Home » Today’s Lane Links

Today’s Lane Links

While high-speed rail trains are designed to travel in excess of 150 mph, a high-speed rail plan inches toward Bowling Green at a snail’s pace, the Bowling Green Daily News reports.

The city is among 20 planned high-speed rail stations across several states in a consultant’s plan commissioned by the Georgia Department of Transportation. HNTB, a company that analyzes transportation and infrastructure for public and private entities, presented the high-speed rail study recently to the Georgia Department of Transportation, the paper says.

READ THE FULL STORY

+++

When eating out, cooking in or even leaving your living room is too tall an order, two Lexington companies will bring a variety of restaurant food to your door, reports the Lexington Herald Leader.

The Web- and phone-based services LexEatIn and Takeout Taxi allow you to order from the menus they provide from local restaurants, and then they bring the food to you. Orders may be placed by phone or online with just a few clicks or with free apps for iPhone and iPad users

READ THE FULL STORY

+++

Kentucky regulators are taking a closer look at a handful of Christians-only health coverage plans that bill themselves as alternatives to traditional insurance, the Associated Press reports.

Department of Insurance spokeswoman Ronda Sloan said her agency, which has had a decade-long legal battle with a ministry called Medi-Share, will be more closely examining such plans.

The legal dispute between Kentucky and Florida-based Medi-Share — which helps to pay medical bills only for Christians who don’t smoke or drink — is continuing to simmer more than a year after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that it is subject to the same regulations as secular insurance companies, the AP says.

READ THE FULL STORY

+++

Despite a national unemployment rate topping 8 percent, trucking companies are struggling to recruit and retain enough drivers due to a host of factors, McClatchy News Service reports.

The shortage dates back to the years leading up to the recession, when well-paying construction jobs were plentiful and the industry had problems finding replacements for all of the veteran drivers who were retiring. That there remain hundreds of thousands of driver vacancies today — four years after the real estate bust — speaks in part to the waning popularity of the profession, the service says.

READ THE FULL STORY

+++

Julie Janson, president of Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky, has made accelerating construction of a new Brent Spence Bridge a priority this year as she chairs the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The chamber is part of a regionwide effort, the Coalition to Build Our New Bridge Now, that is pushing for the development of a financing plan to construct a new bridge.

The coalition also is working to raise awareness among the public, and local elected officials, about the importance of accelerating the bridge’s replacement, the paper says.

READ THE FULL STORY

+++

A new state task force charged with recommending ways to improve the financial health of the state’s public pension funds will hold its first meeting today, reports The Ashland Daily Independent.

The Kentucky Public Pensions Task Force — chaired by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton — will hold monthly meetings up until a Dec. 7 deadline for offering recommendations. Members plan to take a wide look at issues surrounding the systems, including benefits, investments, funding and any other matter that impacts the financial stability of the state-administered retirement systems, the paper says.

READ THE FULL STORY