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Kentucky’s public pension funds need billions of additional dollars to remain solvent, with taxpayers and government workers and retirees all likely to share the pain, lawmakers said Monday. A legislative task force on public pensions heard a package of reform proposals from the Pew Center on the States and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, with an eye on passing a pension bill in the 2013 legislative session. [H-L]

Mittens Romney refused to answer reporters’ questions about how he would handle the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), after a Tuesday “storm relief” event in Ohio for Hurricane Sandy. [HuffPo]

A U.S. debt-ceiling increase could be headed for a Wall Street-rattling showdown in 2013 if Congress, as expected, shuns a quick and easy fix at the end of this year in favor of another round of last-minute brinkmanship. [Reuters]

The Kentucky Department of Education will release the long-anticipated results Friday of its new accountability system, which is the commonwealth’s largest educational reforms in the last two decades. [WFPL]

Ann Romney, who campaign officials claim is the kinder, warmer, more approachable half of the nation’s premier battery-powered couple, recently revealed to Good Housekeeping magazine that the issue “closest to her heart” is “bringing real change to our educational system.” [Wonkette]

Several areas of Pike County are dealing with snow from the storm system. People say they heard it was coming but were still surprised to see it arrive. [WKYT]

We interrupt this presidential campaign to bring you a disturbing special report from the future. It’s called Lower Manhattan. Maybe now they’ll discuss climate change on the campaign trail? [HuffPo]

A Richmond man was charged Friday with manufacturing methamphetamine after police say he was found hiding in the closet of an apartment where a one-step lab was found. [Richmond Register]

Stupidity never ceases to amaze us. An Ohio man who sent an email threatening to kill Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Kerry B. Harvey’s office. [H-L]

The latest and last NPR Battleground Poll for 2012 shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election. [WFPL]