Absentee ballots are on their way to more than two-thousand Kentuckians overseas.

Many of the ballots are going to men and women in the military.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is proposing some changes in election laws to help military men and women. One of them would allow military personnel to vote by e-mail. Currently, they have to send in their ballots by standard mail.

Grimes recently returned from a trip to the Middle East to assess absentee voting procedures.

The advisory board tasked with overseeing Kentucky's health insurance exchange is set to have its first meeting Thursday.

The 19-member board is made up of public officials, insurance executives, doctors and consumer groups. The agenda is short, focusing mainly on organizational tasks like forming subcommittees. The board is also getting an overview of the exchange from Executive Director Carrie Banahan.

Gov. Steve Beshear has named the 17 members of the state’s new Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel, which is comprised of a wide range of professionals.

The panel will act independently from the state, although for administrative purposes it’s placed in the Justice Cabinet.

Its job will be to review certain child abuse cases on a quarterly basis to make sure the state government is complying with its policies.

Louisville’s NAACP branch and other local organizations have announced an aggressive campaign to register voters before this fall’s election.

Over the next couple of weeks Louisville’s NAACP, the Louisville Urban League and churches will visit supermarkets, drug stores and high schools to reach unregistered voters. 

Local NAACP President Raoul Cunningham says some local elections are just as important to their constituents as the presidential race.

The Kentucky Board of Education and Commissioner Terry Holliday are reviewing public comments given this week on changes to the state’s restraint and seclusion policy for misbehaving students.

The founder of Louisville-based USA Harvest is charged in federal court with mail fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns.

Stan Curtis is accused of stealing more than $183,000 in donations he solicited for the charity, which collects and distributes food for the needy. He’s also charged with failing to report the money as income with the IRS, along with more than $370,000 in travel expenses he allegedly charged to USA Harvest.

A.T. Simpson Jr., an associate professor at Bellarmine University, will teach a condensed version of his Music in the Black Church course through the Louisville Free Public Library next month.

The course will explore traditional African music, American folk music, European classical music and American pop music, and will touch on everything from traditional Negro spirituals to hip hop.

Louisville Gas and Electric has withdrawn its permit application for an additional coal ash landfill at its Cane Run plant.

Coal ash, its storage and its tendency to blow onto neighboring properties have all been headaches for LG&E at Cane Run and the company is planning on phasing it out to build a natural gas facility.

The landfill application, which has been pending since January 2010, was dropped due to the slated natural gas facility and to the building of an earthen wall that allows the existing landfill to hold more coal ash.

WFPL held its second Jefferson County Board of Education debate this week, featuring three of the five candidates vying for the open District 4 seat.

Candidates Eric Bullock, Chuck Haddaway and Lloyd "Chip" White discussed what student achievement means to them, and how the school board might develop the strongest structures to assure student achievement for all JCPS students.

Candidates Melissa "Missy" Smith and Chester Flake were unable to attend.

Stephen "Steve" Ryan withdrew from the race this week.

Louisville's annual IdeaFestival draws top thinkers to the city. Ideally, it gets people talking about the city as well. This year's festival did just that, but the most recent chatter isn't entirely flattering.