Kentucky leads nation in smoking deaths

This from MSNBC:

Nearly one-and-a-half times the national median

ATLANTA - Kentucky and West Virginia — where people traditionally smoke the most — have the highest death rates from smoking, a new federal study has found. Rounding out the 10 states with the highest average annual smoking death rates were Nevada, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana and Missouri.

The lowest death rates were in Utah and Hawaii, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

The smoking death rate in Kentucky was about 371 deaths out of every 100,000 adults age 35 and older. In West Virginia, the smoking death rate was about 344 deaths out of every 100,000 adults...

Gifted Kentucky students get their own school

Math, science academy is dedicated at WKU

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- For a decade, advocates for Kentucky's brightest students have lobbied for a program to give them a more challenging academic environment.

Yesterday they celebrated their victory -- with the dedication of the new Academy of Math and Science in Kentucky at Western Kentucky University.

"This is a special day," said Julia Roberts, director of the Center for Gifted Studies at WKU and one of the leaders of the initiative. "I think the academy is going to have a tremendous boost to the economy of Kentucky."

The academy is the first of its kind in Kentucky -- and only the 14th in the nation.

Each year it will admit high school students based on such things as standardized test scores, grades and recommendations. Instead of spending their final years in regular high schools, students will enroll in the academy and live in a special dormitory on campus.

They will take courses alongside Western students, and at the end will have earned college credits, in addition to completing high school. ...

This from the Courier-Journal.

And this from the Cincinnati Post:

Six of Northern Kentucky's brightest teen math and science students left Wednesday for Western Kentucky University's new innovative boarding academy for high schoolers.

The Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky brings together 120 students from 61 counties to live on the Bowling Green campus and take college-level courses taught by professors for up to two years.

The academy - one of just 14 like it in the U.S. - opens today, with the announcement of a $4 million private endowment. Classes begin Monday.

Students can get a jump-start on college by accumulating up to 60 credit hours while finishing their high school requirements.

The program is funded by the Kentucky General Assembly, and will provide room, board, and tuition for students. Students' families will pay for books and travel and personal expenses.

The academy dovetails with state education officials' initiatives to improve academic performance - notably in math and science - and to boost the rate of Kentuckians in college to the national average by 2020...