by Kate Howard – Facing growing scrutiny from donors and its own university, the University of Louisville Foundation is paying $11,500 a month in retainers alone for external public relations firms. In contract proposals submitted in July, the firms shed light on strategies they intended to employ to combat rampant criticism of the Foundation. The documents, obtained by WFPL’s…
by JACK BRAMMER, [email protected] – FRANKFORT — Sixteen months after Economic Development Secretary Larry Hayes announced his retirement and nine months into the administration of Gov. Matt Bevin, Kentucky still does not have a full-time secretary to oversee the cabinet that attempts to create jobs in Kentucky. The $250,000-a-year job to attract new industries and help existing companies expand…
by Associated PressStaff – An Alpha Natural Resources spokesman says the company plans to lay off 117 people when it shuts down a Kentucky coal mine in November. Spokesman Steve Hawkins tells the Lexington Herald-Leader that the company has issued a required 60-day layoff notice at the Process Energy Mine in Pike County, which is set to be closed…
by Tom Loftus and Joseph Gerth, @Joe_Gerth – FRANKFORT, Ky. – Sarah Durand, the former president of the Louisville Tea Party, has resigned as chief of staff for Kentucky First Lady Glenna Bevin. Durand, who has been part of the Matt Bevin team since his 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate, resigned just before the Labor Day weekend. Her two-sentence,…
by DANIEL DESROCHERS, [email protected] – Just like Chicago Cubs fans, Republicans in Frankfort are saying this will be the year. For more than 90 years, Democrats have controlled the Kentucky House of Representatives, but Republicans are on the offensive in several House races this fall as Kentucky’s electorate continues its slow march to the political right. Democrats have…
by WILL PERKINS, [email protected] – GLASGOW – When Ann Ferrell chose to write her doctorate dissertation on Kentucky’s burley tobacco, she thought she was going to be writing about the end of the tobacco industry. “Honestly, I got into it thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna’ be documenting the end of tobacco in Kentucky,’” Ferrell said on Wednesday…
by Terry DeMio, [email protected] – Overdoses continue to plague Northern Kentucky and the rest of the commonwealth, health officials say. St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s hospital emergency departments reversed 94 overdoses from Aug. 28 through Saturday. The numbers are “still extremely high,” said spokesman Guy Karrick. The Kentucky Public Health department released its own count, which numbered 15…
by Morgan Watkins, @morganwatkins26 – The ex-chairman of the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees said in court Wednesday that he skipped a recent meeting because he was concerned state troopers would try to remove him. Thomas Elliott, who served as chairman of the pension board until Gov. Matt Bevin replaced him earlier this year, said…
by JACK BRAMMER, [email protected] – FRANKFORT — Billy Joe Miles, a prominent farm businessman in Owensboro and a former chairman of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, was charged Tuesday with rape, sodomy and bribing a witness. He is 76. A grand jury indicted Miles in Daviess Circuit Court on one count of first-degree rape, one count of…
by Ryland Barton – Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race continues its sleepy pace past Labor Day as Democratic candidate Jim Gray fights to be competitive and the incumbent lays low, enjoying a Republican surge in the state. Gray and Republican incumbent Rand Paul have — mostly through their spokespeople — squared off on issues such as revitalizing the coal industry, gun…
