Commentary
GOP supermajority: Silly, unserious, unconcerned by Kentuckians’ real problems
On Jan. 31, I began my day reading a story that opened with a stunning sentence. “Some residents of a county in Kentucky are going on two weeks without running water, forcing them to use public toilets and catch rainwater to bathe.” As I was reading this news, a 7:31 a.m. tweet popped up from […]
There is no ‘crime epidemic.’ Lawmakers should not saddle Kentucky with even more prisoners, costs.
In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan during a debate with Jimmy Carter, there they go again. For the past 50 years, every so often the media, law enforcement, prosecutors and government officials start screaming at the top of their lungs that “crime is rising,” “something must be done,” and the like.? Then the legislature […]
Educators are on strike in Kentucky
That’s quite the title. And you might look at it and say it’s untrue. Most recently teachers in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon, struck, but that’s not the commonwealth. But the fact is, teachers are on strike here in Kentucky. And please make no mistake about it, teachers are on a wage strike.? What’s different […]
Left behind, Kentucky clings to outdated policy that devalues citizens, diminishes competitiveness
Kentucky is too often slow to embrace beneficial economic and social change. Yet the news that 22 other states and 43 cities and counties raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1 is especially frustrating, considering the years advocates here have pushed for reforms. We remain one of 20 states still adhering to the $7.25 an […]
No, that’s not what Louisville’s housing discrimination law does
As one of the sponsors of a 2020 Louisville ordinance banning source of income housing discrimination, I’ve watched in disbelief as members of the Kentucky General Assembly have repeatedly misstated what the law does. In efforts to void that law and keep Lexington from passing a similar ordinance, they have stated that it prevents landlords […]
Anti-crime bill would do more of what we already know doesn’t work
All Kentuckians deserve to feel safe in their communities, but sending even more people to jail and prison, and for longer, will not make us safer. And yet, that’s the approach taken in House Bill 5, an expansive collection of tried-and-failed policies that respond to a wide range of societal issues with one antiquated solution: […]
Don’t mistake ending Kentucky’s income tax for a valid economic strategy
My brother has been very successful in the barbeque restaurant business. (Full disclosure: I am a passive investor in his company.) Politically, he was always what I call a Rockefeller Republican, pro-business and progressive on social issues. He tended to vote Republican primarily because he wanted to pay less tax and viewed the GOP as […]
The double irony of Kentucky election reform
I believe that former state Sen. Charles Booker, the progressive who sought to challenge Mitch McConnell in 2020, fell short in his quest for the Democratic nomination due to progressive election reforms. And while those changes have been scaled back dramatically, I believe that conservative efforts to eliminate the remnants of those policies would hurt […]
Tax dollars are wasted in states with school vouchers
Like salmon swimming home to spawn, lobbyists are again roaming the hallways of the Kentucky State Capitol.?? This year, big-dollar lobbyists representing corporate-run private schools and churches are pushing House Bill 208 to change the state’s constitution to allow politicians to throw billions of tax dollars into private and religious schools.?? The bad news is, […]
The women who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and sustained a movement for social?change
Historian Vicki Crawford is the director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, where she oversees the archive of his sermons, speeches, writings and other materials. Here, she explains the contributions of women who influenced King and helped to fuel some of the most significant campaigns of the civil rights era, but whose […]
Republicans, it’s time to stop sniveling
FRANKFORT – The tableau in the rotunda of the state Capitol on the year’s first day of business was, for a moment, reassuring to those of us who worry about the future of the party in which we were long registered and where its current strongman may take it and our country. The swearing-in of […]
Don’t forget those living in active addiction
I attended Lexington’s Opioid Abatement Commission executive committee meeting on Jan. 4. The public is always invited. We sat in chairs behind the commissioners’ table and listened to a concerned committee explore numerous ways to address the opioid crisis.? The discussions led to formulating the agenda for the Jan. 12 full commission meeting in the […]