KU, new owner reach rate settlement
Customers of Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric Co. wouldn’t see an increase in their base rates before January 2013 under a tentative settlement covering the companies’ acquisition by a by Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. The last rate increase was last month.
The settlement with the Kentucky attorney general’s office, the city of Lexington, major industrial users and others still must be approved by the state Public Service Commission. A decision is expected by the end of the month.
In the settlement, PPL Corp. also agrees to keep commitments to community support and low-income programs.
The acquisition was announced in May.
In addition to the PSC, the settlement must be approved by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, the Virginia State Corporation Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It was approved last month by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.
Read More
DNA helps identify remains of Korean War veteran from Ky.; service Friday
Another soldier lost in the Korean War is coming home to Kentucky after 60 years.
The remains of Army Sgt. Charles Patterson Whitler, found in North Korea and identified through family DNA samples, will be interred with full military honors on Friday at his hometown of Cloverport in Breckinridge County near Elizabethtown.
Whitler, was 22 and a member of 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, when he went missing on Nov. 2, 1950, during heavy fighting around Unsan, North Korea. Whitler, who had just returned to duty from an earlier wound, was in a unit that became involved in hand-to-hand combat, cut off by large force of Communist Chinese troops.
For the next six decades Whitler’s family had no idea what had actually happened to him. Only in June did the family learn that remains had been found and positively identified as those of Whitler.
“I never knew him, just the stories my family told,” said Whitler’s niece, Mary Furnish of Lexington, who will be attending Friday’s services.
Read More
Judge to rule Thursday on state furlough lawsuit
FRANKFORT A judge said he will rule Thursday on whether state employees need to report for work Friday.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd heard more arguments Wednesday from state workers suing to block Gov. Steve Beshear’s planned six-day unpaid furlough of most executive branch employees during fiscal year 2011. The first furlough day would be Friday.
Beshear has said that furloughs are needed to cut about $24 million from the state’s $131 million budget deficit and that without furloughs, he would have to fire more than 400 employees. State workers, represented by a union, argue that many state agencies are dangerously understaffed, which furloughs would aggravate. Also, they say, the loss of pay would hurt them financially.
Shepherd said Wednesday that he’s sympathetic to the workers’ plight. Losing six days of pay would hurt a corrections officer trying to support a family on $24,000 a year far more than it would hurt a political appointee who makes $100,000 a year on top of a state pension, which raises fairness concerns, the judge said.
However, to grant an injunction blocking the furloughs, Shepherd said he would have to find that Beshear broke the law. The General Assembly this year gave Beshear permission to do what he did, Shepherd said.
Read More
WEG cuts budget; Alltech steps in
Organizers of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games have cut as much as $500,000 from their budget, Games CEO Jamie Link confirmed Wednesday.
The cuts come as WEG organizers contend with lower-than-expected ticket sales and the bills related to erecting 300 temporary buildings at the Kentucky Horse Park.
But any financial gaps will be helped by nearly $1 million raised in the past 21/2 weeks by the title sponsor, Alltech, selling high-profile memberships to the Alltech Commonwealth Club. Businesses spend at least $10,000 for the club and receive credit for tickets and other amenities.
Pearse Lyons, the president of Alltech, the Nicholasville-based feed supplement company, said it became clear in the last week or two that the Games needed more help. He also is jumping in with $2.5 million worth of staffing, or about 50 Alltech employees who will move to the Horse Park to help with finances, public relations and operations.
“The resources are required; we have the resources here,” he said. “All I said was let’s pull these two teams together.”
Read More
Kentucky Retirement Systems to seek state audit of placement agents
FRANKFORT The Kentucky Retirement Systems will ask state Auditor Crit Luallen to review its use of placement agents, the well-connected middlemen who have collected nearly $15 million in fees since 2004.
The KRS Board of Trustees audit committee on Wednesday voted to ask Luallen to conduct an independent audit, a move that was requested last week by Gov. Steve Beshear. Later, KRS board chairman Randy Overstreet said the full board would take up the audit committee’s recommendation and that he would personally meet with Luallen in the near future to request her audit.
Board members said the credibility of KRS which provides benefits to state and county retirees suffered because of public disclosure of the large payments to placement agents, especially while the $12.5 billion fund is struggling to keep up with its pension and health care commitments.
“The numbers we’re talking about don’t wash with someone getting a $900 monthly pension check,” said KRS board member Robert Wilcher.
KRS released an internal audit of placement agents on Aug. 12 that disclosed agents’ names and fees but identified no serious problems, such as financial or political connections to Kentucky officials, which has led to controversies with placement agents at other state pension systems.
Read More