Tagged: Kentucky House

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is opposing budget cuts to a health care program for the blind.

Kentucky Politics:

The Kentucky House has passed a measure giving retired prosecutors special privileges to carry concealed weapons anywhere in the Commonwealth.

A bill that would allow slow-moving vehicles to use reflective tape instead of an orange triangle is moving through the House. The triangles have become an issue in Kentucky’s Amish community, where the symbol and loud color run counter to religious beliefs. Some Amish men have been arrested for refusing to use the triangles on their buggies. Both the House and the Senate passed separate bills addressing the issue. But the Senate proposal has fewer requirements, and the House decided to take up the Senate’s version.

Parents of children who committed suicide after being bullied at school testified before the Kentucky House Education committee Tuesday, advocating a bill that they say would strengthen the state’s current bullying law. The measure would prohibit harassing behavior and communication based on a student’s race, ethnicity, religion, physical or mental disability, gender, and sexual orientation.  Representative Ben Waide, a Republican from Hopkins County, said he opposed the bill because it would provide special rights to certain people. 

A compromise to help employers avoid high federal unemployment insurance taxes has easily cleared a House committee.

The proposal would allow Kentucky to borrow money from a bank or other organization to repay federal loans. Kentucky borrowed nearly one billion dollars from the federal government to pay for unemployment insurance during the recession.

Up until now, the state had no plan on how to keep up with interest payments on that loan. If the state is late on payments, the federal government can put a higher tax on employers to recoup the funds.

The Kentucky House has passed a measure giving retired prosecutors special privileges to carry concealed weapons anywhere in the Commonwealth.  Representatives voted Monday for the measure now headed to the Senate.  Democratic state Representative Bob Damron is sponsor of the bill extending to commonwealth's attorneys and county attorneys the same right already given to retired judges.  The measure is intended to allow retired prosecutors to defend themselves if attacked.  Kentucky already allows people to carry concealed weapons if they have permits to do so.