Kenny Colston

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said he'll examine President Obama's just-announced executive orders to see if the president has overstepped his authority — and, if he believes so, will introduce legislation to overturn the orders. 

“Executive orders can be overturned and cannot run afoul of legislation that is the current law, if he tries to create legislation, I will oppose him,” Paul said on Wednesday.

Obama on Wednesday announced 23 executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence, plus a push for new legislation.

Paul made his comments as the president was unveiling his plans, prefacing them by saying he wasn’t sure of all the details.

Paul said he believes if he has to submit legislation to overturn the president, he would win the support of Republicans and Democrats.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway has sued Spencerian College for allegedly misrepresenting job placement numbers to consumers.

Conway said Wednesday at a news conference in Frankfort that the for-profit school violated the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act by making unfair, false and deceptive statements regarding the hiring rates of its students.

Spencerian operates two Kentucky campuses — one in Lexington and one in Louisville.

Conway says in some cases, Spencerian's advertised rate of job placements was 30 or 40 percent higher than the rates reported to its accreditor.

One lesser-known aspect of the Affordable Care Act is it’s reliance on state health cooperatives —  which work separate of the state- or federally run health exchange, but are free to offer their own brand of insurance on the exchange.

But recent Congressional deal-making is putting those co-ops in danger.

While states are getting grants to fund their exchanges, co-ops were getting federal loans which had to be paid back within five years.

But the Washington Post reports that the fiscal cliff deal struck weeks ago kills off the co-op loan program for many states. But because of early planning, the Kentucky Health Cooperative isn’t in any funding danger, spokesman Jim McHanie says.

“Our funding is in place and we’re moving right ahead in fact we’re in the start-up phase of development and we plan to start offering coverage effective January 1, 2014,” he says.

If a federal judge's ruling goes into effect, businesses that sell liquor in Kentucky may see increased competition — and those businesses are encouraging legislators to act before an appeals  decision comes down.

Judge John Heyburn tossed the laws last year,  saying it was unconstitutional to allow places like drug stores to sell some wine and liquor, but not groceries.

But Heyburn put that ruling on hold to let lawmakers re-write the laws. Since that point, interested groups have been working on solutions to keep a free-for-all for liquor licenses across the state from happening.

State Senate President Robert Stivers says he wants to wait on an appeals ruling in the case  are finished before lawmakers tackle the issue.

But Roger Leasor, the Director of Community Relations with Liquor Barn, a company that owns many liquor stores across Kentucky, says that's a bad idea.

Work on reforming some of Kentucky’s liquor laws may wait until a federal appeals court rules on a current challenge.

A federal circuit judge threw out state laws dealing with where wine and distilled spirits can be sold, calling them unfair. Currently only select stores — such as liquor stores and pharmacies — can sell those beverages, while others — such as groceries — can only sell beer.

The judge’s ruling challenging that disparity is being appealed to the 6th Circuit and Senate President Robert Stivers wants to wait until that is resolved before his chamber gets involved.

“We have had some discussion of the issue, but we feel it appropriate and it’s my opinion and I feel it appropriate that until it is litigated and gone through the legal system, we don’t know if Judge Heyburn’s decision will be affirmed, or remanded or reversed,” he says.

So far, no proposals on how to change the law that would withstand the judge’s ruling has been put forth, House Speaker Greg Stumbo says.