Uhh, Wait - We're NOT Getting Paid??

Slacked off this week, but this issue came to the fore, and I had to do a double-take. Odd that a group of people who endorse merit-based salaries are the very same who bristle at the idea of not getting paid when they themselves have accomplished nothing of merit. Credit goes to WLEX for reporting this.

Legislative Pay On Hold

FRANKFORT- Lawmakers caught in legislative limbo with the House adjourned and the Senate in recess won't get paid for any additional days for now.

Legislative Research Commission Director Bobby Sherman said Friday he has ordered a hold on any further salaries and expenses associated with the special legislative session until Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear decides to veto or let stand language in a Medicaid budget bill that bars payment during a 10-day recess that would end April 6.

The total amount in question could exceed $600,000 for all of the state's 138 lawmakers.

Do As We Say, Not As We Do...

I found this article most interesting, in that an attorney actually had the nerve to question the ethics of those whose job it is to, themselves, question ethics - and then wound up in hot water over it. Credit goes for this article goes to kentucky.com and the author, John Cheves

Free-speech suit grows from lawyer's criticism of state ethics commission

A First Amendment lawsuit to be decided soon in U.S. District Court in Frankfort might establish whether a respected lawyer broke an ethics rule — risking his law license — by criticizing the state's Legislative Ethics Commission.

"This is a very important case because free speech is, I think, going out of style. The practice now is for someone in authority to say, 'We didn't like what you said, and we're gonna get you for it,'" said Stan Billingsley of Carrollton, a retired state trial judge who has written about the case extensively on his legal blog and in a new book.

Nobody disputes John M. Berry Jr. was entitled to disagree in 2007 when the ethics commission dismissed a complaint against Kentucky Senate President David Williams involving campaign money solicited from Frankfort lobbyists.

The commission ruled Williams' Senate aides innocently erred

Your State Government (?) at Work (???)

I thought this rather important to post, since much of it is glossed over in the media, so here is the list of what passed and what failed in Kentucky’s General Assembly this session.

WHAT PASSED:

Justice:
Control corrections costs, improve treatment options for drug offenders (HB 463)
Optometry:
Allow optometrists to perform certain procedures now limited to ophthalmologists (SB 110)
Hunting, fishing:
Amend constitution to protect right to hunt and fish (HB 1)
Adult abuse:
Prevent people convicted of abusing adults from inheriting from their victims or managing their affairs (HB 52)
Bath salts:
Ban synthetic drugs now marketed as “bath salts” (HB 121)
Guardianship:
Streamline guardianship standards (HB 164)
Fireworks:
Legalize fireworks that explode or shoot into the air (HB 333)
Textbooks:
Establish procedures for correcting textbook errors (HB 464)
Sewers:
Allow creation of regional sewer authority in Louisville area (HB 26)
Permitting:
Streamline business-permitting process (SB 8)
School principals:
Give superintendents more say in hiring principals (SB 12)
Gambling:
State licensing of companies that allow phone or online wagering on Kentucky horse races (HB 387)

WHAT FAILED:

Truth, Politics, and the Judicial Industry Collided...HARD

I would like to add to this, but I think the federal judge's statement at the end of this article says it best.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A former judge was sentenced Thursday to more than 26 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to gain power and control politics in eastern Kentucky’s Clay County.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves said former Clay Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle, 67, headed the conspiracy and therefore got the longest sentence to date in the case.
"Deterrence is a major factor in a case such as this," Reeves said.
Maricle and seven others were convicted in March 2010 of multiple charges, including