Bill Nighbert

Kim Dean, the legislative director for U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Southgate), is getting a promotion, while there's mixed news for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Louisville) challenger Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville). Find out who else made this week's Winners & Losers. | CLICK HERE

The office of Governor Steve Beshear (D-Lexington) released a statement today saying the current administration would cooperate with a federal investigation into potential illegalities in the state's transportation department during his predecessor's tenure.

"We have been and will continue to cooperate fully with the federal investigation into allegations of impropriety at the Transportation Cabinet during the previous administration," said Beshear in the statement. "I was elected to create a culture of integrity at the cabinet and throughout state government and we are making substantive progress toward that goal. Our full cooperation with this investigation from the beginning has been an important part of that process."

Former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert was one of the targets of an affadavit alleging that he and road contractor Leonard Lawson collaborated to obtain sealed construction estimates from state engineers.

Former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and road contractor and major political contributor Leonard Lawson are the targets of a federal investigation, according to an affadavit obtained by the Louisville Courier-Journal revealling allegations that road construction estimates were illegally leaked to Lawson.

The affadavit charges that Nighbert or Lawson told state engineer James Rummage to obtain construction estimates for road projects, some of which were directly given to Lawson.

"Nighbert or road contractor Leonard Lawson directed Rummage to obtain the (transportation cabinet's) engineer's estimates," the affadavit reads, according to the Courier-Journal. "On some occasions, Rummage delivered the engineer's estimates to Nighbert, but on others he gave them directly to Lawson. On four of these times, Lawson gave Rummage $5,000 cash, for a total of $20,000."

Rummage is currently cooperating with federal investigators.