Whitney Jones

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is restricting traffic on the Cumberland River Bridge at Lake City next Monday to allow a bridge inspection.

Expect one-lane traffic from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Inspectors will attempt to complete their work before the afternoon commute since the bridge is an alternate route to the I-24 work zone. KYTC expects the inspection to take three to four days.

A tea party activist has filed a lawsuit in Frankfort challenging the legality of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange that Gov. Steve Beshear approved last year by executive order.

David Adams says in the lawsuit filed Monday that Beshear created the exchange without necessary legislative approval. Adams is asking a judge to order work on the exchange to cease.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has raised nearly $12 million so far for his re-election bid, giving him an enormous head start over any potential Democratic challengers.

Campaign manager Jesse Benton says McConnell will file a report with the Federal Election Commission later this week showing he has raised another $1.8 million since January and that he has about $8.6 million on hand. Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson says McConnell also raised more than $500,000 since January for the state GOP that will work to support his re-election. 

Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield calls it "laughable" that a former House candidate is suing him in a $750,000 libel lawsuit.

Roger Byrge is suing Campfield, a Republican, for falsely stating on his blog in the weeks before the 2008 general election that Byrge had a criminal record. Byrge, a Democrat, lost the state House race to Republican Chad Faulkner by fewer than 400 votes. 

The Tennessee House has given final approval to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban a state income tax.

The chamber approved the measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Glen Casada 88 - 8 Monday. The vote completes a lengthy process for constitutional amendments, which must pass both chambers in consecutive General Assemblies before they can go before the voters in the same year a governor's election is held. 

Legislation that makes cock fighting a felony in Tennessee is dead this session after failing to pass the Senate. Under the bill, a first offense for cock fighting would have remained a misdemeanor. But a second offense would be considered a felony punishable by six years in prison and a fine of up to $3,000.

Crews are working to contain a fire that has damaged at least 14 acres of the sprawling Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Patricia York says at least one-quarter of the blaze is contained at Little Grand Canyon near Pomona, southwest of Carbondale, in Jackson County. 

An Illinois House Republican leader has announced his support for legalizing gay marriage in the state.

Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr. says his mother-in-law influenced his position. She's been in a lesbian relationship for about 20 years.

Sullivan is the second GOP House member to support gay marriage and the first member of Minority Leader Tom Cross's leadership team.  The proposal got Senate approval in February and a House vote is expected soon.

From NPR: The Wu-Tang Clan looks back on 20 years of making “home-cooked, real” rap music and talks about what each member brought to the group.

Eggner’s Ferry Bridge remains open and undamaged this morning after a barge broke loose from its mooring upstream from the bridge this weekend.

Kentucky State Police closed the bridge that crosses the Kentucky Lake and Tennessee River between Marshall and Trigg counties briefly Saturday afternoon until the runaway barge was recaptured. Boat crews retrieved the barge about a mile upstream from the bridge.