Author
Who called Kentucky abortion fund for help in the years before Roe v. Wade was overturned?
LOUISVILLE — Between 2014 and 2021, 6,162 people called the Kentucky Health Justice Network Abortion Support Fund to seek financial help to get an abortion.? In a new study published last week, researchers analyzed calls made to the abortion support fund and compared them with the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s records of abortions.? And […]
‘Flabbergasted:’ Help for kinship care families passed unanimously. $20M price tag could derail it.
A funding dispute between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican lawmakers threatens to delay long-awaited financial relief for grandparents and other kinship caregivers who are raising children in Kentucky.? Beshear signed and says he supports a new law that allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to […]
Kentuckians decry ‘terrifying’ choices, two years after Dobbs ended abortion access in the state
LOUISVILLE — Two years to the day after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, advocates and physicians in Louisville and Lexington slammed the fallout from Kentucky’s almost total ban on the procedure. Kentucky’s U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey was in Louisville Monday morning alongside Planned Parenthood and others to say “the […]
‘Free market health care:’ Boon or bane for rural Kentucky?
Experts and lawmakers continue to split over whether Kentucky should reform its controversial certificate of need process.? Two Republican lawmakers on different sides of the issue — Sen. Stephen Meredith of Leitchfield and Rep. Marianne Proctor of Union — spoke Thursday during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, & Administrative Regulations. […]
How to stay safe as extreme heat is forecast to slam Kentucky
Kentuckians can expect high temperatures this week, with portions of the state predicted to reach 100-degree heat indexes from Tuesday to Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.? High temperatures can be dangerous, particularly for children, people who are chronically ill or pregnant and older adults.? It’s not safe to leave pets or children in […]
Lexington Democrat will attempt to make Juneteenth a state holiday (again)
Kentucky Rep. George Brown, D-Lexington, says he will file legislation in 2025 to try and establish Juneteenth as an official state holiday.? Past efforts to do so have failed.? Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free in […]
Memorial Day storms death total updated
The storms that swept through Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend killed at least 6 people, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.? The previous known death total was 5. The sixth death was a 99-year-old woman in Laurel County, Beshear said.? Previous deaths were reported in Hopkins, Caldwell, Hardin, Mercer and Jefferson Counties.? The late May storms […]
Kentucky to receive $9 million in settlement with Johnson & Johnson?
Kentucky is set to receive more than $9 million over the next four years following a national settlement with Johnson & Johnson over products containing talc, the attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.? The company agreed to pay out $700 million after Kentucky — along with 42 other states and Washington D.C. — investigated the company […]
Trauma, poverty, COVID-19 causing high rates of chronic absenteeism in Kentucky?
The number of Kentucky youth who are chronically absent from school skyrocketed during the 2022-2023 school year.? The reasons for chronic absenteeism are interconnected and complicated — and the negative fallout potential is widespread, from mental health to the economy.? Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff and child welfare advocates point to the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
‘Rewarding:’ Kentucky Lantern staff honored with 6 regional awards
The Kentucky Lantern’s three full time reporters took home six awards Thursday from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Louisville chapter.? Politics reporter McKenna Horsley won two second place awards — one in the education category and one in politics. The winning stories included her coverage of what Kentucky schools can teach students about sex […]
For second year in a row, Kentucky overdose deaths decrease?
Overdose deaths in Kentucky decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday as he released the Drug Overdose Fatality Report.? In 2022, 2,135 Kentuckians died from an overdose, marking the first decline since 2018. Ninety percent of those deaths were from opioids and fentanyl.? In 2023, the number […]
The anatomy of Kentucky’s blood supply, and why more need to donate
Quintissa Peake, like many people, doesn’t like needles. But the Letcher County woman can’t choose to avoid them. She lives with sickle cell anemia, a genetic blood disorder that is painful and primarily affects people of African descent. People with sickle cell often need blood transfusions to replace their damaged hemoglobin cells? – which are […]