Wittensville News

“We had probably been at the first one for maybe an hour or so before we started seeing smoke at the second one”

Several Eastern Kentucky families are homeless after an early morning fire rips through two different buildings. via WKYT-TV Lexington

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“There's nothing in it for a lot of people”

Some rank-and-file Kentucky lawmakers expressed their unhappiness Tuesday with emerging details of a negotiated $19 billion two-year state budget agreement between the House and Senate. via Lexington Herald-Leader

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“We will begin hearing Senate bills next week”

House Republicans, fresh off their frustration over what they considered snubs in the budget, tried to force House Democratic leaders to call up a Senate bill that would require a woman to have an ultrasound before having an abortion.

Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, tried to use a procedural measure called a discharge petition -- signed Wednesday night by more than 20 others -- to try to pry the bill from the House Judiciary Committee where it has been sitting since Feb. 12.

But the measure, which requires 51 votes to pass, got 40 votes. Sixteen lawmakers voted against the measure. Read more

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“At this time I don't think I'll support any tax hikes at all”

Rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives began bracing Monday for the difficult choice that awaits them later this week: raise taxes or cut education spending.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said leaders have devised several options to raise $400 million a year to bolster an austere $18.8 billion spending plan proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear. The governor's budget cuts spending next year by about $165 million.

Richards likened the choices that await House Democrats during a closed-door caucus on Thursday to a TV game show. Read more

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“I think we all share the common goal of getting the plate out”

FRANKFORT The effort to create a state 'In God We Trust' license plate is causing some controversy, and not because of questions about separation of church and state.

Rather, there are two different groups proposing a plate with the same motto. One is a non-profit that raises awareness of what it believes are damages caused by pornography and the sex trade. The other is the legislature.

Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK), the non-profit, applied Nov. 26 to the state Transportation Cabinet to establish a specialty 'In God We Trust' plate six weeks before state Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, filed House Bill 207 to create the same plate. Read more

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“Obviously an option that would be on the table is tolling, and we realize that”

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The state's highway plan proposes spending $175 million in federal money on the Ohio River Bridges Project over the next two years, an amount Kentucky transportation officials say will keep ... via The Courier-Journal

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“If the bridges need to be tolled, then so be it to get this project completed”

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Leaders of the "8664" movement said today that tolls could be part of paying for a plan to raze a stretch of Interstate 64 in downtown Louisville and re-route some traffic along a new eastern ... via The Courier-Journal

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“These trucks have got to slow down.”

Two Johnson County grandmothers are seeking several million dollars for the deaths of their son and daughter, who were killed in a collision with a tractor trailer on U.S. 23 in Johnson County last year. via Independent

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Lawmakers holding top leadership positions and chairing major committees are among the 10 Morehead State University alumni serving in the 2008 session of the Kentucky General Assembly which opens Jan. via WMKY-FM Morehead

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