News

As financial support pours in from around the country, the Better Business Bureau is warning about scammers that prey on disasters.  In this interview, Joe Corcoran speaks with Reanna Smith-Hamblin from the BBB in Louisville.

The tea party has won the first round in a lawsuit that questions the legality of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange that Gov. Steve Beshear set up last year by executive order.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd refused to dismiss the lawsuit on Thursday, as had been requested by attorneys for the state.

The state argued unsuccessfully that taxpayers don’t have legal standing to challenge the legality of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange, which is intended to help uninsured people arrange insurance coverage under the federal health care overhaul.

Tea party activist David Adams filed the lawsuit last month, claiming Beshear created the exchange without necessary legislative approval. Adams wants Shepherd to order work on the exchange to cease.

Your online purchases could alleviate some of Kentucky's budget woes.

The federal legislation that allows states to collect sales taxes from more online retailers would benefit the Kentucky state budget, argues a policy group focused on economic policy.

If such legislation passed, Kentucky could gain $130 million to $200 million in revenue per year, the state's Blue Ribbon Tax Commission has estimated.

That sort of money could lead to a restoration to programs that have recently been cut, including the child care subsidy for low-incoming, working families,  says Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

The new revenue wouldn't be a miracle fix for the state budget, Bailey says, but it could reverse some serious cuts made the last few years.

Firefighters in a Kentucky town that is still rebuilding after being devastated by tornadoes last year are collecting goods to send to tornado victims in Oklahoma.

West Liberty Assistant Fire Chief James Phipps told WYMT-TV that officials there wanted to help in some way because "we know what they are going through."

Much of the small city's downtown was wiped out when a twister hit on March 2, 2012.

The deadly tornado that struck the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday also caused much devastation and damaged or destroyed as 13,000 homes.

The planned expansion of Kentucky's Medicaid program coupled with a push to help the uninsured obtain health coverage could exacerbate the state's shortage of physicians, according to a report released Wednesday.

Deloitte Consulting, a technology firm that's helping to set up the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, unveiled the report showing Kentucky's 10,475 primary care physicians and specialists are far short of the actual need.

However, the firm concluded that Kentucky would need to find ways to increase the number of doctors and other medical professionals even if it didn't expand medical coverage to more than 600,000 new patients.