Yesterday in Frankfort, Patricia Pregliasco, a Kentucky state social worker from Jefferson County, told a legislative committee that her fellow social service employees “are collapsing under the crushing caseloads.”   “Workers are crying, they’re breaking down, they’re quitting,” said Pregliasco, “It is a crisis.”

The Kentucky General Assembly’s 2012 regular session convened yesterday in Frankfort, for a 60-day session that ends April 9th.  We are reminded again of those immortal words of Judge Gideon J. Tucker, a Tammany Hall Democrat, who said:  "No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”  Actually, he wrote this memorable phrase in the report of the final accounting in the estate of A. B.—New York Surrogate Reports, 1 Tucker (N. Y.

After years of lawsuits, environmental impact statements, opposition from River Fields and “86-64,” and miscellaneous wrangling, an announcement came late Thursday afternoon that Kentucky and Indiana will divide the responsibilities for building and paying for the Ohio River Bridges Project, a move that essentially splits the two-bridge venture into two separate pieces, with Kentucky being in charge of the downtown bridge and the Spaghetti Junction interchange, and Indiana being in charge of the eastern bridge.

• "Gov. Steve Beshear said Tuesday he will present to the state legislature a constitutional amendment to expand gambling. 'We’re going to go all out to get expanded gaming on the ballot,' Beshear told reporters after a two-hour parade down Capital Avenue to celebrate his inauguration to another four-year term." [Bluegrass Politics]