News

Bipartisan bill aims to expand free school meals with more Kentucky-sourced food

BY: - August 9, 2024

Kentucky lawmakers from both parties are hoping to lessen childhood hunger while also supporting farmers with new legislation set to be introduced in next year’s legislative session.? The pre-filed legislation from Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, and Reps. Chad Aull, D-Lexington, and Scott McPherson, R-Scottsville, would establish the “Kentucky Proud School Match Program.”? In a […]

Senators urge better access to disability payments for Long COVID patients

BY: - August 9, 2024

Seven U.S. senators have called on the Social Security Administration to make it easier for people with long COVID to access disability benefits, actions that disability rights advocates and patients say are desperately needed. In a letter released Monday, they said the agency should make the process more transparent, track and publish data on long […]

A Kentucky Lantern Q & A with federal health administrator?

BY: - August 9, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration, was in Louisville Thursday to discuss ways Kentucky can improve maternal health outcomes.? After moderating a roundtable on the topic, Johnson discussed maternal health issues facing Kentucky with the Lantern. The conversation has been edited for length and […]

Walz’s U.S. House tenure: Bipartisan bills and a focus on vets and farms

BY: - August 9, 2024

WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president, spent 12 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before winning election to his home state’s highest office. That tenure on Capitol Hill gives him insider knowledge about many of the lawmakers who will be instrumental in advancing or blocking […]

Roundtable explores ways to improve Kentucky maternal health

BY: - August 8, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Maternal health is complicated, and reducing mortality around birth takes a comprehensive approach, advocates from across Kentucky said at a Thursday roundtable moderated by Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration. During the roundtable, which took place at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Louisville, Johnson […]

Trump agrees to Sept. 10 debate with Harris, claims two more upcoming

BY: - August 8, 2024

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday he has agreed to debate Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, a reversal from his position last week that he would not participate in the ABC News event. During a press conference at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president said […]

Former Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin’s son back in U.S. after being removed from abusive facility

BY: - August 8, 2024

The adopted son of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is back in the United States — after he was removed earlier this year from an allegedly abusive Jamaican youth facility and left in care of that country’s child welfare system. The boy, 17, is in a placement worked out with help of Jamaican children’s authorities […]

Al Chandler, a pastor and superintendent of the only private school in Graves County, gives the invocation at the Graves County Republican Breakfast, part of the Fancy Farm political festivities, Aug. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

In West Kentucky, people like their schools, ponder ‘choice’ amendment’s implications

BY: - August 8, 2024

GRAVES COUNTY ?— Al Chandler, superintendent of Northside Baptist Christian School, the only private school in Graves County, plans to vote for Amendment 2 — but not because he thinks his local public schools are failing students or families. “We really have wonderful, wonderful schools. Mayfield and Graves (County) both in our county, are just […]

Congress limps toward the end of a disappointing session, with just 78 laws to show

BY: - August 7, 2024

WASHINGTON — Congress plans to spend just 35 days between now and the end of the year in the nation’s capital, a fitting end to one of the least productive sessions in decades. The deeply divided 118th Congress so far has placed just 78 public laws on the books, a fraction of the hundreds enacted […]

McConnell at a podium wearing a blue jacket, standing in front of a Kentucky state flag.

McConnell blasts Harris-Walz ticket as ‘far left,’ says Democrats have ‘abandoned’ rural America

BY: - August 7, 2024

LOUISVILLE — U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell branded Vice President Kamala Harris’ new running mate as “far left” and said Democrats have “abandoned” rural America in a speech Wednesday before Republican state lawmakers from around the country. The day after Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential choice, McConnell, speaking to […]

Telehealth abortion still on the rise, especially in states with shield laws, report shows

BY: - August 7, 2024

Both the overall number of abortions and the use of telehealth abortion care continue to increase in the United States, according to the latest #WeCount report released Wednesday. Telehealth made up 20% of all abortion care in the first three months of 2024, and the monthly total of abortions exceeded 100,000 for the first time […]

Citing integrity, union support, ‘normality,’ Dems rally around Walz as VP choice

BY: - August 6, 2024

Democrats moved quickly Tuesday to back Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the running mate of their presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. Party leaders, including President Joe Biden, and figures across the Democratic political spectrum, from progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to independent U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III, a centrist West […]