Politics

Indiana House Democrats have voted to replace Rep. Patrick Bauer as their leader amid criticism over how he's handled campaign fundraising and spending heading into the November elections.

Members of the Democratic caucus made the move today during a meeting in Lafayette. Twenty-three members of the 40-member caucus attended the meeting.

Rep. Linda Lawson of Hammond has been chosen to be the new leader.

Despite accounting mistakes and unforeseen disaster relief expenses, state government is closing the 2012 budget with another surplus.

Originally, the budgetary surplus was 83 million dollars, now it's almost halved to 45 million dollars.

State Budget Director Mary Lassiter informed lawmakers of the surplus at an interim committee meeting today. And she says the remaining surplus will be put into the legislature’s savings account.

Former Democratic Governor  John Y. Brown Jr., is disappointed with President Barack Obama's job performance and is criticizing the national party for "acting like socialists" over free enterprise.

Brown served as Kentucky's governor from 1979 to 1983, and is successful businessman and a revered patriarch among state Democrats past and present.

In an interview with Pure Politics, Brown said Mr. Obama doesn't understand the economy and is more interested in "taking care of people instead of taking care of our Constitution" and getting people back to work.

The unemployment rate in the Louisville metro area increased to 8.3 percent in the month of June, which is a slight uptick, according to the Kentucky Office Of Employment & Training.

The numbers released Thursday show the jobless rate was 8.1 percent in May, but that unemployment is down significantly when compared to the 9.9 percent rate last year. Statistics in the report cover the 13-county metropolitan statistical area that includes surrounding Kentucky counties and Southern Indiana. It shows approximately 53,700 people are unemployed.