Adoption

Gov. Steve Beshear You teach in a small community and suspect a student is being abused. You want to report it, but you fear retaliation. Can you come forward without the newspaper naming you as the accuser? Or maybe you're a grandmother. You worry about the man your daughter is living with, in fact you're afraid of him. But you love your grandchildren, and you think they're being neglected. Will you be able to report your suspicion without alerting your daughter's volatile and unstable boyfriend and jeopardizing your own safety?

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has adopted new regional alignments for boys and girls soccer that will resemble those of basketball and other team sports. Area boys and girls teams would be grouped into two districts within the 12th Region that exactly match the districts in which those schools play baseball and basketball. The KHSAA Board of Control approved the alignment at its meeting Wednesday that redraws the 16 regions based on feedback from the membership and discussion from the board and takes effect next season, at its meeting Wednesday in Lexington.

The Latin phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes,” is frequently-and loosely-translated to, “Who watches the watchers?” If it was up to the Department for Community-Based Services (DCBS), the answer would be, “Nobody!” Last Friday,  the acting-Commissioner of the DCBS, which administers the state foster care and adoption systems and recruits and trains parents to care for the state's children who are waiting for a permanent home, sat face-to-face with a roomful of journalists who shared the common thought, “How can you not get this?

This Christmas will be one Kristy and David Aldridge and their four children will never forget. The Aldridges just returned home from Taiyuan, China, where they welcomed the newest addition to their family: 2-year-old adopted daughter Lynnlee.  “This is the best Christmas present ever,” David said. “This is the culmination of an unbelievable prayer experience for us.” The Aldridges already had three children, Lauren, 14, Keaton, 11 and Karlee, 6, but Kristie said she long wanted to adopt a child, and last November she and David felt like they were led to do so. “Adoption was always a part of our life because Lauren was adopted from a previous marriage, and I had always wanted to adopt a child,” Kristy said.

The fall season is always a challenge for the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society because the Danville adoption center is often filled to capacity. About 1,200 cats and kittens are brought to the humane society each year. Some of these animals are strays or are just unwanted by their previous owners. The humane society works to find homes for the animals. The humane society currently has 52 cats with a variety of coat colorings waiting at the adoption center to find good, loving homes.

October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, and the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society wants everyone to know five reasons shelters are the best place to find a canine companion: 1. Shelters all over Kentucky are overflowing with loving, healthy and friendly dogs of every age, size and personality. 2. Shelter/humane society staff members can help match prospective owners with the perfect animal for their lifestyle, activity level and experience. 3. Purebreds and puppies are plentiful at shelters, but mixed-breed dogs are free from many of the serious health problems that plague purebreds.

The Nicholasville City Commission adopted resolutions relating to a scattered-site housing Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) during Monday's meeting. In a scattered-site project, it would be possible for the city to upgrade many houses in different areas of the city, so long as the homeowners meet eligibility requirements. The first resolution was to authorize the city to submit the application stating the city would contribute $323,000 to the project from the program income account, said Kriss Lowry with Kriss Lowry & Associates.

The Heart of Kentucky United Way in Danville has been responsible for connecting money and volunteers with good causes for decades, but the group will now look to tackle more directly the causes for some of the problems in the communities they serve. "We used to be a fundraising organization, and we were incredibly successful at that even during these economic times," said Executive Director Janie Pass. "What we really want to do now is make sure everything we do is working toward long-term, measurable change.

LEXINGTON - A program started in the Clark County schools was the inspiration for a new pilot program to promote better oral health in eastern Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear said at a press conference Thursday. The Smiling Schools program will provide fluoride varnish and dental exams for 25,000 Kentucky students, thanks to a partnership between the state and the Appalachian Regional Commission. The ARC provided a $1 million grant to help fund the varnish treatments for students in Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Knox, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Owsley, Perry, Russell and Wolfe counties.

A new school-board policy prohibiting out-of-state travel except for learning or competition went into effect Monday after the Jessamine County Board of Education passed the second reading. The board also approved a West Jessamine baseball trip that was tabled after concerns about the cost. Board members indicated they desired the policy in June when they denied a trip for the West soccer team to go to South Carolina for “team training and bonding.” The new policy prohibits “non-competitive” and “non-curricular” out-of-state field trips.