The bust of confederate general and KKK grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest has been removed from the Tennessee State Capitol. Advocates cleared the final hurdle Thursday, after decades of protesting and months of jumping through legislative hoops.

Gov. Bill Lee voted along with the majority of the state building commission to move the bust to the Tennessee State Museum.

But the vote was not unanimous: the speakers of the Tennessee House and Senate voted against relocation.

Several different state commissions have voted on the fate of the bust in the last few months, but Sen. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville, hoped this was the last.

Kentucky is creating an electronic search warrant system that allows police to request and judges to approve or deny warrants online.

The e-warrant system is being developed by research database company LexisNexis and comes amid scrutiny of search warrant processes in the wake of Breonna Taylor’s killing.

Members of Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s Search Warrant Task Force discussed the project on Thursday.

Troy Belcher, the lead developer of the e-warrant system with LexisNexis, said it will create more oversight of the search warrant process.

“Everybody looks at the history when it comes to the warrants. They want to see who created it, they wanted to see who sent it, who even looked at it. We’ll definitely have that information in there,” Belcher said.

Kentucky reported for the first time Thursday the number of COVID-19 cases affecting the state’s vaccinated population.

The state reported 2,795 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 from March through July 21, representing less than 5% of total cases in that time period, said Gov. Andy Beshear at a press conference on Thursday.

Officials cautioned that number is likely an undercount because only those with the most severe symptoms are likely getting tested, and the vaccine is effective at preventing serious illness. Beshear said the low numbers of cases in vaccinated people demonstrates the vaccine’s effectiveness.

“Ninety-five percent of all positive cases were among unvaccinated individuals. That is an enormous statistic,” Beshear said.

The president of Western Kentucky University announced in a statement Wednesday that he will not recommend the Board of Regents take action to remove or change the names of any of the university's buildings or academic colleges.

Caboni's statement was in response to the WKU Naming And Symbols Task Force Report and Recommendations.

Among the high-profile buildings and colleges Caboni said he would not recommend for name changes are Ogden College, named in honor of Robert Ogden; Potter College, named for Pleasant J. Potter; and Vanmeter Hall, named for Charles Vanmeter.

Kentucky will get more than $460 million as part of a multistate settlement with Johnson & Johnson and other opioid manufacturers and distributors.

The settlement is the result of several lawsuits Kentucky has filed against pharmaceutical companies. Proceeds will be put toward addiction treatment and prevention and will be distributed to the state over the coming years.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the windfall on Wednesday, saying the companies created and fueled the opioid epidemic.

“There is hardly a family anywhere that has been immune to the scourge of opioids,” Cameron said during a news conference. “We’ve lost thousands of our fellow Kentuckians and seen families and children torn apart by the grips of addiction.”

The Kentucky Hemp Association is suing the state following a series of police raids, arguing a THC product derived from hemp known as Delta-8 is legal.

Delta-8 is almost identical to Delta-9 THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, and induces a similar, but milder “high” in users. 

Back in April, the legal counsel from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture issued a memo saying Delta-8 products are illegal under federal law and therefore, illegal under state law. The memo cites a list of controlled substances in the U.S. Department of Justice website that includes Delta-8. 

Attorney Chris Wiest, working on behalf of the Kentucky Hemp Association, says the ag department’s interpretation excludes language added under the 2018 Hemp Act that legalized Delta-8 products derived from hemp.