By Tony McVeigh, Kentucky Public Radio A former Fletcher Administration official has been fined by Kentucky's Executive Branch Ethics Commission. After serving as deputy secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Crystal Murray Ducker went to work for RJ Corman Railroad Group in Nicholasville. But the ethics commission says Ducker’s actions violated an ethics code prohibition against state officials accepting jobs – within six months of leaving office - with any company over which they had direct dealings as a state official.Ducker says she did not knowingly violate the ethics code, but agrees to pay a $500 fine and waive her right to appeal.Prior to joining the Transportation Cabinet, Ducker was an aide to then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and among administration officials who testified to a grand jury in the state hiring probe.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.