Local News

Beshear approves exchange to expand health insurance

Calling it “the single-most important decision in our lifetime for improving the health of Kentuckians,” Gov. Steve Beshear on Thursday announced the inclusion of 308,000 more Kentuckians in the federal Medicaid health insurance program.

Beshear said announcing the expansion that, together with the creation of the Health Benefit Exchange, this would ensure that every Kentuckian will have access to affordable health insurance.

Issues involving the downtown Village Center District in Simpsonville – at least changes involving those long-range plans – dominated the discussion at Tuesday’s meeting of the Simpsonville City Commission.

Commissioners voted to close out payment for the first phase of the sidewalk project for the downtown corridor and also approved on first reading a text amendment for a zone change for that corridor to allow for moderately sized LED signs.

On top of Monday’s safety issues at Collins High School, Shelby County Public Schools already had made a quick change to its K-PREP testing, which also began Monday.

The district was forced to alter its testing situation because of an issue with ACT, which is the vendor for the end-of-course testing.

Shelby County was one of several districts statewide that were scheduled to begin testing online this year. However, ACT began having issues with its online test and by Friday temporarily had suspended online testing because of technical issues.

The Shelbyville City Council held a first reading Thursday for the 2013-14 city, and that will require a sight tweak this week before a final consideration.

The council will have a special called meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to add the potential revenue from a grant it hasn’t been awarded.