JENKINS, Ky. — Jenkins Mayor Todd DePriest is recovering after suffering a heart attack, the city has announced. A statement posted on the city’s Facebook page said the mayor is receiving excellent medical care and his condition is improving. The statement went on to say DePriest is not receiving visitors at this time and his family has asked for privacy.

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Utility debt is a growing crisis affecting rural communities across Kentucky. The average overdue debt balance in Kentucky is $549 and more than 127,000 households in the Commonwealth are in the red, according to a new report from the advocacy group Protect Borrowers. Aissa Canchola Banez, policy director for Protect Borrowers, said the average bill has risen considerably over the past few years and utility costs are now taking up a larger amount of families’ budgets. “They’ve grown significantly across Appalachia and parts of the South,” Banez observed. “We know that in Kentucky, for example, energy bills have increased more than 26 percent.” The […]

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ASHLAND, Ky. — A Martin County man now appears ready to enter a guilty plea in his federal drug case. Cody Gene Spears, 30, of Lovely, was arrested back in September after being indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of distributing more than 50 grams of meth. The indictment accuses Spears of selling the drug on two occasions in September. He was originally scheduled to got to trial in November, but his attorney asked for a continuance in order to negotiate a resolution to the case. Those negotiations appear to have borne fruit, as his attorney asked […]

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