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Political BLOG |
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Joe Arnold
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March 2009 Archives1) I'm outta here for a few days. No blogging. Just family time. The governor has named a panel to study Kentucky's faltering unemployment insurance program. You'll have to scroll to the bottom of the release to find the names: ...As expected, Gov. Beshear has formally endorsed Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo's bid for U.S. Senate. Beshear's endorsement is aimed at freeing up some money for Mongiardo that may be frozen by democrats waiting to see what Jack Conway plans to do. Hint: He's running. Here's the statement from Beshear, a follow by Mongiardo and the bashing from Conway advisor Mark Riddle: ...Gov. Beshear's job approval numbers are about the same as they've been the past 6 months. A new Survey USA/WHAS 11 News poll shows 49% approval, 41% disapproval for the job Beshear is doing as governor. Beshear has big problems in eastern Kentucky where his numbers are 20 points lower than in the Louisville area. ...A number of Governor Beshear's appointments to important state boards will lose their seats because the House or Senate failed to confirm their appointments. Among those losing their posts are one state State School Board member, two members of the Parole Board and a member of the Personnel Board. ...Three Frankfort lobbyists and the firms they represent have been fined for failing to register on time. Steve Huffman, William H. May III and Phil Osborne have all been hit with fines by the Legislative Ethics Commission. ...Senator Jim Bunning's job approval rating has hit its lowest point since April, 2008. A new Survey USA/WHAS 11 poll shows 39% of Kentuckians approve of the job Bunning is doing in Washington while 48% disapprove. Sen. Mitch McConnell's approval/disapproval rating is nearly identical to last month's at 46%-46%. ...House members decided to adjourn instead of considering more pieces of legislation today. Shortly afterward, Senate leaders decided to follow suit, concluding they couldn't get much done without House members available for conference committees. Here's the story I did which includes Sen. Ed Worley's claim that Rep. Larry Clark was the force behind the House's decisi... A political blog has information about a small party in a legisiative office. It's interesting reading and mostly true, according to my sources. But I'm told the party was a small get together with a few bottles of wine and didn't involve lawmakers getting hammered at the Capitol. And it wouldn't be the first or last time that lawmakers, st... The federal government is sending $25 million to Kentucky to insulate homes and do other energy efficiency measures. Seven million dollars is targeted for Louisville Metro government. Here's the release: ...House democrats will decide this afternoon if they'll stick around and vote on any legislation or just go home during the two day veto session. It begins today at noon. Larry Clark and Greg Stumbo say there's no emergency. They want to stick by the House rules and go home. ...Criticism is mounting over the Abramson administration's decision to hand another $950,000 to the operator of the 4th Street Live! entertainment complex in Louisville. Democratic Metro Council President David Tandy says Abramson could have "handled the situation better" while Republican Councilman Kelly Downard says now isn't the right time to be spending taxpayer money to "build bars." Here's >> Continue reading: Criticism Mounts Over Abramson's Deal With Cordish You won't be seeing any state road crews working on state roads in Jefferson County anymore. ...Governor Beshear doesn't like the federal government's decision to freeze the permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining. Beshear is asking the feds to clarify their position. As previously posted, Congressman John Yarmuth of Louisville asked the Obama administration to put a halt to mountaintop removal mining and claimed credit when the feds froze the permitting process. Here's Beshear's statement today: ...A bill that sets up a database to track all payday loans has been signed by Governor Beshear. The governor expressed reservations about the bill which does nothing to restrict the interest rates payday loan companies can charge their customers. Some lenders charge more than 300% interest on the short term loans. Here's Governor Beshear's release: ...Governor Beshear has signed a bill that will allow school distriicts that were shut down during the wind and ice storms to waive up to ten of their mandated days. That means some students may only be going to school for 167 days instead of the 177 required by state law. Jefferson County students won't be affected. The local school board has already voted to extend the school year to make up the days lost to storms. iHere's the release from...
I thought this was a slam dunk win for the good guy, me. Instead, my appeal of an open records denial rendered by the Metropolitan Sewer District was rejected by the state Attorney General's Office, which sided with MSD. Now I'm a sore loser and offering advice to other public agencies: If you want to hide the reason you've fired or disciplined employees, restructure and make your governing board the final decision maker. That could prolon... President Obama's job approval rating among Kentuckians has dropped five points since last month, according to a new WHAS11/Survey USA poll. The poll shows the president with 57% job approval versus 37% of Kentuckians who disapprove of the job he's doing. The disapproval number is 12% higher than February. Obama's highest approval rating is ... The Obama administration is delaying action on some permits for mountaintop removal coal mining and a Louisville congressman is taking credit. Congressman John Yarmuth claims his protests to federal regulators has sparked some action. Yarmuth doesn't appear to be worried about the political repercussions from ticking off coal miners in his district. Oh, that's right, he doesn't have any. Here's Yarmuth's release: ...Kentucky's community colleges and technical schools are launching a program to try and lure unemployed Kentuckians back to school. Here's the release from Gov. Beshear and KCTCS: ...Governor Beshear and some lawmakers are pushing hard to pass state incentives for a Gallatin County speedway. The idea is that improving Kentucky Speedway will help the owners lure a NASCAR race to Kentucky. But House Speaker Greg Stumbo is balking at passing the incentives bill during a veto day this week. And it doesn't sound like there needs to be any rush, based on one report: ...The State Auditor has found major problems with the way Kentucky spent some federal emergency rmonies. According to the Auditor, there are irregularities in the way a Laurel County official sent out bids and contracts in connection with the dollars. Here's part of the news release from Crit Luallen's office: ...A feisty (isn't he always?) Senator Jim Bunning chastised Courier-Journal reporters in his weekly conference call with Kentucky radio and print reporters. As C-J reporters Joe Gerth and Jim Carroll were questioning Bunning, the republican made reference to a Gerth/Carroll story which quoted three sources as saying they'd heard Bunning threaten to punish republicans who want him to quit his reelection campaign by resigning his seat and letting... Herald-Leader columnist Larry Dale Keeling still has a job and a column. This week it's about the jockeying in the U.S. Senate race. ...It appears the reporters in the Lexington Herald-Leader's Frankfort bureau have been spared the budget cutting ax. Jack Brammer, Ryan Alessi, John Cheves and Beth Musgrave didn't get pink slips yesterday. More than 50 of their colleagues did. But H-L management probably realizes that political and government coverage has turned into one of the breadwinners for their paper and decid... A judge has rejected the Abramson administration's claim of sovereign immunity in its ongoing legal battle with firefighters. The ruling means, once again, that Louisville Metro government will be forced to pay the firefighters millions of dollars in back pay and other fees as a result of their successful lawsuit against the city. Both sides accuse the... Hundreds of folks showed up for a rally in Louisville calling for tougher regulation of payday lenders. ...It appears new rules in the House may keep lawmakers from passing any more bills during the 2009 Legislative Session. House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the rules were clear this year: the veto days on Thursday and Friday are to be used only for consideration of bills vetoed by the governor. ...Kentucky Enquirer reporter/blogger Pat Crowley thinks Daniel Mongiardo is being treated unfairly by some top democrats who are hanging Mongiardo out to dry as he tries to start fundraising. ...Rep. Keith Hall decided to miss the last few regular days of the 2009 Legislative session in favor of a family vacation. His hometown newspaper in Pikeville isn't happy about it. PageOneKentucky has the story. ...U.S. taxpayers will once again be sharing the financial burden of operating the largest home for folks with mental retardation in Kentucky. The federal government has agreed to restore funding to Oakwood in Somerset. The state had been footing the entire bill of $75 million/yr. since the feds pulled funding for the troubled facility. Here's the AP story: ...In preparation for a big influx of Army Human Resources employees, Governor Beshear has announced some big spending on infrastructure projects around Ft. Knox. ...Former WHAS Radio bomb thrower John Ziegler takes on the mainstream media in a new movie he's produced. Ziegler also has a website. And it needs some fixing. As C-J political reporter Joe Gerth points out in his Monday column, a link to Ziegler's bio on his web page includes a claim that he forced a Kentucky governor from office, a reference to former governor Paul Patton. Oops. Here's Gerth's >> Continue reading: Ziegler's Bio Says He Forced Patton From Office (CORRECTED) Lexington Herald-Leader Editor Tom Eblen says state lawmakers should take another look at the generous retirement benefits state government pays its employees. ...Gov. Beshear made a number of appointments to board and commissions on Friday. This was the only one that stuck out, only because of the name of the former State Geographer: Gov. Beshear has appointed Karl B. Raitz as State Geographer for the Commonwealth of Kentucky to serve for a term expiring Jan. 1, 2010. It looks like the feds are aiming to lock up half of Clay County's elected and appointed officials in connection with a long running investigation of election fraud. Here's the story from the H-L's Bill Estep: ...The new unemployment numbers are out for Kentucky. They show Kentucky's jobless rate in January was 9.5%. Elizabethtown and Bowling Green had higher unemployment rates than Louisville at 10% and 10.1% respectively. Here's the link to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Go about halfway down the page to find the state-by-state numbers. ...Thanks to Pat Crowley for finding this article in the NYT about how much bailout money the feds have spent so far. Unbelievable. ...As a controversy looms over Mayor Jerry Abramson shifting city cash from a stalled 4th St. project to another Cordish Co. project, the mayor told me today that the old Louisville Board of Alderman gave him the power to shift money around as he pleases, as long as the cash is used for downtown redevelopment. And in Abramson's mind, paying for the renovation of the closed Lucky Strike bowling alley to turn it into a sports bar is downtown redev... After some study, the Prichard Committee is weighing in on a bill that's been unanimously passed by the Kentucky House and Senate to elimiinate the CATS test. Governor Beshear has said he'll sign the legislation. My two cents worth as a parent of two public school students: Scrappinig the CATS test for a "linear" test is a good idea; not counting the testing in nearly every subject for the next three years lets poor performing schools off t... Congressman John Yarmuth is feigning anger over his President's flip flop pick in the NCAA tournament. Obama originally told ESPN he expected the University of Louisville to win the national championship but filled his brackets in with North Carolina as the winner. Here's Yarmuth's release: ...Sen. Mitch McConnell has joined the chorus of republicans and others who are lambasting the U.S. Treasury Department for failing to put the brakes on bonuses being paid to AIG executives. ...
Governor Beshear's administration is setting up a web site to let folks see how Kentucky share of the federal pork........I mean, stimulus money is being spent. Here's the release: ...The taxpayers of two poor Kentucky counties have been ordered to pay $400,000 to cover attorney fees in a 10 Commandments case. A federal judge issued the order in conjunction with the ACLU's successful challenge of Pulaski and McCreary counties' posting of the the 10 Commandments on government property. The judge said the county officials could seek donations to cover the costs. The Lexington H-L has the >> Continue reading: When Will They Learn? Another contractor is suing the state and Louisville Arena Authority claiming contracts for some work were improperly awarded. The C-J has the story. ...A secondary subsidiary of troubled financial giant AIG is asking Kentucky's Public Service Commission to approve a 50% hike in its water rates. Westkypolitics.org has the great story! ...One Kentucky group is lobbying House members to kill a bill that's intended to boost development of alternative energy sources in Kentucky. The Kentuckians for the Commonwealth claim the bill does no such thing. Here's their statement: ...Kentucky's Chief Justice claims the state will save hundreds of thousands of dollars by leaving several judicial seats open and letting senior judges handle cases in those counties. Here's the release from Justice John Minton and Governor Steve Beshear: ...Many of you who live in Louisville have argued over who has more fans in the Louisville area, Louisville or UK? Now we have some idea. A new Survey USA/WHAS 11 poll shows that in the 29 Kentucky and Indiana counties that make up the Louisville TV market, the number of U of L and UK fans are evenly split. And even the UK fans are rooting... Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo has launched a website for his U.S. Senate campaign. ...The federal government has reached agreement with the Bristol Bar and Grille in Louisville to make some back payments to employees. Here's the release from the U.S. Dept. of Labor: ...Nobody who's close to Ben Chandler thinks he's serious about running for U.S. Senate next year. So why would he tell reporters and Gov. Beshear he's seriously considering the race? ...The goal of KERA is to get every student in Kentucky "proficient" in math, language, science and other subjects by 2014. The CATS test is the measure by which we determine whether a student is "novice, proficient or distinguished." So now that the legislature is scrapping the CATS test and will move to a new test, how will we know if a student is "proficient" in 2014 under the same guidelines we're currently using? Looks to me like some lo... CNHI's Ronnie Ellis shares some of the same thoughts I posted in an earlier entry about the legislature's ability to spend money the state apparently doesn't have. ...Senator Mitch McConnell is playing the role he's supposed to play, questioning President Barack Obama's hefty agenda and wondering if the Prez is leaning too far to the left. ...The House and Senate have both unanimously passed a bill that will abolish the CATS test for Kentucky students and replace it with a new test by the 2011-12 school year. ...Congressman Ben Chandler told the AP today that he's seriously considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2010. Chandler met with Governor Beshear on Friday and told him the same thing, according to sources familiar with the meeting. ...Rep. Jim Gooch loses funding for the airport in Webster Co. A half million dollars for the Rails to Trails program is out. But $1.4 million for private child care providers is in. Those are some of the changes that the Senate has made to HB 433, which is a secondary budget bill. In essence, the Senate stripped out most of the pet projects that the House stuck in the bill, including $4 million for debt service on five school building constr... The Senate has passed the governor's economic development incentives bill and loaded it up with more pork than it had coming over from the House! The fiscal note on HB 229 is now over $50 million. Here's the C-J's story. ...Governor Beshear says he won't ask investigators to reopen the case of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire: ...House Speaker Greg Stumbo has appointed four freshman to the conference committee on the most controversial topic still facing this legislative session......how to get rid of the CATS test and replace it with a test that works, quickly. It's the conference committee on >> Continue reading: Go Figure I'm not sure the general public give two hoots about the Kentucky legislature doing all of its important business behind closed doors with only a few leaders in the negotiations. But after promising more transparency during his race for House Speaker, one could argue that Greg Stumbo hasn't delivered on that promise. Some members of his House democratic caucus are making that argument according to Public Radio's >> Continue reading: Transparency? What Transparency? After Louisville Metro Council members announced competing proposals for a new Metro Government ethics ordinance, Council President David Tandy stepped into the fray and named a group to study the proposals and come up with a compromise. If it doesn't appear to you that Metro government, as a whole, is dragging its collective feet on a tougher ethics ordinance for its... Just like Congress which loaded up a budget bill with earmarks and pork barrel spending, Kentucky's House of Representatives is doing the same. The House has added more than $9 million dollars for public defenders and prosecutors plus money for an airport and other projects in a new spending bill that passed on Tuesday.<...
Louisville state Rep. Reggie Meeks said one of his bills was being "held hostage" by a lawmaker or lawmakers who were pressuring him to vote for a bill to require women to watch their ultrasound before getting an abortion. But Meeks told members of the House Health and Welfare committee he wouldn't be held political hostage and voted against the pro-life measure, providing the vote needed to kill the controversial measure. It appears there ... Senator Jim Bunning wouldn't release results of his internal poll today, telling reporters it was "none of your GD business." Here's the story from Ronnie Ellis: ...This is the first time I've written a blog entry with tears in my eyes and a slew of random memories at my fingertips so bear with me. ...The House is making some major changes to Governor Beshear's bill that would broaden the kinds of companies that would be eligible for state tax incentives. The bill had, and still has, some big holes in it. But House and Senate members have met to try and plug some of the >> Continue reading: House Making Changes To Incentives Bill With an OK from the bill's sponsor, the Senate Education committee has killed a bill that originally called for ice baths and portable defibrillators at all high school sports practices when the heat index was above 94 degrees. ...Governor Steve Beshear has a slew of them in his administration. Now Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson is following suit: rehiring folks who are already collecting retirement benefits from a public agency. Abramson has hired his retired budget director, Jane Driskell, to head a new financial management agency in Metro government: ...A group that includes a former manager at the Toyota plant in Georgetown claims it will have funding and begin construction on the ZAP car plant in Franklin later this year. ...Former state official Steve Nunn is scheduled to be arraigned this Wednesday on domestic violence charges. ...Kentucky's Adjutant General says the inability of county officials to communicate with disaster relief operations in Frankfort during the recent ice storm has proved to him that every county should have at least one satellite phone. ...PageOneKentucky has apparently got a copy of an audit U of L completed after the Robert Felner fiasco. The audit doesn't show alot of misspending by Felner but does say U of L didn't have proper controls on some of its university-issued credit cards. ...It appears Kentucky is doing a pretty good job of luring new businesses to the Bluegrass State, at least according to Site Selection magazine. And HB 229, if passed, will certainly make it easier for companies to get state tax incentives regardless of whether they offer health insurance benefits or jobs that pay more than $10/hr. Here's my... The House today passed a bill to give the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority more clout in regulating the horse industry. But HB 472 also includes some language for cheapskate bettors like me. It will cut the minimum bet allowed in Kentucky from $1 to 10 cents. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Larry Clark of Louisville. ...A senate committee today tacked an amendment on to the payday lending bill that's designed to keep new payday loan companies out of Kentucky for the next ten years. I'm no lawyer, but isn't that an unconstitutional restriction on free trade? More... ...Over the objections of several republicans who claim voters are being mislead, the full House has approved a bill that will freeze Kentucky's gas tax instead of letting it fall four cents, as scheduled, on April first. Legislative leaders say freezing the gas tax will mean an extra $120 million for the road fund and the two year road plan, which was also approved today by the House. But the approval didn't come without some >> Continue reading: House Approves Road Plan, Gas Tax Freeze Many of you have asked about my colleague Chuck Olmstead who's been hospitalized for the past couple of weeks. Chuck is still in the hospital but is meeting the benchmarks for recovery that his doctors have set for him. Here's Doug Proffitt's update from Chuck's wife. ...Students at Kentucky's six regional state universities will get hit with a maximum of 4% tuition increases next school year while UK and U of L students could see a 5% hike in their tuition. Those are the rates set today by the Council on Postsecondary Education: ...The bill sponsored by Rep. Daryll Owens that would give natural fathers more rights to see their children born to a married woman has hit a stumbling block in the full House. PageOneKentucky wonders if Greg Stumbo is the hold up. ...
Individual state lawmakers have received a list of road projects in their are that are included in the proposed road plan that House members are expected to vote on this Friday. But there's no money included for two thirds of those projects. ...
Senator Gary Tapp of Shelbyville rounded up the votes and convinced Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Robert Stivers to hold a hastily-called special meeting to pass SB 68 this afternoon. SB 68 would bar unmarried couples who live together from adopting a child or serving as foster parents in Kentucky. The Fairness Alliance claims the law is aimed at gay and lesbian couples. We'll be sure to ask Senate President David Williams and House S... The top brass of the state Public Service Commission showed up at a legislative committee meeting today to talk about damage to Kentucky's electric utilities caused by the January ice storm and how those utility companies might improve their response to massive power outages. But after committee Chairman Rep. Jim Gooch talked about the need for the hearing, only committee member Rep. Robin Webb spoke up and she was only concerned about the ab... A Shepherdsville-based company that trumpeted plans to build a factory in Franklin to employ hundreds and build thousands of electric cars, has apparently run out of money and closed. Congressman John Yarmuth is one of the "aye" voters on President Obama's homeowner bailout bill. It passed the U.S. House tonight. Here's the release from Yarmuth's office: ...Steve Nunn tendered his resignation from his state post this afternoon, just a couple hours after admitting in court that he'd hit his former fiance during a domestic dispute. ...A union-backed bill that would have forced Louisville's Mayor to come up with a written budget cutting plan, an independent revenue forecast and Metro Council approval of most expenses and economic development deals, was shot down by a legislative committee in Frankfort today. ...For the first time, folks who show up for the Derby Breakfast on the State Capitol grounds will be reaching into their wallets. The state will have its own version of the "$1 Value Meal" Derby morning. Patrons will have to pay to eat. That's just one of the ways Governor Beshear is trying to cut the state's costs on Derby festivities. Instead of a big tent in the Capitol parking lot, there will be picnic tables. And the Derby Train, which... Apparently the state's road fund is in much better shape than the general fund, because state lawmakers are getting ready to approve about $400 million in bonds to build new roads and pave old ones. The debt service payments on those bonds would presumably be about $15 million/yr., the same amount needed to boost the drop out ... Senator Mitch McConnell is catching heat from some of his colleagues for stuffing earmarks into the spending bill that recently passed Congress. ...Churchill Downs' pitch for slots at its track took a hit today when the company reported a decent profit. Here's Churchill's news release: ...On Tuesday, Governor Beshear indicated some opposition to the bill that would raise Kentuicky's dropout age to 18, saying Kentucky didn't have the money to pay for it. Today, Beshear issued a statement clarifying his stance: ...Despite plenty of negative publicity, U.S. Senator Jim Bunning's job approval rating has remained fairly steady, according to the latest Survey USA/WHAS 11 News Poll. Bunning still has more Kentuckians disapproving of the job he's doing (44%) than those who approve (41%). Those numbers are almost identical to January. Sen. Mitch McConnell's j... A group of Kentucky teachers asked lawmakers today to divert some stimulus money to a program which was supposed to give them free student loans. That program is out of money, leaving thousands of Kentucky teachers holding the bag on thousands of dollars in student loans. Here's the story from Frankfort. ...Rep. Brent Yonts says it's only the second time that his bill to raise the school dropout age from 16 to 18 has ever cleared the House Education committee. And Yonts says he's filed the bill at least 10 times. Today, Yonts' bill to raise the mandatory school age to 17 in the 2010-11 school year and up to 18 the next year, passed the committee. But it was in trouble until Rep. Reggie Meeks chastised his fellow lawmakers for talking a good ga... Governor Beshear is apparently urging House leaders to pass his administration's business incentives legislation. Beshear met with the House democratic leaders on Tuesday to talk about the incentives bill and the road plan, which might be released by State Senate leaders later this week. The incentives bill has some b... Citizen legislators sometimes get in trouble trying to use their political influence to change laws or attack state agencies that hurt their own businesses. It appears Rep. Keith Hall is trying to do just that. ...House Speaker Greg Stumbo has deep sixed his own bill that called for the formation of a new investigative agency run by the legislature. Stumbo had told reporters on Friday that he was making changes to the bill, which had generated plenty of controversy. But today, Stumbo pulled the plug on the legislation. ...Louisville Metro Councilman Hal Heiner says he didn't know anything about the e-mail blast his legislative assistant had sent, using government e-mail, inviting folks to a pre Easter luncheon at Metro Hall. Heiner believed the headline from my earlier post mislead readers into believing that he was the one who sent the e-mails, not hi... The big rigging trial of former state Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and road contractor Leonard Lawson has been moved out of Franklin County. Federal magistrate Danny Reeves cited the high number of government workers in the state capital as a reason to move the government corruption trial to Covington. Defense attornies had requested the >> Continue reading: Nighbert Trial Moved Out of Frankfort There's been quite a bit of talk in Frankfort about Gov. Beshear's potential role in the U.S. Senate race and whether he'll endorse his Lt. Governor in a democratic primary. The names involved in Daniel Mongiardo's campaign would seem to indicate that Beshear may, indeed, issue an endorsement of Mongiardo even if there's a democratic primary. Here's the release from Mongiardo's campaign: ...Governor Beshear has announced that $37 million in federal stimulus money will be used to help Kentuckians who are facing foreclosure or other housing problems: ...The new head of the Kentucky Demcratic Party has sent an e-mail to his flock: ...Governor Beshear and AG Jack Conway have extended the gas price gouging investigation to include the ice storm. Here's the release: ...U.S. Senator Jim Bunning is revising his fundraising goals, according to a story on KyPolitics. Bunning admits that he's having trouble raising money but won't say what his new fundraising goal might be. In the same posting, Congressman Ed Whitfield says Bunning should have the GOP's full support "if he runs." What's not included in this story...
Kentucky's Secretary of State is a UK basketball junky and technology wiz. But that could get him into some trouble. After Saturday's loss to LSU, Trey Grayson suggested on Twitter that Cats player A.J. Stewart might consider transferring after losing this man on defense, allowing an LSU player to sink the winning shot. Here's a link to Grayson's postings. ... |
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WHAS11.com Political Blog
WHAS11 Reporters blog the latest political news from the campaign trail and beyond. 
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