Latest news with #HouseBill315
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sharp bill signed into law
FRANKFORT The governor has signed House Bill 315, a measure sponsored by Rep. Scott Sharp, Ashland-R, to protect Kentucky's agricultural land from hostile foreign entities, into law. 'With the support of my colleagues in both chambers and both sides of the aisle, Kentucky has now closed a door which has stood open to our nation's enemies for too long,' Sharp said. 'I am proud of the General Assembly for recognizing the seriousness of this issue, and for joining me in taking this necessary action to protect our citizens, our commonwealth, and our country.' House Bill 315 will prohibit any foreign entity from purchasing, leasing or acquiring agricultural land in Kentucky if they are associated with a hostile foreign government identified by Title 22, section 126.1 of the Code of Federal Regulations and do not have a national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment, according to a press release. These countries include China, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela among others. HB 315 will also prohibit any foreign entity associated with these countries from participating in agricultural programs offered by the commonwealth. In addition, the bill requires agricultural land purchased for non-agricultural purposes by all foreign entities to be developed within five years of purchase, stated the release. Visit for more information.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Governor Beshear signs 20 new bills into law in Kentucky
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) — Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has been busy. The governor has recently signed 20 bills into law, vetoed 12 and returned 4 without a signature. The governor's goal is that these bills will help Kentuckians and improve communities across the state. 'We've been laser focused on addressing the everyday needs of our Kentucky families and communities, and the 20 bills I signed do just that,' says Beshear. Below are the 20 bills Governor Beshear has signed into law: House Bill 15 lowers the age at which Kentucky drivers can obtain instructional permits from 16 to 15 years old. House Bill 45 strengthens campaign finance regulations. House Bill 315 prohibits hostile foreign governments from indirectly owning, leasing or otherwise acquiring an interest in agricultural land in the commonwealth. House Bill 321 addresses issues related to zoning map amendments. House Bill 342 requires a financial literacy course in high school. House Bill 422 makes procedural changes for how emergency regulations are administered through the Commonwealth Office of Technology. House Bill 443 makes Kentucky Highway 80 in Perry, Knot and Floyd counties part of the Hal Rogers Parkway. House Bill 537 provides clarity regarding the Opioid Abatement Fund. House Bill 682 includes cable operators and broadband providers in the definitions of 'utility' for reimbursement of costs associated with relocation of their facilities. House Bill 701 safeguards the rights of Kentuckians to use and mine cryptocurrencies. Senate Bill 27 requires the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to create and maintain a Kentucky Parkinson's Disease Research Registry. Senate Bill 68 makes several changes aligning with Kentucky Academic Standards. Additionally, it will reduce staff time costs at the Kentucky Department of Education. Senate Bill 69 creates certification through the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners to license qualified candidates to work in animal chiropractic and equine dentistry. Senate Bill 129 allows governmental, quasi-governmental and nonprofit entities to purchase properties that have been placed in a tax delinquency diversion program. Senate Bill 145 changes the period of time for which delinquency charges can be collected on vehicle payment installments. Senate Bill 162 strengthens protections against unemployment fraud. Senate Bill 179 appropriates $10 million to create the Nuclear Energy Development Grant Program. The measure aligns with the state's energy strategy and new U.S. Department of Energy priorities. Senate Bill 202 creates a licensing and regulatory framework for 'intoxicating THC infused beverages' within the 3-tier system regulated by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Senate Bill 237 requires certain out-of-state peace officers, who were previously employed in another state for 10 years, to have passed a physical agility test in the state where they were certified. Senate Bill 244 establishes the Department of Child Support Services and its offices within the Office of Attorney General's Department of Law. Below are the bills Governor Beshear vetoed: House Bill 2: Beshear says this bill would prioritize tax breaks for purchasers of gold. He says this is 'out of touch with reality for most people in Kentucky. House Bill 90 restricts access to medical care, places barriers on doctors and undermines their clinical judgement, and threatens the life of pregnant women in Kentucky. House Bill 136 would force the executive branch to breach a contract with a vendor opening the government up to costly litigation funded by taxpayers. House Bill 399 criminalizes interference with a legislative proceeding which is already subject to existing laws and is therefore unnecessary. House Bill 424 would limit employment protections for educators at Kentucky's colleges and universities. House Bill 546 makes changes to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Road Plan, and Beshear says this would include 'unnecessary tolling' on the I-69 Ohio River Crossing project. House Bill 566 received line-item vetoes because it prevents the Governor from being able to fulfill his duty under the Kentucky Constitution that the laws are faithfully executed by the president of the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation. House Bill 684 limits the forms of valid identification that may be used to allow a voter to cast a ballot, making it harder for Kentuckians to participate in the voting process. House Bill 694 breaks the promise made to Kentucky teachers in 2010 to fully fund health insurance for retirees by requiring teachers to pay a higher rate much longer than the law calls for. House Joint Resolution 30 seeks to appropriate funds through a resolution instead of through legislation. Senate Bill 28 violates the Kentucky Constitution and will lead to the disclosure of confidential information on economic development projects. Senate Bill 89 eliminates protections currently in place to prevent pollution of groundwater and flooding of creeks, streams and rivers. Below are the bills that were returned without Governor Beshear's signature: House Joint Resolution 15: Beshear aims to show respect to the 79 faith leaders who oppose the resolution. House Bill 241: Beshear says this contradicts the General Assembly's own actions and attitudes toward in-person and all-virtual learning. Senate Bill 136: Beshear says this is due to the General Assembly not providing any funding to support the bill, which would reportedly cost taxpayers $500,000. Senate Bill 201: Beshear says this is due to the requirement that administrative law judges be confirmed by the General Assembly before they can begin service. He says there is concern with not having enough administrative law judges and that members of the Senate may practice before these judges. One more veto day remains before the General Assembly reconvenes for the last two days of the 2025 regular session. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
YPD to charge up to $75 per hour for body camera footage under new state law
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — City police will begin charging up to $75 per hour for anyone requesting body camera footage. The overall cost they can charge will be capped at $750. This is in response to a bill signed into law just after the first of the year by Ohio Mike DeWine that allows departments to charge for the footage if they want to. Until the bill was introduced, body cam footage was free. The law goes into effect April 2. Backers of the bill who introduced it said the measure is not meant to deter people from obtaining footage or to prohibit transparency, but to address concerns that departments were devoting too many resources to redact footage for bloggers, YouTube channels and other reality-based mediums that rely on body cam footage for their content. Lt. Brian Butler of the city police department said the department needs two people just to handle the requests for footage. Certain footage must be redacted before it can be released to the public. Susan Gilles, Professor Emeritus John E. Sullivan Professor of Law at Capital University who specializes in media and public records law, said that the law is an example of what happens when something is rushed through at the last minute. The law was not debated and was added at the last minute after a 17-hour session to approve House Bill 315 just after the first of the year. Gilles said the state's public record laws already include a provision that limits can be set on material requested by someone who is making a profit, such as a blogger. That provision is not included in the new law, she said. Also in 2019, the General Assembly decided that public records, including police videos, would be provided at no cost to the general public and media. The new law goes against that rationale, she said. 'The general assembly rejected the idea that the public should have to pay,' she said. City Councilman and former police Chief Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, said he understands why such a law is needed because of how excessive requests could bog police down. However, he also added he believes city residents should be able to view footage at no cost. City police began wearing body cameras in 2021 in the wake of police scrutiny following the unrest that resulted from the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., at the hands of police. The law also allows departments to charge the same fees for other videos, such as dashcam or security videos. Butler referred other questions about the policy to the Law Department, but the person he referred a reporter to did not want to comment on the record. That person also did not know that departments have the option of not charging for body cam and other video footage. After a request is made, an invoice will be prepared, Butler said. Work will not begin until the invoice is paid. Gilles also said records, whether they are video or in another form, belong to the public, not the police department, and people should not be asked to pay for them. Taxpayers already pay for the cameras, the system the footage is stored on and for officers to be trained to use the cameras. The department's budget was $22,396,139 overall in 2024, according to the Finance Department. With 59,108 residents as of the last population count in 2023, the charge for police services per city resident is almost $379 at $378.901 per resident. Youngstown is also the third poorest city in the state, with a poverty rate of 34.5 percent. Only Portsmouth at 35.4 percent and East Cleveland at 39.4 percent are higher. Boardman police Chief Todd Werth, head of the second largest department in the area after Youngstown, said as of now, there are no plans to charge for videos, but he did say the matter is being studied with the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office to see if a balance can be struck between a request by a citizen or a media outlet as opposed to someone who wants to post police videos for profit. Werth said his department will receive requests from bloggers for videos that are time-consuming to redact, such as a blanket request for all police use of force videos for an entire year. Also, Werth said some incidents have multiple officers present who have multiple cameras recording and all of that video has to be sifted through to be redacted if it is requested. Gilles also said the process to release the video if a department charges for it can be time-consuming. They have up to five days to figure out how much to charge and the video does not have to be edited until payment is made. That can delay the release of the video, which goes against the spirit of the public records law that says that records should be given in a reasonable period of time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Covenant marriages exclude LGBT people and that's what Tennessee lawmakers want
Editor's note: Letters to the editor reflect the views of individual readers. Scroll to the bottom to see how you can add your voice, whether you agree or disagree. We welcome diverse viewpoints. Re: "Covenant marriages will make Tennessee families stronger especially for children," by Noah Jenkins, Feb. 22. Noah Jenkins has written a thoughtful and coherent guest opinion column in support of the Covenant Marriage Act. However, his description omits a key element of the bill which is clearly one of its main points. The first condition of House Bill 315/Senate Bill 737 states "a covenant marriage is a marriage entered into by one male and one female." In creating a different category that excludes the LGBT community, our legislators are designating a class of citizenry unavailable to all. The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, has been very clear about his disdain for gay marriage. After the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell vs. Hodges decision in 2015, then state Representative Pody declared that same sex marriage is "wicked" and stated that,"I believe God told me this" before reading a passage from the book of Ezekiel in which he warns that "they shall surely die." I am very cautious about people who declare that a supernatural deity speaks to them, and their actions are sanctioned by a god. To declare this as an elected American state representative is misguided at best and dangerous. Opinion: Contradictions between faith, politics and racism still haunt the South It is with sincere hope that I say please, please do not allow this or other biblical passages to influence our laws. Surely, our state will not command a virgin who has been raped to marry her rapist (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). This is a prime example of why our founders established a wall of separation between church and state. This wall should keep all religions from pushing any bigoted laws through a secular legislature. Wesley H. Roberts, Pegram 37143 Agree or disagree? Or have a view on another topic entirely? Send a letter of 250 words or fewer to letters@ Include your full name, city/town, ZIP and contact information for verification. Thanks for adding to the public conversation. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: LGBT couples would be excluded from Tennessee's Covenant Marriage Act
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sharp files bill to prohibit purchase of agricultural land by hostile foreign entities
FRANKFORT Last week, Rep. Scott Sharp, R-Ashland, filed a bill to prohibit foreign entities affiliated with hostile governments from purchasing agricultural land in Kentucky. 'This has been a dangerous threat growing right under our noses for quite some time,' Sharp said. 'Foreign investors and companies with deep connections to hostile foreign governments have been purchasing vast quantities of agricultural land across our nation unchecked for years, including land adjacent to many of our critical military installations.' House Bill 315 would prohibit any foreign entity from purchasing, leasing or acquiring agricultural land in Kentucky if they are associated with a hostile foreign government identified by the United States, according to a news release. It would also require agricultural land purchased for non-agricultural purposes by all foreign entities to be developed within five years of purchase. In 2024, it was recorded that more than 40 million acres of farmland, pastures and forests in the United States were owned by foreign entities. While many of America's allies such as Canada, the Netherlands and Italy own much of that land, a concerning amount is in the possession of individuals and companies beholden to hostile foreign governments. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, nearly 400,000 acres are owned by China, 90,000-plus acres are owned by Venezuela, over 4,000 acres are owned by Iran, nearly 1,000 acres are owned by Cuba, and more than 70 acres are owned by Russia. In 1978, a federal law was passed requiring any agricultural land purchased by foreign entities to be disclosed to the Department of Agriculture within 90 days of the sale. However, enforcement of this deadline has been reportedly inconsistent. Between 2023 and 2024, 22 states enacted similar measures to restrict the ownership of land by foreign entities. Of those states, some such as Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah expanded the restrictions to all property. 'It is high time that we address this concern head on,' Sharp said. 'Not only would this bill ensure the continued agricultural prosperity of our commonwealth, but also reaffirm our commitment to the protection of all Kentuckians no matter the size of the threat.' House Bill 315 has been assigned to the House Standing Committee on Agriculture for further discussion. For more information on House Bill 315, visit
