Tagged: Kentucky General Assembly

Three of the chief opponents to raising the dropout age in Kentucky will not return to Frankfort next year.

That doesn't mean a dropout bill is likely to pass in the 2013 legislative session.

State law allows 16-year-olds to drop out of school with parental permission. But education advocates want the law changed to eliminate all loopholes and require dropouts to be 18 or older.

With a new education chairman and new leadership in the Senate, those advocates are hopeful this will be their year.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes wants to explore the possibility of early voting in the commonwealth.

Across the country, 32 states and the District of Columbia permit a version of early voting that allows residents to cast their ballot prior to Election Day without an excuse.

Kentucky is surrounded by states that do allow early voting such as Indiana and Ohio, and state law only allows absentee voting for specific reasons such as pregnancy, being disable or military service.

Grimes says after the 2012 presidential race her office wants to review the effectiveness of eleciton procedures, adding she is concerned that Kentuckian’s voices aren’t being heard.

"During the period leading up to the general election we had a lot of Kentuckians who questioned what Kentucky’s current laws are regarding absentee voting. And right now here in the state of Kentucky you cannot vote early without an excuse," she says. "And at this time I think it is prudent for us to listen to the voices of the citizens who we work so hard to protect, and to respond to our customers."

A Lexington lawmaker says she will apologize for making a disparaging comment about another legislator that appeared on Facebook.

Democratic state Sen. Kathy Stein told the Lexington Herald-Leader that she made the comment on an old blog and thought it would be private, but the commenting system was powered by Facebook and so her post also appeared on her Facebook account.

The Republican state Senate has completed it's shake-up, after announcing new committee chairs today. 

With multiple chairmen retiring and others promoted into leadership, the caucus had many roles to fill, including that of chairmen for Education, Judiciary, Agriculture and Natural Resources. 

And in another move, the caucus named State Senator David Givens as c0-chair to the budget committee, with Senator Bob Leeper.

Incoming freshman Senator Whitney Westerfield is the new judiciary chairman. The full list of Republican chairs are below, with * by new chairs.

Gov. Steve Beshear is considering multiple options in the efforts to get the General Assembly to support expanded gambling legislation.

A constitutional amendment failed earlier this year in the state Senate -- and a major complaint from critics was that the amendment did too much to protect thoroughbred racing tracks over other businesses. The bill banned casinos from being within 60 miles of a race track, unless the casino was at the track.