Christian County Deputy Coroner Mike Stokes has released the name of the victim of a fatal wreck on I-24 from this morning.
Stokes identifies the woman as 34-year old Joelle Townsend of Kokomo, Indiana. Ms. Townsend was a Fort Campbell soldier.

State Police say the three-vehicle wreck happened at approximately 8:05 am near the 87 mile-marker when Ms. Towsend was driving an SUV westbound and lost control of her vehicle.

Ms. Towsend crossed the median and struck the rear tires of a tractor-trailer driven by 51-year old Tony Pritchard of Vincennes, Indiana. The collision caused the SUV to spin around and strike the left rear side of a pickup driven by 85-year old Loriston Lovelady of Hopkinsville.

Ms. Towsend, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle upon impact with the tractor-trailer. She was pronounced dead on the scene. Pritchard and Ms. Lovelady went uninjured.

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12/17/2011/am

Organizers say last night’s 20^th annual Fraternal Order of Police Shop with a Cop event was another success.

Thanks to the generosity of area residents, 25 children went on a shopping spree at Wal-mart with the help of local law enforcement officials from Hopkinsville Police, the Christian County Sheriff’s Office and Fort Campbell’s Military Police.

One of the young participants in the event already had her Christmas list out before entering the shopping center and excitedly spoke about who was on her list.

While most children spoke about games and toys for their loved ones, another child spoke about picking up under garments for his father and mother.

As part of the annual tradition, the children were picked up from their homes by law enforcement officials in their police cruisers and enjoyed playing with the lights and sirens as they arrived at Wal-mart.

Following the shopping extravaganza, the children were surprised by Santa with a present.

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The Hopkinsville Fire Department’s annual Toys for Tots Christmas party takes place tomorrow and Deputy Chief Eric Bleidt says he is thrilled about how firefighters and area residents have really pulled through this year.

According to the Deputy Chief, the event is a great way to spread the Christmas spirit.

Thanks to the hard-work of local firefighters and donations from area residents about 50 children will have plenty of presents under the Christmas tree this year.

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The suspect accused in the shooting death of a Cadiz man on December 4^th in Trigg County appeared in court this morning.

A preliminary hearing for 19-year old Dwight Wisdom of Princeton was held at the Christian County Justice Center in the interest of greater security. Wisdom is accused of fatally shooting 26-year old Eric Jones of Cadiz at a party around 2am December 4^th at the Trigg County Sports Complex in the north end of the county.

Among those testifying in a hearing to determine probable cause was State Police Detective John Simms, who said a conflict began between rival groups from Trigg and Caldwell Counties and ended with the shooting of Jones.

Defense attorney Will Kauts asked for the hearing to be postponed before it began due to the lead detective not being present. After Detective Simms couldn’t answer all of his questions sufficiently, Trigg District Judge James “Jamus” Redd reconsidered and granted his motion to continue the hearing.

Judge Redd refused to lower Wisdom’s bond and he remains in jail on murder charges.

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12/16/2011/am

Kentucky's jobless rate has fallen to its lowest level in almost three years. But the unemployment number is still higher than the national rate.

The Workforce Development Cabinet says Kentucky's unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in November. That's down from 9.6 in October, and is the lowest since January of 2009.

The U.S. jobless rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November -- down from 9 percent in October.

State research director Ron Crouch says the year-to-date numbers show a "positive growth trend." In contrast, there was a decrease in the unemployment rate from the previous month because people dropped out of the workforce.

KNN News