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‘Wanting to be free does not insinuate violence’
LEXINGTON — History has a way of vindicating student protests — civil rights, Vietnam, apartheid — but it can take a while. I was thinking about this while trudging up Woodland Avenue on a sunny afternoon last week to a pro-Palestinian rally at the University of Kentucky.? Along the way I passed a group of […]
Privacy worries a smokescreen for hiding the public’s business
FRANKFORT — Long before there were text messages, email, cell phones or computers small enough to slip into a purse? — back in the Neolithic when public records were created on IBM Selectric typewriters — the Kentucky Open Records Act protected personal privacy. The Kentucky Open Records Act still protects personal privacy. No one is […]
Veto of mass incarceration bill gives Kentucky supermajority a shot at redemption
FRANKFORT — As I sort through the remains of this session, I keep returning to something I’ve heard said, only half-jokingly, about Kentucky: We waited until after the Civil War to join the Confederacy. It feels like the legislature is doing it again. White grievance and white supremacy animated this session. Republicans were out to […]
Kentucky Senate approves two-year state budget 36-1
A nearly unanimous Senate on Wednesday night approved a state budget for the next two years before the document was publicly available on the legislature’s web site. The compromise budget, which by Thursday morning was posted on the legislature’s site, emerged from a House-Senate free conference committee on Tuesday. It increases funding for the basic […]
Amendment allowing public money for nonpublic schools breezes out of Senate committee
A constitutional amendment that could pave the way for charter schools and publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools in Kentucky is one step closer to going on the November ballot. The Senate Education Committee voted 11-2 in favor of House Bill 2 during a special meeting Thursday afternoon. Kentucky Education Association President Eddie Campbell […]
Kentuckians would vote on putting public money into private schools under bill that moved from committee
FRANKFORT — Kentuckians could decide in November to let public money be spent on private schools — although the language put to voters wouldn’t be quite that straightforward — under a bill approved by a House committee Tuesday. The House Committee on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs voted 11-4 to send House Bill 2 […]
Gaming their own law: Will Senate Republicans follow House lead on trail of another income tax cut?
FRANKFORT — Remember when Republican lawmakers —? spurred on by the Chamber of Commerce — put Kentucky on the sober, responsible path to ending the state income tax? We were assured this route would protect Kentucky from becoming another Kansas. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s “pro-growth” tax cuts had put the Sunflower State into an economic […]
Senate should save Kentucky from another incarceration binge
FRANKFORT — A couple of demented provisions in House Republicans’ sweeping rewrite of Kentucky’s criminal code — jailing the homeless and unleashing vigilante justice on suspected shoplifters — are bad enough in themselves. They also seem to be the shiny new objects distracting from other, far-reaching questions about House Bill 5. Kentuckians deserve answers, but […]
Decrying ‘pick-a-side politics,’ Beshear responds to GOP calls for him to support Texas governor’s border stand
FRANKFORT — Responding to Republican calls for him to support Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration crackdown, Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday praised the 850 Kentucky National Guard members who have served at the southern border, saying they?“answered the call of our country, not the clamor of the latest political outrage.”? Declaring Kentuckians “exhausted with this […]
‘Moment of silence’ would be mandatory in Kentucky public schools under bill moved by House committee
Kentucky public schools would be required to begin each day with a moment of silence or reflection under a bill that was advanced Tuesday by the House Education Committee. Rep. Tina Bojanowski, a Louisville Democrat and public school teacher, opposed House Bill 96, saying it “reads as a bill that requires prayer during the school […]
OMG not DEI
Listen up, people. It’s time to get woke to the real victims. Untold Kentuckians are suffering from exposure to “concepts.” Not just any concepts. DIVISIVE concepts. Ideas that cause discomfort, guilt, anguish, psychological distress, deep dark depression, excessive misery and possibly premature hair loss in white males. What’s inflicting these horrors? DEI.? No, not do […]
Kentucky has the money for once. Will the legislature have the vision?
Kentucky’s new Attorney General Russell Coleman is right when he says prevention is the weak link in the long-running war on drugs. Turning the tide will take a lot more than retreading D.A.R.E. or Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign, though. If we’re serious about prevention, we’ll work to help more Kentuckians grow up in […]