Government
New report confirms Kentucky’s first decline in fatal overdoses since 2018?
Kentucky’s 2022 Overdose Fatality Report, released Thursday, shows the commonwealth saw its first decline in fatal overdoses since 2018.? Still, 2,135 Kentuckians died from an overdose in 2022. Ninety percent of those deaths were from opioids and fentanyl. Potent inexpensive methamphetamines also continue to be a driving factor.?? During his weekly press conference Thursday, Gov. […]
Statehouses debate who should build EV charging networks
Though they only make up a fraction of cars and trucks on the road now, many projections — from Wall Street firms, trade groups and automakers themselves — predict an imminent surge in electric vehicles over the next decade. S&P Global estimates that the nearly 2 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today will grow […]
How Kentucky generates electricity — and emits tons of greenhouse gasses
A recent state analysis found that, unlike a number of states that have pivoted to other fuel sources, Kentucky utilities still burn coal to generate the large majority of electricity in the state. The latest Kentucky Energy Profile report published this week by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet provides a snapshot of how major […]
As Kentucky’s largest coal producer mines Bitcoin, its power discounts draw scrutiny
Union County in Western Kentucky has been the state’s top coal-producer for years, mining more than 10 million tons in 2022. Something else is being mined in Union County: Bitcoin. In both cases, the mining is done by Alliance Resource Partners (ARP) headed by Joseph Craft III, whose wife Kelly Craft, just lost an expensive […]
Mt. Sterling police investigating KKK flyers found in neighborhoods
Following social media posts and local news reports about flyers promoting a white supremacy group in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, police have launched an investigation.? A copy of a flyer posted online shows it is from the Trinity White Knights Ku Klux Klan. It asks residents to report crimes and drug dealers to the group.?? “We […]
Log and burn? Or let it be? The fight over the future of Hoosier National Forest
PAOLI, Indiana—When Jesse Laws rides her seven-year-old palomino, Roscoe, in Hoosier National Forest, she often steers him toward the tall pines. Needles carpet the trails, muting the clop of his shoes and shifting the feel of the air. “The ground stays moist there, so it’s cooler and so quiet,” says Laws, whose great grandparents founded […]
After winning special election, Elkins sworn in as state Senator
Sen. Greg Elkins, a Republican from Winchester who recently won a special election, was sworn into the Kentucky Senate on Thursday.? Elkins, will fill a vacancy left by former Sen. Ralph Alvarado, who became the Tennessee Department of Public Health commissioner in January. The term ends in 2026. The seat represents the 28th state Senate […]
More than 100 ‘orphan’ wells in Daniel Boone National Forest to be plugged, remediated with federal money
A new influx of federal money is planned to plug and remediate more than 100 abandoned oil and gas well sites in the Daniel Boone National Forest, a part of a broader effort to address so-called “orphan” wells on federal lands and waters across the country.? A release Thursday from the U.S. Department of the […]
Property for proposed aluminum mill back with local authority, Beshear says
Property once eyed for an aluminum mill in northeastern Kentucky is again under local control, Gov. Andy Beshear said.? He announced Thursday that Unity Aluminum has transferred more than 240 acres to the Northeast Kentucky Regional Industrial Authority, an economic development group that manages the multi-use business park near I-64 between Grayson and Ashland.? During […]
U.S. Supreme Court rules Alabama’s congressional maps violate Voting Rights Act
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps violated the Voting Rights Act, a ruling that preserves a major part of the law and could lead to new congressional maps in Alabama. A three-judge panel in January 2022 ruled that maps approved by the Alabama Legislature in 2021 […]
‘Or’ ignites latest conflict over what Kentucky schools may teach about sex, gender
Editor’s note: This story was updated with comments from Gov. Andy Beshear Thursday afternoon. A disagreement over the meaning of “or” in a controversial anti-trans law has ignited the latest conflict between a prominent Republican lawmaker and the Kentucky Department of Education. Sen. Max Wise criticized the new KDE guidance as “a feeble attempt to […]
Higher salaries helping Kentucky State Police recruit and retain officers, commissioner says
FRANKFORT — Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip J. Burnett Jr. told lawmakers recent pay increases backed by the General Assembly and Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration have supported the agency’s recruitment efforts.? Burnett said in a Wednesday meeting of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary that he does foresee other challenges when it comes […]