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17 unidentified bodies found near Clarksville, Indiana

Families are threatening a lawsuit over relocation of bodies.

A plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies discovered during a road project in Indiana earlier this year may end up in a courtroom.

Descendants of people buried in the Stewart-Emery Cemetery, located just north of Louisville, Ky., are threatening a lawsuit to stop town officials from reburying the remains in a nearby nature preserve.

Families told WDRB-TV the proposal would put their loved ones in an area that’s hard to access and has issues with vandalism.

“It’s a beautiful cemetery,” Kathie Miller, a descendant, told WDRB. “It’s been desecrated repeatedly over the years. Lots of vandalism and just the foot path alone is a deterrent.”

A plan to rebury 17 unidentified bodies discovered through a road project has families now threatening a lawsuit.  (WDRB)

The cemetery dates back to the 1800s, The Courier-Journal reported. Town officials said finding unmarked remains around a site of that age would not be surprising.

Instead of moving the remains to another location, some families want to see the remains returned as close to the original site as possible.

“We’ve been told that they could probably put three people each in two of the empty plots that we know are here,” Janus Emery-Bowling said.

The Clarksville town manager told WDRB officials are trying to work with families, and repeatedly stated legal issues concerning the remains have made the reburial process complicated.

Families are planning to meet in early December with public officials to figure out the next step, but are also working with attorneys to take possible legal action against the town.

“If that’s what’s necessary, that’s the type of measure we’ll have to take,” Miller said.

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On a sprawling farm in Maricopa, his family?s land has been cultivated by Kelly Anderson for decades.

Ornamental plants are grown by him, dehydrated foliage and wheat which are sold in craft shops. Another possibly more profitable crop: industrial hemp, is being eyed by farmers like Anderson, although demand for the decorative plants is high.

An assortment of the cannabis plant, industrial hemp is used to make rope, paper, cosmetics, food and textiles. It features low levels of marijuana?s main psychoactive substance, but doesn’t create a high. Until lately, it couldn’t be lawfully grown anywhere in the U.S. and was imported from Canada, China, Europe, Russia and elsewhere.

“It uses less water than cotton, it?s a very heat-tolerant plant and we need a good rotation-kind crop to help the soil,? Anderson said. ?Instead of growing cotton after cotton after cotton, or hay after hay after hay, you could rotate this. This could be used to help the ag economy and we?re always trying to expand our production base?

Two state lawmakers are looking into to legalizing hemp cultivation in Arizona.

The procedure to produce, distribute and sell hemp in Arizona would be set up by Senate Bill 1337 through a program managed by the state agriculture department. Processors and growers would be asked to pass criminal background checks and would need to maintain comprehensive records about growing locations. Harvests could possibly be inspected and tested by agriculture officials, and in the event the plants were discovered to have more than 0.3 percent of THC on a dry-weight basis, the crop can be destroyed and farmers can be prohibited from future hemp growing.

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Local officials cannot use federal laws outlawing marijuana to refuse to provide required zoning for dispensaries, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

In their unanimous decision, the judges admitted the federal Controlled Substances Act makes the possession and sale of marijuana a felony. And they noted that the zoning sought by White Mountain Health Center was particularly to be able sell the drug from a store in an unincorporated area of Sun City.

But Judge Donn Kessler said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery had no legal basis to assert that federal law trumps the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. And he also rejected Montgomery?s contention that having county officials issue the necessary zoning would mean they were aiding and abetting in the violation of federal law.

The fight has its origins in the 2010 initiative that enables those with a physician?s recommendation along with a state-issued ID card to get up to 2 1/2 oz of marijuana every two weeks. That law also set up a network of state-regulated independently run dispensaries to sell the drug.

State health officials need certification from the local government that the website is properly zoned before issuing a license for a dispensary. White Mountain Health, attempting to find in Sun City, sought the required certification from Maricopa County.

But Montgomery instructed county officials not to react. He asserted that doing this would make them guilty of breaking federal laws that prohibit not only the possession and sale but doing anything to facilitate either.

And he claimed that anything the state does cannot preempt federal law.

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