Two year budgets for all three branches of state government have now passed one chamber of the Kentucky General Assembly. The House spent more than an hour debating the details of the executive, legislative and judicial budgets before easily passing all three. They also passed a bill creating a tax amnesty program that Governor Steve Beshear requested.
Time Warner Cable has completed its purchase of Insight Communications, and changes to branding and service will begin over the next few months. Time Warner paid $3 billion for Insight and will absorb more than three quarters of a million Insight customers in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Time Warner will also take over Insight's operations. That means some jobs will be redundant and those positions will be lost. Time Warner spokeswoman Mary Jo Green says it's too soon to tell how many employees will be let go.
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.
In a statement released today the US Postal Service says it will close eight mail processing centers in Kentucky, including locations in Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, London, and Somerset. The processing work currently done at those centers will be processed at facilities in other cities in the future.
A Christian County lawmaker wants to create a statewide program that would encourage pre-schoolers to develop a love of books. Hopkinsville Representative John Tilley’s bill has cleared the House Education Committee, and is something he calls “Books for Brain”.
