Environment

A magazine says Kentucky is number one when it comes to whitetail deer hunting. The latest issue of Outdoor Life ranks the Bluegrass State as the top whitetail trophy state in the country. The publication says western Kentucky was especially noteworthy for producing a relatively high number of trophy bucks. In tallying the scores, Kentucky ranked second in the number of record-book bucks.

Johnson County has joined other counties in southern Illinois supporting a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

Vice Chairman Phil Stewart was the one Johnson County Commissioner who did not support the one-year moratorium. He says the area needs the jobs.

“Johnson County is, you know, a poor county, needs some revenue,” Stewart says. “And I think it would help.”

But, Stewart says most of the jobs would be temporary.

Kentuckians don't have to worry about an onslaught of noisy cicadas this year, though experts say they're about to emerge in the Northeast. The cicadas, which take 17 years to come out of the ground, are expected to number in the billions along the East Coast from North Carolina to Connecticut. But a chart from the website Magic Cicada dot org indicates Kentucky shouldn't see a cicada emergence until 2021, with others following in 2025 and 2028.

The Louisville Zoo says its oldest polar bear has died. The Zoo says Arki, a female, was 28 years old and died from unknown causes on Wednesday. Arki came to Louisville in 2011 from the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois. A news release from the Louisville Zoo says polar bears usually live into their mid-20s. Arki was considered one of the most prolific polar bears with five successful litters. One of the two remaining polar bears at the Louisville Zoo, 3-year-old Siku, is Arki's grandson. The Zoo says a necropsy will be performed on Arki to determine the cause of death.

Supporters of high-volume oil and gas drilling say a bill to regulate the practice in Illinois is ready for a vote after last-minute negotiations over hiring and environmental concerns.

The House bill initially had strong support in February but stalled over an amendment requiring energy companies to hire Illinois-licensed water well drillers. Instead, companies will get a break on certain taxes if more than half their workers are from Illinois and receive prevailing wages.