Kentucky News Now – January 8th, 2014

COMMONWEALTH ADDRESS

Beshear touts tax overhaul, expanded gambling

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov. Steve Beshear is renewing his push for revamping Kentucky's tax code and legalizing expanded gambling as ways to raise more revenue to meet the state's pressing needs after years of budget cuts.

In his annual State of the Commonwealth speech Tuesday night, Beshear said Kentucky can't continue making progress without meeting its needs in education, health care and human services.

Beshear told a joint session of the House and Senate that he will present a tax modernization proposal during the legislative session that started Tuesday. He says it will include a proposed constitutional amendment that would give Kentucky cities and counties the authority to impose a local sales tax.

He's also repeating his request for a ballot measure allowing voters to decide whether to legalize casino gambling.

KENTUCKY SENATE-MARKSBERRY

Marksberry claims he was offered aid to leave race

(Information in the following story is from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com )

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An independent candidate in this year's U.S. Senate race in Kentucky says when he was running as a Democrat, a Kentucky Democratic Party "person" offered to pay his campaign debt if he left the race.

The Courier-Journal reports the campaign of Democratic front-runner Alison Lundergan Grimes and the state Democratic Party both denied offering Marksberry anything to leave the race and said they didn't ask an intermediary to offer him anything.

Marksberry's allegations were first made in a letter to the blog Page One Kentucky. In an interview with The Courier-Journal, Marksberry refused to say who the party person was or whether the person was based in Frankfort or local. He also wouldn't say whether the person had direct ties to the Grimes campaign.

Marksberry decided to run as an independent rather than as a Democrat last year.

COMMONWEALTH ADDRESS-EDUCATION

Beshear says he's determined to find school funds

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov. Steve Beshear is making his case for the state to start reinvesting in education funding.

Beshear told state lawmakers in his annual State of the Commonwealth speech that schools have stretched every dollar as far as they can, and now they're out of options.

The governor said Tuesday night that he's determined to find money to reinvest in education, even if he has to make "harmful cuts" to other, unspecified government programs to do so.

Beshear says if the state continues to cut or freeze education funding, schools face the prospect of laying off teachers, increasing class sizes and falling behind in technology.

The Department of Education has asked lawmakers for an additional $336 million to restore funding to pre-recession levels.

FORT CAMPBELL-DEPLOYMENT

Unit to case colors before deployment

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — A Fort Campbell-based battalion is set to case its colors before deploying to Afghanistan later this year.

The 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment will conduct the ceremony Jan. 10 at the sprawling military post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

The unit colors are a flag that represents the unit on the battlefield, and casing it symbolizes the unit is prepared for movement.

Once in Afghanistan, the battalion will provide protection for coalition forces across Afghanistan against the threat of indirect fire.

The "Strike Fear" battalion deployed to Afghanistan in 2013, when its members worked to protect Forward Operating Base Shank in the Logar province of eastern Afghanistan, in the north of the city of Gardez.

PROPERTY SALE

Bids to be opened Jan. 22 for historic Ky. house

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The winning bidder will be announced later this month for the red clapboard Hoge House in downtown Frankfort.

The Kentucky Division of Real Properties says it will open the bids on Jan. 22 for the 19th century house.

Site visits are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday or 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 15.

Interested bidders are encouraged to attend one of the site visits.

The approximately 2,560-square-foot structure is situated on nearly a third of an acre.

The state acquired the Hoge House in 1973 from a private owner. The house has been home to various state agency offices since 1973, with the most recent being the Commission on Military Affairs.

DEEP FREEZE-TVA

TVA says peak power was second highest for winter

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Valley Authority preliminary figures show demand for power at 8 a.m. EST on Tuesday reached the second highest winter peak in TVA history.

According to the utility, preliminary power demand reached 32,490 megawatts as temperatures averaged 4 degrees across the TVA region. That is 82 megawatts less than the record winter demand set on Jan. 16, 2009, when temperatures averaged 9 degrees.

The utility had asked local power companies to try to reduce power usage, but by late morning, demand was decreasing and TVA was no longer requesting conservation measures from customers. By late afternoon, TVA had also discontinued in-house conservation measures as well.

TVA is the nation's largest public utility, supplying power to about 9 million people in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.