FRANKFORT, Ky. — House leadership reacted coolly Friday to a proposal in the Senate to allow Kentucky tracks to operate an electronic game that — while resembling a slot machine — lets players bet on old races.

Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville, said House leaders wouldn’t address the issue until after the 2010-2012 state budget is done. That often takes until the last day, or even last minutes, of a legislative session.

“We’re not going to jump into that,” Clark said. “We want to make sure that what we do is right. But I personally think if we’re going to expand gaming we ought to go ahead and do full-blown slots at the tracks.”

The Senate proposal, which uses a bill that has passed the House, could be voted on by the full body next week. The Senate plan would allow the slot-like electronic game called Instant Racing at the eight existing Kentucky tracks.

Instant Racing allows gamblers to bet on previously run races that aren’t identified until the wagering is completed. It is currently used at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. — A second bill to allow so-called “electronic games of skill” at racetracks was filed Thursday, but the debate over expanded gambling appeared no closer to resolution.

Democratic Floor Leader Ed Worley of Richmond estimated that his Senate Bill 224 would provide $34.8 million for purses at tracks in 2011-12.

The bill is almost the same as House Bill 601, filed earlier this week by Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond.

Kentucky’s horse industry leaders have argued that they need expanded gambling to level the playing field with states that use casino proceeds to boost purses and breeding incentives.

Industry officials have said they’re willing to consider the skill games proposal, which Worley and others say is not as lucrative as the traditional slot machines in some neighboring states’ casinos.

“The only thing that I’m thinking about is what (would be) some resolution to the dilemma that our horse industry finds itself in,” said Worley, who indicated that the industry supports the concept.

“You can ask anybody that has read it in the industry and I think they would tell you that, absent of slots or casinos, this is a viable option,” he said.

Patrick Neely, executive director of the pro-slots Kentucky Equine Education Project, stopped short of a full endorsement.

“Electronic games of skill … have produced positive results in Arkansas, and we are supportive of current efforts to provide relief from the overwhelming competitive advantages our neighboring states enjoy,” he said.

The plan in the two is similar to the gambling parlor at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. There, electronic games like video blackjack are in place, along with Instant Racing, a device that resembles a slot machine but uses previously run races to determine winners in a pari-mutuel format.

Meanwhile, Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said he will offer a plan to help the horse industry by altering currently filed bills — Thursday was the deadline for new Senate bills. But he declined to provide specifics.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. — An enthusiastic crowd filled the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday to show opposition to abortion and support for a bill that would require women seeking the procedure to undergo an ultrasound.

“Senate Bill 38 is a very important bill,’’ said Sen. Elizabeth Tori, R-Radcliff, the bill’s sponsor.

She urged those at the Kentucky Right Life Rally to call lawmakers in support of the measure, which also would require a woman seeking an abortion to meet with a health professional 24 hours beforehand for counseling.

“It has a long way to go yet,’’ Tori said of the bill, which passed the Senate Jan. 25 and is pending in the House Health and Welfare Committee, where a similar bill died last year on a tie vote.

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• Leitchfield (Grayson County)-- Voters will be casting ballots on allowing on alcohol by the drink in restaurants that seat 100 or more on March 23. Please be in prayer for the citizens of Leitchfield, KY which is located in Grayson County. Citizens opposed to the measure have organized with 66 attending a recent meeting at Clearview Baptist Church. The Kentucky Ethics League is working with these citizens on the issue.

• Trigg County -- A judge has ruled that dry forces in precincts that voted dry in a recent election to make the county wet can petition for precinct elections in those precincts.

Rebecca is a mother of three and a practicing licensed professional counselor.

She also is one of a growing number of Tulsans whose lives have been disrupted by an uncontrollable compulsion to gamble.

Until five years ago, Rebecca had never gambled and had no interest in it.

In June 2004, after a series of personal crises that included the loss of a job and a grandparent, she began to go to the Cherokee Casino to play gaming machines on her lunch hour.

"It seemed harmless enough," she said, "a time to unwind and escape."

Within a month, she found herself gambling away money that she needed for rent.

"It really got ahold of me hard and fast," she said. "I call it a roller coaster to hell."

Over a 10-day period in August of that year, she wrote 10 checks for amounts from $100 to $2,500.

"I went off the deep end," she said. "It was completely irrational. I told myself, 'I'll win the money to cover the checks.' "

But she didn't, and she found herself borrowing money, pawning her goods and in court paying fines for writing bad checks.

Rebecca eventually went to Gamblers Anonymous and got her life back on track.

Other problem gamblers have not. Some are in prison for embezzlement, some have committed suicide and others have lost everything.

A form of Las Vegas-style (Class III) Indian gaming was legalized in Oklahoma five years ago. Before that, tribes offered Class II gaming. The state now has more than 100 casinos. Three of the largest are in the Tulsa area. Only California has higher Indian gaming revenues than Oklahoma.

And as the number of casinos has increased, so has the number of problem gamblers.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Senate passed legislation Monday that would require doctors to show a woman an ultrasound image of her fetus and explain how it is developing before performing an abortion.

Senate Bill 38 passed 32-4 and now goes to the House, where similar measures have died in committee in the past.

As with current law, SB 38 would require doctors or someone designated by them to meet with a woman seeking an abortion at least 24 hours beforehand to explain the procedure. But the meeting would have to be face-to-face; under current law doctors are allowed to conduct that meeting over the telephone.

Also, the bill would require the ultrasound. Doctors would have to tell the woman about development "which shall include the dimensions of the embryo or fetus and the presence of external members and internal organs, if present and viewable."

The bill would allow the woman to avert her eyes from the ultrasound screen.

A doctor who did not follow the bill’s provisions could be fined up to $100,000 for a first offense and up to $250,000 for subsequent offenses. Any offenses would be reported to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.

"This bill rights a wrong," said Sen. Elizabeth Tori, R-Elizabethtown, its main sponsor. "An ultrasound is nothing more than an X-ray in motion."

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FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear proposed a budget Tuesday that assumes $780 million in revenue from expanded gambling — which key legislators have said is unlikely to pass — as a way to stave off deep cuts to education and human services.

Without the gambling revenue, Beshear said the state would need more than $850 million in cuts during the next two fiscal years, compared to about $78 million with it.

“Gaming revenue is the only practical option to begin funding long-term priorities with recurring revenue,” the governor said in his budget address Tuesday night to a joint session of the General Assembly.

The $18.4 billion budget does not include any tax increases or across-the-board layoffs of state workers.

Beshear said it protects funding for his priorities — education, health care for the poor, public safety and economic development.

But it would impose cuts of 2 percent on many agencies over the next biennium, and it does not include any major new programs.

Still, it increases funding for need-based student financial aid, the state employee retirement systems and smoking cessation for Medicaid recipients.

It also includes debt service for $1.5 billion worth of school, road, water and sewer projects.

Beshear's bold and risky move — assuming revenue from a gambling bill that has not even been introduced in the legislature and is considered a long shot for passage — is expected to be hugely unpopular with lawmakers.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has repeatedly warned Beshear in public statements that lawmakers would start from scratch if the governor's proposal includes assumed gambling revenue.

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The chance of legislators approving an expansion of gambling this session looks like a 50-1 horse that is all but dismissed by oddsmakers.

The early favorite on one of the state's most controversial issues would appear to be a stalemate as horse industry leaders say their estimated $4 billion industry continues to suffer.

The industry's hopes to pass a slots-at-tracks bill took a beating Dec. 8 when Republican Jimmy Higdon won a special election for a state Senate seat. The vacancy was created by the appointment of slots opponent Republican Dan Kelly to a circuit judgeship by Gov. Steve Beshear, who favors slots.

The move was widely seen as an attempt to gain a seat for Democrats and cut into the Republican majority. The outcome, instead, solidified a 21-17 Republican majority, including an independent who caucuses with Republicans.

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• “The Invitation Stands,” a beautiful song written, recorded and produced by Dawn Pate, director of a pregnancy resource center and a member of First Baptist Church, Kissimmee, Fla.
• Four bulletin inserts
• Sanctity of Human Life sermon
• Evangelism strategies to minister to women and families in unplanned and unwanted pregnancies

WASHINGTON (BP)--District of Columbia Major Adrian Fenty signed a bill to legalize same-sex "marriage" Dec. 18, moving the country's capital a step closer to becoming the sixth U.S. jurisdiction to permit such unions.

Congress has a 30-day period in which to review the bill after it becomes law, but it appears unlikely legislators will overturn the D.C. government's action. The performance of legally recognized same-sex weddings could begin by mid-spring, according to The Washington Post.

The only hope of stopping the legalization of "gay marriage" in the district appears to be through the courts. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight D.C. citizens calling for approval of an attempt to place an initiative on the ballot to prohibit the unions. An effort to put such a proposal before voters failed when the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics turned it down Nov. 17.

Fenty signed the measure in the auditorium of All Souls Unitarian Church three days after the D.C. council gave final passage. As part of a two-step process, the council approved the legislation by 11-2 votes on Dec. 1 and 15.

In signing the bill in front of about 150 people, including same-sex couples, Fenty remarked, according to The Post, "I say to the world: An era of struggle ends for thousands in Washington, D.C.... Our city is taking a leap forward."

Five states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont -- recognize "gay marriage." In none of those states, however, have voters approved it in a ballot initiative. All 31 states that have held ballot initiatives on the question of same-sex "marriage" have affirmed the traditional view of the institution.

The bill's opponents, including the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), say the legislation will harm the institution of marriage, as well as families and society. They also are concerned it will not provide enough protection for the expression of religious belief by those who oppose "gay marriage."

"It will lead to the violation of the consciences of children in schools as they are subjected to teachings in an authoritarian environment that same-sex marriage is a legitimate form of marriage," ERLC President Richard Land said in a letter to the D.C. elections board before its ruling. "Changing the definition of marriage would likely also result in government restrictions on the religious freedom of religious groups, potentially exposing them to government reprisal for honoring their faith convictions" regarding homosexuality.

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WASHINGTON (BP)--A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would extend benefits now reserved for the spouses of federal employees to the same-sex, domestic partners of such workers.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Dec. 16 to forward the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, S. 1102, to the full Senate. The panel vote was 8-1, with Sen. Robert Bennett, R.-Utah, the lone dissenter.

The proposal would bestow on homosexual partners of federal employees benefits normally given to married spouses, such as health insurance, retirement and disability benefits, group life insurance, and family and medical leave.

The action in the Senate followed by four weeks the approval of similar legislation by a House of Representatives committee. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23-12 on Nov. 18 for H.R. 2517, which has the same title as the Senate version.

Critics have charged the proposal is an indirect attack on the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from recognizing "same-sex marriages" and gives states the option to refuse to recognize such unions from another state. They also have said it would add an unknown fiscal burden to taxpayers and would promote discrimination against unmarried heterosexual couples. The legislation would cover only homosexual partners, not unmarried heterosexual ones.

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WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land and other pro-life leaders expressed their deep disappointment in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's agreement to health-care legislation they say does not prevent federal funds from supporting abortion.

With Nelson's decision to back the latest health-care proposal offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrats gained the final vote needed to move the bill toward passage. The Senate voted shortly after 1 a.m. Monday to invoke cloture on the abortion agreement, thereby preventing a filibuster by Republicans.

Reid gained exactly the votes needed to gain the procedural victory when 58 Democrats and two independents voted to end debate and move the legislation forward. All 40 Republicans voted against cloture.

The final vote in Reid's effort to advance the controversial measure came when Nelson announced his agreement to support the bill following concessions from the majority leader from Nevada. Nelson said he believed they had achieved the goal of preventing "tax dollars from being used to subsidize abortions."

The country's major pro-life organizations disagreed.

Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), said he is "distressed that Senator Nelson would settle for so little on the pro-life issue."

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A Kentucky Baptist children’s home says it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging a lower court affirmed ruling giving a green light to a taxpayer challenge of state funding to the faith-based agency.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday it was denying a request by Sunrise Children’s Services to have the full court reconsider the case. In August, a three-judge panel gave the lawsuit approval to go ahead, reversing a dismissal of the case by U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Simpson III in 2008.

A group of taxpayers are suing, saying that Sunrise — formerly Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children — is using public funding to proselytize children in its care, which they said violates the constitutional ban on state-sponsored religion. They have cited dozens of exit interviews conducted by a state consultant in which children alleged violations of religious freedom.

The lawsuit has been in process since 2000, but Simpson dismissed the case after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 limited the extent that taxpayers could sue over alleged violations of religious freedom.

“We’re very pleased with this development,” said Alex Luchenitser, an attorney with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who represents the plaintiffs. He noted that not one judge on the appeals court even asked for a vote on re-hearing the case.

But John Sheller, representing the children’s home, said the ruling conflicts with those of other appeals courts and that the Supreme Court should clarify it.

Kentucky provides millions of dollars each year for Sunrise to care for children in residential and foster programs.

Sheller noted that the funds are supplemented by church and other private donations.

The agency, like other providers of services to at-risk children, is “tremendously underfunded” in the current recession, he said.

“The ironic thing about this kind of taxpayer suit is that if the plaintiff prevailed in barring faith-based providers from providing these services, where the finding is subsidized by private donations, it would end up costing the taxpayers more.”

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WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate passed Dec. 13 the final legislative action toward federal funding of abortion in the District of Columbia.

Senators voted 57-35 for the omnibus spending bill -- a conglomeration of appropriations bills for multiple federal agencies -- that will, among other things, end a longstanding ban on government funds for abortions in the country's capital. The House of Representatives approved the same measure in a 221-202 roll call Dec. 10.

President Obama signed the legislation into law on Dec. 17.

The bill repealed the Dornan Amendment, which has barred federal and local funds for the District of Columbia from paying for abortions since 1996. The spending measure's language says it prohibits federal funding of abortions in D.C. but permits local money to be used.

Pro-lifers point out, however, that language is meaningless because federal and local funds are combined for the district. As a result, the D.C. government can avoid the ban simply by specifying as local the money used to underwrite abortions.

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The Shepherdsville City Council introduced an ordinance Monday that would extend alcohol sales to Sundays.

The measure would allow the sale of distilled spirits, wine and malt beverages between 2 and 10 p.m. on Sundays. The sales would be limited to restaurants that generate at least 70 percent of their gross sales from food and have the capacity to seat at least 100 people. A $300 license fee would be required to sell on Sundays.

None of council members commented on the ordinance.

More than 320 residents voted Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, and of those, 241 — or 74.6 percent — said they are in favor of extending alcohol sales to Sundays.

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A western Kentucky woman has been charged with embezzling almost $1.5 million from an Owensboro bank by taking money from elderly customers' accounts, and authorities said she spent much of it at casinos.

U.S. Attorney Candace Hill said 40-year-old Laura Potts, of Owensboro, stole the money from accounts at the BB&T bank. The prosecutor says Potts would obtain cash or cashier's checks drawn on the accounts, then deposit the money into accounts at other banks.

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