Politics

Taken together, Kentucky's special taxing districts spend more money than the state spends on Medicaid and infrastructure -- and nearly half of those districts are not following rules on filing budgets or submitting audits, said a report from State Auditor Adam Edelen released Wednesday. 

A special taxing district is a quasi-governmental agency that collects fees or taxes, such as library boards, soil districts and health districts.

Indiana Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma has named a new Ways and Means chairman with an eye on dealing with health care costs in the coming years.

Bosma said Tuesday that Public Health Chairman Tim Brown will move over to take control of the budget-writing committee. State lawmakers will draw up Indiana's next two-year budget when they return for the 2013 session in January.

UCLA Professor Robin D. G. Kelley is a historian and social justice advocate, and a bit of a jazz scholar.

The award-winning author was in Louisville this week for the annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture Series to discuss what he believes is a war on youth through punitive economic and education policies.

Kelley is also an outspoken critic of those who worship the free-market in American politics, and he says neo-liberal ideology—which rose to prominence in the 1990s—poses a threat to all progressive movements.