Attorney General Andy Beshear says he got an unsolicited text message from Gov. Matt Bevin Tuesday evening calling his office an “embarrassment to the Commonwealth.”

In a screenshot of the text released by Beshear, the message reads:

Bevin’s office confirmed that the governor sent Beshear a text but accused the attorney general of manipulating the message to exclude a link Bevin included. The link was to a Herald-Leader article that detailed allegations of misconduct by an investigator in the attorney general’s office.

Amanda Stamper, Bevin’s press secretary, accused Beshear of attempting to mislead reporters.

The National Weather Service in Paducah is warning the western Kentucky region that increased severe weather conditions often follow autumn temperatures. NWS meteorologist Rick Shanklin says tornado watches should be treated as warnings during the fall season because of the increased risk.

“The key thing is to have a location  you can go to that is shelter, especially if you live in a mobile home, because we know most of the fatalities in our region in tornadoes have occurred in mobile homes.” Shanklin said.  

Second guessing could prove fatal during evening warnings and “big picture” thinking is absolutely necessary, according to Shanklin.

“A lady in northern Christian County, a tornado watch was issued, she made the decision to leave her mobile home and go to a nearby relative's house, they spent the night there and sure enough the tornado came through and it did major damage at her home site and all around and that was a very wise decision on her part," Shanklin said.

Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration says HealthCare.gov will be up and running in Kentucky in time for Kynect customers to reapply for their health insurance later this year.

But roughly one month from the beginning of open enrollment on Nov. 1, some of those who work on the ground to help Kentuckians sign up for coverage are concerned about whether exchange customers will know when, where and how to re-enroll. That’s in part because education and outreach efforts have thus far been minimal.

Kentucky is moving from its state-based marketplace to the federal HealthCare.gov this year, after Bevin decided to dismantle Kynect and roll back Medicaid expansion in the state. Consumers must reapply this year for 2017 coverage even if they were auto-enrolled last year because eligibility information from Kynect won’t be transferred to the federal system.

The window for open enrollment is Nov. 1 until Dec. 15. Amanda Stamper, press secretary for Bevin administration, said they’ve hit milestones to make the switch in time.

A judge has ruled that Gov. Matt Bevin cannot unilaterally reorganize a public university’s board of trustees and dismiss all of its members, calling it an “unprecedented assertion of executive power.”

In June, Bevin issued an executive order abolishing the University of Louisville’s board of trustees, citing dysfunction on the board. He later created a new board and appointed all new members. Attorney General Andy Beshear sued Bevin over the move.

Though state law allows governors to unilaterally reorganize state boards, the power had never been applied to a public university board.

On Wednesday, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled that the governor can’t remove public university board members without cause.

“Governors, who have not been shy about asserting executive powers, have dealt with these situations by requesting (and obtaining) resignations of board members, or have allowed the disputes to be settled through the normal administrative and judicial processes,” Shepherd wrote in his opinion. “No prior Governor has ever attempted to invoke the re-organization power…to address problems in the governance of public universities.”

Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia were among the 27 states challenging the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, in oral arguments Tuesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.  

The CPP aims to reduce by about a third the power plant emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas that scientists have identified as a major cause of climate change. The pollution reductions would come in phases over a little more than two decades.

In an unusual move that reflects the importance of the case, all of the court’s 10 judges heard a full day of arguments, rather than the usual panel of three. 

Supporters say the EPA plan would spur investment in clean energy technology. Opponents, including West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, say it will drive up the price of electricity and hurt an already ailing coal industry.

State health officials are pointing to more progress in efforts to reduce Kentucky's youth smoking rate.

The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services says the latest smoking rate among Kentucky high school students is 16.9 percent, down from 26.2 percent a decade ago. That's according to the 2015 Kentucky Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Youth smoking rates in Kentucky remain higher than the national average. Officials say the nationwide rate was 10.8 percent in 2015.

Officials from the Kentucky Department for Public Health attribute the state's decade-long decline, in part, to tobacco-free school policies, which encourage districts to create environments where tobacco and alternative nicotine products are prohibited.

Voters in Barren County and three Butler County have voted to allow alcohol sales.

In Barren County,  4,651 people to expand alcohol sales, while 4,418 voted against it. That's a difference of just 233 votes out of more than 9,000 cast.

The group Move Barren County Forward led the support for turning Barren County wet.  They said money being spent on liquor in other areas will now stay in Barren County.

Before Tuesday’s vote, Cave City had voted to go wet and alcohol sales by the drink were allowed in certain restaurants in Glasgow.

Metcalfe, Adair and Russell counties all voted to go wet this year.

It wasn’t a county-wide vote in Butler County, but the towns of Morgantown, Woodbury and Rochester all approved alcohol sales Tuesday night. Butler County voted to stay dry in January.

Kentucky’s Attorney General is accusing Governor Matt Bevin of “dragging his feet” on returning millions of dollars to the state’s colleges and universities. 

Western Kentucky University is waiting on about $1.5 million that the school is owed following last week’s state Supreme Court ruling.  During a visit Monday to WKU, Attorney General Andy Beshear said the Governor has yet to release $18 million that was withheld from the state’s colleges and universities.

"The funds are sitting in a special account, so there's no reason to delay," Beshear told WKU Public Radio.  "This governor's been about cutting the red tape and the bureaucracy, so let's cut the red tape, the bureaucracy, and provide those funds."

The high court ruled that Governor Bevin did not have the authority to cut university budgets without a budget shortfall. 

The governor has said his office is “looking at our options.”  He has 20 days to ask the Supreme Court to re-consider the case.  Beshear said the outcome is unlikely to change given the 5-2 ruling.