Mountain News Morning Edition 6:30 a.m. 8/21/2024

coming up on Mountain news this morning AT&T is on strike as 177,000 employees begin to join the picket line for what they call unfair treatment and a meeting was held by organizations throughout Eastern Kentucky as an attempt to develop the economy of Appalachia dedicated to Eastern and Southern Kentucky this is WMT Mountain news this morning good morning I'm Madison Carmo we're coming up on 6:30 this Wednesday morning let's check in with meteorologist mace Michaels for a look at your forecast this morning a little cool In Pockets this morning Madison and some areas of fog but overall a fairly comfortable morning you step outside and feel a 52 a touch of cool air in the air for sure 52 again here in London with the mostly clear sky our Hazard camera has been showing on and off fog local dense at spots 46 our visibility here in Hazard down to a half mile near zero if you're waking up in jaboro Williamsburg has been seeing the same type of thing near zero visibility so travels could be delayed or slowed down a little bit by fog this morning you come around a corner it might be completely clear and then you get a little further down the road the visibility is near zero so reduce speeds especially in some of those areas where you commonly see fog you're probably going to see them this morning mid 40s toid mid-50s for most of the wakeup temperatures from 45 in Clintwood to as warm as 57 this morning in monacell mostly sunny forecast is ahead for us today satellite radar shows the Clear Skies over us now other than the foggy areas the sunshine will be out for later this afternoon Madison looks great today as high temperatures climb well up into the mid 770s we'll look at when 80s and 90s return for Highs coming up all right ma thank you his second person is facing charges in a moped crash that killed a 10-year-old girl in Whitley County Wade Martin is charged with murder and driving Under the Influence he is accused of drinking and then driving a moped that crashed into a car on I75 on August 4th Denisha Martin the mother of the girl who died is charged with complicity to murder her criminal complaint says she admitted to knowing Wade had been drinking beforehand Wade and the child were flown to UK hospital where the girl died both suspects are being held in the Whitley County Detention Center one person is dead after a fire in Mason County West Virginia several fire Crews responded to a large house fire in the Glennwood Community late Monday night a 74-year-old man who lived alone at the home died and his body was sent to the medical examiner's office no word on what caused the fire State Police are asking for help investigating a deadly crash in palaski County KSP troopers were called to the crash just before midnight on Saturday they say Derek Glover an off-duty Lancaster police officer crashed into a motorcycle D being driven by a child not wearing a helmet the child was pronounced dead at the scene Glover was not injured if you have any information about the crash you can call 50278 21847 a Jackson County man was sentenced to 22 and and a half years in prison for the production of child pornography according to his plea agreement 41-year-old David Parky exchanged a series of sexually explicit messages and photos with a minor last year in the messages Parky directed the victim to take photos that were ex sexually explicit and then send them to him via social media in Northern Kentucky investigators are looking for more victims of an accused serial rapist Billy Highland is accused of raping four victims including one that was younger than 10 years old investigators say the assaults happened in Pendleton and Robertson counties detective Ken Hall says they believe Highlander finds victims through the women he's involved with Hall asks anyone who thinks their child may have been a victim to call Kentucky State Police a Somerset man was sentenced to federal prison for faking his death while trying to avoid paying child child support 39-year-old Jesse Kip was sentenced to 81 months for Computer Fraud and aggravated identity theft Kip pleaded guilty earlier this year on those charges the incident stems from a situation where he used a computer to access Hawaii's death registry system last year he then created a fake death certificate for himself last night the Kentucky River Regional animal shelter hosted its first board meeting since former president Tony vaugh stepped down the biggest item on the docket was finding an interim president who understands how the shelter operates eventually the board was able to unanimously vote Bill Colwell as interim president and Donna Singleton as the interim vice president those are two people that are working really hard for the shelter every single day the turnout included approximately 27 folks in person and 32 on Zoom potential future meetings were also suggested the permanent president will be voted on in the September or October board meetings AT&T workers are on strike for what they say is unfair treatment wmt's RJ Johnson shares their concerns and what they are hoping for thousands of AT&T workers are taking to the streets to strike against what they claim is unfair treatment at this time they're they're negotiating you know different things it's it could even be wages it could be just anything uh there's no no one's there that's willing to bargain in good place it's unfair treatment they are a part of the communications workers of America Union the majority of those on strike are in District 3 located in the southeastern region of the country District 3's local 3372 president Frank McMillan says what they are asking for is simple I'm pretty sure we all wanted to avoid this we never wanted this just treat us fairly that's the only thing we're asking for to be treated fairly and respected saying as negotiations continue their end goal is for the company to treat its employees fairly we want to be able to come in and negotiate on good faith terms and be respected you don't want to go on the table and not be uh be respected and just say what you want or not come in there and do do what the right thing is to do say no matter how long it takes to reach a deal the CWA will be firmly standing behind them they could last for while U that that is a decision that uh would have to be made by our uh president and uh however things go into barking in Harland RJ Johnson WMT Mountain news McMillan says the employees love their jobs saying they want what's best for not just them but employees Nationwide there was a debate in Frankfurt yesterday over school restrooms part of it was over discipline issues in restrooms but most of the discussion yesterday in the interim education committee was about a new design that has both individual private stalls yet common areas for sinks as wit's Phil Pendleton explains this new design is being used at a middle school in Lexington open coner representative Matt Lockett says parents came to him concerned about the restroom design at the new Mary Britain Middle School which have opened sinks and mirrors and enclosed individual stalls yes there are separate stalls but each stall is gender neutral each stall can be seen from the hallway Loa says parents are concerned about girls using stalls that a boy just walked out of she comes home to tell you as as her parent all about this experience she tells you that she's scared she's embarrassed and doesn't want to use the restroom at school but fyed County's superintendent says the restrooms are not gender neutral the principle has um determined that there will be a set of restrooms um that are for boys there's a set of restroom that are for girls superintendent Demetrius Lian says in Lexington the biggest concern 10 years ago in schools was about guns now he says it's about what takes place in restrooms recently there's been concerns of everything from vaping to violence in restrooms with some students not wanting to use them and teachers also have their concerns are concerned about being assigned to a restroom to supervise inside of a restroom um where they one wrong accusation could ruin your career locket says language is being proposed to require all public schools with more than 100 students to designate 90% of the restrooms either for boys or for girls allowing 10% for all access restrooms in Frankfurt Phil Pendleton WMT Mountain news the New Britain Middle School in Lexington is set to open in the fall of next year the not County school superintendent is retiring Brent Hoover announced his decision in a letter to the school Community he said said it was a deeply personal and emotional decision after spending nearly 30 years in the district he became superintendent in 2021 after the death of Kim King his retirement is effective October 1st you can read his entire statement on wmt.com leaders from throughout the region gathered for a luncheon hosted by officials with one East Kentucky the main focus was future economic development in the region wit's Chandler Wilcox tells us about their current Focus one East Kentucky is organized with leaders serving nine counties throughout the region we support the community and economic development efforts of our cities and counties the past 10 years there have been continued Investments with help from leaders in those cities and counties officials say they have 3,000 Acres of build ready sites we're limited in our land resources but we are making the best of it with um you know with build ready sites and soft Ware technology officials have been in continued recruitment working to get companies in those spots it does not happen overnight there are relationships to be built there's money to be raised and there are sites to be developed and that's where we have really put a lot of our emphasis officials reported 95% of jobs incentivized by the state since the covid-19 pandemic have been along or west of Interstate 75 wisan says as their relationship with State leaders gets better they look to bring those jobs eward yes there's a larger population there are larger metropolitan areas west of I75 but we have a lot to offer too officials say they have more than 1,000 prospective jobs and a Workforce often satisfied and willing to commute and Hazard Channel W Cox to be ymt Mountain news Cindy wisman is also the CEO of Kentucky Power she says Kentucky Power has donated nearly $1 million to one East Kentucky for Operational Support and grants starting the day with some comfortable conditions a few cool Pockets Sunshine as well and some fog pockets and Morehead this morning you're at 52 degrees the sky is mostly clear we look out over I64 and there's just a few thin wispy clouds in a couple of areas it's a really nice beginning to the day in Hazard though once again we have the foggy conditions the visibility down and we're sitting at 45 that's our low so far see where else we have some fog problems Williamsburg has been reporting fog visibility isn't checking in with us right now but jafo just down the road near a a quarter of a mile visibility and again here in Hazard sitting at half mile so watch out for fog once again this morning on your early travels temps range from again 45 here in Hazard and Clintwood to as warm as 54 in Somerset and monel you're checking in with a 57 reading here's the mostly sunny conditions that are expected throughout the day today you can see them on the satellite that's the way it will stay in the forecast Madison all day long temperatures in the mid 70s for highs with all of that sun thanks Mason thank you for joining us the time is now 6:42 still to come on Mountain news this morning the struggle for a Seas fire in the Middle East as Secretary of State blinkin comes back empty-handed