History
Navy Seaman 1st Class Elmer P. Lawrence comes home from Pearl Harbor
For decades, Elmer P. Lawrence was unaccounted for after dying at Pearl Harbor. Now, he’ll be buried this weekend 13 minutes from his hometown.? The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which works to identify soldiers lost, announced in June that its scientists had identified Lawrence in 2021 and would send him home for burial.? Navy Seaman […]
Legislative hearing on Medicaid dental expansion canceled
A public hearing on Gov. Andy Beshear’s plan to have Medicaid cover more dental, vision and hearing services for adults scheduled Friday, July 14, has been canceled. The hearing by the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee was to have been held at 1 p.m. in Frankfort for comments on Beshear’s plan that expands Medicaid to pay […]
Resistance was everywhere in Kentucky. Enslavers advertised it daily.
LEXINGTON — Throughout the late spring of this year a group of nine University of Kentucky students did work that no one had ever done before.? They scrolled through digital copies of early Kentucky newspapers, looking for advertisements seeking the return of people who had fled slavery, to record and preserve them. “Ran away last […]
Echoing history, reliance upon travel rises for abortion care post-Dobbs
Editor’s note: This report is part of a special States Newsroom series on abortion access one year after the U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down the federal right to abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision one year ago, people of childbearing age in states across the country suddenly faced what seemed […]
Kentucky politicians mark Juneteenth as Beshear calls on legislature to make it a state holiday
Kentucky leaders on both sides of the political spectrum celebrated Juneteenth by discussing African American history and calling the holiday a mark of progress toward equality.? Gov. Andy Beshear signed a proclamation recognizing Monday as Juneteenth National Freedom Day in Kentucky in the Capitol Rotunda.? Those who joined Beshear included Senate Minority Floor Leader Gerald […]
Bearing flowers and tradition, the next generation takes on the duty of Decoration Day
This story was first published in The Daily Yonder on May 21, 2021 and is is republished here under a Creative Commons license. While their friends are cannonballing into the city pool this weekend, my sons will spend the day in an Eastern Kentucky cemetery, placing flowers on the graves of relatives they never knew. […]
Kentucky officially unveils COVID-19 memorial in Frankfort?
Kentucky officials unveiled a new memorial honoring those lost to COVID-19 at the Capitol Wednesday.? The installation, called “United We Stand. Divided We Fall,” is an Amanda Mathews design and sculpture.? Matthews is the CEO of Prometheus Art in Lexington. She sculpted the Nettie Depp statue, the first of a woman to be displayed in […]
Bipartisan Kentucky bill decriminalizing fentanyl test strips clears House
FRANKFORT — A bipartisan Kentucky bill that would pave the way for fentanyl strips to not be considered illegal drug paraphernalia passed the House unanimously 93-0 on Wednesday.? House Bill 353 is sponsored by Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill and has three Democratic co-sponsors.? Fentanyl test strips, according to the Centers for Disease Control […]
Owensboro celebrates powerful history ‘Through Sleet’s Eyes’
Moneta Sleet Jr.’s eye led him from his hometown of Owensboro around the world. As a photojournalist for Ebony magazine, Sleet captured on film some of the 20th century’s most iconic moments; his work earned a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, the first awarded a Black American. This week, the Ohio River town where nine-year-old Sleet […]
Terry L. Birdwhistell, historian and former University of Kentucky dean, dies
Historian, author and educator Terry L. Birdwhistell died Sunday after a brief illness, according to a news release from the University of Kentucky where he had been dean of ?libraries and holder of the William T. Young Endowed Chair. Best known for his oral histories, Birdwhistell was 72. The release from UK goes on: “Being […]