Politics

Governor Andy Beshear has signed a bill into law requiring all Kentucky school resource officers, or SROs, to carry a gun.

“The threats to our children in our schools is very real,” Beshear said, citing incidents where guns were found on school campuses, a thwarted school shooting plot in Shelby County, and the 2018 shooting in Marshall County.

“I simply cannot ask a school resource officer to stop an armed gunman entering a school without them having the ability to not only achieve this mission, but also to protect themselves,” he said.

The Democratic presidential primary is heading west for the third contest in the 2020 race. Nevada Democrats are hoping their caucuses avoid similar problems that plagued Iowa earlier this month.

Follow NPR's coverage for the latest updates, analysis and results as the caucuses get underway.

A top Kentucky election official says foreign hackers scan the state’s election systems looking for vulnerabilities “on a regular basis” and that lawmakers need to create a more stable funding source for election security.

Jared Dearing, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said election officials don’t know if the hacking attempts are coming from foreign governments, but that they “don’t have good intentions.”

“We are routinely scanned by Venezuela, by North Korea, by Russia on a regular basis,” Dearing said.

The 2020 election season is in full swing, and Ohio is back in the middle of the political fray. Early voting has begun in Ohio, with election day coming up soon in March—on St. Patrick’s Day.

A bill that would legalize marijuana for medical use passed out of a Kentucky legislative committee on Wednesday.

A bill that would require Kentucky cities, agencies and public employees to comply with federal immigration officials has cleared the first step in the legislative process.

The anti-sanctuary cities bill passed out of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Thursday with a 7-2 vote. Lexington Republican Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr and Louisville Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal voted against the measure.

Opponents have decried the measure as an expansion of law enforcement powers to untrained employees, saying it would sew mistrust in the immigrant community.