Personnel investigation tops year's Kentucky stories

BY MARK R. CHELLGREN

AP WRITER

FRANKFORT (AP) - When a Transportation Cabinet whistleblower walked into Attorney General Greg Stumbo's office in May, it set in motion events that have rocked Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration.

The memos and e-mails collected by veteran personnel manager Doug Doerting led to the creation of a special grand jury, which indicted 13 people, in turn prompting a historic gubernatorial pardon and forming the basis of a continuing dispute over constitutional separation of powers.

It created the biggest news story of 2005 in Kentucky, according to a panel of editors.

The panel of journalists from around the state found the Iraq war, and its human cost in Kentucky, the second biggest story of the year. Kentucky finally joining the rush to enact higher taxes on tobacco products, after decades of legislative protection for one of the state's most famous crops, was the third biggest story of 2005.

Deadly weather, the tornadoes that skipped across parts of western Kentucky in early November and the refugees from hurricane Katrina who moved to Kentucky, rounded out the top five stories of the year.

The remaining top 10 were the tax and budget package finally agreed upon by the General Assembly; the budget troubles facing Kentucky's Medicaid program; the steady march of community anti-smoking ordinances; the growing scope of the settlements of claims of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests; and the latest federal court ruling that local governments cannot try to impose religion on taxpayers by posting copies of biblical passages in public buildings.

In addition to the myriad legal problems raised by the investigation, Fletcher's political future has also been put in question. After pardoning, then firing, numerous executives in his administration for the “mistakes” they made in personnel decisions, Fletcher suggested that the Kentucky Republican Party should also fire its chairman, Darrell Brock, a former aide to Fletcher who was among those indicted for personnel violations.

In an unprecedented move, the party central committee, though, rejected Fletcher's suggestion and Brock continues in his post. Perhaps most troubling for Fletcher is the refusal by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the single most powerful Republican in the state, to publicly state his own support for Fletcher.

The Iraq war came home largely by way of the thousands of Kentucky based troops serving overseas. By December there were 1,300 Kentucky National Guard troops serving in the Iraq war and the 101st Airborne Division was into its second tour of duty.

And the casualties among those soldiers rose with the involvement. Six Kentucky Guard troops had lost their lives in Iraq during 2005, bringing the total for the war to eight. And the war had cost the lives of about 100 troops based at Fort Campbell.

For decades, Kentucky had one of the two lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, a historical nod to the state's long dependence on burley. But with the end of the price support and quota system, along with declining political clout, the 2005 General Assembly increased the tax on a pack of cigarettes tenfold, from 3 cents to 30 cents. It also enacted the first state tax on other tobacco products, like snuff and cigars.

The tobacco tax debate may not be over. Fletcher first raised the idea of a 40-cent tax, but quickly backed off. Health advocates and some others, however, have said they will push for even larger taxes of perhaps $1 per pack.

A deadly, costly series of storms tore across the state, some of the worst of them in November. The storms killed at least one Kentuckian, injured dozens, damaged homes, business and lives and leaving thousands without power. Together, they made up the fourth biggest story of the year.

The human toll of Hurricane Katrina made its way to Kentucky in the form of thousands of refugees. Their housing, schooling and adaptation in Kentucky helped make for the fifth biggest story of 2005. While residents of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi fled north, law enforcement and other public service officers, along with volunteers and truckloads of supplies went south from Kentucky to help.

After failing to get agreement on a spending plan in 2004, the General Assembly and Fletcher wound up in court, trying to determine their respective duties and responsibilities. But a confluence of events, including the unexpected result of an obscure constitutional provision, ended the yearlong standoff and actually produced agreement on a budget and tax changes advocated by Fletcher, as well as the sixth biggest story of the year. Months after the agreement, the Supreme Court ruled that both sides had been wrong.

Meanwhile the slipping grip of tobacco in Kentucky might best be reflected in the slow advance of nonsmoking ordinances. Lexington started it with a broad ban on indoor smoke in 2004. When the effects were not as drastic as opponents feared, others began looking. Georgetown enacted a ban and Louisville's metro government followed. Daviess County's fiscal court voted for a ban late in the year to take effect later and other communities are pondering variations on the theme.

Tied with anti-smoking ordinances for the seventh biggest story of the year was another story with a familiar theme.

Even though the legislature and Fletcher agreed on a budget, it ignored a lingering financial hole the state has faced for several years - the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled. The state started the year with what was thought to be a $500 million shortfall, which was cut down to nearly balanced before rising costs and burgeoning populations combined to put the program in the red again by year's end.

The final top stories of the year were also legacies of previous news.

As the year drew to a close, more than 350 people had applied to join in the settlement of alleged sexual abuse claims by priests in the Covington Diocese. The settlement could mean payment of as much as $120 million. And another lawsuit was pending about claims of abuse at a Catholic orphanage in Louisville, even though a larger suit over abuse in the Louisville diocese was settled last year.

And in June, the U.S. Supreme Court once again ruled that copies of the Ten Commandments posted in courthouses and some other public buildings around the state violated the constitutional prohibition on establishment of religion. The high court's first ruling in a Ten Commandments case in Kentucky was in 1980.

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Traci Zimmerman in Louisville contributed to this report.