What administrators at many of Kentucky’s public higher education institutions may view as a partial remedy to increasing pension costs is now before Kentucky lawmakers. 

The bill was filed by Representative James Tipton, who chairs his chambers' budget review committee on postsecondary education.

Direct shipment of wine into and out of Kentucky would become legal under a bill approved Friday by the state Senate.  Campbellsville Senator Max Wise told his colleagues that the Commonwealth is one of five states that doesn't allow direct shipment sales.  

Wise said wine is booming in the U.S. and is moving increasingly into Kentucky.

“Where 20 years ago Kentucky only had 40 acres of wine grapes in commercial vineyards.  Now, 600 acres and over 70 licensed wineries and 150 growers that are cultivating grapes here within the Commonwealth,” said Wise.

Laws on guns and abortion are often considered two of the more controversial topics for government to tackle.  Kentucky senators cast votes on both issues Thursday.

The Senate voted 29 to 8 in favor of allowing anyone 21 and older to carry a weapon without a license.  Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer of Scott County was one of those voting in the majority. “All this does is saying that wearing a coat around over the top of your legally carried firearm doesn’t make you a felon.  That’s all,” said Thayer.

A bill expanding the use of ignition interlock devices across Kentucky is moving to the Senate floor. 

The measure gives all first-time drunk driving offenders the choice of opting to blow into the blood alcohol-detecting device for six months and still drive or have driving privileges suspended for nine months.  

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will move forward with a series of actions to regulate toxic fluorinated chemicals, including proposing drinking water limits by the end of this year. But environment and public health advocates say that timeline is unacceptably slow given the health risks and extent of contamination.

In its long-awaited “PFAS Action Plan,” EPA laid out a series of actions to address the widespread contamination of fluorinated PFAS chemicals.

It’s not news that Kentucky is one of the sickest states in the county, but as a new poll shows health woes increasingly impact the middle class.

Ben Chandler is president and CEO of the Foundation For A Healthy Kentucky. He said economic trends impact how middle-class families access health care.

“Those people have seen their incomes stagnate they are working longer hours, they are seeing insurance costs go up, their copays are going up, their deductibles are going up and they’ve got nobody to absorb those cost but themselves,” he said