A liberal group is taking aim at a Kentucky judge who is on President Trump’s short list of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

The group Demand Justice is behind a digital ad portraying federal appeals court judge Amul Thapar as a far right jurist who wrote a 2016 ruling that threw out a prohibition against judges making political contributions.

The Herald-Leader reports it’s one of five ads the activist group is releasing against judges who appeared on an official Supreme Court short list issued by the White House last fall.

The governing body of Western Kentucky University made a $388,000,000 decision on Friday. 

The Board of Regents approved a budget that will increase tuition and fees by four percent for the next academic year.  The increase will fund four percent raises for faculty and staff, their first substantial salary increase in a decade.

A decision Thursday from the U.S. Supreme Court could mean increased revenue for Kentucky. The ruling will allow states to collect sales taxes from online retailers.

Previous rulings limited a state’s ability to collect that revenue if the business didn’t have a physical presence in the state. Kentucky Center for Economic Policy Executive Director Jason Bailey said while there won’t be an immediate effect felt from the Supreme Court decision, it will eventually lead to more money for the commonwealth.

In comments at odds with his home state's whiskey distillers, Kentucky's Republican governor is downplaying fears that the European Union's retaliatory tariffs could disrupt the booming market for the Bluegrass state's iconic bourbon industry.

"There's always the potential for some type of impact, but I don't think it will be a tremendous impact," Gov. Matt Bevin said when asked about tariffs during a TV interview this week with Bloomberg.

Kentucky’s 1st District U.S Congressman James Comer helped to pass the house’s version of the  federal farm bill Thursday.



Rep. Comer was one of 213 votes in favor of the Farm Bill. 211 other representatives voted ‘no’. The former Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture and current member of the House ag committee says much of the controversy in garnering support for the bill involved changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “So the only people that would  lose their food stamps or face cuts to their food stamps would be people that are deemed able bodied and who refused to work 20 hours a week,” said Rep. Comer.

Much of the rye whiskey aging in hundreds of barrels at Catoctin Creek Distillery in Virginia could end up being consumed in Europe, a market the 9-year-old distilling company has cultivated at considerable cost.

But an escalating trade dispute has the distillery's co-founder and general manager, Scott Harris, worried those European sales could evaporate as tariffs drive up the price of his whiskey in markets where consumers have plenty of spirits to choose from.

Gov. Matt Bevin says the judge who struck down Kentucky’s pension law is “not a very competent attorney,” predicting that the ruling will be overturned because the legislation “doesn’t do much.”

Franklin County Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd ruled on Wednesday that the law is unconstitutional because state lawmakers rushed the bill to passage and didn’t have enough votes to send it to the governor’s desk.

Thursday is the first official day of summer in theory, but in practice Kentuckians have already been feeling the heat.

Warmer days and longer summers are a symptom of rising temperatures across the planet and Kentucky too, is hotter than it used to be.

Kentucky’s average temperature increased 1.41 degrees over the last 30 years, according to the latest climate data analyzed by the Associated Press.

Kentucky’s top health official says the state will cut benefits to Medicaid recipients if a federal court strikes down changes to the program set to roll out on July 1.

Gov. Matt Bevin got permission from the Trump administration to require “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients to pay monthly premiums and prove that they are working, volunteering, a full-time student or trying to find work in order to keep their health coverage.