Kenny Colston

Services members would be counted differently in future U.S. Censuses under a successful amendment to a major defense bill that's to be debated in the U.S. Congress -- an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Currently, family members living on a military base are counted there as residents, but if a soldier is deployed away from the base, he is not counted as a base resident.

The executive director of Kentucky's Legislative Ethics Commission has been honored for his 15 years of work on the commission.

Judge Anthony Wilhoit has received the COGEL Award, given by the Council of Government Ethics Laws. It's the highest international award in the field of governmental ethics.

Wilhoit took over the commission in 1997 after a series of controversies in the General Assembly. Wilhoit has more than 50 years of public service, including several years on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

Is now the time for the General Assembly to address expanded gambling? (Again.) With just more than a month before the 2013  session begins, observers of the Kentucky legislature are wondering.

A few new factors are at play: First is the governor’s continued interest in the topic. Second expanded gambling's chief opponent, David Williams, is gone.

Kentucky should meet its goal of $55 million in revenue from the state's latest round of tax amnesty, the commissioner of the Department of Revenue told lawmakers on Thursday.

People who owe Kentucky taxes have until 9 p.m. Friday to get their application postmarked or delivered to the state. 

Revenue Commissioner Thomas Miller told lawmakers today that his office has recovered tax revenue from people in all 120 counties of the Commonwealth and all 50 states.

The No. 1 priority for the Kentucky House in 2013 is set: Tackling recommendations from a recent report that found that special taxing districts have big budgets and little oversight.

Auditor Adam Edelen recently finished a report on the districts, detailing billions of dollars in spending with little to no oversight in most areas. Special taxing districts include the Metropolitan Sewer District and library boards.

Republican advocates of industrial hemp in Kentucky are getting some across the aisle help.

Rep. John Yarmuth, a Louisville Democrat, supports efforts to legalize the plant in Kentucky, his spokesman said. U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Agriculture Commissioner James Comer are the two leading advocates for the move.

They want legalization to take advantage of the many goods that hemp can produce to create jobs.

This month, voters in Colorado and Washington elected to legalize marijuana in their states. And this week, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police told his state’s lawmakers that he supports legalizing and regulating marijuana.

The traditionally hard-line stance American officials have held against marijuana is relaxing in some places -- but don't expect Kentucky law enforcement to follow along.

The State Senate Republican Caucus has officially nominated Sen. Robert Stivers for Senate president.

Stivers’ new role won’t be official until it’s voted on by the full chamber in early January. But the GOP holds a 24-14 advantage, meaning Stivers is all but certain to succeed former Senate President David Williams. Williams left the Senate to take a position as a circuit judge.

A battle may be brewing over the future of Kentucky higher education -- should the state add another state university, this one serving Appalachia?

The leader of the Kentucky House thinks so -- and he said he won't support any extra funding for higher education until the University of Pikeville joins the state university system.

Kentucky’s lone independent state senator says his record as budget chairman is the reason he should be the next state Senate president. 

Originally a Democrat, Leeper made the switch to the GOP in 2000, before becoming an Independent later that decade. He may be the one state senator who can say he has literally worked with each side of the aisle in Frankfort.

Now, he’s hoping to convince Senate Republicans to make him the next president of the chamber, because he has been a loyal GOP caucus member and budget chairman.