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Here’s what some of the candidates for Bunning’s seat are saying about the Republican’s recent blockage of an unemployment benefit extension.
The top Republicans seeking to replace Bunning, who is not seeking re-election in November, applauded the 77-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher’s hard ball stance as the top Democrats in the race denounced the move.
Republican Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s secretary of state, said he would “proudly stand up to ensure that programs are paid for …” Republican Rand Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, said “more Senators need to stand up for the taxpayers and against the big spending career politicians in both parties.”
Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, labeled Bunning’s maneuver “cold-hearted disregard for his fellow Kentuckians.” Democrat Jack Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, accused Bunning of “grandstanding and political posturing, despite being asked to stop even by his Republican colleagues.”
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said 119,230 unemployed Kentuckians are receiving benefits through the federal extension program that will expire Sunday. About 14,000 of those would exhaust their benefits within two weeks without the extension, he said. Kentucky’s unemployment rate stands at 10.7 percent.
With the new development plan for the Floyds Fork greenway in place, the stage is set for work on two parks in the area. I wrote about the plan yesterday, and today, in two separate conversations, two issues came up. I want to bring them here for a discussion.
1. Parks can attract commercial and residential development. How should this be governed in Floyds Fork?
2. Should public money be spent on parks that are hard, if not impossible, to reach by public transportation? It’s hard for people to get to Floyds Fork if they don’t drive, but how should this be balanced with serving taxpayers who live in the area?
Kentucky Public Radio’s Stu Johnson filed this piece yesterday:
Legislation to permit bible literacy courses in Kentucky high schools has easily cleared the Kentucky senate.
Individual school councils would decide whether to offer the elective bible literacy class. Bill sponsor David Boswell says if the course is taught and not preached, it meets constitutional muster…
“We’ve promoted this piece of legislation purely from an academic standpoint from its inception,” he says.
Boswell says the bill doesn’t mandate a certain version of the bible. The measure passed 37 to one with Lexington senator Kathy Stein voting no. She says she believes the bill is “fraught with peril.’’’
“There will be a great deal of pressure on teachers in various communities to teach the bible as true history,” she says.
Stein says children of other faiths or no faith at all might drop the course. Boswell’s not sure how the bill will fare in the house. If passed into law, he says courses could probably be offered this fall.
On Thursday, All Things Considered ran a piece on synthetic voices, sort of like the ones in the promo for this site. Here’s a clip from ATC where Robert Siegel learns how to create a voice from existing speech.
SIEGEL: How do you go about doing this? How do you create a voice?
Dr. AYLETT: To a certain extent, the methodology is fairly straightforward. You take a lot of audio from a speaker. You then cut that up into tiny little pieces. Each piece is a little sound. So for example, cat would be made up of three sounds, /k/, /a/, and /t/.
In order to then produce a new sentence, you then take those sounds, you rearrange them, and you stick them back together again.
SIEGEL: But you would need an awful lot of sound of one voice to do that.
Dr. AYLETT: Not as much sound as you might think because although there are hundreds and thousands of words, within English, there are only about 45 different sounds.
From Rick Howlett and the AP:
THE KENTUCKY SENATE HAS VOTED OVERWHELMINGLY TO ALLOW BIBLE CLASSES TO BE TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACROSS KENTUCKY.
THE BILL CLEARED THE SENATE ON A 37-1 VOTE THURSDAY AND NOW GOES TO THE HOUSE FOR CONSIDERATION.
DEMOCRATIC STATE SEN. KATHY STEIN (stine) OF LEXINGTON CAST THE ONLY DISSENTING VOTE. SHE QUESTIONED THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE MEASURE SPONSORED BY SEN. DAVID BOSWELL, WHO’S ALSO A DEMOCRAT.
UNDER THE PROPOSAL, BIBLE COURSES WOULD BE OFFERED AS ELECTIVES, MEANING STUDENTS COULD DECIDE WHETHER TO TAKE THEM.
In case you missed it earlier, The Environment Report produced a nice documentary on the future of coal in America and you can listen to it here.
Coal: Dirty Past, Hazy Future “explores the role that coal plays in our lives and in the lives of those who depend on coal mining for a living. Can coal truly be a viable option in the new green economy?”
Republican Senate candidate and Secretary of State Trey Grayson has a new ad discussing national security.
It follows his opponent Rand Paul‘s ad on security.
Groups of lawmakers throughout the country are talking about this season’s most popular portmanteau. A bill punishing sexting cleared a Kentucky House committee yesterday, and the Illinois legislature is considering similar legislation.
Two measures are working their way through Illinois state government. They range in punishment, but could mandate counseling or community service for offenders. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on the legislation, and says this:
The issue has highlighted a part of cyber culture — and youth culture — that has clearly shocked and baffled the generally middle-aged lawmakers studying the problem. When one critic referred to some “sexting” as merely “a Romeo-and-Juliet thing,” state Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, responded, incredulously: “I don’t remember that from Shakespeare!”
Missouri lawmakers dropped sexting language from a crime bill last year.
The last time we checked in, crews had torn down the hut outside the old Cafe Kilimanjaro on 4th Street. We knew Sapporo was coming, but we weren’t sure what was in the works for the area where the hut was. Turns out…it’s another hut.
This sign is up in the window of the new development. It looks like the old door to Songs For Seba will be turned into a window, and the Cafe Kilimanjaro entrance will be the front door, behind a new gate from the sidewalk. There’s a stone wall going up to the sidewalk and a larger hut behind it to cover outdoor seating.
There’s no date posted for when the new Sapporo will open, but crews are moving fast.
Magellan Data has apologized for improper polling techniques in their recent senate poll. From Page One:
Magellan Data, the pollster who released the latest alleged data showing Rand Paul 21 points ahead of Trey Grayson, has released this statement:
“MAGELLAN DATA AND MAPPING STRATEGIES APOLOGIZES FOR NOT INCLUDING BILL JOHNSON AND OTHER DECLARED US SENATE CANDIDATES IN KENTUCKY GOP PRIMARY SURVEY”
[edit]
Magellan is admitting to just about anybody who asks that this poll was conducted solely to get on the radar of other GOP candidates.
If they can’t get the field of candidates right in a race that’s so widely publicized, how on earth are we supposed to trust that, oh, telephone numbers are dialed correctly?
Obviously Rand Paul is ahead of Trey Grayson – but this is a mess.
