by LISA GILLESPIE (KPR) – Wednesday was the first day to buy health insurance on Healthcare.gov in Kentucky. For about 80% of Kentuckians who buy a plan on the individual market, prices might actually go down. According to Melissa Mathers, who serves as director of communications at Family Health Centers in Louisville, there’s still a lot of…
by Grace Schneider, Courier Journal – A plan to reform the state’s retirement systems majorly affects teachers. Rachel Aretakis/Courier-Journal/USA TODAY Network The Bullitt County schools became the first local system to agree to cancel classes to allow teachers to rally in Frankfort if a special legislative session is called on pension reform. The school board voted 4-0…
Louisville-based Norton Healthcare scored impressive gains in a newly released national ranking of hospitals’ patient safety scores. Two of Norton’s three local hospitals stepped up in letter grades this fall and one of its facilities, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, leaped from a B grade last year to an A in scores from the healthcare watchdog Leapfrog Group. That…
Kentucky lawmakers still have “a lot of work to do” on Gov. Matt Bevin’s proposal to overhaul the state’s ailing public pension systems, House Speaker Jeff Hoover said Tuesday after meeting for nearly two hours behind closed doors with his Republican colleagues in the state House. “It’s clear we got a lot of work to…
FRANKFORT — Both state and national polls released Tuesday show more Kentucky voters approve of Gov. Matt Bevin than disapprove, but his approval rate is below 50 percent in both polls. The same two polls show U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., continues to be very unpopular nationally and even in his home state. In fact,…
Twitter may be the public square of our times, but some citizens say their elected officials don’t want to hear from them. It has become increasingly common for politicians at all levels of government to block followers, whether for uncivil behavior or merely for expressing a different point of view. The nation’s tweeter-in-chief, Donald Trump,…
The leader of the democratic minority in Kentucky’s House of Representatives is not convinced a special legislative session is the best way to go in working to solve public pension problems. Rocky Adkins offered his thoughts following an event Monday at the Scott County Toyota Plant. Adkins, who’s served in the legislature since 1987, believes…
The Bevin administration on Monday released data showing new teachers enrolling in the defined contribution retirement plan, a 401(a) plan, can be wealthier at retirement than if they began in the defined benefits plan currently in law. The estimate shows that a new teacher starting at age 24 and working until age 61 will start…
The University of Louisville released an email Tuesday evening containing new details on the erasure of former president James Ramsey’s computer hard drive. The email shows Ramsey’s computer was removed from the president’s office to “make room” for the acting president’s hardware on Aug. 16 of last year, almost three weeks after Ramsey was forced…
Originally published on October 26, 2017 4:00 am Julie Eldred has been struggling with addiction to opioids for more than a decade and she says the criminal justice system punishes her for it. Eldred, a part-time pet caretaker in Acton, Mass., was put on probation last year for theft. She knew staying drug-free would be tough — especially…