Kenny Colston (KPR)

A Kentucky Senate committee has approved a bill that aims to toughen laws against prescription pill abuse.

House Bill 4 is a collaborative effort between House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Attorney General Jack Conway and Governor Steve Beshear.

Both chambers of the General Assembly have approved budget bills and a conference committee has been meeting since Monday to work out the differences. One major point of disagreement is funding for school construction. It's a priority for the House. But Senators were not ready to haggle during a Tuesday morning session.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the issue is so important to his chamber that a disagreement could derail budget talks.

An attempt to piggyback charter school legislation on another bill has likely killed two plans for education reform in Kentucky.

The state Senate Education committee today added language legalizing charter schools to a charter alternative plan sponsored by Representative Carl Rollins, who chairs the House Education Committee. Charter supporters hoped Rollins would allow the amendment in order to see his alternative become law, but it's unlikely the plan will work.

"The charter school part of the bill has no chance and I'm pretty sure the whole bill is dead," says Rollins.

Kentucky lawmakers are trying again to raise the state's dropout age.

Currently, students can drop out of school at 16 years old with parents' permission. But lawmakers and Governor Steve Beshear have pushed to raise the dropout age to 18, regardless of parental consent.

The latest proposal before the legislature would let local school boards decide  whether to adopt the higher dropout age. But once 70 districts opt in, it will become mandatory statewide.

The last full week of this year's legislative session in Kentucky began yesterday with negotiations over the state budget. House and Senate leaders started talks yesterday morning, breaking only for committee and floor duties, and continued negotiations well into the night. Both chambers have approved slightly different versions of the state budget for the next two years. Lawmakers are now reviewing those differences line by line, looking for potential compromises. The General Assembly has until late Wednesday to hatch a compromise.

As the 2012 legislative session winds down, lawmakers aren’t touting a long list of accomplishments.  They say that’s not due to a lack of work, but mainly a lack of extra money to fund new programs or expand others.  Instead, House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the main highlights will be a three-bill attack on Kentucky’s drug abuse problems and passing general and road budgets before the end of the session.  In recent years, lawmakers haven’t even been able to pass budgets on time. So Stumbo says this year is a return to normal.

A plan to create scholarships for college students in the Appalachian region is in danger after the Senate removed the funding in its budget proposal.  The scholarship program was intended as a compromise after a bill to move the University of Pikeville into the state university system couldn’t garner enough support.  It would give college juniors and seniors money to attend private universities or public university partnerships in the Appalachian region to finish their education.  The House’s version of the budget funded the scholarships with coal severance tax money, but the Senate remove

You hear Kenny’s reports daily on WKMS Newscasts. This week, Kentucky’s Senate passed their budget proposals for state government, approved a measure supporting Paducah’s Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and decisively put an end to pensions for Confederate veterans.  Kentucky Public Radio Capitol Bureau Chief Kenny Colston speaks with Rick Howlett about what else happened this past week in Frankfort.

 House Speaker Greg Stumbo says his chamber's priorities for the next two-year budget are not that different from the Senate's.

Both chambers have passed their own budget bills for each branch of state government. The two sides must now work out a compromise. Stumbo says he doesn't have many concerns with the Senate's changes and he expects a conference committee to hatch a compromise quickly.

After hours of closed-door meetings, the Kentucky Senate approved budgets for the three branches of state government Thursday night.

The House previously approved its own versions of the budgets. The Senate kept the House's legislative plan intact but modified the executive and judicial budgets. The two chambers must now form a conference committee to work out the differences.