Kenny Colston

Governor Steve Beshear has named a longtime tourism veteran to oversee the part of his cabinet dealing with travel and the arts.

Bob Stewart is a familiar face in state government, having worked for 11 years as commissioner of travel from 1992 to 2003.

And now, he'll be the new Tourism Secretary, having been appointed by Beshear to fill the post vacated by Marcheta Sparrow, who’s retiring.

Stewart is starting work for his fourth governor, having previously served under Brereton Jones, Martha Layne Collins and Julian Carroll. He's either played roles in tourism or worked as an executive assistant for those governors.

Stewart begins June 1.

A national pharmaceutical company is helping train Kentucky law enforcement on how to address prescription pill abuse in their communities.

Purdue Pharma helps produce some of the prescriptions often abused in Kentucky, including OxyCotin.

But company executives say that for the last few years, Purdue Pharma has been helping to train law enforcement officials on how to help crack down on illegal prescribing and abuse.

As part of a free training seminar, Purdue officials are once again in Kentucky helping health care officials and law enforcement address potential pill abuse.

John Gilbride, a law enforcement liaison for Purdue, says the company has frequently held the seminars in the state.

Kentucky Tea Party groups are planning rallies Tuesday to protest the IRS targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups  for extra review.

Two of Kentucky's largest Tea Party groups will protests outside IRS offices in their respective areas: the Northern Kentucky Tea Party will protest in Cincinnati and Louisville's group will join southern Indiana groups to protest in Louisville.

Louisville Tea Party President Sarah Durand says the protests show that Tea Party groups won't stand by quietly while the controversy unfolds.

"So this is our way of saying something needs to be done, there needs to be more action taken and that we refuse to be silenced," she says.

The Justice Department is opening an investigation into the IRS reviews.

Tea party activist David Adams is once again suing Governor Steve Beshear over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This time, Adams is trying to block the expansion of Medicaid.

The expansion will give 300,000 people a chance to join Medicaid beginning next year. Beshear says that will make Kentuckians healthier and boost the state's economy.

Adams disputes that. His lawsuit challenges a decades- old law that gives Beshear the power to accept federal funds freely.

To help pay his legal fees, Adams says he's asking for help from other tea party activists.

"Anything like this, to do it right, winds up to be very expensive. We continue to go out and sell the effort to people and as they see we are actually on very solid legal ground for asserting consumer and citizens' rights on this, those efforts will just expand."

Adams also has a lawsuit pending to block the state-run health insurance exchange Beshear created by executive order a year ago.

A coalition of western Kentucky businesses and residents has formed in hopes of minimizing the fallout of an electricity rates deal between Big Rivers Electric Co-Op and western Kentucky aluminum smelters.

The coalition is worried the deal will lead to higher utility bills for residents and businesses.

Aluminum prices have been low in the past few years, and across Kentucky, aluminum smelters have sought to save money on their electricity bills.

Earlier this year, Big Rivers cut a deal with two Western Kentucky smelters, allowing them to buy their electricity on the open market. The smelters said the change was necessary to stay in business, but the deal cost the electric company more than half of its customer base.

To make up for that, Big Rivers is asking the Kentucky Public Service Commission to approve a 30 percent rate increase for its remaining customers.