BY TOM MARTIN, Contributing columnist – Many Kentuckians have either directly or indirectly depended on the coal mining industry to make a decent living. Others argue that burning coal is harming our health and that the extraction method known as mountaintop removal has brought major destruction to the natural areas of Eastern Kentucky. Still others point out…
by Allison Ross, @allisonSross – C-J Education reporter Allison Ross talks to Kentucky Education Commissioner Dr. Stephen Pruitt.Jeff Faughender, CJ Much ado is being made over a sweeping education bill filed in the Kentucky Senate this session, with some saying the wide-ranging bill contains “fundamental changes” to education assessment and accountability in the Bluegrass State. Talk…
by Nick Storm – For yet another election cycle the collective minds at Democratic and Republican Party headquarters will be spent trying to outwit and outlast their opponents for control of the state House. Outside of the March 8 special elections, parties will be watching the May 17 primary to see how the races unfold so they…
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Hardin County officials say they will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that overturned a local law banning mandatory union membership. U.S. District Judge David Hale invalidated the so-called “right-to-work” law on Wednesday. He said only state governments have the authority to opt out of a federal law allowing mandatory union membership.…
by Associated Press & Karyn Czar – A new national survey shows Kentucky and Arkansas lead the nation in the largest drops of the number of people without health insurance. The Gallup-Healthways survey shows more than 20 percent of Kentuckians did not have health insurance in 2013. Last year, just 7.5 percent of the state’s population…
by The Associated Press – LOUISVILLE, KY. — Former Kentucky Sen. Marlow Cook, who served in Washington during Richard Nixon’s presidency, has died. He was 89. Cook, who also held local office in Louisville in the 1960s, died Thursday morning in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida. His daughter, Caroline Ely, says Cook suffered a heart attack last…
by JOSH JAMES – Union workers sat wall to wall in a House committee chamber this morning in opposition to Senate-approved legislation exempting educational facilities construction from prevailing wage law – where they once again found a receptive audience. It’s a become a ritual of sorts for Mark Isaacs with the Laborers’ Union Local 189, filing…
by Tom Loftus – FRANKFORT, Ky. – Two Louisville senators – one a Democrat, the other a Republican – are hoping to boost support for expanded gambling in Kentucky by dedicating profits from the games to Kentucky’s beleaguered pension funds. A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing casino gambling proposed Tuesday by Sen. Morgan McGarvey, the Democrat, and Sen. Julie Raque Adams, the Republican,…
by Nick Storm – An issues based non-profit group which played a major role in the 2014 U.S. Senate race is revamping their efforts with a new ad campaign focusing on public policy issues in Frankfort. The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a 501(c )4 non-profit organization dropped their first ad of a six week campaign spotlighting spending, pensions and…
by Jack Brammer, jbrammer@herald-leader.com – FRANKFORT — More Republican dollars are flowing into Kentucky to help GOP candidates in the four special House elections on March 8. GOPAC, which works to elect Republicans to state and local offices throughout the country, announced Tuesday that it is putting more than $100,000 into the Kentucky House special elections called by…