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The Indiana Senate is expected to take up a proposed statewide smoking ban this week. For the first time in six years, a House-passed smoking ban has advanced past the Senate committee level.

The Public Policy Committee voted 8-2 last week for the measure after hearing some four hours of public testimony.

Indianapolis-area tavern owner Wanda Goodpastor told the panel a ban would harm her business, as 80-percent of her customers are smokers.

The Leitchfield-based Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center and Norton Healthcare held a news conference to announce a formal affiliation agreement. Officials say the agreement will provide the staff at Twin Lakes access to on-line courses and training available through Norton University, and will lead to better coordination and continuity of care for patients who require specialized or tertiary care.

New technology being unveiled in Louisville will offer faster and more accurate treatment for lung cancer patients. The TrueBeam machine allows doctors to deliver radiation more accurately to tumors in the lungs. University of Louisville radiation oncologist Dr. Neal Dunlap says TrueBeam offers two ways for doctors to more accurately see what's going on inside a cancer patient.

Documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal that 24 year old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi once boasted to an informant that he had placed so many explosives in Iraq he couldn't count them all. Hammadi is one of the two Iraqi nationals arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky last year on federal terrorism charges.

Although two major issues have been nearly resolved, Kentucky lawmakers still have a full agenda this session. Redistricting and expanded gambling dominated the first half of the session.

The gambling bill was defeated last week and redistricting was settled by the Kentucky Supreme Court. But that doesn’t mean the legislative work is over. Lawmakers still have a two-year budget to pass. Senate President David Williams says that's just one of several pressing issues.