John Walker

Kentucky transportation officials say the new U.S. 60 Tennessee River Bridge will likely be ready for traffic by mid-summer. Transportation Cabinet chief engineer Jim LeFevre says the new bridge at Ledbetter is still on track to open well ahead of schedule. He says workers are making preparations to pour a deck on the new bridge's main truss span.

From NPR: For years, the Army has effectively ignored the ban against women in combat, though it's still hard for them to receive full recognition for what they've achieved. "Battle-fatigued female soldiers" is a new and uneasy concept for American society.

Emergency officials say a CSX train derailed in Hopkins County Saturday afternoon blocking a road, but nothing was spilled and no one was injured.  When responders arrived at the scene near Morton’s Gap, they found 14 cars overturned, including one tanker.

Paducah city officials are looking for a private investor to build a marina on its riverfront as a part of a larger riverfront development project. The city is planning to start the first phase of construction on the project in the coming months, but the completion will depend on whether the city can find a business partner to operate a marina.

Attorneys for Kentucky are set to argue why lethal injections should be allowed to go forward for the first time in more than four years. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will hear arguments at 2 this afternoon in Frankfort. Earlier this year, the Commonwealth switched from using three drugs to carry out a lethal injection to a method that uses 3 grams of sodium thiopental or 5 grams of pentobarbital — similar to Ohio’s method.

The Executive Branch Ethics Commission has a meeting set for today where they could decide whether former University of Kentucky basketball star Richie Farmer violated any rules when he was state agriculture commissioner.

From NPR: From Chris Christie to Jeb Bush, a slew of potential candidates for president have been getting attention. Most of them are speaking this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, but a few pointedly were not asked.

Kentucky State Representative Tanya Pullin has maneuvered a bill through the legislature that modernizes an aged code of military justice for the Kentucky National Guard.  Pullin chairs the House Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee and she’s been working on the rewrites for the last two years.

A $230,000 donation to the foundation that serves Western Kentucky Community and Technical College will be used for scholarships.  The donation came from the late Garline Clark, who died last September at the age of 102.  The college says the money will be used to provide scholarships for WKCTC business and accounting students from McCracken and Graves counties who plan to transfer to a four-year university.

A measure that would create a special panel to authorize charter school applications is advancing in the Tennessee state Legislature.  The measure was approved on a voice vote in the House Government Operations Committee on Wednesday, and the Senate Education Committee unanimously passed the companion bill later that evening.