By Liam Niemeyer | Reporter
An “asphalt monopoly” in Fayette County? That’s what one Kentucky think tank thinks is happening with a Fayette County asphalt company, which benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars in non-competitive, single-bid road paving contracts awarded by the state.
We also have another update on the deadly floods that inundated Kentucky last month. And we have a look at the fraying ties between states and the federal government during the second Trump administration. Thanks for reading.
A 2023 legislative report found that Kentucky was an outlier for awarding costly single-bid road paving contracts. (Getty Images)
By Liam Niemeyer
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet awarded more than $1.3 billion in single-bid road paving contracts across three years from 2023 to 2025, with one Fayette County-based asphalt company taking home hundreds of millions of dollars of those contracts.
Flooding in Madison County took three lives, officials said. (Photo courtesy Richmond Police Department.)
By McKenna Horsley
Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that one death was in Hardin County and another was in Jefferson County, making the total number of deaths from the floods six. The Jefferson County death was a 25-year-old male and the Hardin County death was a boy.
(Illustration by Alex Cochran for Stateline)
By Jonathan Shorman and Kevin Hardy
As a part of an ongoing series, Stateline takes a look at the fraught moment between states and the federal government, examining what evolving — and often deteriorating — state-federal ties mean for the country, now and in the future.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Thanks so much for reading Morning Lantern. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.