The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the federal agency charged with enforcing nursing home regulations. (Photo by Getty Images; logo courtesy of CMS)

Kentucky is joining 19 other states in challenging a Biden administration rule that sets minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.

The nursing home industry has pushed back against the rule, saying it couldn¡¯t afford to comply even if enough new staff could be found amid a widespread health care workforce shortage, Kentucky Health News previously reported.?

Kentucky nursing-home industry says Biden staffing mandate ‘impossible’ to meet

Twenty state attorneys general, including Kentucky¡¯s Russell Coleman, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, seeking to overturn and reverse the new regulations.?

The Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Rule requires nursing homes that receive Medicare or Medicaid payments to provide 3.48 hours of direct nursing care per resident each day, including a defined number for registered nurses (0.55 per resident per day) and nurse aides (2.45 hours per resident per day).

About 211 Kentucky long-term care facilities do not meet staffing requirements, according to the lawsuit. To comply, they would need to hire 185 registered nurses and 1,336 nursing assistants, the lawsuit states.?

The 66-page court document criticizes the rule as an ¡°existential threat to the nursing home industry¡± that will put some out of business and cause ¡°irreparable¡± harm.?

¡°Senior citizens and other vulnerable members of society rely on nursing homes and similar facilities to meet their needs when family members cannot,¡± the lawsuit says. ¡°Although the nursing home industry certainly has had its share of challenges, it fills a vital need in our communities that cannot be replaced. Instead of addressing the legitimate challenges nursing homes face, the defendants put forward a heavy-handed mandate.¡±?

¡°And the main victims,¡± the lawsuit says, ¡°will be the patients who will have nowhere else to go.¡±?

People toss buckets of water out of a home as the streets and homes are flooded near Peachtree Creek after Hurricane Helene brought in heavy rains over night on Sept. 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Hurricane season has not only wreaked havoc on people¡¯s lives throughout much of the country, but could also make it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots in hard-hit regions.

Other election threats include misinformation and even terrorism, with warnings from the Department of Homeland Security and an arrest in Oklahoma allegedly connected with an Election Day plot.

Election officials in states regularly affected by hurricane season have considerable experience ensuring residents can vote following natural disasters, but those in other parts of the country less accustomed to the destruction this year are learning as they go.

Voters used to a quick drive to their polling place or a drop box might need to spend more time getting there amid washed-out roads, while some may be so bogged down in rebuilding their lives, they simply choose not to cast a ballot. Regular mail service may be disrupted for mail-in ballots.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said earlier this week he didn¡¯t expect recovery from Hurricane Helene to have a significant impact on voting, lauding county election officials for troubleshooting power outages and a loss of internet during the storm, the Georgia Recorder reported.

Local election officials throughout the state, he said, were ready to ship mail-in ballots on time and didn¡¯t expect any delays to the start of early voting on Oct. 15.

County election officials ¡°really put public service first because they understand how important voting is in 53 counties that so far have been declared federal disaster areas,¡± he said during a press briefing.

North Carolina¡¯s legislature unanimously passed an emergency funding package Wednesday that includes $5 million for the Board of Elections to help it recover from the hurricane and ensure the election goes forward somewhat smoothly, according to NC Newsline.

Elections officials in the state will be allowed to make changes to early voting and polling locations throughout 25 western counties, an increase from the 13 counties previously authorized to make changes.

¡°While the Board of Elections made a good effort, we want to extend it to additional counties that were impacted,¡± Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said during a press conference.

The Trump campaign released a list of 10 requests for voting in North Carolina on Tuesday evening, including that voters ¡°who have been displaced to another North Carolina county to have the ability to vote a provisional ballot on election day, which will be delivered back to and processed at the voter¡¯s correct County Board of Elections.¡±

That specific request was not approved by the state, according to NC Newsline.

In Florida, where residents barely began addressing damage from Hurricane Helene before Hurricane Milton emerged, there are disagreements about how best to proceed, the Florida Phoenix reported.

The League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to extend the voter registration deadline, which ended on Monday.

The organizations argue that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis should have allowed more time for voter registration, since residents have been focused on storm preparation, evacuation and recovery.

¡°While issuing mandatory evacuation orders, he has refused to extend the voter registration deadline, disenfranchising many Floridians who were unable to register due to a disaster beyond their control,¡± the organizations wrote in a statement. ¡°Voters should not have to worry about registering to vote while they are trying to protect their lives and communities.¡±

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced Wednesday that there would be changes throughout six counties to address impacts from Hurricane Helene, though he committed to ensuring residents in the state would be able to vote in person or by mail.

¡°The devastation experienced in northeast Tennessee is heartbreaking and unimaginable,¡± Hargett said in a written statement. ¡°However, I continue to be amazed at the planning and resiliency of our local election officials.

¡°We have been working with our local elections administrators ¡ª Josh Blanchard, Sarah Fain, Tracy Harris, Dana Jones, Cheri Lipford, and Justin Reaves ¡ª throughout the entirety of this disaster, and their unwavering leadership and commitment will ensure this election proceeds as planned, so registered voters have the opportunity to vote.¡±

Hargett reiterated in the statement that early voting would still begin on Oct. 16 and run through Oct. 31.

Specific changes to voting throughout the six counties were posted on the Secretary of State¡¯s website, which will be updated with any additional alterations in the days ahead. Tennessee voters who sent in absentee ballots can track the status here or by calling 877-850-4959.

Elections and artificial intelligence

Kentucky secretary of state urges lawmakers to protect election officials from AI impersonations

In Kentucky, elections officials are warning state lawmakers that artificial intelligence has the ¡°potential for significant impact¡± on elections in the months and years ahead, the Kentucky Lantern reported.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams urged lawmakers during a meeting of the General Assembly¡¯s Artificial Intelligence Task Force to take the technology seriously.

¡°Should you take up AI legislation when you return in 2025, I would encourage you to consider prohibiting impersonation of election officials,¡± Adams said during the meeting. ¡°It is illegal to impersonate a peace officer, and for good reason. It should be equally illegal to impersonate a secretary of state or county clerk and put out false information in any format about our elections.¡±

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a report earlier this month saying officials expected ¡°state actors will continue to pose a host of threats to the Homeland and public safety,¡± including through artificial intelligence.

¡°Specifically, China, Iran, and Russia will use a blend of subversive, undeclared, criminal, and coercive tactics to seek new opportunities to undermine confidence in US democratic institutions and domestic social cohesion,¡± the 46-page report states.

¡°Advances in AI likely will enable foreign adversaries to increase the output, timeliness, and perceived authenticity of their mis-, dis-, and malinformation designed to influence US audiences while concealing or distorting the origin of the content.¡±

Terrorism and the election?

Oklahoma City man faces charges related to planned Election Day terrorist attack, authorities say

DHS also expects threats from terrorism to remain high throughout the year, including around the elections, according to the report.

¡°Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat of carrying out attacks with little to no warning,¡± the report states.

That appears to be the case in Oklahoma, where federal officials allege a 27-year-old Afghanistan national living in the state purchased an AK-47 and ammunition as part of a plot to conduct an attack on Election Day in the name of ISIS, the Oklahoma Voice reported.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi and a co-conspirator under the age of 18 allegedly met with an FBI asset in rural western Oklahoma to purchase two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines and 500 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.

An FBI search of Tawhedi¡¯s phone found communications with a person who Tawhedi believed was affiliated with ISIS. He also ¡°allegedly accessed, viewed, and saved ISIS propaganda on his iCloud and Google account, participated in pro-ISIS Telegram groups, and contributed to a charity which fronts for and funnels money to ISIS,¡± according to the complaint.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump¡¯s campaign has sought to blame Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for Tawhedi¡¯s presence within the United States.

Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released a written statement claiming that Harris ¡°rolled out the red carpet for terrorists like Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi.¡±

¡°President Donald Trump will deport illegal immigrants on the terror watch list and secure our borders from foreign threats,¡± Leavitt wrote.

Tawhedi entered the United States on Sept. 9, 2021, on a special immigrant visa and ¡°is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings,¡± according to the criminal complaint.

The co-defendant is Tawhedi¡¯s wife¡¯s younger brother. While unnamed because he is a juvenile, the criminal complaint says he is a citizen of Afghanistan with legal permanent resident status who entered the United States on March 27, 2018, on a special immigrant visa.

Leavitt¡¯s statement didn¡¯t comment on the co-defendant entering the United States during the Trump administration.

Harris has not yet commented publicly on the arrest.

This story has been updated with new information from North Carolina.

Multiple Grammy winner Janis Ian, left, in 2008 plays with the late Jean Ritchie, a Kentuckian who grew up in Viper in Perry County and after moving to New York became a celebrated artist in the folk music revival. (Photo courtesy of Janis Ian)

It was big news last year when singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy winner Janis Ian announced Berea College would be the home for her archives.?

How Janis Ian’s ‘life’ came to Berea College

Berea College archivists have been working with the collection since the first materials arrived and are now ready to share some of what they¡¯ve cataloged. The college is celebrating the archives¡¯ opening with a series of events Oct. 17-20.

Ian¡¯s archives span over a century, beginning with her grandparents¡¯ immigration papers early in the 20th century through Ian¡¯s career performing around the world and with musical legends including Joan Baez, Leonard Berstein, Dolly Parton and many others, to her advocacy for civil, women¡¯s and LGBTQ rights.?

Click here for information about the “Breaking Silence” celebration and a short video in which project archivist Peter Morphew offers an introduction to the collection.?

Some highlights of the weekend¡¯s events:

Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18-19: During the day guests can see samples from the Ian archives in the Hutchins Library atrium as well as archival footage from Ian¡¯s public addresses and concerts.

7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18: The play ¡°Mama¡¯s Boy,¡± written by Ian¡¯s mother, Pearl, will be performed at the Jelkeyl Drama Center.

7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19: Janis Ian Tribute Concert at Phelps Stokes Chapel emceed by Silas House will feature Amythyst Kiah, Aoife Scott, Melissa Carper, S.G Goodman, Senora May.

Kentucky has joined 12 other states and the District of Columbia in seeking monetary damages from TikTok for harm it has allegedly caused to youngsters. (Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exploiting minors and being ¡°designed to addict and otherwise harm¡± them.

In filing the lawsuit Tuesday in Scott County, Coleman joins a dozen states and Washington D.C. in seeking payouts for what they describe as a pattern of knowingly hurting youth.

The other states that have sued are California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

The Kentucky lawsuit says TikTok is ¡°designed¡± to be ¡°an addiction machine¡± that targets children.

Michael Hughes, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement, ¡°We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.¡±

¡°We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,¡± said Hughes.

What¡¯s in the lawsuit?

Coleman¡¯s lawsuit accuses the company of unfair and deceptive acts that violate Kentucky¡¯s Consumer Protection Act, failing to warn consumers of the potential dangers in consuming the platform¡¯s media and more.

¡°Unlike other consumer products that have appealed to children for generations ¡ª like candy or soda¡ªwith social media platforms there is no natural break point where the consumer has finished the unit of consumption,¡± the lawsuit states. ¡°Instead, social media platforms are a bottomless pit where users can spend an infinite amount of their time.¡±

TikTok¡¯s Michael Hughes said the company does take steps to protect users.

¡°We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16,¡± Hughes said. ¡°We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry wide challenges.”

Speaking in Northern Kentucky Wednesday, Coleman promised to ¡°force (TikTok) to answer for creating and pushing an app designed specifically to addict and harm Kentucky¡¯s children.¡±

“TikTok is more than trendy dances or funny videos. It¡¯s a specially crafted tool to suck in minors, leading to depression, anxiety, altered development, and more,¡± Coleman said.

¡°TikTok intentionally manipulates the release of dopamine in young users¡¯ developing brains and causes them to use TikTok in an excessive, compulsive, and addictive manner that harms them both mentally and physically,¡± the Kentucky lawsuit says.

Forbes reported in 2022 that watching TikTok videos is like taking drugs, calling it a ¡°pleasurable dopamine state¡± that is ¡°almost hypnotic.¡±

Filed in Scott Circuit Court, the 125-page lawsuit contains frequent blocks of redacted material. Those include information from internal TikTok documents, that ¡°for the time being remain subject to certain confidentiality agreements,¡± said Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Coleman¡¯s office.

Coleman is seeking an injunction to halt TikTok’s “ongoing violations,” actual and punitive damages and penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.

TikTok also is fighting a federal law enacted by Congress earlier this year that would ban the app in the U.S. unless its owner, ByteDance, sells it to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19.

What does research show?

In a 2023 report, the U.S. Surgeon General said social media use among youth can have both positive and negative effects. For example, youth may be able to find community and connection through social media that they otherwise lacked. But their mental health can decline with that use, and they can have increased anxiety and depression.
¡°Because adolescence is a vulnerable period of brain development, social media exposure during this period warrants additional scrutiny,¡± the surgeon general report said.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children¡¯s wellbeing, says tech companies need to:

• Ade-quate-ly and inde-pen-dent-ly assess- the impact of social media on chil-dren and adolescents.
• Pri-or-i-tiz-e user health and safe-ty when design-ing and devel-op-ing social media prod-ucts and services.
• For-mal-iz-e a strat-e-gy for inves-ti-gat-ing the requests and com-plaints of young peo-ple, fam-i-lies, edu-ca-tors and others.

Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised Coleman “for standing up against the social media giant ¨C and standing up for Kentucky¡¯s young people.”

“There is nothing more paramount than upholding our kids¡¯ mental health and safety, especially as kids increasingly find themselves in digital spaces,” Brooks said. “The addictive nature of the social media platform TikTok can harm kids¡¯ developing brain, expose them to unrealistic standards and unsafe situations, and put them at risk of sexually explicit content and exploitation.”

Read the complaint

Rep. Kim Banta says constituents tell her their kids are afraid to go to school because of the fear of gun violence. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text the suicide prevention lifeline at 988.?

A Northern Kentucky Republican will file a bill in the 2025 legislative session to hold parents and guardians civilly accountable for gun violence or misuse carried out by minor children in their care.?

Rep. Kim Banta of Fort Mitchell, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, thinks of the legislation as a ¡°wake up call,¡± she told the Kentucky Lantern.??

¡°I have constituents that ¡­ tell me their kids are literally afraid to go to school,¡± she said. ¡°We just need to start kind of zeroing in on: if you’re under 18, your parents are responsible for your behavior.¡±??

Under her bill, people who are hurt or threatened by a minor using a gun could sue the minor¡¯s parents or guardians and be awarded monetary damages.?

Banta? believes such legislation could incentivize parents and guardians to properly store and secure weapons (or separate them from ammunition), which could in turn lower suicide rates among youth and curb school shootings ¡ª and the threat of them.?

In 2023, nearly 4% of Kentucky high school students reported they carried a weapon like a gun or knife on school property at least one day within the month before they were surveyed, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kentucky Department of Education. That number rose to around 6% for the year before they were surveyed, and excluded weapons carried for hunting or target sport purposes.?

That survey also found 11% of high school students had at least one day within the month before they were surveyed when they were absent from school because they felt unsafe at school.?

Finally, 8% of students in 2023 reported they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once during the year before the survey.?

The Kentucky Department of Education also reports 15% of high school students and 17% of middle school students in the state considered suicide ¡°seriously¡± in the last year. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

In its annual report, Kentucky¡¯s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel found children were increasingly injuring and killing themselves with guns they had wrongful access to.?

Among those, the Lantern reported in February, was a 4-year-old who played with a loaded gun he found in a glove compartment of a car and fatally shot himself. Another instance involved a 14-year-old boy whose friend fatally shot him with a loaded gun found in a parents¡¯ bedroom.?

The panel said at the time that the legislature should research national models and develop legislation to promote safe storage of firearms.

What¡¯s in Banta¡¯s bill??

Banta¡¯s bill, which is being drafted during the interim, would combine the state statutes that hold parents accountable for vandalism their children commit and when parents sign their child¡¯s driver’s license.?

¡°The proposal is that a parent is responsible, civilly, for any gun violence that their child under 18 years old would perpetrate,¡± said Banta.?

That includes threatening someone with a gun, shooting a neighbor¡¯s dog or injuring or killing a person. People who were wronged would then have a legal opening to sue the parents or guardians of those minor children.?

Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, will be the primary co-sponsor.?

A draft of the two-page bill, provided to the Lantern, says guardians are civilly responsible for ¡°any negligence or willful misconduct of a minor.¡±?

The bill draft says parents and other guardians would be considered responsible and subject to paying civil damages under any of these circumstances:?

• They permitted the minor to have the firearm.
• They know that the minor has previously been adjudicated delinquent of an offense that would be a felony if the minor had been an adult.
• They know that the minor has a propensity to commit violent acts.?
• They know or have reason to know that the minor intends to use the firearm for unlawful purposes.?

The bill excludes emancipated minors or government or private agencies or foster parents who, through court order, are assigned responsibility for a minor.?

¡°My key motivator is just trying to get people to recognize that even though we live in a society where it is perfectly legal to own and use guns, I just think we need to back up for a minute,¡± Banta said. ¡°We need to say, ¡®Okay, I’m a gun owner, but that is going to extend to me being responsible for my children’s use of the guns.¡¯¡±?

She hopes to get the bill before the House Judiciary Committee as early as possible during the session. She¡¯s confident it passes constitutional and Second Amendment muster, she said.?

¡°I’m not restricting guns. I’m not telling you you cannot buy your child a gun. But what I’m telling you is: just be aware that you are as responsible for that child with that gun as you are with a car,¡± Banta said. ¡°So if they do some damage, or they ¡­ threaten people¡­ you’re going to be responsible civilly for it.¡±?

Banta already ¡ª favorably ¡ª discussed her bill with Speaker of the House David Osborne, R-Prospect, she said, and believes there is appetite to pass such legislation.?

That¡¯s because, she said, ¡°parental responsibility¡± is ¡°everything that the (National Rifle Association), everything that gun ownership preaches¡± just ¡°reinforced¡± with statute.?

¡°It’s just a matter of being very, very responsible with your gun ownership,¡± Banta said.? ¡°Rather than a Sandy Hook or a Georgia incident, I’m hoping that parents will say, ¡®yeah, no, you’re 16. You’re not old enough to be ¡­ on your own with a gun, or where I don’t know where you are with a gun.¡¯¡±?

¡°I’m not telling a parent you can’t let your child go hunting by themselves anymore, and he’s 15 or 16,¡± she added. ¡°I’m just telling you that if he goes and he shoots at the neighbor and kills their cow, you’re responsible. You’re gonna pay for that cow. You are responsible.¡±?

Banta doesn¡¯t anticipate any funding needs for the bill, calling it an ¡°ink and paper¡± policy.

¡°I just want people to feel safer,¡± Banta said. ¡°And I want to pass something that just ¡­ makes sense.¡±?

X owner Elon Musk endorses former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally on Oct. 5, 2024 in Butler, Pa. It was the first time Musk joined one of Trump's rallies and, writes columnist Teri Carter, evidence of their growing alliance in the final stretch of the presidential election.(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Back in June, I deactivated my X (formerly Twitter) account.?

At the time this felt like a meaningless gesture. I often deactivated when I needed a break from the maddening masses. But I was always conscious about needing to reactivate within 30 days so as not to lose my account altogether; so conscious that I would mark my calendar ¡°Turn Twitter Back On¡± about three weeks out, fearful I would forget and lose my (yes, measly) 7,000-ish followers and my public voice.

But come July, I let my ¡°Turn Twitter Back On¡± warning pass with an obvious realization: Quitting X felt a lot like when I quit drinking. Deleting my account was surprisingly difficult. Our addictions to our phones and social media are real.?

As someone who writes about local, state and national politics, could I cut the cord? Could I know everything I needed to know without the immediacy of X? I was about to find out.

Last weekend, billionaire X owner Elon Musk appeared onstage at a Donald Trump rally. Musk touted the importance of free speech, adding, ¡°this will be the last election¡± if Trump doesn¡¯t win. Wearing a cap with the ¡°Make America Great Again¡± slogan of Trump¡¯s campaign, Musk appeared to acknowledge the foreboding nature of his remarks. ¡°As you can see I am not just MAGA ¡ª I am Dark MAGA,¡± he said. It was the first time that Musk joined one of Trump’s rallies and was evidence of their growing alliance in the final stretch of the presidential election.¡±?

Here in Kentucky, our GOP legislators often complain on their social media about the media, accusing news organizations and journalists of bias. Yet they do not seem to mind that the owner of one of the biggest media companies on the planet is openly campaigning for Trump.?

I wonder why.

When Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, was being considered as VP Kamala Harris¡¯s running mate, Republican electeds and their spokespeople poked fun at him, repeatedly saying he¡¯d been born with a silver spoon. But these same legislators seem to have no issue with Trump¡¯s golden spoon and are proudly supporting him.?

Funny how that works.

Ask many of the Trump voters here in rural Kentucky and they will tell you right off that all of us in the media ¡ª except Musk, I guess ¡ª no matter how local or nationally recognized, are liars; are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome; are infanticide enablers, gun grabbers, school sex groomers, open border advocates, God haters, suppressors of free speech. The ¡°enemy of the people¡± Trump has railed against since 2015.?

Meanwhile, Musk¡¯s purchase of X, with his creeping control of who and what gets amplified or suppressed on X ¡ª one of the biggest media companies in the world ¡ª has been the proverbial icing on Trump¡¯s cake.

It is telling that Trump did not even need to come back to X and claim his old megaphone because the political journalists he regularly calls ¡°enemy of the people¡± (and worse) post screenshots of his all-caps, hateful, Truth Social lies and rants on their own X accounts like an army of free press secretaries.

Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who famously left Twitter before it became X, is back in the news with his latest book ¡°The Message.¡± Coates had about a million followers when he disappeared from the platform. In an interview prior to his departure he was asked if he ever thought about leaving Twitter. His reply: I wake up every day hoping for the courage to leave.

I quit X because I, too, had long been awaiting the courage to leave.?

How many of us have become addicted to scrolling, to news alerts, to watching the endless supply of two-minute videos, overwhelmed by the scope of bad news? And then there is the building of a platform, especially if you are a young person in the news business. Can you build a career ¡ª especially if you are in a smaller state like Kentucky ¡ª if you are not on X with a brand and a following?

I knew I was finished with X when I started overthinking and censoring my own posts. There is no greater death knell for a writer than censorship. The same goes for democracy. And don¡¯t we keep saying we are worried about democracy?

X is no longer a democratic space. That train done left the station long ago.

X is not Twitter, the platform of old where we found extended community and camaraderie.?

X ¡ª for all of Musk¡¯s pledges of his love of free speech ¡ª is a killer of free expression, political heroin curated by a billionaire controlling our discourse and stumping at presidential campaign rallies for another billionaire, the man who branded journalists as the enemy of the people.

X is the symbol with which one signs their name when they cannot read nor write. An ominous sign.

Republican women are falling behind in candidacies, nominations and primary contest success when it comes to running for Congress, political experts said Tuesday. In this photo, the U.S. Capitol Building is seen on Oct. 22, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Republicans are struggling to recruit and elect women to Congress, lagging behind Democrats in ensuring women, who make up half the population, have a strong voice in the halls of power, experts on women in politics said Tuesday.

¡°This year¡¯s data shows clearly that Republican women are falling behind in candidacies, nominations and even primary contest success,¡± Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said on a call with reporters.

Democratic women, on the other hand, ¡°are not only outperforming their male counterparts, but are also reaching near parity with Democratic men in nominations and office holding.¡±

The 435-member U.S. House currently has 126 women, 34 of whom are Republicans. The 100-member Senate has 25 female lawmakers, with nine belonging to the GOP.

CAWP Director of Data Chelsea Hill explained on the call that while women overall account for just 31.1% of general election nominees for the House, the breakdown shows a stark difference for Democratic and Republican politicians.

¡°Women continue to be significantly underrepresented as a percentage of all U.S. House and Senate candidates and nominees,¡± Hill said. ¡°But Republican women are a significantly smaller percentage of their party¡¯s candidates and nominees than are Democratic women.¡±

Democratic women running for the House represent 45.9% of candidates within their party, coming close to parity with their male colleagues and increasing female candidate percentages over 2022, she said.

Republican women, however, make up 16.2% of GOP House candidates this election cycle, a lower share than during 2020 and 2022, Hill said.

In the Senate, female candidates account for 30.9% of general election nominees, with a similar split between Democrats and Republicans.

Democratic women account for 46.9% of the party¡¯s candidates for that chamber of Congress, also near parity, though women make up 17.6% of Republican Senate nominees, ¡°a smaller share than in the three previous cycles,¡± according to Hill.

Why are fewer Republican women running?

CAWP experts said the difference in female candidates is predominantly due to structural differences as well as differing beliefs about the importance of women holding office among leadership and voters.

CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar said if party leadership doesn¡¯t believe women¡¯s underrepresentation in government is a problem in need of a solution, that will make ¡°it hard to build the type of support infrastructure ¡ª whether it be for women¡¯s PACs, trainings, recruitment programs ¡ª that would ensure that those numbers stay high.¡±

Dittmar said one example of this was House Republican leaders¡¯ decision to roll a program called ¡°Project Grow¡± that was aimed at recruiting female GOP lawmakers into the ¡°Young Guns¡± program, which is focused more on general recruitment.

¡°Young Guns¡± is also the title of a book published in 2010 by former House Republican leaders Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy, all of whom are men.

Dittmar said the evolution of the Republican Party under former President Donald Trump and the change in abortion access stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court¡¯s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 are not significant factors accounting for the lower numbers of female Republican candidates.

¡°I would suggest that when we get to the candidate level, there are enough conservative Republican women in the country that could be recruited and supported as candidates,¡± Dittmar said.

Walsh said one of the reasons GOP leaders don¡¯t focus on recruiting and encouraging women in public office is that there is a ¡°reluctance¡± within the Republican Party to engage in identity politics.

¡°The Democratic Party places value on that, versus the Republican Party, which says the best candidate will rise to the top and let the best person win,¡± Walsh said. ¡°So it is a deeply philosophical difference that plays out in candidate recruitment, candidate support.¡±

Dittmar added that Democrats aren¡¯t necessarily recruiting and advancing female candidates ¡°out of the goodness of their hearts,¡± but are doing so because it¡¯s expected by their voters.

¡°There¡¯s an electoral incentive, partly due to the gender gap in voting, as well as racial and ethnic differences in terms of the Democratic base, where there is more demand on the Democratic Party to say, ¡®Look, we¡¯re bringing you votes, you need to prioritize and value this level of representation.¡¯¡±

The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday announced a proposal on long-term care under Medicare focused on the ¡°sandwich generation,¡± which refers to Americans who are caring for their children while also caring for aging parents. (Photo by Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a plan Tuesday that would strengthen Medicare coverage to include long-term care for seniors in their homes, tackling one of the biggest challenges in U.S. health care.

The Democratic presidential nominee revealed the proposal while on ¡°The View¡± ¡ª one of several high-profile media appearances this week as she and the GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, sprint to the November finish line.

¡°There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle: They¡¯re taking care of their kids and they¡¯re taking care of their aging parents, and it¡¯s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work,¡± Harris said during the live interview. ¡°We¡¯re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress.¡±

Harris is focusing on the ¡°sandwich generation,¡± which refers to Americans who are caring for their children while also caring for aging parents.

Under the plan, Medicare ¡ª the nation¡¯s health insurance program for people 65 and older and some under 65 with certain disabilities or conditions ¡ª would cover an at-home health benefit for those enrolled in the program, as well as hearing and vision benefits, according to her campaign in a Tuesday fact sheet.

Medicare for the most part now does not cover long-term care services like home health aides.

The benefits would be funded by ¡°expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts drug manufacturers cover for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, and addressing Medicare fraud,¡± per her campaign.

Harris also plans to ¡°crack down on pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) to increase transparency, disclose more information on costs, and regulate other practices that raise prices,¡± according to her campaign, which said she will also ¡°implement international tax reform.¡±

The campaign did not cite a price tag but noted similar plans have been estimated to cost $40 billion annually, ¡°before considering ??savings from avoiding hospitalizations and more expensive institutional care, or the additional revenues that would generate from more unpaid family caregivers going back to work if they need to.¡±

The proposal comes along with the nominee¡¯s sweeping economic plan, part of which involves cutting taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child¡¯s life.

Trump responds

In response to the proposal, the Trump campaign said the former president ¡°will always fight for America¡¯s senior citizens ¡ª who have been left behind by Kamala Harris,¡± per a Tuesday news release.

The campaign also cited Medicare Advantage policies extended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Trump¡¯s first term.

The campaign reiterated the 2024 GOP platform¡¯s chapter on protecting seniors, saying Trump will ¡°prioritize home care benefits by shifting resources back to at-home senior care, overturning disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, and supporting unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.¡±

Harris and Howard Stern

While appearing live on ¡°The Howard Stern Show¡± on Tuesday shortly after ¡°The View,¡± Harris dubbed Trump an ¡°unserious man,¡± saying the consequences of him serving another term are ¡°brutally serious.¡±

She also again criticized Trump for nominating three of the five members to the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022 ¡ª a reversal that ended nearly half a century of the constitutional right to abortion.

¡°And it¡¯s not about abortion, you have basically now a system that says you as an individual do not have the right to make a decision about your own body. The government has the right to make that decision for you,¡± she said.

Harris, who said she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, was asked whether she would choose former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney was the vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Harris did not disclose a preference, but said Cheney is ¡°smart,¡± ¡°remarkable¡± and a ¡°dedicated public servant.¡±

Cheney is among some prominent Republicans to endorse Harris. She campaigned with the veep in Ripon, Wisconsin ¡ª the birthplace of the Republican Party ¡ª just last week.

Trump talks with Ben Shapiro

Meanwhile, Trump said Harris is ¡°grossly incompetent¡± during an interview that aired Tuesday on ¡°The Ben Shapiro Show.¡±

¡°Biden was incompetent, she is equally incompetent and in a certain way, she¡¯s more incompetent,¡± Trump told Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and co-founder of The Daily Wire, referring to President Joe Biden.

Trump also criticized Harris¡¯ Monday interview on CBS News¡¯ ¡°60 Minutes,¡± saying the veep ¡°answers questions like a child.¡±

¡°She¡¯s answering questions in the most basic way and getting killed over it,¡± Trump added.

Look ahead for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was also set to also appear on CBS¡¯ ¡°The Late Show with Stephen Colbert¡± on Tuesday night. She will also appear at a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, that airs Thursday.

Trump was slated to participate in a roundtable with Latino leaders and a Univision town hall on Tuesday in Miami, but both events were postponed due to Hurricane Milton.

Trump is set to give remarks Wednesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Later that day, he will continue campaigning in the Keystone State with a rally in Reading.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday considered a federal firearm regulation aimed at reining in ghost guns, untraceable, unregulated weapons made from kits. In this photo, a ghost gun is displayed before the start of an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª U.S. Supreme Court justices Tuesday grappled with whether the Biden administration exceeded its authority when it set regulations for kits that can be assembled into untraceable firearms, and a majority of justices seemed somewhat skeptical the rule was an overreach.

In Garland v. VanDerStok, the nine justices are tasked with determining whether a rule issued by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in 2022 overstepped in expanding the definition of ¡°firearms¡± to include ¡°ghost guns¡± under a federal firearms law.

Ghost guns are firearms without serial numbers and can be easily bought online and quickly assembled in parts, usually through a kit. Law enforcement officials use serial numbers to track guns that are used in crimes.

Arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that there has been an ¡°explosion in crimes¡± with untraceable guns across the U.S.

She added that the federal government has for years required gun manufacturers and sellers to mark firearms with a serial number.

¡°The industry has followed those conditions without difficulty for more than half a century, and those basic requirements are crucial to solving gun crimes and keeping guns out of the hands of minors, felons and domestic abusers,¡± Prelogar said.

She said with the kits to make untraceable homemade guns in as little as 15 minutes, those manufacturers ¡°have tried to circumvent those requirements.¡±

Prelogar said untraceable guns ¡°are attractive to people who can¡¯t lawfully purchase them or who plan to use them in crime.¡±

Because the ATF saw a spike in crimes committed with those firearms, Prelogar said it promulgated the 2022 rule. The Biden administration said since 2016, it¡¯s seen a tenfold increase in ghost guns.

What the rule does

The regulation does not ban ghost guns, but requires manufacturers of those firearm kits or parts to add a serial number to the products, as well as conduct background checks on potential buyers. The regulation also clarified those kits are considered covered by the 1968 Gun Control Act under the definition of a ¡°firearm.¡±

The Biden administration is advocating for the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court¡¯s decision that favored gun rights groups and owners that argued the agency exceeded its authority.

Pete Patterson on Tuesday represented those gun rights groups, such as the Firearms Policy Coalition and clients, and argued the ATF expanded the definition of a firearm to ¡°include items that may readily be converted to a frame or receiver.¡±

A frame or receiver is the primary structure of a firearm that holds the other components that cause the gun to fire.

¡°Congress decided to regulate only a single part of a firearm, the frame or receiver, and Congress did not alter the common understanding of a frame or receiver,¡± he said. ¡°ATF has now exceeded its authority by operating outside of the bounds set by Congress.¡±

The case has already been before the high court on an emergency basis in 2023. The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and two conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Amy Coney Barrett, allowed the regulation to remain in place while going through legal challenges.

The case is similar to the Supreme Court decision that struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks from the ATF, but that was on the grounds of a Second Amendment argument.

Omelets and turkey chili kits

Justice Samuel Alito questioned Prelogar whether the kits were defined as weapons.

¡°Here¡¯s a blank pad and here¡¯s a pen,¡± he said. ¡°Is this a grocery list?¡±

She said it wasn¡¯t because ¡°there are a lot of things you could use those products for to create something other than a grocery list.¡±

Alito asked her if he had eggs, chopped up ham, peppers and onions, ¡°is that a Western omelet?¡±

¡°No, because, again, those items have well known other uses to become something other than an omelet,¡± Prelogar said. ¡°The key difference here is that these weapon parts kits are designed and intended to be used as instruments of combat, and they have no other conceivable use.¡±

Barrett asked if her answer would change if ¡°you ordered it from HelloFresh and you got a kit and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?¡±

Prelogar said it would.

¡°We are not suggesting that scattered components that might have some entirely separate and distinct function could be aggregated and called a weapon, in the absence of this kind of evidence that that is their intended purpose and function,¡± she said.

¡°But if you bought, you know, from Trader Joe¡¯s, some omelet-making kit that had all of the ingredients to make the omelet, and maybe included whatever you would need to start the fire in order to cook the omelet, and had all of that objective indication that that¡¯s what¡¯s being marketed and sold, we would recognize that for what it is,¡± Prelogar continued.

Roberts asked Patterson what the purpose would be of selling a receiver without a hole in it, meaning the gun is not complete.

Patterson argued that the kits are mainly for gun hobbyists, who would have to drill their own holes to put the product together.

¡°Some individuals enjoy, like working on their car every weekend, some individuals want to construct their own firearms,¡± Patterson said.

Roberts seemed skeptical.

¡°I mean drilling a hole or two, I would think doesn¡¯t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends,¡± Roberts said.

Patterson argued that putting together a homemade gun was somewhat difficult, especially if an individual had no experience.

¡°Even once you have a complete frame, it¡¯s not a trivial matter to put that together,¡± he said. ¡°There are small parts that have to be put in precise locations.¡±

No hobbyists

In her rebuttal, Prelogar pushed back on the notion that hobbyists were using those kits, arguing that ¡°if there is a market for these kits, for hobbyists, they can be sold to hobbyists, you just have to comply with the requirements of the Gun Control Act.¡±

¡°What the evidence shows is that these guns were being purchased and used in crime. There was a 1,000% increase between 2017 and 2021 in the number of these guns that were recovered as part of criminal investigations,¡± she said. ¡°The reason why you want a ghost gun is specifically because it¡¯s unserialized and can¡¯t be traced.¡±

The Rocky Broad River flows into Lake Lure and overflows the town with debris from Chimney Rock, North Carolina after heavy rains from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 28, 2024, in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Approximately 6 feet of debris piled on the bridge from Lake Lure to Chimney Rock, blocking access. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª ? Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said Tuesday that rumors and disinformation will become a regular part of natural disaster response moving forward, and rebuked those seeking to benefit politically from spreading false information.

The volume and type of disinformation spreading about FEMA, as Southeast states struggle to recover from Hurricane Helene, is the worst Criswell said she has ever seen, following a ¡°steady increase¡± in rumors following previous natural disasters.

Incorrect information about FEMA and its response to natural disasters has been spreading through numerous avenues, including social media, podcasts and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump¡¯s numerous comments and posts. Criswell did not name any politicians or other individuals during the call with reporters.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Milton is barrelling toward Florida¡¯s Gulf Coast and expected to make landfall by Wednesday night. Meteorologists are warning the storm could be one of Florida¡¯s worst. Thousands of people were evacuating Tuesday.

Criswell said she¡¯s concerned the lies about various aspects of FEMA¡¯s response to Hurricane Helene may have a chilling effect on whether people harmed by natural disasters apply for assistance. It could also potentially endanger first responders on the ground.

¡°It¡¯s just really demoralizing to them. It hurts their morale and they¡¯ve left their families to be able to come in here and help people,¡± she said of first responders and FEMA staff.

While no one has physically attacked FEMA staff or other emergency responders so far, Criswell said, she and others are closely monitoring misinformation as well as how people in areas hit by natural disasters react to it.

FEMA¡¯s collaboration with local law enforcement can help to monitor safety and security issues, though rumors and disinformation could make matters worse, she said.

¡°If it creates so much fear that my staff don¡¯t want to go out in the field, then we¡¯re not going to be in a position where we can help people,¡± Criswell said, adding that she does have concerns about ¡°the safety of our folks that are walking around in neighborhoods that may or may not have full confidence in the government.¡±

¡°And so we are watching that closely to make sure that we¡¯re providing for their safety as well,¡± she said.

Helene brought devastation to multiple states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and ?Virginia. ?More than 230 deaths have been reported.

Storm victims

The rumors and inaccurate information about FEMA¡¯s response and recovery efforts are ¡°creating fear in some¡± people who are trying to navigate their way through the hurricane recovery process, Criswell said.

¡°I worry that they won¡¯t apply for assistance, which means I can¡¯t get them the necessary items they need,¡± Criswell said. ¡°And so those are the biggest impacts I see as a result of this constant narrative that is more about politics than truly helping people.¡±

She said the current situation is worse than ever.

¡°We have always put up rumor control pages because there¡¯s always been people that have been out there trying to take advantage of those that have just lost so much in creating false websites and trying to get their information and defrauding people and the federal government,¡± Criswell said. ¡°And so not something that¡¯s new, but the level of rhetoric just continues to rise.¡±

Following the Maui wildfires in August 2023, federal officials worked with local officials to help reassure Hawaiians the rumors and disinformation that spread following that disaster were not true.

Some of the disinformation about the Maui wildfires was from ¡°foreign state actors,¡± Criswell said.

FEMA was eventually able to get federal assistance to everyone who needed it, but it took much longer than it would have otherwise, she said.

The first assistance people in hard-hit areas often receive from FEMA is a $750 payment meant to help with immediate needs like water, food, clothing and medicine.

There has been significant misinformation around that amount. Criswell clarified on the call that it¡¯s the first installment from FEMA and that more assistance goes out to people affected by natural disasters as the recovery process moves forward.

¡°We know that they have immediate needs in the first few days, and it¡¯s just an initial jump start to help them replace some of that,¡± Criswell said.

As FEMA gathers more information about property damage and other problems related to natural disasters, people will likely receive additional assistance for home repairs as well as the cost of staying in a hotel if their home was badly damaged.

FEMA then continues to work with people on longer-term needs, like rental assistance, if that¡¯s needed.

FEMA has set up a webpage seeking to dispel rumors and disinformation about its response and recovery efforts.

It says that in most cases the money FEMA gives to disaster survivors does not have to be paid back and notes that the agency ¡°cannot seize your property or land.¡±

¡°There are some less common situations in which you may have to pay FEMA back if you receive duplicate benefits from insurance or a grant from another source. For example, if you have insurance that covers your temporary housing costs, but you ask FEMA to advance you some money to help you pay for those costs while your insurance is delayed, you will need to pay that money back to FEMA after you receive your insurance settlement.¡±

The webpage also says that no funding for disaster recovery was diverted to address border security or immigration issues.

¡°This is false. No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA¡¯s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.¡±

Funding questions

FEMA has plenty of funding to cover response and recovery efforts for the 100-plus open natural disasters throughout the country, but will need supplemental funding from Congress in the months ahead.

¡°I have enough funding to continue to support the response efforts for both of these events, and then continue to support the recovery efforts from all of the storms across the nation,¡± Criswell said, referring to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

¡°However, I¡¯m not going to be able to support those recoveries for long without a supplemental,¡± she added. ¡°And we anticipate needing additional funding in the December, January time frame, or I¡¯ll have to go back into what we call immediate needs funding again, where we pause obligations in our recovery projects to ensure that I can respond to an event like we¡¯re seeing today.¡±

The first step for Congress to approve emergency funding for FEMA or any other federal agency is typically when the Office of Management and Budget sends a supplemental spending request to lawmakers on behalf of the White House.

Lawmakers can then choose to write legislation providing some, all, or more money than requested. They can also choose not to fund the emergency request, though that appears unlikely this time.

For the moment, FEMA has about $20 billion in its disaster relief fund, she said.

People who need assistance from FEMA should call 1-800-621-3362, register on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/ or fill out an application on the FEMA app.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams told lawmakers: ¡°It is illegal to impersonate a peace officer, and for good reason. It should be equally illegal to impersonate a secretary of state or county clerk and put out false information in any format about our elections.¡±?He was speaking Tuesday to a task force studying artificial intelligence. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

Kentucky¡¯s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams told lawmakers it¡¯s ¡°too soon¡± to tell what effect artificial intelligence will have on elections but that it has ¡°potential for significant impact,¡± and he urged them to consider making it a crime to impersonate an election official.

Adams appeared before the General Assembly¡¯s Artificial Intelligence Task Force Tuesday to discuss AI, which has become a growing concern for possible influence in this year¡¯s presidential election. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found 57% of U.S. adults were extremely or very concerned that people or groups seeking to influence the election would use AI to create fake or misleading information about presidential candidates and campaigns.?

¡°Should you take up AI legislation when you return in 2025, I would encourage you to consider prohibiting impersonation of election officials,¡± Adams told the task force. ¡°It is illegal to impersonate a peace officer, and for good reason. It should be equally illegal to impersonate a secretary of state or county clerk and put out false information in any format about our elections.¡±?

Adams highlighted a bipartisan bill from Lexington legislators, Republican Sen. Amanda Mays Bledose and Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Reggie Thomas, that would have limited the use of ¡°deep fakes¡± or deceptive AI to influence elections in Kentucky. In the recent legislative session, the bill died in the House after gaining approval in the Senate.?

Adams gave an example of a political consultant receiving a fine of $6 million from the Federal Communications Commission for fake robocalls to New Hampshire voters that mimicked President Joe Biden. The calls encouraged voters to not vote in the state¡¯s Democratic primary. Adams said the fine was for violating telecommunication law and New Hampshire brought criminal charges against the consultant because of a state law making it a crime to impersonate a candidate.?

¡°As you look to protect candidates and voters from such practices, I urge you to consider inclusion of election officials,¡± Adams said. ¡°An impersonation of me or my deputy secretary or senior staff of the State Board of Elections or a county clerk actually could do more harm than impersonation of a candidate.¡±?

Adams noted that concerns of AI influence in elections is not just an American problem. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and South Africa, will also have consequential elections this year. Thus, they face issues with AI interference in elections as well.?

Bledsoe, who is a co-chair of the task force, said that there is tension between legislation aimed at preventing misuse of AI to influence elections and free speech protections. Adams said in response that laws against voter suppression do exist.?

¡°I think that the process and distrust of what is actually being said is the greatest danger to a voter, and we want to protect (the voter) as much as possible,¡± Bledose said.?

Rep. Josh Bray, R-Mount Veron, the other co-chair of the task force, said what Adams was asking was ¡°very reasonable.¡±?

¡°It’s something I know that we’ve debated internally,¡± Bray said. ¡°We’ve had Senate bills filed, we’ve had House bills filed, and it’s very clear that this is something that’s going to be with us as the technology evolves.¡±?

Medication abortion has become the most common method of abortion since the 2022 Dobbs decision ended the federal right to abortion. (Getty Images)

Researchers whose anti-abortion-funded studies were used to argue for restrictions on medication abortion ¡ª and then were retracted on methodological grounds ¡ª are now taking legal action against academic publisher Sage, which pulled their papers in February.

Represented by conservative law firms Consovoy McCarthy and Alliance Defending Freedom, the latter of which sued the Food and Drug Administration over abortion drugs in 2022, the researchers claim Sage¡¯s retractions were unjustified and politically motivated and have led to ¡°enormous and incalculable harm¡± to their reputations. They asked the Ventura County Superior Court in California to compel Sage to arbitrate with the researchers.

¡°Sage punished these highly respected and credentialed scientists simply because they believe in preserving life from conception to natural death. These actions have caused irreparable harm to the authors of these articles, and we are urging Sage to come to the arbitration table ¡ª as it is legally bound to do ¡ª rescind the retractions and remedy the reputational damage the researchers have suffered at the hands of abortion lobbyists,¡± said ADF senior counsel Phil Sechler in the recent announcement.

A representative for Sage declined to comment on the pending litigation.

A representative for the anti-abortion think tank Charlotte Lozier Institute, which employs the petitioning researchers, declined to comment. The nonprofit serves as the research arm of the influential Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect federal and state anti-abortion lawmakers.

The three studies at the center of the dispute were published in the journal ¡°Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology,¡± between 2019 and 2022. Two of them featured prominently in a federal lawsuit aimed at restricting abortion pills, which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected this summer but continues to make its way through the lower courts.

States Newsroom was the first to report last year that Sage had opened an investigation after pharmaceutical sciences professor Chris Adkins contacted the journal with concerns that the researchers had misrepresented their findings. In the 2021 paper, the researchers looked at Medicaid data in 17 states between 1999 and 2015 and tracked patients who had had a procedural or a medication abortion and counted each time they went to an emergency department in the 30 days following those abortions. Their finding that emergency room visits within 30 days following a medication abortion increased 500% from 2002 to 2015 was frequently cited by plaintiffs and judges in the FDA case and used to conclude that the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone is dangerous. But Adkins and other public health experts told States Newsroom that the researchers inflated their findings, and appeared to conflate all emergency department visits with adverse events.

These concerns prompted Sage to re-examine the peer review process and to identify that one of the initial peer reviewers was an associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. The publisher then enlisted a statistician and two reproductive health experts to newly peer review all three articles.

¡°Following Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, we made this decision with the journal¡¯s editor because of undeclared conflicts of interest and after expert reviewers found that the studies demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor that invalidates or renders unreliable the authors¡¯ conclusions,¡± Sage said announcing the retractions, which notes that the experts found that the papers had ¡°fundamental problems with the study design and methodology,¡± ¡°unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions,¡± ¡°material errors in the authors¡¯ analysis of the data,¡± and ¡°misleading presentations of the data.¡±

In a petition to compel arbitration filed late last week, the studies¡¯ lead author James Studnicki and nine co-authors argue that Sage has delayed arbitration in violation of California contract law. They say they¡¯ve had difficulty publishing new research since the retractions. As examples, the petition notes that in March a free online archive and distribution server for unpublished, non-peer-reviewed manuscripts refused to post one of the petitioners¡¯ manuscripts and that in April a journal rejected the same manuscript, ¡°citing similar pretextual reasons that HSRME used in its retraction.¡±

¡°These rejections are just the tip of the iceberg but reveal the enormous and incalculable harm that Sage¡¯s retraction has inflicted on the Authors¡¯ reputations and their ability to publish research and scholarship,¡± reads the court petition. ¡°As scientists, the Authors¡¯ credibility is their lifeblood, but Sage has destroyed the Authors¡¯ hard-earned professional reputations.¡±

Studnicki, Charlotte Lozier¡¯s vice president and director of data analytics, was on the editorial board of ¡°Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology¡± until last fall, but the journal¡¯s editor-in-chief dismissed him after the journal and Sage decided to retract the papers. The blog Retraction Watch reports that the journal is no longer accepting new submissions.

Medication abortion has become the most common method since the 2022 Dobbs decision ended the federal right to abortion.

Despite claims by the Charlotte Lozier Institute that medication abortion is unsafe, when administered at 9 weeks gestation or less, the FDA-approved regimen has a more than 99% completion rate, a 0.4% risk of major complications, and around 30 reported associated deaths over 22 years. Common symptoms include heavy bleeding and cramping, diarrhea, and nausea, and sometimes medical intervention is necessary to avoid infection. ProPublica recently reported on two women in Georgia who suffered rare complications of medication abortion, but whose deaths were ruled preventable and were attributed to the state¡¯s near-total abortion ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris was interviewed on the CBS news show ¡°60 Minutes¡± that aired Monday night. In this photo, she speaks at the American Federation of Teachers¡¯ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said during an interview with the CBS News show ¡°60 Minutes¡± that aired Monday she believes Congress would work with her to implement economic and tax policies if she¡¯s elected.

She also criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for declining to sit for an interview with the news program, but noted that voters interested in his goals for the country should just listen to one of his rallies.

¡°You¡¯re going to hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances ¡ª and what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener,¡± Harris said. ¡°You will not hear about how he¡¯s going to try to bring the country together, find common ground. And that is why I believe in my soul and heart, the American people are ready to turn the page.¡±

Harris reinforced her support for Ukraine during the interview, saying she wouldn¡¯t sit down to bilateral talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the conflict.

¡°Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine,¡± Harris said, though she declined to say if her administration would support bringing Ukraine into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Harris argued that were Trump president when Russia invaded Ukraine, ¡°Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,¡± the Ukrainian capital.

¡°He talks about, ¡®Oh, he can end it on day one.¡¯ You know what that is? It¡¯s about surrender,¡± Harris said of Trump.

Trump and immigration

Harris focused many of her answers to questions about immigration and border security on Trump, criticizing him for working behind the scenes to scuttle bipartisan legislation that took months to negotiate.

She also noted more than once that Congress is responsible for writing laws governing immigration policy and questioned why lawmakers didn¡¯t approve a bill President Joe Biden sent up in the first days of his administration.

Harris said she believes Americans will vote for her over Trump, in part, because they want a president who doesn¡¯t make the types of comments about immigrants that Trump regularly makes on the campaign trail.

¡°I believe that the people of America want a leader who¡¯s not trying to divide us and demean,¡± Harris said. ¡°I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it¡¯s based on who you lift up.¡±

Harris said she was confident that members of Congress would work with her, if she¡¯s elected president, to implement some of her core policy proposals, including expanding the Child Tax Credit and establishing a tax credit for first-time home buyers.

She said paying for those proposals could be achieved through making ¡°sure that the richest among us, who can afford it, pay their fair share in taxes.¡±

¡°It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations, and I plan on making that fair,¡± she said.

When Harris talks with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, many of them understand the points she¡¯s making about the tax code, she said.

¡°There are plenty of leaders in Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up our federal deficit,¡± Harris said. ¡°None of us, and certainly I, cannot afford to be myopic in terms of how I think about strengthening America¡¯s economy.¡±

Harris provided more details during the interview on her gun ownership, revealing that she owns a Glock and has fired it at shooting ranges.

¡°I have a Glock, and I¡¯ve had it for quite some time,¡± Harris said. ¡°And I mean, look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement. And so there you go.¡±

An ultrasound machine sits next to an exam table in an examination room at a women¡¯s health clinic in South Bend, Ind. A recent study shows that there was a spike in the number of women seeking sterilizations to prevent pregnancy in the months after the U.S. Supreme Court¡¯s decision striking down the constitutional right to an abortion. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, there was a spike in the number of women seeking sterilizations to prevent pregnancy, a recent study shows.

Researchers saw a 3% increase in tubal sterilizations per month between July and December 2022 in states with abortion bans, according to the study published in September in JAMA, a journal from the American Medical Association. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The study looked at the commercial health insurance claim records of 1.4 million people from 15 states with abortion bans (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming). The study also examined the records of about 1.5 million people living in states with some abortion restrictions and 1.8 million in states where abortion remains legal. The researchers excluded 14 states that didn¡¯t have records available for 2022.

¡°It¡¯s probably an indication of women [who] wanted to reduce uncertainty and protect themselves,¡± said lead author Xiao Xu, an associate professor of reproductive sciences at Columbia University. In the first month after the ruling, sterilizations saw a one-time increase across all states included in the study, Xu and her team found. Her team also found continued increases in states that limited abortion to a certain gestational age, but those were not statistically significant.

The researchers compared records for three groups: States with a total or near-total ban on abortion, including states where bans were temporarily blocked; states where laws explicitly recognized abortion rights; and limited states, where abortion was legal up to a certain gestational age.

While the study captures only the early months following the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, experts say it¡¯s part of an increasing body of evidence that shows a growing urgency for sterilization procedures amid more limited access to abortions, reproductive health care and contraception. Other studies have shown increases in tubal sterilization (commonly known as ¡°getting your tubes tied¡±) and vasectomy requests and procedures post-Dobbs.

Diana Greene Foster, a professor and research director in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, said the results are not surprising, given the negative repercussions for women who seek to end their pregnancies but are not allowed to do so.

Foster led the landmark Turnaway Study, which for a decade followed women who received abortions and those who were denied abortions. It found that women forced to carry a pregnancy to term experienced financial hardship, health and delivery complications, and were more likely to raise the child alone.

¡°We have found that women are able to foresee the consequences of carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term,¡± Foster told Stateline. ¡°The reasons people give for choosing an abortion ¡ª insufficient resources, poor relationships, the need to care for existing children ¡ª are the same negative outcomes we see when they cannot get an abortion.

¡°So it is not surprising that some people will respond to the lack of legal abortion by trying to avoid a pregnancy altogether.¡±

As abortion bans delay emergency medical care, this Georgia mother¡¯s death was preventable

Few doctors and services

States with abortion bans and other restrictions also tend to have large swaths of maternal health care ¡°deserts,¡± where there are too few OB-GYNs and labor and delivery facilities. That creates greater maternal health risks.

One such state is Georgia where abortion is banned after six weeks. Georgia’s abortion ban was temporarily lifted last week by a Fulton County judge, but on Monday the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the ban. Dr. LeThenia ¡°Joy¡± Baker, an OB-GYN in rural Georgia, said she sees patients in their early 20s who have multiple children and are seeking sterilizations to prevent further pregnancies, or who have conditions that make pregnancy dangerous for them. Her state has one of the highest maternal death rates in the nation.

On Monday, a Georgia county judge struck down the state¡¯s six-week abortion ban, meaning that for now, women have access to the procedure up to about 22 weeks of pregnancy. The state is appealing the decision, and it¡¯s expected to eventually be decided by the state Supreme Court.

The county judge¡¯s ruling comes two weeks after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after they couldn¡¯t access legal in-state abortions and timely medical care for rare complications from abortion pills.

Black and Indigenous women disproportionately experience higher rates of complications, such as preeclampsia and hemorrhage, which contributes to their higher maternal mortality and morbidity rates. Baker said some of her patients say they want to avoid risking another pregnancy because of those previous complications.

¡°I have had quite a few patients, who were both pregnant and not pregnant, who inquire about sterilization,¡± she said. ¡°I do think that patients are thinking a lot more about their reproductive life plan now, because there is very little margin.¡±

Along with the state¡¯s abortion restrictions, Baker said women in her Bible Belt community feel social pressure that can push them toward sterilization.

¡®Between rock, hard place:’ Will anyone ever have standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban?

¡°It is definitely more socially acceptable to say, ¡®I¡¯m going to get my tubes tied or removed,¡¯ than to say, ¡®Hey, I want to find abortion care,¡¯¡± Baker said.

In states where lawmakers have proposed restrictions on contraception, women might feel tubal sterilization to be the most surefire way to prevent pregnancy. Megan Kavanaugh, a contraception researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health policy research center that supports abortion rights, said the research doesn¡¯t say whether women who seek sterilization would have preferred another form of contraception.

¡°We need to both understand which methods people are using and whether those methods are actually the methods they want to be using,¡± said Kavanaugh, whose team studied contraceptive access and use in Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin. ¡°It¡¯s really important to be monitoring both use and preferences in terms of heading towards an ideal where those are aligned.¡±

Tubal sterilizations can still fail at preventing a pregnancy, Foster said. One recent study noted that up to 5% of patients who underwent a tubal sterilization got pregnant later.

¡°If people are choosing sterilization who would otherwise pick something less permanent, then that is another very sad outcome of these abortion bans,¡± she added.

Another recent study, by Jacqueline Ellison, a University of Pittsburgh assistant professor who researches health policy, found that more young patients ¡ª both women and men ¡ª sought permanent contraceptive procedures in the wake of the Dobbs decision. The study focused on people ages 18 to 30 ¡ª the age group most likely to seek an abortion and the ones who previous studies suggest are most likely to experience ¡°sterilization regret,¡± Ellison said.

A troubled history

The issue also can¡¯t be disentangled from the nation¡¯s history of coercive sterilizations, Ellison and other experts said. In the 1960s and 1970s, federally funded nonconsensual sterilization procedures were performed on Indigenous, Black and Hispanic women, as well as people with disabilities.

¡°People feeling pressured to undergo permanent contraception and people being forced into using permanent contraception are just two sides of the idea of reproductive oppression in this country,¡± Ellison said. ¡°They¡¯re just manifested in different ways.¡±

Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, now has regulations designed to prevent coerced procedures. But the rules can have unintended consequences, said Dr. Sonya Borrero, an internal medicine physician and director of the University of Pittsburgh¡¯s Center for Innovative Research on Gender Health Equity.

The process includes a 30-day waiting period after a patient signs a sterilization procedure consent form, Borrero noted. But pregnant women who want the procedure done right after delivery might not reach the 30-day threshold if they go into early labor, she said. She added that some patients are confused by the form.

Borrero launched a tool called MyDecision/MiDecisi¨®n, an English and Spanish web-based tool that walks patients through their tubal ligation decision and dispels misinformation around the permanent procedure.

¡°The importance and the relevance of it right now is particularly pronounced,¡± she said.

This article is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

U.S. flags fly outside FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The FBI¡¯s latest national crime report, released in late September, shows an overall 3% decline in violent crime in 2023 compared with the previous year. Property crime also was down nationwide, dropping by 2.4% in 2023 compared with the previous year. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Violent crime and property crime in the United States dropped in 2023, continuing a downward trend following higher rates of crime during the pandemic, according to the FBI¡¯s latest national crime report.

Murders and intentional manslaughter, known as non-negligent manslaughter, fell by 11.6% from 2022. Property crime dropped by 2.4%.

Overall, FBI data shows that violent crime fell by 3%.

Violent crime has become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump claiming that crime has been ¡°through the roof¡± under the Biden administration.

On the campaign trail, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has cited findings from a different source ¡ª the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics¡¯ National Crime Victimization Survey ¡ª to argue that crime is out of control.

While the FBI¡¯s data reflects only crimes reported to the police, the victimization survey is based on interviews conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and includes both reported and unreported crimes. Interviewees are asked whether they reported the crime to the police. But the survey does not include murder data and only tracks crimes against individuals aged 12 and older.

The victimization survey, released in mid-September, shows that the violent crime victimization rate rose from 16.4 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 per 1,000 in 2023. The report also notes that the 2023 rate is statistically similar to the rate in 2019, when Trump was in office.

Despite what some politicians say, crime rates are decreasing

Many crime data experts consider both sources trustworthy. But the agencies track different trends, measure crimes differently and collect data over varying time frames. Unlike the victimization survey, the FBI¡¯s data is largely based on calls for service or police reports.

Still, most crimes go unreported, which means the FBI¡¯s data is neither entirely accurate nor complete. The victimization surveys released throughout the peak years of the pandemic were particularly difficult to conduct, which is a key reason why, according to some experts, the FBI and the survey may show different trends.

As a result, these differences, which are often unknown or misunderstood, make it easier for anyone ¡ª including politicians ¡ª to manipulate findings to support their agendas.

Political candidates at the national, state and local levels on both sides of the aisle have used crime statistics in their campaigns this year, with some taking credit for promising trends and others using different numbers to flog their opponents. But it¡¯s difficult to draw definitive conclusions about crime trends or attribute them to specific policies.

¡°There¡¯s never any single reason why crime trends move one way or another,¡± said Ames Grawert, a crime data expert and senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice¡¯s justice program. The Brennan Center is a left-leaning law and policy group.

¡°When an answer is presented that maybe makes intuitive sense or a certain political persuasion, it¡¯s all too natural to jump to that answer. The problem is that that is just not how crime works,¡± Grawert told Stateline.

At an August rally in Philadelphia, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said: ¡°Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That¡¯s not even counting the crimes he committed.¡±

During Trump¡¯s first three years in office, the violent crime rate per 100,000 people actually decreased each year, according to the FBI, from 376.5 in 2017, to 370.8 in 2018, to 364.4 in 2019.

It wasn¡¯t until 2020 that the rate surged to 386.3, the highest under Trump, which is when the country experienced the largest one-year increase in murders.

Walz¡¯s comments overlook the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval following George Floyd¡¯s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. And despite the increase that year, the violent crime rate in Trump¡¯s final year remained slightly lower than in the last year of President Barack Obama¡¯s administration. In 2016, the rate was 386.8 per 100,000 people.

Following the release of the FBI¡¯s annual crime report last month, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican running for attorney general in North Carolina, shared and later deleted a retweet on X that falsely claimed the FBI¡¯s data showed zero homicides in Los Angeles and New Orleans last year. In fact, FBI data showed that the Los Angeles Police Department reported 325 homicides, while New Orleans police reported 198 in 2023.

Voters worry

Crime has emerged as a top issue on voters¡¯ minds.

A Gallup poll conducted in March found that nearly 80% of Americans worry about crime and violence ¡°a great deal¡± or ¡°a fair amount,¡± ranking it above concerns such as the economy and illegal immigration. In another Gallup poll conducted late last year, 63% of respondents described crime in the U.S. as either extremely or very serious ¡ª the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.

Crime data usually lags by at least a year, depending on the agency or organization gathering and analyzing the statistics. But the lack of accurate, real-time crime data from official sources, such as federal or state agencies, may leave some voters vulnerable to political manipulation, according to some crime and voter behavior experts.

There are at least three trackers collecting and analyzing national and local crime data that aim to close the gap in real-time reporting. Developed by the Council on Criminal Justice, data consulting firm AH Datalytics and NORC at the University of Chicago, these trackers all show a similar trend of declining crime rates.

¡°We live in a world of sound bites, and people aren¡¯t taking the time to digest information and fact check,¡± Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, said in an interview with Stateline. ¡°The onus is on the voter.¡±

Crime trends and limitations

In 2020, when shutdowns in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic kept people at home, homicides surged by nearly 30% ¡ª the largest single-year increase since the FBI began tracking crime.

In 2022, violent crime had fallen back to near pre-pandemic levels, and the FBI data showed a continued decline last year. The rate of violent crime dropped from about 377 incidents per 100,000 people in 2022, to around 364 per 100,000 in 2023, slightly below the 2019 rate.

Politicians love to cite crime data. It¡¯s often wrong.

The largest cities, those with populations of at least 1 million, saw the biggest drop in violent crime ¡ª nearly 7% ¡ª while cities with populations between 250,000 and 500,000 saw a slight 0.3% increase.

Rape incidents decreased by more than 9% and aggravated assault by nearly 3%. Burglary and larceny-theft decreased by 8% and 4%, respectively.

Motor vehicle theft, however, rose by 12% in 2023 compared with 2022, the highest rate of car theft since 2007, with 319 thefts per 100,000 people.

Although national data suggests an overall major decrease in crime across the country, some crime-data experts caution that that isn¡¯t necessarily the case in individual cities and neighborhoods.

¡°It can be sort of simplistic to look at national trends. You have to allow the space for nuance and context about what¡¯s happening at the local level too,¡± said Grawert, of the Brennan Center.

Some crime experts and politicians have criticized the FBI¡¯s latest report, pointing out that not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their crime statistics.

The FBI is transitioning participating agencies to a new reporting system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System or NIBRS. The FBI mandated that the transition, which began in the late 1980s, be completed by 2021. This requirement resulted in a significant drop in agency participation for that year¡¯s report because some law enforcement agencies couldn¡¯t meet the deadline.

In 2022, the FBI relaxed the requirement, allowing agencies to use both the new and older reporting systems. Since the 2021 mandate, more law enforcement agencies have transitioned to the new reporting system.

Reporting crime data to the FBI is voluntary, and some departments may submit only a few months¡¯ worth of data.

Although the FBI¡¯s latest report covers 94% of the U.S. population, only 73% of all law enforcement agencies participated, using either reporting system, according to Stateline¡¯s analysis of the FBI¡¯s Uniform Crime Reporting program participation data. This means that 5,926 agencies, or 27%, did not report any data to the FBI.

The majority of the missing agencies are likely smaller rural departments that don¡¯t participate due to limited resources and staff, according to some crime data experts.

But participation in the FBI¡¯s crime reporting program has steadily increased over time, particularly after the drop in 2021. Many of the law enforcement agencies in the country¡¯s largest cities submitted data for 2023, and every city agency serving a population of 1 million or more provided a full year of data, according to the FBI¡¯s report.

This article is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

According to Volunteers of America, every case resolved through restorative justice outside of the court system saves an average of $48,000. By utilizing restorative justice, we are not only making our communities safer, but we are also practicing sound fiscal decision-making.?(Getty Images)

Everyone agrees that individuals who cause harm to others should make amends for what they¡¯ve done. Victims of crime deserve to feel justice has been served in their cases. Judges and prosecutors work very hard to ensure that justice is served in every case, and we take that search for due process and a resolution very seriously.

For a long time, punitive sentences like probation and fines were the only tools judges and prosecutors had at our disposal to make offenders right their wrongs. However, sometimes these unfortunate acts serve as great opportunities for young people to learn from their mistakes and promote a positive behavior change.??

Restorative justice provides a facilitated process to allow individuals harmed by wrongdoing to meet with the offender so they can negotiate their own resolution outside of the traditional justice system. It allows victims and offenders to participate fully in the resolution of the crime and work to find a solution that makes amends and transforms negative situations into learning experiences, benefiting both parties in the long run. The program is voluntary and begins with a facilitated meeting between the two parties. The person harmed can explain how the offense impacted them and what needs to be done to make up for previous mistakes.??

Both parties work together to determine a course of action that allows persons who caused harm to not only fully understand the gravity of their actions, but also make amends for what they have done. For instance, a young person who breaks into a convenience store and steals money from the cash register might pay the stolen money back to the store owner and work at the store for a certain number of hours to remedy his or her actions.

Persons harmed who we have worked with in the past as part of the restorative justice program are glad they participated. By working with offenders to ensure they accept responsibility and work through the restorative process, they often tell us that they feel a sense of closure and healing.

One of these individuals was a woman named Robin. Going through the restorative process proved to be what both individuals needed to move forward.?

¡°Sometimes, people just need someone to say, ¡®It¡¯s okay ¡ª I understand, and I forgive you,¡¯¡± she said. ¡°[Restorative justice] is a great process for people who need to communicate and resolve things in a fair way.¡±

When asked what would have been the outcome if restorative justice was not an option, she said, ¡°We both would have walked away with never knowing the possibilities.¡±

By engaging directly with the people they harmed, offenders better understand why their actions have real-life consequences. According to data made available by the Administrative Office of the Courts, offenders who participate in restorative justice programs are more than 50% less likely to commit a future crime.?

Additionally, this program saves communities significant tax dollars. According to Volunteers of America, every case resolved through restorative justice outside of the court system saves an average of $48,000. By utilizing restorative justice, we are not only making our communities safer, but we are also practicing sound fiscal decision-making.??

As county attorneys, we recognize our duty to uphold law and order in our communities. While punitive measures have traditionally been our primary tool, restorative justice has emerged as a promising alternative, offering a path to healing and accountability for both victims and offenders.?

As we continue to navigate the complexities of our justice system, it is important to keep what is best for our communities at the forefront. By using programs like restorative justice, our communities benefit and come out stronger.?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployment rate, and the addition of 254,000 jobs to the economy. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A month before voters cast their ballots, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployment rate, and the addition of 254,000 jobs to the economy.

Eighty-one percent of registered voters say the economy is key to their vote for president this fall, according to a September Pew Research report.

¡°We saw job creation beating expectations, unemployment rate ticking ever so slightly down, and we saw great wage growth which has continued to outpace inflation,¡± said Kitty Richards, senior strategic advisor at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy think tank. ¡°We don¡¯t have the new inflation numbers for last month, but wage growth is strong and has been outpacing inflation for about 16 months now and those are all really good things.¡±

The unemployment rate in September was 4.1% compared to 4.2% in August and 4.3% in July. A rising unemployment rate earlier in the year had caused some economists to worry that the Federal Reserve¡¯s decision in the past few months not to cut the federal funds rate was beginning to hurt the labor market.? In September, the Fed decided to cut the rate by half a percentage point, allaying those worries.

The Fed began an aggressive campaign to beat inflation by raising rates in March 2022 and stopped in mid-2023 but the rate remains high and has affected the economy, particularly the housing market, economists say. Inflation has significantly cooled since its peak in June 2022.

¡°If today¡¯s job report had said that the labor market was softening further, I think a lot of us would be more aggressively concerned about the risks posed to the labor market by high interest rates,¡± Richards said. ¡°It¡¯s great to see that those risks have not tipped over yet ¡­ But there are risks and we need to be really mindful of what it would mean if we started to see the unemployment rate picking up again.¡±

The report also showed continued job growth in healthcare, government, social assistance and construction last month. Wage growth was strong, rising 4% over the past year.? Adult men saw their unemployment rate fall, at 3.7%, last month. Women, Black people, Asian people, white people, Hispanic people, and teens all had little or no change in their unemployment rates in September.

The prime-age employment-to-population ratio, which is a measure of how well the economy provides jobs for people who are interested in working, remains at a 23-year high in today¡¯s jobs report.

¡°I think the labor market continues to be healthy and strong and it¡¯s great to see labor force participation and employment-to-population rates staying high,¡± Richards said. ¡°That¡¯s what we want to see in the kind of economy that is going to drive wage gains for working people and continue some of the gains that we¡¯ve seen since the COVID recession.¡±

But she added that there is still room for those measures to grow.

¡°We¡¯ve seen that the economy can outperform what a lot of people thought before we had this really prolonged period of low unemployment coming out of the COVID recession. And I hope that we continue to see this kind of growth,¡± she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris took part in an interview with the ¡°Call Her Daddy¡± podcast that was released Sunday. In this photo, the ¡°Call Her Daddy¡± host, creator and executive producer, Alex Cooper, participates in The Art of The Interview session at Spotify Beach on June 20, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images for Spotify)

WASHINGTON ¡ª In an interview released Sunday on a widely heard podcast geared toward young women, Vice President Kamala Harris stressed the importance of reproductive rights, a central topic in her bid for the White House.

The ¡°Call Her Daddy¡± host, Alex Cooper, specifically centered the 40-minute interview around issues affecting women such as domestic violence and access to abortion.

Meanwhile, the GOP nominee, former President Donald Trump, joined the Hugh Hewitt radio show Monday, a conservative talk show that has about 7.5 million weekly listeners.

The interview with Trump was mostly about the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. In the attack, 1,200 people ¡ª including 46 U.S. citizens ¡ª were killed in Israel and hundreds were taken hostage.

On ¡°Call Her Daddy,¡± Cooper noted before the interview that she does not have politicians on her show because it is not focused on politics, but ¡°at the end of the day, I couldn¡¯t see a world in which one of the main conversations in this election is women, and I¡¯m not a part of it.¡±

¡°The conversation I know I am qualified to have is the one surrounding women¡¯s bodies and how we are treated and valued in this country,¡± Cooper said.

She added that her team reached out to Trump and invited him on the show. ¡°If he also wants to have a meaningful, in-depth conversation about women¡¯s rights in this country, then he is welcome on ¡®Call Her Daddy¡¯ any time,¡± she said.

The podcast is the second-most listened-to on Spotify, with an average of 5 million weekly listeners. The demographics are about 90% women, with a large chunk of them Gen Z and Millennials? ¡ª an important voting bloc for Harris to reach with less than a month until the election concludes Nov. 5.

The podcast is part of Harris¡¯ media marathon this week. Late Monday, she will appear on ¡°60 Minutes¡± for an interview. On Tuesday she is scheduled to be in New York to appear on the daytime show ¡°The View,¡± ¡°The Howard Stern Show¡± and ¡°The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.¡±

Victims of sexual assault

Harris on the podcast touched on several stories she tells on the campaign trail, such as how a high school friend ended up staying with her and her family because the friend was being sexually assaulted at home.

¡°I decided at a young age I wanted to do the work of protecting vulnerable people,¡± Harris said.

She added that it¡¯s important to destigmatize survivors of sexual assault.

¡°The more that we let anything exist in the shadows, the more likely it is that people are suffering and suffering silently,¡± Harris said. ¡°The more we talk about it, the more we will address it and deal with it, the more we will be equipped to deal with it, be it in terms of schools, in terms of the society at large, right, and to not stigmatize it.¡±

Cooper asked Harris how the U.S. can be safer for women.

Harris talked about domestic violence and the bind that women can be in if they have children and are financially reliant on an abuser.

¡°Most women will endure whatever personal, physical pain they must in order to make sure their kids have a roof over their head or food,¡± she said. ¡°One of the ways that we know we can uplift the ability of women to have choices is uplift the ability of women to have economic health and well-being.¡±

Cooper asked Harris about the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago and the recent story of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after not being able to receive an abortion following complications from taking an abortion pill.

Harris said states that pass abortion bans will argue there are exceptions ¡°if the life of the mother is at risk,¡± but that it¡¯s not a realistic policy in practice.

¡°You know what that means in practical terms, she¡¯s almost dead before you decide to give her care. So we¡¯re going to have public health policy that says a doctor, a medical professional, waits until you¡¯re at death¡¯s door before they give you care,¡± Harris said. ¡°Where is the humanity?¡±

Trump criticizes protesters?

Besides the appearance with Hugh Hewitt, Trump is also scheduled late Monday to speak with Jewish leaders in Miami.

During the interview with Hewitt, Trump slammed the pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses and argued that those institutions should do more to quell the student protests.

¡°You have other Jewish students that are afraid,¡± Trump said. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s true, and they should be afraid. I never thought I would see this in my life with the campus riots and what they¡¯re saying and what they¡¯re doing. And they have to put them down quickly.¡±

Hewitt asked Trump, because of his background as a real estate developer, if he could turn Gaza, which has been devastated by the war, into something like Monaco. The Principality of Monaco is an independent, affluent microstate along the coast of France that attracts wealthy tourists.

¡°It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything,¡± Trump said, noting the Mediterranean Sea bordering the Gaza Strip. ¡°You know, as a developer, it could be the most beautiful place ¡ª the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate.¡±

The war has drawn massive protests in the United States, and more than 40,000 people in Gaza have been killed, but researchers estimate the death toll is as high as 186,000.

Hewitt asked Trump about Harris¡¯ housing policy that, if approved by Congress, would give first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 for a down payment. Both candidates have made housing a top issue.

Trump said he opposed the plan and instead advocated for the private sector to handle housing. He then veered off topic into immigration and without evidence accused migrants at the southern border of being murderers.

¡°Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they¡¯re now happily living in the United States,¡± he said. ¡°You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it¡¯s in their genes. And we¡¯ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.¡±

Trump has often invoked white supremacist language when talking about immigrants, accusing them of ¡°poisoning the blood¡± of the U.S. He¡¯s also made a core campaign promise of enacting mass deportations of millions of immigrants in the country who are in the country without authorization.

Hurricane interrupts campaign

Some campaign events have been postponed due to Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm barreling toward Florida. It comes after the devastating Hurricane Helene that caused severe damage in western North Carolina and other states in the Southeast.

A Tuesday roundtable with Trump and Latino leaders was postponed, as well as a town hall in Miami, Florida with Univison for undecided Hispanic voters. The Univision town hall with Harris is scheduled for Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Trump¡¯s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, on Tuesday is scheduled to give remarks in Detroit, Michigan.

Harris¡¯ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is heading to Reno, Nevada, Tuesday for a campaign reception.

On Monday, U.S. leaders marked the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. In this photo, photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas during the attacks are seen on Oct. 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª U.S. leaders marked one year Monday since Hamas militants launched a shocking attack on Israel, murdering more than 1,000 civilians, taking hundreds prisoner and igniting an all-but-declared regional war and a deadly Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that the U.S. has failed to halt despite months of cease-fire negotiations.

Demonstrations against Israel¡¯s continued retaliatory bombing of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory cropped up again ahead of the anniversary, including one man attempting to set himself on fire outside the White House Sunday during an otherwise peaceful protest.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that synagogues, mosques and vigil gatherings could be targeted by violent extremists.

President Joe Biden lit a yahrzeit candle Monday at the White House alongside first lady Jill Biden and Rabbi Aaron Alexander of the Washington-based Adas Israel Congregation, who recited a Jewish prayer to honor those who died.

Biden also spoke by phone to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to express his condolences and reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel¡¯s security, according to a White House readout of the call.

¡°On this day last year, the sun rose on what was supposed to be a joyous Jewish holiday. By sunset, October 7 had become the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Today marks one year of mourning for the more than 1,200 innocent people of all ages, including 46 Americans, massacred in southern Israel by the terrorist group Hamas,¡± Biden said in a statement early Monday, also acknowledging Hamas¡¯ ¡°horrific acts of sexual violence.¡±

Twelve Americans were among the hostages forcefully taken and still held by the militants, though many have died in captivity.

The past 12 months have been punctuated by protests against a U.S. surge in weapons to Israel since the attack. Health officials in Gaza say over 41,000 have been killed in the strikes that critics describe as indiscriminate to civilians, but Israel maintains are targeted at Hamas, an ally of Iran.

Prior to dropping his bid for reelection, Biden¡¯s campaign events were regularly interrupted by demonstrators who accused the president of supporting ¡°genocide¡± of Palestinians.

A pomegranate tree for hope

The chanting of protesters and sirens could be heard as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff honored the Oct. 7 victims Monday by planting a pomegranate tree, an important symbol in the Jewish faith, at the vice president¡¯s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, according to reporters who were present.

Harris said during brief remarks that ¡°we must uphold the commitment to repair the world¡± and ¡°work to relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.¡±

¡°For years to come, this pomegranate tree will stand here, spreading its roots and growing stronger to remind future vice presidents of the United States, their families and all who pass through these grounds, not only of the horror of October 7, but the strength and the endurance of the Jewish people. It will remind us all not to abandon the goal of peace, dignity and security for all, and it will remind us all to always have faith,¡± Harris said.

Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of any U.S. president or vice president, said he is ¡°still filled with pain and despair.¡±

In response to a shouted question about a cease-fire, Harris replied: ¡°We¡¯re not giving up. We¡¯re doing everything we can possibly do to get the cease-fire hostage deal done. It¡¯s one of the most important ways we will be able to end this war and bring any type of stability to the region. It¡¯s one of the highest priorities of this administration.¡±

Earlier in the day Harris issued a statement saying she will ¡°never forget the horror¡± that occurred on this day last year.

¡°Women raped on the side of the road. 250 people kidnapped. ¡­ What Hamas did that day was pure evil ¡ª it was brutal and sickening,¡± she said.

Harris has repeatedly said her commitment to Israel¡¯s security is ¡°unwavering.¡±

Schumer at Brooklyn synagogue

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York spent the morning at his synagogue in Brooklyn continuing to call for the release of hostages.

¡°When I went to Israel days after October 7th to express American solidarity with the Israeli people and Israel¡¯s right to self-defense, we gathered with the families of American victims of Hamas¡¯s attack. I will never forget the meeting. I still remember when one of the family members told me every minute is an hour, every day is a year not knowing the fate of their loved ones held in Hamas¡¯s captivity,¡± Schumer said in a statement.

¡°We must not and we cannot waver in our efforts to bring the hostages home. It is long past time.¡±

Schumer, who on the Senate floor in March heavily criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu¡¯s handling of Israel¡¯s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, honored the death of American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered after nearly 11 months in captivity. Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage as Hamas militants terrorized and killed hundreds at a desert music festival as part of their surprise attack.

The Senate majority leader also listed the names of several of his New York constituents who remain in captivity, including three whose bodies Hamas hasn¡¯t returned.

GOP slams Biden, Harris

The Republican National Committee hosted a ¡°remembrance press call¡± ahead of former President Donald Trump¡¯s attendance at an Oct. 7 memorial event in Miami, Florida, Monday night.

The call largely focused on blaming Biden and Harris for the gruesome Hamas attack and for the rise of antisemitism.

¡°None of this happened under President Trump when he was in office, because America was respected in the eyes of this world, and President Trump created peace through his strength, strong foreign policy,¡± Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign¡¯s national press secretary, said.

The call featured former Democratic Florida Congressman Peter Deutsch announcing his endorsement of Trump for president.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said time ¡°has not dulled the pain inflicted on the people of Israel one year ago today, nor eased the grief left in its wake.

¡°October 7th confronted the world with the irredeemable evil of Iran-backed terror, and drew emboldened strains of the world¡¯s oldest hatred out of the shadows,¡± the Kentucky Republican continued in a statement issued Monday.

McConnell¡¯s comments did not mention Biden, Harris or Trump.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson released a video featuring footage from the Hamas attack and clips of him shaking hands with Netanyahu when the Israeli leader visited the Capitol to address a joint session of Congress.

¡°The terror and antisemitism we¡¯ve witnessed have demanded full resolve from America¡¯s leaders, which is why Congress passed legislation in the spring to provide Israel with necessary military aid and support,¡± Johnson, of Louisiana, said in a statement.

¡°Today, at this critical time, following a second direct attack by Iran and ongoing terror from Hezbollah, Americans must insist that the Biden-Harris Administration stand unequivocally with Israel and against the terrorist regime in Iran, as we continue to pray for peace and security in Israel,¡± Johnson continued.

Johnson¡¯s video also featured footage of protesters carrying Palestinian flags on college campuses, and of him speaking at Columbia University.

In the months following the Oct. 7 attack, House Republicans fixated on anti-war university encampments and demonstrations ¡ª some, but not all, of which featured blatant antisemitism and violence. The party continues to laud GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik¡¯s heated questioning in December about antisemitism to University of Pennsylvania¡¯s Liz Magill and Harvard¡¯s Claudine Gay, which contributed to both the university presidents¡¯ resignations.

Kentuckians will be voting this fall on two constitutional amendments. This is the view approaching the Sugar Maple Square polling site in Bowling Green, May 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

To help voters better understand Amendment 2, which would allow Kentucky¡¯s legislature to steer public dollars into nonpublic schools, LINK nky and Educate NKY will host a Community Conversation next week.

The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 14? at the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County Public Library. RSVP for a free ticket to the in-person event here, or watch live on the Link nky Facebook page.

Evan Millward, who was previously an anchor and reporter with WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, will be moderating the event.?

Speakers will be:?

• Brigitte Blom, president and CEO of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a public school advocacy group that has come out publicly against Amendment 2. Before coming to the Prichard Committee, Blom was director of public policy for United Way of Greater Cincinnati with a focus on early childhood policy. Blom has worked in policy, research, and advocacy on issues related to education, poverty, and state taxes and budgets ¨C including work for universities in Ohio and Kentucky and for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
• Jim Waters, president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, which is advocating for the passage of Amendment 2. Waters has been with the free-market public policy think tank since 2003.?
• Jorge Elorza, CEO of Democrats for Education Reform. In his two terms as mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Elorza worked to engage the state department of education to turn around the city¡¯s school system. Democrats for Education Reform was created in 2007 to address education inequality in public schools across the country. Neither Elorza or Democrats for Education reform have taken a public stance on Amendment 2.
• Lauren Hodge, the director of foundational education at yes. every kid. foundation., whose mission is to promote education that empowers families, helps implement bottom-up solutions, and advances education freedoms across the country, according to its website. Hodge previously worked at EdChoice as a state director and on the Legal Defense in Education team. She also litigated for several years in the public sector in Indiana in both criminal and civil courts. Hodge and yes. every kid. foundation. have not taken a stance on Amendment 2.?

The Elkhorn Lake dam in Letcher County in late September after rains brought on by Hurricane Helene. It was ranked as the state's top priority for repairs in a recent report to the Kentucky legislature. (Photo courtesy of Jenkins Mayor Todd DePriest)

FRANKFORT ¡ª Whenever a heavy rain falls, Jenkins Mayor Todd DePriest can¡¯t help but think back to a deadly disaster as he drives around his small, mountain town checking on its aging dam and bridges.?

The dam that created Elkhorn Lake, known locally as Jenkins Lake, was built 112 years ago to provide hydropower to nearby coal mines. It still provides Jenkins with water and is a popular fishing spot. The dam¡¯s concrete slope is rocky and worn down exposing rusty steel rebar in places.?

When state inspectors looked it over in May 2023, they found water seeping through in spots and rated the dam in ¡°unsatisfactory¡± condition, the worst rating, meaning it is considered unsafe and has issues that need an immediate fix.?

The mayor and other community members have been acutely aware of the dam¡¯s deteriorating condition for years. DePriest¡¯s concerns about the dam trace back to the Buffalo Creek mine disaster of 1972 when three coal slurry dams failed in West Virginia; the rush of more than 130 million gallons of black water destroyed hundreds of homes, killing 125 people and leaving thousands homeless.

¡°That’s always on my mind. Anytime we have a big rain or some big event,¡± DePriest said. ¡°How do we make sure we’re not in that situation one day?¡±

Located in Southeastern Kentucky in Letcher County, the Elkhorn Lake dam is also considered a high hazard dam by state dam inspectors, meaning its failure could kill people or seriously damage homes, businesses and infrastructure downstream. In Jenkins, that would include the city¡¯s water treatment plant, homes, a church and the post office.?

The Elkhorn Lake dam isn¡¯t the only dam state officials say needs attention. Kentucky has dozens of high hazard dams in poor or worse condition needing repairs and rehabilitation, according to a list sent by the state Department for Environmental Protection to the Legislative Research Commission in late August. The Lantern obtained the letter through the Open Records Act. The Elkhorn Lake dam ranked as the highest priority.

While a few of the 71 high hazard dams listed in the report are owned by state agencies, most are owned by smaller cities, county fiscal courts, soil and water conservation districts and private organizations and individuals. One high hazard dam considered to be unsafe by dam inspectors is in a Boone County suburb, homes directly abutting it. Others serve as drinking water supplies or for recreational purposes. All the dams on the list are in at least poor condition.

Local officials who spoke with the Lantern say their governments don¡¯t have near the funds to make needed repairs, often $1 million or more. And that’s after paying for engineers.

Another challenge is even finding a dam owner to hold responsible, something that¡¯s sometimes turned into a legal ordeal for state officials.?

DePriest hopes grants from the state or federal governments will repair the dam in Jenkins, given the financial burden his city of fewer than 2,000 would face trying to handle it alone. A dam safety organization warns those grants can be hard to come by given the need to repair dams across the country. ¡°How do you put pieces together from these different agencies in a way that gives you a goal of making it safe and still usable for what we need it for?¡± DePriest said.

¡®Non-cooperative owners, incapable owners, and non-existent owners¡¯

Dam inspectors in the Department for Environmental Protection have watched a number of high hazard dams deteriorate for years, conducting annual inspections, issuing notices of violations when owners haven¡¯t fixed previously cited issues. When little to no action is taken, the Energy and Environment Cabinet has resorted to issuing fines and filing lawsuits.??

Cabinet spokesperson Robin Hartman in a statement said the cabinet pursues litigation only after ¡°all administrative enforcement options are exhausted.¡±?

¡°This authority includes administrative enforcement action, litigation, and emergency authority to take control of structures and take whatever action necessary to render a dam safe from loss of life and property,¡± Hartman said. ¡°Challenges to enforcing the dam safety requirements include non-cooperative owners, incapable owners, and non-existent owners.¡±?

One city hadn¡¯t communicated with the cabinet for years about its high hazard dam in unsafe condition, despite state inspectors¡¯ concerns.?The cabinet sent a letter to the mayor of Stanford, the Lincoln County seat, on Aug. 13 fining the city $5,500 and directing the city to drain Rice Lake. The reservoir created by Stanford¡¯s high hazard dam is one of three lakes supplying the city¡¯s water, according to the city.

Yearslong issues cited by inspectors, including a part of the earthen dam sliding down its slope, had gone unrepaired. The city hadn¡¯t responded since February 2022 to cabinet enforcement officials with updates on how an agreed plan to fix the dam was progressing.?

Stanford Mayor Dalton Miller told the Lantern he wasn¡¯t aware of the status of the dam, directing inquiries to Stanford¡¯s drinking water utility director who didn¡¯t respond to requests for comment Friday. A cabinet spokesperson didn¡¯t respond to a request for comment about the Rice Lake dam.?

In another case, the cabinet sued a private dam owner in Boyle County over failing to finalize an action plan to fix a dam with seepage issues that had been ¡°deteriorating for many years.¡± Overgrowth of weeds and other plants at the Tank Pond dam had prevented inspectors from determining its stability with dozens of residences potentially threatened downstream, according to a lawsuit complaint.?

A Boyle Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the cabinet in March because the dam owner failed to respond to the lawsuit, ordering the private dam owner to remove the Tank Pond dam and return the waterway to its original flow by the end of the year.

In Hopkins County, a court battle over who owns and has responsibility for another high hazard dam in unsafe condition has dragged on for over a year. A housing development? had been built in the 1980s around Otter Lake, but the dam holding back the lake hasn¡¯t been properly maintained. The Energy and Environment Cabinet sued the county fiscal court and property owners near the dam in December 2022 seeking to determine ownership of the dam and get it repaired.?

The cabinet¡¯s complaint states multiple property owners and interests have disputed their ownership of the dam for decades while its condition has worsened, spurring one home owner to sue an Owensboro couple for not disclosing the dam¡¯s condition or disclosing responsibilities to maintain the dam.?

A judge ruled last year the Hopkins County Fiscal Court has at least partial ownership of the dam because of a nearby road, and the telecommunications company AT&T has also been looped in as a defendant because of alleged buried telecommunications lines nearby.?

Significant costs to prevent potential dam failures

The report on high hazard dams sent to the legislature acknowledges the high cost of repair and rehabilitation. Sarah Gaddis, director of the Kentucky Division of Water, writes that ¡°engineering expertise, materials, and other items required for dam repair are extremely expensive.¡±?

The report notes that $25 million in state funds has been used to reconstruct two state-owned dams, the Bullock Pen Lake Dam in Boone County and the Scenic Lake Dam in Henderson County with two other state-funded dam repair projects in the works having price tags of $15 million to $30 million each.?

The report also noted only four of the 71 high hazard dams listed are eligible for an existing state-funded dam repair program. For dams owned by local governments and organizations or private individuals, the report stated,? other funding mechanisms include federal grant programs or local monies and state earmarks.?

Robin Hartman, the cabinet spokesperson, in a statement said civil works projects like dams are ¡°inherently expensive¡± and require specific expertise in design and construction methods. She said dam owners are required to bring on the needed engineers themselves.?

¡°Construction and design of dams also carry significant risk and liability due the inherent risk of impounding water,¡± Hartman said.¡± This elevated liability and risk command higher design standards and tightly controlled construction processes, which in turn increase construction costs.¡±

Katelyn Riley, the communications director for the Lexington-based Association of Dam Safety Officials, in a statement said the millions of dollars of costs fall on dam owners that either can¡¯t afford them or may not qualify for grants or loans. While $2.15 billion has been made available for dam repair through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, she said, it is ¡°a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.¡±

¡°Lack of funding for dam rehabilitation is a serious problem nationally and in Kentucky.¡± Riley said. ¡°The likelihood of failure can be mitigated by keeping a dam well maintained and, for older dams, upgrading them to meet current engineering design standards.¡±?

The Association of Dam Safety Officials in a 2023 report estimated the cost to repair and rehabilitate Kentucky¡¯s more than 1,000 dams at $2.91 billion, with the cost to rehabilitate just the state¡¯s high hazard dams estimated at $1.19 billion.?

As dams have deteriorated, so has Kentucky¡¯s inspection force. The state employs fewer staff with less allocated resources to oversee dam inspections than in 1999, according to another report by the dam safety association.?

But Kentucky isn¡¯t the only state with a growing dam problem. Nine other states had estimates over $1 billion to repair high hazard dams. That includes North Carolina, where dams were feared to be close to failure after rainfall from Hurricane Helene inundated Appalachian communities.?

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has funded hundreds of millions of dollars more in grants to repair dams through U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs, though only a small number of dams in Kentucky so far have benefited. State lawmakers in the 2022 executive branch budget allocated $5 million for matching funds for the USDA¡¯s Watershed Rehabilitation Program.

Riley said some states offer financial assistance to dam owners for repair, rehabilitation or removal, something that could ¡°directly improve the safety of dams in the state¡± along with investing more in the state¡¯s dam safety regulators.?

Two key Republican legislative committee chairs didn¡¯t commit to the idea of state earmarks for local dam repairs when asked recently about the idea. But the chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, told the Lantern he¡¯d be willing to work with the cabinet on solutions.?

¡°I think we agree that we need to be proactive,¡± Gooch said. ¡°We don’t do enough planning in advance sometimes to keep, prevent problems like this from happening.¡±?

Keeping a community¡¯s identity

For the mayor of a small Western Kentucky city, trying to save the Loch Mary Reservoir is about protecting a community space he grew up with.?

Facing pressure from state officials to deal with the high hazard dam that inspectors considered unsafe, Earlington¡¯s city council voted in June 2023 to allow Mayor Albert Jackson to pursue grants and other opportunities to repair the concrete and earthen dam.

The reservoir, adjacent to rows of homes, had cracks and seepage in its concrete and was deemed not hydraulically sound, meaning there¡¯s a problem with its ability to hold or release water.?

But Jackson, 36, didn¡¯t want to consider draining the lake. Working with its area development district, the city received a $490,000 grant from FEMA to begin design work on a reconstructed dam.?

Jackson said the effort would be ¡°absolutely impossible¡± for his city of 1,200 to do on its own.

¡°It fell in our favor to get the grant money, but I feel for a lot of communities that aren’t able to secure grant money or grant funding,¡± Jackson said. ¡°If you’re a small town there’s no way that you can, you know ¡ª $1.5 million, $2 million, $3 million for some places, there’s no way that you can come up with that money in 12 months.¡±?

Jackson argued that because the state government is flush with cash, lawmakers should invest more in repairing infrastructure, like local dams, while the money is there.?

¡°It’s important for us to maintain those things, maintain our natural resources, especially in a state like Kentucky, because if we don’t we lose a part of our identity,¡± Jackson said.

Julia Turner of Bowling Green waves to drivers while holding a sign for a local candidate in Bowling Green on primary Election Day, May 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Kentuckians have until 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7, to register to vote in this year’s election.

Registering can be completed online, via mail or by returning voter registration cards to your county clerk¡¯s office.

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Excused in-person voting is Oct. 23-25 and Oct. 28-30. No excuse in-person voting is Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Kentucky¡¯s online absentee ballot request portal is open through Tuesday, Oct. 22.

According to the State Board of Elections, the qualifications for voters to register in in Kentucky are:

• Be a U.S. citizen and a Kentucky resident for at least 28 days before the election. Non-U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals do not qualify.
• Be at least 18 years old by the general election.
• Cannot be a convicted felon. For some with an expungement, executive pardon or executive order, the right to vote may be restored.
• Cannot have been judged mentally incompetent in a court of law or have voting rights removed.
• Cannot claim the right to vote outside Kentucky.

To complete a new or updated voter registration, request an absentee ballot or learn more information about voting in Kentucky, visit govote.ky.gov.

Voters in the Bluegrass State will consider a ballot that includes the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, congressional races, a number of legislative races, two constitutional amendments and more. Some regional and local elections include a Supreme Court race in Central Kentucky and a Court of Appeals race in Western Kentucky.

Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks at the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª U.S. Senate Republicans shortly after Election Day will face a major decision for their chamber as well as the national party when they pick a new leader.

Once the dust from the election clears and the balance of power in the Senate is decided, senators will gather behind closed doors to choose who will lead their conference. Come January, that person will step into one of the more important and influential roles in the U.S. government, as well as becoming a prominent figure for messaging and fundraising for the GOP.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune have all publicly announced they¡¯re seeking the post. Thune is currently the minority whip, the No. 2 leader in the Senate GOP, and Cornyn held the whip job before him.

The lawmaker who secures the support of his colleagues will replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who since 2007 has led his party through three presidencies, numerous votes on natural disaster aid packages, the COVID-19 pandemic, two impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection.

McConnell, who served as majority leader when Republicans controlled the Senate, has been at the center of dozens of pivotal negotiations and ensured his position was a boon for his home state of Kentucky.

The Republican who takes his place will have to navigate choppy political seas in the years ahead as the GOP continues to hold onto the Reagan-era policies many still value, while adjusting to the brand of conservatism that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump champions.

States Newsroom interviewed Republican senators to find out what characteristics they believe the next GOP leader needs to have to earn their vote, and about the challenges that person will face in the years ahead.

While only one senator would volunteer an opinion on a favorite candidate, many said they are interested in a leader who will emphasize moving legislation through the chamber, listen closely to members and forge strong ties with what they hope is a Trump administration.

In search of a workhorse?

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he¡¯s looking for a ¡°competent¡± Republican leader who will listen to members and work behind the scenes.

¡°I don¡¯t want to see leaders on television commercials, I don¡¯t want to see them featured in Senate races, I don¡¯t want them as the deciding factor days before an election,¡± Hawley said. ¡°I want somebody who is going to be a workhorse and who¡¯s going to work with members to achieve our priorities and then get stuff accomplished.¡±

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the next GOP leader should hold the line on conservative priorities while also being able to negotiate bipartisan deals during what is expected to be a divided government. Democrats narrowly control the Senate, but Republicans are projected to possibly take the majority in the election.

¡°I would like somebody who can be strong in the face of opposition, present a strong argument, not afraid to take it to the other side when needed, but then also somebody that could get in the room and negotiate right when it gets tough,¡± she said.

Capito acknowledged the outcome of the presidential election could have an impact on who becomes the next Republican leader.

¡°(It) just depends on who wins,¡± she said.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said his choice will ¡°be the most important vote that I take.¡±

¡°You vote for the president, that¡¯s important, but mine is one vote out of 150 million votes, or whatever it is. But this vote will be one out of, hopefully 53, so I think it has a lot of weight,¡± Marshall said. ¡°And I think it¡¯s really important that we elect a majority leader that shares the same priorities as, hopefully, President Trump.¡±

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said the overarching criteria for the next GOP leader is their ¡°ability to get along well with President Trump and the incoming administration.¡±

¡°The first 100 days are going to count, and we need to have very close alignment to make certain we¡¯re successful,¡± Hagerty said.

There is no guarantee that voters will elect Trump as the next president during this year¡¯s presidential election. The next Senate GOP leader could end up working with an administration led by the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

That would require whomever Republican senators elect to walk a tightrope on Cabinet secretary confirmation votes, judicial nominees, must-pass legislation and potentially a Supreme Court nominee.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he¡¯s vetting the candidates based on which one would be the most savvy, strategic, patient and inclusive.

That person, Kennedy said, must also be ¡°willing to test his assumptions against the arguments of his critics and willing to ask God for money if necessary.¡± McConnell has been known as a prodigious fundraiser for Republicans.

Chairmanship clout

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said she¡¯ll vote for the candidate willing to devote significantly more floor time to debating and voting on bipartisan legislation.

¡°I think that¡¯s a real problem,¡± Collins said. ¡°I¡¯d like us to go back to the days where power was vested in the committee chairs. And if they and their ranking members are able to produce a bill, that it gets scheduled for floor consideration.¡±

Collins, a moderate in a Senate conference packed with more conservative members, said she wants the next Senate Republican leader to recognize ¡°that we¡¯re a big tent party and that we need to be inclusive in our approach.¡±

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, said he wants a GOP leader to follow ¡°regular order on appropriations.¡±

¡°We get them through committee with bipartisan votes, but they¡¯re not getting to the floor,¡± Hoeven said of the dozen annual government funding bills. ¡°We need to get them to the floor, there needs to be an amendment process, and we need to act on the bills and get back to voting on bills and that¡¯s called regular order. And I think that¡¯s the biggest key for our next leader is to be able to do that.¡±

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt has begun talking with the candidates and is evaluating their plans for the Senate floor schedule, especially for bringing the annual government funding bills up for debate and amendment.

¡°I want to know how we¡¯re going to get the appropriations process back working; like, how we¡¯re actually going to move the ball down the field on that,¡± Britt said. ¡°I want to know how we¡¯re going to actually embolden the committees and the committee process.¡±

Britt, ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, expressed frustration with how much floor time goes toward confirming judicial nominees, something that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and McConnell have both championed.

Senate floor procedures are much more time-consuming than the rules that govern debate in the House. Legislation can take weeks to move through the filibuster process, which requires 60 votes for bills to advance, and for leaders to negotiate which amendments will receive floor votes.

The Senate, unlike the House, is also responsible for vetting and confirming executive branch nominees, like Cabinet secretaries, as well as judicial nominees. With a new president in place, 2025 will mean many confirmation votes.

¡°When we have a leader that really knows how to lead, they¡¯ll put appropriations bills on the floor, they¡¯ll figure out how to embolden members,¡± Britt said, adding that ¡°a weak leader consolidates all the power, and that¡¯s, unfortunately, what I think we have right now when it comes to Chuck Schumer.¡±

¡®Getting stuff done¡¯

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said whomever he votes for needs to ¡°be successful at getting stuff done, finished, completed.¡±

¡°We have to be able to get our committees working and get legislation up, negotiated and moved,¡± Lankford said.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said whoever takes over as the next GOP leader must be able to communicate well with senators.

That person ¡°needs to be someone that has strategy, and knows how to work the floor, certainly. And then, also fundraising is a portion of that, too.¡±

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said his vote will go to the person he believes can best build consensus and listen to members, though he hasn¡¯t yet decided which of the three contenders he¡¯ll support.

¡°I¡¯m a true undecided,¡± Boozman said. ¡°I think the reality is most members just want to get the election over. They don¡¯t want to deal with this until then.¡±

Boozman said the results of the battle for control of the Senate in the November elections could influence which candidate he and his colleagues pick to lead them during the next Congress.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that the next GOP leader should be in tune with Republican voters and the issues important to them.

¡°It¡¯s someone who I think has an affinity and is in touch with where our voters are,¡± Rubio said.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley declined to list off any characteristics he believes the next leader needs, saying he doesn¡¯t want any of the three to figure out his choice.

¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to tell you that, because this is what I told all three people that came to my office ¡ª I said, ¡®I¡¯m not going to tell either one of you. You¡¯re all friends of mine. You ain¡¯t going to know who I vote for,¡¯¡± Grassley said. ¡°And if I answered your question, they¡¯re going to start figuring out who I¡¯m going to vote for.¡±

Grassley said the next leader¡¯s first major challenge will be negotiating a tax bill during 2025 that addresses expiring elements from the 2017 Republican tax law.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said character matters in determining who he¡¯ll vote for, but said he hadn¡¯t created a score sheet just yet.

¡°I¡¯ll have an idea of who I¡¯m voting for before the November election,¡± Moran said. ¡°Those characteristics that I think are important would be important regardless of what the makeup of the House, Senate and the White House is.¡±

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson threw his support behind Scott for GOP leader, saying he prefers someone who previously served as a governor and worked in the private sector. He was the only senator interviewed by States Newsroom to reveal his vote, which will be conducted via secret ballot.

He said that Scott ¡°is willing to tackle tough issues.¡±

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Republicans have ¡°a lot of good choices¡± among the three men and that he wants someone who can carry the GOP message.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear: First Amendment protections apply as fully on college campuses as they do in the community at large," writes Ken Miller. "Suppressing voices ¡ª in spite of DEI structures being abandoned ¡ª betrays this constitutional right and erodes the very fabric of higher education as a place for intellectual growth and civil discourse." (Getty Images)

As Kentucky¡¯s colleges and universities scale back their DEI initiatives under pressure from the General Assembly, academic leaders face a critical challenge: safeguarding free speech and protecting the rights of minority students.?

While DEI structures may be dismantled, the need to amplify marginalized voices remains, even as debates over racial equality, inclusivity and social justice spark tension across the commonwealth.

Announcements from the University of Kentucky and Northern Kentuckyn University illustrate this issue. UK President Eli Capilouto recently declared that the Office of Institutional Diversity would be disbanded. While he assured the campus community that UK remains committed to ¡°creating a sense of belonging, respect, and academic freedom,¡± he also acknowledged listening to policymakers concerned about the university appearing ¡°partisan or political.¡±

University of Kentucky disbanding its diversity office, president announces

Capilouto¡¯s response, couched in the language of neutrality, signals a potential retreat from ensuring diverse perspectives are supported. Redistributing the responsibilities of the Office of Institutional Diversity to ¡°other offices that support the entire institution¡± creates ambiguity about who will safeguard the interests of marginalized groups.?

Similarly, NKU President Cady Short-Thompson announced that the university would eliminate its Office of Inclusive Excellence. Citing ¡°the circumstances under which universities across Kentucky and the country find themselves¡± and legislative priorities, Short-Thompson¡¯s statement reflects a broader trend: Kentucky¡¯s academic institutions are scaling back DEI efforts in response to mounting political pressure.

An open letter from the ACLU of Kentucky reminded college presidents of their duty to uphold free speech. In a time when DEI structures are being dismantled and the political climate grows more charged, upholding this commitment is critical. Colleges are not only legally obligated to ensure the free exchange of ideas under the First Amendment, they have a moral responsibility to protect these voices as a cornerstone of higher learning, ensuring that all voices can be heard without fear of restriction or retaliation.

A second public university in Kentucky closes its diversity office under GOP lawmakers’ pressure

With UK and NKU citing possible revisitation of DEI issues by state legislators, there is growing concern that academic leaders will be pressured to dilute or silence student and faculty voices. Suppressing these voices ¡ª whether by dismantling DEI offices or quelling campus protests ¡ª undermines the core mission of higher education and betrays the principles of academic freedom. Kentucky¡¯s college presidents, provosts and deans may find themselves under external pressures that seek to limit discourse or penalize dissent, especially on challenging or controversial topics.

Universities have long been catalysts for social change, and Kentucky¡¯s campuses are no exception. From student-led protests during the civil rights movement to resistance against the Vietnam War, these pivotal moments shaped the commonwealth¡¯s history.

Today, with tensions over diversity, equity and inclusivity continuing to grow, Kentucky¡¯s higher education institutions have a responsibility to protect the rights of students and faculty ¡ª especially when their views challenge the status quo. Preserving such dissent is fundamental to maintaining a dynamic learning environment where diverse ideas can be explored, debated and refined.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear: First Amendment protections apply as fully on college campuses as they do in the community at large. Suppressing voices ¡ª in spite of DEI structures being abandoned ¡ª betrays this constitutional right and erodes the very fabric of higher education as a place for intellectual growth and civil discourse.

For Kentucky¡¯s academic leaders, the pressure to silence dissenting voices will only intensify as the political climate heats up. External interests, including some in the General Assembly, may urge them to stifle protests or impose penalties on those who express unpopular opinions. But their role as defenders of free speech and academic freedom demands that that they stand firm in their commitment to apply policies fairly, ensuring that every student and faculty member ¡ª regardless of their position ¡ª has the freedom to be heard.

Free speech must be upheld without discrimination. Whether students are advocating for racial justice, workers¡¯ rights or other causes, universities must resist outside pressures to silence viewpoints or penalize dissent.?

The challenges of protecting free speech and inclusivity are real. Yet, they are notminsurmountable. By working closely with students and faculty and rejecting calls to silence dissenting voices, Kentucky¡¯s colleges and universities can remain true to their mission of developing thoughtful and engaged citizens.

Now more than ever, Kentucky¡¯s colleges and universities can lead by example, showing that the free exchange of ideas is something not to be feared and rejected but something to be trusted and embraced.

Kyle Rittenhouse during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Nov. 5, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Photo by Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images)

This article is republished from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, a nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism.

Controversial gun rights advocate Kyle Rittenhouse is to be the special guest of a campaign fundraiser Oct. 9 for state House candidate TJ Roberts of Burlington.

The event will mark Rittenhouse¡¯s second appearance in Kentucky this year. His appearance last spring at an event at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green sparked several protests on campus.

Rittenhouse, 21, gained national attention at age 17 for shooting three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two fatally, in August 2020 during protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse had left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and joined a group of armed people in Kenosha who said they wanted to protect private property.

He was cleared of multiple charges, including homicide, after claiming self-defense. Two civil lawsuits against him are pending.

The prosecution of Rittenhouse made him a celebrity among American right-wing organizations and media, gaining him meetings with former president Donald Trump and political commentator Tucker Carlson.

Roberts said he first met Rittenhouse when they both worked for the National Association for Gun Rights.

The fundraiser was initially scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Metropolitan Club, a private business club in downtown Covington. A minimum donation of $150 to attend was urged.

The venue was changed because the club became concerned after a death threat emerged on social media aimed at Rittenhouse. The post, since removed, appeared on X, formerly Twitter, as a threat to show up at the event, scare Rittenhouse and then shoot him.

The Roberts campaign said Thursday afternoon that the venue had been changed to a barbecue restaurant in Florence because of what it called ¡°intimidation from the far left and threats of violence.¡±

Roberts is not a member of the club, but a member reserved the space without disclosing the nature of the “political fundraiser.” According to a source close to the Metropolitan Club, its board was not comfortable with exposing members to even the threat of violence or a police presence for security.

In a release Roberts said, ¡°I will always stand against the cancel culture tactics employed by the radical left” and said that despite arranging for armed security provided by the Covington Police, the venue ¡°caved to the mob¡¯s intimidation.¡±?

Roberts softened his criticism Thursday night, striking a more conciliatory tone. ¡°I don¡¯t blame the Metropolitan Club for what it did. Its board had to act accordingly after the death threat on social media,” he said.

Roberts said his fundraiser with Rittenhouse now will be held at Smokin’ This and That BBQ in Florence.

He said the owner of the restaurant ¡°is a true American patriot who supports our First Amendment right to free speech and will not surrender to the pressures of those who seek to silence us. This is not just about our event ¡ª it¡¯s a fight for the freedoms that make America great.¡±

Guy Cummins, owner of the barbecue restaurant, said he has held fundraisers for many organizations. ¡°I¡¯m a former Marine who tries to do what is right,¡± he said.

Cummins said he was ¡°not very familiar¡± with Rittenhouse. Told a bit about him, Cummins said, ¡°I understand that he was found not guilty. I expect everything will go just fine with this fundraiser.¡±

Three other Republican state legislators from the area are to be at the fundraiser: Savannah Maddox, Steven Doan and John Schickel.

Steve Rawlings, now state representative from District 66, is running for the state Senate to replace the retiring Schickel.

Peggy Nienaber of Burlington is the Democratic nominee running against Roberts in the general election ending Nov. 5.

Nienaber did not respond to an email, seeking comment about Roberts¡¯ fundraiser.

But Jonathan Levin, the state Democratic Party¡¯s communications director, said in an email, ¡°TJ Roberts¡¯ latest fundraiser with right-wing poster boy Kyle Rittenhouse is yet another reminder to voters that he¡¯s an extremist with a disturbing view of the world that doesn¡¯t belong in the General Assembly.?

¡°Whether it¡¯s spewing antisemitism, making light of school shootings hours after the tragedy in Uvalde, or disparaging Martin Luther King, Jr., Roberts has shown all of us that he¡¯s unfit for office.?

¡°Kentuckians deserve leaders who will address the real issues that matter most ¡ª like good-paying jobs and health care ¡ª instead of using their platforms to stoke fear.¡±

Roberts, in response, said, ¡°There is nothing extreme or controversial about the right to self-defense. When the Democrats attempt to demonize and dehumanize Kyle Rittenhouse, they are attacking those who engage in self-defense, and making heroes out of rioters who attempt to murder law-abiding citizens.¡±

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump will return to the site in Butler on Saturday, Oct. 5 2024 for a rally. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesImages)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Saturday marks one month until Election Day, giving the presidential campaigns little time before voting closes to convince voters that their vision for the country offers the best path forward.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump will spend much of that time attacking each other, though they are also leaning on high-profile allies to support voter turnout efforts and help sway the dwindling number of undecided voters.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama is set to rally supporters in battleground states throughout the next month after starting off in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 10.

Obama is expected to make the case that Harris ¡°is ready for the job.¡±

¡°This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion,¡± Obama will say, according to prepared remarks shared by the campaign. ¡°Kamala wasn¡¯t born into privilege. She had to work for what she¡¯s got, and she actually cares about what other people are going through.¡±

The campaign didn¡¯t disclose which other states Obama is likely to visit, though it¡¯s a safe bet he¡¯ll be traveling to swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Trump is set to rally supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, returning to the location where a gunman climbed onto a roof before taking several shots at Trump in July.

The rally will include numerous members of Congress as well as the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the gunman.

Comperatore¡¯s widow, daughters and sisters are all expected to attend the Trump rally, as are several people who attended the one where the shooting broke out, according to an announcement from the campaign.

Trump¡¯s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is expected to attend along with billionaire businessman Elon Musk; Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt; Pennsylvania Reps. Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Guy Reschenthaler and Glenn Thompson; Florida Rep. Cory Mills; Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson; and several Pennsylvania officials.

Separately on Saturday, Vice President Harris will travel to North Carolina to receive a briefing on recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene and survey storm damage.

On Sunday, former President Trump is expected to give a speech in Juneau, Wisconsin.

Biden warns of election denial

President Joe Biden said Friday during a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing that he expects the November elections will be fair and free, though he expressed concern about the possibility of violence.

¡°I don¡¯t know whether it will be peaceful,¡± Biden said. ¡°The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out, when he didn¡¯t like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.¡±

Biden criticized Vance for declining to say during this week¡¯s vice presidential debate that he would accept the outcome of the election.

¡°They haven¡¯t even accepted the outcome of the last election,¡± Biden said. ¡°So I¡¯m concerned about what they¡¯re going to do.¡±

Trump has falsely claimed for years that he won the 2020 presidential election, despite multiple lawsuits failing in the court system due to a lack of evidence and numerous Republican officials saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

Special counsel Jack Smith is pursuing a case against Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the election that includes actions he took leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The latest filing in that case, which included new details, was released this week.

Control of Congress

Democrats and Republicans are also focusing on the race for control of Congress during the final weeks of campaign season.

Republicans are projected to reclaim the Senate, most likely through picking up seats in West Virginia and Montana, with races in Michigan and Ohio ranked as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walters.

The House could also go either way, though Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has repeatedly said he expects to keep that chamber red and increase his razor-thin majority.

There are 26 toss-up races that will determine control of the House for the next two years, according to the Cook Political Report. The remaining 409 House districts are rated as either leaning, likely or solidly favoring Republicans or Democrats.

Which party controls the House and Senate will determine how much the next president can actually accomplish.

Leaders of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said on a call Friday they are coordinating their efforts to boost Harris and Democratic candidates during the weeks ahead.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan and DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington highlighted some of those efforts to mark nearly one month out from Nov. 5.

¡°I think we have probably one of the most coordinated efforts we¡¯ve seen, at least in my memory, where three committees are working together to make sure that we use our resources as effectively and as efficiently as possible, to make sure that we win all across the board,¡± Peters said.

Harrison said party leaders were focused on dozens of races ranging from ¡°the school board to the White House.¡±

¡°When I became the chair of the DNC, I committed to a 57-state-and-territory strategy,¡± Harrison said, adding that he¡¯s proud to say ¡°we¡¯ve taken that commitment to the next levels, rounding out our mission, again, sending electoral investments to all 57 states and territories to bolster down-ballot races in a single cycle.¡±

How would Amendment 2 change Kentucky classrooms like this one at Mayfield High School? (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

FRANKFORT ¡ª With the general election next month, Kentucky¡¯s top Democrats and Republicans are both criticizing what they say is misinformation about a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools.?

Amendment 2, which Kentucky voters will decide, was a top priority for GOP lawmakers during this year¡¯s legislative session; Democrats consistently opposed the idea. The partisan skirmish continues in the race to sway voters.

Speaking with reporters in Frankfort this week, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne, both Republicans, said unfounded speculation about what the amendment would do is an obstacle for its supporters to overcome.

Stivers and Osborne stressed that the amendment merely lowers constitutional barriers that in the past have blocked the legislature from expanding what its supporters call ¡°school choice.¡±

Opponents warn that if Amendment 2 is approved, the Republican-controlled legislature would create a system of vouchers, as 10 states have done, to help families pay for private school tuition diverting funds from public schools.

¡°I think what some people are saying about the amendment is not accurate,¡± Stivers said. ¡°There is nothing in the amendment except it would allow the legislature to go beyond what the constitutional definition of common schools are.¡±?

In the past, Stivers said, the focus of ¡°school choice¡± legislation in Kentucky has been targeted ¡°on failing school systems¡± but, he said, those laws were declared unconstitutional.?

In recent years, Kentucky courts have struck down the legislature¡¯s attempts to authorize charter schools in the state and tax credits to help families pay private school tuition. Those bills narrowly passed over Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s vetoes.?

Amendment 2 would suspend or ¡°notwithstand¡± seven sections of the state constitution but only to enable ¡°the General Assembly to provide financial support for the education costs of students in kindergarten through 12th grade who are outside the system of common (public) schools,¡± according to language approved by the legislature.

If voters approve the? amendment, the Republican leaders said, decisions about next steps would involve stakeholders and extensive debate by lawmakers ¡ª debate that Osborne predicted would be ¡°contentious.¡±

¡°If you look at the history of the school choice debates in the legislature, they¡¯ve been very contentious, and they’ve been very incremental in the things that they have done,¡± Osborne said. ¡°I think to expect there to be sweeping legislation that¡¯s going to happen the next day is clearly just not going to happen, but there¡¯s really not been a tremendous amount of discussion about what that policy will look like.¡±?

Stivers predicted ¡°we¡¯re probably a year away from any type of legislation,¡± noting that the General Assembly next convenes in January in the middle of a school year. The Kentucky Department of Education, superintendents, teachers and families would also need to give input on any future legislation, he said.?

When lawmakers debated the amendment earlier this year, some Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the ballot measure, particularly those with a history in public education or who represent rural communities.

Meanwhile, Kentucky Democrats point to the lack of specifics in the amendment as a reason voters should defeat it.?

¡°Amendment 2 is really just a blank check for the Republicans in the General Assembly,¡± said House Democratic Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson of Lexington. ¡°Do not let them convince you to write it.¡±?

Stevenson spoke during a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda last week, along with Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge.

Coleman, who has been traveling the state campaigning against the amendment,? said its supporters are putting out false information. She said she was aware of a recent campaign mailer saying that Gov. Andy Beshear supported it, which is not true.?

¡°There’s a lot of conversations that still need to be had,¡± Coleman said. ¡°And it’s my hope that the folks who are tied in the most in our education communities ¡ª parents, teachers, volunteers, all of the folks who work in our schools ¡ª help to educate the people around them about what this really means.¡±?

Elridge argued ¡°we don’t even know what the choice actually is¡± because Republican lawmakers have not shared what changes in policy and law they would pursue if the amendment passes.?

Stevenson called for supporting education by funding universal pre-K programs and pupil transportation along with finding ways to lower class sizes rather than supporting the amendment.?

When asked if it¡¯s a challenge to persuade voters to support Amendment 2 without telling them more about what would come next, Osborne said that ¡°makes it easier for people to distort it¡± but he thinks ¡°the people of Kentucky are smart enough to figure this out.¡±?

¡°Most people do like to maintain status quo, and so that is an impact on any constitutional amendment,¡± Stivers said.?

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. In-person, excused absentee voting will be held Oct. 23, 24, 25, and Oct. 28, 29, 30. Early in-person, no excuse absentee voting will take place Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 31- Nov. 2. To find out times and locations of? early voting in your county, visit the State Board of Elections website at govote.ky.gov.

A case of bird flu in a Missouri resident is the only diagnosis in the United States this year where the person did not have contact with infected dairy cattle or poultry. (Photo by Stephen Ausmus/Animal Research Services, USDA)

WASHINGTON ¡ª The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should have results later this month that provide more insight into how a Missouri resident, who hadn¡¯t had any contact with infected animals or food, contracted a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said on a call with reporters Friday the agency is working through its investigation of that bird flu case, while providing several more details.

¡°As we previously reported, CDC would be able to perform partial sequencing of the avian influenza H5 virus from the case in Missouri, despite a nearly undetectable level of viral RNA in the patient sample,¡± Daskalakis said.

That process is complex and time-consuming, in part because the patient had rather small amounts of the virus in their system when the test was taken.

Another contributing factor, he said, is ¡°that the virus has two potentially important mutations, meaning two amino acid differences, in comparison with the viruses previously characterized during this event that could affect antigenicity.¡±

Daskalakis explained that antigenicity is when someone is able to produce ¡°a specific immune response, such as creation of specific antibodies.¡±

Both the mutations and small sample size have presented challenges for the CDC, but the agency expects to announce results of the test later this month after completing the complicated lab process, he said.

Two cases in California

The Missouri case is the only bird flu diagnosis in the United States this year where the person hadn¡¯t had direct contact with infected poultry or dairy cattle.

The remainder of the 16 people diagnosed with H5N1 during this calendar year had direct contact with farm animals, with nine of those cases linked to poultry and six related to dairy cows.

One of those cases was diagnosed in Texas, two in Michigan, two in California just this week and 10 in Colorado.

Public health officials on the call emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low and that several studies undertaken by the Food and Drug Administration show pasteurized dairy products as well as other foods remain safe to eat.

Since February, the CDC has tested more than 50,000 samples that would have ¡°detected Influenza A, H5 or other novel influenza viruses,¡± Daskalakis said.

The Missouri case was the first case of bird flu detected through that influenza surveillance system, he said.

Public health officials at the state and federal level have been trying to determine how the Missouri patient, who officials are not identifying for their privacy, contracted the virus through a series of ¡°intense interviews,¡± Daskalakis said.

That is how they learned someone living in the same house had been symptomatic with various gastrointestinal issues at the same time the patient had been ill.

That simultaneous onset of symptoms implied ¡°a common exposure, rather than human-to-human transmission,¡± Daskalakis said, before reinforcing that the second person never tested positive for the virus and isn¡¯t considered a case of bird flu.

¡°At the time of the interview, the household contact had also completely recovered and had not been tested for influenza while they were sick,¡± he said. ¡°To be clear, there is only one case of H5N1 influenza detected in Missouri.¡±

Because the person living in the same house as the Missouri patient had been symptom-free for more than 10 days when they were interviewed by public health officials, Daskalakis said there was ¡°no utility in testing the contact for acute influenza.¡±

Instead, officials in Missouri took blood samples from the two people so the CDC could test for ¡°antibodies against H5 to assess for possible infection with this virus,¡± he said.

A separate investigation was taken at the hospital where the Missouri patient had been diagnosed to see if any health care workers had contracted H5N1.

Out of 118 health care workers who interacted with the patient in some way, 18 had higher-risk interactions before the patient was diagnosed and began using what Daskalakis referred to as ¡°droplet precautions.¡±

Six of those health care workers later developed respiratory symptoms, though only one of them had symptoms by the time the public health investigation had begun retroactively, he said.

That one person¡¯s PCR test for acute influenza came back negative and the other five health care workers, who had recovered, did not require a PRC test, he said.

¡°Since exposures could only be assessed retrospectively, Missouri has also obtained blood specimens from these individuals for antibody or serology testing at CDC to search for any evidence to support the unlikely possibility that their symptoms were related to H5 infection resulting from their interaction with the patient,¡± Daskalakis said. ¡°Despite the low risk, this testing is important to complete the public health investigation of this case.¡±

The CDC began working on that serology testing in mid-September when it received the samples from Missouri, though the complicated process likely won¡¯t conclude until later in October.

¡°For serology testing to be conclusive, it needs to be done using a virus that is genetically identical to the one obtained from the human case from Missouri or there is a risk of a false negative test,¡± Daskalakis said. ¡°Since this H5 virus was not recoverable, we could not grow it because there was not enough for the Missouri specimen.¡±

The CDC, he explained, has to ¡°create the right virus for the test using reverse genetics to match the one from Missouri, so that we can use it in these serology tests.¡±

¡°We realize people, including all of us at CDC, are anxious to see results from this testing,¡± he said. ¡°CDC is moving at a very accelerated pace while conducting rigorous science to assure the validity of these results.¡±

Poultry, dairy cases

In addition to human cases, bird flu continues to infect poultry flocks and dairy herds within the United States.

While the poultry industry has had years of experience supplying its workers with personal protective equipment and culling affected farms, the dairy industry has had to figure out how to address the virus this year.

Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA, said on the call Friday that Colorado¡¯s mandatory testing program of bulk milk tanks, which began in July, offered a hopeful case study for ridding farms throughout the country of H5N1.

¡°Initially, this revealed a significant local prevalence, about 72% of dairies, centered in Weld County,¡± Deeble said.

But following months of hard work by farmers and public health officials, Colorado has just one dairy herd that¡¯s currently affected by H5N1 out of 86 dairy herds within the state, he said.

¡°Mandatory surveillance in the state allows for continuous monitoring of herds and helps detect any instances of non-negative results early on, ensuring timely intervention,¡± Deeble said. ¡°This decrease in Colorado cases, even in the absence of a vaccine, gives us further confidence that H5N1 can be eliminated in the national herd, even in places where we have seen an initial rapid increase in cases.¡±

Data from the USDA show that during the past month, three dairy herds in Idaho and 53 in California have tested positive for H5N1.

A Thursday ruling in federal court in Missouri further hinders the administration¡¯s efforts to promote its work on student loans ahead of the November election. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Biden administration was hit with the latest blow to its student debt relief efforts on Thursday after a federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked the administration from putting in place a plan that would provide student debt relief to millions of borrowers.

The ruling further hinders the administration¡¯s efforts to promote its work on student loans ahead of the November election and comes amid persistent Republican challenges to President Joe Biden¡¯s student debt relief initiatives.

The administration, which unveiled the plans in April, said these efforts would provide student debt relief to more than 30 million borrowers. The proposals were never finalized.

In a September lawsuit, Missouri led Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio in challenging the administration over the plan.

Their suit, filed in a Georgia federal court, came just days after a separate student debt relief effort ¡ª the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan ¡ª continued to be put on pause after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a block on the plan in late August.

Following the September filing of the suit, U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall of Georgia paused the plan through a temporary restraining order on Sept. 5 and extended that order on Sept. 19 while the case could be reviewed.

But on Wednesday, Hall let that order expire, dismissed Georgia from the suit and moved the case to a Missouri federal court.

Once the suit moved to Missouri and the restraining order was not extended, the remaining six states in the case quickly sought a preliminary injunction.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp granted the states¡¯ request on Thursday, writing that the administration is barred from ¡°mass canceling student loans, forgiving any principal or interest, not charging borrowers accrued interest, or further implementing any other actions under the (debt relief plans) or instructing federal contractors to take such actions.¡±

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised Schelp¡¯s decision, saying in a Thursday post on X that it¡¯s a ¡°huge win for transparency, the rule of law, and for every American who won¡¯t have to foot the bill for someone else¡¯s Ivy League debt.¡±

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency is ¡°extremely disappointed by this ruling on our proposed debt relief rules, which have not yet even been finalized,¡± per a statement.

¡°This lawsuit was brought by Republican elected officials who made clear they will stop at nothing to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans,¡± the spokesperson said.

The department will ¡°continue to vigorously defend these proposals in court¡± and ¡°will not stop fighting to fix the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country,¡± they added.

The Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group, also lambasted the Missouri decision.

¡°With this case, the Missouri Attorney General continues to put naked political interest and corporate greed ahead of student loan borrowers in Missouri and across the country,¡± Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel for the advocacy group, said in a Thursday statement.

¡°This is a shameful attack on tens of millions of student loan borrowers and our judicial system as a whole,¡± Yu said. ¡°We will not stop fighting to expose these abuses and ensure borrowers get the relief they deserve.¡±

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during the Graves County Republican Party Breakfast, part of the Fancy Farm Picnic political festivities, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, . (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

FRANKFORT, Ky. – While Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s new political action committee, In This Together, has yet to report donating to a Democratic legislative candidate, U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell¡¯s old PAC has reported giving $200,000 to help Republicans running this fall for the Kentucky legislature and local offices.

In a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, McConnell¡¯s Bluegrass Committee PAC reported giving $2,100 (the maximum allowed by state law) on Aug. 20 to each of 95 Republicans running in Kentucky. McConnell¡¯s PAC gave to 90 Republican candidates for seats in the General Assembly, three candidates for Louisville Metro Council and two mayoral candidates. The PAC also reported giving $1,000 to the Kentucky Federation of Republican Women.

Follow the money

An occasional series of campaign finance notebooks

By Tom Loftus

?It was a lot of money, but a routine disgorgement from Bluegrass Committee, which for 35 years has been McConnell¡¯s so-called leadership PAC ¡ª a major but under-the-radar force in helping fund Republicans running for office at all levels in Kentucky. It has also been a consistent donor to candidates supported by McConnell outside Kentucky.?

Although called a leadership PAC, there¡¯s no leadership requirement to start one. Almost? all members of the U.S. Senate and House have one to collect and disperse political money.

Granted, being a leader in a legislative body, as McConnell has been for decades, helps raise money.?

A constant flow of dollars from the PACs of big corporations and associations has funded McConnell¡¯s Bluegrass Committee. These PACs are limited to giving no more than $5,000 per year to a leadership PAC. And scores of them give $5,000 to Bluegrass Committee year after year.

In August, donors of $5,000 to Bluegrass Committee included PACs of Boeing, AT&T, McKesson, Union Pacific, National Beer Wholesalers and the National Automobile Dealers.

Since Jan. 1, 2023, FEC records show 91% of the $838,000 in contributions taken in by Bluegrass Committee during this political cycle has come from these PACs. Only 9% has been donated by individuals.

The donations not only allow McConnell to make big political contributions, they also help pay for folks who run his perpetual political operations.

For instance, in August the largest expense of Bluegrass Committee was $10,000 paid to Haney Consulting, the company owned by McConnell¡¯s longtime fundraising consultant, Laura Haney. Since Jan. 1, 2023, Bluegrass Committee has paid Haney Consulting $200,000, FEC records show.

Beshear created In This Together in January to raise money he could use to support like-minded candidates in Kentucky and across the country. From January through August Beshear’s super PAC reported raising $897,500. Eric Hyers, a Beshear political strategist, said in July that the PAC would wait until fall to begin significant spending in support of candidates.

Hal Rogers¡¯ leadership PAC

For many years 5th District U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky also maintained a leadership PAC, although it is understandably much smaller than Senate Republican Leader McConnell¡¯s PAC.

Rogers¡¯ PAC, called Help America¡¯s Leaders PAC, or HALPAC, came under the scrutiny of Lexington Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves four years ago.

Cheves¡¯ report revealed that HALPAC made very few political contributions to fellow Republicans, but spent? its money on other things, like a $3,000 a month salary to Rogers¡¯ wife, Cynthia Rogers, for ¡°PAC event planning.¡±

More recent reports show that HALPAC still gives very little to other Republican candidates ¡ª only $8,000 (or 2.3% of the PAC¡¯s total spending since Jan. 1, 2023.)

But one thing has changed since that Herald-Leader story.

HALPAC no longer pays Cynthia Rogers $3,000 a? month for PAC event planning.

It pays her $4,000 a month for PAC event planning.

In fact, since Jan. 1, 2023 through August 2024 it has paid Cynthia Rogers $80,000, FEC records show. That¡¯s 23% of the PAC¡¯s spending during the period and 10 times the amount HALPAC has made in contributions to other Republican candidates.

Kentucky Lantern sent Rogers¡¯ office questions in hopes of getting more details of the PAC¡¯s spending. HALPAC replied with a statement late Thursday that said, ¡°All expenditures are done in accordance with the purpose of the PAC and FEC regulations, including all event and personnel expenditures. There is not a more stalwart team player for the Republican Party than Hal Rogers. Over the years he has generously donated directly to countless candidates and to the National Republican Congressional Committee to help elect a Republican majority.”

RPK Building Fund still getting big more corporation contributions

Special interest corporation dollars are continuing to flow into the Republican Party of Kentucky¡¯s Building Fund as groundbreaking for the expansion of the party¡¯s headquarters took place late this summer.

According to a report filed by the RPK this week with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, the RPK¡¯s building fund got $385,000 in contributions between July 1 and Sept. 30 with the majority of that coming from a whopping $300,000 donation from Brown-Forman of Louisville.

Also during the quarter, the Boeing Co. PAC gave another $75,000. (It had previously given $100,000 to the building fund.) And Toyota Motor North America Inc. gave $10,000.

That brings the total raised so far for the project to $3.6 million; nearly all of that was donated by big corporations that lobby both Congress and the Kentucky General Assembly. The largest donation of $1 million was made early in the fundraising drive by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., of New York. The second largest donor was a small Ohio gas distribution utility called NWO Resources. (The president and director of N.W.O Resources is James Neal Blue who is also chief executive and chairman of General Atomics Corp., a defense contractor that the Forbes website says is best known as the manufacturer of the Predator drone.)

The party headquarters is located in a house about four blocks down Capitol Avenue from the Kentucky Capitol. A sign out front identifies it as the ¡°Mitch McConnell Building.¡± And the senator himself was on hand early last month when ground was broken for the expansion which will add 6,800 square feet of space for more offices, conference rooms and an auditorium.

The project was made possible by a 2017 law that ¡ª among other things ¡ª allowed state political parties to create building funds which could accept donations from corporations of unlimited amounts.

The building fund reported spending $133,600 during the recent quarter and that as of Sept. 30 it still had more than $3.2 million on hand.

Most of that spending was for an architect and a construction manager, but a lot of it ¡ª $20,000 ¡ª was paid to Haney Consulting, the business owned by McConnell¡¯s fundraiser. Reports filed by the building fund with the election registry show that since Jan. 1, 2023 the building fund has paid Haney Consulting $120,000 to raise the corporation contributions for expanding the RPK headquarters.?

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have widely divergent views on education. In this photo, students are shown in a classroom. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris sprint to the November finish line, one sprawling policy area has largely fallen out of the spotlight ¡ª education.

Though the respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates have spent comparatively more time campaigning on issues such as immigration, foreign policy and the economy, their ideas surrounding K-12 and higher education vastly differ.

Trump¡¯s education platform vows to ¡°save American education,¡± with a focus on parental rights, universal school choice and a fight for ¡°patriotic education¡± in schools.

¡°By increasing access to school choice, empowering parents to have a voice in their child¡¯s education, and supporting good teachers, President Trump will improve academic excellence for all students,¡± Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in a statement to States Newsroom.

Trump ¡°believes students should be taught reading, writing, and math in the classroom ¡ª not gender, sex and race like the Biden Administration is pushing on our public school system,¡± Leavitt added.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has largely focused on the education investments brought by the Biden-Harris administration and building on those efforts if she is elected.

¡°Over the past four years, the Administration has made unprecedented investments in education, including the single-largest investment in K-12 education in history, which Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass,¡± Mia Ehrenberg, a campaign spokesperson, told States Newsroom.

Ehrenberg said that while Harris and her running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, ¡°will build on those investments and continue fighting until every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, Republicans led by Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda want to cut billions from local K-12 schools and eliminate the Department of Education, undermining America¡¯s students and schools.¡±

Harris has repeatedly knocked the Heritage Foundation¡¯s Project 2025 ¡ª a sweeping conservative agenda that includes education policy proposals like eliminating Head Start, ending time-based and occupation-based student loan forgiveness and barring teachers from using a student¡¯s preferred pronouns different from their ¡°biological sex¡± without written permission from a parent or guardian.

Trump has fiercely disavowed Project 2025, although some former members of his administration crafted the blueprint.

Closing the U.S. Department of Education

Trump has called for shutting down the U.S. Department of Education and said he wants to ¡°move education back to the states.¡± The department is not the main funding source for K-12 schools, as state and local governments allocate much of those dollars.

In contrast, Harris said at the Democratic National Convention in August that ¡°we are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.¡±

Living wage for school staff; parental bill of rights

Trump¡¯s education plan calls for creating a ¡°new credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.¡±

He also wants to implement funding boosts for schools that ¡°abolish teacher tenure¡± for grades K-12 and adopt ¡°merit pay,¡± establish the direct election of school principals by parents and ¡°drastically cut¡± the number of school administrators.

In contrast, the Democratic Party¡¯s 2024 platform calls for recruiting ¡°more new teachers, paraprofessionals and school related personnel, and education support professionals, with the option for some to even start training in high school.¡±

The platform also aims to help ¡°school-support staff to advance in their own careers with a living wage¡± and improve working conditions for teachers.

Trump also wants to give funding boosts to schools that adopt a ¡°Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice.¡±

He¡¯s threatening to cut federal funding for schools that teach the primarily collegiate academic subject known as ¡°critical race theory,¡± gender ideology or ¡°other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.¡±

The Democrats¡¯ platform opposes ¡°the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education,¡± adding that ¡°public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.¡±

Title IX?

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration released a final rule for Title IX extending federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.

The updated regulations took effect Aug. 1, but a slew of GOP-led states challenged the measure. The legal battles have created a policy patchwork and weakened the administration¡¯s vision for the final rule.

The updated regulations roll back Title IX changes made under the Trump administration and then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump vowed to terminate the updated regulations on his first day back in office if reelected.

Student debt and higher education?

Harris has repeatedly touted the administration¡¯s record on student loan forgiveness, including nearly $170 billion in student debt relief for almost 5 million borrowers.

The administration¡¯s most recent student loan repayment initiative came to a grinding halt in August after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.

Although little is mentioned about education in Harris¡¯ extensive economic plan, the proposal makes clear that the veep will ¡°continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class.¡±

She also plans to cut four-year degree requirements for half a million federal jobs.

Trump ¡ª who dubbed the Biden-Harris administration¡¯s student loan forgiveness efforts as ¡°not even legal¡± ¡ª sought to repeal the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program during his administration.

His education platform also calls for endowing the ¡°American Academy,¡± a free, online university.

Trump said he will endow the new institution through the ¡°billions and billions of dollars that we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.¡±

"As Catholics we are taught every public policy decision must be first filtered through a lens of 'How will this affect the poorest among us?' The answer for Amendment 2 is: it hurts the poor," writes former state Rep. Jim Wayne of Louisville. (Getty Images)

St. Agnes Catholic School in Louisville holds the distinction of being a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School four times. Only a handful of schools across the entire nation have achieved this prestigious honor of education excellence.

As members of St. Agnes Church, my wife and I know our financial support for this school is part of our mission to share our faith with the new generation. Along with a well-rounded, rigorous program in arts and sciences, the school teaches the foundations of our faith and our identity as followers of Christ to serve the world, especially the poor, with our talents and treasures.

This financial support is not new for us. Our great grandparents and grandparents did the same, as did our parents. We now witness grandchildren benefiting from this same spirit of generosity spurred by our faith.

None of our extended family looked to the government to subsidize what we believe to be a core value of our lives.

For those not able to afford Catholic tuition, organizations like the remarkable Catholic Educational Foundation in the Archdiocese of Louisville and Community Catholic Center in West Louisville and the Portland neighborhoods work to make tuition affordable for many moderate income and poor families.

However, Catholic schools are not designed to accommodate all children the way public schools must do by law. Children with severe mental, physical and learning challenges or with language differences (children in Jefferson County Public Schools speak 139 languages), those on the margins are shut out of Catholic schools.

My Catholic faith teaches that each one of these children is just as sacred, just as valuable, as any other child. Their unique educational needs must be addressed by specialists in a thriving public education system.

Yet our public school systems, where more than 90% of Kentucky children attend, are under attack in Frankfort. They remain drastically underfunded, with teacher pay far below what it needs to be to attract and retain the brightest and most gifted teachers. Student test scores and dropout rates continue to shame us all. Wrap around services for students with special learning and emotional needs remain inadequate, resulting in thousands entering the work force without basic skills to navigate daily living. In frustration, many turn to violence, drugs, alcohol and criminal behavior in adulthood in desperate attempts to master their demons.

Despite these harsh realities, Frankfort Republican leaders are not just ignoring what is occurring, they promise to compound the problems by pushing Amendment 2, which sets the legal stage to give middle- and upper-class Kentuckians vouchers to finance private schools, including all Catholic schools. If passed, this constitutional amendment will permit the misguided Republican legislators to suck hundreds of millions of dollars from the state¡¯s coffers to subsidize private schools that serve a select group of students.

To compound the problem, Kentucky¡¯s misguided Catholic bishops are promoting Amendment 2 with the fallacious reasoning it will offer ¡°choice¡± to poor children whose parents want to escape a failing public school system and flee to a Catholic school.

The hole left in the state¡¯s budget ¡ª which has been structurally imbalanced for over 20 years ¡ª will drain even more money from critical state programs including public schools; child protective and day-care services;? after-school, health and mental health programs, as well as Youth Services Centers.

As Catholics we are taught every public policy decision must be first filtered through a lens of ¡°How will this affect the poorest among us?¡± The answer for Amendment 2 is: it hurts the poor.

Sometimes Catholics are led by our bishops, sometimes our bishops must be led by the people in the pews. Our bishops, perhaps unaware of the serious fiscal crises facing our public school systems, now need to be instructed.

It is time they promote full state funding for all valuable public services in our poor, undereducated, unhealthy, environmentally threatened commonwealth. It is not the time for them to siphon money from our state treasury to pay for Catholic schools or any private school.

Our Catholic schools can be financed by prosperous Catholics whose lives have been shaped by their faith experiences in Catholic schools. The state should not pay for any school that promotes any religious creed. Period.

It is time for all Catholics to follow our church¡¯s teachings on protecting the poor and promoting the common good.?

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 22, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney will campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday in Ripon, Wisconsin ¡ª the birthplace of the Republican Party.

As Nov. 5 rapidly approaches, the Democratic presidential nominee continues to rack up support from prominent Republicans as she and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, battle it out for the Oval Office in a tight contest.

Thursday¡¯s campaign event also coincides with two dozen Wisconsin Republicans endorsing the veep in an open letter.

¡°We, the undersigned, are Republicans from across Wisconsin who bring the same message: Donald Trump does not align with Wisconsin values,¡± they wrote. The group included a sitting GOP district attorney for the Badger State¡¯s Buffalo County as well as everyday Wisconsinites, former state lawmakers and elected officials.

¡°To ensure our democracy and our economy remain strong for another four years, we must elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House,¡± the letter said, adding that the choice for Republicans in November is ¡°a choice between the Wisconsin values of freedom, democracy, and decency that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz represent, and Donald Trump¡¯s complete lack of character, divisive rhetoric, and extremism.¡±

Wisconsin is a critical swing state that¡¯s flipped between red and blue in recent elections ¡ª with Biden narrowly winning in 2020 after Trump secured a GOP victory in 2016.

Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, endorsed Harris last month, saying: ¡°As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.¡±

Cheney ¡ª a vocal Trump critic? ¡ª served as vice chair of the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She lost her reelection bid for Wyoming¡¯s lone House seat to Harriet Hageman in 2022 during the state¡¯s GOP primary.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of Liz Cheney, also said he would vote for Harris. The prominent GOP figure served as veep during the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2009.

More GOP endorsements

Harris has received endorsements from over 230 Bush-McCain-Romney alums and more than 100 Republican national security officials, per the Harris campaign, a backing they describe as a ¡°historic GOP mobilization for Harris.¡±

Part of the growing group of Republicans backing Harris includes Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump.

During an interview on MSNBC Wednesday night, Hutchinson said she¡¯s ¡°really proud, as a conservative, to have the opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this election.¡±

Hutchinson also disclosed that she¡¯ll be voting for Democrats in the House and Senate, saying she thinks it¡¯s ¡°so important that we get past this period of Donald Trump for America to begin healing.¡±

Trump in Michigan

Meanwhile, Trump is also heavily campaigning in swing states. He was set to hold a Thursday afternoon rally in Saginaw, Michigan.

The Democratic National Committee released multiple billboards in Michigan ahead of his rally, with a focus on Trump and his running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, continuing to deny the 2020 election results.

During Tuesday¡¯s vice presidential debate between Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vance circumvented a question on whether Trump lost the 2020 election, saying he, himself, is ¡°focused on the future.¡±

Walz, who posed the question to Vance, called his response a ¡°damning non-answer.¡±

A version of the DNC billboard is also set to debut in the coming days in Wisconsin and North Carolina to coincide with Trump¡¯s upcoming rallies in those swing states.

Congress is in recess in the leadup to Election Day, but will return afterward for a lame-duck session. Pictured is the U.S. Capitol on March 14, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Members of Congress left Capitol Hill last week to focus their attention on the campaign trail during the six weeks leading up to Election Day, leaving much of their work unfinished.

The Republican House and Democratic Senate are scheduled to remain on recess until Nov. 12, though the urgent needs created in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which are fully funded for the moment, could bring the chambers back into session before then.

When lawmakers do return to Washington, D.C., they¡¯ll need to address the must-pass legislation they¡¯ve left on autopilot instead of negotiating new bipartisan compromises.

So far this year, lawmakers have pushed off reaching brokering agreement on must-pass measures like the farm bill as well as this year¡¯s batch of government funding bills and the annual defense policy legislation.

Kids¡¯ online safety, radiation exposure

There are also a handful of measures that have passed one chamber with broad bipartisan support, but haven¡¯t been taken up on the other side of the Capitol that leadership could decide to move forward during November or December.

For example, an interesting combination of senators, led by Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, are advocating for House Republican leaders to hold votes on a pair of online safety bills designed to better protect children from the darker side of the internet.

The rail safety bill drafted by a bipartisan group of senators from Ohio and Pennsylvania after the train derailment in East Palestine remains unaddressed following more than a year of intransigence.

And legislation to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, which passed the Senate on a broadly bipartisan vote earlier this year, sits on a shelf collecting dust in the House.

Cancer victims, Indigenous communities and many others have pressed House GOP leadership to hold a vote to reauthorize the program after it expired this summer, but they have avoided it due to cost.

Five-week lame duck

Lawmakers interviewed by States Newsroom and congressional leaders all indicated the outcome of the November elections will have significant sway on what Congress approves during the five-week lame-duck session that spans November and December.

All interviews took place before Hurricane Helene made landfall and Israel was directly attacked by Iran, both of which are likely to be at the top of congressional leaders¡¯ to-do lists.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune said it¡¯s ¡°hard to say¡± what, if anything, Congress will approve during the lame-duck session.

¡°I think a lot will be shaped by what happens in November,¡± the South Dakota Republican said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said just a day before Hurricane Helene made landfall that Democrats would advocate for passing natural disaster response funding previously requested by the Biden administration.

¡°Extreme weather events are on the rise and they affect everyone ¡ª in blue states, purple states and red states,¡± Jeffries said. ¡°This is not a partisan issue, it¡¯s an American issue in terms of being there, in times of need for everyday Americans, who have had their lives and livelihood upended.¡±

Other House Democratic priorities during the lame duck include approving the dozen full-year government funding bills that were supposed to be completed before Oct. 1, the defense policy bill that had the same deadline and the farm bill, which is more than a year overdue.

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said he ¡°sure hopes¡± the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act reauthorization bill reaches the president¡¯s desk before the end of the year.

He didn¡¯t rule out lobbying to attach it to a must-pass government funding bill, but said the real hurdle is House GOP leaders.

¡°It doesn¡¯t need help in the Senate. It just needs the House,¡± Hawley said. ¡°I¡¯ve had good, productive conversations with Speaker (Mike) Johnson in the last few weeks, and I appreciate his personal engagement on this, and I hope that that will lead to action.¡±

Haley said the House allowing RECA to expire, preventing people who qualify for the program from receiving benefits, was ¡°outrageous.¡±

Defense priorities, farm bill

Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said staff would work during October to bridge the differences between the two chambers on the annual defense policy bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act.

Those staff-level talks will lay the foundation for Republicans and Democrats to meet once they return to Capitol Hill following the elections.

¡°We have to be ready when we come back to go right to the ¡®Big Four¡¯ meeting,¡± he said, referring to the top leaders in both chambers. ¡°That¡¯s our objective.¡±

Reed said many of the differences between the House and the Senate aren¡¯t typical Defense Department policy issues per se, but are ¡°more political, cultural, social.¡±

Congress may begin to debate additional military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine this year, though said that¡¯s more likely to happen next year, Reed said.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she was making a ¡°big push¡± for the House and Senate to reach agreement on the farm bill in the months ahead, though she cautioned talks don¡¯t actually constitute a conference.

¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it a conference; technically to have a conference, you have to have a bill passed by the House and a bill passed by the Senate, which will not happen,¡± Stabenow said.

¡°But I believe that there is a way,¡± Stabenow added. ¡°I believe there¡¯s a way to get a bipartisan bill.¡±

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the top Republican on the Agriculture panel, said lawmakers didn¡¯t need the election results to ¡°start working through our disagreements¡± on the farm bill, adding there¡¯s some new momentum in talks.

¡°I think what¡¯s changed is that there is a recognition among members, all members, how difficult it is right now as a farmer,¡± Boozman said. ¡°So that¡¯s really what¡¯s changed in the last three or four months. It¡¯s developing a real sense of urgency for these folks.¡±

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said the election outcome could influence what lawmakers choose to accomplish during the lame-duck session.

¡°There¡¯s any number of scenarios, whether it¡¯s NDAA, whether it¡¯s farm bill, whether it¡¯s anything else,¡± she said. ¡°But it comes down to Leader Schumer.¡± New York Democrat Chuck Schumer is the majority leader in the Senate.

Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said he expects Congress will broker some agreement on government funding legislation and the NDAA, but not necessarily anything else.

¡°In an odd way, the better the Dems do on Nov. 5, the more we¡¯ll get done,¡± Kaine said. ¡°Because I think if the House is going to flip back to Dem, I think the Rs will say, ¡®Well, let¡¯s get a whole lot of stuff done before the House goes down.¡¯ So I think the better we do, the more we¡¯ll get done in the lame duck.¡±

Kaine said if Democrats do well in the elections, they might not need to approve additional aid for Ukraine this Congress, since that funding can last into next year.

¡°If we don¡¯t do well in the (elections), we might need to do it in the lame duck,¡± Kaine said. ¡°So that¡¯ll all depend.¡±

Democrat Adam Moore, left, and Republican Thomas Jefferson are running to represent House District 45 in the Kentucky General Assembly.

After his support for LGBTQ+ teens cost Republican Rep. Killian Timoney the primary, voters in his suburban Lexington district will choose between the Republican who defeated him and a Democrat who describes himself as more of a Libertarian.?

The candidates are Democrat Adam Moore, a military veteran and business owner, and Republican Thomas Jefferson, who has retired from finance and car sales. The election is a test of how culture war issues will play in the district.?

Moore and Jefferson are vying for a seat in the General Assembly in a district that encompasses southwestern areas of Fayette County and part of Jessamine County. They recently spoke to the Kentucky Lantern in separate interviews.?

House District 45 candidates

Thomas Jefferson

Party: Republican

City: Lexington

Raised for general election: $23,664.83

Website: www.tjforky.com

Adam Moore

Party: Democratic

City: Lexington

Raised for general election: $46,685.59

Website: www.kydeservesmoore.com

In the primary, the Jessamine County Republican Party endorsed Jefferson over Timoney, citing the incumbent¡¯s votes against two GOP anti-transgender bills, 2023¡¯s Senate Bill 150, which among other things banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors, and 2022¡¯s Senate Bill 83, which prevents trans women and girls from competing on their schools¡¯ female sports teams.?

Jefferson said that Timoney is a ¡°very nice gentleman¡± and a good family man, but he disagreed with his voting record, particularly on those measures.

¡°I would never ever think of running against a fellow Republican unless I felt like they weren’t doing the job that I expected,¡± Jefferson said. ¡°And unfortunately, Killian voted way differently than I would, and I believe differently than most of the 45th District would vote as well.¡±?

Moore, the Democrat, said Timoney was targeted by ¡°a negative smear campaign¡± and said he expects to be likewise targeted heading into the general election. Mailers to primary voters from outside groups referred to Timoney as a ¡°groomer¡± for voting against the anti-transgender bills.?

Moore too praised Timoney¡¯s character, adding that while they may disagree on policies, at the end of the day Moore knew that Timoney cared about people.?

¡°I think the Thomas Jefferson defeat of Killian Timoney in the primary signals a shift in the Republican Party,¡± Moore said.?

The two legislative candidates have gone back and forth on participating in a debate or forum. Last week, Moore issued an invitation on social media to Jefferson for a public forum. Jefferson told the Lantern he would have to know more about the proposal before accepting it.?

¡°I’d be more than glad to debate anybody,¡± Jefferson said. ¡°It doesn’t matter who it is, but it all depends on who is hosting the debate, who the moderators are,¡± Jefferson said. He then pointed to GOP criticism of the ABC presidential debate for the moderators¡¯ live fact-checking of Republican former President Donald Trump.

Moore said in response that he¡¯s open to having any ¡°credible local journalist¡± moderate. He added that he believes it¡¯s fair to fact check someone in a debate when something false is said.?

Adam Moore

Moore, a former Republican who interned for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, said that service has always been important to him. As an intern, he got experience responding to constituents¡¯ concerns and in the Army, he learned lessons completing missions while facing hard days. Both experiences have prepared him for representing the 45th House District, he said.?

¡°Service has always been important to me,¡± Moore said. ¡°It¡¯s why I joined the Army, why I¡¯m involved with local civic organizations, and the road that I¡¯ve kind of traveled on, this is just the next logical step as well, being able to continue serving and to serve in a different way and serve in a way that I think I can really succeed at and do a good job at.¡±

Moore said he has never fit the model of stereotypical Republicans or Democrats. He added that he¡¯s ¡°always been more of a Libertarian,¡± in that he believes in avoiding excessive government spending while letting people live their lives as they wish socially.?

¡°As far as being a Democrat now, I¡¯ve already said I¡¯ve been pretty Libertarian in my leanings as far as the government should basically stay out of people¡¯s lane if they can,¡± Moore said. ¡°And what we see now is the Republican Party has been molded in this image of Donald Trump, which is not policies. It¡¯s become more of a cult of personality.¡±?

If elected, Moore has some policies in mind that he would like to support, such as eliminating sales taxes on services and expanding on Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s executive order that restored the right to vote to nonviolent felons. Moore said the order did not cover felons convicted in other states or charged with federal crimes.?

¡°I would like to extend that same thing and put that in law to anyone in Kentucky who is now a lawful citizen who has served their time,¡± Moore said. ¡°We’ve all made mistakes, and of course, not all mistakes are the same, but once you’ve served your time, the bare minimum to be a part of our democracy is having your right to vote.¡±?

Additionally, Moore would? like to establish a veterans¡¯ caucus. As for a couple recent policies passed by the Republican-controlled legislature, Moore said he is against a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools, Amendment 2, and an omnibus crime bill, House Bill 5. Both passed earlier this year.?

Moore took issue with a controversial part of the crime bill that created illegal street camping.?

¡°What you do is you, you identify the causes of homelessness, and all the causes of homelessness are also the causes of other crime that that bill is seeking to address, and homelessness is a part of that but that might also be battling with addiction, that might be systemic poverty. There are things to address that are not Band-Aid solutions, that is adding to our already overcrowded prison system.¡±?

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson worked in the car business for nearly four decades and retired three and a half years ago. While he¡¯s ¡°brand new to politics,¡± he¡¯s finding that resonates with voters he meets. Jefferson said he decided to run for office after getting ¡°tired of throwing rolled up socks at the TV.¡±

Jefferson said he believes his career experience will translate to working with others in the General Assembly.?

¡°One thing you find out in sales is you have to compromise and you have to negotiate. Politics is the same way,¡± Jefferson said. ¡°To accomplish anything, you’re going to have to understand what the other people want to try to accomplish, put forth what you want to try to accomplish and come up with a compromise that everybody gets some of what they want.¡±?

Among lawmakers, Jefferson said he would be most aligned with Liberty Caucus members including Reps. Savannah Maddox, Candy Massaroni and Matt Lockett. The Kentucky Liberty Caucus¡¯ website defines Liberty politicians as ones who are ¡°more critical of government debt spending, corporate handouts, the influence of money and lobbyists in politics, and intrusion upon the rights of individuals than the establishment.¡±

Jefferson has also signed a term limit commitment. The commitment did not specify how many terms he would seek, Jefferson said, but added he would be open to three terms, or six years.??

¡°I want to serve for a few terms and do what I can to help our Commonwealth, and then pass the baton on to somebody else that can go ahead and have some fresh ideas. Besides that, I think that’s what our founding fathers really expected. It was supposed to be an honor to serve, but also a burden at the same time, and so they never expected to have career politicians out there.¡±?

Jefferson said he supports Amendment 2 and would ¡°forward the opportunity for school choice¡± if elected this November. However, he added that he, his wife and daughters attended public schools.?

¡°We appreciate the jobs that they (public school teachers) do, and they’re unsung heroes in a lot of ways, but the public school system is not always a good fit for every child, and I would love to to empower average middle-class citizens like myself that don’t have the opportunity because of finances, to give their child a different avenue towards learning and help them succeed in life,¡± Jefferson said.??

Additionally, Jefferson said he supports greater transparency in government and schools. He would like to publish synopses of bills online and get input from constituents on legislation. He also supports parents having greater access to know what curriculum and books are taught in schools.?

Jefferson is a co-lead usher of Southland Christian Church and regularly volunteers with a mentor program through the church for elementary school kids.?

Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Justice Department on Aug. 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed a lengthy and partly redacted motion Wednesday that charts special counsel Jack Smith¡¯s final argument before November that former President Donald Trump acted in a private capacity when he co-conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

Much of the motion concerns Trump¡¯s interactions with individuals in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as he sought to disrupt election results, Smith alleged.

The document, due on Chutkan¡¯s desk late last month, is central to reanimating the case after months of delay as Trump argued for complete criminal immunity from the government¡¯s fraud and obstruction charges related to his actions after the 2020 presidential contest, which Joe Biden won.

The U.S. Supreme Court returned Trump¡¯s case to Chutkan after ruling that former presidents enjoy criminal immunity for core constitutional acts, presumed immunity for acts on the perimeter of official duties, and no immunity for personal ones. At that point it became clear that the case against the Republican presidential nominee would not be tried prior to Election Day.

Smith¡¯s superseding indictment shortly thereafter retained all four felony counts against Trump, and Chutkan is tasked with parsing which allegations can stand in light of the Supreme Court decision.

In his unsealed 165-page motion, Smith outlines Trump¡¯s alleged plots with private lawyers and political allies ¡ª names redacted ¡ª to ultimately deliver false slates of electors to Congress so that he appeared the winner over Biden in the seven states.

¡°Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted ¡ª a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role,¡± Smith wrote.

Trump slammed the court filing on social media in numerous posts, writing in a mix of upper and lowercase letters that ¡°Democrats are Weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am WINNING, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris.¡±

¡°The DOJ pushed out this latest ¡®hit job¡¯ today because JD Vance humiliated Tim Walz last night in the Debate. The DOJ has become nothing more than an extension of Joe¡¯s, and now Kamala¡¯s, Campaign. This is egregious PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, and should not have been released right before the Election,¡± he continued in just one of his many reactions on his platform, Truth Social.

Trump¡¯s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, faced Harris¡¯ running mate, Tim Walz, in a vice presidential debate on Tuesday night.

Here are key arguments from Smith¡¯s filing, which alleges efforts by Trump and allies to subvert voters¡¯ will during the last presidential election:

Arizona

Smith detailed calls to and communications with various Arizona officials, including the governor and speaker of the Arizona state House, arguing the interactions were made in Trump¡¯s ¡°capacity as a candidate.¡±

• ¡°The defendant and his co-conspirators also demonstrated their deliberate disregard for the truth ¡ª and thus their knowledge of falsity ¡ª when they repeatedly changed the numbers in their baseless fraud allegations from day to day. At trial, the Government will introduce several instances of this pattern, in which the defendant and conspirators¡¯ lies were proved by the fact that they made up figures from whole cloth. One example concerns the defendant and conspirators¡¯ claims about non-citizen voters in Arizona. The conspirators started with the allegation that 36,000 non-citizens voted in Arizona; five days later, it was ¡®beyond credulity that a few hundred thousand didn¡¯t vote¡¯: three weeks later, ¡®the bare minimum [was] 40 or 50,000. The reality is about 250,000¡¯; days after that, the assertion was 32,000; and ultimately the conspirators landed back where they started at 36,000 ¡ª a false figure that they never verified or corroborated.¡±

Georgia

Smith plans to introduce into evidence Trump¡¯s communications, in his personal capacity, with Georgia¡¯s attorney general, including a call on Dec. 8, 2020, and to the secretary of state.

• Trump ¡°had early notice that his claims of election fraud in Georgia were false. Around mid-November, Campaign advisor [redacted] told the defendant that his claim that a large number of dead people had voted in Georgia was false. The defendant continued to press the claim anyway, including in a press appearance on November 29, when he suggested that a large enough number of dead voters had cast ballots to change the outcome of the election in Georgia.¡±

• ¡°In the post-election period, [redacted] also took on the role of updating the defendant on a near-daily basis on the Campaign¡¯s unsuccessful efforts to support any fraud claims¡­. He told the defendant that if the Campaign took these claims to court, they would get slaughtered, because the claims are all ¡®bullshit.¡¯ [Redacted] was privy in real time to the findings of the two expert consulting firms the Campaign retained to investigate fraud claims ¡ª [redacted] and [redacted] ¡ª and discussed with the defendant their debunkings on all major claims. For example, [redacted] told the defendant that Georgia¡¯s audit disproved claims that [redacted] had altered votes.¡±

Michigan

The document details an Oval Office meeting Trump held with Michigan¡¯s Senate majority leader and speaker of the House on Nov. 20, 2020, during which Trump tried to acquire evidence of voter fraud in Detroit.

• ¡°Despite failing to establish any valid fraud claims, [redacted] followed up with [redacted] and [redacted] and attempted to pressure them to use the Michigan legislature to overturn the valid election result.¡±

Michigan and Pennsylvania

The filing said that directly following the 2020 election, Trump and his ¡°private operatives sought to create chaos, rather than seek clarity, at polling places where states were continuing to tabulate votes.¡±

• ¡°For example, on November 4, [redacted]¡ªa Campaign employee, agent, and co-conspirator of the defendant¡ªtried to sow confusion when the ongoing vote count at the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, looked unfavorable for the defendant.¡±

• ¡°When a colleague suggested that there was about to be unrest reminiscent of the Brooks Brothers Riot, a violent effort to stop the vote count in Florida after the 2000 presidential election, [redacted] responded ¡®Make them riot¡¯ and ¡®Do it!!!¡¯ The defendant¡¯s Campaign operatives and supporters used similar tactics at other tabulation centers, including in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the defendant sometimes used the resulting confrontations to falsely claim that his election observers were being denied proper access, thus serving as a predicate to the defendant¡¯s claim that fraud must have occurred in the observers¡¯ absence.¡±

Michigan voting machines

Smith will argue that Trump, outside his official presidential duties, tried to persuade political allies in Michigan to sway the election in his favor.

• Among the evidence he will introduce: The former president held a meeting, ¡°private in nature,¡± with Michigan legislators at the White House.

• Smith also wrote that ¡°In mid-December, the defendant spoke with RNC Chairwoman [redacted] and asked her to publicize and promote a private report that had been related on December 13 that purported to identify flaws in the use of [redacted] machines in Antrim County, Michigan. [Redacted] refused, telling the defendant that she already had discussed this report with [redacted] Michigan¡¯s Speaker of the House, who had told her that the report was inaccurate. [Redacted] conveyed to the defendant [redacted] exact assessment: the report was ¡®f¡ª¡ª nuts.¡¯¡±

Nevada

In Nevada, Trump allegedly ignored warnings about spreading lies about the state¡¯s election results. Smith wrote: ¡°Notwithstanding the RNC Chief Counsel¡¯s warning, the defendant re-tweeted and amplified news of the lawsuit on November 24, calling it ¡®Big News!¡¯ that a Nevada Court had agreed to hear it. But the defendant did not similarly promote the fact that within two weeks, on December 4, the Nevada District Court dismissed Law v. Whitmer, finding in a detailed opinion that ¡®there is no credible or reliable evidence that the 2020 General Election in Nevada was affected by fraud,¡¯ including through the signature-match machines, and that Biden won the election in the state.¡±

• Trump continued to repeat false claims in tweets and speeches ¡°as a candidate, not as an office holder,¡± Smith wrote.

Pennsylvania?

In the Keystone State, officials warned Trump there was no smoke and no fire related to election fraud in the commonwealth, Smith wrote.

• ¡°Two days after the election, on November 6, the defendant called [redacted], the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party¡ªthe entity responsible for supporting Republican candidates in the commonwealth at the federal, state and local level. [Redacted] had a prior relationship with the defendant, including having represented him in litigation in Pennsylvania after the 2016 presidential election. The defendant asked [redacted] how, without fraud, he had gone from winning Pennsylvania on election day to trailing in the day afterward. Consistent with what Campaign staff already had told the defendant, [redacted] confirmed that it was not fraud; it was that there were roughly 1,750,000 mail-in ballots still being counted in Pennsylvania, which were expected to be eighty percent for Biden. Over the following two months, the defendant spread false claims of fraud in Pennsylvania anyway.¡±

• ¡°In early November, in a Campaign meeting, when the defendant suggested that more people in Pennsylvania voted than had checked in to vote, Deputy Campaign Manager [redacted] corrected him.¡±

Wisconsin

Smith wrote Trump ignored reality in Wisconsin as well.

• ¡°On November 29, a recount that the defendant¡¯s campaign had petitioned and paid for confirmed that Biden had won in Wisconsin ¡ª and increased the defendant¡¯s margin of defeat. On December 14, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the Campaign¡¯s election lawsuit there. As a result, on December 21, Wisconsin¡¯s Governor signed a certificate of final determination confirming the prior certificate of ascertainment that established Biden¡¯s electors as the valid electors for the state.¡±

Trump responded by rebuking the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge who had signed the majority opinion that rejected the lawsuit, forcing the state marshals responsible for the judge¡¯s security to enhance protection due to a rise in ¡°threatening communications.¡±

Fake electors?

Smith alleged that as Trump and co-conspirators faltered at overturning states¡¯ official election results, they turned their attention to fake slates of electors.

As early as December 2020, Trump and his allies ¡°developed a new plan regarding targeted states that the defendant had lost (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin): to organize the people who would have served as the defendant¡¯s electors had he won the popular vote, and cause them to sign and send to Pence, as President of the Senate, certificates in which they falsely represent themselves as legitimate electors who had cast electoral votes for the defendant,¡± Smith wrote.

Trump and his allies lied to Vice President Mike Pence heading toward Jan. 6, ¡°telling him that there was substantial election fraud and concealing their orchestration of the plan to manufacture fraudulent elector slates, as well as their intention to use the fake slates to attempt to obstruct the congressional certification.¡±

Trump¡¯s alleged lies to Pence and the public ¡°created a tinderbox that he purposely ignited on January 6.¡±

The filing details numerous people, including Trump, pressuring Pence for weeks to use his role overseeing Congress¡¯ certification of the Electoral College vote to overturn the election results.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Pence, once again, told Trump he would not go along with the plan.

¡°So on January 6, the defendant sent to the Capitol a crowd of angry supporters, whom the defendant had called to the city and inundated with false claims of outcome-determinative election fraud, to induce Pence not to certify the legitimate electoral vote and to obstruct the certification.¡±

¡°Although the attack on the Capitol successfully delayed the certification for approximately six hours, the House and Senate resumed the Joint Session at 11:35 p.m. But the conspirators were not done.¡±

The filing alleges a co-conspirator once again urged Pence to ¡°violate the law¡± by delaying the certification for 10 days. He refused.

Pressure on Pence

Smith must prove that Trump¡¯s pressure on Pence was outside of their official duties together, and therefore can not be considered immune from prosecution.

Smith plans to introduce evidence of private phone calls and conversations between Trump and his VP, including some with campaign staff, essentially tying their interactions to their interests as those seeking office again, ¡°as running mates in the post-election period.¡± Smith also plans to highlight that Pence¡¯s role in certifying the election was largely ceremonial and within the realm of the Senate, and strictly outside the bounds of the Oval Office.? Among Smith¡¯s points made in his motion:

• ¡°Because the Vice President¡¯s role is and has always been ministerial, rather than substantive or discretionary, it is difficult to imagine an occasion in which a President would have any valid reason to try to influence it. As such, criminalizing a President¡¯s efforts to affect the Vice President¡¯s role as the President of the Senate overseeing the certification of Electoral College results would not jeopardize an Executive Branch function or authority.¡±

Vice President Kamala Harris headed to Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024 to view the damage from Hurricane Helene. In this photo, the streets are flooded near Peachtree Creek after the storm brought in heavy rains overnight on Sept. 27, 2024 in Atlanta. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª After the vice presidential debate, voters in one flash poll published Wednesday declared a draw in the meeting between Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance.

Tuesday¡¯s debate is the last scheduled in-person meeting between the presidential campaigns. Both Midwestern candidates were cordial and the debate was devoid of any major clashes. The two men even came to a general agreement on some policy issues, like providing families with support for child care and curbing the threat of gun violence.

Voters were split 50-50 on which candidate performed better, according to a flash poll by POLITICO/Focaldata of likely voters that was conducted after the CBS-sponsored event in New York City.

The mostly friendly exchange had some breakout moments, such as Walz pressing Vance on whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, which Vance didn¡¯t answer.

¡°I¡¯m pretty shocked by this,¡± Walz said during the debate. ¡°He lost the election. This is not a debate.¡±

The next major televised interview with a presidential candidate will be Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on the CBS news program ¡°60 Minutes.¡±

¡°For over half a century, 60 Minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the polls,¡± the show posted on social media. ¡°This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes.¡±

However, after initially accepting, Trump ¡°has decided not to participate,¡± the post continued.

The interview will air Monday night at 8 Eastern, but only with Harris.

¡°Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands,¡± according to the post.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on social media that while there were initial discussions for an interview, ¡°nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.¡±

He also took issue with live fact-checking.

Harris travels to Georgia

Harris on Wednesday headed to Augusta, Georgia, alongside Sen. Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that hit Southeastern states ¡ª Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. At least 600 people are unaccounted for.

Harris gave an update late Wednesday about ongoing federal efforts in the recovery.

¡°I¡¯ve been reading and hearing about the work you¡¯ve been doing over the last few days, and I think it really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done, especially when we coordinate around local, state, federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, who must be heard,¡± she said during her visit to the Augusta Emergency Operations Center, according to White House pool reports.

Harris is also planning to make a trip to North Carolina in the coming days. The hurricane severely hit western North Carolina.

President Joe Biden was scheduled to visit North Carolina Wednesday and survey the damage in Asheville via a helicopter to avoid disturbing recovery efforts on the ground.

Trump on Monday visited a damaged furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, where he delivered remarks.

¡°We¡¯re here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia, with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene,¡± Trump said.

Longshoremen¡¯s strike

Harris issued a statement Wednesday in support of a strike of unionized dockworkers, part of the International Longshoremen¡¯s Association, which has 85,000 members.

¡°This strike is about fairness,¡± she said. ¡°Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.¡±

They are striking for higher wages, more health care benefits and a ban on automation of port operations.

The Trump campaign also issued a statement, and said if Trump were president, the strike would have never happened.

¡°This is only happening because of the inflation brought on by Kamala Harris¡¯ two votes for massive, out-of-control spending, and her decision to cut off energy exploration,¡± he said. ¡°Americans who thrived under President Trump can¡¯t even get by because of Kamala Harris ¨C this strike is a direct result of her actions.¡±

Back to the battlegrounds

With less than five weeks to Nov. 5, new polling by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter Swing State Project Survey shows that Harris is either narrowly leading or tied with Trump in nearly all seven battleground states, except for Georgia.

Harris has a lead within the margin of error in Arizona and Wisconsin, by 2 points; Michigan by 3 points; and in Nevada and Pennsylvania by 1 point. Trump is ahead in Georgia 49% to 47% and the candidates are tied at 49% in North Carolina.

Trump will deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday afternoon.

Harris on Thursday will travel to Wisconsin for a campaign event in Fox Valley before heading to Detroit, Michigan.

On Friday, Vance will head to Lindale, Georgia, to give a speech and Trump will travel to Fayetteville, North Carolina, for a town hall.

Harris will be in Detroit for various campaign events Friday before returning to Washington, D.C.

Douglas Brinkley

Author and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley will talk about the 2024 election at the University of Kentucky in Lexington on Oct. 8.

The lecture, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Singletary Center for the Arts, is free to the public.

After his presentation Brinkley will participate in a panel discussion led by Kentucky journalist Al Cross and including UK political science professor Stephen Voss and associate public policy professor Annelise Russell.

The event marks the 10th anniversary of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Lecture held in honor of the late Kentucky governor and U.S. senator from Owensboro. Ford lectured at UK¡¯s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration after retiring from the Senate in 1999.

The Martin School hosts the lecture, which is co-sponsored by UK Libraries and the College of Communication and Information.

Brinkley, an expert on U.S. presidents and American history, is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and professor of history at Rice University. His appearance at UK will come exactly four weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

¡°Douglas Brinkley is one of the foremost historians and political observers of our time,¡± said Ron Zimmer, director of UK¡¯s Martin School. ¡°We are looking forward with great anticipation to hearing his perspective on the upcoming presidential election.¡±

Members of the U.S. military and international media survey the damage of Iranian missile attacks at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on Jan. 13, 2020. Alaska Air National Guardsmen of the 211th Rescue Squadron evacuated many squadron members during the Jan. 7 and 8 attack. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Defense)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iranian rocket fire in Iraq in 2020 only experienced a ¡°headache,¡± dismissing the experiences of dozens of American soldiers who were later awarded the Purple Heart.

Trump¡¯s comments came after a reporter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, asked whether he should ¡°have been tougher on Iran¡± after that nation launched ballistic missiles on Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq in January 2020, during Trump¡¯s presidency. A couple thousand U.S. troops remain on an anti-ISIS mission at the Iraqi air base, one of the largest during the U.S. invasion.

¡°First of all, injured, what does injured mean? Injured means, you mean, because they had a headache because the bombs never hit the fort?¡± Trump responded.

¡°If you were a truthful reporter, which you¡¯re not, you would tell the following: None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort. They all hit outside, and there was nobody hurt, other than the sound was loud, and some people said that hurt, and I accept that,¡± Trump continued.

Trump added that Iran did ¡°a very nice thing¡± by missing the military base. Photographs taken after the attack show extensive damage on the base.

U.S. troops at the base, that housed roughly 2,000 soldiers at the time, were given notice to shelter in bunkers. The missiles carried warheads weighing well over 1,000 pounds, leaving impact craters that spanned several feet wide, according to CBS News¡¯ ¡°60 Minutes¡± and The Washington Post.

While no troops were killed in the attack, hundreds were exposed to blast waves, and many were evacuated to Germany for medical care. Weeks later, more than 100 troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. Dozens were eventually awarded the Purple Heart, including one retired major interviewed by States Newsroom in May.

Soldiers described lasting effects from those injuries as including chronic migraines, vertigo, short-term memory issues and vision impairment.

Trump¡¯s comments Tuesday came as he took questions from the press after delivering wide-ranging remarks at a campaign event at the Discovery World Science Museum on the city¡¯s lakefront.

The reporter did not identify herself before asking her question. Trump¡¯s remarks were recorded in full by the local Fox affiliate and live streamed by the Trump-focused YouTube channel ¡°Right Side Broadcasting Network.¡±

Details of attack

This is not the first time Trump has downplayed the soldiers¡¯ experiences and injuries stemming from that specific attack.

Iran fired 16 ballistic missiles at the air base and another Iraqi military site between Jan. 7 and 8, 2020. Roughly a dozen landed, according to reports. The attack was in retaliation for a U.S. strike days earlier in Baghdad that killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

The 2020 attack on the base has been well documented. Images taken by photographers with National Public Radio and The Washington Post showed damaged buildings on the base. The New York Times and The Associated Press compiled video footage and compared satellite images before and after the attack.

CBS News¡¯ ¡°60 Minutes¡± aired drone footage of the attack and first-hand accounts from troops who described the experience in a nearly 14-minute news package for the television magazine program.

The National Institutes of Health collected medical data from nearly 40 soldiers for months after the attack and found persistent symptoms following concussions.

Military installations that still house U.S. troops in Iraq have been the target of Iranian attacks following the outbreak of violence on Oct. 7 when the Hamas militant group, one of Iran¡¯s allies, launched a deadly surprise incursion into southern Israel, sparking a year-long war that has also drawn in Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, according to the Pentagon.

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, left, and House Speaker David Osborne conferred during the State of the Commonwealth address in the House chambers on Jan. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT ¡ª The top two Republicans in the Kentucky General Assembly laid out the process to remove a lawmaker in response to questions about allegations of inappropriate behavior against Louisville Democratic Rep. Daniel Grossberg.?

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol Annex Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker David Osborne said indications of impropriety within the chamber are taken seriously. Meanwhile, Senate President Robert Stivers said he sees a bipartisan appetite to review the matter.?

In the months following this year¡¯s legislative session, the Lexington Herald-Leader revealed allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women by the freshman lawmaker, including text messages. The newspaper recently reported Grossberg received a lifetime ban from a Louisville strip club after inappropriately touching a dancer and that he offered another dancer $5,000 to have sex with him.?

Grossberg has repeatedly denied the allegations and has said he plans to seek treatment ¡°to reduce my impulsive behavior.¡±?

Osborne said that while an ethics investigation is ongoing, ¡°we have taken steps to, at the request of the minority (caucus) and their leadership, to make some changes.¡± The Herald-Leader has previously reported Grossberg is the subject of two investigations by the Legislative Research Commission and the Legislative Ethics Commission.

¡°Certainly, we take any indication of impropriety or inappropriate behavior very, very seriously in this workplace, and will continue to do so,¡± the speaker said. ¡°There is a process for removing a member from the body and expelling the member from the body. So that certainly will be, I’m sure, a possibility. To my knowledge, those conversations are not ongoing at this point.¡±?

Kentucky legislators are not subject to the typical impeachment process, but rather can be removed by a two-thirds vote of their chamber, under the state Constitution.?

Democrats have largely unified in shunning Grossberg following the reports. Leading Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, have called on Grossberg to resign. House Democrats voted to expel Grossberg from their caucus. He¡¯s been booted from his interim committee assignments.?

However, Grossberg appears to have little resistance in getting another term. He faces no opponent in the November general election for the 30th House District after narrowly winning his primary election by 50 votes.?

Stivers said that he had previously told Osborne he sees ¡°a bipartisan request to look into this.¡±?

¡°It appears to be that there is a bipartisan sentiment to do something if it is proven,¡± Stivers said. ¡°And if that happens in that way, the Senate will support their decision, even though we will not be able to impact that decision.¡±?

The Senate Democratic Caucus leadership has also joined Democrats in calling on Grossberg to resign.

When asked if a special session of the legislature to remove Grossberg was a possibility, Osborne said he anticipated the matter would wait until lawmakers convene for the regular session in January.?

In Kentucky, the governor must call the legislature into a special session. The General Assembly sought an amendment to give it that power in 2022. Beshear opposed it. Stivers said that perhaps if the governor had supported the amendment, ¡°we could have already dealt with it.¡±?

Grossberg¡¯s attorney, Anna Whites, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.?

Signs hoisted by the audience for an Amendment 2 debate at the Fancy Farm Picnic express conflicting views on the school funding amendment that Kentucky voters will decide in November, Aug. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman¡¯s office sent a cease and desist notice to a public school district that took an online stance against a constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools.?

Augusta Independent Schools became the second public school district in the state to openly oppose Amendment 2 via Tuesday night posts on X and Facebook. The amendment has drawn ire from public school officials and Democrats who warn it would reduce dollars now allocated to public education.

The Ohio River school district said in its Facebook post that the amendment would ¡°take public taxpayer dollars and give them to private schools, leaving our public schools with fewer resources.¡± Tuesday¡¯s post was the first of the district¡¯s “Be Informed Series,¡± which it said would continue twice a week until Election Day next month.?

¡°If you believe in strong, well-funded public schools for all students, vote NO on Amendment 2 this November 5th,¡± the post said. ¡°Protect Kentucky¡¯s Public Schools!¡±?

Christopher Thacker, general counsel for Coleman, wrote the Wednesday letter to Lisa McCane, the school district¡¯s superintendent calling the anti-amendment posts ¡°partisan political messages¡± and asked that they be removed.

¡°We certainly understand that individuals on both sides of the debate over Amendment 2 feel strongly about the issue,¡± Thacker wrote. ¡°The Office of Attorney General also fully supports the First Amendment rights of all Kentuckians ¡ª including school officials ¡ª to express their views on this important ballot question. However, public officials may not commandeer public resources to promote their own partisan positions.

¡°Quite simply, messages that are appropriate for an individual social media account may not be permissible when posted on an official platform that purports to speak for the school district itself, rather than for any single individual or group of individuals.¡±?

McCane, the Augusta superintendent, was not immediately available for an interview Wednesday. The school district removed the posts Wednesday night and released a new statement online. The district said it intended to inform voters about how the amendment would affect public education and the amendment “would negatively impact the education and services we provide to our students in the Augusta Independent School District.”

Last month, Pulaski County Schools made similar posts on its social media accounts and websites but later removed them after backlash from Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie.?

At the time, Coleman issued an advisory ¡°to remind those entrusted with the administration of tax dollars appropriated for public education that those resources must not be used to advocate for or against¡± proposed Constitutional Amendment 2. Thacker cited that advisory and the school district¡¯s policy on political activities in his letter to the Augusta superintendent.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is also a former attorney general, questioned the original advisory and asked if it would have been issued in response to lawmakers using their official letterhead or social media accounts to campaign against the amendment.?

¡°If we are going to put out opinions like this, it has to be content neutral, and it has to apply to more than just a school district fighting for its funding,¡± the governor said.?

Speaking with reporters Wednesday at the Capitol Annex in Frankfort, Republican House Speaker David Osborne said Coleman has ¡°been pretty clear that we don’t need to clarify¡± the law around schools issuing political messages.?

Republican Senate President Robert Stivers added that the law also applies to lawmakers. He said they have taken care to not use state resources to advocate for or against the amendment, but have said what the amendment¡¯s language is.?

¡°That’s it. Not advocating for or against it using state dollars because state dollars shouldn’t be used for political advocacy,¡± Stivers said.?

At first, comments had been turned off on Augusta Independent¡¯s posts, but were later turned on Wednesday afternoon.?

Augusta Independent had 294 students enrolled last school year, according to Kentucky Department of Education data. Located in Bracken County, the town is in Northern Kentucky.

This story was updated Thursday morning.?

Cease and desist letter to Augusta schools superintendent

A farmer stores grain near Eldridge, Iowa, on Sept. 28, 2024. (Photo by Kathie Obradovich/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Sweeping legislation that would set food and farm policy for the next five years is in limbo, waiting for lawmakers to decide its fate after the election.

The latest deadline for the farm bill passed unceremoniously at midnight on Sept. 30, without a push from lawmakers to pass a new farm bill or an extension.

Congress will have to scramble in the lame-duck session set to begin Nov. 12 to come up with some agreement on the farm bill before benefits run out at the end of the year ¡ª which if allowed to happen eventually would have major consequences.

The law began 90 years ago with various payments to support farmers but now has an impact far beyond the farm, with programs to create wildlife habitat, address climate change and provide the nation¡¯s largest federal nutrition program.

Ag coalition in disarray

The omnibus farm bill is more than a year behind schedule, as the bipartisan congressional coalition that has advanced farm bills for the last half century has been teetering on the edge of collapse.

Congress must approve a new federal farm bill every five years. The previous farm bill from 2018 expired a year ago. With no agreement in sight at the time, lawmakers extended the law to Sept. 30, 2024.

The delay creates further uncertainty for farmers, who are facing declining prices for many crops and rising costs for fertilizer and other inputs.

Lawmakers have some buffer before Americans feel the consequences of the expiration.

Most of the key programs have funding through the end of the calendar year, but once a new crop year comes into place in January, they would revert to ¡°permanent law,¡± sending crop supports back to policy from the 1938 and 1949 farm bills.

Those policies are inconsistent with modern farming practices and international trade agreements and could cost the federal government billions, according to a recent analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.

¡®Groundhog Day¡¯ cited by Vilsack

The stalemate between Democrats and Republicans over the farm bill has centered on how to pay for it and whether to place limits on nutrition and climate programs.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters in a press call on Saturday that the process ¡°feels like Groundhog Day¡± ¡ª because he keeps having the same conversations about it. Vilsack said Republicans ¡°just don¡¯t have the votes¡± on the floor for legislation passed in the House Agriculture Committee, which is why it has sat dormant in the House for four months.

¡°If they want to pass the farm bill they¡¯ve got to get practical, and they either have to lower their expectations or raise resources. And if they¡¯re going to raise resources, they have to do it in a way where they don¡¯t lose votes, where they actually gain votes,¡± Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, said.

The Republican-led committee approved its farm bill proposal largely on party lines at the end of May, amidst complaints from Democrats that the process had not been as bipartisan as in years past.

Partisan division is not uncommon in today¡¯s Congress but is notable on the farm bill, which historically brought together lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Bipartisan support can be necessary for final passage because the size of the $1.5 trillion farm bill means it inevitably loses some votes from fiscal conservatives and others.

Shutdown threat??

Lawmakers are on borrowed time with both the farm bill and the appropriations bills that fund the federal government.

The House and Senate both approved stopgap spending bills at the end of September to avoid a partial government shutdown. The short-term funding bill, sometimes referred to as a continuing resolution, or CR, will keep the federal government running through Dec. 20.

Some agriculture leaders had asked for the continuing resolution to not extend the farm bill, to help push the deadline for them to work on it when they return.

The day after they approved the CR and left the Capitol, 140 Republican House members sent a letter to congressional leadership asking to make the farm bill a priority in the waning weeks of 2024.

¡°Farmers and ranchers do not have the luxury of waiting until next Congress for the enactment of an effective farm bill,¡± the letter states, noting rising production costs and falling commodity prices that have put farmers in a tight spot.

House Democrats also say they want to pass a new farm bill this year.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, listed the farm bill as one of his top three priorities for the lame duck. Also on his list were appropriations and the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy for the Pentagon.

¡°It will be important to see if we can find a path forward and reauthorize the farm bill in order to make sure that we can meet the needs of farmers, meet the needs from a nutritional standpoint of everyday Americans and also continue the progress we have been able to make in terms of combating climate crisis,¡± Jeffries said in remarks to reporters Sept. 25.

Nearly 300 members of the National Farmers Union visited lawmakers in September to ask for passage of a new five-year farm bill before the end of 2024.

¡°Family farmers and ranchers can¡¯t wait ¨C they need the certainty of a new farm bill this year,¡± National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said in a statement after the meetings. ¡°With net farm income projected at historic lows, growing concentration in the agriculture sector, high input costs and interest rates, and more frequent and devastating natural disasters, Congress can¡¯t miss this opportunity to pass a five-year farm bill.¡±

Disagreements over SNAP formula

The key dispute for Democrats this year is a funding calculation that would place limits on the ¡°Thrifty Food Plan¡± formula that calculates benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP.

It would keep SNAP payments at current levels but place a permanent freeze on the ability of future presidents to raise levels of food support. Democrats have characterized it as a sneaky cut to vital support for hungry Americans that makes the bill dead on arrival.

Republicans are using the limits as part of a funding calculation to offset other spending in the bill. The bill would raise price supports for some crops like cotton, peanuts and rice.

¡°They have to do one of two things,¡± Vilsack said of lawmakers. ¡°They either have to recognize that they can¡¯t afford all the things that they would like to be able to afford, if they want to stay within the resources that are in fact available ¡­ Or another alternative would be to find more money.¡±

Vilsack recommended finding other sources of funding outside the farm bill, like changes to the tax code.

¡°You close a loophole here or there in terms of the taxes or whatever, and you generate more revenue, and you have that revenue directly offset the increase in the farm bill. ¡­ That¡¯s the correct way to do it. And that¡¯s, frankly, the way Senator Stabenow is approaching the farm bill,¡± Vilsack said, referring to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

The Senate Agriculture Committee has had no public markup or formal introduction of a bill. But leaders say committee staff have been meeting weekly to discuss a path forward. Stabenow has not publicly disclosed the offsets for the money she says is available to be moved into the bill.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear walks onstage before speaking during the first night of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Aug. 19, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was named to the TIME100 Next list for 2024 following his reelection in a red state and consideration as a running mate by Vice President Kamala Harris put him in the national spotlight.?

The list curated by Time Magazine recognizes emerging leaders from around the world. Beshear was highlighted for ¡°his convincing portrayal of post-partisan leadership¡± during his 2023 campaign, particularly speaking of unity in the state and citing the Bible¡¯s story of the Good?Samaritan.

¡°The scion of Kentucky Democrats¡¯ most formidable family, he has managed to lead his conservative state even as a Republican supermajority at the statehouse routinely sends him veto-destined legislation, delivering on big ideas like legalizing medical marijuana and expanding Medicaid to cover vision and dental care,¡± Time wrote. ¡°And his commitment to reproductive rights has been as steady as his presence during a slate of floods and tornadoes, making the 46-year-old Beshear a winner of praise well beyond -Kentucky.¡±?

While Harris ultimately picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Beshear has continued to act as a surrogate for her campaign, regularly appearing in national TV news. Beshear also addressed the Democratic National Convention last month where he renewed his message on overcoming political division and supporting reproductive freedom for a wider audience.?

¡°I¡¯m honored to be included on the 2024 #Time100Next list with such phenomenal people,¡± Beshear said on his personal X account Wednesday morning. ¡°This honor is a testament to the great work we¡¯re doing in Kentucky and the rest of the world is noticing. Thank you, @TIME.¡±?

Others appearing on the list include CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins, pop singer Sabrina Carpenter and Olympian Ilona Maher.?

The Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, participate in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on Oct. 1, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The vice presidential candidates outlined vastly different visions for the country and traded barbs about their qualifications Tuesday during their first and only debate before Election Day.

Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, who¡¯s on the ticket with former President Donald Trump, and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, stuck to their rehearsed, scripted remarks to answer many questions, though they deviated from the talking points more than once.

Here are 10 telling moments from the vice presidential debate, moderated by ¡°CBS Evening News¡± anchor Norah O¡¯Donnell and ¡°Face the Nation¡± moderator Margaret Brennan at CBS studios in New York City:

Vance on his past negative comments about Trump: ¡°When you screw up, when you misspeak, when you get something wrong and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people about it. It¡¯s one of the reasons, Margaret, why I¡¯ve done so many interviews, is because I think it¡¯s important to actually explain to the American people, where I come down on the issues and what changed.¡°

¡°I¡¯ve been extremely consistent that I think there were a lot of things that we could have done better in the Trump administration in the first round, if Congress was doing its job.¡±

Walz on bipartisan immigration bill and threats against Haitian immigrants: ¡°We could come together and solve this if we didn¡¯t let Donald Trump continue to make it an issue. And the consequences in Springfield (Ohio) were the governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartners to school.¡±

Vance on the legislative branch: ¡°Congress is not just a high-class debating society. It¡¯s not just a forum for senators and congressmen to whine about problems. It¡¯s a forum to govern. So there were a lot of things on the border, on tariffs, for example, where I think that we could have done so much more if the Republican Congress and the Democrats in Congress had been a little bit better about how they govern the country.¡±

Walz on access to fertility treatments: ¡°Infertility treatments are why I have a child. That¡¯s nobody else¡¯s business.¡±

Vance on reproductive rights: ¡°I want us as a Republican Party, to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word. I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies. I want to make it easier for young families to afford a home, so they can afford a place to raise that family. And I think there¡¯s so much that we can do on the public policy front just to give women more options.¡±

Walz on trade and tariffs: ¡°Look, I¡¯m a union guy on this. I¡¯m not a guy who wanted to ship things overseas. But I understand that, look, we produce soybeans and corn; we need to have fair trading partners. That¡¯s something that we believe in. I think the thing that most concerns me on this is Donald Trump was the guy who created the largest trade deficit in American history with China.¡±

Vance on debating national health care policy: ¡°You¡¯re not going to propose a 900-page bill standing on a debate stage. It would bore everybody to tears, and it wouldn¡¯t actually mean anything, because part of this is the give-and-take of bipartisan negotiation.¡±

Walz on previously saying he was in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre: ¡°I¡¯m a knucklehead at times.¡±

Vance on housing shortages: ¡°What Donald Trump has said is we have a lot of federal lands that aren¡¯t being used for anything, they¡¯re not being used for a national park ¡­ and they could be places where we build a lot of housing. And I do think that we should be opening up building in this country.¡±

Walz on the peaceful transition of power following the election: ¡°So America, I think you¡¯ve got a really clear choice on this election of who¡¯s going to honor that democracy and who¡¯s going to honor Donald Trump.¡±

The Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and the Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, speak after their debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on Oct. 1, 2024 in New York City. This is expected to be the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 general election. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance squared off Tuesday night in a vice presidential debate that marked the last scheduled in-person meeting for the campaigns as Americans decide the country¡¯s next chapter.

Meeting for the first time, Walz and Vance engaged in a policy-heavy, nearly two-hour back-and-forth hosted by CBS News at its studios in New York City. The debate was moderated by Norah O¡¯Donnell, host of the ¡°CBS Evening News,¡± and Margaret Brennan, who anchors the network¡¯s Sunday political show ¡°Face the Nation.¡±

The vice presidential candidates emphasized their modest upbringings and laid out their visions to lower high living costs, address charged issues like reproductive rights, immigration and gun violence, and navigate a quickly worsening conflict in the Middle East.

And, with the presidential contest marking the first since the violent aftermath of the 2020 election, and Trump¡¯s continued false claims that he won, the moderators pressed the men on whether voters would see a peaceful transfer of power, no matter the winner. Vance would not provide a direct answer whether he would have certified the 2020 vote.

Walz is a second-term governor who previously served six terms in the U.S. House. Prior to his election, Walz worked as a public school teacher and football coach while also enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard for 24 years.

Vance served in the U.S. Marines for four years before earning his Yale law degree and becoming a venture capitalist and bestselling memoirist. He was first elected to public office in late 2022 to serve as Ohio¡¯s junior U.S. senator.

The mostly amicable debate, with some moments of tension, was a noticeable departure from the bitter polarization on display daily during the presidential campaign. Walz and Vance shook hands and lingered onstage afterward chatting and introducing each other to their wives.

The presidential nominees, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, met on the debate stage last month in a more acrimonious exchange during which the former president falsely claimed immigrants were eating pets in Ohio and Harris ripped into him for his remarks on race and abortion.

Trump has refused to debate again. Following the Vance-Walz exchange, the Harris campaign renewed its offer for another presidential meetup offered by CNN in Atlanta later this month.

Growing Middle East conflict

Answering the first question from the moderators Tuesday night, Walz and Vance sparred over which administration, if elected, would best quell signs of a widening war in the Middle East.

Tensions in the region escalated earlier Tuesday when Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the Pentagon.

Walz accused Trump of being ¡°fickle¡± on foreign policy and said the world is worse off since Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. Walz argued for ¡°steady leadership.¡±

¡°You saw it experienced today where, along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, (we were) able to stop the incoming attack,¡± Walz said.

¡°It¡¯s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment,¡± the governor continued.

Vance maintained that Trump headed off heated global conflict by invoking fear.

¡°We have to remember that as much as Governor Waltz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence,¡± Vance said. ¡°People were afraid of stepping out of line.¡±

The barrage in the Middle East followed Israel¡¯s ground incursion into Southern Lebanon and its recent assassination in Beirut of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian proxy militant group Hezbollah.

While Israel intercepted the majority of the rockets Tuesday, U.S. Navy destroyers in the Middle East fired roughly a dozen interceptors at incoming Iranian missiles, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.

The Biden administration promised ¡°severe consequences,¡± though it has not provided details. Harris said late Tuesday that Iran poses a ¡°destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East¡± and her commitment to Israel is ¡°unwavering.¡±

Despite a visit to Washington less than a week ago from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the CBS moderators did not ask about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and neither candidate brought up the costly and ongoing fight against Russia¡¯s continued invasion.

2020 election

Vance and Walz sparred over how Trump handled his loss in the 2020 presidential election and his actions leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol following a rally that Trump hosted.

Walz said while he and Vance found some areas of common ground at other points during the debate, the two were ¡°miles apart¡± on Trump¡¯s actions following the 2020 election.

¡°This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen, and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump¡¯s inability to say ¨C he is still saying he didn¡¯t lose the election,¡± Walz said.

Vance didn¡¯t directly answer whether he would have certified the electoral count for President Joe Biden had he been a member of Congress at the time, to Walz¡¯s dismay.

¡°I¡¯m pretty shocked by this,¡± Walz said. ¡°He lost the election. This is not a debate.¡±

Walz said he was concerned that Vance wouldn¡¯t follow the example set by former Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to go along with a scheme to recognize fake slates of electors and deny Biden the presidency.

Vance tried to pivot to Harris¡¯ actions following the COVID-19 pandemic and whether she ¡°censored Americans from speaking their mind¡± before saying that both he and Trump ¡°think that there were problems in 2020.¡±

There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the last presidential election, during which Trump lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

Walz also criticized Trump and Vance for using the same narrative ahead of this November¡¯s elections, saying they were ¡°already laying the groundwork for people not accepting¡± the results should Trump lose.

Taxes and tariffs

Both Harris and Trump have released economic plans that would add trillions to the national deficit ¡ª though analysis after analysis shows Trump¡¯s proposals outpacing Harris¡¯ by at least a few trillion.

Harris and Walz are running on an ¡°opportunity economy¡± theme that would permanently expand the Child Tax Credit, including giving $6,000 to new parents, and provide tax credits and deductions to first-time homebuyers and entrepreneurs.

Harris, following Biden¡¯s earlier budget proposal, has said she would impose a minimum tax on high-wealth individuals, but vowed steeper levies on long-term capital gains.

Trump has promised to fund the Treasury¡¯s coffers with money raised by taxing imported goods. Largely he wants to extend his signature 2017 tax law and permanently lower the corporate tax rate.

When asked by the moderators how the candidates could accomplish those goals without ballooning the national debt, both Vance and Walz sidestepped directly answering the question. Rather they touted Trump and Biden administration policies and then went on the attack.

¡°Donald Trump made a promise, and I¡¯ll give you this: He kept it. He took folks to Mar-a-Lago (and) said, ¡®You¡¯re rich as hell. I¡¯m gonna give you a tax cut,¡¯¡± Walz said, adding that Trump¡¯s tariff plan would be ¡°destabilizing¡± for the economy.

Economists warn that Trump¡¯s plan to slap tariffs on imports across the board ¡ª? as high as 60% on Chinese imports and 100% to 200% on cars and John Deere tractors manufactured in Mexico ¡ª could cause consumer prices to increase and invite retaliation.

But Vance said he wanted to ¡°defend my running mate¡± on the issue.

¡°We¡¯re going to be taking in a lot of money by penalizing companies for shipping jobs overseas and penalizing countries who employ slave laborers and then ship their products back into our country and undercut the wages of American workers. It¡¯s the heart of the Donald Trump economic plan,¡± the senator said.

High costs and housing

Both candidates spent significant time addressing housing and child care costs.

Walz touted Harris¡¯ ¡°bold forward plan¡± that calls for construction of 3 million new homes and ¡°down payment assistance on the front end to get you in a house.¡±

¡°A house is much more than just an asset to be traded somewhere. It¡¯s foundational to where you¡¯re at,¡± Walz said.

Vance said some of Walz¡¯s ideas on housing were ¡°halfway decent.¡±

One of the central pillars of Trump and Vance¡¯s housing plans is to turn over federal lands to private hands for development.

¡°We have a lot of federal lands that aren¡¯t being used for anything. They¡¯re not being used for national parks. They¡¯re not being used, and they could be places where we build a lot of housing,¡± Vance said.

On child care, Walz pledged a paid federal family and medical leave mandate as a priority for the Harris campaign, and advocated a parallel workforce development program for the care professions.

¡°We have to make it easier for folks to be able to get into that business, and then to make sure that folks are able to pay for that,¡± Walz said.

The dual goals, he said, ¡°will enhance our workforce, enhance our families, and make it easier to have the children that you want.¡±

Vance said he sees an opportunity for a ¡°bipartisan solution¡± to the high cost of child care, though he stopped short of agreeing with a federal paid leave law.

Instead he proposed expanding the potential recipients for federal child care grants.

¡°These programs only go to one kind of child care model. Let¡¯s say you¡¯d like your church maybe to help you out with child care. Maybe you live in a rural area or an urban area, and you¡¯d like to get together with families in your neighborhood to provide child care and the way that makes the most sense. You don¡¯t get access to any of these federal monies,¡± Vance said.

Immigration, again

Vance also repeatedly connected the housing shortage and high costs to immigration ¡ª the central issue for Trump¡¯s campaign and a common answer from him for several of the nation¡¯s woes.

The Ohio senator said housing is ¡°totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.¡±

¡°The people that I¡¯m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris¡¯ open border,¡± Vance said, referring to the town where he and Trump falsely claimed over and over that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating pets.

Debate moderator Brennan pressed Vance on his claim: ¡°Senator on that point, I¡¯d like for you to clarify. There are many contributing factors to high housing costs. What evidence do you have that migrants are part of this problem?¡±

Vance said he would share on social media following the debate a Federal Reserve study that supported his claim.

Reproductive rights?

Access to abortion and fertility treatments was one of the more contentious areas of disagreement, though neither candidate trod new ground for their party.

Vance maintained the Trump stance that abortion laws should be set by voters or state lawmakers, while Walz said women and their doctors are best suited to make those decisions.

Vance told a story about a woman he grew up with having an abortion, then telling him a few years ago that ¡°she felt like if she hadn¡¯t had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.¡±

¡°And I think that what I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party, we¡¯ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people¡¯s trust back on this issue, where they frankly, just don¡¯t trust us,¡± Vance said. ¡°And I think that¡¯s one of the things that Donald Trump, and I are endeavoring to do.¡±

Walz rejected Vance¡¯s position that state lawmakers should determine women¡¯s access to the full slate of reproductive decisions, including fertility treatments.

Walz referenced some of the stories women have told in the last two years about being denied medical care for miscarriages or other dangerous pregnancy complications because of vaguely written state laws that banned or significantly restricted access to abortion.

¡°This is a very simple proposition: These are women¡¯s decisions to make about their health care,¡± Walz said, later adding that people should ¡°just mind their own business on this.¡±

Gun violence

The two vice presidential candidates had one of the more genuine exchanges of the debate after the moderators asked them about solutions for gun violence.

Vance conceded that he and Walz both want to reduce the number of people killed by guns every year, but said the solution should center around addressing illegal guns, including those used in drug trafficking, and through changing how schools are designed.

¡°Unfortunately, I think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the door stronger. We¡¯ve got to make the windows stronger,¡± Vance said. ¡°And of course, we¡¯ve got to increase school resource officers, because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn¡¯t fit with recent experience.¡±

Walz said school shootings are every parent¡¯s ¡°worst nightmare¡± before telling a story about how his son witnessed a shooting at a community center while playing volleyball.

¡°Those things don¡¯t leave you,¡± Walz said, before talking about meeting with parents of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, when he was a member of Congress.

¡°We understand that the Second Amendment is there, but our first responsibility is to our kids to figure this out,¡± Walz said. ¡°In Minnesota, we¡¯ve enacted enhanced red flag laws, enhanced background checks.¡±

Walz said he absolutely believes Vance hates it when children die from gun violence, but added that¡¯s ¡°not far enough when we know they¡¯re things that work.¡±

¡°No one¡¯s trying to scaremonger and say, ¡®We¡¯re taking your guns,¡± Walz said. ¡°But I ask all of you out there, ¡®Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort?¡¯ ¡­ when we know there¡¯s countries around the world that their children aren¡¯t practicing these types of drills.¡±

Vance expressed sympathy that Walz¡¯s son had witnessed a shooting and thanked him for bringing up Finland as an example of a country with a high rate of gun ownership that doesn¡¯t have school shootings.

¡°I do think it illustrates some of the, frankly, weird differences between our own country¡¯s gun violence problem and Finland,¡± Vance said, before mentioning higher rates of substance abuse and mental health issues within the United States.

¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the whole reason why we have such a bad gun violence problem, but I do think it¡¯s a big piece of it,¡± Vance said.

Hurricane Helene response, climate change?

The two candidates expressed dismay about the destruction stemming from Hurricane Helene in states in the Southeast, but disagreed about how best to address climate change.

Vance said ¡°a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns,¡± before criticizing how Democrats have drafted climate change laws.

¡°This idea that carbon emissions drive all the climate change; well let¡¯s just say that¡¯s true, just for the sake of arguments,¡± Vance said. ¡°Well, if you believe that, what would you want to do? The answer is that you¡¯d want to restore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you¡¯d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America, because we¡¯re the cleanest economy in the entire world.¡±

Walz said that Biden and Harris have worked with Congress to enact legislation addressing climate change that also created jobs.

¡°We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We¡¯re also producing more clean energy,¡± Walz said. ¡°Reducing our impact is absolutely critical, but this is not a false choice. You can do that at the same time you¡¯re creating the jobs that we¡¯re seeing all across the country.¡±

Walz also said that farmers in Minnesota know climate change is real because some years they experience significant drought and other years they¡¯re inundated with too much rain for their crops to handle.

¡°They¡¯ve seen 500-year droughts, 500-year floods back-to-back,¡± Walz said. ¡°But what they¡¯re doing is adapting, and this has allowed them to tell me, ¡®Look, I harvest corn, I harvest soybeans, and I harvest wind.¡¯¡±

Daniel Cameron looks over the crowd after conceding defeat on election night, Nov 7, 2023, in Louisville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

FRANKFORT ¡ª Kentucky¡¯s attorney general and two University of Louisville physicians waged a legal battle for more than a year that almost no one knew about ¡ª? even though it involved the Republican candidate for governor and an issue of intense public interest.

The secrecy around the case ¨C from its outset in June of 2023 ¨C is highly unusual. It ended Monday when the file was unsealed under a Franklin Circuit judge¡¯s order. The Lantern first revealed the case’s existence and reported many of its details in August based on a Court of Appeals ruling and sources with knowledge of the situation.?

The newly unsealed file provides further insights into what happened when the powers of Kentucky¡¯s top prosecutor intersected with abortion politics in an election year.

The dispute involved then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron¡¯s efforts to pursue a criminal investigation against the two U of L physicians who, when it was still legal to do so, performed abortions and trained medical students and residents at EMW Women¡¯s Surgical Center in Louisville. Cameron also was Kentucky Republicans’ nominee for governor last year.

Kentucky appeals court rejects AG’s efforts to get employment records in abortion case

After the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in the summer of 2022, the physicians testified in court against the near-total abortion ban that immediately took effect in Kentucky.

Cameron, whose office was defending the abortion ban, then sought the physicians¡¯ pay, tax and other records from U of L through the civil discovery process. When that didn¡¯t work he used a grand jury to subpoena the records as part of a criminal investigation that he said would discover whether public dollars had been misused.

In the end, the case turned on what two courts determined were Cameron¡¯s misuse of the grand jury process and his lack of evidence of any crime.

Politics alleged

Lawyers for the physicians argued that Cameron¡¯s actions were motivated by politics, that he was using abortion litigation ¡°for political gain in his gubernatorial campaign¡± ¡ª a claim that Cameron¡¯s office branded ¡°offensive¡± and ¡°slander.¡±?

The doctors¡¯ lawyers said Cameron ¡°apparently believes that depicting abortion providers as greedy profiteers advances his arguments that abortions should be outlawed.¡±?

It¡¯s impossible to know how public knowledge of the case might have affected the 2023 race for governor. By September 2023 ¡ª less than two months before the gubernatorial election ¡ª the politics of abortion had changed in Kentucky.?

That month Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear began airing powerful commercials featuring a rape victim and a prosecutor criticizing Cameron for opposing exceptions for rape and incest in the abortion ban. And Cameron quickly modified his position, saying he would sign legislation creating exceptions for rape and incest if the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved it.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd tried to unseal the case at that time, but was thwarted by Cameron who immediately appealed the ruling to quash the subpoena and successfully pleaded to keep the case secret at least until the appeals court ruled on its merits.

Beshear defeated Cameron in the governor¡¯s race by about 5 percentage points, and Cameron has since taken a job as executive director of a non-profit group called 1792 Exchange. (That group¡¯s website says it works to? protect small businesses, other non-profits and philanthropic organizations from ¡°woke¡± corporations.)

AG Coleman ends appeals

Cameron did not respond to an email from the Lantern sent to 1792 Exchange seeking comment on the outcome of his ill-fated investigation.

Current Attorney General Russell Coleman did not ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to review the August Court of Appeals ruling that upheld Shepherd’s decision to quash the subpoena. Rewa Zakharia, chief of the criminal division in Coleman¡¯s office, declined comment on Friday after a court hearing when Shepherd ordered the case finally unsealed. Zakharia referred questions to the office spokesman Kevin Grout, who did not return phone messages from Kentucky Lantern.

One of the attorneys for the doctors, William Brammell, released a statement that said, ¡°We appreciate the judge¡¯s thoughtful handling of this case and ultimate decision to unseal it, making it available to the public.? In a functioning democracy, it¡¯s critical that citizens know what their government is doing and the judge¡¯s decision in this case balances that right to access with our client¡¯s understandable personal privacy interests.¡±

On Aug. 9 a three-judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Shepherd¡¯s quashing of the subpoena. Its order said the subpoena amounted to a ¡°fishing expedition¡± and that Cameron¡¯s premise that tax dollars may have been illegally spent on abortions was not supported by the facts of the case.

The appeals court sent the question of whether the case should be unsealed back to Shepherd. On Friday Shepherd unsealed the case with the exception of one document, and he released 177 pages of records Monday with the names of the physicians redacted.

The U of L physicians and another physician who practiced at EMW Women¡¯s Surgical Center initiated the case on July 21, 2023, asking Franklin Circuit Court to quash a subpoena seeking payroll, personnel and other records

They argued that Cameron unsuccessfully sought the same records in the civil case challenging the constitutionality of Kentucky¡¯s abortion ban and that the material sought was not relevant to any possible criminal charges. They suggested a political motive which Cameron hotly disputed.

¡°It has become clear that Mr. Cameron will use abortion litigation, against providers and others, for political gain in his gubernatorial campaign.¡±

Cameron said the subpoena was issued as part of his office¡¯s responsibility to investigate ¡°crimes involving the use of public funds.¡±

The plaintiffs filed the case under the pseudonyms Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and John Row, and asked that the case be sealed to protect their privacy. Cameron offered no objection and Shepherd let the case initially proceed under seal.

As the case proceeded, Shepherd, over the objections of the doctors’ lawyers, gave Cameron the opportunity to present a confidential (¡°in camera¡±) written explanation ¡°that will set forth the subject matter of the Attorney General¡¯s investigation.¡±

Cameron did so. That record remains the only part of the file still sealed. But whatever is in it, it did not convince Shepherd.

Grand jury never asked for or asked for subpoena

The judge wrote a 16-page order quashing the subpoena. Shepherd agreed with nearly all points made by the physicians¡¯ attorneys. He said even the confidential submission from the attorney general ¡°provides no information which grants its office jurisdiction.¡±

Shepherd said the investigation was brought in the wrong county because the doctors work in Jefferson County. ¡°There is no indication that any of the conduct under investigation took place in Franklin County. Nor is there any allegation that state funds were used directly in any manner that would violate the penal code,¡± he ruled.

Shepherd noted that while Cameron obtained the subpoena from the clerk of the Franklin Circuit Court, the grand jury never asked for the subpoena or voted to authorize it.

And because the subpoena sought the same records Cameron was unsuccessfully trying to get in the separate civil case, the judge concluded, ¡°this subpoena appears to be a classic ¡®fishing expedition.¡¯¡±

He said the doctors had a right to be concerned the information might be used in a way that would ¡°subject them to vilification or harassment by opponents of abortion.¡±

The judge also said he was inclined to open the case because the public should know what goes on in court. Shepherd issued a lengthy order in which he attempted to unseal the records. ¡°The Court believes that the public has a right to know, and to decide for themselves, whether the Attorney General is wielding the authority granted to him appropriately and in accordance with the requirements of law.¡±

But Cameron filed an emergency request to keep the entire file sealed, which the appeals court granted.

In August, the Court of Appeals ruling against Cameron sent the case back to Shepherd to decide whether to unseal the case.

The Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media filed briefs asking that the case be opened.?

Abortion politics: A Kentucky timeline

2019 – Kentucky’s legislature votes along party lines to enact two anti-abortion laws: A ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. A ban on all abortions that would take effect only if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the so-called “trigger law.” Federal courts blocked the six-week ban.

Feb. 26, 2020 – The Family Foundation calls on Attorney General Daniel Cameron to investigate whether medical school faculty at the University of Louisville are violating state law through ties to what was then the state’s only abortion clinic, EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville.

U of L President Neeli Bendapudi firmly rejects the allegations, saying U of L and EMW are separate entities. Residents in obstetrics and gynecology, as part of their training, must learn all aspects of reproductive health care, and abortion provider EMW is the only place they can learn the procedure.

March 30, 2021 – General Assembly approves putting an anti-abortion amendment on the 2022 ballot. It would add a new section stating Kentucky’s Constitution does not secure or protect a right to or funding of abortion.

June 24, 2022 – U.S. Supreme Court ends the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women¡¯s Health Organization, overturning Roe.

EMW and Planned Parenthood, both in Louisville and Kentucky¡¯s only abortion providers, stop performing abortions ¡°out of an abundance of caution.¡±

June 27, 2022 – EMW and Planned Parenthood file suit in Jefferson Circuit Court seeking to block enforcement of the abortion ban.?

July 6, 2022 – Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry hears arguments from both sides with Attorney General Daniel Cameron¡¯s office defending the abortion ban. Among those testifying are two University of Louisville OB/GYNs who provide abortions at EMW and say abortion is essential to health care.

July 7, 2022 – Republican lawmakers in Frankfort grill U of L medical dean Toni Ganzel about whether public funds have been used to provide abortions. He tells them U of L does not pay physicians to perform abortions. Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, tells Ganzel,? ¡°If university funds are used for abortion, the taxpayers ought to know, and the legislature should take that into account when we¡¯re talking about funding the university and other things.¡±

July 30, 2022 – Judge Perry issues a temporary order allowing abortions to resume in Kentucky.?

Aug. 2, 2022 – Legal abortions stop after the Court of Appeals grants Cameron¡¯s emergency request to reinstate the two laws banning almost all abortions in the state.?

Aug. 3, 2022 – Two U of L professors suspend their work at EMW. U of L pauses its residency training affiliation with EMW until ¡°we can determine the future of the relationship.¡±

Nov. 8, 2022 – Kentucky voters defeat the anti-abortion constitutional amendment by almost 5 percentage points, 52.3%? to 47.7% or 742,232 votes to 675,634 votes.

Nov. 15, 2022 – Kentucky Supreme Court hears arguments in abortion providers¡¯ challenge of abortion ban.

Feb. 16, 2023 – Kentucky Supreme Court leaves abortion ban in place, saying abortion providers lack standing to challenge the law on behalf of their patients, leaving unanswered questions about the ban¡¯s constitutionality. Calling it a ¡°significant victory,¡± Cameron says, ¡°We will continue to stand up for the unborn by defending these laws.¡±

May 16, 2023 – Cameron wins primary, becomes Republican candidate for Kentucky governor, challenging incumbent Andy Beshear, who opposes Kentucky¡¯s no-exceptions abortion ban, calling it ¡°extreme.¡±

June 2023 – Cameron issues a Franklin County grand jury subpoena for payroll and personnel information for two unnamed U of L employees, seeking evidence that state funds may have been misused. All parties agree to seal the case.

July 2023 – Jane Does and Roe ask Franklin circuit judge to quash the subpoena.

Sept. 1, 2023 – Democrat Beshear¡¯s campaign airs an ad featuring Jefferson County prosecutor Erin White attacking Cameron for opposing abortion ban exceptions, even for rape and incest victims. ?“Cameron believes rapists deserve more rights than their victims. That’s extreme. And it’s dangerous,” she says.

Sept. 18, 2023 – Cameron changes his position on abortion, saying he would sign legislation creating exceptions for rape and incest if the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved it. He later appears to soften that statement to reassure abortion opponents.

Sept. 20, 2023 – Beshear campaign airs ad in which Hadley Duvall says, ¡°This is to you, Daniel Cameron. To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.¡±??

?September 2023 –? Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd quashes the subpoena and tries to unseal the case records. Cameron appeals. Court of Appeals grants his emergency request to keep the case sealed, pending a final outcome.

Oct. 4, 2023 – Russell Coleman, the Republican nominee for attorney general says he supports exceptions for rape and incest and will ¡°call on the General Assembly to take a hard look at that issue.¡±

Nov. 5, 2023 – Beshear and Coleman win their races by comfortable margins.

Aug. 9, 2024 – Kentucky Court of Appeals rejects the attorney general’s subpoena as an improper ¡°fishing expedition¡± and outside the scope of the Franklin County grand jury because the records sought by the attorney general are from another county. Returns case to Franklin Circuit Court to consider unsealing the file.

Sept. 20, 2024 – Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media file motion asking that records of the case be unsealed.

Sept. 27, 2024 – Shepherd orders the case unsealed with redactions and excluding an “in camera” filing.

Both presidential candidates have said they have general plans to tackle the housing crisis. (Photo by Getty Images)

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

WASHINGTON ¡ª As the cost and supply of housing remain top issues for voters, both presidential candidates have put forth plans to tackle the crisis, in hopes of courting voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 exacerbated problems in the housing market, with supply chain disruptions, record-low interest rates and? increased demand contributing to a rise in housing prices, according to a study by the Journal of Housing Economics.?

While housing is typically handled on the local level, the housing supply is tight and rents continue to skyrocket, putting increased pressure on the federal government to help. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump agree that it¡¯s an issue that needs to be solved, but their solutions diverge.

The Harris and Trump campaigns did not respond to States Newsroom¡¯s requests for details on the general housing proposals the nominees have discussed.

Promise: millions of new homes

Harris¡¯ plan calls for the construction of 3 million homes in four years.

The United States has a shortage of about 3.8 million homes for sale and rent, according to 2021 estimates from Freddie Mac that are still relied upon.

Additionally, homelessness has hit a record-high of 653,100 people since January of last year, and a ¡°record-high 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities,¡± up from 2 million households since 2019, according to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

¡°This is obviously a multi-prong approach, because the factors contributing to high rents and housing affordability are many, and my plan is to attempt to address many of them at once, so we can actually have the net effect of bringing down the cost and making homeownership, renting more affordable,¡± Harris said during a September interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.?

Promise: single-family zoning

Trump has long opposed building multi-family housing and has instead thrown his support behind single-family zoning, which would exclude other types of housing. Such land-use regulation is conducted by local government bodies, not the federal government, though the federal government could influence it.

¡°There will be no low-income housing developments built in areas that are right next to your house,¡± Trump said during an August rally in Montana. ¡°I¡¯m gonna keep criminals out of your neighborhood.¡±

Promise: getting Congress to agree

Election forecasters have predicted that Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House, but Republicans are poised to win the Senate, meaning any housing proposals will have to be overwhelmingly bipartisan.

¡°How much money is going to really be available without substantial increases in revenue to be able to do all these things that both Trump and Harris are proposing?¡± Ted Tozer, a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute¡¯s Housing Finance Policy Center, said in an interview with States Newsroom. ¡°All the money comes from Congress.¡±

Many of Harris¡¯ policies rely on cooperation from Congress, as historically the federal government has limited tools to address housing shortages.

¡°On the Democratic side, there¡¯s a hunger for more action, for more direct government intervention in the housing market than we¡¯ve seen in a long time,¡± said Francis Torres, the associate director of housing and infrastructure at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Nearly all proposals that Harris has put forth would require Congress to pass legislation and appropriate funds. The first is S.2224, introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, which would amend U.S. tax code to bar private equity firms from buying homes in bulk by denying ¡°interest and depreciation deductions for taxpayers owning 50 or more single family properties,¡± according to the bill.

The second bill, S. 3692, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, would bar using algorithms to artificially inflate the cost of rents.

Both bills would need to reach the 60-vote threshold in order to advance in the Senate, whichever party is in control.

Promise: $25,000 down payment assistance

Harris has pledged to support first-time homebuyers, but Congress would need to appropriate funds for the $25,000 down payment assistance program she has proposed that would benefit an estimated 4 million first-time homebuyers over four years.

It¡¯s a proposal that¡¯s been met with skepticism.

¡°I¡¯m really concerned that down payment assistance will actually put more pressure on home prices, because basically, you¡¯re giving people additional cash to pay more for the house that they¡¯re going to bid on,¡± Tozer said. ¡°So by definition, they get in a bidding war, they¡¯re going to spend more.¡±

Harris has also proposed a $40 billion innovation fund for local governments to build and create solutions for housing, which would also need congressional approval.

Promise: opening up federal lands

Both candidates support opening some federal lands for housing, which would mean selling the land for construction purposes with the commitment for a certain percentage of the units to be kept for affordable housing.

The federal government owns about 650 million acres of land, or roughly 30% of all land.

Neither candidate has gone into detail on this proposal.

¡°I think it¡¯s a sign that at least the Harris campaign and the people in her orbit are thinking about addressing this housing affordability problem really through stronger government action than has happened in several decades,¡± Torres said.

Promise: expand tax credits

The biggest tool the federal government has used to address housing is through the Department of Housing and Urban Development¡¯s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, known as LIHTC. Harris has promised to expand this tax credit, but has not gone into detail about how much she wants it expanded.

This program awards tax credits to offset construction costs in exchange for a certain number of rent-restricted units for low-income households. But the restriction is temporary, lasting about 30 years.?

There is no similar program for housing meant to be owned.

¡°It¡¯s an interesting moment, because then on the other side, on the Trump side, even though they diagnosed a lot of the similar problems, there¡¯s not as much of a desire to leverage the strength of the federal government to ensure affordability,¡± Torres said.

Trump¡¯s record on housing

The Trump campaign does not have a housing proposal, but various interviews, rallies and a review of Trump¡¯s first four years in office provide a roadmap.

During Trump¡¯s first administration, many of his HUD budget proposals were not approved by Congress.

In all four of his presidential budget requests, he laid out proposals that would increase rent by 40% for about 4 million low-income households using rental vouchers or for those who lived in public housing, according to an analysis by the left-leaning think tank the Brookings Institution.?

All four of Trump¡¯s budgets also called for the elimination of housing programs such as the Community Development Block Grant, which directs funding to local and state governments to rehabilitate and build affordable housing. Trump¡¯s budgets also would have slashed the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which is a home energy assistance program for low-income families.

Additionally, Trump¡¯s Opportunity Zones authorized through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which are tax incentives to businesses and real estate to invest in low-income communities, have had mixed results.

Promise: cut regulations and add tariffs

In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said he wanted to focus on reducing regulations in the permitting process.

¡°Your permits, your permitting process. Your zoning, if ¡ª and I went through years of zoning. Zoning is like¡­ it¡¯s a killer,¡± he said. ¡°But we¡¯ll be doing that, and we¡¯ll be bringing the price of housing down.¡±

During campaign rallies, Trump has often said he would impose a 10% tariff across the board on all goods entering the U.S. He¡¯s also proposed 60% tariffs on China.

Trump said at a rally in Georgia that tariff is ¡°one of the most beautiful words I¡¯ve ever heard.¡±

Tozer said adding trade policies, such as tariffs on construction materials like lumber, would drive up the cost of homes.

Promise: deport immigrants

Trump has argued that his plan for mass deportations will help free up the supply of housing. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump national press secretary, told the New York Times that deporting immigrants would lower the cost of housing because migration ¡°is driving up housing costs.¡±

The former president has made a core campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants.

Tozer said housing and immigration are tied, because the ability to build houses comes down to workers, and roughly 30% of construction workers are immigrants.?

¡°By shutting down the border, you¡¯re possibly shutting down your capacity to build these houses,¡± he said, adding that all those policies are intertwined.

SCL homes are a good thing.?They allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in a home, such as yours, which enables them to be part of a community. (Getty Images)? (Getty Images)

I know my neighbors.? We wave and say hello.? But I don¡¯t really know them.? How well do you know your neighbors?

If you live in a middle-class neighborhood, you may have a Medicaid-funded Supports for Community Living (SCL) home on your street.? What is an SCL home?? Our government created SCL homes as a response to mistreatment of people living in mental institutions, many of them with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) such as cerebral palsy and down syndrome.? SCL homes are a good thing.? They allow people with I/DD to live in a home, such as yours, which enables them to be part of a community.??

This is good for most, but for some the isolation of institutionalization continues and is accompanied by the monster of abuse. A nurse practitioner in Kentucky who sees people with I/DD under state guardianship tells me she has seen evidence of ¡°heinous and egregious acts of abuse.¡±

This is a nationwide tragedy. Last year, in Kentucky alone, the Department of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities confirms 97 people were abused in these homes. That¡¯s a plane crash.? This story should make the national news.?

And it gets worse. This data is only substantiated abuse. How many incidents were unsubstantiated because residents are unable to communicate? ¡°We hear repeated stories of abuse,¡± reports the National Council on Severe Autism. ¡°Injuries occur, investigations ensue, and nothing is substantiated because people with intellectual disabilities are incapable of telling their stories or coming to their own defense.¡±

And how many incidents went unreported because residents fear retaliation? According to the U.S. Justice Department¡¯s Office of Victims of Crimes, despite the prevalence of abuse among people with disabilities, more than half of victims never seek assistance from law enforcement.??

At the top of the list of common reasons for this is fear of reprisal.??

And how many incidents were just not reported? Federal agencies say that for every incident of group home abuse reported, nearly 24 additional cases remain undetected and that people living in group homes are at risk of serious harm; 15,000-19,00 people with I/DD are raped each year in the U.S. Most abuse occurs in group homes where 85% of cases go unreported.

(Sigh.) This is not a plane crash. This is a catastrophe.?

So how do you be a good neighbor?? To begin, if you hear anything or see something suspicious,? call Adult Protective Services in Kentucky at 1-877-597-2331.? Your phone call is anonymous and may save a life.??

Sen. Reggie Thomas has filed Bill Request 42 which would allow cameras in SCL homes. Other legislators are needed as co-sponsors and supporters to help extend to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the protections of the Kentucky Bill of Rights, which reads, ¡°All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned: the right of seeking and pursuing their safety and happiness.¡±?

Vulnerable people need cameras for protection. Federal and state oversight is unable to prevent abuse. Vulnerable people need protection at the point of care.?

The president of the Autism Society of the Bluegrass says it so well:? ¡°It is the right of us all to be protected in our homes. You or I can freely use technology such as cameras to enhance that protection. As the parent of a young man with autism, I would want no less for him. You would want the same for your loved ones.¡±

As philosopher Elbert Hubbard said, ¡°Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the man who needs you.¡±

A list of Kentuckians who have died because of domestic violence, ranging in age from 19 to 73. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky¡¯s 15 domestic violence programs.?

FRANKFORT ¡ª Kentucky must examine its gun laws to make sure it¡¯s doing all it can to protect survivors of domestic violence, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.?

His comments came after he signed a proclamation in the Capitol Rotunda making October 2024 Domestic Violence Awareness Month.?

He joined advocates from ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence) and others to honor 26 lives lost in recent years to intimate partner violence ¡ª including Erica Riley, who was fatally shot outside the Hardin County Justice Center in August.

After 2 women die in ‘ambush’ outside Hardin courthouse, what can Kentucky do better?

Beshear said Kentucky needs to provide ¡°real protection¡± for people leaving abusive situations.?

¡°We have sadly seen far too much violence after someone takes out (a protective order), and we’ve got to make sure that we are filling all of those holes,¡± Beshear told reporters. ¡°We’ve got to look at transportation. We’ve got to look at ways to keep people’s current location from reaching their perpetrator, and we¡¯ve got to look at how we navigate the judicial system to where that person doesn’t have to face their perpetrator ¡­ every so often in court.¡±?

Riley was at the courthouse on the morning of Aug. 19 for a hearing on her emergency protective order. Police say the man who she was seeking protection from shot her and her mother, Janet Rylee, in an ¡°ambush¡± in the courthouse parking lot right before the hearing. They both died.?

¡°It’s important that we have that system that provides everyone their day in court,¡± Beshear said, ¡°but at the same time, doesn’t make someone face their abuser face to face, over and over.¡±?

That could be accomplished virtually, he said, an idea supported by the head of the domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, where Riley died. He also said the state ¡°ought to look at¡± how to uniformly provide court escorts to people headed into hearings for protective orders.?

¡°We know we had a shooting outside of one of our courthouses where someone should be safe,¡± Beshear said. ¡°And so whether that’s looking at where the parking lots are, how it’s designed, whether we have other entrances for those involved in these types of cases, or whether an escort in and out would work, we don’t want it to happen again. So the most important thing is we figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.¡±?

Beshear also said Kentucky must have a cultural shift in how it views domestic and intimate partner violence.?

¡°We’ve got far too much toxic masculinity, far too many people speaking in violent terms,¡± he said. ¡°We should show our families what being a responsible adult is, and that ¡­ committing acts of violence doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a monster.¡±?

Beshear has previously voiced support for a “red flag” law, which would allow temporary restrictions on gun possession by individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Coercive control

The gathering also heard a Kentucky lawmaker call for adding coercive control to Kentucky¡¯s protective order law. Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said she will sponsor a bill to help survivors access ¡°court assistance earlier in the process.¡±?

Dietz¡¯s legislation is a key piece of policy advocates who work in violence prevention support.?

Currently, protective orders are available in Kentucky to people who have experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, like loss of financial and medical autonomy, isolation, surveillance and more.?

¡°Most folks view domestic violence as that battering, that physical assault,¡± Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV, previously told the Lantern. ¡°You’ll see the signs, the billboards, with the black eye ¡­ that happens. But what we think is happening a lot more, that we’re not able to see in the homes, are these controls.¡±?

Coercive control is a ¡°huge indicator¡± of violence, Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, previously told the Lantern. In adding it to the emergency protective order (EPO) statute, she said, ¡°we could save lives.¡±??

¡°Being able to recognize coercive control as a piece of intimate partner violence, or even a lead into intimate partner violence,¡± Burch said, ¡°would be very important to getting ahead of this issue ¡­ not just responding after violence has already occurred.¡±

Not a ¡®private issue¡¯?

Andrea Robinson, president of the ZeroV board of directors, told the gathering that? Kentucky must break the ¡°norm of silence¡± when it comes to domestic violence.?

¡°The current social norm of silence is based on the belief that intimate partner violence is a private issue, that it is between a couple, or ¡­ that it only affects those individuals in the relationship,¡± said Robinson. ¡°The norm of silence only serves to hurt, isolate, shame and stigmatize survivors, making it harder for them to flee an abusive partner.¡±??

Breaking that can include checking on neighbors and loved ones, wearing purple to raise awareness of domestic violence and sharing resources with people who may need them, Robinson said.?

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women ¡ª 45.3% ¡ª and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence ¡ª or threat of it ¡ª in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?

In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

Across the state in 2024, ZeroV programs provided emergency shelter to 2,788 people, including 1,120 children, and provided 336,145 total services, it says.?

¡°In Kentucky, we don’t tolerate domestic violence,¡± Beshear said. ¡°It is every single one of our obligations to say something when we see it, to get over that thought that it’s private.¡±??

Mountains near Cumberland in Harlan County bear the scars of mining after the coal was stripped, August 24, 2019. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kentucky¡¯s Republican attorney general citing concerns from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s administration is trying to block a revamped federal complaint system that citizens have used for decades to report suspected dangers and hazards from the strip mining of coal.?

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, delegated authority to two dozen states including Kentucky to regulate the environmental impacts of mining and mine reclamation.?

The law gave citizens the right to report suspected violations not addressed by state authorities directly to the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) to investigate.?

Federal regulators can then issue a notice with a 10-day deadline to state regulators to either fix the issue or explain why it hasn¡¯t been fixed. After the 10-day deadline, federal regulators can order an inspection of the mine site if they¡¯re not satisfied with the state¡¯s response.?

But a Trump administration rule change in 2020 required federal regulators to gather additional evidence from state agencies before issuing a 10-day notice, something environmental advocates say has bogged down the process and significantly reduced the effectiveness of the oversight mechanism.?

The Biden administration is now seeking to largely restore the original system that allows OSMRE to issue notices without having to gather state input beforehand, a requirement that OSMRE said creates ¡°undue delays.¡± Under the Biden rule, state feedback would be incorporated into the federal investigation after the 10-day notice has been issued.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and other Republican attorneys general have sued to block the revamped system, ?and a federal judge recently allowed advocacy groups that have utilized the complaint system to intervene in the case.

The Republican attorneys general cited in part concerns from Kentucky Department for Natural Resources Commissioner Gordon Slone, who wrote in a June 2023 public comment that records from federal regulators in determining whether to issue a 10-day notice were ¡°insufficient¡± compared to records from state authorities.?

¡°[The department] believes that the OSMRE¡¯s goal should be to ensure that [10-day notices] are only issued when available information ¡ª including information that the State regulator can easily provide upon request ¡ª? supports the existence of a violation,¡± Slone wrote.?

Slone also said his department received an average of nearly nine 10-day notices each year between 2010 and 2019. Under the Trump administration system, the number of annually issued notices ¡°plummeted¡± to 0.6 notices a year.?

Slone argued increased collaboration and communication between federal and state regulators led to fewer notices issued, compared to the increased ¡°administrative burden¡± he said states would face by having to deal with more 10-day notices under the Biden administration¡¯s action.?

Willie Dodson, the coal impacts program coordinator for Appalachian Voices, one of the advocacy groups intervening in the case, isn¡¯t convinced by those arguments.?

Dodson said he¡¯s used the complaint system in recent years to get Kentucky regulators to address pollution by an Eastern Kentucky surface mine of a waterway that’s home to endangered or threatened aquatic life.?

He said federal regulators can choose not to issue a notice in response to a complaint. He asserted arguments opposing the Biden administration¡¯s revamped system are ¡°just a thinly veiled way of saying that the feds should let us do whatever we want.¡±

¡°It doesn’t in any way take away the fact that Kentucky is the primary organization issuing permits, issuing enforcement actions,¡± Dodson said. ¡°If Kentucky fails to issue enforcement actions that they should be issuing and the community member catches that, the community member can bring the information to OSMRE who then has an oversight role.¡±?

Tom FitzGerald, counsel for the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council that¡¯s representing the intervening advocacy groups in the court case, pointed to another example decades ago for why a robust complaint system is needed.?

In the 1980s, FitzGerald represented a retired Perry County educator who, the way he described it, worried about a hazardous sediment pond built above her home.?

Before Muriel Smith finalized a divorce in 1981 and took sole ownership of her property, her husband waived the law¡¯s 300-foot buffer requirement and gave written permission to a coal company to conduct ¡°surface mining operations¡± nearby. But she personally didn¡¯t consent to it, and state coal mine regulators gave the coal company a permit for the pond. The company built it the following year less than a football field from her home.?

When she appealed to Kentucky regulators saying state law had been violated because the pond was built too near to her home and without her permission as the now-sole homeowner, they dismissed it as a ¡°property rights¡± dispute. So, she turned to the federal complaint system established through SMCRA and appealed to OSMRE.

FitzGerald wrote in a Sept. 13 filing that without the federal? action in response to the complaint system, Smith would have endured years of ¡°living directly below a high-hazard embankment sediment structure illegally located immediately uphill from her home, with the attendant risk of wash out or catastrophic failure of the structure, and the impairment of value and use of her land.¡±?

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in 1986 that the state¡¯s ¡°hands off¡± approach toward Smith¡¯s request for help was ¡°seriously flawed¡± and ruled in her favor.?

Rivian Electric Delivery Vehicles (EDV) are seen connected to electric chargers during a launch event between Amazon and Rivian at an Amazon facility on July 21, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Mustafa Hussain/Getty Images)

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

Highlighted in Joe Biden¡¯s 2020 campaign as one of the major crises facing the country, climate change has received much less attention in the 2024 race for the presidency.

The candidates, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, share the twin goals of lowering energy costs and increasing U.S. jobs in the sector, but diverge widely in their plans to get there.

On the campaign trail, each has spent relatively little time detailing their own plans, instead criticizing the other as extreme.

Harris favors an expansion of renewable energy, which supplies power without the carbon emissions that are the primary driver of climate change.

She has touted her tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the broad domestic policy law Democrats pushed through along party lines that includes hundreds of millions in clean-energy tax credits.

Trump supports fossil fuel production, blaming policies to support renewable energy for rising energy prices. He has called for removing prohibitions on new oil and gas exploration to increase the supply of cheap fuel and reduce costs.

Promise: Promote fossil fuels

Both candidates promise to lower the cost of energy.

For Trump, that has involved hammering the Biden-Harris administration for encouraging renewable energy production.

Inflation was caused by ¡°stupid spending for the Green New Deal, which was a green new scam, it turned out,¡± Trump said at a Sept. 26 press conference. ¡°Do you notice that they never mention anything about environment anymore? What happened to the environment?¡±

The former president said at a Sept. 25 campaign stop he would ¡°cut your energy (costs) in half,¡± by reducing regulations and cutting taxes.

He has not produced a detailed plan to achieve that goal.

Implicit in Trump¡¯s argument is that the Biden administration¡¯s focus on renewable energy has hampered oil and gas production, limiting supply and driving up prices.

But Harris has presented her support for renewable energy modes as part of a broader portfolio that includes fossil fuels.

Harris has highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act opened up new leases for oil and gas production while providing incentives for wind and solar power.

¡°I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,¡± she said at a Sept. 10 ABC News debate with Trump.

A report this month from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. fossil fuel production reached an all-time high in 2023.

Promise: Promote renewables

Harris has also pointed to provisions of the IRA that provide consumers with tax benefits for green technology, such as home heat pumps, as a way to bring down costs.

¡°Thanks to tax credits on home energy technologies in the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 3.4 million American families saved $8.4 billion in 2023,¡± her campaign¡¯s 82-page economic plan reads.

Trump also says he supports some climate-conscious technology, including megadonor Elon Musk¡¯s Tesla brand of electric vehicles, but that Democrats have overinvested in non-fossil fuels.

He has called elements of the Inflation Reduction Act ¡°giveaways,¡± and has singled out spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure as wasteful.

Promise: Restore jobs

Biden has long talked about a transition away from fossil fuels as a benefit to U.S. workers, positioning them on the cutting edge of a growing industry.

Harris has similarly framed the issue in economic terms, saying the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies have created jobs.

¡°We have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president,¡± she said at the Sept. 10 debate. ¡°We have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world.¡±

At a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, Harris said Trump¡¯s focus on fossil fuels would hamper job growth, saying he would ¡°send thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs overseas.¡±

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have said Democrats¡¯ focus on renewable energy sources has limited existing energy jobs.

¡°We¡¯ve got great energy workers in Ohio and all across our country,¡± Vance said at an August campaign stop in his home state. ¡°They want to earn a reasonable wage and they want to power the American economy. Why don¡¯t we have a president that lets them do exactly that?

¡°Unleash American energy,¡± he said. ¡°Drill, baby, drill and let¡¯s turn the page on this craziness.¡±

Promise: Repeal Democrats¡¯ climate law

Trump has had harsh words for Democrats¡¯ climate law, blaming its spending for rising inflation.

¡°To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably,¡± he told the Economic Club of New York in a Sept. 5 speech.

He said as president he would redirect any unspent funds in the law.

Trump has sought to distance himself from the policy blueprint Project 2025, written by the Heritage Institute.

But there is some overlap between what the conservative think tank has laid out and what Trump said he plans to do in a second term in the White House.

Project 2025 calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, describing it as a subsidy to special interests.

Harris often mentions her tie-breaking vote for the law and has described her plans as president to expand on the law¡¯s objectives.

Harris¡¯ policy plan said she ¡°proudly cast¡± the tie-breaking vote for the climate bill and that, as president, she would ¡°continue to invest in a thriving clean energy economy.¡±

She added she would seek to improve that spending by cutting regulations ¡°so that clean energy projects are completed quickly and efficiently in a manner that protects our environment and public health.¡±

The entrance to the CBS Broadcast Center undergoes repairs on Sept. 30, 2024, the day before the television network will host the vice presidential debate in New York City. The Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will hold their only debate of the 2024 general election on Tuesday night. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Republican U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off Tuesday night for a vice presidential debate, the final scheduled in-person exchange between the campaigns as polls continue to show a tight race just over five weeks out from November¡¯s election.

The debate, hosted by CBS News, is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern and last for 90 minutes. The event will air live on local CBS affiliate stations?and stream on the CBS News app, CBSNews.com, YouTube and Paramount+.

The matchup between the running mates of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris brings together two men who both claim congressional records and previous service in the U.S. armed forces.

The debate also comes as the southeastern U.S. reels from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which barreled inland as a tropical storm that brought record-breaking flooding and claimed more than 100 lives ¡ª a third of them in North Carolina, a swing state in the 2024 presidential election.

Republican National Committee and Trump campaign officials said Monday that Vance, Ohio¡¯s junior senator, plans to attack Walz during the debate on several fronts, including tying Walz to the Biden administration.

¡°No amount of Minnesota nice is going to make up for the fact that Walz embodies the same disastrous economic, open-border and soft-on-crime (record) Harris has inflicted on our country over the last four years,¡± said Minnesota GOP Congressman Tom Emmer, who has been standing in as Walz during Vance¡¯s debate prep.

¡°J.D. Vance is prepared to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him for the radical liberal he is,¡± Emmer told reporters on a Monday morning call.

But Jason Miller, senior adviser for the Trump campaign, warned ¡°Walz is very good at debates. I want to repeat that Tim Walz is very good in debates, really good. He¡¯s been a politician for nearly 20 years.¡±

Trump posted Monday on his Truth Social platform that he will be doing a ¡°personal play by play¡± of the debate.

The Harris campaign has not revealed details about Walz¡¯s debate preparation. CNN reported that Walz is nervous and has been practicing with Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as a stand-in for Vance.

Walz spent Saturday in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Wolverines vs. University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football game, where he was greeted by local elected officials and rallied students about the importance of the youth vote, according to the campaign.

Military service, China

Trump campaign surrogates said debate watchers are guaranteed to see Vance attack Walz on his military service.

Vance touts his own four years in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007, during which he was deployed to Iraq in 2005 as a military journalist.

The Trump campaign maintains Walz retired to avoid being deployed to Iraq. Trump campaign officials featured two veterans on Monday¡¯s call who slammed Walz for being a ¡°turncoat.¡±

¡°He deserted his post and his unit after 24 years of military service,¡± said Tom Behrends, a retired Command Sergeant Major for the Minnesota National Guard.

Walz, a former six-term congressman who represented the state¡¯s 1st Congressional District, served in the Army National Guard for 24 years prior to running for office. He deployed to Italy between 2003 and 2004 to support Operation Enduring Freedom, a non-combat post.

A fact check by PolitiFact found he filed his candidacy paperwork in February 2005, a month before the Walz battalion was notified of possible deployment within two years. Walz filed retirement paperwork five to seven months before the deployment notification, according to the fact check.

Walz led a U.S. House resolution in 2007 to honor the Minnesota service members for their deployment to Iraq, according to the National Guard.

Walz carries the distinction of being the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in Congress, according to his congressional biography published in 2017.

Walz suffered hearing loss and tinnitus after specializing in heavy artillery for two decades, according to Department of Veterans Affairs records he shared with journalists when running for governor in 2018.

He wrote in a 2013 benefits application that blasts ¡°would knock us down and after firing I had ringing in my ears,¡± according to the records reviewed by Minnesota Public Radio. Eventually Walz underwent surgery to improve his hearing loss.

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Tom Schilling, who joined the RNC call Monday, also attacked Walz¡¯s trips to China and how the governor handled ¡°the George Floyd thing,¡± referring to protests that rocked Minneapolis following the murder of Floyd, a Black man, by police.

¡°He had 30 trips to China that really haven¡¯t been answered. As a governor, he let Minneapolis burn,¡± said Schilling, who served in the Minnesota National Guard.

Walz has said he¡¯s proud of the way local, state and federal officials handled the protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Walz ordered full National Guard mobilization roughly three days into the protests. However, Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state Republican officials both criticized parts of the response by Walz, according to a review by The Associated Press.

Walz taught for a year in the southern China city of Foshan. As a public school teacher in Minnesota he then took students on annual trips to China. In the past he said he visited China 30 times. When pressed for documentation of the trips by APM Reports, the Harris campaign said his visits totaled ¡°closer to 15.¡±

Trump visits Helene¡¯s destruction in Georgia

Trump delivered remarks Monday in front of a damaged furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, wearing his signature red ¡°Make America Great Again¡± hat.

¡°We¡¯re here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia, with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene,¡± Trump said, standing alongside American evangelist Franklin Graham, who was coordinating the delivery of supplies.

Trump also said the presidential campaigns should take a backseat to the storm response. ¡°We¡¯re not talking about politics now, we have to all get together and get this solved.¡±

Moments later he stated falsely that Biden had not taken calls from Georgia¡¯s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Biden had spoken with Kemp by phone Sunday.

Journalists traveling with Harris in Las Vegas, Nevada, reported in the wee hours of Monday that the vice president was canceling her campaign events to return to Washington. D.C., to be briefed on the response to Helene.

Harris issued a statement Saturday saying that her ¡°heart goes out to everyone impacted by the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene.

¡°Doug and I are thinking of those who tragically lost their lives and we are keeping all those who loved them in our prayers during the difficult days ahead. President Biden and I remain committed to ensuring that no community or state has to respond to this disaster alone,¡± she continued.

At his campaign rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump criticized Harris for being in San Francisco ¡°at fundraising events with her Radical Left lunatic donors, when big parts of our country have been devastated by that massive hurricane and are underwater, with many, many people dead.¡±

President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the White House early Monday and pledged federal support to the affected areas. Biden has already issued emergency declarations for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He also said he would visit the storm-ravaged areas as soon as his motorcade would not get in the way of response efforts.

Republicans for Harris

The Harris campaign continues to tout its growing endorsements from Republicans.

Former conservative Sen. Jeff Flake, of Arizona, announced his endorsement of Harris over the weekend.

¡°I¡¯ve served with Kamala in the U.S. Senate. I¡¯ve also served with Tim in the House of Representatives. I know them. I know first hand of their fine character and love of country,¡± Flake wrote on X Sunday.

Republican Voters Against Trump also announced on Sunday a new multi-million-dollar ad blitz in swing states.

The group launched a $5.8 million ad campaign in Pennsylvania¡¯s Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh media markets. The ad launch is part of a $15 million campaign that will also reach Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, according to a press release.

¡°Many swing voters are going to be making up their minds in the coming weeks, and it¡¯s critical that we let them know what¡¯s at stake,¡± Sarah Longwell, the political action committee¡¯s executive director, said in a statement.

¡°You can repudiate him without renouncing your deeply held conservative values. We¡¯re here to help establish a permission structure for right-leaning swing voters to do the right thing and vote their conscience,¡± the statement continued.

Ahead on the campaign trail

Trump is scheduled Saturday to return to Butler, Pennsylvania ¡ª the location of the first attempt on his life, during which he suffered a non-life-threatening ear injury and one spectator was killed by gunfire while two others were severely injured.

Trump also plans to hold a town hall Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, well east of the devastation caused by Helene.

A sign reminding people to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid ¡ª better known as FAFSA ¡ª appears on a bus near Union Station in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON ¡ª The U.S. Department of Education is launching the first testing period for its phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid on Tuesday, with more students set to partake in this beginning testing stage than initially expected.

The department announced in August it would be using a staggered approach to launch the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid ¡ª or FAFSA ¡ª in order to address any issues that might arise before the form opens up to everyone by Dec. 1. The number of students able to complete the form will gradually increase throughout four separate testing stages, with the first one beginning Oct. 1.

The phased rollout makes the form fully available two months later than usual and comes as the 2024-25 form ¡ª which got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020 ¡ª faced a series of highly publicized hiccups that the department has worked to fix.

Earlier in September, the department announced six community-based organizations chosen to participate in the first testing period: Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life, in Florida; College AIM, in Georgia; Education is Freedom, in Texas; the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, in California; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, in Virginia.

¡°Thanks to the wonderful organizations, we expect closer to 1,000 students in Beta 1 as opposed to the 100 we initially thought,¡± FAFSA executive adviser Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Monday regarding the 2025-26 form.

During this first testing stage, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said the department will process students¡¯ FAFSAs, ¡°give students an opportunity to make corrections, if needed, and send the records to colleges and state agencies.¡±

¡°Colleges will be able to use these same records when it¡¯s time for them to make financial aid offers,¡± said Kvaal, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid.

Three more testing periods

The department on Monday also named 78 community-based organizations, governmental entities, high schools, school districts and institutions of higher education to participate in its three subsequent testing periods for the 2025-26 form. The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority will participate in the 2025-26 testing periods.

Three of the community-based organizations chosen to take part in the first testing period ¡ª Florida¡¯s Bridge 2 Life; Texas¡¯ Education is Freedom; and Virginia¡¯s? Scholarship Fund of Alexandria ¡ª will also participate in subsequent testing stages.

To help students and families prepare for the 2025-26 application cycle, the department said this week it¡¯s releasing a revised Federal Student Aid Estimator, updated resources for creating a StudentAid.Gov account, including a ¡°parent wizard,¡± as well as an updated prototype of the 2025-26 FAFSA.

Last week, the department released a report outlining 10 steps it¡¯s taking to improve the FAFSA application process. Part of those efforts include the department strengthening its leadership team and working to address issues for families without Social Security numbers when completing the form, in addition to vendors adding more than 700 new call center agents.

Ron Grindstaff, right, comforts his wife, Marie, as they remove belongings from their home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, North Carolina. According to reports, at least 100 people have been killed across the southeastern U.S., and millions are without power due to the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª White House Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said Monday during a press briefing there are 600 people unaccounted for following Hurricane Helene, as federal officials mount a response to the catastrophic storm in states across the Southeast.

Sherwood-Randall said that could lead the death toll to rise into the hundreds, but added officials are ¡°very hopeful¡± some of those missing have cell phones that are not working and ¡°actually are alive.¡±

¡°I¡¯ll caution you, because we¡¯ve seen this before, those numbers vary widely,¡± Sherwood-Randall said. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of reporting that doesn¡¯t add up about the numbers.¡±

The Associated Press said Monday night more than 125 lives have been claimed.

President Joe Biden, who has held multiple briefings and calls on the hurricane, also announced late Monday he plans to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday. Biden had said he wanted to wait until his presence would not be disruptive to recovery operations.

Sherwood-Randall told reporters the Federal Emergency Management Agency and numerous other federal departments have moved staff and equipment into the Southeast to assist local and state emergency responders as residents struggle to access basic necessities.

FEMA, among many other recovery efforts, was speeding up its $750 payments to households that qualified for ¡°serious needs assistance,¡± which can be used to pay for essential items like water, food, baby formula and medication.

¡°This is not the full extent of FEMA assistance to individuals, but it¡¯s the first element of it that becomes immediately available with a major disaster declaration,¡± Sherwood-Randall said. ¡°And it gets people cash when they¡¯re absolutely desperate for it.¡±

Survivors who register for FEMA¡¯s individual assistance program will be able to receive federal help repairing cars, homes and some other types of personal property that were damaged by the hurricane, she said.

People who have damage to their homes should first contact their insurance companies, but Sherwood-Randall noted there are several federal programs that help with the rebuilding and recovery process as well.

¡°If people have insurance, that¡¯s of course very important for rebuilding. If they do not have insurance, they have access to federal assistance,¡± she said. ¡°But it¡¯s a long road to recovery for people because there¡¯s so much work to be done. We have to acknowledge that.¡±

People who need assistance from FEMA should call 1-800-621-3362, register on https://www.disasterassistance.gov/ or fill out an application on the FEMA app, she said.

Disaster recovery centers opening

FEMA was also in the process of opening disaster recovery centers in affected communities.

¡°What¡¯s important about these centers is they aggregate federal support in one place,¡± Sherwood-Randall said. ¡°It used to be the case that survivors had to go to multiple different departments and agencies to find out what kind of help they could get access to. What we do is we put everyone together, either in a standing building that survived the natural disaster, or in a trailer, if that¡¯s necessary.¡±

Centers opened on Monday in Manatee County, Sarasota County and Hillsborough County in Florida, she said.

In places like Asheville, North Carolina, where FEMA likely won¡¯t be able to open a brick-and-mortar center, employees will go door-to-door, she said.

¡°FEMA literally goes knocking with an iPad in hand so they can help people register for the assistance they need because they may not have power, their cell phone may have run out and they need someone to help them get registered quickly,¡± Sherwood-Randall said.

FEMA was also planning to install 30 Starlink receivers in western North Carolina ¡°to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need,¡± Sherwood-Randall said.

FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission and private cell phone companies were moving to install temporary cell phone towers and allow roaming, which would allow customers to use cell networks they don¡¯t subscribe to, she said.

So far more than 3,500 federal employees involved in response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Helene are on the ground throughout the Southeast, including more than 1,000 from FEMA, she said.

Multiple federal agencies in action

The Department of Defense was using helicopters and high-water vehicles to assist in search and rescue efforts. The Army Corps of Engineers was helping to restore electricity, assess infrastructure, including dams, and remove debris.

The U.S. Coast Guard had diverted thousands of personnel on post-storm assessments to help get ports in Florida reopened as quickly as possible.

U.S. Department of Agriculture staff, particularly in its Farm Services Agency, were working to provide emergency assistance to farmers with damage to crops and livestock.

Additionally, more than 50,000 utility workers from the United States and Canada were in the region to help the 2 million people without power get reconnected as soon as it was possible and safe to do so, Sherwood-Randall said.

¡°FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also making available generators of many different sizes that are ready to be deployed upon the request of any state,¡± Sherwood-Randall said. ¡°And as power is being restored throughout parts of Florida and Georgia, power crews are being moved into other states to assist with additional restoration efforts.

¡°We see power outage numbers improving where restoration teams are able to gain access to communities and the debris is cleared.¡±

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

An Eastern Kentucky sheriff charged with murdering a judge earlier in September has retired from his elected office following a request from the governor to step down.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn ¡°Mickey¡± Stines, 43, resigned effective Monday, according to a letter from? Somerset attorney Jeremy Bartley to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s office.

The letter said Stines “had made the difficult decision to effect his retirement” but not as the result ¡°of any ultimatum or in any way as a concession to any allegations¡± made by prosecutors.

¡°Rather, Sheriff Stines has made this decision to allow for a successor to continue to protect his beloved constituents while he addresses the legal process ahead of him,¡± Bartley wrote.?

An attorney for the governor’s office had sent Stines a letter requesting he step down from his elected office by Friday, Sept. 27, or face removal through a Kentucky law.?

Stines pleaded not guilty last week to a charge of murder for allegedly shooting and killing 54-year-old Letcher District Court Judge Kevin Mullins in the Letcher County courthouse.?

Voting is one of the duties and privileges of living in a democracy. You'll also get one of these stickers. The deadline to register to vote in Kentucky is Oct. 7. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Kentucky¡¯s deadline to register to vote ahead of the November general election is Monday, Oct. 7.?

Voters in the Bluegrass State will consider a ballot that includes the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, congressional races, a number of legislative races, two constitutional amendments and more. Some regional and local elections include a Supreme Court race in Central Kentucky and a Court of Appeals race in Western Kentucky.?

Registering can be completed online, via mail or by returning voter registration cards to your county clerk¡¯s office. Registration ends at 4 p.m. local time on Monday.?

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Excused in-person voting is Oct. 23-25 and Oct. 28-30. No excuse in-person voting is Oct. 31-Nov. 2.?

Kentucky¡¯s online absentee ballot request portal is open through Tuesday, Oct. 22.?

According to the State Board of Elections, the qualifications for voters to register in in Kentucky are:

• Be a U.S. citizen and a Kentucky resident for at least 28 days before the election. Non-U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals do not qualify.
• Be at least 18 years old by the general election.?
• Cannot be a convicted felon. For some with an expungement, executive pardon or executive order, the right to vote may be restored.?
• Cannot have been judged mentally incompetent in a court of law or have voting rights removed.
• Cannot claim the right to vote outside Kentucky.??

To complete a new or updated voter registration, request an absentee ballot or learn more information about voting in Kentucky, visit govote.ky.gov.?

Men on a four wheeler pass a storm damaged house along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, North Carolina. According to reports, more than 100 people have been killed across the southeastern U.S., and millions are without power due to the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. The White House has approved disaster declarations in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, freeing up federal emergency management money and resources for those states. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª President Joe Biden pledged Monday that the federal government would help people throughout the Southeast recover from the devastation of Hurricane Helene and its aftermath, and said he expects to ask Congress for emergency funding in the weeks ahead.

¡°I¡¯m here to tell every single survivor in these impacted areas that we will be there with you as long as it takes,¡± Biden said in brief remarks from the? Roosevelt Room in the White House.

Biden said he plans to travel to North Carolina later this week, once his motorcade and other presidential travel requirements wouldn¡¯t get in the way of recovery efforts.?

¡°I¡¯m committed to traveling to impacted areas as soon as possible, but I¡¯ve been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now,¡± Biden said. ¡°We will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis.¡±

Biden said he didn¡¯t know how much money his administration would request Congress provide for recovery efforts, but didn¡¯t rule out asking lawmakers to return to Washington, D.C., before their six-week election recess ends on Nov. 12.?Emergency declarations have been issued by Biden for the affected states, enabling disaster assistance.

Helene, which is on track to become one of the deadliest hurricanes in the country¡¯s history, made landfall in Florida last week before leaving a trail of devastation and destruction in its wake. The Associated Press reported Monday the death toll has risen to at least 107, including 30 reported deaths in the North Carolina county that includes Asheville.

Residents throughout the Southeast, including those in Georgia, South Carolina, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were hit by some of the worst flooding and wind damage.

Many communities are completely destroyed and lack access to clean drinking water, functioning grocery stores, electricity and cell phone service.

Roads and bridges that should have allowed residents to drive to pick up supplies, or stay with friends or family, have been completely washed out by the hurricane, leaving many people stranded without necessities.

The high water also destroyed many people¡¯s homes and vehicles, making disaster recovery even more complicated throughout the region, but especially in rural areas where people often live far away from town.

Senators appeal for help

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis posted on social media Sunday afternoon that the state is in desperate need of assistance.

¡°Entire communities in Western North Carolina have no power, no cell service, and remain in severe danger from flooding,¡± Tillis wrote. ¡°First responders (are) doing the best they can with what they have, but the devastation is incomprehensible. WNC needs all the help it can get and it needs it now.¡±

North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd released a written statement Saturday after a call with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, North Carolina Emergency Management, the National Weather Service and the American Red Cross.

¡°It is clear that the damage in Western North Carolina is catastrophic,¡± Budd wrote. ¡°There is no doubt that the road to recovery will be long and difficult, but we will marshal all available resources to assist the region, including public, private, and charitable. We are all in this together.¡±

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff released a statement Sunday that he¡¯d surveyed storm damage and spoken with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

The statement said Ossoff ¡°discussed the importance of communicating to Georgians the full range of recovery resources and programs that will be available upon the State¡¯s completion of damage assessments.¡±

Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack said on C-SPAN on Monday that the hurricane not only destroyed people¡¯s homes and businesses but devastated farms throughout the region.

¡°The agricultural damage there is tremendous,¡± Cammack said. ¡°They saw winds of nearly 100 miles an hour. And so we¡¯re looking at catastrophic losses inland as well as on the coast. It¡¯s really devastating.¡±

Signs hoisted by the audience for an Amendment 2 debate at the Fancy Farm Picnic express conflicting views on the school funding amendment that Kentucky voters will decide in November, Aug. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman¡¯s office has denied a Republican political strategist¡¯s open records request and sided with Pulaski County Schools regarding communications about a proposed constitutional amendment that could affect school funding.

In the decision issued Friday, the attorney general¡¯s office said the school district did not violate the state¡¯s Open Records Act when it ¡°denied the request as unreasonably burdensome¡± according to state law. Blake Gober, a GOP political strategist, had submitted a request for internal and external communications between school district board members and staff with references to ¡°¡®Education Opportunities Constitutional Amendment (Ballot Question 2)¡¯; ¡®Amendment 2¡¯; ¡®Question 2¡¯; ¡®Yes on 2¡¯ or ¡®No on 2.¡¯¡±

A public agency may deny open records requests if producing the records would impose an unreasonable burden or if the records custodian ¡°has reason to believe that repeated requests are intended to disrupt other essential functions of the public agency,¡± under Kentucky state law. However, the agency must provide evidence to demonstrate that.?

¡°The District explained that, as written, the request sought 18,473 emails from 2,123 District employees,¡± the open records decision said. ¡°The District also stated that the requested records would need to be reviewed and redacted for exempt information before they could be produced. Finally, the District invited the Appellant to narrow the parameters of his request, stating it would work with him to fulfill such a subsequent request. This appeal followed.¡±?

TJ Roberts, an attorney representing Gober in the appeal, said the opinion ¡°was a narrow ruling on the broad nature of the request.¡± Roberts said Gober plans to narrow his request. Roberts is a Republican candidate for the 66th House District in Northern Kentucky.?

Gober said in a Monday afternoon statement that while he was disappointed in the Attorney General’s office ruling, he was more disappointed by the school district. He said he would file a new request rather than seek an appeal in court to continue “seeking the answers the public deserves while seeking to alleviate the supposed ¡®unreasonable burden¡¯ that (the school district) claimed they were facing.”

¡°Their sole job is to educate but they have chosen to use their publicly funded resources to spread disinformation and lies about Amendment 2,” Gober said. “Rather than put students first, they have chosen to fight for the status quo that is failing so many students across our great Commonwealth.”

Last month, Republicans supporting Amendment 2 criticized Pulaski County Schools for posting messages on its websites and Facebook account advocating against the ballot measure. If it passes this November, the amendment gives the General Assembly the ability to fund nonpublic schools. The Attorney General¡¯s office later published an advisory that warned school districts to not use tax dollars to advocate for or against a constitutional amendment.?

Amid the initial backlash, Pulaski County Schools said in a statement that school board members had received open records requests ¡°for their private cell phone and devices for texts or emails discussing this issue.¡±?

Around that time, the Kentucky Lantern submitted an open records request to Pulaski County Schools for recent requests regarding Amendment 2. Gober¡¯s request was disclosed in response, as well as a request from the Kentucky chapter of Americans for Prosperity for communications with specific search terms, including ¡°Amendment 2,¡± and a defined timeframe.

The AFP requester told the Lantern the school district provided documents Monday. AFP is a libertarian conservative advocacy group that is campaigning for Amendment 2 in Kentucky.

Pulaski County Superintendent Patrick Richardson did not immediately return a request for comment Monday morning.

This story was updated with additional comments Monday afternoon.?

A memorial in the parking lot of the Hardin County Justice Center, where Erica Riley and her mother Janet Rylee were killed on their way to a domestic violence hearing. Erica Riley was seeking protection from the man who shot them and later killed himself. The photo was taken Sept. 22, 2024 in Elizabethtown. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also contact any of Kentucky¡¯s 15 domestic violence programs.?

This story also discusses suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Georgia Hensley feels like she¡¯s been ¡°screaming in a padded room¡± for too long about gaps in the way Kentucky protects survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence.?

Now that two women are dead in her town, ¡°suddenly there’s two or three people at the tiny window on the door¡± listening to those concerns, said Hensley, the CEO of SpringHaven, which helps survivors of intimate partner violence in Kentucky¡¯s Lincoln Trail District.?

¡°It truly has been like begging for help and no one was listening ¡­ and that’s abhorrent,¡± Hensley said. ¡°It should not take the death of a woman and her mother and the severe injury of her father for all of us to begin talking about the issues that we needed to be discussing anyway.¡±?

A month after a woman and her mother were gunned down in the parking lot of the courthouse in Elizabethtown on the day of her emergency protective order (EPO) hearing, advocates who work to end intimate partner violence told the Lantern the state can and should do more to protect survivors.?

That includes, they say, passing a Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention Orders (CARR) bill, which would establish a process for temporarily removing guns from people at risk of hurting themselves or others. In other words, a ¡°red flag¡± law.?

In 1994, Congress barred anyone who is subject to a domestic violence protective order ¡ª or who has been convicted of the crime of domestic violence ¡ª from possessing or buying a gun or ammunition. The United States Supreme Court upheld that law this year, saying it is constitutional to disarm a person in those circumstances.?

Kentucky is not among the 32 states that have enacted their own laws and protocols to separate domestic abusers from guns, even temporarily. As a result, protection for victims varies across the state, said Darlene Thomas, the executive director of GreenHouse17, a Fayette County-based nonprofit working to end intimate partner violence.?

The violent deaths in Elizabethtown, Hensley says, should spur action.?

¡°The community is enraged,¡± she said. ¡°Citizens are enraged. And our officials need to be listening.¡±??

What happened in Elizabethtown???

In early August, Erica Riley asked the court system to protect her from a man with whom, police say, she¡¯d had a relationship.?

A judge granted her request, issuing an emergency protective order (EPO) on Aug. 8 and scheduling a hearing to consider extending the order.?

On the morning of the hearing, Aug. 19, Riley arrived at the Elizabethtown courthouse, family by her side.?

The man in question, Christopher Elder, 46, was there too.?

Jeremy Thompson, the Elizabethtown police chief, said that Elder shot Riley and two others in an ¡°ambush type style¡± in the parking lot right before 9 a.m., when the hearing was scheduled.?

Riley died there, police say, the day before she was to turn 38.?

Her mother, Janet, later died at the hospital, police say. Erica Riley¡¯s father was also injured and hospitalized, but has since been released, according to a police spokesman.??

Within hours of the shooting, police publicly named Elder as their suspect. He led police on a multi-county, 100-mile car chase. After a standoff in a parking lot in Christian County with at least nine first responder agencies, he shot himself at 11:15 CST, according to Kentucky State Police.?

Elder was airlifted to Vanderbilt Hospital and died that day.?

Domestic violence, guns a lethal combination

While the Elizabethtown shooting got widespread attention, the key details aren¡¯t uncommon.?

The majority of murder-suicides (62%) in the United States have an intimate partner component, the nonprofit Violence Policy Center said in a 2023 report.?

Almost all of those ¡ª 95% ¡ª were a man killing a woman and 93% of those involved a gun.?

Most female homicide victims were killed by a current or former male partner, according to research published in the National Library of Medicine last year.?

That same research showed victims of intimate partner violence are five times more likely to die if their abuser has access to a gun ¡ª and 1 in 8 convicted perpetrators of intimate partner violence admit they used a gun to threaten someone.??

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women ¡ª 45.3% ¡ª and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence ¡ª or threat of it ¡ª in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

When police respond to a domestic violence or adjacent situation, they are required to file a form called a JC-3. Of the roughly 41,000 Kentucky JC-3s filed in 2023, 97 involved a gun.?

Hundreds more ¡ª 399 ¡ª involved terroristic threatening.

Research shows when abusive partners have access to guns, they¡¯re more likely to kill. A 2023 paper published in the National Library of Medicine found victims were five times more likely to die when a firearm is involved.?

Advocates who work to end intimate partner violence told the Lantern that Kentucky needs a way to remove weapons from the hands of domestic violence? perpetrators.?

Unfunded mandate

Even though the Supreme Court says it’s constitutional to disarm people who are the subject of domestic violence protective orders, that¡¯s basically an ¡°unfunded mandate¡± in Kentucky, said Thomas with GreenHouse17.?

¡°Our systems throughout the commonwealth are having to figure out who gets them, who collects them, who stores them, who marks them for storage,¡± she explained. ¡°How do people get them back? When do they get them back? What’s the process for people to get their weapons back when they’ve been removed?¡±?

There¡¯s no funding in Kentucky to carry out the federal law, Thomas said, which results in an uneven application across the state.

¡°Some courts will sometimes ask the sheriffs to go confiscate the weapons. Sometimes they’ll tell a person, ¡®you have to turn those weapons over to your attorney or to the sheriff’s department,¡¯¡± she said. ¡°All the systems are a little different by how they do it, but the federal law says they have authority to help see that weapons are not in the hands of abusers, right? How they go about doing that can look very different county to county, judge to judge, situation to situation.¡±?

Based on existing laws, any firearm Elder had ¡°should have been removed from his possession at the time he was served,¡± said Hensley, who is also an attorney.

It¡¯s unclear if the gun used in the August shooting was registered to the suspect. No official information about the gun and how it was obtained is available, a police spokesman told the Lantern.?

¡°The way that most sheriff’s departments serve those petitions and request for firearms is simply ¡­ they’ll knock on the door, (say), ¡®Here you go, sir. Do you have any firearms in the house?¡¯ And if the perpetrator says, ¡®No,¡¯ that’s it,¡± Hensley explained.?

Whether or not a police officer has the legal ability to enter the home and search for those weapons is a complicated question, Hensley said. ¡°I would probably argue, as an attorney: no,¡± she said.?

One exception could be if the petitioner told authorities that the alleged perpetrator did have access to weapons.?

Still, she said: ¡°truthfully, that’s an uphill legal battle. They would really need to obtain a warrant or see something.¡±?

Leaving is dangerous. It doesn¡¯t need to happen alone.?

Leaving an abusive situation ¡ª when it¡¯s often most dangerous for survivors ¡ª is difficult, but doesn¡¯t have to happen alone.?

In Elizabethtown, Hensley organized a court escort volunteer service after Riley¡¯s death.?

¡°I don’t have any faith in the legislature or in our leadership to get that done, so I’ve done it,¡± she said. ¡°And is that something that a nonprofit should be forced to do? Probably not. But is it something that we’re going to do? Yeah, it is. It is because safety is the most important thing.¡±?

Still, survivors sometimes must enter a courthouse or go through a door at the same time as an abuser or sit together in a waiting area, advocates say.?

But there are simple ¡ª and inexpensive ¡ª solutions to those physical barriers, said Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), such as bringing in the parties at different times and through different entrances and having a designated space for petitioners to wait separate from respondents.?

It¡¯s also currently up to a judge¡¯s discretion if they hold domestic hearings over Zoom, Hensley said.?

But it¡¯s a policy she says the General Assembly should codify.?

Doing so could lessen some of the physical stress of a hearing, she said. But, there are downsides.?

¡°These cases can often be difficult to determine, and so much of it is based on body language and ¡­ a determination of who you believe,¡± she said. ¡°And some of that is very difficult to do via Zoom.¡±?

While there are safety gaps, the state has a lot working in its favor: a robust network of violence prevention programs and researched-backed primary prevention, which involves educating children and other community members about intimate partner violence, said Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky.??

¡°There’s barriers to staying. There’s barriers to leaving,¡± Burch said. ¡°When I think about that preparation to leaving or making a big change there, reach out to your local program. We are here. You don’t have to walk that journey alone.¡±

Could a red flag law help???

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sponsored CARR in 2024 but he¡¯s leaving the Republican-controlled legislature after deciding not to run for reelection this year.?

His co-sponsors for CARR were all Democrats. One of them, Louisville Sen. David Yates, is ¡°working to build support from colleagues in the Senate to carry the bill with him¡± in 2025, a Senate Democrats spokesman said.?

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that people dealing with suicidality are more likely to live if they lose access to guns and other ¡°lethal means¡± temporarily, until intense feelings pass. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Aurora Vasquez, the vice president of State Policy & Engagement with Sandy Hook Promise, a national nonprofit that works to end gun violence, said temporary removal is key to ¡°defuse the situation.¡±

¡°It’s often painted as though CARR is producing a permanent loss of Second Amendment rights,¡± she said.?

But the goal with CARR, she said, is to ¡°give people help in the moment they need it most, so that they don’t lose their Second Amendment rights.¡±?

¡°We can’t collectively as a society ¡ª and Kentucky certainly should not, given that it has a robust gun culture ¡ª should not look away from the fact that gun owners sometimes need help, and it’s okay,¡± Vasquez said. ¡°As human beings, we all sometimes need help, right? Being a firearm owner does not exclude us from that.¡±??

There¡¯s no way to know if CARR could have saved Erica Riley¡¯s life, Yannelli said.

¡°What we do know is that getting firearms out of the hands of an abuser will save lives,¡± she said.??

Thomas with GreenHouse17 agreed.?

¡°Weapons escalate situations and not deescalate them,¡± she said. ¡°I think CARR protections ¡­ would help our law enforcement and our communities feel a little safer with temporary gun removal for somebody that’s experiencing an episode of some kind.¡±

Fast-casual restaurant Chipotle is experimenting with a work station that has automation assembling salads and bowls underneath the counter while a human worker assembles more complex dishes such as burritos on top. (Photo courtesy of Chipotle)

Though food service workers and economists have long worried about the impact technology would have on the restaurant labor force, pilot programs in several fast-casual restaurants over the last few years have shown it may not have the negative impact they feared, a labor economist says.

Technology plays several roles in food service, but the industry has seen the adoption of touch screens, AI-powered ordering and food prep machines over the last few years. And even more recently, it¡¯s become more likely that a robot is playing a part in your food preparation or delivery.

They may take shape as your bartender, your server or your food delivery driver, but many are like the ¡°collaborative¡± robots just rolled out in some Chipotle restaurants in California.

The company is testing the Autocado, which splits and prepares avocados to be turned into guacamole by a kitchen crew member, and the Augmented Makeline, which builds bowls and salads autonomously underneath the food line while employees construct burritos, tacos and quesadillas on top. Chipotle said 65% of its mobile orders are for salads or bowls, and the Augmented Makeline¡¯s aim is improving efficiency and digital order accuracy.

The company said it invested in robotics company Vebu and worked with them on the design for the Autocado, and it invested in food service platform Hyphen, which custom made the Augmented Makeline for Chipotle.

¡°Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans,¡± Curt Garner, Chipotle¡¯s chief customer and technology officer said in a statement.

The company said the introduction of these robots will not eliminate any jobs, as the crew members are supposed to have a ¡°cobotic relationship¡± with them. The aim is that crew members will be able to spend more time on either food prep tasks or on providing hospitality to customers.

Ben Zipperer, a low-wage labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the early fears around automation and robots threatening jobs in the foodservice industry are not being realized. Automation has shown to make workers more productive and effective, he said.

Robots have also been shown to make businesses more efficient and profitable, Zipperer siad, which creates an ¡°offsetting demand factor.¡± That increased demand and profitability can actually help keep the cost of food for customers more affordable, he added.

When one action is freed up by a robot, the restaurant has more freedom to place workers on other high-demand tasks.

¡°Either those workers are still going to help produce guacamole, because people want to buy more of it,¡± Zipperer said of the Chipotle announcement, ¡°or there¡¯s other things that that business is trying to produce but can¡¯t allocate the labor towards, even though they have demand for it.¡±

Zipperer pointed toward automated food purchasing with the use of touchscreen kiosks, which has been widely adopted in fast food service. In these cases, workers get shifted away from cash registers and toward more back-of-house jobs like food prep or janitorial work.

McDonald¡¯s shows an example of this. The fast food restaurant was one of the earliest adopters of touchscreen kiosks, with thousands of stores using the technology to collect orders by 2015, and screens becoming nearly ubiquitous by 2020.

Last week, the company said the kiosks actually produce extra work for staff, as customers tend to purchase more food than they would at a cash register. The machines have built-in upselling features that cashiers don¡¯t always have time to push with customers, and the introduction of mobile ordering and delivery has created jobs that front-of-house staff are relegated to.

Many fast food CEOs have threatened that raising minimum wages across the U.S. would equate in job loss to autonomous machines and kiosks. And while some franchise owners may take that route, it¡¯s not a trend across the whole country. Jobs at quick-service and fast casual restaurants were up about 150,000 jobs, or 3% above their pre-pandemic levels in August.

As technology takes more of a role in food service production, businesses that want to succeed will find the balance of cost-saving efficiencies and valued work by their employees, Zipperer said.

¡°As long as there is demand for what that business is producing, that will allow workers to not feel a lot of the negative effects of technology,¡± he said.

The Graves County Courthouse in Mayfield in 1942. Twenty years before a deputy fatally shot the sheriff and stood trial there. The building was damaged beyond repair in the December 2021 tornado outbreak. Photo by George Goodman (1876-1961) from the Goodman-Paxton Photographic Collection. (University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center)

The Sept. 19 Whitesburg slaying wasn¡¯t the first time one county official was charged with killing another in a Kentucky courthouse.??

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, is accused of first degree murder for allegedly shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, in his chambers. So far, the sheriff¡¯s motive is unclear.

On March 6, 1922, Deputy Sam Galloway, 29, gunned down Graves County Sheriff John T. Roach, 30, in the sheriff¡¯s office. Galloway evidently killed Roach after he heard the sheriff planned to fire him.?

Stines, who immediately surrendered to authorities, pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for Oct. 1.

The Whitesburg shooting has attracted state and national media coverage. Likewise, the Mayfield shooting grabbed newspaper headlines across Kentucky and the country. The latter ultimately led to a book, ¡°A Courthouse Tragedy: Politics, Murder and Redemption in a Small Kentucky Town,¡± written by the late Murray attorney Sid Easley, a Graves County native. Published 10 years ago, it¡¯s still available on Amazon.

Easley wrote that Roach and Galloway had been friends. Both wanted to run for sheriff in the August 1921, Democratic primary. Apparently, the two men struck a deal: Galloway would bow out in favor of Roach, who would appoint him a deputy, a post that often was a stepping stone to sheriff.

After he won the primary and easily defeated a Republican in the general election, Roach kept his word. But trouble brewed when Galloway found out that Roach planned to cut his pay and work hours. Worse, Galloway later learned that his days as a deputy were numbered.?

Galloway confronted Roach in the sheriff¡¯s office on circuit court day. Both became angry; Galloway shot Roach three times with a .45 caliber pistol, according to Easley¡¯s book.

Galloway quickly handed over his weapon and submitted to arrest. Fearing mob violence against the prisoner, authorities transported him to the McCracken County jail in Paducah.?

On March 7, the Graves County grand jury indicted Galloway for willful murder, which carried a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. The case against Galloway seemed open and shut. After all, there were multiple witnesses.

Roach¡¯s death resulted in a historical first for Kentucky. His widow, Lois Roach, was named to succeed him. Apparently the state¡¯s first woman sheriff, she was elected in her own right in 1923 and reelected to a second two-year term in 1925.

Galloway¡¯s trial began on June 26. Because he and the late sheriff had many friends in Mayfield and Graves County, Circuit Judge W.H. Hester summoned a jury from adjacent Ballard County.?

Galloway pleaded self-defense, claiming he fired only when he saw Roach reach in his pocket for his pistol. His testimony was disputed; the prosecution characterized the deputy as a cold-blooded murderer.

The jury deliberated for three days and failed to reach a verdict. Hester declared a mistrial and prepared to set a date for a second trial, Easley wrote.?

Hester gaveled the court into session on July 26 with jurors from Carlisle County, which also adjoined Graves. The judge stopped the trial after a juror unexpectedly died on July 28. The judge scheduled a third trial, also with Carlisle countians in the jury box, for Aug. 1.???

In his charge to the jury, Hester said Galloway could be found not guilty, found guilty of murder and sentenced to death or life imprisonment, or found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and imprisoned for ¡°not less than two nor more than twenty-one years,¡± Easley wrote.

On Aug. 4, the panel convicted Galloway of the lesser charge and sentenced him to seven years. Hester subsequently denied a defense motion for another trial and Galloway¡¯s lawyers gave up on a fourth trial.?

After his release from Eddyville Penitentiary, Galloway moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his second wife. His first wife died soon after he was locked up. The couple had two sons; one lived to 72, the other, born while the deputy was jailed and awaiting his first trial, died at age 5.??

Galloway was 74 when his life ended in Tulsa in 1968. He is buried in a Tulsa cemetery.?

Roach and his widow, who died in 1979 at 83, are buried in Mayfield¡¯s old Maplewood Cemetery. A metal plaque recognizes her as the first woman sheriff in Kentucky. Besides his spouse, Roach was survived by their 3-year-old daughter, Ruth, who lived to age 86.

The 1880s vintage red brick courthouse, where Galloway violently ended Roach¡¯s life and was punished for his crime, is gone, a casualty of the deadly Dec. 10, 2021, tornado that devastated much of Mayfield.??

Easley ended his book by quoting the editor of the ¡°Mayfield Weekly Messenger¡± who, three days after the shooting, urged the citizenry ¡°to be calm, collected and full of the spirit that controls sadness and tears. And yet it is also the time for wise men and those who love the integrity and honor of Mayfield to counsel peace and the law.¡±

The author concluded, ¡°The voice of that editor eloquently reminded the community that the spirit of redemption was always present, and that the wise among them should reach for the healing offered by its power of restoration.¡±

Claudia Kline, an organizer for Our Voice, Our Vote Arizona, speaks to canvassers before they set out to knock on doors in 106-degree weather in Phoenix on Sept. 26. The organization is part of a coalition that vowed to knock on 3 million doors by November. (Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez / Arizona Mirror)

Editor¡¯s note: This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these ¡°swing states¡± may decide the future of the country.

As former President Donald Trump worked to scuttle a bipartisan border deal in Congress because it threatened to derail his campaign¡¯s focus on immigration, Republicans in Arizona unveiled a plan to empower local officials to jail and deport migrants, decrying the federal government¡¯s lack of solutions.

¡°Arizona is in a crisis,¡± state Senate President Warren Petersen said in late January. ¡°This is directly due to the negligent inaction of the Biden administration.¡±

What followed were months of GOP lawmakers in Arizona making use of Trump¡¯s border security rhetoric, employing xenophobic language to cast immigrants and asylum-seekers as criminals. But there was strident opposition to the plan, too, from many Latino and immigrant Arizonans who traveled to the state Capitol to protest the legislation.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offer starkly different plans for the future of the 11 million people who live in the United States without legal status. Harris, in a bid to stave off accusations that she¡¯s soft on the border, has sought to establish a firm security stance. To that end, she has vowed to bring back and sign the torpedoed bipartisan border deal.

On the campaign trail, Trump has taken a far more hawkish approach, promising mass deportations. He has offered few details, other than that he would be willing to involve the U.S. National Guard. President Joe Biden, Trump and other recent presidents have deployed the National Guard or military troops to support Border Patrol actions, but not in direct law enforcement roles.

Immigration has consistently ranked high among voter concerns nationwide, following heightened political rhetoric and a record-breaking number of unlawful border crossings in late 2023. Those numbers have since plummeted to a three-year low, but the U.S. border with Mexico remains a key talking point for Republican politicians.

But immigration is a far more complex topic than border security alone, and strategists may be miscalculating by failing to consider some key voters and their nuanced perspectives, recent polling shows.

Growing populations of new and first-generation citizens in the swing states ¡ª with the power to sway elections ¡ª are transforming demographics and voter concerns.

In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the legislation that would have allowed local law enforcement to usurp federal authority on immigration, but Republicans repackaged it as a ballot initiative called the ¡°Secure the Border Act.¡± In a state that Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago, and where political strategists anticipate high voter turnout, the ballot measure serves as a test of whether the GOP¡¯s immigration position will drive people to the polls in a swing state.

While many Republicans hope the immigration issue boosts their chances in down-ballot races, progressive organizations are working to mobilize voters in opposition through canvassing and voter registration drives.

Living United for Change in Arizona was established in the aftermath of the state¡¯s controversial ¡°show me your papers¡± law ¡ª SB 1070 ¡ª passed 14 years ago by Republican lawmakers. LUCHA Chief of Staff Abril Gallardo derided this year¡¯s Secure the Border Act as the latest iteration of that law.

¡°Arizonans are sick of Republicans trying to bring back the SB 1070 era of separating families, mass deportations and children in detention centers,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯re here to say, ¡®Not on our watch.¡¯¡±

The ballot measure has been widely criticized as greenlighting discrimination. Among other provisions, it would make it a state crime for migrants to cross the southern border anywhere except a legal port of entry and punish first-time offenders with six months in jail. Local police officers would be authorized to carry out arrests based on suspicion of illegal entry, and Arizona judges would be empowered to issue orders of deportation, undermining court rulings that have concluded that enforcing immigration law is the sole purview of the federal government.

Gallardo said that LUCHA is focused on engaging with voters to ensure the proposal fails. The organization is part of a coalition of advocacy groups committed to knocking on more than 3 million doors before November.

¡°They can try to ignore us, but come Election Day and beyond, they will hear us, they will see us, and they will feel the strength of our movement,¡± she said.

An August UnidosUS and BSP Research survey asked Latino voters in Arizona about their top priorities on several issues related to immigration policy. The results show strong support for protecting longtime residents from deportation and offering them a path to citizenship ¡ª along with cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers. Policies centered on building a wall or mass deportation ranked near the bottom. In recent years, Latino voters in the state have helped reject virulently anti-immigrant candidates.

Latino voting strength

In 2020, Latinos made up about 20% of the state¡¯s electorate, and they largely favored Biden over Trump. Then, two years later, a record-breaking number of Latinos voted in an election that saw Democrats win statewide offices. Today, 1 in 4 Arizona voters is Latino, and a new poll from Univision estimates that more than 600,000 will cast their ballots in the state¡¯s November election.

The Grand Canyon State is far from the only swing state with both impactful Latino and new-citizen voting blocs.

Still, campaigns might be ignoring these voters. The UnidosUS poll showed 51% of Latino voters in Georgia hadn¡¯t been contacted by either party or any campaign, even though 56% say they¡¯re sure they¡¯ll vote.

¡°This is, I think, a wake-up call for both parties to reach out into the Latino community,¡± said BSP senior analyst Stephen Nu?o-Perez in a Georgia Recorder story. ¡°There¡¯s still not a lot of education out there on why Latinos should be voting for one party or the other.¡±

The numbers hovered right around there in other swing states. In Pennsylvania, that was true for 50% of the people polled. In North Carolina, it was 49%. In Nevada, 53%. In each case, a higher percentage said they plan to vote.

Influence grows in dairy country

The number of Latino voters in Wisconsin is a fraction of the electorate that lives in states closer to the U.S.-Mexico border but no less impactful. There are roughly 180,000 eligible Latino voters who call the Badger State home. Biden carried Wisconsin in 2020 by a margin of just 21,000 votes, less than 1 percentage point.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a civil and workers rights organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants. She said that over time, the Latino vote has become increasingly sought after by politicians looking to gain office.

¡°If you don¡¯t get it, you don¡¯t win it,¡± she said.

Neumann-Ortiz said that the rise of the Latino electorate has translated into political power. The group has been a longtime backer of driver¡¯s licenses for Wisconsinites without full citizenship status, and occupational licenses for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal policy that grants temporary work permits and protection from deportation to people who arrived in the country as minors.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow people without citizenship status to obtain driver¡¯s licenses. And just 12 give DACA recipients the opportunity to obtain medical or legal licenses.

Legislation in Wisconsin to open up access to either license was blocked by the GOP legislative majority, though the movement behind the proposals drew support from top officials, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who backed driver¡¯s licenses for all as a policy priority last year. Influential lobbying organizations, such as the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and the Dairy Business Association, both of which lean conservative, also threw their weight behind the push for universal driver¡¯s licenses.

Neumann-Ortiz attributes that support to the fact that immigrants make up a large part of the state¡¯s dairy and agricultural industries. And in rural areas where dairy operations and farms are located, public transportation is sparse. United Migrant Opportunity Services, a Milwaukee-based farmworker advocacy organization, estimates that as much as 40% of the state¡¯s dairy workers are immigrants. Other estimates indicate they contribute 80% of the labor on dairy farms.

Despite being over 1,000 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and border security are key issues for Wisconsinites, and their positions appear mixed. In a September survey from Marquette University¡¯s Law School, 49% said they agreed with deporting all immigrants who have lived in the country for years, have jobs and no criminal record, while 51% opposed it.

Newly minted citizens stand to break new electoral ground

Laila Martin Garcia moved to the United States with her husband and infant son eight years ago. November will be the first time she casts her ballot for a U.S. presidential candidate since she became a naturalized citizen two years ago in Pennsylvania, and she¡¯s elated.

¡°The main reason for me to become a citizen was to vote,¡± she said. ¡°You know, this is home. This is where my husband is, where my son is being raised, and I wanted to make sure that I was using my voice in any way possible.¡±

She¡¯s part of another segment of the electorate that will have a chance to respond in the voting booth to the election-year emphasis on immigration: newly naturalized voters. In fiscal year 2023, just over 878,000 immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. That number represents a slight decline from the previous fiscal year, when a little more than 969,000 people achieved naturalization ¨C¡ª the highest number of new citizens in a decade.

Newly naturalized voters can close the gaps in swing state races, according to Nancy Flores, who serves as the deputy director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant and refugee rights organizations.

Every presidential election year, the coalition partners with local organizations to assist eligible immigrants as they embark on the naturalization process and help newly naturalized citizens register to vote. New citizens, Flores said, are a great investment, because once they¡¯ve made a commitment to vote, they will likely continue to do so. And naturalized voters appear to cast their ballots at higher rates than U.S.-born citizens. In the 2020 election, about 66% of the general electorate turned out to vote, compared with nearly 87% of naturalized voters surveyed by the organization.

This year appears on track to repeat that trend: As many as 97.3% of naturalized voters residing in states polled by the National Partnership for New Americans ¡ª including in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania ¡ª reported that they plan to vote this fall.

¡°For a lot of folks, reaching the point of citizenship is really a lifetime achievement,¡± Flores said. ¡°And we see that folks really don¡¯t take that lightly.¡±

And while Flores noted that naturalized citizens don¡¯t fit one single voter profile, most of them do share an immigrant background and so are sympathetic on the issue.

¡°New American voters are not a monolith,¡± she said. ¡°Folks that are naturalized are doctors, professors. We have folks that are naturalized that are picking the fruit that we eat. It really runs the gamut, but the common thread is the immigrant experience.¡±

A poll conducted by the organization found that naturalized voters share many of the same concerns as other U.S. voters, including worries about inflation and the economy. But, Flores added, candidates who are looking to attract naturalized voters are likely to be most successful with the demographic group when they present a positive view of immigration.

¡°Looking at immigration as an asset to our country, looking at how it can benefit the economy, looking at how we can provide pathways [to citizenship] that are humane ¡ª those things resonated with voters,¡± she said.

Similarly, Martin Garcia¡¯s experiences as an immigrant have colored her views as a voter. Immigration reform, she said, is at the top of her priorities. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, Martin Garcia arrived in the U.S. in the middle of Trump¡¯s first campaign, and she said she saw firsthand what his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies wrought.

In her work as an advocate, she frequently helped families torn apart by deportations, and in her personal life, while trying to share her language and culture with her son, she dealt with nativist hostility. During one incident at the grocery store, while she was helping her toddler identify items in Spanish, a stranger accosted her.

¡°I remember he came up to me and said, ¡®We¡¯re in America, speak American,¡¯¡± she recalled. ¡°Now that I think of that moment, I have so many things to say to that person. But at that moment, I was so scared. I just took my child, left my cart there with half of my groceries, and left the shop.¡±

Today, she recalls that incident, and the rallies and protests during Trump¡¯s presidency, as catalysts for her civic engagement. Martin Garcia said she views the 2024 election as an opportunity to look out for the immigrant community¡¯s needs.

¡°We deserve to thrive, and we will be thinking about that,¡± she said. ¡°We have to make sure that our communities have the right to thrive in this election.¡±

What¡¯s on the table at the federal level??

The failed $118 billion bipartisan border plan set aside $20 billion to pay for more border barriers, expanded detention facilities, more officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, and legal counsel for unaccompanied children. The bill also included more than $80 billion destined for aid and humanitarian assistance overseas.

The deal would also have overhauled the asylum system and eliminated the so-called ¡°catch-and-release¡± system. It would have narrowed the criteria under which people can apply for asylum, fast-tracked the processing of existing claims and given migrants work authorizations while their claims reached resolution. The president would have been granted the power to shut down asylum claims processing altogether, once a certain number of claims had come through, resulting in more migrants being automatically deported during periods when there are a lot of border crossings.

For Vice President Kamala Harris to be able to sign the deal if she¡¯s elected president, it would have to clear both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, which appears unlikely unless Democrats win a majority in both chambers in November.

Former President Donald Trump has said that if he¡¯s voted back into the White House for a second term, he will oversee mass deportations in the style of President Dwight Eisenhower¡¯s ¡°Operation W*tback.¡± The 1954 policy only succeeded in removing about 300,000 people, despite government claims that more than 1 million people were deported. Discriminatory tactics led to an unknown number of U.S. citizens being deported, too.

While it might at first sound feasible and draw support from some voters, adding context quickly turns them away, said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesperson for America¡¯s Voice, a national immigration reform advocacy organization.

¡°You start talking about the number of jobs we¡¯re going to lose, and the spike to inflation, and the hit to the U.S. economy contracting that way, and a lot of people turn against mass deportation,¡± he said.

A May 2024 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that immigrants made up 18.6% of the U.S. labor force ¡ª about 1 in 5 workers.

Rivlin warned that mass deportation would necessarily result in the breaking up of families, and leave millions of U.S. citizen children in the lurch. As many as 4.4 million children who are citizens in the U.S. live with at least one parent who does not have full citizenship status.

¡°You can¡¯t deport 11 million people and not rip apart families, especially because 4 or 5 million children live in those families,¡± he said. ¡°Are you going to deport them, too? Or are they going into foster care?¡±

One of the most notorious policies enacted during Trump¡¯s presidency was his ¡°zero tolerance¡± immigration initiative, which separated thousands of migrant children and babies from their parents at the country¡¯s southern border. The policy ended after broad public backlash and federal lawsuits. More than 1,000 children remained separated from their families as of this spring, according to the most recent data available from the Department of Homeland Security¡¯s task force on reunification.

The majority of American voters, Rivlin said, don¡¯t want overly punitive immigration policies. Most favor opening up legal pathways to citizenship for the millions of people who¡¯ve made their home in the U.S. A June Pew Research survey estimated that 59% of American voters believe that undocumented immigrants living in the country should be allowed to remain legally. And while there¡¯s been an uptick in voters who oppose offering citizenship to people without legal status, they remain in the minority, with 37% supporting a national deportation effort.

EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville is now closed but before the abortion ban was one of two abortion providers in Kentucky. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Deborah Yetter)

FRANKFORT ¡ª Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said Friday he will make public nearly all of the records in a lawsuit stemming from former Attorney General Daniel Cameron¡¯s attempt in June of 2023 to investigate two University of Louisville physicians who had performed abortions at EMW Women¡¯s Surgical Center.

During a hearing on whether to unseal the case record, Shepherd said he will release an order early next week that will direct that documents in the case be released with the exception of one record filed with his office last year by Cameron. He also said names of the doctors would also remain confidential.

At issue is a sealed lawsuit brought by the doctors and an official of EMW to quash a subpoena issued by Cameron for payroll and personnel records of the doctors. Cameron sought the records in 2023, a year after almost all abortions had been outlawed in Kentucky and the state’s abortion clinics had closed.

A year ago Shepherd ruled in favor of the doctors, quashing the subpoena and ordering that most of the case file be unsealed. But Cameron blocked that order by immediately filing an appeal along with an emergency motion to keep the entire case a secret.

On Aug. 9 a three-judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Shepherd¡¯s quashing of the subpoena. Its order said the subpoena amounted to a ¡°fishing expedition¡± and that Cameron¡¯s premise that tax dollars may have been illegally spent on abortions was not supported the facts of the case.

The appeals court ruling did not identify the physicians or U of L or EMW as their employers. Kentucky Lantern, based on information from knowledgeable sources and details in the appeals ruling, reported the case clearly involved the two U of L physicians and EMW, which was confirmed last week in a document filed by the parties in the case.

The case is now over. Current Attorney General Russell Coleman decided not to appeal the appeals court¡¯s ruling.

But the appeals court referred back to Shepherd the matter of whether the file should remain sealed.

Shepherd scheduled Friday¡¯s hearing to give the parties to the case – as well as the public and press ¨C a chance to be heard on the matter. Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media intervened in the case to argue for opening the file.

Near the end of the hearing Shepherd said he would issue an order early next week that largely conforms with the position jointly taken by all parties to the original case (the doctors and the Attorney General) that the file be unsealed except for the names of the doctors and a document filed by the Attorney General last year for Shepherd¡¯s ¡°in camera¡± review that dealt with the? subject of its investigation.

Tom Miller, a Lexington attorney who represented Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media, argued Friday that this one document may be vital and should also be disclosed.? ¡°All we¡¯re asking is that the attorney general be required to disclose what it was that they thought they were investigating,¡± Miller said.

But Shepherd said that other documents that will be released will satisfy that concern. ¡°I think that when you see the rest of the file that all of the questions that you¡¯re identifying are going to be fully answered,¡± Shepherd said.

The Department of Justice on Friday unsealed an indictment detailing a yearslong hacking scheme by Iran that targeted the 2024 presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump. In this photo, Trump speaks on May 28, 2022 in Casper, Wyoming. (Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª U.S. law enforcement on Friday announced charges against three Iranians who allegedly stole materials from former President Donald Trump¡¯s campaign and tried to pass them to news media and Democrats in an attempt to influence the 2024 election.

The Department of Justice unsealed the indictment detailing a yearslong hacking scheme by Iran that targeted the email accounts of U.S. government officials, journalists, think tank experts, and most recently the 2024 presidential campaigns.

¡°The defendants¡¯ own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump¡¯s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,¡± Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Friday press conference. Prosecutors believe the defendants acted from Iran and were never in the U.S.

¡°We know that Iran is continuing its brazen efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process and advance its malign activities for the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), a designated foreign terrorist organization,¡± Garland said.

The unsealed indictment in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came three days after Trump¡¯s campaign revealed the former president was briefed by the U.S. intelligence officials about ¡°real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him,¡± according to a statement Tuesday from Steven Cheung, the campaign¡¯s communications director.

¡°Big threats on my life by Iran,¡± Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, posted on X Wednesday. Trump suggested at a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Iran could be responsible for two assassination attempts on him.

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not published a statement on the matter. Its most recent press release focuses on the Iranian plot to hack Trump¡¯s campaign.

¡®It takes two to tango¡¯?

Global politics continued to top the U.S. presidential election headlines Friday when Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Trump Tower after announcing the invitation late Thursday at a meandering press conference where he promised, if elected, to strike a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia ¡°quite quickly.¡±

The pair met behind closed doors in Trump¡¯s New York City skyscraper on the sidelines of this week¡¯s United Nations General Assembly, and one day after Zelenskyy traveled to Washington to meet with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and bipartisan lawmakers.

¡°After November we have to decide, and we hope that the strengths of the United States will be very strong, and we count on it. That¡¯s why I decided to meet with both candidates,¡± Zelenskyy said during brief joint comments alongside Trump ahead of the meeting.

Trump, who refused during a live presidential debate to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war with Russia, detoured from that stance and hinted Friday that he wants a victory for the Western ally.

¡°I think the fact that we¡¯re even together today is a very good sign, and hopefully we¡¯ll have a good victory, because (if) the other side wins, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re gonna have victories with anything to be honest with you,¡± Trump said during the joint remarks.

During the exchange, Trump highlighted his ¡°very good relationship¡± with Putin and said he could settle the war ¡°very quickly.¡±

¡°But you know, it takes two to tango,¡± he said.

Harris at the border

Harris traveled to the U.S. southern border Friday to stump for a bipartisan border security deal that collapsed in early 2024 shortly after Trump publicly lambasted it.

Harris was scheduled to deliver what her campaign billed as a major speech in the border town of Douglas, Arizona, where she planned to talk about setting and enforcing new immigration rules at the border, according to a senior campaign official.

¡°Donald Trump cares more about self-interest than solutions. He wants a problem to run on, not a fix for the American people,¡±? Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement Friday.

¡°When he was president, Trump created chaos at the border, taking our already broken immigration system and making it worse ¨C leaving behind a mess for the Biden-Harris administration to clean up. Americans deserve a president who puts national security over their own self-interest ¨C that¡¯s Kamala Harris,¡± the statement continued.

Trump is attacking Harris over border crossings into the U.S. ¡ª his central campaign issue ¡ª and calling her by the dishonest nickname ¡°border czar¡± and claiming she caused the ¡°worst border crisis in the history of the world.¡±

¡°When you look at the four years that have taken place after being named ¡®border czar,¡¯ Kamala Harris will be visiting the southern border that she has completely destroyed,¡± Trump said at his Thursday press conference.

Biden, in February 2021, tasked Harris with strategizing ways to fight the ¡°root cause¡± of migration from Central American countries, including economic insecurity, government corruption and gender-based violence.

Trump has historically painted with a broad brush the complex issue of immigration at the U.S. southern border, announcing his first presidential campaign in 2015 by describing Mexican immigrants as ¡°rapists.¡± During his own presidency in 2018 he warned of immigrant ¡°caravans¡± crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. He has promised mass deportations if elected in November.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicly releases numbers of border encounters, apprehensions and expulsions.

Back on the trail

The presidential and vice presidential candidates are scheduled to make the following appearances:

• Harris will deliver a speech in Douglas, Arizona, Friday.
• Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks in Walker, Michigan Friday, followed by a town hall in Warren, Michigan.
• Trump is expected to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama, as confirmed by States Newsroom last week.
• Not to be outdone on the college football scene, Harris¡¯ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is scheduled to attend the Michigan-Minnesota football game Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Harris will head to Las Vegas, Nevada, Sunday for a campaign rally.
• Trump will also host a rally Sunday, this time in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Corrie Shull, the chairman of the JCPS Board of Education, left, speaks as Superintendent Marty Pollio listens during a Kentucky House Education Committee meeting at the Capitol in Frankfort, March 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio plans to retire from his post effective next summer.?

Pollio, who has led Kentucky¡¯s largest public school district since 2017, sent a letter to JCPS employees announcing his plans to retire Friday. In recent years, Pollio¡¯s tenure at the school district has been beset by increasing oversight from Republican lawmakers in Frankfort and criticism over transportation issues.?

Pollio said the ¡°journey has not been an easy one,¡± pointing to the coronavirus pandemic and severe staffing shortages, but added that he was ¡°extremely proud that we made the decision to make the most substantial changes in the history of JCPS despite many challenges.¡± His retirement is effect July 1, 2025.?

¡°I am proud that I have served the last eight years in this position given the immense challenges that public school districts face,¡± Pollio wrote. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for the amazing students of this district, I would not have had the strength and motivation to persevere. I have truly given them my all. I also could not have done this without the support of all the incredible educators and employees in this district and the positive words and encouragement from so many of you. Although not perfect, we have an incredible school district where all of you give so much to meet the needs of ALL children in this community. We need to stand together with pride in that fact.¡±?

Some of the ¡°major accomplishments¡± Pollio highlighted in his letter included focusing on ¡°racial equity to improve student outcomes for our historically underserved population,¡± establishing a facilities plan that includes construction of 24 schools building over the next decade and ¡°successfully navigating through numerous audits and pushing back on attacks from Frankfort since 2017.¡±?

Earlier this year, Republicans in Frankfort passed a resolution creating a task force to review the governance of JCPS. At the time, Pollio called it another ¡°attack on JCPS¡± and warned against consolidating the school district.?

Pollio began his career in JCPS as a social studies teacher at Shawnee High School in 1997. His other roles have included principal of Jeffersontown High School and Doss High School. Pollio said he was making his announcement early to give ample time to select his successor. He added that he hopes to ¡°continue positively influencing public education moving forward in Kentucky and even at the national level.¡±?

¡°Once again, it has been the honor of my professional career to serve as your superintendent,¡± Pollio wrote. ¡°I have given every ounce of myself to this role as I know so many of you do daily. Although there have been challenges over my tenure, no one can ever question my passion, fight, and love for Jefferson County Public Schools.¡±?

Helene is expected to stall out over Kentucky this weekend as a post-tropical depression.?(NOAA satellite image)

Gov. Andy Beshear warned Kentuckians to avoid traveling on roads Friday and to be ready for a risk of flooding and power outages as remnants of Hurricane Helene impact Kentucky.?

Beshear said in a Friday morning briefing that state employees were being sent home early to get ahead of expected peak wind gusts from the storm¡¯s remnants expected to be 40- 60 miles per hour throughout much of Central and Eastern Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service.?

The governor said such wind gusts, expected to pick up in most of the state starting around noon Eastern Time, could make driving in higher profile vehicles including tractor trailers more hazardous, especially on roads that run north to south.?

¡°If you’re out in the middle of this, we need your 100% attention while you’re driving for your safety and for the safety of those around you,¡± Beshear said. ¡°Certainly a chance for some minor flooding, a chance that we lose power, a chance that we have trees fall over roadways and create treacherous conditions.¡±?

He said the number of Kentuckians without power is expected to fluctuate throughout the day. Tens of thousands of people mostly in Eastern Kentucky are without power as of Friday morning, according to a website that tracks and compiles power outage numbers from utilities.

Most of Kentucky is also under a flood watch and has a slight risk for excessive rainfall leading to flash flooding. The National Weather Service in Jackson, Kentucky is warning that because soil is already saturated from previous rainfall, the incoming rain could runoff quickly.?

The National Hurricane Center¡¯s latest report states Tropical Storm Helene is currently located over western North Carolina as of Friday morning and is expected to stall out over Kentucky this weekend as a post-tropical depression.?

¡°This is the remnants of a hurricane that’s hitting us, and I believe that we all ought to be humble enough to know that this forecast can change and that we may need to get additional information out there as it goes,¡± Beshear said.?

The Democratic National Committee announced Friday it plans to send $2.5 million to state parties. In this photo, signs marking states¡¯ seating sections are installed and adjusted ahead of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 15, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Democratic National Committee will send $2.5 million to more than 30 of its state and territorial parties in the closing weeks of the 2024 election cycle, the DNC said in a Friday statement.

With the new grants, national Democrats will have contributed to all 57 state and territorial chapters for the first time in a presidential cycle, according to the party.

¡°From the school board to the White House, the DNC is doing the work to elect Democrats to office at all levels of government,¡± DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in the statement, given to States Newsroom ahead of a wider announcement.

¡°We are the only committee responsible for building Democratic infrastructure to win elections across the map, and with a new $2.5 million in grants, the DNC is delivering a multi-million dollar investment across all 57 state parties this cycle ¨C a historic first for our committee.¡±

‘Five figures’ for Kentucky

The Democratic National Committee’s $2.5 million for state campaigns includes what it called a five-figure sum to support legislative candidates in Kentucky. The DNC did not specify the amount of the Kentucky grant.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said the party is committed to backing Vice President Kamala Harris¡¯s presidential bid while also ensuring Democratic candidates ¡°have the resources to run competitive races across the map in red and blue states alike.¡±?

Last year, the national party supported Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s successful reelection campaign. This election cycle, Kentucky Democrats have set their sights on building on the governor¡¯s victory by aiming for a few seats in the General Assembly, particularly in suburban areas around Louisville and Lexington. Republicans hold a supermajority in the state legislature. The GOP took control of the Senate in 2000 and the House in 2016.?

KDP Chair Colmon Elridge said he was grateful for the DNC¡¯s support and that it will help the KDP ¡°to reach voters in every corner of our Commonwealth and elect more Democrats up and down the ballot.¡± – McKenna Horsley

The new grants go beyond the seven swing states considered ultra-competitive in the presidential election that have gotten the lion¡¯s share of attention and spending at the national level ¡ª and the handful with key U.S. Senate races that have also attracted a national focus.

Though some grants are relatively small, they represent a commitment by the national party to states across the country, including traditionally red states, Democrats said.

Field workers in Idaho

In Idaho, where Democrats hold just 18 of the 105 seats in the Legislature, a more-than $70,000 commitment from the national party will fund two field workers to reach Hispanic voters in two rural counties and tribal members on the Nez Perce Reservation, state party chair and state Rep. Lauren Necochea said.

Necochea, who spoke with States Newsroom in a Thursday interview ahead of the official announcement, said the funding was significant both for the symbolism of the national party¡¯s investment in the overwhelmingly Republican state and for campaign operations this fall.

¡°We¡¯re just gratified to see that this investment hit all 57 states and territories for the first time ¡­ so that no state is left behind,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯re a traditionally red state, and that means we need the funding to fight back.¡±

The two organizers funded by the national money will help boost turnout in the state¡¯s four battleground state legislative districts, Necochea said.

¡°This level of investment is also meaningful when it comes to winning races and getting out the vote,¡± she said, noting that a race in the last cycle was decided by 37 votes.

The outcomes in those races could determine which faction of the state¡¯s Republican Party ¡ª either the hard right or the more moderate wing ¡ª will control the legislative agenda next session, she said.

The Democratic minority in the Legislature sometimes partners with moderate Republicans on legislation to fund education and health care programs, including maintaining the state¡¯s Medicaid expansion, Necochea said.

¡°It is essential for state government to continue operating that we have a critical mass of Democrats in the Idaho Legislature,¡± she said.

Other grants

The DNC provided a partial list of the spending included in Friday¡¯s announcement. State parties are free to use the funds as they wish, a DNC spokesman said. The national party noted some state organizations had already determined how to allocate the money.

Many state organizations planned to pursue outreach to voters of color, including in tribal communities.

Some examples of the spending and objectives, according to the DNC:

• Florida: More than $400,000 for statewide programs targeting ¡°key coalitions.¡±

• Oregon: $125,000 to help the state party¡¯s efforts in three key U.S. House races.

• Pennsylvania: $100,000 ¡°to supercharge voter outreach¡± in the only presidential battleground state on the new list. A portion of the funding will target the state¡¯s large Puerto Rican community, the DNC said.

• Minnesota: At least $100,000 to boost the state¡¯s paid canvassing campaign. The new funding brings the total DNC allocation to the state to about $630,000, according to the party. The canvassing effort will help protect Democrats¡¯ slim majorities in both legislative chambers.

• Missouri: ¡°Nearly $100,000¡± for new organizing staff focused on breaking GOP supermajorities in both statehouse chambers and passing an abortion ballot measure.

• Maryland: $75,000 for the state party¡¯s mail program, with a focus on reaching Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, a growing segment of the state¡¯s voting base, the DNC said. The DNC noted its support for U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, calling her race against former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan critical to protecting reproductive rights.

• South Carolina: More than $70,000 for a get-out-the-vote staffer, focusing on outreach to new voters.

• Maine: $61,250 for three staffers to focus get-out-the-vote efforts in rural parts of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden¡¯s swing district.

• Arkansas: Nearly $60,000 to hire six coalition directors targeting young, Black and Latino voters, including Spanish-speaking organizers. It¡¯s the first DNC spending in Arkansas this cycle.

• Louisiana: $55,000 for an organizer to help the state party reach voters in the new majority-Black 6th Congressional District.

• Kansas: $50,000 for paid canvassing efforts to break GOP supermajorities in both legislative chambers.

• Oklahoma: $50,000 to help the state party¡¯s outreach to tribal communities.

• Virginia: $50,000 for the state party¡¯s get-out-the-vote and voter contact programs, focusing on two competitive U.S. House races.

• West Virginia: $50,000 for get-out-the-vote and paid mail programs targeting ¡°youth and minority voters¡± who could affect four competitive state legislative races.

• North Dakota: Nearly $40,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts and organizing in tribal communities.

• New Jersey: ¡°Five figures¡± will go to get-out-the-vote operations in all state races, with a particular focus on Rep. Andy Kim¡¯s U.S. Senate race against Republican Curtis Bashaw. It¡¯s the first DNC spending in the Garden State this cycle.

• Tennessee: An unspecified amount to help the state party ¡°build on the organizing momentum¡± it has seen in the past year.

With many 2017 tax cuts expiring and cost of living a major challenge for Americans, tax policy has become a central issue in the 2024 presidential campaign. (Photo by Phillip Rubino/Getty Images)

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

WASHINGTON ¡ª With the clock ticking on former President Donald Trump¡¯s signature 2017 tax law, and high housing, food and child care costs darkening Americans¡¯ mood, tax cuts have become the star of the 2024 presidential contest between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump wants to overall extend his tax provisions beyond the 2025 expiration date and then some, promising to lower the corporate tax rate even further and lift the cap on the state and local taxes deduction.

He argues the loss in federal revenue will be made up by imposing steep tariffs on imported goods.

Tariff is a ¡°beautiful word,¡± he told a crowd in Savannah, Georgia, Tuesday night, ¡°one of the most beautiful words I¡¯ve ever heard.¡±

¡°We will take in hundreds of billions of dollars into our treasury and use that money to benefit the American citizens,¡± he said.

Harris is running on an ¡°opportunity economy¡± platform that keeps the Biden administration¡¯s promises to not raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 and enact a ¡°billionaire¡± tax.

The vice president has also vowed to give tax deductions and credits to budding entrepreneurs and first-time homebuyers, and permanently expand the Child Tax Credit.

¡°Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a middle-class tax break that includes $6,000 for new parents during the first year of their child¡¯s life,¡± Harris said Wednesday at a campaign speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Whoever wins the Oval Office will need a cooperative Congress to enact these policies ¡ª with the exception of tariffs, over which the president enjoys wide latitude.

What would it cost?

The barrage of proposals has kept economists busy with near-constant and evolving analyses of how much the tax cut promises would add to the nation¡¯s ballooning federal deficit and change the economy.

Both candidates¡¯ plans come with a price tag in the trillions of dollars, though Trump¡¯s is the more expensive of the two.

Models released in late August by the Penn Wharton Budget Model project Trump¡¯s plan would add up to $5.8 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, while Harris¡¯ plan would increase the deficit by up to $2 trillion over the same time period.

¡°I think that both candidates are missing the mark when it comes to fiscal responsibility and economic responsibility,¡± the Tax Foundation¡¯s Erica York told States Newsroom in an interview Monday.

¡°Neither of them have really outlined a plan that would get us on a sustainable path in terms of debt and deficits, nor that would boost growth and opportunity in the economy. Both are likely to have a negative impact on the economy,¡± said York, senior economist and research director for the foundation, which generally favors lower taxes.

Promise: No taxes on tips, overtime

Trump, followed by Harris, has proposed to nix taxes on tipped workers ¡ª though Harris has suggested limiting the benefit to workers in the service and hospitality industries who earn less than $75,000.

She has also said the tax break would not apply to payroll taxes, meaning the contribution workers pay toward Social Security and Medicare. Trump has not detailed any limits on his proposal for tipped workers.

Economists across the board warn Trump¡¯s plan could incentivize more tipped work. They also question whether Trump and Harris¡¯ proposals would actually benefit low-income workers.

After all, tax benefits for lower income workers who have children phase in as the person earns income. Reporting less income means those taxpayers could ultimately see less help from the Child Tax Credit or the Earned Income Tax Credit.

¡°If you work and you report income, you get these provisions. But if you don¡¯t, you don¡¯t get these provisions. Well, you add exemptions into the tax code that reduces the amount of earned income that you report to the IRS, you could potentially reduce the value of these credits for very low-income households,¡± Kyle Pomerleau, senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told States Newsroom in an interview Monday.

For instance, a tipped worker who has one child and earns $24,000 annually, half of which comes from tips, could see a $300 decrease in refundable tax credits under this policy, Pomerleau and senior AEI fellows Alex Brill and Stan Veuger wrote in August.

The same principle for lower income taxpayers applies to Trump¡¯s recent promise to eliminate taxes on overtime.

¡°There could be a negative effect there, depending on how this is structured,¡± Pomerleau said Monday.

The nonpartisan watchdog Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates an elimination of taxes on all overtime would cost the country $1.7 trillion in lost revenue over 10 years. With no guardrails preventing workers switching from salaried to hourly, the price tag could reach up to $6 trillion in the most extreme case, CRFB estimates.

Promise: No taxes on Social Security

Economists monitoring the nation¡¯s Social Security coffers continue to sound alarm bells on the program¡¯s solvency ¡ª with little reaction on the campaign trail.

The fund that provides money to senior citizens and people with disabilities is on track to be depleted by 2035, and recipients would face an immediate 17% cut in benefits, as the Tax Foundation¡¯s Alex Durante wrote Tuesday.

Trump has mentioned Social Security during campaign rallies and on his social media platform, but in the context of eliminating taxes on the benefit payments.

While low-income recipients do not pay taxes on their benefits, others do and are projected to contribute $94 billion this year back into the fund.

Nixing those taxes could speed up Social Security¡¯s insolvency by one year, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Promise: New corporate tax rates and tariffs

Trump¡¯s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cleared Congress strictly along party lines, permanently lowered the top corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%.

Harris has vowed, if elected, she will bump the rate up to 28%. Analyses from the CFRB, the Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton and the Yale Budget Lab estimate the increase would raise roughly $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade.

The former president wants to cut the rate even further to 15%, a level not seen in the U.S. since the 1930s. Economists estimate the cut would reduce revenue anywhere from $460 billion to $673 billion over 10 years.

¡°Here is the deal that I will be offering to every major company and manufacturer on Earth: I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet, but only if you make your product here in America,¡± Trump said in Georgia Tuesday.

Trump has big plans for products imported into the U.S. He¡¯s planning to impose up to 20% tariffs on most imports, reaching as high as 60% on Chinese goods and 100% on countries that turn away from the U.S. dollar.

That could cost the typical American household about $2,600 a year as costs on consumer goods would shift to the customer, particularly affecting those with lower incomes, according to economists Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Speaking at a farming roundtable in Pennsylvania Monday, Trump publicly warned John Deere that if the company moves manufacturing to Mexico, he¡¯ll impose a 200% tariff on tractors coming back over the border.

Experts warn another downside is that the policy invites foreign retaliation.

¡°So if we are, say, exporting Kentucky bourbon to China, China may say, well, to retaliate for the 60% tax on imports, we¡¯re going to place taxes on this export, and that¡¯s going to have a direct impact on the incomes of Americans and make us poorer,¡± Pomerleau said.

Promise: A billionaire tax

A familiar refrain from Harris and the Biden administration is that billionaires and wealthy corporations should pay their ¡°fair share.¡±

The U.S. individual tax rate already progresses with an earner¡¯s income, meaning that the higher your income, the higher your tax rate.

Both Harris and Trump want to keep individual tax rates that were lowered across the board in the 2017 law, but Harris is seeking to increase taxes on long-term capital gains, and levy a minimum tax on unrealized capital gains for very high earners.

For those earning upwards of $1 million a year, Harris proposed raising taxes to 28%, up from 20%, on profits made from the sale of an asset, like stocks, bonds, or real estate, that have been held by the owner for more than a year.

The vice president also proposes quadrupling the stock buyback tax to 4%, up from 1%.

For ultra-wealthy households that have more than $100 million in assets, Harris follows Biden in proposing a 25% tax rate ¡ª sometimes referred to as the ¡°billionaire tax.¡±

Those high-wealth individuals would need to calculate their regular income tax liability and compare it to their total net worth, meaning income plus unrealized capital gains, multiplied by 25%.

¡°Whichever is greater you pay,¡± Pomerleau explains. ¡°So if you are in a situation where you have a low effective tax rate relative to this broader definition of income, the minimum tax will kick in and you¡¯ll start paying increments.¡±

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the plan could raise $750 billion in revenue over ten years.

Promise: No SALT cap

Ahead of a mid-September campaign rally on Long Island, New York, Trump pledged to abandon the cap in his 2017 law on the state and local tax deduction ¡ª simply known in tax parlance as SALT.

As the law stands now, taxpayers can only deduct up to $10,000 of their state and local tax bill from their federal tax liability.

A full SALT deduction is more valuable for higher income taxpayers, and prior to the 2017 cap, 91% of taxpayers who claimed it lived in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.

Eliminating the cap would cut taxes by an average of more than $140,000 for the highest earning 0.1% of households, according to modeling by the Tax Policy Center, a collaboration between the left-leaning Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.

The Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates the move could cost $1.2 trillion over a ten-year budget window.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during the 144th annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in West Kentucky, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Mitch McConnell is on his way out ¡ª first as U.S. Senate Republican leader, at the end of this year, then as senior senator from Kentucky, surely at the end of 2026. There are no real signs to the contrary, but the 82-year-old Louisvillian won¡¯t come out and announce his retirement just yet, perhaps because it would diminish his influence. Washington still listens to him, and he still brings home its bacon.

When House Republicans passed a government-funding bill with a purely political provision supposedly banning non-citizens from voting (already illegal), which threatened a government shutdown because it was unacceptable to Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden, McConnell said ¡°it would be politically beyond stupid¡± to shut down the government, and House Speaker Mike Johnson backed off. Donald Trump wasn¡¯t happy, which probably pleased McConnell.

Unfortunately, a decade of such brinkmanship, episodically ended by last-minute, catch-all spending bills that avoid spending cuts to please majorities in both parties, has worsened the nation¡¯s financial situation to the point that our national debt is now larger than the gross national product ¡ª a threshold many economists warned against. That, and the occasional standoffs in Washington over raising the debt limit, threaten to undermine the dollar as the world¡¯s main reserve currency, a status that gives us unique leverage across the world.

There will be a reckoning next year, with expiration of the deficit-ballooning tax cuts passed by a Republican Congress and Trump in 2018.

?Meanwhile, McConnell has reclaimed his status as Congress¡¯ biggest slicer of ¡°pork,¡± local projects funded by federal appropriations.

In the appropriations bills passed before the August recess, McConnell had $498.9 million worth of projects, more than any other senator and far ahead of second-place Susan Collins, R-Maine, who had $361 million. Almost all the difference is the leader¡¯s biggest lick, $218 million to finish the long-delayed larger locks at Kentucky Dam, an appropriation also included in the House energy-and-water bill by 1st Congressional District Rep. James Comer.

Other biggies include $138 million for an Army Reserve hangar at Fort Knox, $50 million for a biomedical research building at the University of Kentucky, $22 million for a precision-medicine center at the University of Louisville, and $20 million to fix the Edmonson County Water District¡¯s supply problem, caused by federal removal of an old dam that exacerbated pollution in Mammoth Cave.

Democrats control the Senate, but spending your money is the most bipartisan of legislative processes; the 49 Republicans in the 100-member Senate got 46 percent of the pork. And McConnell is making up for lost time; he helped pass the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021 but ¡°sat out the earmarking process in each of the first three years after Democratic leaders brought it back in 2021, after a decade-long absence,¡± CQ Roll Call reported. At the end of that year, McConnell issued a press release decrying ¡°Democrats¡¯ reckless tax-and-spending spree.¡±

What changed? McConnell is giving up the leadership of a Senate caucus that is largely opposed to earmarks and more concerned about spending and the debt, and he seems intent on getting as much federal help for our relatively poor state as he can before he leaves office. He could become chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the catbird seat for spending, if Republicans take control of the Senate ¡ª which seems more likely than not.

McConnell is probably all the more eager to bring home the bacon from the next Congress because he knows that Kentucky¡¯s other senator, Rand Paul, would need to undergo a deep philosophical conversion to become a pork slicer. Paul is a deficit hawk who makes a priority of reducing spending and the debt. His last ¡°Festivus Report¡± claimed $900 billion in wasteful spending. (The current Senate earmarks total $7.74 billion.)

Because Paul is out of the Republican and congressional mainstream, he¡¯s mostly been a talker on spending, not a doer. If and when he becomes our senior senator, it would be folly to expect much help from him when it comes to getting our share of federal outlays. That should be a priority for representatives of a poor state.

It¡¯s good to talk about reducing spending and the debt, but as long as Congress continues its current practices, I am glad we have Mitch McConnell to slice the pork. And Hal Rogers does a good job of it in the House, as his constituents all over his 5th Congressional District will attest.

Perhaps next year¡¯s reckoning on taxes will also bring a reckoning on spending. Let¡¯s hope it does. But in the fight for federal dollars, which will continue no matter what happens, Rand Paul will amount to unilateral disarmament. So let¡¯s wish Mitch McConnell good slicing.

This column is republished from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, a nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism.

Left to right, Sgt. Edward Lenz, Adams Township Police Department, Commander, Butler County Emergency Services Unit; Patrolman Drew Blasko, Butler Township Police Department; Lt. John Herold, Pennsylvania State Police; and Patrick Sullivan, former United States Secret Service agent,? are sworn in during the first hearing of the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump in the Longworth House Office Building on Sept. 26, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Members of the U.S. House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed the U.S. Secret Service for poor planning and breakdowns in communication and coordination with local law enforcement.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump at their first public hearing praised the work of local law enforcement agencies, representatives of which testified at the hearing.

Lawmakers said initial investigations showed it was the Secret Service who was responsible for a lack of planning, information-sharing and decision-making.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the attempted assassin, at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, scouted the site in the days ahead of Trump¡¯s rally and found security vulnerabilities, task force Chair Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, said.

If those weaknesses were not apparent to the 20-year-old gunman, the entire incident may have been avoided, Kelly added.

But the shooting that injured Trump¡¯s ear and killed one rallygoer was caused by more than one? breakdown, he said.

¡°It was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country¡¯s most elite¡± security agencies, Kelly said. ¡°There were security failures on multiple fronts.¡±

The Secret Service, which is the lead agency during any event in which a person under the agency¡¯s protection is present, did not create a sufficient plan and was not decisive on key questions, Kelly said. The agency did not manage access to sites adjacent to the rally and did not effectively communicate with state and local partners, he added.

Testimony from local agencies

Local officials told the panel they felt prepared in their assignment of assisting the Secret Service protection.

Commander Edward Lenz of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit said the Secret Service had requested help from counter-assault teams, sniper teams and a quick reaction force and that the local agency felt prepared for those missions.

¡°There were additional things, obviously, that probably needed (to be) covered,¡± he said. ¡°But they never asked us to do that, they never tasked us with that. So given what they specifically asked us to do, we were certainly prepared.¡±

He added that sniper teams had not been given specific instructions for their mission.

Patrolman Drew Blasko of the Butler Township Police Department said local police executed what had been asked of them.

¡°With the information that we had, I believe that we did the very best that we could,¡± Blasko said.

No unified command

The task force¡¯s ranking Democrat, Colorado¡¯s Jason Crow, who is an Army veteran, highlighted a failure to communicate.

¡°Clear lines of communication are crucial,¡± he said during an opening statement. ¡°The Secret Service must do better.¡±

Later, while questioning witnesses, Crow said he was surprised to learn the Secret Service did not establish a unified command center for the Butler rally.

Patrick Sullivan, a former Secret Service agent who testified in his personal capacity, said that was atypical for a Secret Service operation.

Usually, a central command post is established for the Secret Service, state and local agencies and any other assisting law enforcement, Sullivan said.

¡°This is very unusual, the way it turned out here in this site,¡± he said.

A unified command center can help relay information from disparate teams, including warning the agents closest to the president or presidential candidate of a suspicious person.

Pennsylvania Democrat Chrissy Houlahan noted that the communications breakdown between Secret Service and local authorities happened because they were not on the same radio frequencies.

¡°So here we were with three minutes and every second counting, and the Secret Service and the state police weren¡¯t able to directly hear what local law enforcement actually saw, because they didn¡¯t have that interoperability with local law enforcement frequencies and didn¡¯t have possession of those radios,¡± she said.

She called for reforms to require different agencies are able to communicate with each other.

Slipped through cracks

Crooks was spotted multiple times throughout the day and identified by local police as suspicious, Kelly said.

Crooks was operating in an unsecured area ¡°where information about him was both delayed and limited,¡± Kelly said.

Sullivan told Ohio Republican David Joyce that authorities could have used several methods to secure adjacent sites, suggesting the most effective way could have been to station officers there.

Local police spotted Crooks, identified him as suspicious and passed information on to the Pennsylvania State Police and the Secret Service, Lenz said.

But that information did not reach the Secret Service in time to remove Trump from the stage before the shooting began, Kelly said.

¡°The Secret Service could not process the information fast enough to pull the former president from the stage,¡± Kelly added.

The chairman wondered why Trump was allowed to go on stage after Crooks had been flagged several times.

¡°I¡¯m constantly going to be wondering, at what point did somebody say, ¡®We¡¯re not sure the area is secure and safe,¡¯¡± Kelly said.

First hearing

After two months of investigation, the Thursday meeting marked the first public hearing for the task force, which the House voted unanimously to form in the aftermath of the Butler shooting.

The Secret Service has borne the brunt of the blame for the shooting.

Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under pressure in the days following the attempted assassination.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe said last week the incident was ¡°a failure of the United States Secret Service¡± and pledged it would spark a ¡°paradigm shift¡± in how the agency operates.

The importance of Secret Service protection and the task force¡¯s mission was highlighted again this month when a man who¡¯d been hiding in the bushes of Trump¡¯s Florida golf club was arrested and charged with another attempted assassination.

Members of both parties on the panel condemned targeting political candidates Thursday.

¡°Political violence has no place in our democracy, period,¡± Crow said.

Trump said this week he will return to Butler on Oct. 5 to ¡°finish our speech.¡±

An employee adds a stack of mail-in ballots to a machine that automatically places the ballots in envelopes at Runbeck Election Services on Sept. 25, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company prints mail-in ballots for 30 states and Washington D.C. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on Thursday that voters can ¡°absolutely¡± trust their mail-in ballots will be secure and prioritized, though he emphasized they must be mailed at least a week ahead of the various state deadlines to be delivered on time.

DeJoy¡¯s testimony to House lawmakers became heated at times, as members questioned whether delays in general mail delivery and previous issues with mail-in ballots in swing states could disenfranchise voters this year.

DeJoy also brought USPS¡¯s facilities into question, calling them ¡°ratty¡± twice during the hour-long hearing.

His various comments about the management of the USPS and how the agency plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.

For example, in response to a question from Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan about the pace of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy responded that ¡°the first rockets that went to the moon blew up, OK.¡±

Pocan then said: ¡°Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,¡± before DeJoy gave a lengthier answer.

¡°We¡¯re going to do a series of transactional adjustments and service measurement adjustments and service metric adjustments as we move forward with this that are going to get your service to be 95% reliable,¡± DeJoy said.

Millions of ballots in the mail

The hearing came as state officials throughout the country are preparing to, or have already, sent out millions of mail-in ballots that could very well decide the results of elections for Congress and potentially even the presidency.

Mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a central part of the 2020 presidential election and has remained a popular way for voters to decide who will represent their interests in government.

Voters can also cast ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day.

Lawmakers focused many of their questions during the hearing on how USPS keeps mail-in ballots secure and whether the agency can deliver them on time, though several members voiced frustration with DeJoy¡¯s plans to change operations at USPS.

When asked specifically whether Americans could trust in USPS to handle their election mail, DeJoy said, ¡°Absolutely.¡±

¡°I don¡¯t know why you wouldn¡¯t,¡± he testified. ¡°We¡¯ve delivered in the heightened part of a pandemic, in the most sensationalized political time of elections, and ¡­ we delivered it 99 point whatever percent, I mentioned earlier.¡±

DeJoy had previously said USPS delivered 99.89% of mail-in ballots within seven days during the 2020 election.

DeJoy wrote in testimony submitted to the committee ahead of the hearing that not all state laws consider the speed of the USPS when deciding when voters can request mail-in ballots and when those are sent out.

¡°For example, some jurisdictions allow voters to request a mail-in ballot very close to Election Day,¡± he wrote. ¡°Depending on when that ballot is mailed to the voter, it may be physically impossible for that voter to receive the ballot mail, complete their ballot, and return their ballot by mail in time to meet the jurisdiction¡¯s deadline, even with our extraordinary measures, and despite our best efforts.¡±

¡®I see horror¡¯

DeJoy brought up the state of USPS facilities on his own at several points during the hearing, implying that they aren¡¯t clean or up to his standards as a work environment.

¡°I walk in our plants and facilities, I see horror. My employees see just another day at work,¡± DeJoy said.

Following a question about whether USPS employees had the appropriate training to handle and deliver mail-in ballots on time, DeJoy said leadership was ¡°overwhelmingly enhancing our training,¡± before disparaging the facilities.

¡°We¡¯re on a daily mission to train over 600,000 people across 31,000 ratty locations, I might say, on how to improve our operating practices across the board and at this time most specifically in the election mail area,¡± he testified. ¡°We¡¯re doing very well at this, just not perfect.¡±

No members of the panel asked DeJoy to clarify what he meant by ¡°ratty¡± or followed up when he said separately that he was ¡°sitting on about $20 billion in cash.¡±

A USPS spokesperson said they had nothing to add to DeJoy¡¯s characterization when asked about the ¡°ratty¡± comment by States Newsroom.

¡°If you are listening to the hearing, you just heard him describe the condition of postal facilities further,¡± Martha S. Johnson wrote in an email sent shortly after DeJoy made his ¡°horror¡± comment. ¡°I have nothing to add to that.¡±

Deliveries for rural Americans

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright questioned DeJoy during the hearing about how plans to ¡°consolidate resources around regions with higher population densities¡± under the so-called Delivering for America plan will affect delivery times overall for rural residents.

DeJoy disagreed with the premise of the question, saying he believed it was ¡°an unfair accusation, considering the condition that the Postal Service has been allowed to get to.¡±

DeJoy said the USPS had committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and pledged that it would not take longer than five days for mail to arrive.

¡°It will not go beyond five days, because I¡¯ll put it up in the air and fly it if I have to,¡± DeJoy said.

Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents requested to vote by mail during the 2022 midterm elections, a number he expected to rise this year.

The commonwealth has numerous competitive U.S. House districts, a competitive U.S. Senate race and is considered a crucial swing state for the presidential election. Several of those races could be determined by mail-in ballots arriving on time.

Ohio Republican Rep. David Joyce, chairman of the subcommittee, asked DeJoy about issues with the Cleveland regional sort facility during the 2023 election. The secretary of state, Joyce said, found that some mail-in ballots sent as early as Oct. 24 didn¡¯t arrive until Nov. 21.

¡°These voters are disenfranchised because of the USPS failures,¡± Joyce said. ¡°How specifically have you enhanced the all clear procedures you referenced in response to the National Association of Secretaries of State? And can you assure us that these procedures will ensure that that doesn¡¯t happen in this upcoming election?¡±

DeJoy responded that he would ¡°need the specifics of Cleveland,¡± but said that USPS procedures are ¡°extremely enhanced.¡±

Georgia primary problems

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, who isn¡¯t on the panel, submitted a question for DeJoy about how a new regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta had ¡°a negative impact¡± on mail delivery just weeks ahead of the GOP presidential primary earlier this year.

DeJoy said the USPS was investing more than $500 million into the region, but conceded ¡°what went on in Georgia was an embarrassment to the organization, okay, and it should not have happened.¡±

¡°We are correcting for it aggressively,¡± DeJoy said. ¡°Specifically with regard to the primary election, we got through that because I put a whole bunch of people down there and a whole bunch of double-checking processes in place.¡±

DeJoy added that ¡°the performance was good on election mail for Georgia¡± and that USPS would deliver Georgia¡¯s mail-in ballots in the weeks ahead ¡°just fine.¡±

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, walks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left to a closed-door meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 26, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris admonished any suggestion that Ukraine should end its war by relinquishing territory to Russia.

Zelenskyy and Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, met for the seventh time during Harris¡¯ tenure as vice president as the Ukrainian leader visited the White House and U.S. Capitol.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet in New York on Friday morning with former President Donald Trump, who said in a press conference late Thursday he would be able to ¡°make a deal¡± between Ukraine and Russia ¡°quite quickly.¡±

¡°I don¡¯t want to tell you what that looks like,¡± said Trump, the GOP nominee, who is locked in a tight race with Harris for the Oval Office.

Zelenskyy¡¯s Thursday meetings included a separate one-on-one with President Joe Biden, to shore up continued support as the United States faces the possibility of a shift in power after the quickly approaching 2024 election.

Harris proclaimed the need for ¡°order and stability in our world,¡± and reiterated her pledge to work with NATO allies to defend Ukraine from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 nearly a decade after? forcefully annexing Ukraine¡¯s Crimean Peninsula.

¡°Nothing about the end of this war can be decided without Ukraine,¡± Harris said in comments livestreamed on C-SPAN.

¡°However, in candor, I share with you, Mr. President, there are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations,¡± Harris continued during brief joint remarks with Zelenskyy to the press. ¡°These proposals are the same of those of Putin.¡±

Harris delivered the comments one day after Trump told a rally crowd in North Carolina that Biden and Harris ¡°allowed¡± the ongoing war by ¡°feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before.¡±

United Nations

Zelenskyy¡¯s Washington visits came as the United Nations General Assembly gathered this week in New York City, where Zelenskyy again communicated to world leaders that he wants ¡°territorial integrity¡± for his nation.

Zelenskyy and Biden met in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon, where they discussed the Ukrainian leader¡¯s ¡°victory plan,¡± which requests U.S. authority to launch Western missiles deeper inside Russia¡¯s borders.

¡°Your determination is incredibly important for us to prevail,¡± Zelenskyy told Biden in front of reporters.

In brief joint remarks to the press, Biden said ¡°I see two key pieces. First, right now, we have to strengthen Ukraine¡¯s position on the battlefield.¡±

Biden announced the release of $7.9 billion that Congress appropriated for Ukraine and ordered any remaining money to be allocated by his last day in office, Jan. 20, 2025.

¡°This will strengthen Ukraine¡¯s position in future negotiations,¡± Biden said.

Ukraine is expected to request more assistance from the U.S. in the coming months.

The U.S. has directed more than $59.3 billion in security assistance since Biden took office, the vast majority of which was committed after Russia¡¯s invasion, according to Pentagon figures. Overall U.S. foreign assistance to Ukraine since 2022 has totaled roughly $175 billion.

Biden, Harris and Zelenskyy did not answer reporters¡¯ shouted questions following their respective meetings.

Zelenskyy goes to Capitol Hill, again

Zelenskyy began Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill, splitting time with Senate and House lawmakers, absent U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The meetings occurred less than 24 hours after Johnson wrote a letter to Zelenskyy demanding he fire Ukraine¡¯s ambassador to the U.S. for organizing a trip for the Ukrainian president alongside Democrats to Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro led Zelenskyy on a tour Sunday of an ammunition plant in Scranton. They were joined by Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright, both Pennsylvania Democrats up for reelection.

¡°The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because ¡ª on purpose ¡ª no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,¡± Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, wrote.

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, opened an investigation Wednesday into the ¡°misuse of government resources that allowed Zelensky to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.¡±

Lawmakers exiting the meetings told reporters Zelenskyy did not comment on Johnson¡¯s letter but rather spoke about the war effort and Ukraine¡¯s desire to use long-range missiles to target military assets farther into Russia.

Republican Sen. John Boozman, who sits on the U.S. Helsinki Commission, told reporters ¡°the more damage we can do, the sooner, the better off we are.¡±

¡°It¡¯s to the Russians¡¯ advantage if this thing drags on forever,¡± said Boozman, of Arkansas.

When asked by reporters if Biden should give permission to Zelenskyy to strike deeper into Russia, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said, ¡°I hope he will.¡±

Bennet, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters he would not repeat ¡°anything that anybody else said in that room,¡± but said he ¡°didn¡¯t hear¡± any concern over fears of stoking Russia, a nuclear power, to retaliate against NATO allies.

Rep. Joe Wilson, chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, told reporters the meeting with Zelenskyy was ¡°positive¡± and reiterated his support for a Ukrainian victory.

He chalked up Johnson¡¯s absence to a possible ¡°scheduling¡± issue.

Wilson, who also co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said he¡¯s ¡°confident things are going to work out¡± regarding Johnson¡¯s rebuke of Zelenskyy. Wilson then quickly pivoted to praising Trump¡¯s approval of a 2017 sale of U.S. weapons to Ukraine.

When pressed by States Newsroom on Trump¡¯s refusal to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, Wilson defended the former president.

¡°I defer to President Trump, but I again, I have so much appreciation that it was Donald Trump that tried to avoid all of this,¡± the South Carolina Republican said.

Trump was impeached by the U.S. House in 2019, but acquitted by the Senate, for threatening to withhold security assistance for Ukraine unless Zelenskyy publicly announced an investigation into Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, which the former vice president under Barack Obama won.

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women¡¯s Health Organization in June 2022 ended federal abortion rights. (Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom)

Editor¡¯s note: This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these ¡°swing states¡± may decide the future of the country.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly¡¯s placenta detached from her uterus when she was 17 weeks pregnant with her fourth son in 2007. Her doctor in Madison, Wisconsin, gave the devastated recent medical school graduate one option: to deliver and bury her dead child. But she requested a dilation and evacuation abortion procedure, knowing it would be less invasive and risky than being induced. And she couldn¡¯t fathom the agony of holding her tiny dead baby.

But Lyerly¡¯s doctor declined, giving her a direct window into the many ways Americans lack real choice when it comes to their reproductive health decisions. At the time of this miscarriage, Lyerly was getting a master¡¯s degree in public health before beginning her residency. She was able to get a D&E at the same hospital by a different doctor. As an OB-GYN, she soon would learn how much abortion is stigmatized and limited throughout the country, but also regularly sought after and sometimes medically necessary, including among her many conservative Catholic patients in northeastern Wisconsin.

And then, on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion rights, prompting states such as Wisconsin to resurrect dormant abortion bans from the 19th and 20th centuries. Lyerly¡¯s job changed overnight. She stopped working as an OB-GYN in Sheboygan and moved her practice to Minnesota. She became a plaintiff in a lawsuit over an 1849 Wisconsin feticide law being interpreted as an abortion ban, which has since been blocked.

When a congressional seat opened up in a competitive Wisconsin district this year, the 54-year-old mother of four joined the post-Dobbs wave of women running for office to restore reproductive rights, which this election cycle includes another OB-GYN and a patient denied abortion care. Lyerly¡¯s decision to run is emblematic of the nationwide backlash against the Dobbs decision, which altered the reproductive health care landscape, with providers, patients and advocates turning to the ballot box to change the laws to restore and broaden access.

Wisconsin is among seven swing states expected to determine the country¡¯s next president and federal leaders. And in many ways they¡¯re being viewed as referendums on how much the right to have an abortion can move the needle in a tight presidential election.

¡°What we¡¯ve seen in every election since the Dobbs decision is that abortion is at top of mind for voters ¡ª and it¡¯s not just helping voters decide who or what to vote for. It¡¯s actually a turnout driver,¡± said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations at national lobbying group Reproductive Freedom for All. The group is investing in down-ballot races in conservative districts such as Lyerly¡¯s, buoyed by cash and momentum from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris¡¯ reproductive-rights-focused campaign.

Anti-abortion money is also flowing through the swing states, led by lobbying groups Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Women Speak Out PAC. Some of their messaging, adopted by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and many GOP candidates, often paints Democrats as champions of infanticide, focusing on the rarest and most controversial type of abortions, those performed in the third trimester.

But aside from that rhetoric, many Republican candidates have been quiet on an issue that for years motivated their staunchest supporters.

SBA Pro-Life America declined an interview for this story but shared a press release outlining the organization¡¯s strategy trying to reach 10 million voters in Montana, Ohio and all of the battleground states except for Nevada. The group endorsed 28 House candidates total this cycle, and a fifth of them are in North Carolina. One of North Carolina¡¯s endorsed candidates in a toss-up race is Republican GOP challenger Laurie Buckhout, who does not mention her abortion stance on her campaign website, and did not return a request for comment.

¡°Our field team is talking to persuadable and low propensity pro-life voters to urge them to cast their votes against the party that endorses abortion in the seventh, eighth and ninth months,¡± said SBA¡¯s national field team director Patricia Miles in the press statement.

But throughout this election cycle, polls in the swing states have shown bipartisan support for abortion rights, especially when voters are educated about what abortion bans do. Voters in more than half of the states expected to determine the presidential winner have, to varying degrees, lost access to abortion. And abortion-rights activists across these states told States Newsroom they are determined to protect that access, or to get it back.

Arizona sees backlash after GOP upholds Civil War-era abortion ban

In Arizona, the Dobbs decision resurrected a Civil War-era ban that allowed abortions only to save a pregnant patient¡¯s life.

Legislators repealed the law, but abortion-rights supporters fought for more certainty. This fall, Arizonans will vote on a proposed ballot measure that would protect access until fetal viability, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Now, two of the judges who upheld the abortion ban ¡ª Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King ¡ª are up for reelection, in races infused with national cash by groups such as RFA and Planned Parenthood. Also on the ballot is Proposition 137, which would give lifetime appointments to state judges. The Republican-initiated measure has garnered controversy in part because it is retroactive to this year¡¯s election, so if approved, any retention bids would be nullified even if the majority votes to unseat the judge.

Ballot organizers turned in more than 800,000 signatures, double the required number, and overcame opponents¡¯ legal challenges to qualify the abortion-rights ballot measure, Proposition 139. Abortion is legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, but there are many state restrictions that the Arizona Abortion Access Act would eliminate, such as a ban on any abortions sought for fetal genetic abnormalities and a blocked law from 2021 granting personhood status to fertilized eggs.

Recent deaths reignite controversy over Georgia¡¯s abortion ban

This month, ProPublica reported on the deaths in 2022 of two Georgia women who suffered rare complications after they obtained mifepristone and misoprostol for early-term medication abortions. Both were trying to navigate a new state law that banned abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy and threatened medical providers with up to a decade in prison.

In one case, doctors at an Atlanta-area hospital refused for 20 hours to perform a routine dilation and curettage, a D&C, to clear the patient¡¯s uterus when her body hadn¡¯t expelled all the fetal tissue. In the other, a woman who had ordered the pills online suffered days of pain at home, fearful of seeking medical care. Both women left children behind.

As abortion bans delay emergency medical care, this Georgia mother¡¯s death was preventable

Georgia¡¯s law permits abortion if the patient¡¯s life is at risk, but medical providers have said the law¡¯s language is unclear, tying their hands and threatening the health of patients who have high-risk pregnancies.

Their cases, which a state medical review committee found to be ¡°preventable,¡± have galvanized activists in the state.

Harris spoke at length about the women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, at a recent campaign event in Atlanta. She blamed their deaths on Georgia¡¯s law, calling it ¡°the Trump abortion ban,¡± because the former president appointed three justices he¡¯d promised would overturn Roe v. Wade.

¡°This is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis,¡± Harris said. ¡°Understand what a law like this means: Doctors have to wait until the patient is at death¡¯s door before they take action. ¡­ You¡¯re saying that good policy, logical policy, moral policy, humane policy is about saying that a health care provider will only start providing that care when you¡¯re about to die?¡±

Trump has not commented on the deaths. He has repeatedly said this year that abortion access should be left to the states. He has dismissed the idea of a federal abortion ban, but during the presidential debate, he refused to say whether he would veto such legislation.

At a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump addressed ¡°our great women¡± (a demographic he¡¯s trailing among), saying, ¡°you will no longer be thinking about abortion, because it is now where it always had to be, with the states, and with the vote of the people.¡±

Abortion was a driving concern in this spring¡¯s qualifying process for Georgia¡¯s 2024 legislative elections ¡ª?the first opportunity for aspiring state lawmakers to jump on the ballot in response to their state¡¯s severe abortion restrictions.

Melita Easters, the executive director and founding chair of Georgia WIN List, which endorses Democratic women who support abortion rights, was already calling this year¡¯s general election ¡°Roevember¡± back when President Joe Biden was still the party¡¯s nominee.

But Easters told States Newsroom that having Harris on the ticket instead has elevated the issue of reproductive freedom even more and ¡°has breathed new life into down-ballot campaigns.¡± Easters said she is especially encouraged after a Democratic state House candidate in Alabama who ran on abortion rights flipped a Huntsville seat during a special election in March.

Michigan Democrats continue betting on abortion after 2022 successes

Michigan was one of the earliest states post-Dobbs to show that abortion rights could be a strong election-winning issue.

Months after the Supreme Court¡¯s ruling, Michiganders overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to protect abortion rights in the state constitution; reelected Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who vowed to prioritize reproductive freedom; and voted for Democratic majorities in both chambers, giving the party a legislative trifecta for the first time in 40 years. In 2023, the legislature repealed a 1931 abortion ban that was still on the books and passed the Reproductive Health Act, expanding abortion access in the state.

This year, state and national abortion-rights groups have campaigned in toss-up congressional districts across Michigan, warning that a federal ban would supersede the state¡¯s protections.

State judicial races, meanwhile, have attracted millions of dollars, as they could determine partisan control of the Michigan Supreme Court. Democrats secured a slim 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court in 2020 after Republican-nominated justices controlled the court for most of the last few decades.

Nevada reproductive rights activists hope ballot initiative improves turnout

In Nevada, abortion remains legal through 24 weeks and beyond for specific health reasons. In 2023, the state¡¯s Democratic-led legislature passed a law shielding patients and providers from out-of-state investigations related to abortion care; it was signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Seeking to cement these rights in the state constitution, reproductive health advocates mobilized a ballot initiative campaign, which they hope will drive voter turnout that would affect the presidential and down-ballot races. Constitutional amendments proposed through an initiative petition must be passed by voters twice, so if voters approve Question 6 in November, they will have to approve it again in 2026.

In the state¡¯s closely watched U.S. Senate race, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen currently edges Republican Sam Brown, who has had inconsistent positions on abortion and reproductive rights but opposes the abortion-rights measure.

National anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Students for Life of America have notably not focused on Nevada in their campaign strategies.

Growing Latinx voting bloc in North Carolina?

In North Carolina many Democrats are campaigning in opposition to a 12-week abortion ban that the Republican-majority legislature passed last year after overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper¡¯s veto.

In a high-profile race for governor, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein faces Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has previously said he believes ¡°there is no compromise on abortion,¡± according to NC Newsline. The lieutenant governor is now facing calls to withdraw from the race over comments made on a pornography website years ago, and Stein has started racking up endorsements from prominent state Republicans.

Iliana Santillan, a political organizer who supports abortion rights, has focused on mobilizing Latinos, a growing voting bloc in the state. The executive director of progressive nonprofit El Pueblo and its political sister group La Fuerza NC told States Newsroom she¡¯s talked to many young women motivated to secure their own reproductive rights, including her college-age daughter. She said the Latinx community faces additional reproductive care barriers such as language and transportation, with undocumented immigrants scared to cross state lines without a driver¡¯s license.

Santillan also said there¡¯s a misconception that all Latinos are against abortion because they¡¯re Catholic, when in reality opposition to abortion skews among older voters.

¡°With older folks, the messaging that we¡¯ve tested that has worked is: ¡®We don¡¯t want politicians to have a say in what we do with our bodies,¡¯¡± Santillan said.

Motivated voters in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, is the largest swing state and considered essential to win the White House.

In a poll conducted this month by Spotlight PA and MassINC Polling Group, abortion ranked as the fifth most-important concern in the presidential race for likely voters, with 49% naming it as among their top issues.

The issue is far more important to Democrats, however, with 85% calling it a top issue compared with 17% of Republicans. Among those who aren¡¯t registered with either major party, 49% called it a top issue.

In 2022, voters surprised pundits by sending enough Democrats to the state House to flip it blue. Voters were responding to the Dobbs decision, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told Pennsylvania Capital-Star at a recent Harris campaign event.

Shapiro also won in 2022, and so far his administration has supported over-the-counter birth control pills and ended the state¡¯s contract with a network of anti-abortion counseling centers. He said his administration would not defend a current state law that prohibits state Medicaid funding from being used for abortions.

Abortion isn¡¯t protected under Pennsylvania¡¯s state constitution, but it remains legal up to 24 weeks¡¯ gestation, and clinics there have seen an influx of out-of-state patients.

Wisconsin abortion services resume

After more than a year without abortion access, reproductive health clinics in Wisconsin resumed abortion services in September 2023, shortly after a judge ruled that the 1849 state law that had widely been interpreted as an abortion ban, applied to feticide and not abortion. A state Supreme Court race a few months earlier saw Justice Janet Protasiewicz win in a landslide after campaigning on reproductive freedom.

Seven months later when Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher announced his resignation, Lyerly threw her hat in the ring, running as the only Democrat in the 8th District. She now faces businessman Tony Wied. Although in the past it was considered a swing district, it has leaned conservative in recent election cycles. With the redrawn maps and national support, Lyerly said it¡¯s a competitive race.

¡°We have the potential to really fix, not just reproductive health care, but health care,¡± Lyerly told States Newsroom. ¡°Bring the stories of our patients forward and help our colleagues understand, build those coalitions and help to gain consensus that¡¯s going to drive forward health care reform in this country.¡±

Wied¡¯s campaign website does not mention abortion or his policy proposals related to health care, though the words ¡°Trump-endorsed¡± appear prominently and abundantly throughout the site. Wied hasn¡¯t said much about the issue beyond it should be a state issue, but the two are scheduled to debate this Friday night. His campaign declined an interview.

Currently the only OB-GYNs who serve in Congress oppose abortion. If Lyerly wins in November, she would not only change that (potentially alongside Minnesota Sen. Kelly Morrison) but also could help flip party control in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Most Wisconsin voters oppose criminalizing abortion before fetal viability, according to a poll this year by the University of Maryland¡¯s Program for Public Consultation.

Patricia McFarland, 76, knows what it¡¯s like to live without abortion access. For more than 50 years, the retired college teacher kept her pre-Roe abortion a secret, having grown up in a conservative Irish Catholic family like many of her suburban Milwaukee neighbors.

McFarland told States Newsroom she has been politically active most of her life, but the Dobbs ruling dredged up the physical and emotional trauma from the illegal procedure she had alone in Mexico City. Now, McFarland rarely leaves home without her ¡°Roe Roe Roe Your Vote¡± button, engaging anyone who will talk to her about the dangers of criminalizing pregnancy.

The mother and grandmother said she¡¯s been canvassing and doing informational sessions with her activist group the PERSISTers, as well as the League of Women Voters. As she has warned fellow Wisconsities about the federal power over their reproductive freedom, she said the enthusiasm for abortion rights in her state is palpable.

¡°For women my age,¡± McFarland said, ¡°we don¡¯t want our grandchildren to lose their ability to decide when to become a mother.¡±

Georgia Recorder¡¯s Jill Nolin contributed to this report.

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is ¡°at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.¡± (Photo by Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued a pharmacy benefits manager he says played a ¡°role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky.¡±?

The complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court Wednesday, names Express Scripts and affiliates as defendants and targets alleged practices over the last two decades.

¡°The opioid crisis was fueled and sustained by those involved in the supply chain of opioids, with manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and Pharmacy Benefit Managers ¡­including Express Scripts, each playing a role,¡± Coleman wrote in the suit.?

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is ¡°at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.¡± It also accuses the company of ¡°colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in the deceptive marketing of opioids in order to alter perceptions of opioids and increase their sales,¡± among other things.?

It also accuses the company of:

• Colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers to restrict or eliminate utilization management tools on national formularies that would have limited opioid prescribing and/or dispensing.?
• Deciding not to act on the vast amount of data and other information they had about the epidemic in order to limit the overflow of opioids into communities throughout the United States, including in Kentucky.?
• Dispensing prescription opioids through their mail order pharmacies without effective controls against diversion, in violation of Kentucky law and federal law.?

A spokesperson for Express Scripts¡¯ parent company, Evernorth, has not yet responded to a Lantern request for comment.?

The lawsuit says its purpose is to ¡°abate public nuisance caused in substantial part by these Defendants¡¯ unreasonable acts and omissions fueling the opioid epidemic.¡±?

¡°Express Scripts¡¯ central role in the opioid crisis was facilitated by their unique combination of knowledge and power that provided them with the extraordinary ability to control the opioid supply throughout the United States.¡±

He is seeking a jury trial, among other relief.?

¡°The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,¡± Coleman said in a statement. ¡°Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families¡¯ pain.¡±?

Read Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Express Scripts

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris speaks at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 25, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the speech, Harris gave details about her economic platform, including ways to support small businesses and making home ownership more attainable, among other policy proposals. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, laid out more of her economic vision Wednesday during her first one-on-one cable TV interview.

Harris and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, are laying out dueling economic agendas this week as the two vie for the Oval Office in an extremely close race.

¡°I really love and am so energized by what I know to be the spirit and character of the American people ¡ª we have ambition, we have aspirations, we have dreams, we can see what¡¯s possible, we have an incredible work ethic, but not everyone has the access to the opportunities that allow them to achieve those things, but we don¡¯t lack for those things, but not everyone gets handed stuff on a silver platter,¡± Harris told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle.

¡°My vision for the economy ¡ª I call it an opportunity economy ¡ª is about making sure that all Americans ¡ª wherever they start, wherever they are ¡ª have the ability to actually achieve those dreams and those ambitions, which include, for middle-class families, just being able to know that their hard work allows them to get ahead,¡± she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Harris touted her economic plans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Carnegie Mellon University. During her MSNBC interview later in the day, she reiterated her plan to cut taxes for more than 100 million Americans, including $6,000 in tax relief for new parents in the first year of their child¡¯s life.

In that first year, Harris said these parents are going to ¡°need help buying a crib, buying a car seat, and we all benefit when they¡¯re actually able to do what they naturally want to do to take care of their child.¡±

Part of her economic agenda also includes as much as $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and an up to $50,000 tax break for first-time small businesses.

She also took jabs at Trump when it comes to the economy, saying he¡¯s ¡°just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues.¡±

The Trump campaign clapped back at her MSNBC appearance on Wednesday, saying ¡°it was (another) reminder why she never does interviews,¡± and that she¡¯s ¡°not competent enough ¡ª and she has no plans to offer Americans.¡±

Trump pitched his economic plan earlier this week in Georgia, part of which includes levying tariffs on exported goods, and he vowed to place a 100% tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Harris to visit southern border?

Harris also touched on immigration, telling Ruhle ¡°we do have a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed.¡±

She also said she would bring back and sign into law a major bipartisan border security bill from earlier this year while pinning its legislative failure on Trump.

¡°He killed a bill that would have actually been a solution because he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing the problem, and that¡¯s part of what needs to be addressed,¡± Harris said.

The veep is set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee. Her Douglas, Arizona, visit comes as she¡¯s faced repeated criticism and backlash from both sides of the aisle for her efforts surrounding immigration.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week regarding her upcoming visit, Trump again dubbed Harris a ¡°border czar,¡± saying ¡°what a disgrace that she waited so long, allowing millions of people to enter our Country from prisons, mental institutions, and criminal cells all over the World, not just South America, many of those coming are terrorists, and at a level never seen before!¡±

President Joe Biden tapped Harris back in 2021 to help address the ¡°root causes¡± of migration in Central America, but he did not give her the title of ¡°border czar.¡± The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of border security.

What¡¯s next for Harris, Trump campaigns

Harris was set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday afternoon.

The meeting between the two leaders ¡°serves as a reminder that the Vice President has been a champion for the United States, advancing our security and prosperity on the world stage and standing up to dictators and autocrats,¡± her campaign said in a Thursday press release.

This will be her seventh meeting with Zelenskyy, according to her campaign, which noted that as vice president, ¡°she helped rally a global coalition of 50 allies and partners to help Ukraine defend itself.¡±

Trump is set to deliver remarks in Walker, Michigan, on Friday. Later in the day, he will also host a town hall in Warren, Michigan.

And in the thick of the college football season, Trump is set to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom last week.

Harris¡¯ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to attend the Michigan-Minnesota football game Saturday in Ann Arbor, the Harris-Walz campaign announced.

He¡¯s also slated to campaign there and will ¡°speak with students about the power of their vote and the importance of registering to vote ahead of the November election,¡± per the announcement.

Virginia Moore¡¯s widow, Row Holloway, tears up as she taps a Virginia bobblehead sitting on Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s lectern. (Screenshot)

Kentuckians who are deaf or hard of hearing can get free radios designed to alert other senses about dangerous weather through a new program named after the late Virginia Moore.?

Moore died on Derby Day in 2023 at 61. Before that, she interpreted? in American Sign Language news of many deaths and announcements about COVID-19¡¯s hold on Kentucky for Gov. Andy Beshear during the worst of the pandemic.?

Moore served as executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. People who knew her have described her as a fierce advocate for the hard of hearing community.?

Now, an emergency preparedness program called ¡°Moore Safe Nights¡± will honor that legacy.?

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management (KYEM) used federal grant money to buy 700 radios that have vibrating and bright spotlight attachments specifically for people with hearing impairments.?

The vibrating attachment can go under a person¡¯s pillow and shake them during an alarm. The other can be attached to a bed frame and it will brightly flash in the dark. They will also display text of alerts from the National Weather Service.?

¡°As Kentuckians know all too well, severe weather can strike at any hour; the most dangerous time is when people are sleeping,¡± Beshear said during a Thursday press conference. ¡°The deaf and hard of hearing community is particularly vulnerable during this time, since they cannot hear the various alarms and severe weather sirens upon which most of us rely.¡±?

Anita Dowd, who serves as the executive director for the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, called the radios a ¡°game changer.¡±?

¡°As one of the 700,000 Kentuckians with hearing loss, and mama to two daughters with hearing loss, I can personally attest to how profound the impact will be from this program,¡± Dowd said. ¡°For people like myself who can’t access information through auditory channels, we often depend on our other senses to keep us aware. In a way, our eyes become our ears, and when we close our eyes and go to sleep, that access to awareness is gone.¡±?

Kentucky sign language interpreters embody others’ words, are servants at heart

Moore¡¯s widow, Row Holloway, teared up as she tapped a Virginia bobblehead sitting on Beshear¡¯s lectern.?

¡°I’m glad that her memory is still alive as she continues to serve people in Kentucky,¡± Holloway said.?

How to get a free radio?

You must live in Kentucky and be hard of hearing to qualify for this program.?

Eligible Kentuckians can go to https://www.kcdhh.ky.gov/msn/ or call 800-372-2907 or 502-416-0607 to apply for a radio. They will be distributed on a first come, first served basis, Beshear said.?

To watch a video in American Sign Language about this program, visit this site.?

Funding for the initial 700 radios came from an emergency preparedness grant and Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program funds, Beshear said.

¡°While only 700 radios are available under this initial funding, KYEM and all of us will seek additional funds to try to make sure one of these is available for absolutely everyone who needs them,¡± Beshear said. ¡°I hope we get all 700 out very quickly.¡±?

Bestselling Canadian novelist and essayist Emily St. John Mandel will discuss her work ¡ª including ¡°Station Eleven,¡± a 2014 novel about a global pandemic¡¯s aftermath ¡ª? at 6 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Transylvania University in Lexington.

The event is part of this year¡¯s Bale Boone Symposium organized by the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky.

Mandel will participate in a moderated conversation with Gaines Center director Michelle Sizemore, who says Mandel¡¯s ¡°work could not be more relevant for our time.¡±?

In ¡°Station Eleven,¡± which has been translated in 33 languages and was adapted into an HBO miniseries, ¡°a global pandemic ravages the human population and survivors search for meaning and purpose after civilization¡¯s collapse. The story follows the remarkable journey of the Traveling Symphony, a Shakespeare troupe dedicated to making and sharing art amid the devastation.

¡°The group¡¯s mantra, ?Survival is Insufficient,¡¯ reinforces not only the basic needs of food, shelter, clean air and water, and health care for our lives, but simultaneously, the necessity of the arts and humanities for our existence,¡± said Sizemore.

Former President Barack Obama named ¡°The Glass Hotel¡± one of his favorites books of 2020. In it the Canadian novelist ¡°weaves several narratives together as it tells a story of financial corruption, greed and a massive Ponzi scheme,¡± according to CBC Books. Some of the plot unfolds in Mandel¡¯s native Vancouver.

Like all Gaines Center events, Mandel¡¯s appearance will be open to the public, but registration is required at ¡°An Evening with Emily St. John Mandel.¡±?

A book signing will follow the discussion.

A youngster holds up a pro-union sign during a break between speeches at Laborfest in Milwaukee. Both presidential candidates are trying to appeal to union members. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

Editor¡¯s note: This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these ¡°swing states¡± may decide the future of the country.

Wisconsin carpenter Efrain Campos just retired this summer after 30 years, working mostly in commercial multi-story buildings ¡ª ¡°from 15 floors and up,¡± he said. For him the last four years have been a boom period.

On Labor Day, Campos, 68, was among the thousands of union members and their families who turned out for Laborfest on Milwaukee¡¯s festival grounds on the shores of Lake Michigan.

He had planned to vote for President Joe Biden for a second term in office, but when the Democratic Party pivoted to Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate, he pivoted as well. ¡°We need somebody to help the middle people,¡± he said, ¡°so they can advance, get a little bit better than what we are now.¡±

Campos dismisses the notion that the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, is a pro-worker candidate despite Trump¡¯s populist appeal that grabbed a slice of the working class electorate in 2016.

¡°Not at all,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s ignorant. He¡¯s a rich man, he gets his way. That¡¯s not what this country is about.¡±

As the Nov. 5 presidential election nears, Democrats are counting on union workers to deliver voters, particularly in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada where unions have remained an influential bloc, even as their strength has declined over the decades.

Many labor union leaders say they¡¯re working as hard as they ever have to oppose Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump and elect Vice President Kamala Harris. The AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 unions that range from Major League Baseball players to firefighters to workers in the food industry, has endorsed Harris.

A growing share of rank-and-file union members, however, have been less likely to follow their leadership ¡ª some of them among Trump¡¯s base.

¡°It has to be recognized that union members are not monolithic in terms of the party they support,¡± said Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University. ¡°Many unions have 30, 40, maybe 50% or more of their members who either are registered Republicans or are going to support Donald Trump in this election.¡±

Last week, International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O¡¯Brien announced the union¡¯s executive council would not endorse either ticket and cited the support of a majority of his members for Trump. (The Teamsters aren¡¯t part of the AFL-CIO).

Other union leaders insist that O¡¯Brien is an outlier.

Nick Webber, a political organizer for the North American Building Trades Unions, said, ¡°It¡¯s unprecedented the amount of interest in people in getting involved¡± as he marshals? union canvassers this fall for the Democratic national ticket. He said in his conversations he¡¯s hearing union members say ¡°not only, ¡®am I going to be voting,¡¯ and [that they¡¯re] tuned in, but ¡®how can I get involved¡¯ and ¡®doing my part.¡¯¡±

Appeals to steel and culinary workers

When Biden dropped out July 21, the national executive council of the 12.5 million-member AFL-CIO endorsed Harris the next day ¡°because we knew that the administration that has been fighting for working people for the last three and a half years, we know what they¡¯ve delivered, and we knew that her record spoke for itself,¡± said Liz Shuler, national AFL-CIO president, in an interview with NC Newsline.

But the Trump campaign is continuing to try to reach union voters, even as union leaders argue his record as president and his rhetoric ¡ª such as suggesting in a conversation with Elon Musk that employers should fire strikers ¡ª should make him unacceptable.

In an appeal to United Steelworkers, the most powerful union in western Pennsylvania, Trump said in January he would block a potential acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan-based Nippon Steel.

Nevertheless the union endorsed Biden, who said in a visit in April he also opposed the sale. Both he and Harris reiterated that stance during a Labor Day visit to Pittsburgh. ¡°I couldn¡¯t agree more with President Biden: U.S. Steel should remain in American hands,¡± Harris said.

In Nevada, Trump held a rally in June where he proposed ending federal taxes on tipped income ¡ª an appeal aimed at the workers in the state¡¯s largest industry, hotel-casinos.

Harris adopted the no-tax-on-tips position as well in a visit in August, a day after the powerful Culinary Workers Local Union 226, endorsed her. The union reports that its 60,000 members are 55% women and 60% immigrants.

In a return visit in August, Trump suggested his ¡°no tax on tips¡± position would draw Culinary members¡¯ support ¡ª ¡°A lot of them are voting for us, I can tell you that,¡± he said.

But the union responded by doubling down on its support for Harris, who on a visit months before had celebrated the union¡¯s successful contract negotiations with the Las Vegas Strip¡¯s largest gambling-resort corporations.

¡°Kamala Harris has promised to raise the minimum wage for all workers ¡ª including tipped workers ¡ª and eliminate tax on tips,¡± said Culinary Vice President Leain Vashon. Vashon said Trump didn¡¯t help tipped workers while he was president, so ¡°Why would we trust him? Kamala has a plan, Trump has a slogan.¡±

Making the case

For most union leaders, the case for Harris is the stark contrast they see between Trump¡¯s record in the White House from 2016 to 2020 and that of his successor.

¡°When you talk about the politics of what¡¯s at stake in this election, it¡¯s very clear,¡± said Kent Miller, president and business manager for the Laborers Union Wisconsin District Council.

The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, the 2022 bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which passed with only Democratic votes, opened the sluices to fund a range of investments in roads and bridges, clean energy and electric vehicle infrastructure.

The programs include strong incentives for union labor and for the enrollment of new apprentices in training programs operated by unions and their employers.

Larry Davis, a Michigan United Auto Workers local president, said Biden-Harris administration policies helped boost the auto industry.

¡°I can just go from Detroit-Hamtramck, [which was] on the brink of closing, and now you have over 3,000 almost 4,000 workers in there now,¡± Davis said.

But the messages unions have been pushing about manufacturing growth, the infrastructure advances and jobs ¡ª even unemployment rates that have fallen to just over 4% nationally and 3% or lower in states such as Wisconsin ¡ª have been slow to resonate with voters who are focused on higher prices resulting from supply chain shortages.

¡°Part of that is the investment is still in the works,¡± said William Jones, a labor historian at the University of Minnesota. ¡°It was slow to be distributed, and it depended largely on state and local government taking it up and creating jobs. It¡¯s possible some people haven¡¯t felt the full impact.¡±

Jones also suggests there may have been inadequate messaging from the administration ¡ª something that unions are trying to make up for in their member outreach.

Beyond what Miller and other union leaders see as those bread-and-butter accomplishments are other policy stakes in who holds the White House, such as the makeup of the National Labor Relations Board and who holds the post of general counsel, the principal architect of the agency¡¯s legal perspective.

Those differences further underscore what most union leaders see as a sharp distinction between the two tickets. ¡°We¡¯ve seen both these movies before,¡± said Webber of the electrical workers union.

Under the Trump administration the NLRB veered to positions less favorable to unions, Miller observed. Under Biden, it has issued more decisions that have supported union positions.

How much does Trump appeal?

Can the former president succeed in once again carving out some support among union voters?

Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, all previously reliable Democratic states with strong union political involvement, famously flipped to Trump by narrow margins in 2016, leading to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton¡¯s defeat that year. All three flipped back to help carry Biden to victory against Trump in 2020.

Jones said Trump¡¯s criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2016 ¡ª enacted under Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993 ¡ª ¡°helped him among a certain demographic in 2016¡± ¡ª primarily working class white men from rural and small town regions.

When Teamsters President O¡¯Brien announced the union wouldn¡¯t make an endorsement this year, the union released a poll of rank-and-file members that found nearly 60% support for Trump compared to 31% for Harris. The union said the survey was conducted by Lake Research Partners, a Democratic polling firm.

O¡¯Brien¡¯s announcement followed his precedent-breaking speech to the Republican National Convention in July, where he called Trump ¡°one tough SOB,¡± proclaimed a willingness to work with either political party and attacked business lobbies and corporations.

¡°I think he feels that at least half of his members are Trump supporters,¡± said Clark, the Penn State professor, in an interview before the non-endorsement announcement. ¡°And while I think he recognizes that Biden has been very pro-labor, you know, politically, I think he felt a need to sort of send a message to his members that he hears them.¡±

The outcome opened up a rift in the union, however. Within hours of O¡¯Brien¡¯s announcement, local, state and regional Teamsters bodies representing at least 500,000 members of the 1.3 million-member union endorsed Harris, including groups? in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.

The pro-Harris Teamsters highlighted Biden¡¯s role in signing legislation, included in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, that shored up the union¡¯s Central States Pension Fund. The fund faced insolvency by 2026 after years of underfunding.

In a statement, Bill Carroll, president of the union¡¯s Council 39, representing about 15,000 Wisconsin Teamsters, said Harris would also build on Biden¡¯s pro-union record. ¡°In contrast, Donald Trump tried to gut workers¡¯ rights as president by appointing union busters to the NLRB and advocating for national right-to-work,¡± Carroll said. ¡°Trump¡¯s project 2025 would go even further, attacking the ability for unions to even have the ability to organize.¡±

The labor-related provisions in the Heritage Foundation¡¯s Project 2025 document ¡ª billed as a blueprint for the next Republican White House ¡ª include proposals that experts have said would eliminate public sector unions nationwide, make forming private sector unions more difficult and allow states to opt out of federal labor laws. Other proposals would reduce federal protections for workers whether unionized or not.

Union messaging to members has emphasized the document and its ties to Trump, despite his repeated disavowal of the agenda and claims of ignorance about its contents.

¡°It is absolutely his plan,¡± the AFL-CIO¡¯s Shuler told NC Newsline. ¡°He¡¯s had over 100 former administration officials and the Heritage Foundation basically writing the blueprint for his next term, which would eliminate unions as we know it.¡±

Reaching out to members

Union leaders say they¡¯re trying to make sure their members are seeing the campaign the way they see it.

In Nevada, where the Culinary¡¯s canvassing and get-out-the-vote effort is regarded as one of the state¡¯s most formidable, the union boasts that during the 2022 campaign cycle it knocked on 1 million doors.

This year, UNITE HERE says it is once again mobilizing its members and plans to knock on more than 3 million doors in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan ¡°to ensure that Kamala Harris wins the presidency.¡±

In Wisconsin, the Laborers are building political messaging into a union project to engage members more closely, ¡°connecting union members with other union members,¡± Miller said, to explain how negotiations affect wages and health and retirement benefits, as well as the importance of increasing union representation.

¡°We¡¯re a jobs club,¡± Miller said. The message to the union members, he adds, is that ¡°at the end of the day it¡¯s everybody¡¯s right to decide who to vote for ¡ª but we want to let you guys know these are the issues at stake in this upcoming election.¡±

Experienced union members are holding one-on-one conversations, particularly with newer and younger members. ¡°We¡¯re not just doing phone calls, we¡¯re doing job site visits, and member-to-member doing doors,¡± Miller said.

Webber¡¯s work with the building trades group is similar. ¡°We¡¯ve been doing a lot of reaching out and making sure to have those conversations,¡± he said ¡ª on job sites and during union meetings.

The message: ¡°These jobs don¡¯t come out of thin air,¡± Webber says. ¡°There¡¯s been strategic, intentional investment for a need in the community.¡±

The communications don¡¯t just focus on other union members, either, he said. ¡°You need to be sure people on the periphery of the union hear [the message],¡± said Webber. ¡°Union household members are a huge part of these conversations ¡ª a partner, a spouse or child.¡±

On Monday, the United Auto Workers union unveiled a national YouTube video aimed directly at members who might still see Trump through the lens of his attacks on NAFTA in his first presidential campaign.

The UAW has endorsed Harris. In the 3 1/2-minute video, UAW President Shawn Fain finds both Democrats and Republicans culpable for NAFTA and the factory closings over the quarter-century since it was enacted. In 2016, Fain says, ¡°All of that pain had to go somewhere. And for a lot of working-class people, it went to voting for Donald Trump.¡±

The video, however, portrays Trump as a con man, highlighting his 2017 tax cut as favoring the wealthy and the USMCA, the trade law Trump enacted, as no better than NAFTA, which it replaced.

While emphasizing that ¡°both parties have done harm to the working class,¡± Fain said that under Biden and Harris, ¡°we¡¯ve seen the tide starting to turn.¡±

Under Biden there¡¯s been ¡°more manufacturing investment in this country than at any point in my lifetime,¡± he says, and under Harris, ¡°the Democratic Party is getting back to its roots.¡±

Paula Uhing is president of the local Steelworkers union at a suburban Milwaukee factory. She¡¯s another enthusiastic Harris supporter, but said she and other labor leaders ¡°know that we still have a lot of work to do¡± to pull more union voters behind the vice president.

¡°We have so many union members that vote against their own interests,¡± Uhing said. ¡°It¡¯s just because they¡¯re not paying attention, they¡¯re not listening to the right people.¡±

She describes herself as ¡°optimistically cautious,¡± though. One reason has been some of the conversations she¡¯s had with coworkers.

¡°There are people at work who are not necessarily turning away from the Republican Party altogether, but they are considering the Democratic ticket,¡± Uhing said. ¡°They¡¯re looking at it in a completely different way than they did last cycle, which is a good thing.¡±

Kim Lyons, Pennsylvania Capital-Star; Hugh Jackson, Nevada Current; Rob Schofield, NC Newsline; and Andrew Roth, for Michigan Advance, contributed reporting for this story.

The days of ¡°when they go low ¡­ we go high¡± are long gone. At this point, our discourse could devolve into ¡°yo mama¡± jokes, and no one would blink.?(Getty Images)

Democratic Party messaging couldn’t be called punchy ¡ª until now.

This election season, Democrats are going for the jugular rhetorically with cries of ¡°Stop Project 2025,¡± ¡°Mind your own da¡ªbusiness,¡± and ¡°We are not going back.¡± The left is now employing the visceral, simplistic, fear-inducing messaging strategy that Republicans had heretofore owned (re: Southern Strategy, Willie Horton, Monica Lewinsky).?

In the past, Democrats would flash facts and figures, wax poetic, or attempt to appeal to logic when selling the merits of liberal policy. Now, the coconut-emoji keyboard warriors, the wordsmiths at KamalaHQ and the Republicans-turned-Democrat-allies at The Lincoln Project are leaning into the messaging of zero-sum games and existential political threats.?

Democrat TV ads feature gutting stories about child assault victims and mothers killed by untreated miscarriages. Left-wing social media influencers are crafting harrowing tales of shadow governments waiting in the wings to replace lifelong civil servants with an army of sycophants ready to serve a ¡°dictator on day one.¡± Democrats are painting themselves as watchmen atop the wall of America¡¯s democracy, warning against a horde of authoritarian barbarians at the gate.?

Meanwhile, Republicans are accusing immigrants of kidnapping and eating family pets in Ohio.

Daily pundits, politicians and papers promote conversation about fraud and cheaters, adult film stars and Epstein Island, stolen valor and heel spurs, and other things so misogynistic and indecent I dare not mention.

The days of ¡°when they go low ¡­ we go high¡± are long gone. At this point, our discourse could devolve into ¡°yo mama¡± jokes, and no one would blink.?

The Democrats’ newfound rhetorical strategy could be deemed a necessary evolution in the survival of a political species. But as a political scientist and former journalist, I am deeply concerned about the democratically deleterious implications of our fever-pitched political discourse.

Wordplay warfare is effective. But is it worth the collateral damage to our social cohesion, norms of decency and ability to engage in constructive dialogue? I think not.

Both Democrats and Republicans would do well to holster their speech six-shooters after this election. Will they do it? Not likely.?

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., on Wednesday posted to X, and later deleted, a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians. In this photo, Higgins speaks during a press conference on the National Defense Authorization Act with members of the House Freedom Caucus on July 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford of Nevada took to the U.S. House floor Wednesday night to condemn an ¡°overtly racist¡± tweet against Haitians and Haitian Americans by Louisiana Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins.

Hours before members were scheduled to depart for a recess through the November elections, Higgins posted to X a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians and said Haitians in the United States should leave the country before Jan. 20, the date the next president will be inaugurated.

Higgins¡¯ post included a link to an Associated Press story about a nonprofit representing Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, that has brought charges against former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, whose campaign for president and vice president has centered on criticism of immigration.

¡°These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters¡­ but damned if they don¡¯t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP,¡± Higgins wrote. ¡°All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20^th.¡±

Haitians are generally not among the immigrants living in the country illegally, as they have been granted Temporary Protected Status due to conditions in their home country. Trump and Vance have amplified disproven rumors about the Haitian community in Springfield, leading to hoax bomb threats against schools, government buildings and local leaders.

Horsford, a Democrat, and other members ¡ª reportedly including Florida Republican Byron Donalds ¨C approached Higgins on the House floor after the tweet. Higgins deleted the post shortly after.

Democrats condemn post

After a brief period of confusion about the proper process to introduce a censure resolution, Horsford ¡ª surrounded by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats ¡ª spoke on the House floor to condemn the tweet and called for a vote to censure Higgins when the House returns from recess.

¡°Rep. Higgins used his official account on X to publicly slander, insult and demean all Haitians and Haitian Americans in an overtly racist post,¡± Horsford said.

Rep. Troy Carter, the lone Democrat and only Black member of Louisiana¡¯s congressional delegation, blasted Higgins¡¯ post in a written statement.

¡°I am appalled by the racist and reprehensible remarks made by Rep. Clay Higgins about the people of Haiti,¡± he wrote. ¡°We all owe each other better than this, but as elected officials we should hold ourselves to an even higher standard. We have a solemn responsibility to represent and respect all races of people. Hate-filled rhetoric like this is not just offensive ¡ª it is dangerous. It incites division, perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and undermines the core values of our democracy.¡±

Johnson, Scalise defend Higgins

Two of Higgins¡¯ fellow Louisiana Republicans in House leadership defended him Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he¡¯d spoken to Higgins, who told the speaker he regretted the language of the tweet.

Higgins ¡°was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive,¡± Johnson said. ¡°He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down. That¡¯s what you want the gentleman to do. I¡¯m sure he probably regrets the language he used. But, you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.¡±

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana briefly defended Higgins on the floor before the chamber took a short recess.

Scalise noted the post had been taken down and suggested censure was inappropriate because he could find examples of Democratic members making divisive comments.

¡°If we want to go through every comment, tweet from the other side, we¡¯ll be happy to do it and you¡¯ll be appalled,¡± Scalise said.

The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to attendees during a campaign rally at the Mosack Group warehouse on Sept. 25, 2024 in Mint Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump suggested without evidence Wednesday that Iran could be responsible for two apparent assassination attempts he has faced this year, saying foreign leaders objected to his position on tariffs.

Authorities have made no public statements to support the claim that either would-be assassin ¡ª in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July and near Trump¡¯s Florida home this month ¡ª was aided by foreign agents or anyone else. Trump tied the two incidents to the separate hacking of his campaign, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was conducted by Iran.

¡°There have been two assassination attempts on my life ¡ª that we know of,¡± Trump, the GOP candidate for president, said at a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina. ¡°And they may or may not involve ¡ª but possibly do ¡ª Iran, but I don¡¯t really know.¡±

Trump also aired his theory on X on Wednesday, saying, ¡°Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn¡¯t work out, but they will try again.¡±

The Trump campaign told USA Today in a statement on Tuesday night that ¡°President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.¡±

USA Today also said a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, acknowledged the briefing occurred but did not provide specifics about what was said.

In his remarks in North Carolina, Trump thanked members of Congress in both parties for approving more funding for the U.S. Secret Service, but added that if he were president when a foreign country threatened a presidential candidate, he would retaliate in the strongest terms.

¡°So I thank everybody in Congress,¡± he said. ¡°But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We¡¯re going to blow it to smithereens.¡±

The gunman in the Pennsylvania shooting, Thomas Crooks, was killed by law enforcement at the scene. In the second case, in Florida, Ryan Wesley Routh was charged on Tuesday with attempted assassination of Trump.

In the hour-long speech that included some attention to economic issues, Trump said that he was a target of foreign governments because of his plans to expand tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods.

¡°I¡¯m imposing tariffs on your competition from foreign countries, all these foreign countries that have ripped us off, which stole all of your businesses and all of your jobs years ago and took your businesses out,¡± he said. ¡°This is why people in countries want to kill me. They¡¯re not happy with me. It is ¨C it¡¯s a risky business. This is why they want to kill me.¡±

Trump also said he would set a 15% tax rate on companies that produce their goods domestically.? That low rate, combined with tariffs on foreign goods, would boost U.S. manufacturing, including furniture production that was once a large industry in North Carolina, he said.

Tariffs generally lead to higher prices, which have plagued consumers since 2020.

Harris in Pennsylvania

The Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, painted a more optimistic picture of the U.S. economic present and future in her own economy-focused speech Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Harris acknowledged that prices remained too high.

¡°You know it, and I know it,¡± she said, according to a pool report.

Harris said her economic priorities were focused on the middle class, which she contrasted with what she described as Trump¡¯s favoritism to wealthy people.

She said she would encourage innovation by boosting research in a host of technologies from biomanufacturing to artificial intelligence and the blockchain, and said her approach to the presidency would include experimenting with different strategies.

¡°As president, I will be grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity and opportunity,¡± she said. ¡°And I promise you, I will be pragmatic in my approach. I will engage in what Franklin Roosevelt called bold, persistent experimentation.¡±

Immigration blamed by GOP

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, applied their nativist immigration positions to speeches focused on the economy in their Wednesday campaign appearances. Both said immigrants in the country illegally were responsible for driving down employment and wages among U.S.-born workers.

¡°The jobs are going to illegal migrants that came into our country illegally,¡± Trump said in North Carolina. ¡°Our Black population all over the country, our Hispanic population, are losing their jobs. They¡¯re citizens of America, they¡¯re losing their jobs.¡±

In a call earlier Wednesday touting the International Brotherhood of Teamsters¡¯ decision not to endorse in the presidential race and an internal electronic poll showing most members supported the GOP ticket, Vance said organized labor had long sought to protect U.S. workers from immigrants.

¡°The American labor movement has always recognized that illegal labor undercuts the wages of American workers,¡± Vance said on the call. ¡°Those are folks competing against American citizens and legal residents for important jobs and undercutting their wages in the process.¡±

Vance said, without citing a source, that all net job growth under Harris and President Joe Biden had gone to foreign workers, including ¡°25 million¡± immigrants in the country illegally.

Official estimates place the number of immigrants residing in the country without authorization at about 11 million, less than half of Vance¡¯s claim.

A GOP campaign spokesperson did not substantively respond to a question about the source for Vance¡¯s statement that foreign-born workers accounted for all job growth during the Biden administration.

Trump to return to Butler

Trump said Wednesday he would return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the first assassination attempt on him. The former president suffered an injury to his ear during a shooting that killed one rallygoer and injured two others.

¡°We¡¯re going to go back and finish our speech,¡± he said in North Carolina.

A bipartisan U.S. Senate interim report published Wednesday made initial conclusions that the U.S. Secret Service failed to adequately plan to secure the outdoor rally and made missteps in communication that led to the shooter being able to fire at the former president.

The report was commissioned by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters, a Democrat of Michigan; Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky; Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; and Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson. They are the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the panel¡¯s investigations subcommittee.

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE ¡ª Kentuckians in recovery say the state needs to better educate youth about addiction, digitize expungement for certain crimes and make harm reduction and community-based services more widely available to combat overdoses.?

About 30 people gathered at the Women¡¯s Healing Place in the West End of Louisville Wednesday as part of a “Public Health is Public Safety” tour aimed at finding solutions to the opioid crisis and raising awareness about what addiction looks like person to person.?

That tour has made six stops across the state this year ¡ª in Ashland, London, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Lexington and, now, Louisville.?

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org, which organized Wednesday¡¯s panels, said drug criminalization often drives people to harder substances.?

¡°We made all these laws on prescription opioids. Everybody went to heroin. We made stricter laws on heroin. Everybody went to fentanyl. We’re making stricter laws on fentanyl, and everybody’s going to xylazine,¡± he said. ¡°The measures that we’ve got in place now are really, really making it hard for us to keep getting the overdose rates lower.¡±?

Bowman also worries a 2024 law that supporters called the ¡°Safer Kentucky Act¡± and opponents said would criminalize homelessness could cause overdose deaths indirectly.?

Another provision of? House Bill 5 created a first degree manslaughter charge when a person ¡°knowingly sells fentanyl or a fentanyl derivative to another person,¡± which results in that person¡¯s death.?

¡°It’s kind of like a drug-induced homicide law,¡± Bowman said. ¡°And it’s going to make folks scared to call 911.¡±?

Carson Justice, a 17-year-old from Eastern Kentucky who said addiction has affected her entire community, including her parents, said the state should invest in more harm reduction and less criminalization.?

¡°Instead of bad policies like House Bill 5, we could have prison after care, we could have harm reduction resources, we could have IDs, we could have all kinds of things,¡± she said.?

By focusing more on harm reduction, she said, ¡°Not only could it save us thousands of dollars, it could save thousands of lives.¡±?

Lawmakers should also focus on revamping reentry programs, lowering what counts as ¡°intent to distribute¡± and ensuring people can access a full range of treatment while incarcerated, Bowman said.?

Several panelists who discussed their treatment and recovery echoed that point, saying they did not have access to help while behind bars.?

Amanda Bourland, who has lived through addiction and incarceration and is now the vice president of mission advancement at Recovery Now, said ¡°when I got out of prison, there were no resources for me.¡±?

¡°Four years in prison, in a row, and nobody said, ¡®would you like to learn how to live a life in recovery?¡¯ Nobody said, ¡®do you think you have a problem with drugs and alcohol?¡¯ Bourland said. ¡°What they said was, ¡®Chow ladies.¡¯ ¡®Lights out ladies.¡¯ ¡®Meds, ladies.¡¯ That was it.¡±?

¡®Trauma is the gateway’?

Over the course of three hours, two panels and a series of small group discussions at the women¡¯s campus of The Healing Place, advocates and people in recovery emphasized that widespread access to harm reduction is key to lowering the number of Kentuckians dying from overdose.?

Harm reduction is anything that decreases the harm a person may experience ¡ª like wearing a seat belt when driving or brushing teeth to avoid cavities. In the context of substance use, harm reduction includes the use of the overdose-reversal Narcan, fentanyl test strips, syringe exchange programs and more. Harm reduction emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission, says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration??

Stigma sometimes stands in the way of recovery, advocates said.?

¡°In this country, we still view substance use disorder as a moral failing,¡± said Tara Hyde, the CEO of People Advocating Recovery who is also in long-term recovery. ¡°And until we, as a community, really gather together and really start to create more of an argument against that narrative, they’re going to continue with that, because that’s all that they know.¡±?

Stephanie Johnson with Vocal KY said the word ¡°addiction¡± is still quite stigmatized ¡ª and asked the audience, ¡°how many people would not move or have gotten dressed without a cup of coffee this morning?¡±?

¡°Changing the narrative,¡± she said, ¡°is harm reduction.¡±?

Focusing on mental health for people in active addiction and recovery is also ¡°huge,¡± Johnson said.?

¡°You can have a mental health issue without having a substance use issue,¡± she said. ¡°You will not have a substance use issue without having any mental health issue. We have got to address mental health. Trauma is the gateway.¡±?

Youth education and recovery funding?

Lawmakers should codify a requirement for schools to have uniform education on mental health, Hyde told the Lantern. There are ¡°quality¡± programs available, she said, but ¡°there’s no requirement, so not every school gets that.¡±?

¡°This is a systemic problem. And we can’t just, (say) ¡®oh well, this school has it, and this school doesn’t,¡¯¡± she said. ¡°You can’t just make it bounce like that; that’s a really big problem.¡±?

The state could also save itself money, Hyde said, by funding long-term recovery programs. Usually a person attempts recovery an average of six times before being successful, she said, meaning their treatment could cost around $180,000 by the end of those attempts, which are usually in short-term programs.?

Some research suggests longer programs are more effective, especially in dealing with severe cases.?

¡°A lot of that money is already being spent,¡± she said. ¡°Medicaid is paying for each attempt ¡ª six on average.¡±?

Justice¡¯s mother, Beckie Rose, shared a panel with her daughter.?

She¡¯s from Pike County ¡ª from ¡°coal mines and coal fields and mountains,¡± as she described it, as well as ¡°ground zero¡± of the opioid epidemic.?

Rose is in long-term recovery now, and she advocates for a better future for her daughter and Eastern Kentucky community.?

¡°We have way more in common than we have differences,¡± Rose said. ¡°And I would just like to see our communities and our families come together, and instead of incarcerating disease, start treating disease.¡±??

Cover art from "Kinship Across Kentucky: Recommendations from Caregiver Voices in 2024." Around 55,000 Kentucky children are being raised by a relative or fictive kin, according to the report. (Kentucky Youth Advocates)

Kentuckians who are raising a minor relative need better access to mental health care, housing and other basic support services, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The report, from Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, is based on two online surveys and nine in-person listening sessions aimed at learning more about the challenges facing kinship caregivers.?

Most of the caregivers surveyed were white women. They reported needing assistance with food, clothing and school supplies. Participants also said they needed help with finances, housing, information technology, peer support, respite care, mental health care and legal assistance, according to the report. They also reported child care as one of the most difficult supports to access.?

Norma Hatfield, president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, said during a Wednesday forum discussing the report that sometimes kinship caregivers like herself focus on caring for the youth in their charge and ¡°don’t always take care of themselves.¡±?

¡°It’s pretty darn stressful,¡± she said. ¡°You may need somebody, from a therapeutic perspective, to have some of those conversations, especially if the abuse is really bad and there’s a criminal case going on.¡±

Kinship caregivers may be caring for a grandchild, for example, who¡¯d been abused by the grandparent¡¯s child.?

¡°I look at it as: to kind of help me deal with my emotion, process that, and then step back and (see) how can I best help the child at the same time? And that’s hard. That’s why it’s challenging and confusing, because you also have yourself and how you feel, and you also have the child and the system.¡±?

Sometimes that mental health support may include medication or more intensive services, Hatfield said, but most of the time talk therapy addresses the need.?

Lesa Dennis, the commissioner for the Department of Community Based Services, spoke alongside Hatfield during the KYA forum and said kinship care in Kentucky is a ¡°priority¡± for her department.?

¡°We still have a lot of work to do in this space, and we’re very committed to it,¡± Dennis said.?

During the 2024 legislative session, the General Assembly passed a law that allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments. However, a funding dispute that arose after the fact has left that help hanging, more than two months after the law went into effect.?

Policy recommendations?

The report makes numerous recommendations, including:

• Expand community-based mentorship opportunities for youth in kinship care and their caregivers.?
• Provide or facilitate comprehensive reunification services for kinship families to create opportunities for children to return safely to their birth families, when appropriate.?
• Provide judges a bench card related to kinship care utilization and needed supports
• Increase the frequency and accessibility of trainings on the unique experiences and needs of kinship families to DCBS staff, private foster care agency staff and community mental health providers.
• Provide comprehensive informational packets and educational materials for new kinship caregivers.?
• Utilize best practices to actively seek the most appropriate placement for the child when identifying kinship and fictive kin caregivers, including addressing disproportionality in the placement of children of color into foster care instead of kinship care.

• 

It¡¯s not clear yet which of these policies, if any, would require legislation during the next session.?

¡°I think a lot of those things can be accomplished through working together with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Department for community based services,¡± said Shannon Moody, chief policy and strategy officer for the nonpartisan KYA. ¡°We would definitely want to have some additional conversations to figure out what would need or require statutory change, but I don’t know if we anticipate any of those recommendations being moved forward for pursuit in the 2025 legislative session.¡±?

Around 55,000 Kentucky children are being raised by a relative or fictive kin, according to the Tuesday report. That includes both formal (the state is involved) and informal (the state is not involved) situations. In 2023, about 1,500 Kentucky children were placed in a relative or fictive kin home by the state.?

Kentucky¡¯s known prevalence of kinship care is 6%, according to the report, making it twice as high as the national average.

The U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON ¡ª The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running through Dec. 20, though the divided Congress has a lot of negotiating to do if members want to pass the dozen full-year appropriations bills before their new deadline.

The short-term funding bill, sometimes referred to as a continuing resolution, will avoid a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

The CR is supposed to give lawmakers more time to hash out agreement on the appropriations bills. But Congress regularly uses it as a safety net to push off or entirely avoid making decisions about which departments should get more funding and whether to change policy about how federal tax dollars are spent.

House debate on the CR was broadly bipartisan with Democrats and Republicans voicing support ahead of the 341-82 vote.

The Senate is scheduled to vote later Wednesday evening to send the bill to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it.

¡®Plenty of problems¡¯ ahead

The stopgap bill was expected to be the last major legislation considered by Congress before Election Day. A lame-duck session is scheduled to begin Nov. 12.

¡°In a matter of days, funding for fiscal year 2024 will run out and it¡¯s Congress¡¯ responsibility to ensure that the government remains open and serving the American people,¡± House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during floor debate. ¡°We are here to avert harmful disruptions to our national security and vital programs our constituents rely on.¡±

Cole said he hopes Congress can approve the dozen full-year bills later this year.

¡°The next president and the next Congress should not be forced to do the work of this administration and this Congress,¡± Cole said. ¡°They¡¯re going to have plenty of problems ¡­ let¡¯s not throw a potential government shutdown in front of them as well.¡±

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the spending panel, said lawmakers must begin conference talks in the days ahead to reach a bipartisan agreement on the full-year spending bills.

¡°No matter who wins in November, we owe it to the next Congress and the next president to not saddle them with yesterday¡¯s problems,¡± DeLauro said.

Noncitizen voting bill dropped

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy spoke against the stopgap spending bill and expressed frustration that lawmakers were, once again, relying on a continuing resolution instead of having met the Oct. 1 deadline to pass the full-year spending bills.

¡°We should not be kicking the can down the road to Dec. 20, a mere five days before Christmas, which is what this town always does,¡± he said.

Roy also criticized House GOP leaders for not sticking with a six-month stopgap spending bill that carried with it a bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

House leaders brought that bill to the floor last week, but didn¡¯t garner the votes needed to send it to the Senate. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal.

Secret Service spending

The 49-page continuing resolution extends the funding levels and policies that Congress approved earlier this year as part of its last appropriations process.

Lawmakers included a provision that will let the Secret Service spend money at a faster rate than what would have otherwise been allowed ¡°for protective operations, including for activities relating to National Special Security Events and the 2024 Presidential Campaign,¡± according to a summary of the bill.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency got a similar provision so it can spend more money that would have otherwise been permitted from its disaster relief fund. The Forest Service¡¯s Wildland Fire

Management account was also granted a faster spend rate.

The stopgap spending bill extended authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program as well as several other federal programs that were on track to expire at the end of September.

November election

Whether Congress reaches agreement with the Biden administration on the dozen full-year government funding bills later this year will likely depend on the outcome of the November elections.

Voters choosing divided government for another two years will likely incentivize leaders to work out bipartisan, bicameral agreements during the five weeks Congress is in session during November and December.

Republicans or Democrats securing unified control of the House, Senate and White House could result in another stopgap spending bill pushing off decisions until after the next Congress and next president take their oaths of office in January.

A new president, a new budget ask

Regardless of when Congress completes work on the dozen full-year funding bills, the next president will likely submit their first budget request to lawmakers sometime next spring, starting the annual process all over again.

The president is supposed to release the budget request in early February, but that¡¯s often delayed during the first year of a new administration.

The House and Senate Appropriations committees will then begin holding hearings with Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to ask about their individual requests and begin assessing whether lawmakers will boost their spending.

The Appropriations Committees in each chamber will likely release their separate slates of full-year appropriations bills next summer, possibly followed by floor debate.

This year the House Appropriations Committee reported all dozen of its bills to the floor, following party-line votes when Democrats objected to both spending levels and policy language.

House Republicans approved five of those bills on the floor.

Senate appropriators took broadly bipartisan votes to approve 11 of their bills in committee, save the Homeland Security measure. None of the bills has gone to the floor for amendment debate and a final vote.

That¡¯s not entirely uncommon in the Senate, where floor time is often dedicated to approving judicial nominees and it can take weeks to approve one spending bill.

The House, by contrast, can approve bills in a matter of hours or days if leadership has secured the votes.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, is slated to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5 at the site of the first assassination attempt against him, his campaign announced Wednesday.

Trump will return to the Butler Farm Show, where a 20-year-old shooter killed one rallygoer, injured two others and shot Trump¡¯s ear on July 13. A Secret Service sniper killed the shooter. The attack prompted a slew of federal probes as well as a bipartisan congressional task force to investigate.

The imminent rally also comes as authorities investigate a second suspected assassination attempt against Trump. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with attempting to kill Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks regarding the former president¡¯s security. At a press briefing last week, the federal agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it failed to protect Trump during the Butler rally.

Days after the first assassination attempt, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would ¡°be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured,¡± adding ¡°what a day it will be ¡ª fight, fight, fight!¡±

The Trump campaign said the former president will ¡°honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day,¡± per the Wednesday announcement.

Trump is also set to recognize the two rallygoers who were wounded in the shooting: David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

Trump will also ¡°express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack,¡± his campaign added.

Rhode Island House of Representatives Speaker Joseph Shekarchi testifies before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee on Sept. 25, 2024. (Screenshot from committee webcast)

WASHINGTON ¡ª The speaker of the Rhode Island House described how his state has tackled affordable housing and how it could be a model for local and state governments across the country in a Wednesday hearing before members of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.

¡°My mantra has been: production, production and more production,¡± Rhode Island House of Representatives Speaker Joseph Shekarchi said.

Shekarchi and housing experts urged the senators to take a multipronged government approach to tackling the lack of affordable housing, such as reforming zoning, expanding land for building and streamlining permits.

¡°I really believe this is an all-hands-on-deck crisis,¡± Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said.

Murray said that in her state, there is a shortage of 172,000 homes. She asked one of the witnesses, Paul Williams, the executive director at the Center for Public Enterprise, how the federal government could help state and local governments tackle the issue. The Center for Public Enterprise is a think tank that aids public agencies in implementing programs in the energy and housing sector.

Williams said the federal government should encourage municipalities to look at local permitting and zoning processes to see if those delay new apartment construction projects or prevent them from happening.

He added that financing can also remain a challenge.

Tax credits

Another witness, Greta Harris, the president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition, an organization based in Virginia that aims to produce affordable housing, said the federal government should consider expanding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development¡¯s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. That program provides local groups with a tax incentive to construct or rehabilitate low-income housing.

¡°The low-income housing tax credit program has been extremely effective in allowing us to produce more housing units and also preserve existing affordable housing units,¡± Harris said.

She added Congress should consider expanding federal housing vouchers, and that closing and down payment assistance in home purchases is crucial. Federal housing vouchers help provide housing for low-income families, those who are elderly, people with disabilities and veterans.

Most wealth building is through owning a home and acquiring equity in that home, she said.

¡°People can use that equity for retirement, to help their kids go to college, to start a business, and to be able to breathe a little bit,¡± Harris said.

How a state can be successful

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the chairman of the committee, asked Shekarchi to describe some successful impacts of the state¡¯s approach to housing.

Shekarchi said that ¡°we haven¡¯t substituted state control for local control,¡± and have instead made the process to get building permits and address land disputes easier. He added that Rhode Island also created a role for a housing secretary, to address the issue.

¡°Overall, you¡¯re seeing an increase in building permits,¡± he said.

Indiana GOP Sen. Mike Braun asked Harris if housing should be left to local government and private entrepreneurs, rather than Congress.

¡°Left to its own devices, the market is not equitable and it serves certain portions of our society and not all,¡± she said.

She said the government at all levels ¡ª local, state and federal ¡ª should participate in addressing the housing crisis.

GOP bashes Harris plans

The top Republican on the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, blamed the Biden administration for the cost of housing

He also criticized a housing plan released by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, that would provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time home buyers ¡ª a proposal that hinges on congressional approval.

¡°Economists from across the political spectrum have noted how such policies would backfire by pushing up housing prices even further,¡± Grassley said of Harris¡¯ policy.

Ed Pinto, a senior fellow and co-director of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute Housing Center, said that there is a shortage of about 3.8 million homes. He argued that Harris¡¯ plan to give down payment assistance ¡°is almost certain to lead to higher home prices.¡±

¡°The millions of program recipients would become price setters for all buyers in the neighborhoods where the recipients buy,¡± Pinto said.

Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville. (LRC Public Information)

Leadership of the Kentucky Senate Democratic Caucus joined fellow party members in calling on Louisville Democrat Rep. Daniel Grossberg to resign amid allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women.?

The leaders said in a Wednesday statement that the Senate caucus ¡°remains committed to the principles of respect, accountability, and justice in our efforts.¡±?

¡°As public officials, we must uphold the highest standards of conduct and integrity. The recent allegations involving Rep. Daniel Grossberg are deeply troubling,¡± the statement said. ¡°No one should be subject to harassment or intimidation in any setting. Given the seriousness of these accusations, we call on Rep. Grossberg to relinquish his seat immediately.¡±?

Last week, prominent Kentucky Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, called on the freshman representative to resign following a Lexington Herald-Leader report about Grossberg getting a lifetime ban from a Louisville strip club after inappropriately touching a dancer and offering another dancer $5,000 to have sex with him. The House Democratic Caucus permanently expelled Grossberg Friday.?

Meanwhile, through comments shared by his attorney, Grossberg vowed to stay in office and denied the allegations. He faces no opponent in the general election for the 30th House District, which includes central parts of Jefferson County. Earlier this summer, the House Democratic Caucus had temporarily suspended Grossberg and asked the Legislative Ethics Commission to investigate allegations that he sent inappropriate text messages to women earlier this summer.

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

The Eastern Kentucky sheriff charged with murdering a judge entered a not guilty plea Wednesday and was put on notice by Gov. Andy Beshear that if he does not resign by Friday the governor will act to remove him.?

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn ¡°Mickey¡± Stines, 43, appeared remotely for his first appearance since District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was gunned down Sept. 19 at? the Letcher County Courthouse. Stines surrendered to authorities at the courthouse and was charged with first degree murder.

Stines told Special Judge Rupert Wilhoit III he does not have a lawyer but was accompanied by attorney Josh Miller, director of the state Department of Public Advocacy¡¯s capital trial branch.

Beshear¡¯s office on Wednesday released a letter to Stines from its general counsel, C. Travis Mayo, sent in care of the Leslie County jailer. The letter asks Stines to tender his resignation by the end of Friday, and says that if he does not, Beshear will ¡°move forward with removal¡± under a Kentucky law.

Stines is jailed at the Leslie County Detention Center.

Lexington attorney Erin Izzo, left, and Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine are running for Kentucky Supreme Court. (Photos provided)

Two women are vying in Central Kentucky for a seat on the state Supreme Court after the chief justice chose not to seek another term.

The candidates are Pamela Goodwine, deputy chief Kentucky Court of Appeals judge, and Erin Izzo, a partner at Lexington law firm Landrum and Shouse. While judicial elections are nonpartisan in Kentucky, political partisans are lining up on opposite sides of this race.?

Last year, Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter announced he would not be seeking reelection in the 5th Supreme Court district, which includes Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott and Woodford counties. He will be succeeded as chief justice in January by Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, who was chosen Monday by her colleagues.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is backing Goodwine saying she would be ¡°a really great Supreme Court justice.¡± According to campaign finance reports, Goodwine¡¯s donors also? include former Democratic Govs. Steve Beshear and Paul Patton, as well as Democratic state lawmakers. A political organization created this week and organized by the current governor¡¯s top campaign adviser is supporting Goodwine.?

Meanwhile, Izzo has received GOP support ¡ª an endorsement from the Clark County Republican Party and donations from local Republican groups in Fayette and Madison counties.

Goodwine told the Kentucky Lantern that ¡°it is critical for impartiality to be demonstrated and upheld in the role of judge and justice.¡± Judges have a role to fairly interpret the law while also maintaining ethics and integrity, she added.

Judicial watchdog criticizes Beshear¡¯s involvement in Kentucky Supreme Court election

¡°I have been a registered independent since I became a judge and I am known for continually displaying a strong work ethic along with honesty and integrity to ensure justice for all,¡± Goodwine said. ¡°My strong reputation for upholding these values along with my 25 years of dedicated service as a judge has earned me respect from all parties. I have staunch supporters from all parties and welcome and accept invitations from all parties to participate in their events.¡±?

Izzo said she too has attempted to go before a mix of groups that lean left and right or are neutral. She added it ¡°would be dangerous for Kentucky¡± to open up judicial races to more partisanship in the future.?

¡°I think as a candidate, there’s not much I can do with my supporters in terms of who’s going to give endorsements and who’s not,¡± Izzo said. ¡°It doesn’t surprise me, honestly, that Beshear came out and endorsed her given her political leanings. And it doesn’t surprise me that the Clark County Republicans came out and endorsed me because of their political leanings.¡±

Because of ethics guidelines, Kentucky judicial candidates must avoid indicating their decision in a particular case. Both Goodwine and Izzo discussed their legal philosophies and qualifications with the Kentucky Lantern.?

Justices serve eight-year terms. Both candidates said they intend to serve their full term on the court if elected.?

Goodwine promises ‘dedication to the rule of law and justice for all’

Goodwine said that her 25 years of judicial experience have ¡°given me the vast array of experiences and responsibilities needed to best serve all Kentuckians on the Kentucky Supreme Court.¡± Goodwine was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals for the 5th Appellate District in 2018. Before that she served on the benches of Fayette County Circuit and District courts.?

Being part of the state appeals court prepared Goodwine to join the Supreme Court, she said in written responses to the Kentucky Lantern, as she interpreted complex legal issues and crafted opinions while managing a high caseload.?

¡°Upon election to the Kentucky Supreme Court, I will be the first woman and only the fifth person in history to serve at all levels of the judiciary in Kentucky,¡± Goodwine said. ¡°And I pledge to bring to our state¡¯s highest court not only the legal expertise, work ethic, preparedness and passion for the law that I have built my reputation as a judge, but also a commitment to approaching each case with a dedication to the rule of law and justice for all.¡±?

After moving to Lexington from her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, in 1979, Goodwine began working as a court reporter before attending the University of Kentucky the following year. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1991 and UK College of Law in 1994. Early in life, Goodwine overcame challenges like the deaths of her parents by the age of 19 and and a life-threatening illness. She said those moments taught her to use ¡°challenges as a springboard to grow and thrive¡± and accomplish her goals.?

Goodwine, 64, said she knew she wanted to be a judge as a teenager and that was later reaffirmed after her mother¡¯s murder.?

¡°From the courtroom to community outreach, I¡¯ve witnessed the real impact legal decisions have on people¡¯s lives and that fuels my commitment to serving on the Kentucky Supreme Court,¡± Goodwine said.???

Goodwine said the Kentucky Supreme Court is ¡°the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution, laws and rulings,¡± and handles lower court appeals and focuses typically on cases with ¡°significant legal or constitutional decisions¡± and renders rulings with binding legal precedents.?

As an arbitrator, Izzo says, she does ‘a lot of the same things that judges do’

Izzo said her litigation experience across Kentucky makes her qualified for the state¡¯s highest court. For 19 years, she¡¯s worked on litigation, arbitration and mediations. She compared arbitration to working as a judge and said her philosophy is to interpret the law as it is written.?

¡°As an arbitrator, we do a lot of the same things that judges do,¡± Izzo said. ¡°We look at cases. We have attorneys come before us. I hear arguments. I make decisions. I hear evidence. I preside over trials. It’s there. It’s just different that it’s here in a conference room, as opposed to the courthouse.¡±

Izzo, 46, completed her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth in 2000 and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2005. Before joining Landrum and Shouse in 2011, Izzo¡¯s career experience includes being an attorney at Fulkerson, Kinkel and Marrs in Lexington, working as an assistant Fayette County attorney and being a judicial staff attorney for the Family Division of the 50th Judicial Circuit. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal at New York City firm Seward and Kissel.?

Describing herself as a ¡°constitutionalist¡± and not ¡°an activist arbitrator¡± when it comes to applying law, Izzo said she looks at the intent behind how laws were written. She added that ¡°if there’s something there that might be better socially, or might (be) something that I disagree with, it’s not my place to change.¡±?

¡°I look at how things are, what the intention of the founding fathers were with our Constitution, and that kind of carries over to what legislative intent was when a law was adopted,¡± Izzo said. ¡°Because I think if you really want to understand what the legislature intended with the law, you want to know how things were when it was adopted, what was in effect, what was going on at the time, and so that can have an impact on what a statute means outside of the Constitution.¡±

Izzo was born in Tennessee and raised in a Portland, Oregon, suburb until the age of 7when her family moved to Louisville.?

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. In-person no-excuse early voting begins Thursday, Oct. 31.?

Kristie Hilliard opened her new shop, Kristie Kandies, in downtown Rocky Mount, N.C., after getting tired of her factory job at the local Pfizer plant. She¡¯s seen a steady flow of customers, but says she¡¯s doesn¡¯t think either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump would change her economic fortunes. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline)

Editor¡¯s note: This five-day series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these ¡°swing states¡± may decide the future of the country.

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. ¡ª The signs on the empty historic buildings envision an urban utopia of sorts, complete with street cafes, bustling bike lanes and a grocery co-op.

¡°IMAGINE What Could Be Here,¡± gushes one sign outside the empty, Neoclassical post office. ¡°IMAGINE! A Vibrant Downtown,¡± reads another mounted on the glass front of a long-ago closed drug store.

In a place like Rocky Mount, North Carolina, it¡¯s not such a stretch: Just across the street, white-collar workers peck away at laptops and sip lattes at a bright coffee bar lined with dozens of potted tropical plants. A few blocks away, a mammoth events center routinely brings in thousands of visitors from across the country. And alongside a quiet river nearby, a meticulously redeveloped cotton mill would be the envy of any American city, with its modern breweries, restaurants and loft living.

An industrial community long in decline, Rocky Mount is slowly building itself back. But in this city of about 54,000, sharply divided by race and class, many residents struggle to cover the basic costs of groceries, housing and child care.

North Carolina reflects the duality of the American economy: Unemployment is low, jobs are increasing and businesses are opening new factories. But high housing and food costs have squeezed middle-class residents despite the gains of rising wages.

¡°The economy stinks,¡± said Tameika Horne, who owns an ice cream and dessert shop in Rocky Mount.

Her ingredient prices have skyrocketed, she said, but she can¡¯t continuously raise prices on ice cream cones or funnel cakes. She said last month was her slowest ever, with only $2,000 in sales.

It¡¯s not just the slow sales at her store: Only a few years ago, she paid $700 a month to rent a three-bedroom apartment. Now, her similarly sized rental home costs her $1,350 a month.

Aside from the ice cream shop, Horne also runs a cleaning business with her family and just started a job delivering packages for FedEx.

¡°It¡¯s just hard right now,¡± she said.

The economy, a top issue for voters during any election, is particularly important this presidential cycle: Prices of necessities such as groceries aren¡¯t rising as fast as they were, but years of post-pandemic inflation have soured voter attitudes.

And across the country, millions of families are struggling with rising housing costs. In four of the seven swing states ¡ª Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada ¡ª more than half of tenant families?spend?30% or more of their income on rent and utilities, according to the 2023 American Community Survey.

In North Carolina, voter anxiety about the soaring rents and grocery bills could tip the scales.

¡°In terms of its political influence, it¡¯s not actually your personal financial situation that is important, it¡¯s your vision of the national economy,¡± said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. ¡°So if I get a raise, I tend to credit myself. If I see higher prices, I tend to blame the government or the current situation.¡±

Around the corner from Horne¡¯s ice cream store in downtown Rocky Mount, Kristie Hilliard greets a steady flow of customers to her new shop, Kristie Kandies. An armed cop, a nurse in scrubs and waist-high kids trickle in to grab a sweet treat.

After getting tired of her manufacturing job at the local Pfizer plant, Hilliard started making confections at home. As her following grew, she got a concession trailer and now has a storefront selling candied grapes, plums, kiwis and pickles.

Hilliard¡¯s treats have attracted attention on social media, causing some buyers to drive in from as far away as Pennsylvania, she said.

A Democrat, she said she still hadn¡¯t made up her mind on the presidential race. But she doesn¡¯t believe either a Harris or a Trump administration would drastically change much for her business.

¡°They ain¡¯t doing nothing for me now,¡± she said. ¡°So, what would change?¡±

A community divided looks to the future

About 60 miles northeast of the state capital, Rocky Mount lies between the prosperous Research Triangle area and North Carolina¡¯s scenic beach communities.

Railroad tracks and a county line slice through the middle of downtown. On the one side is the majority Black and lower-income Edgecombe County. On the other, the more prosperous and whiter Nash County.

While some officials say long-standing attitudes centered on division are fading, the county line has for decades provided a clear delineation of class, race and politics.

Edgecombe County is a Democratic stronghold, but the more populous Nash County is a bellwether of sorts. It was among the?10 closest of North Carolina¡¯s 100 counties in the last presidential election, and one being closely watched this cycle. With 51,774 ballots cast, President Joe Biden took Nash County by 120 votes.

Around Rocky Mount¡¯s downtown area, stately red brick churches and banks line the wide streets. But just a few blocks away, weeds overtake vacant lots, glass is smashed out of abandoned buildings, and razor wire tops the fencing of no-credit-needed car lots and used tire shops.

While the nearby Raleigh metro area has experienced explosive suburban growth, Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson said his community has seen an erosion of its middle class with the loss of corporate headquarters and factory jobs.

But he¡¯s optimistic.

Young business owners are investing in downtown. Industries with operations in the Raleigh area are moving east. And both Republicans and Democrats just celebrated the news that Natron Energy plans to build a $1.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant nearby that will employ more than 1,000 people.

¡°We¡¯ve got a lot of great things that are happening,¡± the mayor said. ¡°But the key is, how do you build and retain a middle class? Because that¡¯s who does the living and the dying and the investing in a community.¡±

The mayor¡¯s position is nonpartisan, but Roberson is a Republican who in 2022 ran in the Republican primary for a congressional seat here. This election, however, is a difficult one for him.

Roberson said the economy and his financial position were unquestionably better during Trump¡¯s term, but the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the chaos of the last Trump presidency make him hard to support. At the same time, Roberson worries about Harris¡¯ economic policies; he believes the current administration has accelerated inflation by pumping too much money into the economy.

¡°At some levels, it feels like I¡¯m voting for somebody who wants to either be a dictator or somebody who wants to create a socialist state,¡± Roberson said. ¡°And I¡¯m not in either place.¡±

¡®Nobody is immune¡¯

In North Carolina and other swing states, Trump¡¯s television ads hammer the vice president over high prices and ¡°Bidenomics.¡±

Nash County Republican Party volunteer Yvonne McLeod said the economy, along with immigration, are the top concerns locally. Businesses still struggle to hire, rents have soared and food prices are still up, she said.

¡°Economically, we¡¯re hurting,¡± she said.

Democrats must be honest about the financial pressures facing voters, said Cassandra Conover, a former Virginia prosecutor who now leads the Nash County Democratic Party. She noted that Harris ads running in North Carolina speak directly to middle-class concerns.

¡°Nobody is immune from what¡¯s going on,¡± Conover said. ¡°She¡¯s telling all of us who are hurting, ¡®I know, and we¡¯re working for you.¡¯¡±

Polling has shown voters are sour on the economy, with?63%?saying the economy was on the wrong track in a Harvard-CAPS-Harris poll released this month. Republicans take a far dimmer view than Democrats.

¡°From past experience, we would expect Harris to inherit some of the blame or credit for the current economy, but so far in the polls, I would say there has been a surprising willingness of voters to not extend the blame for inflation that they had for Joe Biden onto Kamala Harris,¡± said Grossmann, the Michigan State University professor.

Housing anxiety

Housing costs have?outstripped?income gains in the past two decades, but those challenges have intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand increased, construction costs soared and interest rates spiked.

¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re a buyer or a renter,¡± said Molly Boesel, an economist at CoreLogic, a financial services information company. ¡°You¡¯re seeing your housing costs increase.¡±

Affordability is ¡°the No. 1 issue¡± among voters in Nevada this year, said Mario Arias, the Nevada director of the Forward Party, a centrist political party founded by former Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang.

A resident of the Las Vegas area, 30-year-old Arias said housing is his biggest financial concern. Throngs of Californians have moved into Nevada to lower their housing costs, but it¡¯s driven up costs for everyone else, he said.

¡°If you want to get out of being a renter, you have to be in not just a good financial situation, but in a very stable financial situation,¡± he said.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week for the first time in four years, whichcouldopen the housing market to more homebuyers as mortgage rates ease in the coming months.

The Biden administration has?proposed?several housing-related policies, including incentives to loosen zoning regulations and capping rent increases from corporate landlords. Harris has announced a proposal to provide up to $25,000 in housing assistance for a down payment to some potential first-time homeowners and promised tax incentives that she say¡¯s would lead to 3 million more housing units by the end of her first term, if she¡¯s elected.

Trump has not waded far into the details of how he would address the affordability issue in a second term. He has?said?he plans to bring down prices by barring immigrants in the country without legal authorization from getting mortgages. But his proposed?immigration policies?could further reduce the labor force for building homes. Previously, Trump¡¯s administration talked about trying to cut state and local housing regulations, and it suspended federal regulations on fair housing.

In North Carolina, more than a quarter of the state¡¯s households are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. It¡¯s particularly challenging for renters, nearly half of which are cost burdened, according to the North Carolina Housing Coalition, a nonprofit affordable housing organization.

Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, housing policy director at the coalition, noted that the federal government¡¯s calculation of fair market rent in North Carolina has shot up 14% in just one year ¡ª and 38% over the past five years.

¡°So unless everybody and their mama¡¯s getting 14 to 20 to 38% raises, the math begins to not math,¡± she said.

It¡¯s a familiar challenge in every swing state.

Wendy Winston, a middle school math teacher in Grand Rapids Michigan, said that though no one political candidate is responsible for the state of the economy, the cost of groceries and housing is hard to ignore.

¡°I don¡¯t think the economy is terrible. It is sometimes difficult to make ends meet,¡± Winston said. ¡°I don¡¯t believe that it¡¯s the fault of the government or policies of the government. I feel like it¡¯s the individual corporations trying to make profit off the backs of the middle class.¡±

The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Grand Rapids is about $1,550 a month, according to rental site Apartments.com. Though Michigan ranks fairly average compared with other states for rent prices, the state saw some of the steepest rent increases in the country in recent years, and wages have not kept up. Residents unable to rent new, ¡°luxury¡± apartments find themselves short of options for places they can afford.

¡°It¡¯s not just cost, it¡¯s availability,¡± Winston said. ¡°There are a lot of new housing developments. Apartments and condos and things are being built, but I¡¯m priced out of them. And I have a college degree, so I don¡¯t think that¡¯s helping our families.¡±

Hoping for revival

Back in North Carolina, near the banks of the Tar River, Rocky Mount Mills has a healthy waiting list for the apartments and the revamped homes it rents.

A former cotton mill?built and once operated?by slave labor, the campus closed in 1996, reopened in 2015 after a $75 million renovation, and is now home to breweries, restaurants and dozens of high-end apartments.

Chapel Hill native and entrepreneur Cameron Schulz never had Rocky Mount on his radar. But the development¡¯s brewery incubator helped him launch HopFly Brewing Co., now one of the state¡¯s largest self-distributing breweries.

After outgrowing its original space, HopFly relocated to Charlotte, but still operates a taproom in Rocky Mount. The Mills project has reinvigorated the city, Schulz said.

¡°Rocky Mount¡¯s got one of the most beautiful, quintessential downtown strips that I¡¯ve ever seen anywhere,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ve just got to fill it up with cool places to go, and people to go into those places.¡±

Main Street suffered for decades after the arrival of malls and a highway bypass. Over at Davis Furniture Company, two employees keep watch over an empty storeroom of sofas, beds and home decor.

Co-owner Melanie Davis said business has been good, though she believes customers are anxious about the presidential election.?Pointing down the sidewalk to new restaurants and some loft apartments overlooking the railroad tracks, Davis said she¡¯s bullish on the trajectory of downtown.

¡°I do feel like we¡¯re on an upswing,¡± she said.

Michigan Advance¡¯s Anna Liz Nichols contributed reporting.

Former President Donald Trump walks to speak to the media after being found guilty of state felony business falsification charges on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Stark polarization was on display Tuesday as U.S. senators argued whether the U.S. Supreme Court¡¯s presidential immunity decision effectively crowns the president ¡°a king¡± or aligns with the history of the office.

In the first congressional hearing on the court¡¯s July decision, lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary debated and questioned witnesses on the historic 6-3 opinion that granted presidents criminal immunity for core constitutional duties and presumptive immunity for ¡°outer perimeter¡± actions. Personal acts are not immune, the court ruled.

Committee Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois lamented the high court has now ¡°made it nearly impossible for the courts to hold a runaway president accountable.¡±

¡°It will be left to the American people and Congress to hold the line, because as Justice (Sonia) Sotomayor noted in her dissent, ¡®the President is now a king above the law,¡¯¡± the Democratic senator said in his opening statement.

Ranking Republican member Lindsey Graham dismissed the Democratic-led hearing as ¡°designed to continue an attack on the court.¡±

¡°This hearing is about a continued narrative of delegitimizing the court you don¡¯t like. We¡¯ll see how this holds up over time,¡± said Graham of South Carolina.

A contentious decision

The Supreme Court issued its immunity decision in the thick of the roller coaster 2024 presidential election campaign ¡ª just one month after former President Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felonies in New York, the only of his four criminal cases to go to trial.

Trump, who is locked in a close race with Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election polls, escalated his presidential immunity claim to the Supreme Court, to which he appointed three conservative justices while in office. At the time, he was leading against President Joe Biden, who exited the race in late July.

Trump argued he could not be prosecuted on federal fraud and obstruction charges for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The Supreme Court remanded the election subversion case to the trial court to decide which charges can still stand in light of the immunity decision.

Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith issued a superseding indictment soon after that retained all four felony charges, but omitted all supporting accusations that Trump allegedly pressured the Department of Justice to intimidate state officials to manipulate the 2020 election results.

Graham downplayed Smith¡¯s case as well as the now-dismissed federal case alleging Trump improperly stored and refused to return classified information after he left office as ¡°politically motivated legal garbage.¡±

Graham also criticized the Georgia state 2020 election interference case against Trump and the New York state conviction of Trump for falsifying business records related to a porn star hush money payment ahead of the 2016 election.

A license for abuse?

Three witnesses invited to testify before the Democratic-led panel warned the immunity decision could lead to sweeping consequences for U.S. democracy and accused the court of abandoning long-standing guardrails on executive power.

Granting protection from criminal exposure ¡°essentially licenses a president to abuse his power and get away with it,¡± said Philip Allen Lacovara, former U.S. deputy solicitor general and former counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor.

The court did ¡°not rely on any historical practice in favor of criminal immunity,¡± Lacovara testified. ¡°In fact, practice is exactly the opposite.

¡°I know from my own experience in the Watergate affair that President Nixon was under active criminal investigation for his role in the cover-up.¡±

Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law School, agreed with the court that the president should be protected for powers defined by the Constitution, including pardoning and vetoing.

But, she said, her concern is that the court¡¯s opinion ¡°capaciously defines core constitutional powers to extend far beyond these well recognized powers.¡±

¡°The majority holds that the former president is absolutely immune for alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials.

¡°That conduct includes the indictment¡¯s allegations about efforts to leverage the Justice Department to convince certain states to replace their legitimate electors with fraudulent Trump slates of electors,¡± said McCord, who served in the Justice Department during the Obama and Trump administrations.

McCord also questioned how criminal immunity would guide a future president¡¯s interactions with other government arms, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Central Intelligence Agency.

¡°The reforms enacted by Congress in the wake of past abuses would be impotent in the case of a president unconcerned about adhering to the rule of law,¡± she said.

Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia University¡¯s School of International and Public Affairs, reminded the committee of Nixon¡¯s investigation of Jewish members of the government, as revealed in his preserved recorded conversations.

¡°As we assess the effects of the Supreme Court¡¯s decision to remove additional guardrails from the presidency, I suggest we consider some events of the year 1971 and a few other well documented episodes of presidential abuse of power,¡± said Naftali, the former founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

Immunity as necessary

Witnesses invited by the panel¡¯s GOP minority dismissed concerns about presidential immunity as overblown.

Jennifer Mascott, director of the Separation of Powers Institute and associate professor of law at The Catholic University of America, said ¡°since the court handed down this opinion, a number of public statements and commentary have significantly mischaracterized the opinion¡¯s holding and its scope.¡±

¡°Some of those overstatements have made their way into some of the prepared testimony before the committee today,¡± she continued.

Republicans reiterated that presidential criminal immunity keeps the lid on a ¡°Pandora¡¯s box¡± of political retaliation against former administrations via the courts.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, ranking member of the committee¡¯s Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, entertained the scenario that a district attorney in a Republican-held jurisdiction could sue Biden once he leaves office for the withdrawal from Afghanistan during which 13 U.S. service members were killed.

¡°Can you imagine a scenario in which an ambitious district attorney after President Biden¡¯s out of office could bring a charge against President, former President Biden for criminal negligence in the death of Americans?¡± he asked.

Former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under former President George W. Bush, said the court¡¯s ruling was ¡°narrow, consistent with precedent and constitutional principles.¡±

¡°I think if one examines the historical record of controversial acts by presidents, it would be dangerous ¡ª particularly although not exclusively as to acts that impact national security such as border or drug enforcement ¡ª to subject presidents to the constant threat of prosecution for official acts when they leave office,¡± Mukasey said.

He used the examples of former President Barack Obama¡¯s drone killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and former President Franklin D. Roosevelt¡¯s World War II internment of Japanese Americans.

¡°And even more pointedly, I doubt that many people think that our country would be better off if President Lincoln, Roosevelt, Clinton or Obama were prosecuted or imprisoned for controversial decisions they made in office,¡± Mukasey said.

Lack of court ethics to blame?

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights Subcommittee, blamed a lack of an enforceable ethics code on the court and ¡°creepy right-wing billionaires¡± for influencing justices¡¯ decisions.

The court has been rocked by revelations that Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas did not disclose gifts and luxury travel from Republican donors. The justices have not faced repercussions, and the donors deny any improper actions.

¡°The Trump justices invented presidential immunity and then didn¡¯t even carve out treason,¡± the Rhode Island Democrat said. ¡°The first mention ever that a president can freely commit crimes comes from this court, just as we have our first ever criminal presidential candidate.¡±

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol about border policy negotiations on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Senate Democrats attempted to pass a resolution Tuesday addressing abortion access in emergency medical situations, but Republicans blocked it from moving forward.

The floor action followed months of unsuccessful attempts by congressional Democrats to approve legislation on various reproductive rights, including access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Tuesday she introduced the resolution to clarify what Congress¡¯ objective was several decades ago when lawmakers approved the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA.

¡°We want to make it clear that Congress¡¯s intent is that women can get life-saving care when they go to an emergency room anywhere in this country,¡± Murray said.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford blocked Murray¡¯s unanimous consent request to approve the resolution, saying that doctors in emergency departments are able to act in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and life-threatening situations.

¡°This is a false claim that somehow what happened in the Dobbs decision and what¡¯s happening in states is limiting that,¡± Lankford said. ¡°It¡¯s actually the political rhetoric that¡¯s making people afraid.¡±

Lankford objected to another of Murray¡¯s unanimous consent requests in March, blocking approval of legislation that would have expanded access to in vitro fertilization for military members and veterans.

No recorded vote

Unanimous consent is the fastest way to approve legislative items in the Senate. Under the process, any one senator can ask to approve a bill or resolution and any one senator can object. There is no recorded vote that puts all senators on the record.

Murray¡¯s two-page resolution, which had the backing of 40 cosponsors, would have expressed ¡°the sense of the Senate that every person has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care.¡±

The resolution also expressed that ¡°State laws that purport to ban and restrict abortion in emergency circumstances force medical providers to decide between withholding necessary, stabilizing medical care from a patient experiencing a medical emergency or facing criminal prosecution, and put the lives, health, and futures of patients at risk.¡±

This resolution wouldn¡¯t have actually changed the text of EMTALA.

The 1986 law states that hospital emergency departments must treat or transfer patients who have emergency medical conditions, regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay.

It defines an emergency medical condition as something that could result in the health of the patient being in ¡°serious jeopardy,¡± such as the patient ¡°experiencing serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.¡±

Dobbs decision

The federal law has been the center of political and legal debate since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion two years ago in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women¡¯s Health Organization ruling.

The Biden administration issued a public letter shortly afterward saying EMTALA protected doctors and other qualified health care providers who ended a pregnancy to stabilize the patient if their life or health was at risk.

Republican attorneys general in several states challenged that view of the law and the U.S. Department of Justice later sued Idaho over its abortion law.

That case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, but the justices ultimately decided to send it back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The high court said it should have waited to hear the case until after the lower court ruled.

At the center of the disagreement between Republican state attorneys general and the Biden administration is that the federal law applies when a pregnant patient¡¯s life or health is at risk; many of the conservative state laws only allow abortions after a certain gestational age when a woman¡¯s life is at risk.

Exactly when a woman¡¯s life becomes at risk due to pregnancy complications has led to dozens of stories from women throughout the country, who say they had to wait for treatment until their health deteriorated further.

Analysis from the Associated Press released in August found that more than 100 women experiencing medical distress during pregnancy were turned away from hospitals or negligently treated during the last two years.

ProPublica recently obtained reports ¡°that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn¡¯t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.¡±

¡®This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable¡¯

The Senate resolution that Republicans rejected Tuesday is nearly identical to one House Democrats introduced earlier this month.

Murray said ahead of her UC request that women and their families will not forget about being denied medical care due to Republican state restrictions on abortion access.

¡°No woman is ever going to forget when she was sent off to miscarry alone after her doctor said, ¡®Look, I know your life is in danger, but I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m allowed to save you right now,¡¯¡± Murray said. ¡°No husband is going to forget calling 911 in a panic after finding his wife bloody and unconscious. No child is going to forget, for a single day of their life, the mother that was taken from them by Republican abortion bans.

¡°This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable. Democrats will not let it become settled status quo.¡±

Vice President Kamala Harris departs Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport aboard Air Force 2, after speaking at a campaign rally inside West Allis Central High School on July 23, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON ¡ª Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Tuesday during a radio interview that she supports changing a Senate procedure in order to codify the right to an abortion.

Vice President Harris said she is in favor of ending the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, known as the filibuster, to advance abortion rights legislation. But that task would hinge on Democrats agreeing to do so and holding on to majority control in the Senate, a difficult feat this November as Republicans appear potentially poised to take back the upper chamber.?

McConnell says GOP control of the U.S. Senate would protect the filibuster

¡°I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,¡± she said during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.

Harris in 2022 said she would cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of abortion rights in her role as vice president. She has often pledged to sign into law a codification of Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to an abortion struck down by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in August that Democrats would talk about rules changes to codify abortion rights, NBC reported.

Trump in Pennsylvania

At a Monday rally in Pennsylvania, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump referred to himself as a ¡°protector¡± of women. Trump said women no longer needed to think about abortion and it is ¡°now where it always had to be, with the states.¡±

¡°All they want to do is talk about abortion,¡± the former president said at the rally, referring to Democrats. ¡°It really no longer pertains because we¡¯ve done something on abortion that no one thought was possible.¡±

Trump has called for Senate Republicans to dismantle the filibuster, but GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republican leaders like No. 2 Sen. John Thune of South Dakota have vowed to keep the procedure in place.

Current Senate projections indicate Republicans are likely to gain control of the Senate. Republicans are also expected to pick up a seat in West Virginia, and only need to hold on to seats in Florida, Texas and Nebraska.

Democrats will need to secure wins in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Additionally, Senate Democrats would need to break a possible 50-50 tie through a Democratic presidency ¡ª if they want to remain the majority party and change the filibuster.

If Harris wins, and Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate, then Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the vice presidential nominee, would be the tie-breaking vote.

During a Tuesday Senate press conference on abortion, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said she was supportive of Harris¡¯ stance and that it would be a carve-out of the filibuster, rather than an elimination of it.

¡°What we are talking about is a simple procedure to allow, whenever rights are taken away from someone, that the U.S. Senate can, without being blocked by a filibuster, be able to restore those rights,¡± she said.

Harris, Trump and the economy

The Harris campaign hosted a Tuesday press call with business owner and? ¡°Shark Tank¡± investor Mark Cuban, to advocate for Harris¡¯ economic policies.

Polls have found that voters view Trump as better for the economy. Pew Research found that Trump¡¯s key advantage is the economy, with 55% of voters viewing the former president as making good economic decisions, and 45% of voters viewing Harris as making good decisions about the economy.

¡°In a nutshell, the vice president and her team thinks through her policies,¡± Cuban said. ¡°She doesn¡¯t just off the top of her head say what she thinks the crowd wants to hear, like the Republican nominee.¡±

Battleground states still the favorite spot

The candidates will continue to campaign and travel, especially around battleground states this week.

Trump is scheduled Tuesday to visit Savannah, Georgia, where he will give an afternoon campaign speech about lowering taxes for business owners.

Walz is scheduled to head back to his home state of Minnesota Tuesday?for a campaign reception there.

Harris is heading to Pennsylvania Wednesday for a campaign rally and then she¡¯ll travel to Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Sunday.

Trump is stopping in Mint Hill, North Carolina, on Wednesday to give remarks about the importance of making goods in the U.S. His running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will travel to Traverse City, Michigan, on Wednesday to rally supporters.

Vance on Thursday will give a campaign speech on the economy in Macon, Georgia, and then host a voter mobilization drive in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

On Friday, Trump is scheduled to rally supporters in Walker, Michigan and in the evening hold a town hall in Warren, Michigan.

?Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn ¡°Mickey¡± Stines, charged with murdering a judge in his chambers last week, will face arraignment Wednesday morning in Carter County.

Stines is jailed in the Leslie County Detention Center.

And he¡¯s still sheriff of Letcher County.

¡°He still is the sheriff until he would actually resign or be removed,¡±? said Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs¡¯ Association. ¡°Once you’re elected, you are elected through an election cycle.¡±?

Wagner said the situation facing Letcher County is unlike any he¡¯s seen.

County sheriffs in Kentucky have wide-ranging powers to enforce the laws of the state along with carrying out a number of lesser-known but important duties, including tax collection, vehicle inspections and providing security for local court proceedings.?

Wagner, who served as Fleming County sheriff for nearly 20 years, said it was customary for a chief deputy to take over his duties when he was unable to perform them.

WHJL in Johnson City, Tennessee, reported a sign on the door of the Letcher County sheriff¡¯s office said it would be closed until Oct. 1. The police chief for the county seat of Whitesburg told the TV station local law enforcement and Kentucky State Police were taking calls and responding to emergencies.

The Letcher County clerk¡¯s office is open. The courts are set to reopen Monday, Sept. 30, with all court proceedings being rescheduled.?

Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart, public affairs officer for KSP Post 13 which serves Letcher County, told the Lantern it’s his understanding the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office is planning to install an interim head, though he didn’t know if an interim leader has been named. Attempts by the Lantern to reach the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office were unsuccessful.?

Asked what power Stines has as sheriff while in custody, Gayheart said it’s a hard question to answer. “His involvement with the actual office itself, I don’t know how much control or the influence he would have on them,” Gayheart said.

Stines, 43, will be arraigned remotely Wednesday.

He is charged with firing multiple shots and killing Letcher County District Court Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, after an argument at the Letcher County Courthouse on Sept. 19. Stines surrendered without incident at the courthouse. The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg has reported the shooting was recorded on video in the judge’s office.

Chief Regional Judge Rupert Wilhoit of Grayson was appointed as a special judge in the case by Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter. Wilhoit¡¯s court is more than 100 miles north of Whitesburg.

Under Kentucky law, Gov. Andy Beshear has the power to remove a peace officer for ¡°neglect of duty.¡± Alternatively, the Kentucky legislature has the power to impeach and convict elected officials to remove an official from office, which lawmakers did in 2023 with a former commonwealth¡¯s attorney.?

Days before the alleged shooting, Stines gave an eight-hour deposition in a federal court case alleging a former Letcher County deputy forced a woman to have sex in lieu of paying court fees the woman couldn¡¯t afford. Stines is a defendant in the suit for allegedly failing to properly supervise the deputy. It has been stayed in light of the criminal charge against Stines.?

The gravesite of Amber Thurman, at Rose Garden Cemetary in McDonough, Georgia on August, 13th 2024.

The Georgia hospital that failed to save Amber Thurman may have broken a federal law when doctors there waited 20 hours to perform a procedure criminalized by the state¡¯s abortion ban, according to Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, requires hospitals to provide emergency care to stabilize patients who need it ¡ª or transfer them to a hospital that can. Passed nearly four decades ago, the law applies to any hospital with an emergency department and that accepts Medicare funding, which includes the one Thurman went to, Piedmont Henry in suburban Atlanta. The finance committee has authority over the regulatory agency that enforces the law.

In a letter sent Monday, Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, cites ProPublica¡¯s investigation into Thurman¡¯s death, which was found preventable by a state committee of maternal health experts. The senator¡¯s letter asks Piedmont CEO David Kent whether the hospital has delayed or denied emergency care to pregnant patients since Georgia¡¯s abortion ban went into effect. (Kent did not respond to requests for comment.)

¡°It is my duty to conduct oversight of potential violations of patients¡¯ rights under these laws,¡± Wyden wrote. The senator asked for the hospital¡¯s policies covering treatment of patients with emergencies that require abortion care. He also asked for a list of personnel involved in making those decisions. He gave the hospital a deadline of Oct. 24 to provide those and other requested records and answers.

Wyden sent the same letter citing ProPublica¡¯s reporting on Thurman to seven hospitals in North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas. One letter seeks information from a Texas hospital where Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick died in 2022 from complications of pregnancy including hypertension, as reported by The New Yorker. Other letters seek information from hospitals where women have reportedly been turned away or experienced delayed care.

The hospitals¡¯ answers could lead to proposed legislation or executive actions to strengthen compliance. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigates complaints and can take actions including levying fines against hospitals that violate EMTALA.

Wyden¡¯s committee held a hearing Tuesday morning, saying in a news release it would ¡°examine how Donald Trump¡¯s successful overturn of Roe v. Wade and subsequent state abortion bans have threatened access to life-saving medical care for women nationwide.¡±

Piedmont did not respond to multiple requests seeking comment about Wyden¡¯s letter or whether it is aware of an investigation into an EMTALA violation. Doctors who handled Thurman¡¯s care have previously declined to explain their thinking and did not respond to questions from ProPublica.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the regulatory agency that enforces the law, said in an email: ¡°No woman or her family should have to worry that she could be denied life-saving treatment. While we can¡¯t comment on complaints or investigations, we are committed to ensuring that every woman gets the care she needs.¡±

But some hospitals in abortion-ban states continue to deny or delay emergency care to pregnant women.

A recent Associated Press review of federal investigations found that more than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or treated negligently since 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Last year, a federal investigation found that hospitals in Missouri and Kansas involved in the care of a patient, Mylissa Farmer, violated the law.

Vice President Kamala Harris has singled out Thurman¡¯s case as evidence that a national law is needed to restore the right to abortion. Harris¡¯ office didn¡¯t respond to ProPublica¡¯s questions about what federal actions she might pursue as president apart from signing a law, which would have to be passed by a divided Congress.

Former President Donald Trump has bragged about appointing three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe. Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda for a right-wing presidential administration, calls for doing away with Biden administration guidance that EMTALA requires hospitals to provide abortion care in emergency situations, even in states that ban it, or transfer the patients to a hospital that can provide the needed care.

Trump¡¯s campaign pointed to previous statements by the former president that Project 2025 does not represent his plans for a second term. Leavitt said the former president ¡°has always supported exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, which Georgia¡¯s law provides. With those exceptions in place, it¡¯s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect Amber Thurman¡¯s life.¡±

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, too, has said his state¡¯s six-week ban has clear exceptions to protect the ¡°life of the mother.¡± In a statement, he blamed ¡°partisan activists and so-called journalists¡± for spreading ¡°misinformation and propaganda that fostered a culture of fear and confusion.¡±

But doctors have warned for years that these laws use language not rooted in science and begged for clearer exceptions. The confusion is apparent: In the wake of the bans, some hospitals have refused to even issue written policies informing doctors when and how to provide emergency abortions.

Legal reproductive rights scholars told ProPublica they believe Thurman¡¯s treatment is a clear violation of EMTALA.

¡°It¡¯s not even a question,¡± said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. She helped develop EMTALA while at the Children¡¯s Defense Fund. ¡°I think the hospital, like all hospitals in these situations, is caught between violating EMTALA and state prosecution,¡± she said.

Thurman was rushed to the hospital on Aug. 18, 2022, in need of immediate care. Days earlier, she had taken abortion medication to end her pregnancy but was facing a rare complication: Some of the tissue remained inside her body, causing a grave infection.

To clear the infected tissue, she needed a dilation and curettage, or D&C, a procedure used to empty the uterus for both abortions and routine miscarriage care. Medically speaking, Thurman¡¯s pregnancy had already ended. But the state¡¯s abortion ban had criminalized performing a D&C and threatened doctors with up to 10 years in prison if prosecutors decided they violated it.

Records obtained by ProPublica show doctors discussed the procedure at least twice as Thurman¡¯s condition deteriorated over 20 hours. Experts on the state maternal mortality review committee agreed there was a ¡°good chance¡± Thurman would have survived if the D&C was provided sooner.

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, the federal government reminded hospitals and doctors they had to follow EMTALA and provide abortion procedures to patients if necessary in emergency situations, regardless of abortion bans. Some Republican officials have aggressively pushed back and said hospitals do not need to follow EMTALA, even for high-risk situations.

In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to prosecute a doctor for providing an emergency abortion to a woman with a high-risk pregnancy, whose fetus had a fatal anomaly and whose pregnancy threatened her health and future ability to have children.

He argued in court that she did not meet the state ban¡¯s criteria. He also filed a lawsuit arguing the federal government cannot force Texas to follow the guidance on providing emergency abortions to patients.

In an opinion written by a Trump-appointed judge, a federal appeals panel agreed. That means enforcement of EMTALA in emergency abortion cases is barred in that state.

The Supreme Court last summer considered a lawsuit brought by the Biden administration challenging Idaho¡¯s abortion ban, which lacks health exceptions and appears to conflict with EMTALA. A lawyer for the state acknowledged that Idaho¡¯s abortion ban was written to prevent doctors from offering abortions even if the woman could suffer a serious medical complication like losing an organ.

Conservative justices in that case raised arguments about the rights of the fetus. The court issued a ruling that meant the case would be returned to a lower court, which upheld EMTALA while the case continues.

Rosenbaum said the federal government is not doing enough to require hospitals to follow EMTALA in states that banned abortion: ¡°The federal government has no resources. It was only recently that the Biden administration has made it clear how to file complaints. The complaints go uninvestigated or poorly investigated.¡±

Wyden¡¯s letters sum up the perilous landscape for patients and doctors.

¡°Across the country, there are reports that women are being turned away by emergency departments when they seek emergency reproductive health care, even in instances where medical professionals determine that, without such care, the patient is at risk of serious complications, infection, or even death. These women are caught between dangerous state laws that are in clear conflict with ¡ª and preempted by ¡ª EMTALA.¡±

On Tuesday, Thurman¡¯s sister, Cjauna Williams, visited Thurman¡¯s grave near Atlanta. She arrived to find fresh flowers and birthday balloons left there by people she and her family had never met. Thurman would have turned 31 the day before, and the story of her desperate wait for the medical care she needed had reverberated across the country.

¡°Hopefully her death won¡¯t be in vain and something good can come of it,¡± Williams said.

Ben Lovely, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, looks through a zebrafish tank. Lovely is working with zebrafish to study fetal alcohol syndrome. (Photo provided)

LOUISVILLE ¡ª Over the next five years, University of Louisville researchers plan to expose about 1.5 million fish eggs to alcohol in hopes of better understanding fetal alcohol syndrome in humans.

Using a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers will specifically study zebrafish as a model for better understanding human facial defects associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol. They started their work in May and will finish in 2029.?

Ben Lovely, the study¡¯s lead researcher and an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the university, said zebrafish are ¡°a really strong model for humans¡± because they share more than 80% of the same genes.?

¡°If you have a gene that’s associated with cancer in humans, you’re probably going to find it in fish, and it can lead to cancer in a fish,¡± Lovely explained.?

Because of this, he told the Lantern, he can study the effects of alcohol on humans via the fish, learning more than he would be able to in a human study. Fish are well equipped for such a study, he said ¡ª he can study developing embryos outside the mother.?

¡°Part of the issue with looking at placental mammals like humans, like mice, is maternal effects and embryonic effects,¡± he said. ¡°So you have two different things going on here.¡±?

With his zebrafish, which are raised in a facility on-site and ¡°get fed and mate¡± for a living, he can take eggs that adult fish laid and? study them in petri dishes ¡ª about 100 at a time to ensure they don¡¯t die from over-density. Zebrafish are a freshwater member of the minnow family.?

During their time in the dish, researchers control how much alcohol is added to the solution in each dish, which also has water and nutrients.?

¡°The alcohol goes right into the fish, gets right across the eggshell and into the fish itself,¡± he explained. The alcohol dose isn¡¯t enough to kill the fish, he said.?

These fish are also perfect for monitoring early development.?

¡°They develop pigments once they reach adult stages, but as embryos, they’re transparent,¡± Lovely said. ¡°You can see right through them. So we can actually watch the cells live in a developing fish over time. You can’t really do that in a placental mammal, because you’d have to remove the embryo to get that to happen.¡±?

Decreasing stigma?

Babies who were exposed to alcohol while in utero ¡ª especially in the early weeks when a person may not know they are pregnant ¡ª can be born with? fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which includes the incurable fetal alcohol syndrome.?

People born with this may have ¡°abnormal facial features¡± like a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip, a thin upper lip and small eyes, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Other symptoms can include learning problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and more.?

Both the alcohol consumption and the facial features he is specifically studying can lead to stigma, Lovely said.?

¡°The first thing we see as humans is the face. So facial birth defects are hugely stigmatizing,¡± he said. ¡°To understand their origins, their prognosis, everything about them is going to be key in really helping identify these issues early, if we can, especially prenatally, that would be more ideal.¡±?

Alcohol, too, ¡°has its own stigma,¡± he said.?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2019 that about 42% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended. The early weeks and months of pregnancy are a key time for the developments of FASD, according to the Mayo Clinic.

¡°So you combine those two: there are a lot of individuals who are drinking and do not know they’re pregnant,¡± Lovely said. ¡°They don’t want to be accused of harming their child because they didn’t know, right? That’s the stigma. So it’s very difficult for him to do human studies. It’s very difficult to find patients ¡ª very few mothers want to admit to this.¡±?

But through his zebrafish study, he said, he hopes to move in the direction of genotyping a person to see their sensitivity to alcohol and look at the issue more from a gene perspective and less from a social perspective.?

¡°A lot of researchers now ¡­ say ¡®prenatal exposure,¡¯ we don’t say ¡®the mother drank,¡¯¡± he said. ¡°We don’t say anything about the mother, to avoid stigmatizing the mother. So we try to couch it from ¡®this has happened to the developing embryo,¡¯ not ¡®this was done to the developing embryo.¡¯¡±?

The CDC said this year that about 1 in 20 school-aged children in the country could have FASDs.? Not every fetus that¡¯s exposed to alcohol will develop FASD issues.?

Because of this, the University of Louisville says that ¡°understanding what genes might increase that risk could lead to better therapeutics and help mothers make safer, more informed choices.¡±?

Baptist Healthcare Corbin, above, and Westcare in Pike County are in line for federal funding to expand access to drug treatment. (Baptist Healthcare Corbin)

Two Eastern Kentucky health care providers have received $5.7 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to expand opioid treatment programs.?

Westcare Kentucky in Ashcamp and Baptist Healthcare System in Corbin received $3 million and $2.7 million, respectively. The grants will be spread over four years.?

They¡¯ll use the funds to ¡°create new or expand existing access points for treatment and recovery services, support the behavioral health workforce and collaborate with social services to ensure coordinated care and sustainable impact in rural communities,¡± according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which is in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).?

Westcare, part of a nonprofit network of behavioral health provicers, is located in Pike County, which was among the five Kentucky counties in 2023 with the most fentanyl and meth-related overdose deaths.?

In 2023, there were 1,984 fatal overdoses in Kentucky, down from 2,135 in 2022. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those ¡ª about 79% of the 2023 deaths. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023¡¯s overdose deaths.?

Despite the overall decrease, the number of Black Kentuckians who died from a drug overdose increased from 259 in 2022 to 264 in 2023.?

¡°We know that where you live should not determine your access to or the quality of the care that you receive,¡± Carole Johnson, the administrator of HRSA, said in a statement. ¡°And, we are taking action to deliver for rural families by supporting high-quality substance use disorder treatment and by helping rural hospitals continue to serve their communities.¡±

Gov. Andy Beshear extends a handshake during a ceremonial groundbreaking for The Paddocks of Frankfort at Interstate 64 and U.S. 127. The ceremony was moved into the Capital Rotunda because of heavy rain the day before. (Gov. Andy Beshear, X account)

FRANKFORT ¡ª Developers of a large regional shopping center under construction in Frankfort gave $100,000 to Gov. Andy Beshear¡¯s super PAC in August.

It amounts to the largest group of contributions ever reported by the super PAC ¡ª called In This Together ¡ª which Beshear created in January.

In early June Beshear was joined by the developers and local and state leaders in the Capitol Rotunda to ceremonially break ground on The Paddocks of Frankfort, a major retail development that will feature Target as an anchor tenant.

Beshear thanked developers and investors for making what he said was a $150 million investment that would ¡°support¡± more than 1,000 jobs. Developers thanked the state and local officials ¨C particularly the Beshear administration and legislature for funding major road improvements that made the long-planned project possible.

The state road plan includes funding to build a realigned interchange at I-64 and U.S. 127 and other improvements in access to the site.?

The Frankfort and Franklin County governments approved tax increment financing for other infrastructure to support the project.

On Friday, In This Together, filed a report with the Federal Election Commission that listed $100,000 in contributions on Aug. 8 from limited liability companies affiliated with the developers, Patrick Madden and Equity Management Group.

Specifically, the donors listed in the report are:

• TPOF Manager LLC, of Lexington, $50,000. This company was formed in February, according to records filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State. The records list no owners or officers of TPOF Manager LLC, but do list Equity Management Group, of Lexington, as its registered agent. Equity Management Group is one of the real estate companies handling the development according to a June press release from the governor¡¯s office.
• Sir Barton Place LLC, of Lexington, $25,000. This is a real estate company managed by Madden.
• War Admiral Place LLC, of Lexington, $25,000. This is another real estate company managed by Madden.

Neither Madden nor Equity Management Group immediately returned phone calls from Kentucky Lantern seeking comment on the contributions.

Eric Hyers, the PAC¡¯s political strategist who managed both of Beshear¡¯s successful campaigns for governor, responded to questions from Kentucky Lantern in a statement: ¡°This is an important economic development project for Frankfort that has been years in the making, and Mr. Madden has been a long-time supporter of Gov Beshear.¡±

?Hyers also said, ¡°We are proud that ITT (In This Together) is raising money to help good people win in Kentucky and all over the country and that people are donating because of the proven leadership of Governor Beshear.¡±

Beshear, a Democrat, created In This Together in early January as a mechanism to raise contributions he would use to support like-minded political candidates both within Kentucky and across the country.

From January through August the super PAC has reported raising $897,500.

Before August, the largest contribution it reported was $25,000 from Freedom Senior Share LLC, of Louisville, which operates under the assumed name of Freedom Adult Day Healthcare.

In This Together reported raising a total of $187,900 in August. It reported spending $40,100 during the month and that it had $681,800 on hand as of Aug. 31.

Hyers said in July that the super PAC planned to wait until the fall before spending significant amounts to help candidates supported by Beshear. In August it reported making just one contribution – $6,600 to the campaign of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin.

Voters in Grand Rapids, Mich., cast their ballots during the state¡¯s August primary. Michigan was one of the swing states that has greatly expanded voter access since 2020. (Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. ¡ª Some voters are already casting early ballots in the first presidential election since the global pandemic ended and former President Donald Trump refused to accept his defeat.

This year¡¯s presidential election won¡¯t be decided by a margin of millions of votes, but likely by thousands in the seven tightly contested states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

How legislatures, courts and election boards?have reshaped?ballot access in those states in the past four years could make a difference. Some of those states, especially Michigan, cemented the temporary pandemic-era measures that allowed for more mail-in and early voting. But other battleground states have passed laws that may keep some registered voters from casting ballots.

Trump and his allies have continued to spread lies about the 2020 results, claiming without evidence that widespread voter fraud stole the election from him. That has spurred many Republican lawmakers in states such as Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina to reel back access to early and mail-in voting and add new identification requirements to vote. And in Pennsylvania, statewide appellate courts are toggling between rulings.

¡°The last four years have been a long, strange trip,¡± said Hannah Fried, co-founder and executive director of All Voting is Local, a multistate voting rights organization.

¡°Rollbacks were almost to an instance tied to the ¡®big lie,¡¯¡± she added, referring to Trump¡¯s election conspiracy theories. ¡°And there have been many, many positive reforms for voters in the last few years that have gone beyond what we saw in the COVID era.¡±

The volume of election-related legislation and?court cases?that emerged over the past four years has been staggering.

Nationally, the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan group that researches election law changes,?tracked 6,450 bills?across the country that were introduced since 2021 that sought to alter the voting process. Hundreds of those bills were enacted.

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, cautioned that incremental tweaks to election law ¡ª especially last-minute changes made by the courts ¡ª not only confuse voters, but also put a strain on local election officials who must comply with changes to statute as they prepare for another highly scrutinized voting process.

¡°Any voter that is affected unnecessarily is too many in my book,¡± he said.

New restrictions

In many ways, the 2020 presidential election is still being litigated four years later.

Swing states have been the focus of legal challenges and new laws spun from a false narrative that questioned election integrity. The 2021 state legislative sessions, many begun in the days following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, brought myriad legislative changes that have made it more difficult to vote and altered how ballots are counted and rejected.

The highest profile measure over the past four years came out of Georgia.

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Under a 2021 law, Georgia residents now have less time to ask for mail-in ballots and must put their driver¡¯s license or state ID information on those requests. The number of drop boxes has been limited. And neither election officials nor nonprofits may send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said when signing the measure that it would ensure free and fair elections in the state, but voting rights groups lambasted the law as voter suppression.

That law also gave Georgia¡¯s State Election Board more authority to interfere in the makeup of local election boards. The?state board[AS1]??has made recent headlines?for paving the way for counties to potentially refuse to certify the upcoming election. This comes on top of?a wave?of voter registration challenges from conservative activists.

In North Carolina, the Republican-led legislature last year?overrode?Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper¡¯s veto to enact measures that shortened the time to turn in mail-in ballots; required local election officials to reject ballots if voters who register to vote on Election Day do not later verify their home address; and required identification to vote by mail.

This will also be the first general election that North Carolinians will have to comply with a 2018 voter ID measure that was caught up in the court system until the state Supreme Court?reinstated?the law last year.

And in Arizona, the Republican-led legislature pushed?through?a measure[AS2]??that shortened the time voters have to correct missing or mismatched signatures on their absentee ballot envelopes. Then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed the measure.

¡°Look, sometimes the complexity is the point,¡± said Fried, of All Voting is Local. ¡°If you are passing a law that makes it this complicated for somebody to vote or to register to vote, what¡¯s your endgame here? What are you trying to do?¡±

Laws avoided major overhauls

But the restrictions could have gone much further.

That¡¯s partly because Democratic governors, such as Arizona¡¯s Katie Hobbs, who took office in 2023,?have vetoed?many of the Republican-backed bills. But it¡¯s also because of how popular early voting methods have become.

Arizonans, for example, have been able to vote by mail for more than three decades. More than 75% of Arizonan voters?requested?mail-in ballots in 2022, and 90% of voters in 2020 cast their ballots by mail.

This year,?a bill?that would have scrapped no-excuse absentee voting passed the state House but failed to clear a Republican-controlled Senate committee.

Bridget Augustine, a high school English teacher in Glendale, Arizona, and a registered independent, has been a consistent early voter since 2020. She said the first time she voted in Arizona was by absentee ballot while she was a college student in New Jersey, and she has no concerns ¡°whatsoever¡± about the safety of early voting in Arizona.

¡°I just feel like so much of this rhetoric was drummed up as a way to make it easier to lie about the election and undermine people¡¯s confidence,¡± she said.

Vanessa Jiminez, the security manager for a Phoenix high school district, a registered independent and an early voter, said she is confident in the safety of her ballot.

¡°I track my ballot every step of the way,¡± she said.

Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer and Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the think tank Hoover Institution, said that while these laws may add new hurdles, he doesn¡¯t expect them to change vote totals.

¡°The bottom line is I don¡¯t think that the final result in any election is going to be impacted by a law that¡¯s been passed,¡± he said on a recent call with reporters organized by the Knight Foundation, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides grants to support democracy and journalism.

Major expansions

No state has seen a bigger expansion to ballot access over the past four years than Michigan.

Republicans tried to curtail access to absentee voting,?introducing 39 bills?in 2021, when the party still was in charge of both legislative chambers.

Two?GOP?bills?passed, but Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed them.

The next year, Michigan voters approved ballot measures that added nine days of early voting. The measures also allowed voters to request mail-in ballots online; created a permanent vote-by-mail list; provided prepaid postage on absentee ballot applications and ballots; increased ballot drop boxes; and allowed voters to correct missing or mismatched signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes.

¡°When you take it to the people and actually ask them about it, it turns out most people want more voting access,¡± said Melinda Billingsley, communications manager for Voters Not Politicians, a Lansing, Michigan-based voting rights advocacy group.

¡°The ballot access expansions happened in spite of an anti-democratic, Republican-led push to restrict ballot access,¡± she said.

In 2021, then-Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat,?signed into law?a measure that transitioned the state into a universal vote-by-mail system. Every registered voter would be sent a ballot in the mail before an election, unless they opt out. The bill made permanent a temporary expansion of mail-in voting that the state put in place during the pandemic.

Nevada voters?have embraced?the system, data shows.

In February¡¯s presidential preference primary, 78% of ballots cast were ballots by mail or in a ballot drop box, according to the Nevada secretary of state¡¯s office. In June¡¯s nonpresidential primary, 65% of ballots were mail-in ballots. And in the 2022 general election, 51% of ballots cast were mail ballots.

Last-minute court decisions

Drop boxes weren¡¯t controversial in Wisconsin until Trump became fixated on them as an avenue for alleged voter fraud, said Jeff Mandell, general counsel and co-founder of Law Forward, a Madison-based nonprofit legal organization.

For half of a century, Wisconsinites could return their absentee ballots in the same drop boxes that counties and municipalities used for water bills and property taxes, he said. But when the pandemic hit and local election officials expected higher volumes of absentee ballots, they installed larger boxes.

After Trump lost the state by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020, drop boxes became a flashpoint. Republican leaders claimed drop boxes were not secure, and that nefarious people could tamper with the ballots. In 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, then led by a conservative majority,?banned?drop boxes.

But that ruling would only last two years. In July, the new liberal majority in the state¡¯s high court?reversed the ruling?and said localities could determine whether to use drop boxes. It was a victory for voters, Mandell said.

With U.S. Postal Service delays stemming from the agency¡¯s restructuring, drop boxes provide a faster method of returning a ballot without having to worry about it showing up late, he said. Ballots must get in by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The boxes are especially convenient for rural voters, who may have a clerk¡¯s office or post office with shorter hours, he added.

¡°Every way that you make it easy for people to vote safely and securely is good,¡± Mandell said.

After the high court¡¯s ruling, local officials had to make a swift decision about whether to reinstall drop boxes.

Milwaukee city employees were quickly dispatched throughout the city to remove the leather bags that covered the drop boxes for two years, cleaned them all and repaired several, said Paulina Gutierrez, executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission.

¡°There¡¯s an all-hands-on-deck mentality here at the city,¡± she said, adding that there are cameras pointed at each drop box.

Although it used a drop box in 2020, Marinette, a community on the western shore of Green Bay, opted not to use them for the August primary and asked voters to hand the ballots to clerk staff. Lana Bero, the city clerk, said the city may revisit that decision before November.

New Berlin Clerk Rubina Medina said her community, a city of about 40,000 on the outskirts of Milwaukee, had some security concerns about potentially tampering or destruction of ballots within drop boxes, and therefore decided not to use the boxes this year.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, who serves the state capital of Madison and its surrounding area, has been encouraging local clerks in his county to have a camera on their drop boxes and save the videos in case residents have fraud concerns.

A risk of confusing voters

Many local election officials in Wisconsin say they worry that court decisions, made mere months before the November election, could create?confusion?for voters and more work for clerks.

¡°These decisions are last-second, over and over again,¡± McDonell said. ¡°You¡¯re killing us when you do that.¡±

Arizonans and Pennsylvanians now know that late-in-the-game scramble too.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court?reinstated?part of a 2022 Arizona law that requires documented proof of citizenship to register on state forms, potentially?impacting?tens of thousands of voters, disproportionately affecting young and?Native?voters.

Whether Pennsylvania election officials should count mail ballots returned with errors has been a subject of litigation in every election since 2020. State courts continue to?grapple?with the question, and neither voting rights groups nor national Republicans show signs of giving up.

Former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar, who is now president of Athena Strategies and working on voting rights and election security issues across the country, said voters simply need to ignore the noise of litigation and closely follow the instructions with their mail ballots.

¡°Litigation is confusing,¡± Boockvar said. ¡°The legislature won¡¯t fix it by legislation. Voter education is the key thing here, and the instructions on the envelopes need to be as clear and simple as possible.¡±

To avoid confusion, voters can make a plan for how and when they will vote by going to?vote.gov, a federally run site where voters can check to make sure they are properly registered and to answer questions in more than a dozen languages about methods for casting a ballot.

Arizona Mirror¡¯s Caitlin Sievers and Jim Small, Nevada Current¡¯s April Corbin Girnus and Pennsylvania Capital-Star¡¯s Peter Hall contributed reporting.

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A statue of James K. Patterson, the University of Kentucky's first president, looks over the center of campus. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Lately, national attention on Kentucky news seems to focus on the sensational and the shocking.

The national media reported on the discovery ¡ª a day after authorities called off a massive law enforcement search ¡ª of the decomposing body of the person believed to be the I-75 shooter by a colorful Casey County couple with genealogical ties to the legendary Hatfields and McCoys.

National reports of the murder of a Letcher County judge by the county sheriff in the judge’s chambers quickly surfaced in media headlines.

It is less common for a national news service covering academia to shine a light into the dim administrative recesses of Kentucky’s public universities.?

But as national headlines heralded the recovery of the shooter’s body ¡ª not far from the site where he allegedly committed his crimes ¡ª and announced the courthouse murder, The Chronicle of Higher Education redirected national attention to a controversy at Kentucky’s flagship university that the university would have happily preferred, no doubt, to remain local.?

The ironies in The Chronicle’s story ¡ª “After a No-Confidence Vote at the U. of Kentucky, a Tussle Over Ballots Gets Messy” ¡ª are rich.?

University of Kentucky Senate votes no confidence in president over governance changes

Administrators at the University of Kentucky ¡ª an institution whose open records and open meetings performance has been tested and regularly assigned failing marks ¡ª lectured members of the now dismantled University Senate, reassigned staff, and threatened legal action, based on the Senate’s records-keeping and records-management practices ¡ª practices on which the administration itself had offered bad legal advice in the past.?

Indeed, it is the recording and maintenance of the former University Senate’s votes that is at the heart of the controversy on which The Chronicle focuses. In October, 2021, a UK attorney advised that “it is compliant with the Open Meetings law for the Senate Council/Senate to merely record in the minutes whether or not a motion ¡®passed,'” reaffirming this at a later meeting. A 2018 open records request for a copy of the university attorney’s legal analysis yielded a copy of a federal court opinion that offered no support for his position and nothing more.?

To be clear, during its existence, the University Senate was considered a public agency for open meetings purposes. Kentucky’s Open Meetings Act requires public agencies to keep minutes containing accurate records of votes and actions of every public meeting.?

Unless a vote is unanimous, the minutes must reflect how each public agency member voted. Minutes of meetings are to be maintained in “College/University Archives (or designated institutional repository)” for permanent retention.?

Suffice it to say that the University Senate met these requirements. In spite of past advice from the university’s lawyers that minutes of University Senate votes were sufficient if they reflected that the measure upon which the vote was taken was “approved” or “disapproved,” the Senate has, for years, properly maintained Senate votes ¡ª corresponding to the identity of the senator casting that vote ¡ª and archived them in a secure location.

This, however, is where a unique tension exists.?

Elected representatives of the University Senate, as it was previously known, acted as public servants accountable to their faculty colleague “constituents.” But they also occupied the unique status ¡ª in a non-open meetings context ¡ª of university employees.?

Access to their individual voting records in certain scenarios ¡ª say, for example, a “no confidence” vote on the University president ¡ª threatened to expose them to workplace retaliation. The Chronicle reports that some faculty fear the administration will, indeed, retaliate based on their votes ¡ª a suggestion the university, of course, rejects and at which it takes great umbrage.?

Perhaps this is why, as The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, the American Association of University Professors “has no policy on how no-confidence votes should be conducted or reported,” but “affirm[s] professors¡¯ right to protected intramural speech.”

“The idea is, senators are voting their conscience. They¡¯re voting for what their colleagues would hope they would vote for, and they should be able to do so in a way that they don¡¯t feel like someone¡¯s going to come for them when they make their voice known,” said one member of UK’s AAUP chapter.?

As noted, those University Senate’s actions were recorded in its meeting minutes. Votes were recorded and reflected how each senator voted. They were archived in a location that limited access unless requested ¡ª whether by Uk administrators, a curious professor, The Kentucky Kernel,? a concerned citizen, or anyone else ¡ª through the Open Records Act. Upon submission of such a request ¡ª triggering statutory duties and a public process that culminates in a published Kentucky attorney general’s open records decision ¡ª those individualized University Senate votes were and are publicly accessible.?

In the meantime, the votes are archived and secured (mostly) from surreptitious access and the possibility (even if remote) of retaliation.?

But this unsettled state of affairs teaches me an invaluable lesson, albeit a lesson I learned late in the open government game. A “one size fits all” approach to open government law can yield unexpected and unwelcome outcomes for public servants wrestling with the tension created by statutory duty, on the one hand, and fear of retaliation in the workplace, on the other.?

I, for one, am satisfied with how the University Senate resolved this tension to ensure compliance with open records, open meetings, and records management laws and, at the same time, preserve its elected senators’ right ¡ª to the extent legally possible ¡ª to vote their consciences.?

More importantly, this unsettled state of affairs teaches us all that “the faculty-administration relationship at the [University of Kentucky,] since the decision was made to reform its shared-governance model,” continues to “deteriorate” with no real end in sight.?

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s reporting ensures that this once local “tussle” is now nationally known.?