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It’s time for business and political leaders to focus on a joint economic and education strategy that can diversify industries in Eastern Kentucky and keep college graduates in the area, said Crit Luallen, the former state auditor and potential Democratic candidate for governor. “Coal still matters in Kentucky. And it will be a part of the mix. But it is changing,” Luallen said in the first minute of the interview And because of that change, Eastern Kentucky needs new economic... Read more 

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes would make a “formidable” U.S. Senate candidate but needs space to decide whether to take on a tough and “mean” campaigner like U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, said Democratic strategist Paul Begala. “Only a fool would, as George W. Bush might say, mis-underestimate Mitch McConnell. He’s a formadible guy … He’s tough, he’s mean and he’s usually sucessful,” Begala told Pure Politics at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. But he said Grimes has a lot going for... Read more 

The price of going to Kentucky’s public universities doesn’t necessarily translate to how much debt students incur — or whether they default on their loans. A review of Kentucky’s eight public university’s performance measurements on the White House College Scorecard shows, for instance, that Northern Kentucky University has the lowest average actual cost to students ($7,834 per year) but the highest per-student-debt ($17,105, or $196.84 a month). The University of Kentucky has the highest average cost in the state at... Read more 

The University of Louisville can keep its tuition increase next year to less than 3 percent as ordered, but the university’s research efforts could be stunted by federal cuts to agencies that provide research grants, the UofL President said. James Ramsey said he’s concerned federal cuts — through budget reductions and the recent across-the-board sequester cuts — will affect both student financial aid funding as well as research grants. One of the top sources for grants has been the National... Read more 

Attorney General Jack Conway said he’s had a “few preliminary conversations” with potential running mates in the 2015 governor’s race and said he hopes he and Crit Luallen can work it out so that they won’t run against each other. Luallen, the former state auditor and a mentor of Conway’s, told Pure Politics on Friday that she hopes she and Conway can “settle this amicably as we both think through what our options are.” Conway said he agreed as he continues... Read more 

Non-profit groups and quasi-governmental agencies that are part of the Kentucky Retirement System could get some relief for their rising pension costs when state lawmakers craft the next two-year budget, said Gov. Steve Beshear. “The thing that these quasi-governmental agencies do need to understand is that the $100 million in new revenue that we created when we passed the revised pension plan does include funds to help pay for the increase in pension costs that these quasi-governmental agencies will have,”... Read more 

The U.S. Senate should revive a proposal to apply background checks to the sale of guns at gun shows and over the Internet, Attorney General Jack Conway said. “Right now we have about 40 percent of sales that are not subject to background checks,” Conway said. An amendment offered by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania fell four votes shy of passing last month when the gun bill came up in the... Read more 

Gov. Steve Beshear’s direction to the Council on Postsecondary Education last month was clear: tuition at Kentucky’s public universities cannot go up more than 3 percent. Most have raised tuition between 4 percent and 6 percent each of the last several years. “There’s not a whole lot of new money that’s going to be coming down the pike, and we all know that. So we’re going to have to be more innovative. We’ve got to find new ways of delivering... Read more 

Republicans from Woodford, Fayette and Franklin counties on Tuesday night picked former House candidate Lyen Crews, an administrator at Midway College, to go up against Democrat James Kay in the June 25 special election to replace Democratic Rep. Carl Rollins. Four Republicans were nominated but the other three withdrew their names after Crews addressed the GOP 56th District committee. The Republican Party of Kentucky issued a statement with an excerpt of Crews’ remarks: “For nearly a century now, Democrats have... Read more 

House Democrats and Senate Republicans said publicly Tuesday that they’re “ready” for a special session on redistricting after Gov. Steve Beshear told Pure Politics he wants them to deal with it before the end of the year. Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo sent Beshear a letter Tuesday calling for a “quick resolution” on new House and Senate maps in light of a federal lawsuit filed in Northern Kentucky on Friday. The suit, first reported by Scott Wartman of the... Read more