Todd Hatton

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security is requesting over 7 and a half million dollars to supplement its budget after a planned windfall from driver's license fees failed to materialize.  A 2011 bill allowed the state to revoke the licenses of people who don’t pay criminal fines and court costs.

Kentucky may soon join a small but growing number of states enacting laws to protect juvenile victims of the sex trade.  House Bill 3 would restrict authorities' ability to charge minors with offenses related to prostitution and require minors suspected to be involved in prostitution receive social services. 

The Hopkins County Jail has taken a gardening program for inmates to a new level by adding a small orchard.  Jailer Joe Blue says inmates enrolled in a Master Gardener program have planted 30 apple trees on a quarter-acre site near the jail. 

Sports tourism is expected to have a $20 million impact on Owensboro this year.  Jared Bratcher is sports marketing director for the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau.  He tells the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer there will be more than 50 tournaments, including figure skating, hockey, baseball, running, soccer, softball, basketball, tennis, volleyball, fishing and football.

Tennessee lawmakers are poised to decide this week whether a proposal to allow supermarket wine sales moves ahead.  The bill to overhaul the current system preventing shoppers from buying wine alongside groceries faces votes in both House and Senate committees this week.

A Louisville lawmaker is pressing for changes to Kentucky's domestic violence laws to allow them to apply to dating couples.  Democratic Senator Denise Harper Angel says 48 other states already have amended their domestic violence laws to protect victims of dating violence and she says the Commonwealth should follow suit.  

In an effort to prod more attorneys to provide free legal assistance to people who can't afford a lawyer, the Tennessee Supreme Court has announced it will begin giving special recognition to lawyers who spend at least 50 hours doing pro bono work. 

Tennessee House leaders who last year fended off a bill to overrule businesses seeking to ban firearms in their parking lots appear to be giving up the fight. House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick says he and fellow Republicans just want to put the measure behind them so they can move on to other more pressing issues.  

A Prohibition-era ban on the sale of alcohol at Kentucky’s restaurants, bars and retail stores on Election Day would be lifted under legislation the Senate passed Tuesday.  The measure would allow alcohol sales during the hours that polls are open.  It’s will now be taken up by the House.  Kentucky and South Carolina are the only two states that have such bans in place. In the past five years, similar bans have been lifted in Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Utah and West Virginia.  Similar measures filed in the Commonwealth in past years have failed.