Today's News

By Laura Ungar
The Courier-Journal

Every year, 3,500 Kentuckians lose their lives to lung cancer — and smoking has long been blamed as the culprit.
But scientists now say it may not be acting alone.
A growing body of research, including two studies under way at the University of Kentucky, shows the risk of lung cancer is much higher for smokers exposed to carcinogens such as radon, asbestos, arsenic or chromium.

By Susan G. Zepeda, Ph.D.
President/CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky

Kentucky students break for summer vacation, some look ahead to summer camp and family trips, while others wonder where their next good meal will come from.  School districts and nonprofits struggle to find ways to assure Kentucky’s lowest income families can offer their children nutritious food during the summer.

“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.”
That was the motto for “Dory” an endearing fish on the movie “Finding Nemo.” It was also one of Missy Farmer-Spalding’s favorite adages. She thought of it often after being diagnosed with cancer in August of 2011. No matter how awful, how painful and how scary her battle was she just kept swimming, so to speak.

 It seems that we have been spoiled: a decade of mostly mild winters has led us to believe that all those border line hardy plants would never get knocked back by a cold winter. Well, I have seen quite a few crape myrtles, figs and French hydrangeas that are struggling to come back on old wood. Fear not, however, because these plants are root hardy and will sprout new growth from the roots.