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KENTUCKY HEROES HONORED SATURDAY
On Saturday morning at 9:00 am, General Tonini presented awards to soldiers of the 206th Workhorse Battalion at the Ashland National Guard Armory.
The battalion experienced 467 engagements with enemy forces. The primary mission of the 201st Engineer Battalion was to find IEDs. This mission demanded the Battalion mitigate the IED threat to all Coalition Forces ground movements. ..The battalion was responsible for clearing residual minefields in the vicinity of Bagram Airfield. The battalion set new records clearing over 1,014,000 square meters safely disposing 16,000 mines in over 20 different demining projects. 201st EN BN was the first unit ever to work with and train local Afghan de-miners. Also, over 200,000 mines were cleared in other areas of Afghanistan.
For names of those to be honored and more on this story.. follow the link
Unbelievable. John Grisham’s first book, “A Time to Kill” turns 20 on Tuesday, June 30th. The story of how the book began its life is recounted in this USA Today story.
I read “A Time to Kill” at the a few years out of law school and it is, in my mind, his best book. It’s closer to what real small town lawyers experience than any of the slicker novels he has written – though “The Client” comes a close second.
PSC Grants Rate Adjustment to Owen Electric Coop
Residential monthly customer charge will increase by $4.86
New rates Applied for Present Change
rates rates (present to new)
Monthly charge $10.87 $11.20 $6.01 $4.86
Usage 8.06 ¢ 8.06 ¢ 8.03 ¢ 0.03 ¢
(per kilowatt-hour)
Now that slots are racing history...
A reader just emailed to ask why Candidate Jack Conway’s campaign website http://www.jackconway.org/ links to Attorney General Jack Conway’s state website http://ag.ky.gov/bio/trackjack/ . It may not be illegal to use a state website in a campaign piece, but we wish candidates would keep their current elected office separate from the one they’re seeking.
Oh, and just to be fair, we checked out Candidate Dan Mongiardo’s website too Dr. Dan for Kentucky. What’s with the bilious yellow background? No links to any state websites, but the press releases are outdated and redundant.
Nothin’ but luv, fellas. Nothin’ but luv!
Didn’t we all smell a rat when South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared “hiking the Appalachians” or “writing a book” or “on an exotic holiday”?
He held a press conference this afternoon and guess what? Yup. He’s having an affair. We linked to the fairly staid Wall Street Journal for the story. The really awful part of this story ? He took off over Father's Day weekend. What a jerk.
.Another one bites the dust.
The 2009 Special Session is coming to a close. After 8 days at $300K a day, our representatives will soon be heading for home. The Speaker’s Office said the House is in recess at this writing (1:00 CDT) but will soon adjourn sine die.
No slots. No additional school funding. The Senate killed the slots bill in committee, while House members voted on the measure.
We have the spin from House leadership and the Governor. The Senate's already on the golf course.
Young Caleb over at Kentucky Wordsmith has some wise words about the General Assembly’s abysmal performance in their not so “Special Session”. Although Caleb and I come from different generations and directions on the political scale, I respect his work and don’t mind a bit agreeing with him when he hits the nail on the head. His editorial Six Days and Counting... is well worth a read.
More Boomers Losing Health Coverage
Older workers losing insurance when they need it most
 I spoke with Governor Beshear on Friday evening and asked him about the Senate A & R Committee’s move that day to remove the state employee furloughs from the budget bill the House passed. I wondered what effect it would have on his overall budget.
The Governor replied, “It was $11 million dollars and if they decided to go in a different direction, hopefully, they came up with some way to fill that hole.”
Over 300 Purchase Area Democrats showed up Friday night at the Curris Center in Murray to eat, meet, greet, shop at the silent auction and listen to elected officials from Frankfort.
We took a few photos.
Local representatives at Purchase Area Jefferson Jackson Dinner discussed their Friday votes on House Bill 2, the slots at the track bill.
The House of Representative spent several hours debating House Bill 2, the slots at the track bill. Members passionate for and against made sincere appeals to their fellow legislators to follow them. Those opposed complained bitterly that making the vote about schools and military tax breaks concealed the true purpose of the bill. The final speaker, a GOP legislator predicted a return in two years for table games and two years thereafter for a "Mustang Ranch", an allusion to the famous prostitution establishment.
Weary members reacted with cheers.
In the end, it looked like the bill passed 52-45. That's a narrow margin, considering the House has 65 Democrats to 35 Republicans.
The perfect Father’s Day gift for Kentucky dads interested in our state history is Berry Craig’s new book, “True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics: Bourbon, Bombast & Burgoo”. .. Clay wasn’t the only Kentucky pol who was quick on the draw. Representatives in Frankfort and Washington shot it out on a regular basis. Rowan County was named for a Democratic duelist who beat the rap of killing his opponent when the issue was “who shot first”.
Representatives Stumbo, Clark and Moberly came to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee with House Bill 2, the slots at racetracks legislation at one o'clock on Thursday afternoon. After a powerpoint presentation, an extensive question and answer session and a lot of explained votes, the bill passed out of committee.
 Whether you are for or against slots at the track, the issue of aging schools is one that affects families across the Commonwealth.
According to the map on the Department of Education's School Facilities website, Paducah Independent is the only school in West Kentucky that has a "significant facility need." Other areas of West Kentucky have moderate facility needs.
See how the schools in your area are faring in the repair/replace/refurbish department.
Schools from Anderson, Carter, Clark, Fleming, Jackson, Johnson, Leslie, Letcher, Metcalfe, Perry, Pike, Robertson Counties and Paducah and Beechwood Independent are on the "Condition 5" list of older schools that Rep. Stumbo says slots will repair or replace.
See the list here.
House BIll 2 - which is a brief two paragraphs long (the only thing that Martin Cothran found to like about it) was heard in the House Licensing and Occupations Committee this afternoon. Reps. Stumbo, Moberly and Larry Clark testified for the bill. House Speaker Stumbo told the Committee that telling the racing industry that they cannot have slots is like telling Toyota it can't make hybrid cars. Both will go somewhere else where they can do what they want.
Nick Nickerson, CEO of Keeneland predicted that if the status quo remains, there won't be a thoroughbred year round racing in Kentucky. Martin Cothran, in opposing the legislation also had a prediction - if this legislation passes, those it benefits will be back to say slots aren't enough.
House Bills 3 (economic development) and 4 (bridges bill) passed out of the House and went to the Senate, where they will be assigned to committees.
We ran this at the beginning of the General Session for those who want to watch the Legislature at its magnificent best and have no time or gas money to drive to Frankfort.  Now with the Special Session underway, some of you might want to see the committee hearings and in-chambers debates.
As the Kentucky Senate and House of Representatives meet, KET offers extensive online and on-air coverage.
During legislative sessions, Senate and House chambers and committee meetings are streamed live at www.ket.org/legislature.
Rep. Whitfield contacted Canadian trade officials and raised heck that Canadians did not want any more fruit and bubble gum flavored tobacco products. The ban will decimate tobacco growing in Kentucky, according to a story in Bluegrass Politics by Halimah Abdullah of McClatchy News in DC.
Abdullah reported that Whitfield told the Canadians their actions violate trade laws and the North American Free Trade Act.
 AIG is trying to get former chief Maurice “Hank” Greenburg to pay back over 4.3 billion dollars in stock that he took when he was fired from the company according to a report in. Yahoo News
The debate is on, but the best option, in my opinion and that of many other people in this country, is being ignored as much as possible by Congress and even the White House. The issue is health care reform. The option being avoided in the debate - universal, single-payer health care, or Medicare for everyone. And this is in spite of the fact that many Americans, including activists and health care professionals, are in favor of it. According to an article by David Swanson, writing for Truthout.org on Friday, June 12, 2009, universal, single-payer is the only solution consistently favored by a majority of Americans in various polls. And in spite of the fact that Mr. Swanson reports that John Conyers' single-payer health care plan, HR676, now has 80 House members supporting it. That is more solid support than any other plan on the table at this time!
Various sources report that the number of uninsured Americans is now around 45 million people. I'll bet that the number is much higher because our government has long had a policy of under reporting bad news. I would hazard to guess that most self-employed people don't have health insurance, including a significant percentage of farmers. Most small businesses don't offer health insurance. And many large companies don't either. In fact, the July/August issue of AARP Magazine, in an article titled: 8 Myths About Health Care Reform, reports that from 2000 to 2005 nearly 266,000 companies dropped their employees' health care coverage. I'll wager that many more large companies would like to drop their health insurance plans to help the company's bottom line on behalf of the major stock holders and the CEO!
And these embarrassing statistics describe what is said to be the richest, if not the best country in the world in which to live! And this is in spite of the fact that we spend more on health care than any other country in the world! Again citing the article in the AARP Magazine, in 2009 we will spend an estimated $2.6 trillion, or $8300.00 per person, even though lots of persons are probably doing without - until they end up in an emergency room!
Click, "read more" below, and I'll make my case for: why I think we don't have what Canada, England and almost all of Europe offers their citizens. In the next article, I will discuss why we should have single payer health care.
Look to the left - there's something new in the "Member Options" column . Yesterday, "submit a story" became available to members of our WKJPI community....
I'm excited about this feature. Here's a chance for you budding journalists to write your own stories and share your photos.
Louisville union activist Kay Tillow says a near empty collection jar she saw in a restaurant symbolizes the unfairness of America’s private health care system.
“It had a sign that said, ‘Eric and Misty need help. Eric has come down with lymphoma and can no longer work and afford health care. Can you help?’
“There were just a few dollars in the jar. No family should be allowed to go under because they can’t afford health care.”
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