By RYLAND BARTON – With commanding majorities in the Kentucky legislature, Republican lawmakers will try to find ways to fix the state’s ailing pension systems during the upcoming General Assembly. One proposal would make lawmakers’ pension information subject to open records requests. Owensboro Republican Sen. Joe Bowen says the public should know how much lawmakers are earning…
by Don Weber, @DonWeber_cn2 – UNION – Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, believes that the General Assembly has not done a good job when it comes to addressing the heroin problem in the state and feels that some of what has been done is largely ineffective. Schickel, a retired law enforcement officer who was first elected to the Senate in…
BY ADAM BEAM, Associated Press – FRANKFORT, KY. — Kentucky would shift significant resources to its growing family court docket under a plan that would overhaul the state’s judicial system for the first time in 40 years. Kentucky would get an additional 16 family court judges while losing 15 district and circuit court judges under a plan…
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky is one of the worst states in the nation where people die from a drug overdose. A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report ranks Kentucky third in the nation for most drug overdose deaths. West Virginia comes in at Number One. New Hampshire is Number Two. There were more than 52,000 overdose deaths…
by Tom Loftus , @TomLoftus_CJ – Jeff Hoover, a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, and Robert Stivers, a Republican member of the Kentucky Senate, speak the day after elections. Scott Utterback/The CJ FRANKFORT, Ky. — In one respect, the job of directing the Legislative Research Commission’s 400-member staff is like that of a baseball umpire: If…
by LISA AUTRY – Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear says he will advocate for two drug-related measures when the legislature convenes next month. One bill would increase penalties for those who traffic in Fentanyl. Beshear says when the synthetic drug is mixed with heroin, it has deadly effects. “Fentanyl is at least 30 times more powerful than…
by Bowdeya Tweh , btweh@enquirer.com – Toyota will spend much of 2017 winding down its operation in Erlanger as part of the company’s relocation to Texas. In a layoff notice sent to Kentucky officials, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing said Monday it would shutter its Northern Kentucky headquarters by the end of 2017. Toyota, which is moving its…
by Tom Loftus , @TomLoftus_CJ – Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam gave another $15 million late in the fall campaign to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s super PAC devoted to electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate. That brought the Adelsons’ total contributions to Senate Leadership Fund to $35 million – dwarfing even other billionaire donors who…
by MIKE JAMES, The DAILY Independent – GREENUP The Greenup County Health Department is poised to launch a needle exchange program its director says would cut down on diseases contracted by drug addicts using dirty needles. The exchange also would protect first responders and health care workers who risk exposure from accidental needle sticks, said county…
by Tom Loftus , @TomLoftus_CJ – Kentucky Auditor Mike Harmon briefed the media on the findings of an audit of the University of Louisville. FRANKFORT, Ky. — The University of Louisville Foundation exceeded its authority in paying former University President James Ramsey more than what was approved in 2014 by the university’s board of trustees, according to a…