OUR BLOG

by Kevin Wheatley – FRANKFORT — Funding for the state’s postsecondary schools would be based on the numbers of degrees they confer, students enrolled, credit hours earned and other factors under legislation passed by the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee on Tuesday. Senate Bill 153, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, would codify a performance-based funding model…

BY VALARIE HONEYCUTT SPEARS, vhoneycutt@herald-leader.com – Individuals and businesses could increase financial assistance for children to attend private schools with a Scholarship Tax Credit Program under a bill discussed Tuesday by the House Education Committee. Under the school choice program in House Bill 162, individuals and businesses would donate to scholarship granting organizations and in return receive…

by STU JOHNSON (KPR) –  Legislation providing for the increased use of experimental drugs for terminally ill patients is heading to the Kentucky House. The Senate voted unanimously yesterday in favor of the measure sponsored by Morgantown Senator C.B. Embry. “Maybe one of these experimental treatments that’s passed the first clinical study might be of assistance to…

by Terry DeMio , tdemio@enquirer.com – The Campbell County Detention Center has a new voluntary treatment program for women fighting drug addiction. Most are there for heroin. Liz Dufour NEWPORT – They almost look like members of a club, all wearing fitted khakis and red polo shirts. They like to sit in a circle to talk, to laugh and…

By Lisa Gillespie – Rande Swann had a very, very bad October. That’s when her 80-year-old husband Don started getting sick for the first time in his life. First, it was cataract surgery. Then it was a partial knee replacement surgery. And then, as the kicker, a little more than a week after returning home from the…

by Erica Peterson – A bill that would fundamentally change the way Louisville Metro manages solid waste is set for passage in the Kentucky House of Representatives this week. City officials worry the bill is meant to roll back Louisville’s environmental progress — like banning plastic leaf bags, for example — but the bill’s proponents argue the…

by WBKO News Staff | MOREHEAD, Ky. (CNN) — As legislation passes through the Kentucky Senate to the House to regulate smoking in public schools and their events, so Kentucky students are inventing a “green” cigarette alternative. The group of three, made up by middle schoolers Andrew Witak, Megan Hodge, and Jake Linderman say they thought up their idea…

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – A medical doctor in the Kentucky Senate is leading the effort to restrict smoking in a state that leads the country in smoking rates. Republican state Sen. Ralph Alvarado has pushed several statewide workplace smoking bans only to fail in a state where the cultural and economic heft of tobacco has maintained its grip…

by Tom Loftus , @TomLoftus_CJ – FRANKFORT, Ky. – As Gov. Matt Bevin warns that Kentucky’s tax code is already riddled with more than 300 loopholes, state lawmakers continue to propose more tax breaks for everything from buying gold bullion to donating “apparently wholesome food.” “We exempt more income in Kentucky than we take in,” Bevin complained…

By Chris Otts – LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Humana and Aetna abandoned their $37 billion merger on Tuesday, ending a 19-month effort to combine the companies. A federal judge dealt the fatal blow with a Jan. 23 order blocking Aetna’s proposed purchase of Humana on anti-competitive grounds. The companies had said they were considering appealing the ruling,…