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Divided Kentucky Senate advances bill attaching Fish and Wildlife to agriculture department
FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Senate narrowly advanced a controversial change for Kentucky’s wildlife management agency Friday while also voting to administratively attach the racing commission to the state agriculture department as well.? Sportsmen’s and wildlife conservation groups have strongly opposed the proposal, and lawmakers echoed their concerns during Friday’s debate.? Senate Bill 3, primarily sponsored […]
Looser child labor standards revived by committee that had temporarily blocked bill
FRANKFORT — A bill that would allow some teenagers to work longer and later hours advanced out of a Senate committee Friday just a day after the same committee had blocked it. House Bill 255, sponsored by Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, was passed 7-4 out of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism, & Labor Committee in […]
Kentucky Senate ups House’s one-time spending on projects by more than a billion dollars
FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate approved budget bills Wednesday funding the state executive branch and upping the House’s proposed one-time spending by almost $1.8 billion for projects across the state, though some advocates say funding for education and affordable housing still falls short.? Republican Senators unveiled their changes to House Bill 6, the state […]
Kentucky hunters, anglers decry proposal to put Fish and Wildlife under agriculture department
FRANKFORT —Wildlife conservation and sportsmen groups on Tuesday voiced strong opposition to a bill that would put wildlife management under the purview of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and its Republican commissioner.? Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, would move the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) from the tourism […]
Kentucky Senate advances bill creating new hurdles for utilities to retire power plants
Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate advanced a bill Tuesday largely on a party line vote to create new hurdles before utilities can retire fossil fuel-fired power plants in the state, touting the legislation as a way to keep the state’s electricity supply reliable and available.? Senate Bill 349, backed by Senate President Robert Stivers, […]
Kentucky House passes bill weakening safety protection for coal miners
Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that a long-time coal mine safety advocate says would put miners at risk by weakening a key protection put in place nearly two decades ago.? House Bill 85, sponsored by Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, would reduce the number of required mine emergency technicians […]
Clinging to coal: Kentucky utilities could have more hurdles to clear before retiring power plants
FRANKFORT — A bill backed by the Republican Kentucky Senate president would create new hurdles for utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants, building on last year’s law that made it harder for utilities to move away from coal and natural gas. Senate Bill 349, primarily sponsored by Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, was approved Wednesday […]
‘Effectively dead,’ housing discrimination laws in Louisville, Lexington fall to veto override
FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill targeting local source-of-income discrimination bans just a day after the governor had issued the veto.? House Bill 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, immediately became law Wednesday because of an emergency clause in the bill.? In a gathering with […]
Beshear’s first veto would protect local housing discrimination laws
FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told a crowd gathered to commemorate a historic civil rights march that he has vetoed a bill that would preempt local anti-discrimination ordinances.? It’s the governor’s first veto of this legislative session. Critics have warned the bill would preempt local ordinances in Kentucky’s largest cities prohibiting discrimination against tenants […]
10,000 Kentuckians marched to demand racial equality. My grandmother was one of them.
I never got a chance to ask my grandmother about what March 5, 1964 was like for her. What she heard from speakers on the steps of the Kentucky Capitol. If she saw Martin Luther King Jr. or Jackie Robinson. What she felt standing with thousands of others from across Kentucky. She didn’t speak much […]
Small Kentucky farms are again exempt from hunting, fishing license requirements
FRANKFORT — One of the first bills to become law in this year’s legislative session clarifies that Kentuckians who own farms of five acres or smaller can fish or hunt on their own property without purchasing a hunting or fishing license.? Senate Bill 5, sponsored by Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, signed into law Thursday by […]
Committee-approved bill would remove requirement Kentucky employers give lunch breaks, rest periods
Employers in Kentucky would no longer be required to give employees a “reasonable” amount of time for lunch or rest breaks under a committee-approved bill passed Wednesday by Republicans.? HB 500, sponsored by Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, would repeal state statutes that require lunch breaks between three to five hours into a work shift and rest […]