Tag: kentucky

Kentucky Senate Panel Votes To Ban Sale Of Hemp-Derived Beverages On A Temporary Basis

Kentucky lawmakers advanced a “shell” bill Wednesday evening to ban the sale of hemp-derived beverages in the state until summer of 2026, a move supporters say will allow time to understand how intoxicating versions of the beverages are impacting consumers.

But those involved in the hemp industry decried the proposed moratorium on the sale of hemp-derived beverages as hampering, or even crippling, small businesses trying to market, distribute or sell the canned beverages that are gaining popularity across the country and popping up in places including convenience stores.

Senate Bill 202 sponsor Sen. Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) said the goal of her bill is to better understand and regulate intoxicating hemp-derived beverages similar to how the state regulates other intoxicating beverages such as beer or liquor.

She spoke to lawmakers alongside Rep. Matthew Koch (R- Paris) with a line of cans on a desk featuring various flavors and amounts of infused non-intoxicating cannabidiol, known as CBD, and other cannabinoids, which can include intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

“We are simply placing a moratorium on their sale until such time as we can establish robust regulations that protect Kentucky consumers and, most importantly, Kentucky children,” Adams said. “We have a real, I think, consumer protection issue going on right now. We need to make sure that Kentucky gets this right.”

Legislative concerns about regulating hemp-derived beverages sprang into public view on the 22nd day of this year’s 30-day session. The deadline for filing bills in the Senate was February 18.

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Massie Teases Senate Run – Jewish GOP Group Threatens ‘Unlimited’ Spending To Stop Him

Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie is teasing a potential run for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat in 2026, and a Jewish Republican group is already threatening to unleash “unlimited” spending to thwart any such bid, given his frequent opposition to legislation pushed by the pro-Israel lobby. 

On Thursday, Massie posted a poll on X, asking if he should stay in the House, run for Senate in 2026, or run for governor in 2027. A Senate campaign was the choice of 67% of the respondents.

The libertarian-minded Massie opposes all foreign aid. At his own political peril, he dares to make no exception for the State of Israel, which is among the world’s richest countries. He has also voted against legislation that would infringe on free speech by, for example, punishing colleges that allow students and professors to say the wrong things about Israel.

Add it all up — and stir in the fact that he’s a member of a party whose legislators almost universally toe the pro-Israel line — and Massie is likely the House representative the pro-Israel lobby would most like to eliminate. The idea of him ascending to the Senate has pro-Israel forces racing to DEFCON1. 

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Kentucky, Montana, Idaho Among States Looking to Ban mRNA Vaccines

As calls to ban mRNA shots intensify worldwide, a growing number of U.S. states and communities are eyeing laws to prohibit or pause their use.

A bill introduced Tuesday in the Kentucky House of Representatives would ban until July 1, 2035, the administration of “any human gene therapy product for any infectious disease indication, regardless of whether the administration is termed an immunization, vaccine, or any other term.”

Lawmakers in Idaho and Montana recently introduced similar bills. Legislative initiatives are in the planning stages or have been passed at the county level in at least four other states, including Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.

“A critical mass will soon be reached, forcing the federal government to follow suit,” said epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher of the McCullough Foundation.

Dr. Kat Lindley, president of the Global Health Project and director of the International Fellowship Program for the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA), said such initiatives are “important in sending the message” to public health agencies “that states recognize the damage mRNA shots have done to U.S. citizens.”

Hulscher said the McCullough Foundation “will be actively engaged in legislative efforts to ban mRNA injections” in several states.

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Kentucky Cops Arrest Man for Shouting at Them

A Kentucky man is suing the police, claiming he was arrested in retaliation for shouting at a group of officers from an apartment balcony. In a complaint filed last month, Brandon Rettig alleges that he was arrested on bogus public intoxication charges after he angered the officers, who violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights. 

According to the lawsuit, on June 8, 2024, Brandon Rettig was at his girlfriend’s apartment in Newport, Kentucky, when a team of police officers responded to an unrelated incident outside the building. From the balcony, Rettig shouted at the officers. In a later interview, Rettig claimed to have shouted “go get ’em boys” at the officers. The lawsuit insists that while the officers were angered by the comments, “Rettig did not utter fighting words or threatened to harm anyone.”

The suit claims that soon after Rettig made the comments, Officer Ronald Lalumandier shouted up to him, “Keep it up, I’ll take your ass to jail,” adding “I got keys to your apartment.” Three police officers, including Lalumandier, then entered the apartment building using a key card, which Lalumandier had access to as a former tenant.

According to body camera footage, the three officers confronted Rettig in the hallway of the apartment building and arrested him after a short argument. 

“Are you serious? I live here,” Rettig told the officers.

“Yes, 100 percent. We told you out there, you didn’t listen,” responded one of the officers. “You shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing…doesn’t mean you can act the way you were acting.”

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Kentucky Residents Who Participate In State’s New Medical Marijuana Program Will Be Ineligible To Own Guns, Feds Warn

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is warning Kentucky residents that, if they choose to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program that’s set to launch imminently, they will be prohibited from buying or possessing firearms under federal law.

As Kentucky prepares to implement the medical cannabis law that Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed last year, ATF has put residents on notice about the ongoing federal ban on gun ownership by people who use marijuana, regardless of individual state policies.

“You cannot possess firearms and ammunition and also be a user of marijuana,” ATF Special Agent AJ Gibes told WDRB this month, referring to a statute requiring gun purchasers to fill out a form that includes a question about whether they are an active marijuana consumer. If they check yes, they’re disqualified from owning the firearm.

Notably, Gibes said that while people who already own a gun aren’t “expected to” turn them over if they become state-legal cannabis patients, those who “wish to follow federal law and not be in violation of it” must “make the decision to divest themselves of those firearms.”

He added that ATF is “not actively seeking and working solely on investigations involving just the possession of firearms and marijuana because of our finite resources,” but that doesn’t change the law, and people will still be at risk of prosecution if they violate it.

ATF has also weighed in on other recent state cannabis policy developments.

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‘Running a brothel’: Judge killed in chambers by sheriff was part of sextortion scheme where women on house arrest exchanged sex for special treatment, lawyer says

A Kentucky judge who was gunned down in his chambers by a local sheriff was allegedly “running a brothel” out of his courtroom, according to a witness from a separate criminal case, with her claim being played up as a “compelling defense” for the shooting in court.

“He does have some videotapes of some stuff in the judge’s chambers,” alleged witness Sabrina Adkins told police in an audio recording obtained by NewsNation from a criminal case involving one of ex-sheriff Shawn Stines’ old deputies, Ben Fields, who was convicted and sentenced this year to six months in jail — and nearly a decade of probation — for rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device, according to The Mountain Eagle.

“Just with girls, sexual and stuff,” Adkins said. “I’ve seen one partly.”

Adkins, a defendant who was placed on house arrest, claimed in the audio recording that the footage she saw showed slain U.S. District Judge Kevin Mullins having sex with women in exchange for special treatment. She filed a federal lawsuit in January 2022 and Stines — a close friend of Mullins’ for roughly three decades — had just been deposed in the ongoing case on Sep. 16, three days before the shooting, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

“I seen Judge Mullins having sex with a girl … in the judge’s chambers,” Adkins told police during the Fields investigation, noting how she had sex with Fields once in the office.

Adkins outlined what she allegedly went through in the complaint for her civil suit, saying Mullins’ chambers served as a secret haven for Fields and other “higher ups” due to the fact that there weren’t any surveillance cameras present.

“There were no cameras,” the complaint says. It describes how Fields allegedly took off Adkins’ ankle monitor and told her she “would not have to pay the associated fees any longer, but could remain out on home incarceration” if she performed sexual favors for him.

According to the complaint, Fields met Adkins at least six times in Mullin’s chambers to receive those favors.

“During these meetings, Defendant Fields’ behavior escalated from flirtatious comments to forcible kissing, to oral sex, to intercourse with Plaintiff, all of which occurred at the Letcher County Courthouse after hours, in Judge Mullins’ Chambers,” the complaint says. “Plaintiff was coerced and compelled to comply with Defendant Fields’ advances given Defendant Fields’ position of power, and because she could not afford to pay for the ankle monitor and did not want to return to the Letcher County Jail.”

Late last month, Adkins’ claim was brought up in court — as was the Fields case — by Stines’ defense lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, who believes Adkins’ police interview and Stines’ deposition in her civil case are “going to be crucial” in defending the former lawman.

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“It Did Occur” – Kentucky County Clerk Confirms Voting Booth ‘Glitch’ Shifted Trump Votes To Kamala

Earlier in the day, a video went viral of voters in Kentucky having ‘issues’ with an electronic voting machine that selected “Kamala Harris” when the voter had pressed on “Donald Trump”…

Admittedly, we have seen a few of these style of clips over the past few weeks and viewed it with the same level of skepticism we usually do.

However, this time is different because the local County Clerk just issued a statement on Facebook confirming the issue “did occur”… but not before he had denied it occurred.

According to the Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown, the machine was taken out of service while waiting for a rep from the AG’s Office.

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Shock Video: Kentucky Voting Machine Won’t Let Voter Select Trump!

Alarming footage out of Kentucky appears to show a voter being prevented from selecting Donald Trump as his presidential pick.

A viral video shows a man in Laurel County repeatedly attempting to push the Trump-Vance selection on a voting machine as it fails to register his pick.

As the man keeps pushing Trump-Vance, the voting machine instead registers a vote for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Democrat ticket.

“This is in Kentucky. I took this video, it was my vote,” the man seen trying to vote wrote on X.

“I tried to pick Trump 10 times, it would not work, so I began recoding [sic] and kept trying. I went to the head of the election board and will send this video to KY attorney General.”

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State senator dies following freak lawn mower accident

Kentucky state Sen. Johnnie Turner, a Republican, died on Tuesday, Senate President Robert Stivers noted in a statement on behalf of the Senate Majority Caucus.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Sen. Johnnie Turner’s passing Tuesday evening, following a hard-fought battle with injuries sustained in his recent accident,” the statement reads. 

Turner, who passed away at 76, was hurt last month when he plummeted into an empty swimming pool while riding a lawn mower, the Associated Press reported.

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Kentucky Man Declared Brain Dead Wakes Up During Organ Harvesting Operation, Opened Eyes and Started Visibly Crying

A Kentucky man who was declared brain-dead woke up as surgeons were in the middle of harvesting his organs.

The Guardian reported that Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II was taken to the Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, in 2021 due to suffering from cardiac arrest.

Family members were later told by doctors Hoover “lacked any reflexes or brain activity” and was later taken off life support.

Hoover, who was a registered organ donor, was then taken to have his organs evaluated to see which organs were eligible for donation.

As the evaluation process began, Hoover’s eyes opened up, and he started to look at his loved ones in the room.

Family members were told by doctors, “It was just reflexes – just a normal thing.”

Baptist and the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates reported that an hour later, Hoover’s body was taken into surgery to have his organs removed, but surgeons stopped the process after Hoover started to “thrash” and “cry visibly.”

The doctors then came out and told Hoover’s family he “wasn’t ready” and instructed family members to take him back home and make him “comfortable.”

People reported, “Hoover is still alive and being cared for by his sister as he has difficulty with walking, talking, and memory.”

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