From Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh
Kentucky is starting a new program to help low-income citizens obtain free or reduced-cost prescription drugs.
For good will, promotion and advertising, some drug companies offer free or low-cost prescription drugs to those who can’t afford them. But it’s often difficult for consumers to figure out how to get the drugs. Governor Steve Beshear says that won’t be the case under the Kentucky Prescription Assistance Program.
“We’re going to buy computer software that will allow the user to locate, link and enroll in these assistance programs,” Beshear said Friday.
The General Assembly appropriated $1 million for the program, which should be fully operational by next March. Each county will have a specific site where individuals, with physician referrals, will be able to access the program.
With election day nearing, the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office says rumors about voting procedure have been running rampant.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Les Fugate says many rumors about voters being ineligible have been circulated via e-mail. He says many of them come from poorly-informed, out of state or partisan sources.
“There are always political accusations on both sides of the aisle that one side is spreading information trying to increase turnout and then on the other side saying they’re trying to decrease turnout,” he says. “But at this point, our main focus is to try to tell voters what the truth is – to get the facts out.”
One of the most common rumors involves electioneering, or campaigning too close to a polling place. It’s illegal to actively campaign within 300 feet of a polling place, but Fugate says it’s not against the law to wear campaign attire to the polls, as long as it doesn’t create a diversion.
“Even if you are electioneering, the punishment for electioneering is not that you will lose your vote, it’s that you could be prosecuted for misdemeanor,” says Fugate. “We will not turn anyone away for electioneering, specifically if it’s a button, t-shirt or cap.”
The Secretary of State’s office has set up a website to address the rumors.
The Kentucky Youth Advocates organization is asking Governor Steve Beshear and state lawmakers to find new sources of revenue instead of cutting budgets to offset a projected revenue shortfall.
When he announced the $294 million projected deficit Thursday, Governor Beshear said budget cuts and tax increases may be required to bring the budget into balance. State programs already saw budget cuts earlier this year, when the commonwealth faced a more than $400 million deficit.
Kentucky Youth Advocates Executive Director Terry Brooks says health and human services programs can’t endure more cuts, and it’s time to find new revenue streams for the state.
“I just think it’s incumbent upon leadership within the state to make sure that what is clearly a budget crisis doesn’t become a human crisis,” he says.
Brooks also wants the Governor to tap into Kentucky’s rainy day fund to help offset the deficit
“If we’re really going to avoid hurting families and children in this state, we really can’t go the route of tightening belts and pulling bootstraps up any more than we have,” says Brooks.
A state budget report says a large chunk of the rainy day fund was committed to balance the previous budget. Beshear plans to make a specific budget proposal in early December.
A conference at the University of Louisville this weekend focuses on one of Africa’s principal philosophers. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.
Kwasi Wiredu is a 67-year old philosopher from Ghana who is speaking at the conference along with other philosophers. They will talk about Wiredu’s ideas, which developed from his experiences as an African.
U of L philosophy professor D.A. Masolo organized the conference on Wiredu.
“He is one person whose reflections and work are becoming the centerpiece of a lot of philosophical discussions among African philosophers as well as philosophers in the West as a whole,”Masolo says.
Masolo says attendees are coming from universities throughout the country as well as Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.
Wiredu, who now teaches at the University of South Florida, has infused African perspectives into philosophical debates worldwide.
Masolo says Wiredu’s ideas about knowledge and morality come from much of Africa’s community-based culture.
“Moral experience is not based on some innate ability to understand moral principals, but they are shaped by our communal living and our relations with others,” he says. “Wiredu espouses the view that could easily be called a communitarian perspective.”
This is the second U of L conference to focus on African philosophy. The last one was in 1998.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Investing in a Volatile Market
Wall Street is continuing to take investors on a wild ride. Up one day, down the next, what’s an investor to do? With many stocks at an all time low, could this be a good time to put money into the market? But just because a stock is low doesn’t mean it’s a good investment. And many people are wondering about their 401(k)’s and if they should stop contributing until the market levels out. And what about bonds, or… So whether you are a seasoned investor or just thinking of getting your feet wet, join us this Friday with your questions about investing in a volatile market.
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From Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh
Kentucky could be facing an almost $300 million budget shortfall this fiscal year, but Governor Steve Beshear says the state “will survive this economic crisis.” Before the administration takes any action, Beshear wants a new revenue projection.
“When you have the Dow Jones Industrial average swing almost 17-hundred points in both ways in two days, and when Alan Greenspan himself steps up to admit mistakes in his predictions, then you know we have an extremely fluid situation. We will use the Consensus Forecasting Group’s numbers as the basis for decisions in the months ahead,” Beshear said at a Thursday afternoon press conference.
Beshear says a special session to approve budget cuts or revenue enhancements may be necessary in early January, but first the administration will fully assess the situation, formulate a plan and then take the plan to the people.
What started as an uphill battle by a Louisville businessman to unseat one of the highest-ranking Senators in Washington has turned into the state’s most-watched race. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Bruce Lunsford.
In downtown Louisville, it’s easy to find voters who don’t agree with the policies of 24-year veteran Senator Mitch McConnell.
“I believe Senator McConnell represents everything that’s wrong about Congress,” says Ben Weigel.
I would love to see Mitch McConnell get beat,” adds Rob Morrison.
But that doesn’t mean they’re clamoring for McConnell’s opponent, Bruce Lunsford, either.
“I think Lunsford’s got a lot of warts,” says Morrison.
“He has absolutely no experience as a public servant and this is about his 15th time running for statewide office,” says Weigel.
Actually, it’s his third. In 2003 Lunsford ran as a Democrat for governor of Kentucky, but dropped out of the race and endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher. That, combined with his centrist views hurt Lunsford’s reputation with Democrats. Last year, he lost his party’s primary for a chance to run against the same Republican governor he once endorsed.
In May Lunsford won a 6-way Democratic Senate primary, but trailed McConnell by double digits in the polls. But by late September, Lunsford had pulled within a few points of McConnell and now polls show McConnell with a zero to seven point lead.
Lunsford attributes his jump in the polls to the slide on Wall Street.
“We always felt the economy was going to be the driving issue in this race and that we did not think George Bush and Mitch McConnell did a very good job before then,” he says.
That sums up two of Lunsford’s strategies in the race; talk about the economy, and link McConnell with President George W. Bush. Lunsford hopes to use McConnell’s role in the recent passage of the rescue package to paint the Senator as Bush’s congressional lackey. It also doesn’t help, Lunsford adds, that McConnell is the highest ranking Republican in Congress.
“Whatever Bush wants, McConnell gives, and I think that this is a Bush-McConnell program that has been a marriage like Bonnie and Clyde,” he says. “It’s pretty hard not to see one without seeing the other.
“I think the leadership role Senator McConnell had in taking action to protect the savings and investments of Kentuckians will ultimately prove beneficial,” says Senator McConnell’s campaign manager Justin Brasell.
Brasell adds that the senator needs to convince voters the bailout was necessary, and that McConnell’s past support for deregulation has nothing to do with the state of the financial sector.
“Senator McConnell has been working hard to explain details about the financial rescue bill to Kentuckians,” says Brasell. “We’ve had two tele-town halls, calling voters about this issue and we’ve sent an e-mail.”
McConnell and Lunsford have had three face-to-face debates, but McConnell has been criticized for declining other forums, including one on Kentucky Educational Television. Brasell claims McConnell’s teleconferences and e-mail blasts are working. He says an internal-campaign poll puts McConnell nine points up. Lunsford’s campaign polling gives the incumbent a three point lead, with 7 percent of voters undecided.
Al Cross is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky. He’s also a former political reporter who covered McConnell’s last three re-election campaigns. He says growing despair over the economy is helping Lunsford win those undecided voters in spite of himself.
“People may think there needs to be a change in Washington and vote McConnell out but they’re not quite ready to embrace Lunsford,” he says. “And the polls show that there’s a lot of Democrats who think that way. But when events in Washington start to hit people’s pocketbooks, then that begins to move numbers.”
Sensing a close race, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has started running ads linking McConnell to the economic crisis. They don’t mention Lunsford, but he’s funding his own ads with the same message.
If the DSCC can energize Kentuckians to remove McConnell, Lunsford is their only other option on the ballot.
And if Lunsford can overcome his own bumpy past with the party, he’ll improve his chances….Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Kentucky 3 to 2.
Lunsford’s not exactly in new territory. It wasn’t long ago, four years, in fact, that a previous Senate Minority Leader – Tom Daschle of South Dakota – lost a bid for re-election and his high-ranking post.
