Chief Justice John Roberts is expected later today to reveal the Supreme Court’s verdict on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
The court is not just passing judgment on a major expansion of the social safety net, designed to cover an additional 30 million Americans with health insurance. It is doing so on the president’s signature domestic legislative achievement and in the heat of his closely fought campaign for re-election, the Associated Press reports.
Four major issues await resolution, the most important of which is whether the law’s centerpiece requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a penalty is constitutional, the AP says. The justices also are weighing whether other parts or indeed the entire 2010 law should fall if they strike down the insurance requirement.
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The good news is getting better for GE Appliances and Louisville. In anticipation of exceptional sales of its new line of French door bottom-freezer refrigerators, GE will add 380 second shift production employees later this summer and has increased the number of new production employees working in the facility from the recently announced 600 to a total of 772 employees.
In addition to the 772 new production positions, GE Appliances added about 100 salaried positions to support the new plant and product. GE has hired a total of 1,000 new employees in 2012 alone to support $800 million investment at Appliance Park in Louisville.
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A company Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway says preyed on veterans for their education benefits has agreed to pay a total of $2.5 million to 20 states and turn over its website to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Associated Press reports.
Conway announced the consumer protection settlement Wednesday against QuinStreet Inc., which ran the website GIBill.com.
The states alleged GIBill.com misled military veterans by giving the impression schools listed on its site were the only ones where education benefits could be used. The schools were primarily for-profit colleges, the AP says.
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NASCAR will leave Northern Kentucky a little bit greener following Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
For every green flag dropped at the race, 10 trees will be planted at Turkey Foot Middle School in Edgewood as part of the NASCAR Clean Air Tree Planting Program. A green flag is dropped at the beginning of the race, and also whenever racing resumes following a wreck or other delay, which are known as cautions, the paper says.
The tree-planting program began in 2009 with 11 racetracks and now includes more than 26 tracks nationwide.
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Losses on JPMorgan Chase’s bungled trade could total as much as $9 billion, far exceeding earlier public estimates, according to people who have been briefed on the situation, reports the New York Times.
When Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, announced in May that the bank had lost $2 billion in a bet on credit derivatives, he estimated that losses could double within the next few quarters. But the red ink has been mounting in recent weeks, as the bank has been unwinding its positions, according to interviews with current and former traders and executives at the bank who asked not to be named because of investigations into the bank, the paper says.
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Gov. Steve Beshear on Wednesday signed an executive order directing the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to expedite the transport of emergency supplies to Kentucky counties struggling with drought. Ninety counties — 75 percent of the state’s counties — are classified as suffering moderate to severe drought conditions.
The order directs the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) to waive special registration and permit requirements for vehicles carrying relief supplies such as water, livestock forage and hay to stricken areas.
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