“Washington needs statesmen, not horse traders. Our country needs principled leaders who will stand up and say no to trillion-dollar deficits.” –Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, in the Washington Times
Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on Nelson County’s ‘Brooks & Co.’ radio show Tuesday
May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Join me Tuesday at 11 a.m. on the “Brooks & Company” radio show on Bardstown’s 1320 WBRT-AM. Listen live here.
The show, which airs each Tuesday from 11 a.m. to Noon, is hosted by Jim Brooks, editor of the Nelson County Gazette, which carries my weekly Bluegrass Beacon column each Thursday.
Start the after-Derby week off right…with Mandy Connell & BIPPS on 84WHAS
May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Start the after-Derby week off right with Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters, who will be on
The Mandy Connell Show Monday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. (eastern) on Louisville’s 84WHAS.
Don’t miss this latest edition of Bluegrass Mondays!
A new era of transparency: Bipartisan investigation reveals department anything but ‘Kentucky Proud’
April 30, 2012 By 1 Comment
His exploits on the basketball court will not be the only thing that remains “unforgettable” about former University of Kentucky basketball standout Richie Farmer’s life in the limelight.
An audit by released today by State Auditor Adam Edelen of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture — known for its Kentucky Proud food products — under Farmer’s leadership, who served from 2004 to 2012, revealed “a toxic culture of entitlement and self-dealing at Kentucky taxpayers’ expense.”
Edelen’s report shows that Farmer used his position of influence that would result in free concrete being donated and state employees building a basketball court in our backyard on taxpayers’ time? And who among the canine cult wouldn’t want to be a member of Farmer’s entourage, where dogs apparently get chauffeured?
In a rare demonstration of bipartisan cooperation in Frankfort, Edelen conducted the audit at the request of Republican James Comer, Farmer’s successor as Ag commissioner.
Read the audit here.
As Edelen said, you should be “outraged” after reading this. If you are not, rush to the doctor and get your pulse checked.
Start the week off right…with Mandy Connell & BIPPS on 84WHAS
April 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Start the week off right with Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters, who will be on
The Mandy Connell Show Monday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. (eastern) on Louisville’s 84WHAS.
Don’t miss this latest edition of Bluegrass Mondays!
Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on Paducah’s WKYX
April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Join me Thursday at 7:30 a.m. (central) on The Greg Dunker Show on Paducah’s NewsTalk 94.3 FM and AM 570.Dunker’s show airs each weekday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (central)
You just never know what an open-records request might reveal
April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
(…It also might offer some clues about why the Williams/Farmer ticket got beat so soundly in the November election. It certainly isn’t because the incumbent had great ideas to move Kentucky forward.)
This from today’s (Louisville) Courier-Journal (emphasis added):
FRANKFORT, KY.— The Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture paid nearly $80,000 to the Marriott Griffin Gate for its various services as host of the association’s 2008 convention at the Lexington resort.
But state emails indicate that it was the group’s then-president, former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, who was credited with 55,000 Marriott Rewards points earned in connection with the event.
Last week The Courier-Journal obtained hundreds of pages of records relating to the convention in response to an Open Records Act request filed with the office of Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.
The records are not clear about whether the reward points were related to a $67,730 bill paid by association or an $11,640 bill paid by the state agency, or both.
The records include a June 30, 2008, email from Marriott that begins, “Dear Richie Farmer, thank you for holding your recent event at one of the participating Marriott locations. This message confirms that you earned 55,000 Marriott Rewards points for holding your event at the Lexington Griffin Gate Resort. These Marriott Rewards points were added to your Marriott Rewards account on 06/30/2008.”
Other records include an email dated May 30, 2008, in which Farmer’s executive assistant sent his Marriott Rewards account number to the department official who was coordinating planning for the convention.
Holly VonLuehrte, general counsel for the Agriculture Department, said in an interview Tuesday, “It is our understanding from the individual that was managing this situation for the department that she was directed to ensure that those points were credited to the former commissioner.”
The website for Marriott Rewards says members can purchase 1,000 points for $12.50. At that rate, the 55,000 points that Farmer received are worth $687.50. Also, a customer service representative for Marriott Rewards said Tuesday that a one-night stay at a Marriott would cost between 7,500 to 40,000 points, depending on the category of the hotel.
Quote of the day: Basketball isn’t the only thing Ky is good at
April 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Kentucky is the No. 1 producer of aluminum in the United States, contributing $3.5 billion to the economy. It’s every bit a signature industry … like bourbon, thoroughbred horses and coal in terms of the kind of impact it has.” –Mike Baker, former director of the Kentucky Aluminum Network, quoted in today’s Bowling Green Daily News
No charter school rally today
March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The rally to show support for a proposal to bring charter schools to Kentucky originally planned for today has been cancelled.
Instead, charter school supporters will meet with their legislators to show their support for a proposal to create a pilot program of 20 charter schools in Kentucky, with at half of those schools to be placed in low-income areas of the commonwealth.
Some ‘no-brainers’ about mindless meth policy
March 28, 2012 By 1 Comment
During a 90-minute debate on whether limits should be placed on the amount of pseudoephedrine — used to make the dangerous and addictive drug methamphetamine — that individual Kentuckians are allowed to purchase, House Minority Whip Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, who’s in his 15th legislative term (30 years) called the assault on our personal freedom “a no-brainer.”
Actually, what’s a “no-brainer” is that penalizing law-abiding citizens by limiting their purchases of Sudafed will do little to shut down meth labs or punish criminals.
“No-brainer”: Too many politicians in both the House and Senate have acted like anything but defenders of Kentuckians’ values on this issue — agreeing to chip away at our individual liberties so they can go home and act like they did something while they were in Frankfort on the taxpayers’ $60,000-a-day tab.
“No-brainer”: Greenville Democrat Brent Yonts’ amendment to Senate Bill 3 blocking 5,500 individuals already convicted of meth-related crimes from purchasing pseudoephedrine without a prescription.
(Note: Senate Bill 3 passed the House with Yonts’ amendment by a 60-36 vote today. It now goes back to the Senate for approval of changes.)
“No-brainer”: Yonts’ proposal is reasonable, while Ford’s support of a big-government bill represents the type of establishment thinking that keeps the minority leadership in the House from being an effective voice for Kentuckians who believe in free markets, personal responsibility and limited government.
“No-brainer”: Non-establishment Republicans sound a lot different than Ford’s yammering, including Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, who said SB 3 “does nothing but make us feel good about doing something, (and) will create a bigger mess.”
“No-brainer”: Rep. Jim DeCesare’s point that the state has not been mandating that law enforcement agencies use the current Meth Check monitoring system that has proven effective in stopping 78,000 grams of illegal purchases of pseudoephedrine last year.
“We should require them to do so,” DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, said.
Perhaps the biggest “no-brainer” of all: Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, observed: “Once you start giving up a little bit of your freedom, it’s hard to stop.”
