Bill would change the way coal mines are inspected in Kentucky By Angela Reighard | HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) – House Bill 384 would change the way coal mines are inspected in Kentucky. The bill calls for fewer mine safety inspections than years past. Some say this will make the mines safer, while others disagree. At one point, Kentucky required…
by BECCA SCHIMMEL – Attorney General Andy Beshear is speaking out against Kentucky’s new right-to-work law. Right-to-work eliminates a union’s ability to collect fair share fees, but still holds those unions responsible for defending any employee and collectively bargaining for all employees. Fair share fees are less than union dues, but cover the cost of union representation.…
by Don Weber – FRANKFORT – Senate President Robert Stivers says that his amendment to House Bill 281 which would strip the Attorney General’s office of some powers was his idea alone and not Gov. Matt Bevin’s. Stivers’ amendment would only allow the attorney general to sue in five types of cases, including Medicaid fraud and consumer protection,…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence plans to visit Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday as he tries to make the case for repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Pence is set to appear with Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin at the event in the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Fellow Kentucky Republican Sen.…
By Associated Press | FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — House Republican Speaker Jeff Hoover has set a March 15 deadline for a bill that would allow charter schools in Kentucky. The House of Representatives approved the charter schools bill last week. But the Senate has yet to give the bill a committee hearing. After Wednesday, lawmakers are scheduled to meet Tuesday…
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky home-school students could try out for public school sports teams under a bill that has passed the state House of Representatives. Lawmakers approved House Bill 58 55-34 on Tuesday. The bill would let home-school students try out for teams at schools they would have been assigned to attend or have…
by Morgan Watkins and Tom Loftus , The Courier-Journal – FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky House approved another abortion-related measure Tuesday night, passing the bill that would reduce Planned Parenthood’s access to federal family planning funds. Senate Bill 8, passed on a 75-13 vote, is likely the Republican-controlled Assembly’s final salvo targeting abortion rights during this year’s legislative session, which…
BY JOHN CHEVES, jcheves@herald-leader.com – FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Senate is getting a bill that would create a public corporation authorized to collect $7.5 million a year to diversify the struggling local economies of the state’s coal regions. The Senate budget committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Senate Bill 215, establishing the Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Authority. Money for the…
HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) – Forest fires broke out across Eastern Kentucky Sunday afternoon. Officials with the Division of Forestry tell WYMT they responded to 18 fires on Sunday, nine of which are now contained. We are told the largest fire was reported in Perry County near the Vicco community. It is 45 acres in size.…
by Terry DeMio , tdemio@enquirer.com – Tobler, Caupain, Johnson go out in styleThe Enquirer/Tom Groeschen More doctors than ever in the United States are armed with a medication scientifically proven to fight the heroin and opioid epidemic. Yet many don’t prescribe it to as many patients as they are authorized to help. Research published in the American Journal…