Bill would make it a crime to leave loaded guns where kids can find them
By Kentucky Press News Service | Posted on August 18, 2017By John Cheves | Lexington Herald-Leader Recklessly storing a gun where children could find and use it would be a crime in Kentucky under a bill that state Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, pre-filed this month for the 2018 legislative session. Wayne’s bill would require...
Accrediting agency: ‘Fair process’ for dismissing UofL board trustees must exist for compliance
By Joe Sonka | Posted on January 5, 2017The controversy over the University of Louisville’s accreditation continued in Frankfort on Wednesday, as legislation was proposed to either ratify Gov. Matt Bevin’s executive orders abolishing and recreating UofL’s board of trustees, or create yet another board to be filled with Bevin appointees. UofL’s accrediting...
Arena Authority chairman cites ‘financial challenges’ ahead on Yum! Center debt payments
By Joe Sonka | Posted on November 1, 2016Though the University of Louisville men’s basketball team has become the most profitable program in the country — by far — since moving its games to the KFC Yum! Center in 2010, the state agency tasked with managing the debt payments for the bonds...
7 Questions With … State Rep. Jim Wayne
By Sara Havens | Posted on June 8, 2016Kentucky State Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, has been quite busy working on a passion he’s had for years. Somewhere in the midst of serving in public office (since 1991) and working as a psychotherapist, he went back to school and received his MFA in fiction from...
State House task force examines poverty and housing needs for vulnerable Kentuckians
By Joe Sonka | Posted on June 2, 2016The newly formed House Task Force on Vulnerable Kentuckians had its first meeting in Louisville on Wednesday, discussing widespread poverty across the state and lack of affordable housing available for families struggling to support themselves. Last month, House Speaker Greg Stumbo formed the bipartisan task...
Guest Commentary: Kentucky legislators blast Gov. Bevin over ‘lies’ regarding Kynect
By Guest Author | Posted on March 28, 2016This guest commentary was co-authored by Democratic state Reps. Jim Wayne, Joni Jenkins, Mary Lou Marzian, Darryl Owens and Tom Burch, all of Louisville; George Brown, of Lexington; and David Watkins, of Henderson. Insider Louisville has offered the Governor’s Office an opportunity to respond, and we are awaiting a...
Chambers of commerce once again pushing ‘right-to-work’ in Kentucky, but does it stand a chance?
By Boris Ladwig | Posted on January 13, 2016State and local business associations are – once again – pushing so-called right-to-work legislation in Kentucky, and while they now have an ally in the governor’s mansion, the passage of such legislation remains unlikely so long as Democrats hold on to their tenuous majority...
Frankfort committee orders independent CPA firm to examine Yum! Center financing
By Joe Sonka | Posted on April 22, 2015At a meeting of the Capital Projects and Bond Oversight Committee on Tuesday, state legislators unanimously approved a motion for the Legislative Research Commission to hire an outside CPA firm to examine the financing of the Louisville Arena Authority. The move comes days after...
Rep. Jim Wayne questions AG Conway’s ‘informal’ opinion on dispute between Fair Board and Arena Authority
By Joe Sonka | Posted on April 21, 2015Nine months after a Frankfort committee’s official request, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s office released a legal opinion last Friday on questions concerning a dispute over whether the Louisville Arena Authority owed the Kentucky State Fair Board a $7.5 million reimbursement for business lost...
State House committee approves local option sales tax
By Stephen George | Posted on February 10, 2015A proposal to allow local governments to put project-specific tax increases on the ballot is headed for a vote of the full state House. On Tuesday morning, the state House Committee on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs approved the local option sales tax in a...