ­ment and Train­ing says Bul­litt down from 10.3 to 9.1, Hart 10.4 down to 9.1., Larue down from 8.4 to 7.2 and Hardin County stayed about the same at 8.8 per­cent. How­ever, Meade saw an increase from 13.1 to 13.7.

A Fort Camp­bell sol­dier sued for wrong­ful death in the slay­ings of two women has denied the alle­ga­tions in court doc­u­ments and is ask­ing that the law­suit be dis­missed. Brent Burke is also say­ing that his chil­dren can­not legally sue him in the state of Ken­tucky. Burke has been say­ing he did not kill his estranged wife, Tracy Burke, or her for­mer mother-in-law, Karen Comer at Comer’s home in Rineyville in 2007. Burke has spent more than four years behind bars after being charged with the killings. The Hardin County pros­e­cu­tor took the case to a jury twice, but both tri­als ended with­out a unan­i­mous ver­dict. After the last mis­trial, the Army filed charges against him in the slay­ings. His gen­eral court mar­tial is sched­uled to begin next month.

Get ready for a visit from Syfy. The News Enter­pise says the stars of the cable channel’s “Ghost Hunters” will be on hand this week­end at the Mor­ri­son Lodge in Eliz­a­beth­town. Kris Williams and Amy Bruni will be look­ing into alleged para­nor­mal activ­ity at the lodge, as well as rais­ing funds to help restore it. Tick­ets for the event have already sold out-at $150 a piece.

If you’ve got a small busi­ness in Bul­litt, Hardin, Hart or Larue Coun­ties, and you were hit by the hor­ri­ble weather we saw last spring, the U.S. Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion says you may qual­ify for a loan of up to $2-million dol­lars. Inter­est on that loan is just 4% for com­mer­cial busi­nesses. Non prof­its can get a loan at 3% inter­est. The loans are to pay fixed debts, pay­roll, accounts payable, and other expenses that could have been paid had the dis­as­ter not occurred. But you have to apply no later than Feb­ru­ary 21st. Check out these links to get details.
https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/ .
www.sba.gov .

A sol­dier based at Fort Knox came up with quite the scheme to sur­prise his girl­friend with a mar­riage pro­posal. Jake Schultheis and Cas­sidi Humphries were at the Vir­ginia Aquar­ium and Marine Sci­ence Cen­ter, when a vol­un­teer diver went into one of the giant tanks. That diver held up a sign as Cas­sidi went by the tank that said There are many fish in the sea. You are the only one for me. Will you marry me, Cas­sidi? Love, Jake.” Then Jake got down on one knee next to her and pre­sented a dia­mond ring. She said yes.

If you’re look­ing for work and you can coor­di­nate events-the city of Eliz­a­beth­town may just want to see your resume. They’re look­ing foir an event coor­di­na­tor to han­dle com­mu­nity activ­i­ties like Heart­land Fes­ti­val, Cruise-in in the Heart­land Clas­sic Car Show, parades, con­certs and hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions. The job also means fundrais­ing, pro­mo­tion of events and coor­di­na­tion of vol­un­teers. If you want to know more, go to: http://www.elizabethtownky.org/home.shtml

State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Linda Belcher of Sher­pherdsville has got­ten sup­port the House Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee of a bill she’s pro­mot­ing to help young kids with dyslexia. The mea­sure would pro­vide fund­ing to help iden­tify and edu­cate stu­dents in kinder­garten through third grade. Belcher says iden­ti­fy­ing chil­dren at an early age greatly improves the chances that reme­dial pro­grams can help them.

A new fire house is com­ing to Bul­litt County. The South­east Bul­litt Fire Dis­trict is get­ting ready to build the four story build­ing on a seven acre stretch of land in Cler­mont. The Courier Jour­nal says that land cost $800,000, and the dis­trict is get­ting ready to spend another $1.2 mil­lion for the build­ing and related expenses. Fire chief Julius Hat­field says the old fire­house by the Bul­litt County Ani­mal Shel­ter has got­ten too small, and they can’t train fire­fight­ers there any more.

A man who was just hours from get­ting released from jail for one crime is now locked up for the rape of an elderly woman in Bard­stown. The attack occurred 12 years ago and the sus­pect never caught, until now.. Police said the attacker broke in through a win­dow and sex­u­ally assaulted the 78-year-old woman who was liv­ing in the for­mer Fed­eral Hill nurs­ing home . At the time, police said they had a good descrip­tion of the man and hoped to make a quick arrest, but it was not until eight years later when a detec­tive was work­ing an unre­lated bur­glary that they found a man who looked like the attacker the woman had described. Now Bard­stown police have a DNA match to 48-year-old Michael Joseph Marino. Marino was in jail on fed­eral charges and sched­uled to be released yes­ter­day, but instead he was arrested and charged with the rape. Police are telling told WAVE 3 the vic­tim in the case is no longer alive to see the arrest.

One Old­ham County neigh­bor­hood is look­ing like some­thing out of a Hitch­cock movie lately, as it’s been over­run by tens of thou­sands of birds. WAVE 3 TV says LaGrange is get­ting swarmed by birds twice a day, and it’s pro­duc­ing quite a mess. Res­i­dents are con­cerned about extra bac­te­ria in the air and on the ground, and many are com­plain­ing about upper res­pi­ra­tory infec­tions. The Ken­tucky Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture has pro­vided some sound can­nons to res­i­dents, and they’re fir­ing them off daily, hop­ing the loud kabooms while scare off the birds. No one can say just yet why the birds have decided to hang around LaGrange.