The Rev. Canon Carol L. Wade, former canon precentor at the National Cathedral in Washington, will be the new dean and rector at Lexington's historic Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral. She is the first woman to hold either position at the downtown church.Wade will assume her new duties in September...
The Fayette County School Board has named Daviess County Superintendent Tom Shelton as superintendent to replace out-going superintendent Stu Silberman.
The congregations of 18 churches in the state are considering whether to take a stand to have ministers refuse to sign marriage licenses as a protest of Kentucky's refusal to allow same-sex marriage.Two Louisville churches — First Unitarian Church and Douglass Boulevard Christian Church &mdash...;
A video recording that was thought to contain a woman's confession that she was the driver who hit and killed a Lexington police officer showed only an "explicit sexual episode," according to the Fayette commonwealth's attorney's office.The possible existence of a taped confession came to light Monday...
For the first time, a Lexington teen who shot and killed his best friend publicly apologized to the victim's family.Jamar Mays, 18, told Ali Shalash's family — his mother, Gwendolyn Perkins, in particular — he was sorry during a sentencing hearing Thursday."I want to apologize to Miss...
SHAKERTOWN — As I sat in Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill's Meadow View Barn late last month listening to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center soothe the audience with Mozart and Schumann and rouse them with Bartók, it occurred to me just how lucky Central Kentuckians are to have...
Galbraith blamed partisan politics for Kentucky’s woes and said as an independent, he will work with both sides of the aisle.
“I foresee that after my stint as governor, I’m going to be one of the most disliked people in the state because I’m going to have to make decisions that neither party candidate can possibly make, because they’ve got to answer to the party,” Galbraith said. “I don’t answer to anybody except God and an occasional judge or two.”
Galbraith said the state should allow the growing of hemp as a source of bio-fuel.
“If you planted 7 percent of the U.S. Agricultural land in hemp, we wouldn’t have to import another drop of oil,” Galbraith said. “Gee, reckon if there’s anyone out there that doesn’t want that to happen? People I call the petrol-chemical-pharmaceutical-industrial-transnational-corporate-fascist-elitist SOBS.”
Galbraith said if people voted for gambling, it should be run by the state and should be placed at the racetracks.
“We better keep these racetracks here because that’s what’s keeping the breeders here,” Galbraith said. “We need to protect the horse breeding industry. My running mate and I want to brand Kentucky as the horse capital of the world…We’d like to build the world’s largest statue of a horse out at the horse park. We would get tourists in here to take a look at that thing and spend their money here. St. Louis has the golden arch. Cairo has the Sphinx. Let’s put a big ole horse in front of the Kentucky Horse Park.”
On Tuesday, State Auditor Crit Luallen found no evidence of wrongdoing in the retirement agency, but did raise concerns about the use of placement agents, who act as middlemen to secure investments from entities like the KRS. The report found New York placement agent Glen Sergeon had “an unusually close working relationship” with former KRS chief investment officer Adam Tosh, who resigned last summer.
Galbraith campaign manager Ralph Long says the audit didn’t go far enough in probing Tosh’s activities within the agency or his relationship with Sergeon.
The audit primarily blames former Chief Investment Officer CIO Adam Tosh who left town one month before the placement agent scandal was revealed, and one placement agent, Glen Sergeon but does not recommend any prosecution, just blame these two guys and sweep the whole thing under the rug.
(SNIP)
Why did the staff wait until Tosh was gone to inform the board about placement agents? Are there any plans to prosecute Tosh? Why did the Auditor decide not to look into the land deal? Why does the audit not address HB 480 relating to term limits and placement agents?
“The special audit of KRS was conducted by professional audit staff with years of training and experience,” she says. “We stand by their work.”
Long has not returned our request for comment.
UPDATE:
Continuing his criticism of the audit, Long told WFPL News he wasn’t speaking on behalf of the campaign and believes Luallen’s office are professionals but should have allowed a third party to investigate the retirement agency instead.
“I think it might have been done better by an outside firm with a greater degree of expertise in the investment field. I would like to see the legislature come back and construct a better oversight of the Kentucky Retirement Systems,” he says.
The lack of transparency in quasi-government agencies could become an issue in the governor’s race, Long says.
The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce sent out a release yesterday defending its decision to have Gov. Steve Beshear and Senate President David Williams speak, but not independent gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith.
Galbraith complained that he, too, should be allowed to address the organization.
But the Chamber said that it invited Beshear and Williams to the July 11-12 meeting not as gubernatorial candidates but as elected officials.
“As the two top elected officials in Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear and Senate President David L. Williams have been invited to discuss the Kentucky Chamber’s newest policy publication, Building and Stronger Bucket, a sequel to the groundbreaking 2009 report, The Leaky Bucket,” said Bryan Sunderland, the Chamber’s vice president of public affairs.
Galbraith hasn’t officially filed to run but has filed to raise and spend money on the campaign.
He's run unsuccessfully before, but he says he's got a great plan and adds Kentucky is definitely ready for change.
"The most important thing right now is my running mate and I are Independent, no party affiliation whatsoever," said Galbraith. "We don't want one. The parties have their horns locked up like two bull elk fighting over territory, while the business of people lays dead in the dust. The business of the people is the budget."
Galbraith says it's time to put in a budget based on science and truth, not on corruption.
He has several plans for taxes, including how much we should pay.
"Right now the wage earner and the small business is bearing the brunt of the tax burden," said Galbraith. "It's time that we spread that out and let the corporations start paying their fair share and see if we can't equalize it on the backs of everybody instead of putting it on the backs of the people who can least afford it."
As in the past, Galbraith says he is still for medical marijuana.
"Now 19 states and the District of Columbia and the AmericanMedicalAssociation all agree with me," said Galbraith. "Medical marijuana in the hands of the sick and dying under license and regulation could save this state between 500 million and a billion dollars a year in health care costs."
Galbraith adds hemp could be a staple cash crop for the commonwealth if medical marijuana was legal in Kentucky.
Since he has run before, Galbraith joked that he's been called a perennial candidate, but he adds Kentucky has perennial problems.
"If the people who had beaten me the first time would have actually solved the problems, I wouldn't have had to run again, but they didn't and they haven't and they can't because neither party can produce a candidate that can disengage from the partisanship long enough to actually work with the other side to try to get something done," said Galbraith. "My running mate and I believe an Independent governor who does not care who gets credit for doing what's right for the people stands the best chance of using civility and statesmanship to get the best and brightest from both parties to join together to finally address the problems."
Galbraith adds he feels an Independent governor is more appealing now because the disfunctionality of the state is apparent to more and more people all the time.
If you would like more information on Gatewood Galbraith and his running mate, Dea Riley, click here.
We know that an organization is only as good as the people who work in that organization. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has an excellent work force that needs to be treated with respect and compensated fairly.
We feel that state employees should be allowed to do their jobs with openness and creativity and be held accountable for their job performance. Our administration will immediately make policy and procedural changes and aggressively push a legislative agenda to make this happen.
We will work with the General Assembly to reform our tax system so it will adequately fund the operation of state government and end the chronic budget problems that have led to so much partisan political infighting in Frankfort. We will end the millions of dollars of personal service contracts that bleed the Commonwealth dry. In fiscal year 2010 the Commonwealth spent almost $420 million tax dollars in “professional contracts.”
Our administration will carefully monitor expenditures such as travel costs paid by the state. In fiscal year 2010 the state paid over $34 million in travel expenses. While the state faced budget shortfalls, travel costs of over $3.3 million were charged to the Commonwealth’s American Express Card. Some of the travel was justified and necessary, but some of the travel was an excuse to party on the state’s dime. That party is over.
The practice of nepotism will be banned in state government. Hiring will be done on experience and qualifications alone. We will seek to attract the most capable people to work in state government. Favoritism and political payoffs will not be tolerated. We will reduce the number of non-merit jobs in state government.
In return for having the most qualified people working in an open, transparent and accountable environment, we make these promises to all current and future state employees.
Every budget sent to the legislature will totally fund every state employee’s salary. There will be no furloughs. We will not permit state agencies or quasi-governmental agencies, like Kentucky Educational Television, to furlough or fire employees while raising the salaries of non-merit management in the agency. Our administration will not punish one group of employees to reward another group of employees.
Every budget will contain cost of living adjustments for all employees. We cannot continue, as previous administrations have done, to balance the budget on the backs of state employees.
Every budget will make positive steps to correct the underfunding of the Kentucky Retirement System. We cannot fix decades of legislative underfunding of the retirement system in four years, but we can start moving the system to a sound actuarial base.
Every budget will contain funds for the education and training of all state employees. An educated work force in Kentucky state government is necessary to provide the services the taxpayers of Kentucky demand and deserve.
Every budget will contain funds for exceptional performance by state workers. Employees that go above and beyond what their job requires should be rewarded.
Our philosophy regarding how you treat employees is simple.
You hire the best and brightest people you can find. You pay them a fair wage. You give them the tools and work place conditions so they can do the job. Give them the opportunity and freedom to impress you with their brilliance and demand transparency, accountability and excellence from every employee.
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