Associated Press: The drought that has plagued the Deep South for more than a year is creeping north. Officials in several states are restricting outdoor burning in the face of water shortages and forest-fire risks from falling leaves and tinder-dry conditions. Extreme drought conditions, the second-worst possible, have now spread into Kentucky, and severe conditions have returned to West Virginia and southwestern Virginia, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. “The last three months …