A measure that would update Kentucky's organ donation process prompted sharp debate between two high-ranking Senate Republicans during a Wednesday committee hearing.

The budget bill the House passed Wednesday would pay to replace eight school buildings that are among the state's most dilapidated, and all are in the districts of Democrats who voted for a crucial revenue measure last week. But seven such schools — in the districts of Republicans who voted against the revenue bill — were not funded. And that generated a torrent of GOP criticism Wednesday.

The state House approved its draft of the $17.5 billion, two-year state spending plan Wednesday evening after more than three hours of passionate and sometimes divisive speeches.

In the wake of a poll that shows him trailing in the Republican race for U.S. Senate, Secretary of State Trey Grayson launched his sharpest attack yet Thursday of Rand Paul.

A House committee advanced a measure Thursday that would allow billboards with religious and other non-commercial messages to be placed along highways without state approval.

Legislation that would force utilities to supply electricity that comes from renewable sources like wind and the sun is running into trouble in the Kentucky House — even after lawmakers added provisions to help new coal technologies.

A bill to allow Kentucky racetracks to operate an electronic horse racing game — a way to help the financially troubled industry — won approval from a Senate committee Thursday.

The $250,000 annual salary of state Economic Development Secretary Larry Hayes would be cut nearly in half by an obscure provision in the House budget bill.

A bill aimed at better protecting victims of domestic violence cleared a Senate committee in revised form Thursday.

Both political parties are taking tea party activists seriously and are wary of offending them – if they are not already actively wooing them for state races this fall. Just look at the governor’s election in Ohio. Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich openly touts his tea party credentials in his bid to defeat incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland. “I think I was in the tea party before there was a tea party,” Kasich famously told a Columbus crowd earlier this year. “This is a real movement with a real message about people’s frustrations by broken promises that leaders on both sides of the aisle would be foolish to ignore,” he went on to write in a blog posting.

A bill to clarify laws governing special elections was amended by a Senate committee Wednesday to move Kentucky's primary elections from May to August and the filing deadline from January to April.

A bill to help local governments deal with stray and abandoned horses could soon be headed to Gov. Steve Beshear after winning unanimous approval Wednesday from the Senate.

Sound asleep, Cathy Bailey said she never heard the alarm triggered by the early Christmas Day fire that claimed the lives of her two young grandsons.

The Kentucky Supreme Court declined Wednesday to review the Carol Lynne Maner sex-abuse case, letting stand a $3.7 million judgment against the Fayette County Public Schools.