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Al Cross honored by Stumbo, Richards, General Assembly

Al Cross, reporter and political columnist with The Courier-Journal and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, was honored on March 11 by some of the very politicians he covers in the General Assembly.

State Reps. Greg Stumbo, the House majority floor leader, and Jody Richards, speaker of the House, introduced House Resolution 229 honoring Cross for his work and contributions.

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New radio scanner will receive KSP tow-way digital system

Citizen Voice and Times editor Jeff Moreland remembers the day not long ago when a bank robbery happened in Irvine but he could hear only part of the police chatter on his scanner. In the past, Moreland typically would have heard most every radio transmission local and Kentucky State Police would have made about the crime. But not this time. State Police had just converted to a new digital radio system that left anyone using a traditional scanner - including journalists - unable to monitor their radio transmissions.

Moreland can still hear his local public safety agencies just fine. They, like most other public safety agencies in small communities, are still using older, traditional technology. It's called analog FM for those who are interested. But Moreland, like many other newspaper editors across the state, can no longer hear most routine KSP transmissions. That is sometimes a hardship on the newsgathering process. It sometimes leaves his paper in the lurch. Trooper work schedules and weekly paper deadlines being what they are can combine to make it difficult to get timely information in the paper from KSP, he said. For that reason, Moreland often found it better to get any information he could from the scene - whatever that might be. But if you can't hear the KSP transmissions in the first place, an editor or reporter may not even know there was a scene to go to.

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Ron Filkins fills empty board seat

Ron Filkins, publisher of The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown, a tri-weekly publication, has filled the District 5 seat on the KPA board of directors through 2005 following a special election.

The election was necessary after Teresa Rice, general manager and editor of the Lebanon Enterprise, resigned from the board. Rice was named recently as publisher of Filkins' previous paper, The Perry County News in Tell City, Ind. Both are owned by Landmark Community Newspapers Inc.

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'Tis the season - tips for reviewing campaign ads

It's almost time for the primary elections of 2002. That's good news and bad news, isn't it? No one minds the revenue these ads generate. But the headaches ... Well, that's another matter.

Political speech is the kind of speech most fervently protected by the First Amendment. The notion that the free flow of ideas is crucial, particularly in the context of political speech, led the United States Supreme Court to decide the famous New York Times v. Sullivan case. That case involved a political campaign, and was the first time that the Supreme Court articulated different standards of proof in defamation cases depending upon whether the plaintiff is a public official/public figure or private individual.

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Harrodsburg Herald employee begins 60th year at paper

She thought the job would last a week. It didn't. It turned out to be a long week, June Wiley said

When June Wiley began working at the Harrodsburg Herald in March 1943, she earned $6 a week. Not an hour ó a week. After a few months, she got a $2 a week raise. Now, more than 59 years later, many aspects of newspapering have changed dramatically but June Wiley is still at The Herald.

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