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Published: Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009 / Updated: Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 06:10 AM

News briefs from around Kentucky at 4:58 a.m. EST

OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) - A seven-story hotel in downtown Owensboro came crashing down Sunday in front of hundreds of people who gathered for the massive implosion.

An official with Advanced Explosives Demolition tells the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer that the implosion of the Executive Inn Rivermont was a success.

A series of explosions blew out debris on the first-floor level, then the top of the building began to crumble. Then the massive structure plunged to earth, engulfed in a thick cloud of dust.

When the dust cleared, all that was left was a flattened pile of rubble except for an elevator tower that didn't come all the way down. Denney Excavating official Brett Rape says when the debris is cleared out, the elevator shaft will fall.

The future of the nearly 20-acre, city-owned Executive Inn site hasn't been determined.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Lexington police are searching the digital files of former state Rep. Steve Nunn as part of their investigation into the slaying of his former fiancee.

Police are checking to see if Nunn kept a naked photo of Amanda Ross on his cell phone as witnesses have alleged, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, citing court documents. A judge had barred Nunn in July from having any nude photos of Ross as part of a domestic violence order against him.

Police have charged Nunn in the shooting death of Ross, 29, outside her Lexington townhouse on Sept. 11. The case is pending before a grand jury in Fayette County.

Shortly after her death, police collecting evidence in Barren County found fliers depicting Ross naked along with "insulting verbiage," the newspaper reported, citing an affidavit on a search warrant.

Investigators said in another affidavit that those fliers, found in Barren County, where Nunn had a home, "appeared to be designed for distribution," the newspaper reported. The document didn't give the address of the house where the photos were found.

Those documents in the criminal case against Nunn offer new insight into the scope of the investigation. For example, the documents describe how police have sought e-mail and phone records not only to learn more about Nunn and Ross's troubled relationship but also to see if cell phone tower data could track Nunn's whereabouts on the day of Ross's slaying.

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COKER CREEK, Tenn. (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service has begun to uncover the remains of a fort used to temporarily house migrating Cherokee along the Trail of Tears more than 170 years ago.

The land in Monroe County where Fort Armistead once stood has never been plowed or developed, so walking along the trails there and passing the numerous springs used by the Cherokee is like traveling back in time.

Forest Service archaeologist Quentin Bass told the Knoxville News Sentinel that work has revealed the locations of block houses, a parade ground, a powder magazine, barracks and storage pits. Archaeologists and volunteers also have discovered many articles discarded by soldiers and Cherokee.

The U.S. Forest Service purchased the 26-acre site in 2005 from the Dalton family. Kathleen Dalton said they had heard about rumors of a fort on the property, but after they found artifacts at the site, they knew the land should belong to the public.

"No one outside of this area knew about the location, but it was carried down through oral tradition," Bass said.

Bass said representatives of three Cherokee tribes met at the fort's remains about a year ago and were amazed by the beauty of the site that held the memory of such tragedy for their people.

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CANNONSBURG, Ky. (AP) - Workers are pitching in to give a facelift to a Vietnam-era armored vehicle that soon will be on display at the Boyd County War Memorial in northeastern Kentucky.

The M56 Scorpion, a self-propelled anti-tank vehicle, once sat in Ashland's Central Park, where its pieces were literally crumbling off when workers began the restoration, The Daily Independent of Ashland reported.

Restoring the vehicle has long been a dream of the Cannonsburg Optimist Club.

Darryl "Junior" Vance, who helped in fabricating and welding new aluminum panels on the vehicle, said he used to play on the vehicle as a child during school field trips to Central Park.

"This is history," the 32-year-old said.

Welding the vehicle was a challenge for workers at a Whayne Supply Company garage because the unit is constructed out of aluminum - a metal they don't work on often at the garage.