Kentucky

Suit against governor adds defamation claim

A woman who sued Gov. Paul Patton, alleging sexual harassment, amended her lawsuit Wednesday to also claim he defamed her by initially lying about their relationship.

In Frankfort, attorneys for the governor filed requests to dismiss parts of Tina Conner’s suit, arguing she cannot sue for retaliation and harassment because she has never been a state employee.

Conner’s amended complaint said Patton’s denials had the effect of “degrading, defaming and belittling” her.

Conner sued the governor and the state Sept. 18 alleging she and Patton had a two-year affair beginning in 1997.

She alleged she got preferential treatment for a nursing home and other businesses she operated while the affair went on but was treated harshly by state inspectors after she ended the relationship.

West Virginia

Coal mine reopens after slurry spill

A coal treatment plant reopened Wednesday, a day after a ruptured waste pipe spilled 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into two nearby streams, killing fish and raising concerns about the water supply.

State environmental inspectors said Bandmill Coal Co. in Logan, a subsidiary of Massey Energy Co., could open as long as workers continued cleanup efforts.

By Wednesday afternoon, the spill had discolored the Guyandotte River. The slurry concentrated and grayish-black on Tuesday had broken up considerably, officials said.

Massey said its investigators have determined that human error caused the spill of slurry, which is a mixture of water, fine coal particles and other waste from washing coal to prepare it for market.

Minnesota

Lindbergh was involved in secret flight research

Pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh secretly aided the U.S. military during World War II by testing the effects of high-altitude flight on humans, government documents show.

The once-classified research by Lindbergh and others helped keep wartime pilots alive at altitudes reaching an unprecedented 40,000 feet and established the first procedures for surviving parachute jumps from such height.

Evidence of the work was unveiled this week at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester as part of a display on secret aviation research done there since the war.

Ohio

Former juror works to re-elect Traficant

A juror who helped convict James A. Traficant Jr. on racketeering charges says he now thinks the former congressman is innocent and is showing it by volunteering for his re-election campaign.

Leo Glaser, 54, a design engineering technician for FirstEnergy Corp., offered his help during a visit Tuesday to Traficant’s campaign office in Girard.

Traficant, who was expelled from the House after his conviction on 10 counts including bribery and racketeering, was sentenced in July to eight years in prison. He has appealed.

The Youngstown Democrat is running for re-election as an independent.

Glaser said he changed his mind about Traficant’s guilt after Virginia business executive Richard Detore testified before the House ethics committee that government prosecutors tried to pressure him into lying.

“Richard Detore’s testimony was my reasonable doubt,” Glaser said. “I feel that I got cheated.”