8-YEAR-OLD PARALYZED BY GUNSHOT AT HIGHLAND PARK MASSACRE

U.S. District Judge Karen C. Caldwell sentenced Blankenship on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud.

Blankenship, 49, of Versailles, operated a business called KY Bluegrass RV and Camping LLC but also had four shell companies, according to court records.

The shell companies were Blankenship RV Finance Solutions LLC, RSGG Properties LLC, RSGG Holdings LLC, and RSGG Investments LLC.

Those companies didn’t have any employees, but Blankenship claimed they did and used them to apply for four loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.

That was a program Congress rushed through in March 2020 to help businesses weather the economic downturn resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The loans were intended to keep employees on the payroll and were designed to be forgiven if the recipient used them for approved purposes.

With the help of an accountant, Blankenship created fake documents showing payroll costs totaling $1,323,829 at the businesses, when in fact they had no payroll costs, according to his plea agreement.

–Lexington Herald-Leader

CHICAGO — An 8-yearold boy who was shot in the chest at the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park is now paralyzed from the waist down, his family said Friday through their spokesman.

Cooper Roberts, one of the Roberts family’s twin boys, had remained in critical condition for several days with a severed spinal cord. His condition has been upgraded to serious, the spokesman said.

On Friday, Cooper was removed from the ventilator and was conscious for the first time, but it was confirmed that the boy is paralyzed from the waist down, close friend and family spokesman Anthony Loizzi said in a statement.

“Cooper is asking to see his 8-year-old twin, Luke, and his dog, George,” the statement said.

On a Zoom call Thursday, Loizzi told reporters that the family feared that the child would never walk again due to the severity of his injuries.

Keely Roberts, who is superintendent of Zion Elementary School District 6, and her husband, Jason Roberts, attended the Fourth of July parade with Cooper and Luke.

Keely Roberts was shot in the foot and leg and Luke was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. They are expected to fully recover, Loizzi said.