The burden of air pollution and asthma is not evenly shared among U.S. children. [HuffPo]

Folks love to hate David Williams and some of that hate is well-deserved. But he helped make this thing in Louisville happen. [C-J/AKN]

Sorry, Marty Cockring, but the jesusian mouth-breathers did refuse to print those t-shirts because the clients were gigantic, sparkly gays. Stop playing pat-a-cake. What you neglect to mention, however, is that the mouth-breathers also did the right thing by finding another company to print the shirts for them at the same damn price. So you can’t really say they’re discriminating. The Lexington gays went after them because they knew it would be a problem. It’s so blatant that you don’t even hear the usual gay voices chiming in to support them. Additionally, I hope you some day have to suffer at the hands of the Aryan Nation for daring compare gay rights activists to the AN. What a despicable thing. [H-L]

Every singly media outlet in the state ran a story about Hal Rogers’ longtime aide retiring. Because that’s apparently important news. [WTVQ]

We’ve heard more about this story from the bourbon industry than we ever imagined. Seems a certain signature industry is about a pop a vein. [The 'Ville Voice]

Yes, this absolutely is the most boring presidential election ever. [Rolling Stone]

Wait, are we supposed to feign shock and surprise that the University of Kentucky board of trustees is going to vote to raise tuition again? [WKYT]

What? Yet another Republican who is unfamiliar with the minimum wage? Surely not! [HuffPo]

Something doesn’t smell quite right about these Kentucky tourism claims made this week. [H-L]

Who wants to bet this Paul Patton effort to take coal severance funds from several counties to create scholarships at the University of Pikeville isn’t going to work out so well? [C-J/AKN]

Looks like Alecia Webb-Edgington’s silly “gun rights” endorsement is negated by the latest teabagger move. [Kenny Coleslaw]

Adam Edelen says he’s going to review micro-government groups like lie-berries, sewer and fire districts. [Ryan Alessi]

If you think Hillary Clinton isn’t considering a run for the presidency after Barack Obama’s second term, you’ll probably want to read this. [NYT]

Hal Rogers’ staff finally decided it was time to give up the Commodore 64 and join the Twatter. [Press Release]

What happens to a two-party political system when one party goes mad (teabagger)? Does the world come to an end? [The Economist]

It’s official. Laurel County wants to give Clay County a run for its crazy money. Some guy was arrested for shooting at a passing car. [WKYT]

Mitch McConnell just cannot stand that political spending on television ads should be readily available for examination. He believes free speech should come at a cost – i.e., you should have to spend 50 cents per page and take time off work to go see what a campaign is spending on television. [National Journal]

Money always trumps childhood health. Even when it’s common sense. [Reuters]

This guy in Indiana has felony convictions for lying about his voter registration. Meanwhile, Democrats in Frankfort like Ruth Ann Palumbo aren’t even questioned about their illegal registrations. [WFPL]

What was that, again, about Steve Beshear not playing politics with the Road Fund? Look at the size of Greg Stumbo’s unnecessary project compared to that of David Williams. Who got their project? It wasn’t Williams. [Al Cross]

This should make you feel really safe and should further illustrate that Richie Farmer is dumb as hell. A distant relative of former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer worked in the Department of Agriculture for nearly five years as an amusement ride inspector despite never receiving certification to do the work. [H-L]

Here’s Mittens Romney making yet another gaffe about, you know, reality. Don’t worry about student loans, just borrow $20,000 from your parents to start a business! Because they totally have $20K in checking to give you. [Wonkette]

You can’t even go out for cheap Chinese food in Lexington these days without someone driving their car into the restaurant. [WLEX18]

Thomas Massie can’t refuse that pension he said he would turn down. He’d have to donate it to charity like John Yarmuth does with his salary. [Ryan Alessi]

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights last week publicly accepted three conciliation agreements in fair housing cases, including one in Madison County. [John Cheves]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

It appears sustained deadly catastrophe is all it took to get “Real Americans” to believe that Faux News was just foaming at the mouth about global warming being a myth. [Wonkette]

The worst of the worst in Kentucky had a racist circle jerk in Frankfort on Saturday. No one was arrested and only a few verbal incidents took place. It was really cute watching all the sheet-wearing mouth-breathers have a public shouting session. [C-J/AKN]

Cutting benefits for the poor and increasing the Pentagon budget sounds like the smart thing to do. Let’s let the poors fend for themselves as we assplode a bunch of the world or whatever. That’s the Mittens Romney way. [HuffPo]

Are we in the middle of the third industrial revolution? The digitization of manufacturing could transform the way goods are made and change the politics of jobs, too. [The Economist & More Economist]

Many of the country’s biggest media companies, which own dozens of newspapers and TV news operations, are flexing their muscle in Washington in a fight against a government initiative to increase transparency of political spending. [Pro Publica]

Nearly six years after an explosion killed five miners at Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1 in Harlan County, the operators have not paid nearly $700,000 in civil fines and interest fees for safety violations connected to the accident. [C-J/AKN]

Republican elite are holding off the teabaggers. So much for that teabagger takeover, kids. [Politico]

President Barack Obama will use a tour of election battleground states next (this) week to push Congress to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling, a move that could appeal to middle-class and younger voters crucial to his re-election chances. [Reuters]

Was Papaw Beshear’s veto funtimes over road projects in David Williams’ district vindictive? Since he didn’t veto projects in, you know, the district of anyone else? [WFPL]

The Kentucky Supreme Court heard the appeal of a judge kicked out of office by the Judicial Conduct Commission. Fitting that Marcus Carey is the guy’s attorney. [H-L]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

Dear Readers: Who from Kentucky do you know that’s affiliated with Gineen Bresso’s campaign in Florida? Any consultants from Kentucky campaigns working for her? Because her campaign has illegally harvested thousands of email addresses. [Deep Floriduh Failures]

Way to go, Eastern Kentucky. Thanks for embarrassing the entire Commonwealth again . [HuffPo]

You know what’s unfortunate? The Kentucky Democratic Republican Party is working overtime to trash Sarah Lynn Cunningham. She’s running as a Democratic in the 19th State Senate District amongst the KDRP’s chosen boy, Morgan. Beshear’s crew have gone so far to call various unions to prohibit them from granting her an interview. And you wonder why the Democrats in Frankfort continue to fall apart. [Democratic Failure]

Virginia Foxx simply does not care for you damn kids and your debt. This heinous witch is half the reason the United States is in the pooper. [Wonkette]

Just like that, hospitals are starting to sue the state’s new Medicaid managed care plans. Appalachian Regional Healthcare sued Centene on the state level and Coventry in federal court. Cat fights are just beginning. [Deep Medicaid Thoughts]

Way to go, Lexington! A fire on Sheridan Drive on Thursday burned unchecked for several minutes, destroying a family’s kitchen, because the nearest fire engine had temporarily been taken out of service. [H-L]

You know you love you some cat fight between Papaw Beshear and David Williams. You just wish slapping were involved. [FOX41]

Low social status is bad for your health and biologists are beginning to understand why. [The Economist]

Ben Chandler can’t be bothered to deal with his constituents on any personal level. And he most certainly can’t be bothered with answering tough questions. But he’s sure got time to file bills congratulating a sports team. [Ben Chandler]

Michele Beard Bachmann, one of the dumbest women to ever live, is now using “tar baby” (yes, really) when discussing President Barack Obama. [Wonkette]

Careful what you wish for, teabaggers. Now the Republican Establishment is using Super PACs to restrain you. [HuffPo]

A Bowling Green doctor says the Kentucky House Speaker should stop pretending he knows what the majority of physicians, nurses, and dentists thinks regarding a prescription drug bill. [WKU Public Radio]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

Now officials say it’s just a rumor that Calumet Farm is being sold. Did Paulick get it wrong? Ruh ro. [H-L]

Lexington television stations are basing their reports on the original story we linked early this morning. [WKYT]

Oh, cute, here’s a nice little story about Kenyans involving President Barack Obama’s father. It’s sure to send racist mouth-breathers into a tailspin. [BBC]

Greg Fischer ran on a platform of JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. Unfortunately for him, his signature Ohio River Bridges Debacle moves thousands upon thousands of jobs out of Louisville. [The 'Ville Voice]

Bogota, New Jersey, police officer Regina Tasca responded to a call about a young man who was being erratic. She was supposed to transport him to the hospital. Two of her fellow officers, though, thought they were more supposed to jump on him and kick him in the head and shit — you know, the law! Tasca jumped in and managed to pry the officers off the young man. What do you suppose has happened since? A commendation, maybe? Definitely a commendation right? [Wonkette]

If Greg Fischer is pushing a piece of legislation, you know it’s 100% flawed and should be immediately scrapped. [WFPL]

A State Senate panel put David Williams’ vetoed road projects into the transportation budget. Which means the cat fight will never end. [H-L]

Whattya mean another mouth-breathing Republican is spewing Anti-Semitic tripe? Comparing smoking bans to Hitler’s “Jewish Stars.” Jesus H. Christ people are dumb as hell. Republican leadership needs to own up to these shenanigans and address them head-on, unlike Eric Cantor. [HuffPo & More HuffPo]

The 20 best small towns in America? None of them are in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, according to this list. [Smithsonian Magazine]

Of course uninsured Americans tend to stay uninsured. Can’t be discussing things like this, though, because it might upset some delicate mouth-breather. [HuffPo]

Can you imagine if this Iraqi oil pipeline situation happened in Kentucky? State government would work just as hard to deny historic relevance of a property. [BBC]

Alecia Webb-Embarrassment is busily touting the endorsement of 20 mostly unknown Republicans (the only ones prominent are lobbyists). Thomas Massie is touting the endorsement of a racist anti-gay bigot who wants to hang Israel out to dry. And Gary Moore is endorsed by the Northern Kentucky Right to Life. Despite all of those things being absolutely ridiculous in our opinion, only one will garner votes and that’s the silly abortion crap. [Deep KY-04 Thoughts]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

Calumet Farm is being sold. You Kentucky history buffs will really want to read about this. [Paulick Report]

And Nick Nicholson is retiring from Keeneland. Only you horsey folks will care about this one. [H-L]

This is a look from the foreigns at how one of America’s most messed up companies became one of it’s best. [The Economist]

Biggest pee alert in a long time. Go immediately read this story about a Floriduh mayor and his effort to stop dancing from destroying his town. For real. HAHAHA. [Wonkette]

It’s kind of sad/embarrassing that Lexington is ranked as a top ten city for online fraud. [WKYT]

Mittens Romney is really good at making sure the world knows how out-of-touch with reality he is. The latest comments are kinda funny but, uh, embarrassing. [HuffPo]

It’s unfortunate that the Lane Report has sunken to the level of publishing articles that are not only misleading but horribly inaccurate. It not only spreads misinformation throughout the community but is so dishonest and shady that not much produced by them can be taken seriously. Publishing such a strange puppies & rainbows (pun intended) story about Louisville Metro Animal Services is beyond bizarre. [The 'Ville Voice]

What was that, again, about forgetting why he’s in Frankfort?

Predictions on how long it takes for A Kentucky Newspaper to not change at all? One day? One week? A month? How long will it take the feigned hype to die down before nothing changes? [C-J/AKN]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

When are you mouth-breathers going to realize that your hate and ignorance helps drive young gay people to take their lives? Is it impossible for you to comprehend that hate, discrimination, defamation and attacks are the antithesis of what you claim to espouse? Of course you don’t. You won’t realize it until hordes of mouth-breathers start killing themselves for realizing they’re living in an ignorant fantasy world. [HuffPo]

The only thing the Kentucky Democratic Republican Party is turning up is the air conditioning. Because the folks at KDRP can’t walk ten feet without nearly sweating to death. And because the heat is coming from Republicans making life difficult for them. [Twitter]

While the Democrats love hanging this special session albatross around the neck of David Williams? This bit from a Gerth/Loftus/Wynn article makes it more than clear that Steve Beshear is in charge of spending way more than $60,000 per day: Meanwhile, Gov. Steve Beshear is still pondering whether to act on the state’s road plan quickly or allow the session to drift into next week. [C-J/AKN]

Of course Ben Chandler is making campaign contributions to his fellow faux Democrats. That’s how things work with him. [Politico]

But let’s not pretend that he could lose to Candy Barr, one of the worst opponents ever, like this article suggests could happen. [Probably Not Happening]

Kind of a major pee alert: Scott Walker was there to speechify as a guest of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. About three thousand radical marxist trade laborers, teachers, firefighters, and other public sector employees/Union Thugs turned out to welcome Governor Walker and offer a large bag of kettle-cooked chipotle dicks for him to eat. [Wonkette]

There are a bunch of children playing pat-a-cake in Frankfort. Literally playing pat-a-cake with important legislation. This is why Kentucky gets a mere eye roll in the rest of the country. [WFPL]

Mittens Romney is the Meh-Publican candidate and people can’t decide if they are brainwashed or skeerd of the black man enough to support him. [HuffPo]

He hit this political nail on the head: In vintage Beshear fashion, the Governor accepts no responsibility for his own leadership failures and instead fills the proclamation with empty rhetoric, excuses and inappropriate personal attacks [C-J/AKN]

What would you do if your home, place of employment and entire community were wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado? Recovery in Eastern Kentucky will take a long time and only the Red Cross remains on the ground supporting the people who most need it. [Click Here To Give]

Mitch McConnell, who can’t survive if he’s not blaming Barack Obama for everything each and every day, now says the President is lying to the public about the Buffett Rule. [The Hill]

So, of course, it’s the Mitch McConnell-led U.S. Senate that blocked the Buffett Rule, which would have taxed zillionaires at a fair rate. [HuffPo]

The State House and Senate started flushing more than $60,000 per day down the toilet yesterday. [H-L]

Everybody in Frankfort is in a sour mood and just cold wants to cut a bitch. They are all hollering and foaming at the mouth. [C-J/AKN]

Walter Blevins, Jr. is back to defending Steve Beshear again. He must have talked Papaw’s folks into helping him continue to lie about where he lives and how little he’s seen in his district. [WAVE3]

Today the Kentuckiana Regional Planning Development Agency will visit John Yarmuth’s office. On Thursday, Kentucky Mortgage Bankers will pay him a visit. [Press Release]

Is it a really good time to be an American? The foreigns certainly seem to think so. [The Economist]

You can’t even live in Laurel County – hot mess central – these days without a drunken registered sex offender breaking into your house and making cereal. [WKYT]

On any given night in the U.S., there are approximately 60,500 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities or other residential programs. Photographer Richard Ross has spent the past five years criss-crossing the country photographing the architecture, cells, classrooms and inhabitants of these detention sites. [Wired]

With Hillary Clinton slow drifting off towards her retirement in the assisted living community of Memes, the Hot Question in all of Washington is, who will be our nation’s next “top diplomat” to bring us a shooting war in Libya? [Wonkette]

FRANKFORT – Some encores blow the roof off, some are quiet fades. Some strike a middling note between the two before they knock you out of your seat with a last-minute surprise.

The 2012 General Assembly, after 13 days in veto recess and back onstage for one last turn, saved its biggest surprise for its latest minutes Thursday, a slowly unfolding but seemingly routine last day of the session’s allotted 60. It was called a Veto Day, theoretically reserved to override – or at least consider overriding — gubernatorial vetoes.

As it happened, no vetoes were overridden. But toward midnight, the session’s absolute constitutional deadline, it became clear that two key pieces of legislation still out there – funding for the state Road Plan and a bill to combat prescription drug abuse in Kentucky – weren’t about to pass just yet. And less than an hour after final 11:59 p.m. adjournment, the governor told reporters he would call legislators back to Frankfort in special session Monday to resolve those matters. Friday, he made good on his word and issued the call: Monday at high noon.

So a surprise encore has lead to a second one, a dramatic turn after a session remarkable for its low-key bipartisan cooperation.

Thursday was a long day. As is traditionally true, lawmakers returned from their veto recess with a bit of actual legislating on the table, most notably two key items still unresolved: The so-called ‘pill mills’ bill that was half this session’s two-flank assault on Kentucky’s legal and illegal drug scourges; and the Road Plan that specifies highway and bridge projects in the Commonwealth’s near- and mid-term future.

Resolving those hung-up issues – and considering some 45 line-item vetoes the governor imposed on specific aspects of the executive branch budget — raised prospects of a wearying but, it was hoped, fairly routine full-day’s return to the Capitol.

You’ll want to read the rest after the jump…

It came after a welcome respite at home for most lawmakers – most but not all. The Legislature’s version of Spring Break was neither universal nor absolute. Some lawmakers were spotted in the Capitol over the veto recess, as discussions aimed at resolving House-Senate differences on Road Plan priorities, and to address lingering concerns over some provisions of the stalled pill-mills measure, continued.

But even lawmakers back home were working. Reporting to their community, hearing its concerns, answering phones at all hours from constituents whose crumbling roads need patching, getting grilled about some bill or another at the local Pic-Pac on a Saturday morning – that’s in a legislator’s job description too. The recess is when the impact of a session begins to consolidate, with one day left for final touches.

And Thursday, those final touches were these:

First, after some early hours spent on routine resolutions and saying farewell to retiring members, the chambers geared down to work. Road Plan bills began moving. Long days of hard negotiating had paid off with a compromise agreement in the wee hours Thursday morning, just hours before the session gaveled in.

Subsequently, an all-told $10-billion projected six-year Road Plan passed both chambers, including $4.5 billion in immediate projects over the next two years, projects that needed funding.

But the necessary and separate funding bill did not pass with it. And there was the rub. As a strategic move to ensure the integrity of the projects list agreed upon by the Legislature, the Senate insisted the governor sign the Road Plan itself before it passed the bill to fund it. Doing so would insulate the legislative projects list from veto. When the governor didn’t sign, the Senate adjourned. The House had no choice but to follow suit. And the governor quickly told reporters he planned to call a special session for Monday.

The Road Plan bill (actually it’s a bill for the next two years and a resolution for four ‘out’ years) is massive. Its ambitious scope reflects the relatively robust state Road Fund, which is based on the gasoline tax, which in turn is tied to the wholesale price of gas – which, as you know, is sky high.

The plan envisions major investment in road and bridge work across the Commonwealth, including the Louisville bridges project. Till it’s funded though, it’s just a plan – and funding will be on the agenda of the special session the governor called Friday.

Meanwhile, House Bill 4, a bill thought to have widespread support, also got hung up Thursday and its subject is also included in the session call. The measure was designed to get a regulatory handle on the growing and deadly phenomenon of pill mills – the fly-by-night pain clinics that fuel the state’s epidemic of prescription-drug abuse by making powerful pain meds easy for addicts and abusers to get legally.

Officials say more Kentuckians die every year from legal-drug overdoses than in highway crashes. The number’s around a thousand, and growing.

A key provision of the bill transferred oversight of the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting program — KASPER, it’s called — to the attorney general’s office. Proponents of that move hoped monitoring and enforcement of questionable prescribing trends would be more aggressive there than is currently the case, in an agency not primarily devoted to law enforcement.

Some concern was expressed that the bill might unduly hamstring legitimate practitioners, who are simply prescribing pain meds, in good faith, for real medical need. Discussions continue.

Meanwhile, the putative reason lawmakers assembled for one final day was vetoes, and there were lots of them. But this year’s vetoes, while numerous, weren’t sweeping. No full bill was struck down. All 45 were specific line-items in the massive executive-branch budget bill (which runs to 295 pages online).

The governor said his objection to the specific provisions he drew a line through involved sections he claimed would ‘add new obligations, limit necessary flexibility, and reduce the (governor’s) ability to manage the budget’ day-to-day as events unfold. Some minor local spending items also felt the sting of his veto pen, on grounds money wasn’t actually appropriated to pay for them.

But his vetoes were mostly just nibbles around the edges of a $19.5 billion two-year budget that imposes cuts of 8.4 percent across much of state government, though it spares Medicaid, Corrections and base SEEK funding for schools, and nicks higher education a bit less. And all things considered, this year’s budget is a strikingly cooperative document, bipartisan, bi-chamber and bi-branch. It differs not much from the plan the executive branch sent up to the Legislature in January.

As the session wore on, and lawmakers studied the proposal in detail, general agreement emerged: A $740-million gap between revenues and spending, coming atop round after round of previous cuts, made for a budget that almost forcibly wrote itself, assuming that the most basic services had to be kept and ongoing bills had to be paid. There was cash for little else.

Thursday evening, it was decided to let the governor’s vetoes stand. The most challenging state budget in memory went quietly into the books. A routine day seemed in grasp. Then Thursday night’s unexpected dramatics brought a surprising end to a session that had been less contentious in its closing days than any in recent memory — though beset from birth with harsh challenges (like a blood-curdling revenue shortfall and a redistricting bill thrown out by the courts).

When the curtain came down, seconds till midnight, the 2012 General Assembly ended with its customary yearly Latin lesson: It adjourned sine die, which means, in Latin, ‘without a day’ to return.

And though a day for legislators themselves to return will now be Monday, when they meet it won’t be a continuation of the regular session. The 2012 regular session is done. They’ll meet in a special session, a separate and different animal. Bills don’t carry over. Pill mill and Road Plan spending bills will start over, and begin at the beginning of the process.