by Nick Storm, @NickStorm_cn2 – Children across the commonwealth are gearing up for another school year, but the data points on education in the commonwealth don’t always add up. Kentucky Youth Advocates Executive Director Terry Brooks says many state leaders “engage in happy talk” when it comes to Kindergarten through 12th grade education, but the results are not…
by Justin Sayers, @_JustinSayers – Louisville-based Humana released a joint statement with Aetna Tuesday morning announcing that both companies agreed to sell assets in an effort to ease concerns from the U.S. Justice Department over Aetna’s proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana. The two companies entered into separate agreements to sell part of their respective Medicare Advantage…
by Lisa Gillespie – Gov. Matt Bevin is delaying submitting changes to the state’s Medicaid program, which were initially due to the federal government on Monday. Adam Meier, Bevin’s deputy chief of staff for policy, said the extension is due to the large number of comments the state received regarding the proposal. Under Bevin’s proposed plan, recipients would have co-pays for doctor…
Phillip M. Bailey, @phillipmbailey – Louisville’s largest cable and internet provider says the city is giving Google Fiber an unfair advantage, and it wants Mayor Greg Fischer to step in and ease key regulations in the coming weeks. In a July 28 letter, Charter Communications told Fischer the city’s separate franchise agreements allow Google to operate…
BY BILL ESTEP, bestep@herald-leader.com – Although the state’s coal industry continued to shed jobs from April through June, the decline was not as steep as in the first three months of the year, according to a report released Monday. The number of jobs statewide dropped by 6.9 percent. That left estimated employment in the industry at 6,465…
by ASSOCIATED PRESS – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling that his long political career may stretch well into the next decade. The Kentucky Republican said there’s a “great likelihood” he’ll seek a seventh Senate term in 2020. McConnell, appearing on WKYT-TV’s “Kentucky Newsmakers” program that aired Sunday, said he’s “at the top of…
by STU JOHNSON, WEKU NEWS – Kentucky’s Chief Justice has been selected to head two national judicial groups. It’s the first time in a quarter century that a head jurist from the Commonwealth has held either of these posts. Chief Justice John Minton is beginning a one year stint as president of the Conference of Chief…
by Don Weber, @DonWeber_cn2 – LEXINGTON – Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul told a gathering in Lexington on Wednesday that he believes that his race against Democratic nominee Jim Gray is all about who will do a better job of protecting Kentucky’s citizens from burdensome government intrusion. Paul, has spent the last 2 weeks crisscrossing the state putting on…
by KARYN CZAR – Since leaving politics in 2013, Ben Chandler returned to law and became the Executive Director of the Kentucky Humanities Council, traveling across the state telling Kentucky’s story through the arts. This September, he’ll switch gears again as the President and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Listen to full interview with…
BY LINDA BLACKFORD, lblackford@herald-leader.com – The University of Kentucky violated the Open Meetings Act when it did not keep minutes from a dinner meeting of the Board of Trustees, the Kentucky Attorney General’s office has ruled. UK is now required to produce minutes that reflect the “substance of the presentation” made during the dinner by an attorney.…