Kentucky
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife explains increase in recent black bear sightings
SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. (WBKO) – Black bear sightings in communities throughout southcentral Kentucky have risen in recent weeks, though Kentucky Fish and Wildlife officials say this is a typical part of male bears’ annual migrations.
The latest documented sighting in recent weeks came from Kerry Stinson’s trail cameras on Halifax Road in Scottsville.
His camera captured a young male black bear toppling a deer feeder in his nearby woods.
“They send me notifications every morning of what’s on there, and I was eating breakfast and I just looked down and saw I had a notification, so I opened it, and this feeder was laying on the ground, so I was like, “Well why’s my feeder over?” So, I went back through the pictures and there was a bear, and it kind of made my day,” Stinson recollected.
He shared that the bear visited his feeder around 6 a.m. before moving on. Two days later, he said another Allen County man spotted the same bear on a road roughly 15 miles away, and another sighting placing the bear in a nearby soybean field.
John Hast, a coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife’s bear and elk program, shared that these sightings are not unheard of during the summer.
“Usually these are younger bears, they will live with mom for about the first year and a half of life. And when breeding season kicks up, usually about the end of May or first of June is when they start getting the boot,” Hast explained. “So, mom’s kind of kicking them out of the nest and then some of the more dominant black bears are running into them and, you know, they know they’re not going to win that fight. So, they go looking for a mate in some fresh territory.”
While the bears seen in nearby communities are likely only passing through and will journey back to the mountains at the end of breeding season, Hast believes that these sightings could become more common as nearby populations continue to grow.
“So, Tennessee’s bear population is very much middle Tennessee, like due south of your area is expanding a lot. So, these may not necessarily be, say, Kentucky bears from around Somerset or something like that,” Hast said. “They could be kind of those middle Tennessee bears coming north a little bit. I’d say your nearest, say, breeding population where female bears are living is kind of down in the Cumberland County, like Burkesville or Dale Hollow Lake area, most likely.”
Black bears sighted outside of their typical range should be admired from a safe distance. They can also be reported to the Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to assist in their continued monitoring of nearby populations.
More information on safely coexisting with black bears can be found on BearWise.org.
Copyright 2024 WBKO. All rights reserved.
Kentucky
Kentucky State Police
Bear Branch, KY (January 24, 2026) – On Friday, January 23, 2026, at approximately 6:58 p.m., Kentucky State Police Post 13, Hazard, was notified of a structure fire on Turkey Foot Road in the Bear Branch community of Leslie County.
Kentucky State Police, along with Leslie County Fire Services and the Leslie County Sheriff’s Office, responded to the scene. After the fire was extinguished, the body of a deceased individual was discovered inside the residence. Detectives were notified and initiated an investigation. Preliminary findings indicate the deceased is believed to be the resident, Rex Smallwood, 68, of Bear Branch. Mr. Smallwood was pronounced deceased at the scene by the Leslie County Coroner’s Office.
At this time, no foul play is suspected. The remains have been transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. This incident remains under investigation by Detective Darrell Hicks.
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Kentucky
Kentucky Gov Clowns Ted Cruz for Getting Duped By European Pic: ‘Sorry For Missing This… Been Busy Leading My State’
(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) had a laugh at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) expense over a fake X post accusing the governor of being out of town during the massive winter storm that brought dangerous amounts of snow and ice to many parts of the U.S.
Cruz posted a “thinking” emoji along with a retweet of a post by the Kentucky Freedom Coalition showing Beshear and his wife posing in front of a church in Europe.
The account, that’s also followed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted, “The liberal media went wild when Ted Cruz wasn’t in Texas for the major freeze a few years back. Well, Kentucky is in a declared emergency and @AndyBeshearKYis touring Europe. The media won’t say a word though.”
Beshear responded, “Sorry for missing this earlier, @tedcruz. Been busy leading my state’s emergency response all day. From Kentucky.”
Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake added some additional context, writing, “This photo of Beshear in Europe is a full week old. He gave a briefing in Kentucky today.”
According to WKYT, Beshear spent last week in Europe “with a delegation from Team Kentucky, attending the World Economic Forum and meeting with company leaders in Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland.”
Cruz famously received massive backlash in 2021 after escaping to sunny Cancun as a brutal winter storm left millions of his constituents “stranded in sub-freezing temperatures without electricity and water,” according to The Hill.
The contrite senator returned to Texas within 24-hours of being spotted on his travels. Cruz eventually apologized, saying, “It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it.”
This week, as Texas braced once again for an onslaught of weather, a Texas political strategist posted, “Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was spotted earlier today, January 20, 2026, on a plane heading to Laguna Beach as the state of Texas braces for a rare ice threat and arctic cold front.”
Of the California trip, a Cruz spokesperson told KXAN that the work trip “was scheduled weeks in advance.”
The spokesperson continued, “He will be back in Texas before the storm is projected to hit.”
Cruz posted that he did, in fact, return to Texas the day before the storm hit.
This isn’t the first time Cruz has been called out for retweeting a fake post. In 2023, Cruz shared an image of what looked like a shark swimming on a flooded highway in Los Angeles.
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Kentucky
Sunday Headlines: Big week ahead for Kentucky Basketball
The Kentucky Wildcats have some momentum, which seems like a crazy thing to say after where this team was to begin conference play.
The Cats have been playing well, and actually are tied for second in the league following a wild day of SEC basketball yesterday.
However, the Cats will face a pair of big tests this week. The Cats go on the road Tuesday to take on Vanderbilt, who ended their three-game losing skid yesterday by demolishing Mississippi State in Starkville by a score of 88-56. The Commodores were once 16-0 and ranked in the top 10 nationally. They average 90 points per game, so Tuesday night’s showdown in Nashville will be a tall task for the Cats.
Then Kentucky travels to Fayetteville for a matchup with John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks next Saturday. The game won’t have quite the same emotion as Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena last year, but it still holds some extra meaning, at least to the fanbase.
The Hogs have one of the best freshmen in the country in Darius Acuff, who averages nearly 20 points and 6 assists per game. Acuff scored 31 in yesterday’s win at LSU.
In a perfect world, Kentucky wins both of these matchups, but they’ll most likely enter as underdogs in both. If they somehow manage to win both, it would be a major boost for this team and open up conversations about what this team’s ceiling actually is.
If Kentucky could manage to split these two games, I think it would be considered a success considering the level these teams have played at and both being on the road.
How are you feeling heading into this week?
All of us jumped out of our seats when he made that shot!
Still a really good crowd at Rupp despite the incoming weather.
Maybe we’ll see them back on the bench soon.
That stretch when he came in was a difference-maker.
There was the airball, and he never really got going.
A big milestone for Rick.
The AFC North will have 3 new coaches next season.
It seems like KAT and the Knicks are heading toward a split.
He’s about to earn a big payday.
One of the wildest things I’ve seen.
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