Republican firm’s poll shows Beshear up 10 points on Cameron in Ky. governor’s race
The poll – conducted by the Republican-leaning firm Public Opinion Strategies for the Prichard Committee, an education-focused Kentucky nonprofit – shows Beshear up 10 points on Cameron with just over three months to go until the general election.
It projects Beshear capturing 52% of the vote compared to Cameron’s 42% with the incumbent having cross-party appeal.
The poll also indicated Beshear’s approval rating is 63% across the board with 38% of Republican voters and 60% of Independent voters polled approving of his performance. Among the 800 voters polled, just 35% disapprove of the job Beshear’s doing in office. (LPM News)
State finds several water systems, most on the Ohio, have levels of 'forever chemicals' above a limit being considered by EPA
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” are in Kentucky’s rivers and lakes. The chemicals are accumulating inside Kentucky’s fish. They are in municipal water treatment systems, and some have levels higher than a proposed federal limit..
That is what the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection has found the past few years as it has investigated how widespread PFAS is in Kentucky’s drinking water and environment, the department’s commissioner told a state legislative committee Thursday. (KY Health News)
Kentucky’s inflation-adjusted minimum wage now at its lowest since 1950
Today marks 14 years since the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 an hour to $7.25. For the dozens of states, including Kentucky, that have failed to boost the minimum wage on their own, it hasn’t moved since. That’s left tens of thousands of people across the commonwealth earning poverty wages as the price of housing, food and other necessities has skyrocketed.
Since July 2009, inflation has reduced the minimum wage’s purchasing power by 40%, making it more and more difficult for people who earn the least to make ends meet. When accounting for the effects of inflation, the minimum wage is now at its lowest point since 1950. (KY Policy)
One year old, US climate law is already turbocharging clean energy technology
On August 16, after the hottest June ever recorded and a scorching July, America’s long-sought response to climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act, turns one year old. In less than a year it has prompted investment in a massive buildout of battery and EV manufacturing across the states. Nearly 80 major clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced, an investment equal to the previous seven years combined, according to the American Clean Power Association.
“It seems like every week there’s a new factory facility somewhere” being announced, said Jesse Jenkins, a professor at Princeton and leader of the REPEAT Project which has been deeply involved in analysis of the law.
“We’ve been talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America for my entire life. We’re finally doing it, right? That’s pretty exciting,” he said. (AP News)
And from the Twitterverse (soon to be known as the X-verse) ...
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