Tagged: wkms

A federal grand jury has indicted former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer on four felony counts of misappropriating state funds and one of solicitation.  The indictment, unsealed today in Lexington, charges Farmer with using his state position to obtain thousands of dollars' worth of gifts, hotel rooms, clothing and computers. It also charges him with hiring friends who did little or no work for the state.  The indictment says that throughout his tenure as agriculture commissioner from 2004 to 2012, Farmer wrongfully used public funds and state resources to obtain goods and services for himself and his family.

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has been enriching uranium since 1952, making it the world’s oldest such facility.  Now, in 2013, it faces an uncertain future.  New technology and a depressed market for their product have led the U.S. Department of Energy to consider closing the facility when USEC’s lease on the site expires next month.  This threatens some 1,200 jobs in McCracken County.  But, there are glimmers of hope.

Kentucky U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth says the 85-billion dollars in cuts that have been imposed as a result of the federal budget sequester will hurt private business. The Jefferson County Democrat says seven of the nine largest employers in his district rely to a significant extent on business from the federal government. Yarmuth spoke Thursday during a meeting of the house budget committee. The acting director of the White House office of Management and Budget told the panel the sequester is likely to cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell says a gun control proposal from New York Democrat Charles Schumer takes the wrong approach. The Kentucky Republican says Schumer wants to make it a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for a person not to report a lost or stolen gun within 24 hours. McConnell calls Schumer’s bill a “clear overreach” that will punish law-abiding friends, neighbors and families.

The attorney for the director of a liberal Kentucky political fundraising group says his client is cooperating with an FBI investigation into a secret recording of a campaign meeting held by U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell. That recording was leaked to Mother Jones magazine.