OBAMA ELECTED ON HISTORIC NIGHT
President-elect Barack Obama says America is a place where all things are possible. Obama made the remarks after a resounding win last night in the race for the White House. The 47-year old Obama will be America's first African American president. Addressing supporters in Chicago, Illinois Senator Obama said, "change has come to America." After talking with Republican rival John McCain by phone, Obama called the Arizona senator "extraordinarily gracious." He reached out to opponents, saying, quote, "I will be your president, too."  Although Obama won nationally, he did lose Kentucky and also lost Calloway County by over 2800 votes

DEMOCRATS GAIN IN SENATE AND HOUSE
Yesterday's election gave Democrats an even larger majority in both the House and Senate. A few races still have yet to be decided this morning, but the most recent projections have the Democrats adding about 20 seats in the House and at least five Senate seats. It's the first year since 1992 that Democrats have taken control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. The Senate is expected to address key pieces of legislation including plans to withdraw troops from Iraq and address the national economic crisis.

WINTERS RALLIES TO BEAT HUBBARD
With five of seven counties in, incumbent Republican Ken Winters trailed Carroll Hubbard in the First District Senate race. But an overwhelming margin of victory in Calloway County and a margin of over 1000 votes in Trigg County swung the race his way. Winters received 26,430 votes to Hubbards 22,650. Winters says the economy will be a major issue for the area during his next term. The loss could signal the end of the line politically for Hubbard who is 71. Hubbard's victory margin in his home county of Graves was just over 400 votes, while Winters won his home county of Calloway by nearly 3400 votes.

MURRAY COUNCIL GETS TWO NEW MEMBERS
There will be two new members of the next Murray City Council. Greg Anderson and Melvin Bowers were winners last night in their first political race. 10 of 11 incumbents who were seeking reelection were winners. Jason Pittman did not seek reelection and David Ramey missed his second term on the council, needing just 27 more votes to make that happen. Here are the results:

Murray City Council
Danny Hudspeth 3844
Bill Wells 3664
Butch Seargent 3625
Pete Lancaster 3593
Jeremy Bell 3578
Pat Scott 3519
Dan M. Miller 3516
Robert Billington 3493
Linda Cherry 3421
Greg Anderson 3315
Jane Brandon 3269
John "Melvin" Bowers 2950
David Ramey 2924
 

2nd District School Board
Bonnie Leann Myers 771
Jenger Coursey DeShields 477

McCONNELL WINS FIFTH TERM
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell outlasted a strong challenge from Democrat Bruce Lunsford to win a fifth term. McConnell found a winning strategy by stressing his stature as the top-ranking Senate Republican and his ability to deliver loads of federal money for the Bluegrass state. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, McConnell had 945,067 votes or 53 percent, compared with 840,286 votes or 47 percent for Lunsford.

WHITFIELD SCORES EASY WIN
U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield easily defeated Democrat challenger Heather Ryan, winning all 32 counties in the First District with 65 percent of the vote. Whitfield received 178,016 votes to Ryan’s 98,596. It is the highest number of votes he has ever received. However, Ryan got the most votes ever by a Whitfield opponent.

KENTUCKY HOUSE UPDATE
Kentucky's incumbent congressmen breezed to re-election and Republicans hung on to a heavily contested open seat they wrested from Democratic hands in the mid-1990s. Republican Brett Guthrie won the 2nd District over state Senate colleague David Boswell, who mounted a strong bid to be the first Democrat to win the district since it was swept up in the GOP revolution of 1994. Guthrie will replace U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, who announced his retirement earlier this year after seven consecutive terms. His 1994 special election win was a harbinger of the GOP onslaught that year when an unhappy electorate booted incumbent Democrats around the country.

HOUSMAN BEATS RENFRO
Political newcomer Brent Housman on Tuesday became the latest Republican to win a state legislative race in the heavily Democratic Jackson Purchase area of western Kentucky. He defeated McCracken County Commissioner Zana Renfro in the 3rd District that encompasses the city of Paducah and surrounding McCracken County precincts. It has 18,130 Democrats and 7,508 Republicans. Housman received 8,452 votes to Renfro’s 7,670. On Jan. 1 he will fill the seat vacated when Frank Rasche resigned last summer to accept a job with the Kentucky Department of Education.

ROAD WORK AT LBL
A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans lane restrictions on the US 68/KY 80 Reconstruction Project in the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area today and tomorrow. A contractor plans to install a temporary culvert under the existing traffic lanes of US 68/KY 80. Traffic will be slowed at the site to cross on steel plates.  On Thursday traffic will be restricted to one lane at the new Eastbound Trace Overpass. These lane restrictions will begin at 6:30 and be completed by 5:00.

ROBBERY IN PADUCAH
Around midnight two men dressed in dark clothing and full face masks entered the Five Star on Hinkleville road in Paducah brandishing shotguns. The robbers took the cash from the drawers and cell phones from the employee and the customer before escaping.

GRAVES MAN ARRESTED ON MURDER CHARGES
The special needs man Sheriff's Deputies say attacked and killed another special needs man was put behind bars Monday night.  Forty-two year old Mitchell Smith is charged with murder and bond has been set at half a million dollars. Gary Seaford, 60, died Saturday evening, just minutes after being discovered on the lawn of a Graves County group home. The State Department of Retardation spent most of Tuesday investigating the incident.

DOWNED LINES IN MARSHALL COUNTY
Traffic was diverted for four hours and parts of Draffenville were without power for a short time yesterday after a truck struck a power line on Highway 68 at the intersection of 641 North. The outage did not affect any of the polling places thanks to emergency power generators.

VANDALS CAUSE BARN FIRE
Authorities are looking for the vandals that set a barn and 19 bails of hay on fire and damaged 40 mailboxes Sunday night in Fancy Farm.  There is a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

ACROSS KENTUCKY
John McCain lost his bid to be president, but he can take pride in his performance in Kentucky. The Arizona Republican was declared the winner in Kentucky as soon as the polls closed, it was his first victory of the night. But for the McCain campaign there were not enough of them.

Two hikers have been found dead at the Red River Gorge. The bodies of 18-year-old Benjamin Strohmeier of Hebron and 18-year-old Laura Fletcher of Brownsburg, Indiana were discovered in the Torrent Falls area. State Police are investigating but they believe the pair died after an accidental fall.

Officials in Letcher County are dealing with a water problem. Over the weekend petroleum was discovered in the Whitesburg water supply. The petroleum is seeping in to the North Fork of the Kentucky River. The source is under investigation. The water treatment plant was shut down and cleaned, but the water has not been given the all clear and today Letcher County schools have been closed.

Bowling Green Police alerting residents to beware of a credit card scam. Police say someone is calling people saying there's a problem with their credit cards and asking for card numbers and other information. Police says it's a common scam and citizens should never release their personal information over the phone.