Government

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will begin repairs to the US-60 Ledbetter Bridge Saturday. Intech, Inc., of Lexington, is the prime contractor of the nearly $95,000 repair project. The repairs aim to maintain the safety of the bridge while a new one is built upstream. A heavily enforced three-ton load restriction limits traffic on the bridge to mostly non-commercial vehicles. The bridge will be closed to all traffic from 8 pm Saturday, March 24 to 2 am on Sunday, March 25. and on April 6, the US 60 Ledbetter Bridge will be restricted to one lane of traffic.

The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a televised debate May 14th for candidates running in the primaries for mayor and city commission. The Paducah Sun reports the debate will be at 6 p.m. at Crounse Hall on the campus of West Kentucky Community and Technical College. Four mayoral and 19 city commission candidates registered for the debate. The debate will be broadcast live and replayed locally before the May 22nd election.

As is often the case with government reform efforts, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted ethics laws in response to an embarrassing scandal. “BOPTROT” was a federal investigation of the Kentucky legislature in the 1990s, so-named because it involved a powerful legislative committee, Business Organizations and Professions, and horse racing. It exposed 15 state lawmakers who sold their votes, some for as little as $100.

Kentucky’s General Assembly is heading down the stretch in the 2012 legislative session.

Lawmakers have ten legislative days left to pass budget and road plan bills, in addition to any other matter.

Many important topics that were priorities for some lawmakers—like raising the dropout age, fixing the state’s problems with Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and drug abuse legislation—has yet to pass both chambers in the same form. This means for the bills to become law, legislators will have to form conference committees and reach an agreement.

Lawmakers in Frankfort have been hard at work over the past week in the Kentucky General Assembly.  A proposed state-wide indoor smoking ban cleared its first legislative hurdle and the senate has passed four constitutional amendments.  Kentucky Public Radio Capitol Bureau Chief Kenny Colston gives Rick Howlett the latest on what’s happening in Frankfort.