 A woman being referred to as the Cookie Monster pleads guilty to stealing Girl Scout cookies. Officers are frequently finding meth in Johnson County and deer in the region are dying, but it's cows that are being shot and it all happened this week. Welcome everyone to This Week, I'm Shawn Allen. For the next half hour, we'll catch you up on the news you may have missed and give you updates on the week that was in your hometown. A Girl Scout leader who is accused of stealing over 6,000 boxes of cookies pleaded guilty Friday. EKB news reporter Shelby Steele brought us an exclusive look at what happened. A former Girl Scout leader charged with stealing more than 6,000 boxes of cookies worth more than $26,000 appeared in Pike Circuit Court today. 26-year-old Leanne Vic of Owingsville pleaded guilty to theft just before lunch. Under the terms of the deal reached with prosecutors, the charge was amended down one level from a Class C felony to a Class D. That means, instead of facing a potential prison sentence of 5 to 10 years, she now faces a sentence of 1 to 5 years. Commonwealth's attorney Rick Barley is recommending a 2-year sentence and opposes probation. The Girl Scouts organization is glad the case ended with a guilty plea. However, they say there is no good resolution. Our interest is in the minds of the girls. We want to make sure that the girls that were in her troop are able to continue in Girl Scouting, experience everything that they were planning on. They had no goal set for the funds that they were supposed to earn. So we're assisting to them reaching their goals, getting uniforms, buying supplies, all of those kinds of things. We're working toward assisting. McGraw adds the troop affected is simply trying to move on from the situation. Our first priority was making sure that there was leadership reinstated. So we had meetings in the area. We were able to get new leadership for that troop so they could continue. And like I said, our priority is just making sure that they can still experience it. Those who would like to donate to the troop to help with uniforms or upcoming projects can do so by visiting GSKentucky.org. Lee and Vic will be sentenced on September 22nd. In Pikeville, Shelby Still, EKB News. Meth use has grown rapidly in the region to the point that law enforcement are finding it while responding to calls unrelated to drugs. EKB News reporter Shelby Still explains. Since Thursday, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office has made five drug-related arrests, mostly pertaining to methamphetamine. Thursday, Sheriff's deputies arrested David Tackett, Jerry Pentecoff, and Kristi Fanon. In an unrelated case, Friday, Matthew Martin of Richmond was also arrested. Deputies tell EKB News Martin was found with two ounces of a white powdery substance believed to be meth and estimate that to be around $2,000 worth of drugs. And just this morning, Dusty Harless was arrested. Johnson County Sheriff's deputies say the meth in the county is increasing, especially crystal meth and what are known as one-step meth labs. We've recently had a couple of these one-step labs and it's, as I say, it's out of the norm right now because the crystal meth is in such a high demand, easy access to it. That's where most of the people are going to right now. One-step meth lab is what they commonly refer to as a shake and bake. Everything's made inside of one little bottom. They added meth users are easy to spot most of the time. Indicators that we notice with, you know, a lot of the meth use is, you know, the person to get real paranoid on how many times that I've dealt with people that was under the influence of possibly meth and amphetamine and they, you know, they're always kind of paranoid and thinking people was trying to kill them. If you suspect someone is using, selling, or making drugs, contact the Johnson County Sheriff's Office via the number listed on your screen. Callers can remain anonymous. In Paintsville, Shelby Still, EKB News. A man charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting his brother appeared in Pike Circuit Court Friday. 42-year-old David Lee Atkins pleaded not guilty. Atkins is accused of firing multiple shots from a handgun into a vehicle occupied by his brother, Daryl K. Atkins, and the passenger, Ariel Lachey Epling. Daryl Atkins was shot once and airlifted to Pikeville Medical Center's trauma unit. He survived that shooting. Epling was not injured during the incident. David Atkins was arrested and charged with attempted murder and wanton endangerment. He was lodged in the Pike County detention center. However, Atkins posted a property bond and was released from custody. Friday, David Atkins was ordered not to contact the victim. He will appear back in court October 20th. A call of a child being left in a car leads to a drug arrest in Johnson County. Kentucky State Police received a call of a small child left unattended in a vehicle at a gas station on Auksha Road in Prestonburg. Police located the vehicle in Johnson County and found a three-year-old child in the front passenger side seat without a seat belt and the booster seat in the back of the car. The driver of the vehicle, 30-year-old Samantha Schemes, told officers she was prescribed and had taken suboxone. A search of the vehicle resulted in the officer finding a bag of open syringes hidden behind the fuse panel and a vising bottle containing urine. Schemes told the officers she used the urine to pass drug screening at the suboxone clinic. Schemes was charged with driving on a DUI and driving on a DUI suspended license, drug paraphernalia, endangering the welfare of a minor and other traffic-related charges. The Department of Social Services was called for placement of the child. Wednesday we brought you a disturbing story out of Pike County where cattle owners report that more than a dozen of their cows were shot Tuesday. Most of the animals died immediately as a result and more than likely more of them will have to be put down. EKB News reporter Shelby Steele has the story. Kentucky State Police is currently investigating a shooting of cattle in Pike County. Around 8 o'clock Tuesday morning, approximately 10 cows were shot dead on Ball Fork Mountain. Three cows are injured and will have to be put down. Several are unaccounted for. Out of those shot, three were pregnant. I left work early to come to check on what was going on. Joe Yates and Danny Branham leased the property in ransom from a land company in Kentucky. Together, they own 36 cattle. The two spent thousands of dollars putting up fences for the cows to roam. We left roads open that we could have closed, you know, but we wanted to make it user-friendly to everybody, but evidently you can't do that up here. Officials say the road is heavily populated. There's lots of traffic up here. People come up here. They have bonfires. Two suspects have been identified and charges are pending. Names have not yet been released. We've ever done something like this. It's gruesome. You know, that's animal cruelty for one thing. In Pike County, Shelby Steele, EKB News. On Thursday, two teenagers, both male, were arrested on charges related to the shooting and killing of those cows. One of the teens is a juvenile and his identity has not been released. The other is 18-year-old Elijah Williamson of Canada. He's charged with second-degree cruelty to animals and first-degree criminal mischief. The animal cruelty charge is a misdemeanor in Kentucky punishable by up to one year in jail. The only time Kentucky raises animal cruelty to a felony charge is in cases involving fighting four-legged animals for sport. The criminal mischief charge, however, is a felony with a potential prison sentence of one to five years in prison. Police were led to their suspects after the teenagers posted several videos to Snapchat of ammunition and guns before the shooting took place. Police were able to link the ammo on the videos to the ammo removed from the cattle. Animals of Appalachia did not fare well in the news this week as an outbreak of fatal disease affecting eastern Kentucky deer population continues to grow and one local police department is chipping in to assist fish and wildlife officers. EKB news reporter Shannon Deskins has the story. So you have a deer in your yard? All right, just stay away from the deer. We'll have some wind around, okay? In the past couple weeks, this has become a call the Pikeville Police Department receives on a daily basis due to a significant outbreak of a disease called episodic hemorrhagic disease or EHD. You know, I know we're at least taking one a day. We've took one this morning. We took one yesterday. We took one the day before. So sometimes it's up to three a day. It's just according to people see them and find them. There are sporadic cases of EHD killing white-tailed deer reported every year and normally Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife officers respond. But with the severity of this year's outbreak in eastern Kentucky, multiple agencies are pitching in to help field the calls. But if we had to call them on everyone we had, we'd keep them up 24-hours a day. You know, we're having them at night. We're having them at evening. We're having them early mornings. We're having them in the middle of the day. Fish and wildlife officials in Frankfort say blood tests from infected deer in eastern Kentucky have now confirmed what was until recently suspicions of an EHD outbreak. But they stress the disease is not transferable to humans or pets and only infects a deer when it is bitten by a midge fly carrying the disease. So until conditions change and the outbreak comes to an end, Captain Edmunds says his department will do all they can to help. We have a great partnership with Department of Fish and Wildlife. They help us. We help them. You know, we need to do our part here and we're going to, if people in the city limits have problems with a white-tailed deer in their yard that's sick or having problems, contact us. We will make sure they get notified of it. And that notification is important to Fish and Wildlife officials who are trying to track all the EHD cases they can. We are collecting data from that and putting GPS points that way that the wildlife staff can take a look at it on a map and pinpoint exactly where our greatest area has been hit. The last significant EHD outbreak to affect Pike and surrounding counties was in the fall of 2007. Reporting from Pikeville, I'm Shannon Deskins for EKB News. Coming up, two Pike County court cases are soon expecting guilty pleas. We'll explain when this week returns. Attention nurse practitioners. If you want to spend more time with the family, the perfect position is available as PMC is hiring for school nurse practitioner positions. You can work while kids are in school and be off in the summer with pay starting at over $38 an hour and an excellent benefit package to learn more. Call Alice and Lovely with PMC recruitment services at 606-218-4915. 606-218-4915 Pikeville Medical Center, an equal opportunity employer. Drivers, start your engine. Load up the family and head on over to the Lonesome Pine Raceway in Tobor, Virginia. Lonesome Pine Raceway has brought excitement to race fans for 45 years and is NASCAR sanctioned. Gave Tobin at 4 p.m. on race days with races beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is $10 adults and children under 12 free. Lonesome Pine Raceway, Tobor, Virginia. Visit thepinegraceway.com for race information. We are so thankful for Logan Regional Medical Center. It was so close to where the event happened. It was overall a bad day, but Logan Regional Medical Center was a really good part of that day. Logan Regional Rocks. After I got out of the hospital with my heart surgery, I did my cardiac rehab here at Logan Regional Medical Center, but it was very convenient getting here and getting back to work. Logan Regional Medical Center, always here for you. A Pike County man now intends to plead guilty in a child pornography case. 29-year-old Craig T. Anderson of Phyllis was indicted on July of 2016 on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography in 2015. The case was delayed for several months so that he could undergo a psychological evaluation, but late last year he was world competent to stand trial. He requested the judge allow him to now enter a guilty plea saying he has reached a plea agreement with the government. U.S. District Judge David Bunning is considering that request. Anderson was scheduled to go on trial August 28th. He is being held in the Pike County Detention Center. A former Pikeville Postmaster now plans to plead guilty to taking money from her post office. Misty Dawn Collins was indicted in May on a charge of misappropriation of postal funds. She was accused of taking over $1,000 in 2014 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Now Collins says she has reached a plea deal with the government and is asking to plead guilty. No date has yet been set for her arraignment. Coming up, the oldest house in Floyd County is turning 200 years old and will celebrate the life of a little girl whose life was taken far too soon. Stay with us this week will be right there. Pikeville Medical Center congratulates Mayo Clinic for being ranked the number one hospital in the nation. Earning the number one ranking from U.S. News and World Report as the top hospital in America really affirms two things. One, it affirms the quality of the practice at Mayo Clinic and secondly, it affirms the male model of care. Pikeville Medical Center is a proud member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. PMC and Mayo Clinic working together, working for you. The Southeast Chamber of Commerce 60th annual awards banquet dinner will be Thursday August 17th at 6 p.m. at the East Kentucky Expo Center in Pikeville. This year's banquet will feature entertainment by a local favorite, the artist's collaborative theater. Gluten-free and vegetarian meals are available by request prior to the dinner. If you're interested in attending the awards banquet dinner, contact the chamber office at 606-432-5504 or visit sechamber.com. It's a once in a lifetime experience. Eclipse 2017 will fall upon Kentucky on Monday August 21st and we'll tell you all about it. What exactly is a solar eclipse? What can we expect to see? How do we watch it safely? What time and where is the best place to witness it? Watch Eclipse 2017 all this week on the EKB Evening News at 6 and the Nightly News at 10 brought to you by Appalachian Wireless. Plans are being made to celebrate the oldest home in the city of Prestonsburg. In fact, officials with the historic Samuel Mayhouse say historians believe it's the first brick house built in the entire Sandy Valley and this year the home, which was originally part of a 400 acre farm, turns 200 years old. September 9th is the bicentennial of the Samuel Mayhouse. The family will be having an open house and birthday party for the public starting at 10 o'clock that morning. There will be tours at 10 o'clock. There will be a marker dedication for the Revolutionary War veteran, the Samuel Mays family and they're going to do that around one o'clock but the house will be open most of the day that day. The Samuel Mayhouse is also open for tours every Monday from 10 until 3. For more information on this historic home, you can find it on the Friends of the Samuel Mayhouse Facebook page. The loss of a loved one is devastating but even more so when that loss is a child. Tonight we celebrate the life of a little girl gone far too soon and her passion for dance. I had the opportunity to talk with the owner of the dance studio she attended and here's what she had to say. Two weeks ago we brought you the tragic story of a fatal car crash that took the life of eight-year-old Breanna Hall. Now, although Bre, as her family and friends know her, has been laid to rest this week, we celebrate the life of Bre and her passion for dance. Bre had been a student here at Dance, etc. in Prestonsburg since she was three years old and although she was at the age when many children grow weary of dance, her instructors say her love for dance continued to grow. She loved to dance. You know, most kids that age are asking, you know, how much longer is class? What time, you know, can I go to the bathroom? Can I drink water? Never. I don't think the child ever asked, you know, what time is it or when it's class over? She would have danced all day. I mean she truly just loved it and was so good at it. Her grandmother told me today that she said, she said, Mammy, I feel the music and she did and she really did and I mean it just brought you joy to watch her dance. It really did. Shepherd says everyone who met Bre loved her. You can look on Facebook and see dancers from probably eight different counties that knew and loved her because she had met so many, you know, friends through dance and everybody loved her and all my staff, you know, loved her so much and she had just been here for her rehearsal, you know, on Tuesday, a couple of days before we lost her and you just, you never think that's going to be the last time, you know, you see one of your babies for sure. If you would like to help Bre's family with funeral cost, a GoFundMe page has been set up under the name listed on your screen. Reporting from Prestonburg, I'm Sean Allen for EKB News. Pikeville Medical Center congratulates Mayo Clinic for being ranked the number one hospital in the nation and the number one hospital in eight specialties by U.S. News & World Report. As a result of these outstanding rankings, Mayo Clinic was named to U.S. News & World Report's prestigious honor roll. PMC is a proud member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, PMC and Mayo Clinic working together, working for you. Drivers, start your engines. Load up the family and head on over to the Lonesome Pine Raceway in Tobin, Virginia. Lonesome Pine Raceway has brought excitement to race fans for 45 years and is NASCAR's engine. Gave Tobin at 4 p.m. on race days with races beginning at 7 p.m. and mission is $10 adults and children under 12 free. Load some Pine Raceway in Tobin, Virginia. Visit the pineraceway.com for race information. Are you tired of pushing pins? Is your boss the worst? Co-workers driving you bonkers. Those cubicle walls seem smaller every day, don't they? You need a change. Here at East Kentucky Broadcasting, we invite you to join our dynamic sales team, trading that cubicle for wide open spaces, endless income potential, benefits, travel reimbursements, love weight. There's more. Join our team today and find yourself among the region's top marketing experts. Rub elbows with sales most elite. Send your resume in or visit our glamorous studios to fill out an application in person. We are so thankful for Logan Regional Medical Center. It was so close to where the event happened. It was overall a bad day, but Logan Regional Medical Center was a really good part of that day. Logan Regional Rocks. After I got out of the hospital with my heart surgery, I did my cardiac rehab here at Logan Regional Medical Center, but it was very convenient getting here and getting back to work. Logan Regional Medical Center, always here for you. Welcome back to This Week on EKB-TV. I'm Chief Meteorologist Layton Hopkins with a look back at your week in weather, and it's not what you expect this time of the year. Normally, August, we're talking about heat and humidity. This week, we had temperatures only climbing into the low 70s, and that was on Monday due to a lot of rain. We set record rainfall totals over at the National Weather Service office in Jackson at nearly an inch and a quarter. 72, the high on Monday, 79 degrees. Pretty pleasant day on Tuesday with mostly sunny skies. A couple of showers hit and miss across the region on Wednesday, but temperatures did rebound back into the low 80s near 80 degrees on Thursday and 81 on Friday. Notice, I put zero for the rainfall totals in Jackson on Friday, but parts of the area did pick up anywhere between a quarter and a half inch of rain. Speaking of the month of August, I told you it's been below average. We've only had two days so far where temperatures have been at or above the normal high, which is 85 degrees, and looking here all the way through Friday, we've had seven days where temperatures have not broke out of the 70s for highs unheard of this time of the year. Now for a look at sports, let's head over to Andrew Joyce. U-Pike basketball coach Kelly Wells and his staff held an elite camp last Saturday. The camp was an opportunity for coach Wells and his staff to see some of the area's best high school players up close and personal. For the players, a chance to be seen and experience college workouts. Coach Wells shared his thoughts about the elite camp. Gives them a great chance to go through individual practice that we do at the college. Also we have some team stuff in the afternoon and we'll talk about rules and we'll do some training with them as well and they get a chance to visit campus and learn about the college as well. So a lot of neat things going on today. We do our own thing and certainly they give them an inside look at what we're doing. Our terminology will be our practice, our drills, so they really kind of see what their fit looks like for the University of Pike one. Our terminology will be different than what maybe sometimes they have at school, but certainly they need to remember that their coach is one to put them in the game, but learn from us today. This is called our league camp. So these are prospects. All these are recruitable student athletes and you know we like past two seasons we've signed at least one kid from this camp every year. We've got a great turnout, great talent here behind us. I think we've got five states represented today. A lot of Kentucky kids obviously, but certainly five states represented, which is very neat. This week the NAI released its 2017 football coaches preseason top 25. Let's take a look at the top five as well as where teams in the Mid-South have been voted. The defending national champion, St. Francis, Indiana, retains the preseason number one spot. Baker Kansas holds number two. From Georgia, Reinhardt University was voted number three, followed by Morningside, Iowa at number four and rounding out the top five is Marion University from Indiana. Teams from the Mid-South Conference, Reinhardt is ranked number three in the nation. Lindsey Wilson was voted eighth. Southeastern University landed at 16, while Georgetown College takes the number 21 spot and just outside the top 25, the University of Pikeville Bears received votes. Major League Baseball announced plans today for Players Weekend, the last weekend of August. All 30 Major League teams will celebrate Players Weekend and every Major League team will sport bright colored jerseys with contrasting sleeves. Alternate caps and jerseys will include players nicknames on the backs. Yes, even the Yankees whose jerseys have never included players names. Players Weekend is scheduled for August 25th through the 27th. And with the Little League World Series just around the corner, we get to see little guys make big plays. Here are a few from Little League World Series regional play. First, slick fielding. The Pennsylvania shortstop with a nice flip between the legs to get the force at second. Then a diving catch by the South Dakota right-fielder that robs the Minnesota hitter. Now the big guys with really big hits. Georgia 13-year-old Jace Blalowk hits a bomb. This one lands in the trees. Not to be outdone, Texas Little Leagueer Hunter Detsworth hits this rocket over the camera tower. Big hits, big plays by little guys. That is Sports This Week. I'm Andrew Joyce. Sean will be back right after the break. Pikeville Medical Center congratulates Mayo Clinic for being ranked the number one hospital in the nation. Earning the number one ranking from U.S. News & World Report as the top hospital in America really affirms two things. One, it affirms the quality of the practice at Mayo Clinic. And secondly, it affirms the Mayo Model of Care. Pikeville Medical Center is a proud member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. PMC and Mayo Clinic working together, working for you. Race fans for 45 years and as NASCAR sanctioned. Gate open at 4 p.m. on race days with races beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is $10 adults and children under 12 free. Loads on Pine Raceway. Cobra in Virginia. Visit the pinegraceway.com for race information. Golden Corral now opens at 9.30 a.m. for 7-day brunch. Maybe you showed up for the strawberry cheesecake French toast or made to order omelets or delicious carved ham. Is that a mashed potato volcano? Nice. We have over 150 choices, but the only one that matters is yours. Golden Corral, your choice rules. The Southeast Chamber of Commerce 60th annual awards banquet dinner will be Thursday, August 17th at 6 p.m. at the East Kentucky Expo Center in Pikeville. This year's banquet will feature entertainment by a local favorite, the artist's collaborative theater. Gluten-free and vegetarian meals are available by request prior to the dinner. If you're interested in attending the awards banquet dinner, contact the chamber office at 606-432-5504 or visit sechamber.com. Here are a couple of events that are happening in your area that you may be interested in. The Pikeville Farmers' Market will be celebrating honeybees and local honey products as they feature all things honey during their Honey Bee Day Saturday, August 19th from 9 a.m. to 4 30 p.m. Be there or be square. Joining Sunday Best Saturday, August 19th from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mountain Arts Center, they host a benefit for the Animal Alliance of East Kentucky. For ticket info, go to mackarch.com or call 1-888-MACKARTS. I hope you enjoyed our look back at some of the stories that made headlines this week. Be sure to tune in next weekend at 6 30 p.m. right here on EKB-TV. For This Week, I'm Shawn Allen. Have a great weekend.