Todd Hatton

The Kentucky House passed a bill Tuesday requiring criminal background checks for prospective nursing home employees.  Applicants' names and fingerprints would be run through state and national databases.  Bill sponsor, Democrat Carl Rollins, says the Commonwealth would get $3 million in federal grant money to initiate the program and fund it until May 2014. The program would then cost the state about a million a year.  

The House Committee on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs has passed legislation that would let Kentuckians decide whether to amend the state Constitution to restore some felons' voting rights.  The perennial bill by Democratic Representative Jesse Crenshaw cleared the panel Tuesday.  

The Murray State Men’s Basketball team won out over Austin Peay Saturday night 75 to 68 at the CFSB Center in Murray. 

The word “frontier” likely conjures images straight out of a John Ford western. But what you may not be aware of is that if you reside in western Kentucky, you may soon be living in an officially designated frontier yourself. Federal officials say classifying the Purchase that way will help them assess things like access to services. We’ll speak with an area futurist about how being “frontier” could harm, or help, western Kentucky. We’ll also speak with a Murray State alumna about a frontier of a different sort. The West African native is working in her home country to expand the horizons of the nation’s young women. Then, we’ll get a report on a free clinic for Marshall County’s working poor that may be close to completion, and look ahead to next month’s MSU Presidential Lecture by director and producer Spike Lee.

You could say that the Jackson Purchase hasn’t been frontier territory since, well, since Andrew Jackson was President.  But now, in the 21st century, the federal government is proposing a new system that would classify the Purchase as Frontier and Remote, or FAR.  Researchers and policymakers with the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services say the new FAR area codes will help such regions improve access to public services as well as food and household goods. Futurist Ivan Potter is also the publisher of West Kentucky Journal, an online publication, and in a recent article, he writes that even though this possible reclassification has slipped under most people’s radar, it could have far-ranging effects. Todd Hatton speaks with Potter to get a sense of what the pros and cons of living on the frontier. 

Five people have asked the Kentucky Court of Appeals to decide whether a special taxing district created for the McLean County Public Library is legal.

Starting a new job is usually a pretty stressful proposition. Now imagine that starting that new job involves having to tackle some of the most contentious issues facing the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We’ll speak with someone who doesn’t have to imagine that: former Trigg County Judge-Executive Stan Humphries, who now represents Kentucky’s 1st State Senate District. Also, Kentucky Public Radio Capitol Bureau Chief Kenny Colston will rundown the top stories he covered last week in Frankfort.  Plus, we’ll learn about some big changes happening at Murray’s City Police Department.

Former Trigg County Judge-Executive Stan Humphries is well into his first session as the First District's new State Senator, and he's arrived in Frankfort at a particularly important time: the Commonwealth's General Assembly is set to address a range of issues from Medicaid and industrial hemp to tax reform and underfunded state employee pensions.  To see how he's settling in, Todd Hatton spoke with Senator Humphries from his office in Frankfort.

A new poll shows more than half of Kentuckians interviewed last fall support a state law to ban smoking in indoor public places. The poll from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati finds about 6 out of 10 would support such a ban. That’s up from fewer than half of those polled in 2010.  However, the measure isn’t getting much political support because so much of the region depends on tobacco farming.

There are host of issues awaiting Kentucky lawmakers when they get to Frankfort this Tuesday. From industrial hemp and a state-wide health benefits exchange to state pension reform and how student achievement data is used, they have a lot on their plates. We’ll look ahead to the 2013 Kentucky General Assembly. We’ll also hear a conversation with Murray Calloway County Hospital CEO Jerry Penner about how our region’s healthcare continues to develop, and speak with outgoing Kentucky Education Department Communications Director Lisa Gross to find out how learning in the state has grown over the last three decades.