Former State Representative Dies

{Kentucky}...Former state Representative Bill McBee, a Boone County Democrat who was among 22 defendants charged or convicted in a corruption investigation of the Kentucky General Assembly in the 1990s dubbed Operation BOPTROT, died Tuesday at the age of 78. McBee pleaded guilty in 1994 to extortion and interstate travel in aid of racketeering after he took $30,000 from Dueling Grounds Racecourse and conspired to extort $30,000 from Riverside Downs in exchange for promises of assistance. He had served as chairman of the House Business Organizations and Professions Committee. McBee was sentenced to 15 months in prison but served five, winning a reduced sentence because he cooperated with federal prosecutors.