News

The federal government has filed charges against a former Massey Energy mine superintendent. Gary May worked at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia in April 2010, when an explosion killed 29 coal miners. May is charged with felony conspiracy. According to the charges filed today in West Virginia, May is accused to tampering with methane detectors, covering up mine safety violations and falsifying records. May is the second Upper Big Branch employee to face federal charges. The first, former security chief Hughie Stover, set to be sentenced next week.

A bill creating an alternative diploma for special needs students is one vote away from becoming law. Senate Bill 43 would apply different core standards to qualified students who would then earn the alternative diploma. Currently, special needs students in Kentucky receive only a certificate when they graduate. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Dennis Parrett, says he’s only trying to fix what he views as a problem.

Maysville historian Jerry Gore will be rewarded for his educational efforts with an award from the National Education Association. Gore will be receiving the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award, during the NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner in July. "I am highly humbled and highly honored because I do not see it as an honor to me but an honor to community and state," Gore said on Tuesday. "It relates to the lessons we learned from slavery and Underground Railroad that have ties to what we are learning today."

The chairman of the House Education Committee says his modifications to a dropout bill will help broker a compromise between the House and the Senate. Both chambers recently passed legislation effectively raising Kentucky’s high school dropout age, but there are key differences between the bills.  Currently, students can’t drop out of high school on their own until they’re 18 years old. But with parental consent, they can drop out at age 16.

Pastors and concerned citizens in Kentucky are taking their fight against expanded gambling directly to the Capitol. Led by the Reverend Hershel York, opponents of Governor Steve Beshear’s gambling amendment flooded Frankfort today in protest.  They filled hallways and lobbied legislators to vote no on the amendment, then gathered in the Rotunda for a larger rally.