Lu-Anns Kentucky News Review

November 20, 2009

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• More confirmation that Kentucky is unhealthy: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released county-level data on obesity and diabetes across the United States. The results show distinct geographic patterns of high prevalence rates for diabetes and obesity in the Southeast, particularly in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky and Tennessee. The CDC explains why: "Diabetes and obesity are thought to coexist in specific geographic patterns because of a convergence of prevailing social norms, community and environmental factors, socioeconomic status, and genetic risk factors among ethnically similar groups."
  

• A stuck accelerator pedal, a problem that has been reported before and is part of a continuing investigation under way by both Toyota Motor Sales Inc. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is believed to have caused a crash. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on an incident in Pennsylvania where a woman started her 2007 Toyota Camry and it began accelerating until she crashed. Four people were killed in the incident. The floor mats that come in some Camrys can entrap the accelerator pedal. The floor mats have been recalled and Toyota has said to remove them from the car. Toyota Camrys are manufactured in Georgetown.
  

• Kentucky received $1.3 million from the federal government to identify opportunities to create "green" jobs, according to a report in Business First of Louisville. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded $55 million nationwide in the program. According to a press release, "This funding gives us the resources we need to more formally and definitively identify green jobs in Kentucky, and link dislocated, new workers and the unemployed with these jobs as well as help them develop the skills they need," said Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters.
  
  
• The S•KY BLUE House designed and created by a University of Kentucky team for a national competition for designing solar homes was featured on The Today Show, according to a press release from the university. The segment on the show featured the UK entry which came in at 9th place in the competition. The Herald-Leader reported on the home.
  
  
  

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