June 29 best guess when 2017 legislation takes effect, including Senate Bill 150

After checking around State Government this morning, perhaps I’ve finally landed on the date that legislation from the 2017 session takes effect. June 29. Now that’s for all legislation that did not have an “Emergency Clause” attached to it. For those new laws, they become effective when the ink dries from the Governor’s signature. For all other legislation, apparently June […]

Into the Issues: Trust in the media in low, be it local or national

  By Al Cross, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Before getting into Al’s monthly column, here’s an opportunity for you. Al is offering these bumper stickers, Support Democracy / Subscribe bumper strip that you may have seen in the latest edition of Pub Aux. He is selling and mailing these pretty much at cost, $1 each for up to […]

April 21 deadline to reserve a seat at Journalism Hall of Fame lunch

The nine include Lewis Conn, Bill Matthews, Ron Daley, Dr. Mike Farrell, Mary D. Ferguson and Bettye Lee Mastin Just to remind you to make your reservation as soon as possible if you plan to attend the April 28 lunch. As an update: Recipient Tom Butler passed way Friday, March 31. Nine new members will join the Kentucky Journalism Hall of […]

Herald-Leader series wins President’s Award

  Led to legislative study By Karla Ward, kward1@herald-leader.com A Herald-Leader series that explained how a property tax break intended to help farmers was being applied to 10-acre laws and land pegged for development has won a McClatchy President’s Award The judges called the series “an impressive example of identifying an outrageous problem that’s hiding in plain sight.” It prompted […]

Laptop problem took me back to Typing class in ’63

Oh my asdfjkl;. I know that won’t get through spell check but… Wrote a few weeks ago about typing an email to KPA Vice President Jay Nolan. Only the J was reluctant to strike a letter on the screen and TO: Jay Nolan became TO:  ay Nolan. Hold the key down for a couple of seconds and it would show […]

In first two months, $4.6 million spent on lobbying

Although the General Assembly was in session for just 20 days, $4.6 million was spent on lobbying in the first two months of the 2017 short session. Once again, the top spending lobbying organization was the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which spent $88,090, 19 percent more than the Chamber spent in the same period in last year’s long session. In […]

Record number of firms registered to lobby state legislature

As the 2017 General Assembly adjourned, 722 businesses and organizations were registered to lobby. That’s a nine percent increase since this time last year. The businesses and organizations which have registered to lobby in the past month are: Americans United for Separation of Church & State; Appalachian Citizens Law Center, Inc.; Celgene Corp.; Center for Education Reform; Kentucky Association of […]

Are printed papers going the way of Sears and Macy’s?

There are commonalities and that could be a good thing Peter W. Wagner, Founder, The N’West Iowa REVIEW The March edition of FORTUNE magazine forecasts a difficult future for America’s department stores. From total sales of $230 billion in the 1990’s. the figure dropped to $155 billion last year. “But big chains continue to command loyalty from older shoppers,” reports […]

Qualify your advertising prospects

  By John Foust, Raleigh, NC You may have heard the old story about the door-to-door salesman who was selling vacuum cleaners way out in the country. When a lady came to the door, he dramatically emptied a bag of dirt onto the floor and boasted, “Ma’am, if this vacuum cleaner doesn’t get rid of every speck of this dirt, I’ll […]