The Commonwealth

A special edition of Kentucky Tonight features Bill Goodman and Renee Shaw examining the causes and possible solutions of poverty in Kentucky.   The program which airs Monday night on Kentucky Educational Television, will be re-broadcast Tuesday morning at 11:00 on the WEKU Stations.

Here's a link to all the latest closings and delays provided by WKYT TV.

Strong winds and a possible tornado damaged two churches and a grain silo in Western Kentucky on Saturday afternoon, according to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management. A gym at North Livingston Baptist Church was destroyed, and the steeple was blown off of Hampton Methodist Church in Livingston County. In Hickman County, a grain bin was blown over in Clifton, and U.S. 51 was closed from Martin Road to Ky. 780. In Carlisle County, Ky. 80 was closed between Arlington and Columbus in the Arlington West End area. The storms flooded roads and caused minor damage in other counties as

Low-income Kentuckians who work in other states would be exempt from paying bridge tolls under a new bill filed in the General Assembly. House Bill 129 would allow any Kentuckian who commutes across state lines and who qualify for the earned income tax credit to seek reimbursement for tolls they pay going to and from work.

The Newtown, Conn., tragedy and other shootings across the nation have sharply increased debate about stricter gun laws, but they won’t likely change Kentucky’s status as one of the most lenient states for gun laws. Both Democrats and Republicans in Kentucky said they don’t foresee anyone proposing any stricter gun laws in the upcoming session starting Jan. 8. Some, however, want to discuss the issue of allowing teachers to carry weapons in schools or increasing the number of school resource officers.

It hardly seems possible that 2012, the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s 220th year, has come to an end. As with most years, there was good news and bad news, joy and sorrow, beginnings and endings. What will we remember most? Wildcat basketball fans will remember 2012 as the eighth year of nirvana for Kentucky’s secular religion. The University of Kentucky men’s team beat Kansas 67-59 to win its eighth NCAA crown and the first since 1998.

The next round of winter weather will arrive later today and likely continue for about 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service office in Louisville. Northcentral Kentucky will see rain this afternoon and it will begin to change over to a mix of rain and snow after sunset tonight. Around midnight, the mix will turn to all snow. Northcentral Kentucky will probably see 1 to 3 inches of snow by Saturday morning, the weather service said. Scattered snow showers could bring an additional inch in spots by Saturday afternoon.

FRANKFORT – The Kentucky State Police, in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, will be out in full force during the New Years Eve holiday. The official holiday enforcement period begins today at 6 p.m. and will continue through Tuesday, Jan. 1 at 11:59 p.m. Last year, traffic crashes across Kentucky claimed the lives of six people during the New Years Eve holiday period. There were 1,314 crashes reported for that time frame and 63 of those involved alcohol.

FRANKFORT - Kentucky continues to make progress in limiting retail sales of tobacco to minors, according to a recently released survey from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The 2012 Annual Synar Buying Survey of Kentucky retail tobacco outlets showed that 94.4 percent of retailers complied with the law barring tobacco sales to anyone under the age of 18. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control conducted the survey during the summer to measure the rate of illegal sales of tobacco to Kentucky youths.

Depending on where you were Wednesday in Hopkinsville, you probably saw some amount of the white stuff. Accumulations were higher north of the city, Christian County Weather Coordinator Dave Powell said, adding that there was close to 3 inches of snow near Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park. Within city limits, there was about an inch.

FRANKFORT – Kentucky Transportation Cabinet highway crews continue to plow and treat roads following the latest batch of winter weather. Crews are working over much of the state today, particularly in western Kentucky and in counties along the Ohio River. In these areas, crews are treating roadways or concentrating on reported problem spots. Snow plows are pushing through 3 to 4 inches of snow in western Kentucky counties.

A blizzard warning remains in effect until noon CST today for parts of Western Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service. Snowfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches are possible with windy conditions and gusts up to 40 mph. Some trees could fall and that could cause some power outages. Kentucky cities in the impacted area include Bardwell, Paducah, Mayfield, Benton, Murray, Marion, Eddyville, Prineceton, Morganfield, Madisonville, Henderson, Owensboro and Calhoun.

A nonprofit animal legal rights group has ranked Kentucky, for the sixth year in a row, as the best state to be an animal abuser. The reasons include the absence of numerous laws – such as one making cockfighting a felony – to a statute on the books that prevents veterinarians from reporting suspected cases of animal cruelty without permission from the animal’s owner, a court order or a subpoena. “No meaningful change in the status of the law in Kentucky precipitates the same result,” said Scott Heiser, an attorney with the California-based Animal Legal Defense Fund, which released the report last week.

The Campbellsville Police Department is launching a special Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over crackdown to stop impaired drivers and to save lives on roadways. Campbellsville Police officers will be aggressively looking for impaired drivers and arrest anyone caught driving impaired. Enforcement efforts will include traffic safety checkpoints and saturation patrols. The special enforcement crackdown will run through Jan. 1.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s Blue Ribbon Tax Commission recently released its recommendations to reform Kentucky’s tax code. A 453-page report includes 96 proposals, which are expected to come up in the 2013 legislative session. One of the commission’s recommendations is giving local governments the option of implementing a sales taxes. Doing so would require amending the state’s constitution, but it would give local governments another option for bringing in revenue. Currently, counties in Kentucky have a number of options for raising revenue. Counties can implement payroll taxes and library taxes, for example.