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Opinion
House week in review
State agencies have had a hard row to hoe over the past five years. All agencies have faced budget cuts, some more than others. In fact, over a billion dollars—$1.3 billion total—has been cut from all state agencies over since 2007, and that was with the help of around $3 billion in federal stimulus funds that were invested in Kentucky between 2009 and 2011. While Kentucky doesn’t have any more federal stimulus dollars scheduled to come o...
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A legislative perspective
When it comes to tourism, Kentucky has not one but two major factors in its favor: We have dozens of destinations that all but sell themselves, and we’re home to the nation’s population center east of the Rockies, meaning no state is closer to more Americans. It’s a potent combination, and last week, we saw again how big of a role it plays in our state’s economy. According to a report commissioned by the state’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage C...
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Where is the onus to fix managed care?
If there is one thing that last week’s Medicaid debacle between Appalachian Regional Healthcare and a managed care company illustrates, it’s that when it comes to health care, there are no easy answers. But it also showed an unwillingness on the behalf of some officials to admit that there exists a problem with managed care, and then address it. In 2011 Kentucky was faced with a hole in the Medicaid budget. Gov. Steve Beshear opted to plug ...
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Bold words, but little effect
Same-sex marriages figured heavily in the news this week when President Barack Obama reversed his previous position and announced to the world that he now supports same-sex marriage. So what does that really mean? Truth is that, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. There won’t be a line of gay people at the Floyd County Courthouse on Monday to get their marriage license. I don’t expect there to be any effort to force ...
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Vegan confessions
If you invented a pill that offers long life, good health, and a body to be proud of, you’d make a fortune. Bottles would fly off the shelves. Suggest a change in behavior that achieved the same result, however, and what do you get? Catcalls, derisive comments, and rude e-mails. Such was Michelle Obama’s reward when she launched her “Let’s Move” campaign more than two years ago. All she did was recommend feeding our kids better meals — fe...
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A legislative perspective
Earlier this year, as the General Assembly was putting together the budget to run state government, it was becoming increasingly clear that the state was finally beginning to see some lasting growth. That was further confirmed several weeks ago, when one of the state’s economists said that “all signs are pointing to the likelihood that the recovery is here to stay.” We’re seeing that in places like the unemployment rate, which for more th...
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House week in review
The scheduled interest rate increase for subsidized federal Stafford college loans is the latest ingredient in the political gumbo we call election year campaigning. From press releases from governor’s offices to sketches featuring President Obama on late night TV, the message seems to be clear: If we don’t extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans by July 1 of this year, millions of undergraduates from West ...
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Run ‘em on the runway … as often as possible
Prestonsburg Motor Sports may have really hit upon an idea with the Hillbilly Arm Drop Drags. What started out as simply a desire for local car enthusiasts to compete against each other has turned into an event that rivals Hillbilly Days in Pikeville and the Apple Festival in Paintsville. Wrapping up the second iteration of the event, organizers said they were able to attract a two-day total approaching 10,000. Not bad for an event less tha...
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KASPER mandate should be national model
It’s not every day that Kentucky can serve as a precedent in terms of good legislation that should well be considered on the national stage. But despite an unnecessary (and expensive) special session of the General Assembly, legislators in Frankfort, as well as Gov. Steve Beshear, should ultimately be commended for approving a measure that will in part mandate prescribers to register with and use the state’s electronic prescription monitori...
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Declaration of war
Republican lawmakers have declared war on the presidency. Not so odd, perhaps, given their recent record. But the leader they’re targeting this time is Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is clearly going to be the party’s candidate. Traditionally, the nominee sets the agenda for the party in the fall elections. Not this time, according to several Republican firebrands. “We’re not a cheerleading squad,” said Rep. Jeff Landry, a...
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Chain should be credited for work creating Autism Awareness Walk
We feel the second annual Autism Awareness Walk, which was held April 14 through downtown Prestonsburg, was a great success. We doubled the number of people who came out last year and had more parents with their children involved, which is really great. While there definitely needs to be more involvement between parents of children so diagnosed with autism and the Highlands Center for Autism, the particular event was planned by Billie Chain...
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A legislative perspective
Each legislative session is inevitably remembered for a key issue or two, and this year’s will undoubtedly be recalled for the toughest budget most of us have seen in our lifetime and for taking a comprehensive approach on drug abuse. There were several other high-profile issues as well, including the legislature’s latest effort to crack down on copper thefts and making sure that the interest on the sizeable federal loan for the state’s une...
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Dyslexia finds long over due recognition in House Bill.
We read from left to right. That mantra was drilled into my head as I carved out letters on a memory board until my fingers were calloused. Four hours, every Tuesday, from first grade through eighth. We read from left to right. During the 2012 Kentucky legislative session, house and senate leaders finally took action to pass legislation creating a new section of KRS which defines “aphasia,” “dyscalculia,” “phonemic awareness,” “scientifica...
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The freedom to fear
Serious commentators are telling us not to assume that the Supreme Court is going to find “Obamacare” unconstitutional just because the conservative justices gave the government lawyer a hard time when the case came before the Court last month. Somehow that doesn’t make me sleep better at night. This is the same Court that gave us the Citizens United decision, which opened the sluice gates of special-interest money that flooded a political ...
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It’s time to fix our broken unemployment insurance system
Out of work? Odds are you’re also out of luck as far as unemployment benefits go. With the national unemployment rate expected to remain above 8% until late next year, millions of workers are applying for unemployment benefits, but most do not qualify. Only about 40% of those filing for benefits received them in 2011 and in several states the percentage of recipients was much lower than that. In addition, the federal government in February cu...
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