The National Weather Service in Paducah says rain will build throughout the day today, with late day storms possibly bringing heavy rains along with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. Localized minor flooding is possible through Thursday.
A Madisonville man is facing multiple charges including driving under the influence after failing a field sobriety test and taking a drink of beer while being processed by the officer. Jordan Craig was stopped by police in Madisonville around 1 Tuesday morning. The officer noticed several open beer cans, smelled alcohol and then while running Craig’s license he allegedly saw Craig take a drink of beer. Craig’s blood alcohol level was point-one-two. The legal limit is point-zero-eight.
A coalition of educators created to address the state’s teacher shortage met yesterday with the House Education Committee. The Coalition to Sustain the Education Profession is comprised of 125 volunteers who developed six recommendations that they presented in Frankfort. The group is asking that teacher certification and qualification issues be addressed because they are often a barrier to recruitment. The coalition also asks that school districts develop a marketing plan for teacher recruitment and analyze financial incentives for recruitment and retention.
Meanwhile, Kentucky lawmakers are still trying to figure out the commonwealth’s teacher shortage. The debate continued yesterday in Frankfort, the day the 2023 legislative session restarted. Kentucky’s Education Commissioner Dr. Jason Glass said the main issues are pay, support and respect, although other lawmakers gave different opinions on what is going wrong. Republican representative Russell Webber said teachers have told him the number one issue is that they do not feel supported by the administration. Governor Andy Beshear has frequently discussed the teacher shortage, last week saying there are around eleven-thousand teacher vacancies across the commonwealth.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park continues to be the most visited national park in the country. Preliminary tourist numbers for 2022 show the Smokies welcomed just under 12-million-970-thousand visitors. The top months for visitors were July and October. The all-time attendance record was set in 2021 when more than 14-million people visited the Smokies.
