Rae Hodge is senior political journalism major at the University of Louisville, graduating in May 2013. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Louisville Cardinal, and is an intern for Kentucky Public Radio in the state Capitol.
Seeking to curb child fatalities on Kentucky roads, a state House committee approved a bill increasing children's height requirement for booster seats.
The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would reform the majority of the state's pension system. Senate Bill 2 contained the recommendations of a legislative task force on the underfunded pension system. It suspends cost of living adjustments and creates a hybrid, 401k-style pension plan for new hires.
Bill sponsor Damon Thayer says the bi-partisan support for the bill shows the need for continued cooperation on pensions.
"This is not a perfect bill. There are certainly other ways that this can be done," Thayer said. "But in this town and in this building, when have we ever given up the good for the sake of the perfect. This is a good bill, Mr. President."
FRANKFORT— Kentucky legislators and community leaders on Wednesday honored an athlete and an academic during the 10th annual Black History Month Celebration at the Capitol.
The 2013 Black History Month celebration honoree was Wilbur Louis Hackett Jr., a groundbreaking football player. He was also the 2011 Kentucky Black Sports Hall of Fame inductee who state Sen. Gerald Neal, of Louisville, said "epitomizes all that is good about sports."
FRANKFORT — Saying the push for industrial help may help their cause in the future, supporters of a bill establishing a comprehensive system for medical marijuana in Kentucky rallied Wednesday in the Capitol Annex.
Senate Bill 11, known as the Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act, is sponsored by Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville. Clark acknowledged the struggles the bill might face in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he said industrial hemp's momentum may help the medical marijuana cause in future legislative sessions.
Advocates of legalizing marijuana for medical uses in Kentucky are rallying Wednesday afternoon in the Capitol Annex in Frankfort.
Sen. Perry Clark, a Democrat of Louisville, has introduced Senate Bill 11 into the state Senate. If passed the bill, known as the Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Memorial Act would "establish a comprehensive system for medical marijuana in Kentucky."
Women who produce children as a result of rape would not be obligated to share parental rights with their rapist under legislation filed Tuesday in the Kentucky House.
Kentucky, along with 34 other states, allows rapists to take their victims to court and seek these rights.
Rep. Dennis Keene, who is sponsoring the bill, called the allowance a "loophole in Kentucky law."
"I've got two daughters," said Keene, a Democrat from Wilder. "I wouldn't want any human being to go through that."
