News
Bill to ensure proper reporting of child abuse in Kentucky advances
FRANKFORT – A state Senate bill aimed at closing gaps in Kentucky’s child abuse reporting unanimously passed out of committee Tuesday morning.? Senate Bill 229 “ensures the reporting of child abuse or neglect is properly communicated to the appropriate external agencies,” the primary sponsor, Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, told her colleagues in the Senate Families […]
Biden pick for U.S. archivist caught up in controversy over missing presidential documents
WASHINGTON — The nominee for archivist of the United States made her second appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee Tuesday, after the panel blocked her last Congress following a high-profile probe into records at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Colleen Shogan, an executive for the nonprofit White House Historical Association […]
New study finds coal miners in Central Appalachia at highest risk of dying from lung diseases
Central Appalachian coal miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia are more than eight times more likely than men in the general population to die from respiratory diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and black lung, according to recent research. “This higher mortality has also worsened over time with modern miners facing greater risk than […]
Bill clears committee that would establish regulations for current, future donations raised by state
FRANKFORT — A House committee on Tuesday approved a Republican-backed bill that would?charge the state officials overseeing millions in disaster donations with setting out regulations for how the donated funding can be applied for and used. House Bill 257, sponsored by Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, would take the millions of dollars donated to the state’s […]
How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]
Juvenile justice bill passes House, would open some minors’ now-confidential records
FRANKFORT —A Republican-backed bill that would reopen a juvenile detention center in Louisville passed the House 79-18 hours after it passed a?House committee Tuesday morning.? It may now go to the Senate for a vote. Members of the House Standing Committee On Appropriations And Revenue voted 20-2 – with two passes – to advance House […]
Quarles wants to work with legislature to legalize medical marijuana in first year as governor
FRANKFORT — On the steps of the Kentucky Capitol, Republican governor candidate Ryan Quarles told reporters he would work with the General Assembly to legalize medical marijuana within his first year of taking office. The agriculture commissioner touted his experience running Kentucky’s hemp licensing program in his two terms leading the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. […]
Kentucky lawmakers advance bill to keep coal on the power grid, cite reliability concerns
FRANKFORT — Kentucky lawmakers are advancing a bill to try to keep coal-fired power plants on the state’s electric grid “for the foreseeable future,” pointing to concerns over rolling blackouts that some utilities implemented when arctic temperatures swept through in December. Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, would prevent the Kentucky Public […]
Racialized notions of ‘beauty’ hazardous to health
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. ATLANTA — Perched in a stylist’s chair at Yaya’s Natural Hair Boutique, Akeyla Peele-Tembong teared up as she recalled how, when she was a […]
Invader threatens Kentucky woodlands
From late fall to early spring, volunteers fan out across Kentucky woodlands to battle an aggressive invader they know they can’t defeat but hope to hold at bay: Lonicera maackii aka Amur honeysuckle aka?bush honeysuckle. They pull it, dig it, spray it and cut it (then spray again) in an effort to protect ecosystems that […]
Someone who attended the ‘large spiritual revival’ at Asbury University has measles
Someone who attended the “large spiritual revival” at Asbury University on Feb. 18 has measles, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Friday night.? “Anyone who attended the revival on Feb. 18 may have been exposed to measles,” Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said in a statement. […]
Families are taking a hit as pandemic aid ends, inflation continues
Forty million people in the U.S. are having difficulty affording household expenses, and a little more than 25 million people say they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse survey data. The survey is designed to collect data on household experiences during the […]