Regional

By Jack Brammer

Lexington Herald-Leader

FRANKFORT - Companies and special interest groups spent an all-time high of $9.53 million lobbying Kentucky’s 2016 General Assembly, the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission reported Tuesday.

That’s a 9 percent increase over lobbyist spending in 2014, the most recent 60-day lawmaking session.

During this year’s session, a record 698 businesses and organizations registered to lobby. That is 5 percent more than in 2014.

By MELISSA PATRICK and DAVID ZOELLER

The Paducah Sun

If Kentucky could cut its smoking rate to the national average, it would save an estimated $1.7 billion on health care the following year, according to a study from the University of California-San Francisco.

A criminal investigation into the theft of prescription drugs in Owen County led to the indictment of a Trimble County woman for providing false information to obtain narcotics.

Lisa V. Temple, 38 of Milton, a registered nurse at Interim Healthcare in Carrollton, was indicted April 8, for prohibited acts relating to controlled substances. The charges stemmed from acts allegedly committed by Temple between Oct. 30 and Nov. 8, 2015, in which she knowingly misrepresented or withheld information from a practitioner in order to obtain controlled substances.

By JACK BRAMMER

Lexington Herald-Leader

FRANKFORT - Gov. Matt Bevin said Tuesday his staff has uncovered evidence that officials in former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration “failed to meet the high standards that the law and people of Kentucky demand from state government officials.”

He ordered Finance and Administration Secretary William Landrum to hire investigators to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry of actions taken by Beshear administration officials. He also said the FBI might be looking into some of the matters.