Friday, April 15, 2011
EKB Capsule News...Kentucky...4-16-'11
After railing against deficit spending at a tea party rally in his hometown of Bowling Green, U.S. Senator Rand Paul said Friday evening he will oppose raising the nation's debt ceiling unless the measure includes budget-balancing proposals. Paul says he'll only vote to raise the debt limit if it's packaged with a balanced budget constitutional amendment or a proposal that sets out a plan to balance the budget in a set period of time. The debt will reach its ceiling of $14.3 trillion in mid-May, requiring a vote from Congress to raise the nation's credit limit. The debt ceiling is the legal limit at which the federal government can borrow money. Paul said the higher debt limit being proposed will be exhausted within months.
- Bass Webb, who made headlines when he spit on Bourbon District Judge Vanessa Dickson during a hearing in August 2009, pleaded not guilty Friday to an assault charge. Webb was charged with third-degree assault and with being a first-degree persistent felony offender after he was accused of spitting in the face of corrections officer Roy Compston at the Fayette County Detention Center on February 2nd. A Fayette County grand jury recently indicted Webb on those charges. Webb also is accused of murder in the death of former girlfriend Sabrina Marie Vaughn in Montgomery County. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month after being found guilty of felony assault and being a persistent felony offender in Fayette Circuit Court after throwing a telephone at corrections officer Bryan Richardson during a disturbance involving several prisoners at the Lexington jail in June. Webb is being held at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty.
One or more of the finalists to become University of Kentucky president has objected to the finalists' names being made public, so the only name that will be released will be the preferred candidate. University trustees are expected to choose a preferred candidate, who would tour the campus and meet with UK groups before a formal deal is offered in early May. The state's flagship university is looking for a successor to President Lee T. Todd Jr., who is retiring in June after 10 years of leading UK.
- Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobbie Holsclaw has released income tax returns showing that she made $131,965 last year. Holsclaw released the information at a news conference in Louisville on Friday and challenged her two GOP primary opponents, state Senate President David Williams and Louisville businessman Phil Moffett, to do the same, but both have said they will not release their income tax forms. Voters will go the polls May 17th to choose the Republican nominee. The winner will face Democratic Governor Steve Beshear and independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith in the November general election. Neither Beshear nor Galbraith has a primary opponent. Holsclaw was the first of the gubernatorial candidates to report campaign contributions so far this year. Her report showed that she had raised just more than $7,000.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 11:06 PM 
