TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalKentucky business leaders tell lawmakers to dump teachers defined-benefits pensions
Some of Kentucky’s wealthiest business leaders and best-connected Republican activists sent a letter to state legislators Friday warning that school teachers and other public employees are getting too sweet a deal on their pensions.
The one-page letter, apparently emailed to all members of the General Assembly, said any pension changes made during the 2018 legislative session must include “moving all future employees from a defined-benefits system to a defined-contribution system.”
Any pension bill that does not cut this benefit “willfully ignores the inherent structure problems at the heart of the crisis” and “is a disservice to the people of Kentucky,” the letter said.
Republican Gov. Matt Bevin likewise called for a switch to 401(k)-style accounts in a proposal he unveiled with GOP legislative leaders last October. But rank-and-file lawmakers rejected Bevin’s plan after facing protests from teachers in their home districts. So far, with the 60-workday legislative session nearly half over, legislative leaders say they are not yet ready to file a pension bill of their own.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article199570769.html
Freedom From Religion group takes issue with 'blatant praying' at Carter County school
An organization of atheists and agnostics has taken issue with a prayer circle held after a high school basketball game in northeastern Kentucky recently.
Players, cheerleaders and coaches from cross-county rivals West Carter High School and East Carter High School gathered on the court and joined hands in prayer after their game on Jan. 26, according to a post on West Carter School’s Facebook page.
A photo of the prayer time was posted with a caption that said, in part, “What a way to end the game! #cometpride #wearecartercounty.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a news release Friday, asking that school employees stop praying with students and saying the school shouldn’t be using its official page “to endorse religion.”
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article199989374.html
Morehead State University announces buyout plan as financial reckoning begins
Morehead State University is the first of Kentucky’s regional universities to cut its workforce in the face of impending state budget cuts and exploding pension costs, announcing voluntary buyouts that would let employees go part-time or leave the university.
“This spring will ultimately result in a need to make a significant reduction in our employee FTE across all areas of the campus,” President Jay Morgan wrote in a campus-wide email dated Friday. “Our preference is to make those position reductions in vacant personnel lines created through normal employee attrition and ‘voluntary separation options’ before having to consider potential involuntary reductions in force of current employees.”
In Gov. Matt Bevin’s proposed state budget budget, Morehead faces a 6.25 percent cut, or $2.5 million, in overall state funding on top of a $2.7 million increase in pension payments. With fixed cost increases, the actual deficit could be as much as $9 million in each of the next two years. The school also faces dropping enrollment because it draws heavily from Eastern Kentucky, where the economy has been decimated by the coal industry’s decline.
Any proposed buyouts would be considered by administrators on a case-by-case basis, Morgan said. Morgan said he hoped most volunteers would choose to go from full-time to part-time positions, or reduce the number of months they work. Faculty and staff who choose buyouts would also retain certain options, such as tuition benefits for family for three years.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article199919344.html
Critics say UK abused power by having state collect debts. Judge orders it to stop.
A few years back, Sarah Moore got behind on some bills from University of Kentucky HealthCare because of a late reimbursement from Medicaid.
Eventually, UK referred the matter to the Kentucky Department of Revenue, and they began to take money out of Moore’s wages to the tune of $3,800. About 80 percent of that money went to UK to pay the debt — including interest —while the revenue department kept 20 percent as a “collection fee.”
Moore went to attorney Douglas Richards, who was shocked to hear that a local hospital used the state’s taxing authority to go after debts, instead of civil actions. He sued, and Fayette Circuit Court Judge James Ishmael agreed, ruling on Feb. 8 that UK is not eligible to use the revenue department as its collection agency.
UK officials said they have not decided if they will appeal the decision. They have 30 days from the date of the judge’s ruling.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article200482274.html
He used his banking job to issue fraudulent loans. Accomplice spent the money at casinos.
A former officer at a Pikeville bank has been found guilty of conspiring to have fraudulent loans issued that cost the bank nearly $250,000.
A federal-court jury in Pikeville convicted Brent M. Lee, 41, on nine charges, including conspiracy, aiding bank fraud and misapplication of bank funds by an employee, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr.
Lee, who was a market president for Branch Banking & Trust, or BB&T, was charged in the case with Paul D. Fannin, 49, a Floyd County developer, and Fannin’s daughter Chelsea Stone, 25.
Fannin was developing an eight-unit townhome project called Stone Crest Properties and had an outstanding loan of $950,000 with the bank, according to the release.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article200657714.html
Lawmakers want to slash Kentucky's unemployment checks ... to motivate the jobless
FRANKFORT, Ky. – One premise behind a bill pending in the Kentucky House that would roll back long-established unemployment benefits is that limiting benefits will motivate laid-off workers to try harder to find a job.
Instead of getting unemployment checks for the current maximum of 26 weeks, they would only be able to get them for a number of weeks tied to the state unemployment rate. Right now, that means they'd get 14 weeks.
“We’ve got a segment of folks that use their unemployment instead of getting out there and looking for employment," said Rep. Jim DeCesare, a Rockfield Republican and sponsor of the bill. He said Kentucky ranks second among states in the length of time its people remain on unemployment benefits.
But opponents say the bill’s benefit cuts would be a cruel and misguided blow to people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own — particularly in regions of the state with chronic high unemployment rates.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/16/kentucky-unemployment-benefits-cut/333838002/
Marshall County shooting suspect's identity confirmed, will be tried as an adult
BENTON — The charges against a 15-year-old Kentucky student accused of killing two and injuring more than a dozen others in a shooting at Marshall County High School on Jan. 23 will be heard in adult court, per the suspect's arraignment Friday.
Gabriel Ross Parker, of Hardin, Kentucky, is charged "with two counts of Murder and 14 counts of First Degree Assault. The charges stem from the January 23 shooting at Marshall County High School," according to a statement from the Kentucky State Police.
Officials declined to comment further.
Parker's bond was set at $1.5 million.
A Marshall County grand jury met Tuesday to consider trying Parker as an adult. He was originally charged in the Marshall County Juvenile Court, but prosecutors asked for the case to be moved to the county’s circuit court.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2018/02/16/officials-release-identity-marshall-county-shooting-suspect/342649002/
Gov. Matt Bevin protects the NRA while our children keep dying in school shootings
Another senseless mass killing at another school and Matt Bevin is back on the radio and back on Facebook refusing to accept that guns had anything to do with this.
Think about that. We’re talking about mass shootings. Gun violence. And he pretends that guns aren’t involved.
He’s lying to us to protect the National Rifle Association and to protect the profits of the gun industry.
And children keep dying.
Blown to bits. Body parts scattered around the classrooms and halls where they went to learn.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/joseph-gerth/2018/02/16/matt-bevin-school-shootings-violence-joseph-gerth-column/345840002/
Former Kentucky Youth Center Founder Indicted for Fraud
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Attorney in Louisville says the founder of a therapy center has been charged in a scheme to defraud the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice and the federal government.
An indictment charging 61-year-old Clifford Frank "Jay" Wilkinson was unsealed on Thursday. It says Wilkinson and a former employee, 39-year-old Erica Beth Bowen, together falsified attendance records at the Bluegrass Training and Therapy Center by allegedly forging the signatures of youths.
A release from the U.S. Attorney's office says an investigation found 8,000 instances of falsified sign-ins from 2012 to 2015. The indictment says Wilkinson, the center's founder, and Bowen, a former employee, fraudulently obtained more than $400,000 in payments.
If convicted at trial, Wilkerson and Bowen could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2018-02-16/former-kentucky-youth-center-founder-indicted-for-fraud
Kentucky Democrats Hope State Issues Trump Loyalty to Trump
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democrats who lost their grip on power in Kentucky's legislature are fighting back with their biggest lineup of candidates in years.
But their main advantage in a state that's surged toward the GOP might be President Donald Trump's absence atop the ticket in November — and unrest about a contentious first year under Republican rule in Frankfort.
Conceding that Trump remains popular in Kentucky, Democrats hope the adage that all politics is local rings true this year.
Tapping into what they say is discontent over Kentucky's budget and pension problems, Democrats recruited large numbers of women and teachers to field what they say is their highest number of legislative candidates in 18 years. They're competing in 93 of 100 House districts.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2018-02-16/kentucky-dems-hope-state-issues-trump-loyalty-to-trump
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