A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Opinion – Andrew McNeill: New bureacracy would mean higher energy prices for Northern Kentucky

In late February, energy legislation (SB 349) that’s been promised from Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, arrived on the last day for bills to be introduced. Discussing the measure on the Senate floor last week, supporters emphasized the legislation’s commitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. It’s a talking point many might buy – unless they read past the bill’s...

Opinion – Katelyn Bunning: Senate Bill 349 is good for Kentucky’s energy future

Energy experts have been issuing dire warnings that the shift away from traditional electricity sources is happening too fast largely because of government policies. If this trend continues, many regions of the country face the risk of electricity shortages, especially over the next five years. These worried experts include the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, electric grid operators...

Joe Heller: A cartoonist’s view of week’s news — Kate photo, gold to Trump, TikTok, Rodgers VP?

Joe Heller was the editorial cartoonist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Green Bay, Wis., from 1985 until being laid off in July 2013. He still draws several cartoons a week and distributes them through his own syndicate. Through Heller Syndication, his cartoons regularly appear in more than 400 newspapers, making him the most successful self-syndicated editorial cartoonist in the nation. His cartoons...

Opinion – Mac Brown: CARR bill protects more than gun rights — it also protects the right to life

The problem with gun violence is not the gun, but rather the people who use a gun to inflict harm. This is why a solution is so difficult. As Americans, we have a 2nd Amendment right to own a gun and we take this right seriously, but the loss of life and injuries that happen due to the use of firearms have grown to an epidemic level. Consequently, we need to find a way to ensure our rights while addressing...

Opinion – Bill Straub: By any other word these actions would still be the same — just call it racism

Let’s call this what it is – soft-core racism. Over the past several sessions the Kentucky General Assembly has attracted a well-earned reputation for punching down on many of the constituencies it is reputed to represent. Last year it heaped abuse upon transgender kids, essentially laughing in the face of Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, whose trans son committed suicide. Two years ago it placed...

Opinion – Amye Bensenhaver: Nearly 50 years of open records law dismantled in a matter of minutes

Approximately nine minutes. That was the duration of the March 12 floor debate in the House of Representatives on House Bill 509. Approximately nine minutes to reverse nearly a half century of open records law and effectively repeal statutorily established and enforceable rights of public access to records based on their nature and content rather than on the place where they are stored. Approximately...

Opinion – Michael Adams: The Commonwealth can and should make civic education a priority

The test results are in, and Kentucky is barely passing when it comes to civic health. Civic education is desperately needed in our schools, and our lawmakers need to act now to ensure our children will grow into adults capable of self-government. My office recently conducted a civic health assessment, with mixed results. Relative to the rest of the country, Kentuckians seem to be more accepting of...

Opinion – Amye Bensenhaver: As we celebrate Sunshine week 2024, all is not bright in Kentucky

Appropriately, the sun is shining brightly in Kentucky on the first day of Sunshine Week 2024, the nation’s annual celebration of the value of public records and open government laws that ensure the public’s access to them. But, once again, all is not happy and bright in the Commonwealth. As someone who knows a good deal about Kentucky’s open records and open meetings laws —...

Joe Heller: A cartoonist’s look at week’s news — Spring ahead, ballots, every four years, tax time

Joe Heller was the editorial cartoonist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Green Bay, Wis., from 1985 until being laid off in July 2013. He still draws several cartoons a week and distributes them through his own syndicate. Through Heller Syndication, his cartoons regularly appear in more than 400 newspapers, making him the most successful self-syndicated editorial cartoonist in the nation. His cartoons...

Opinion — Al Cross: Why is McConnell supporting Trump? It’s business.

Are you trying to understand why Mitch McConnell would endorse Donald Trump for president, after blaming Trump for provoking the Jan. 6 insurrection and after Trump insulted him and his wife Elaine Chao, the latter with racist slurs? Go back with me to when McConnell was just starting his climb to the top of Senate Republicans’ leadership ladder. We could still call his home telephone, which answered...

Opinion – Bill Straub: McConnell endorses the Rapist; can’t help but wonder what’s gone wrong

It’s finally official – the heralded and brilliant Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell thinks The Rapist should be elected president of the United States. Hyperbole? Think again. A duly constituted jury in the state of New York, sitting in judgment at a civil trial, concluded that some time in late 1995 or early 1996, one Donald J. Trump, the once and, perhaps, future leader of this nation,...

Opinion – Sarah Vanover: Horizons Act — Senate Bill 203 — would give early childhood education stability

As Kentucky approaches the end of the federal fiscal year in September 2024, a potential child care crisis is looming for the entire state. Child care providers have already stopped receiving the sustainability payments that were allowing centers and family child care homes to increase staff wages while still paying their fixed expenses. With the sustainability payments over, child care programs are...

Opinion – Teri Carter: Rush is on to arm volunteer ‘guardians’ in schools but bill protecting kids ignored

According to research gathered by Sandy Hook Promise, “An estimated 4.6 million American children live in a home where at least one gun is kept loaded and unlocked. These improperly stored weapons have contributed to school shootings, suicides and the deaths of family members, including infants and toddlers.” Senate Bill 56 — sponsored by Sen. Gerald Neal, requiring safe storage of firearms...

Opinion – Liam Niemeyer: 10,000 Kentuckians marched for racial equality; my grandmother was one of them

I never got a chance to ask my grandmother about what March 5, 1964 was like for her. What she heard from speakers on the steps of the Kentucky Capitol. If she saw Martin Luther King Jr. or Jackie Robinson. What she felt standing with thousands of others from across Kentucky. She didn’t speak much about that day when I was growing up and  visiting her Ohio home outside Cincinnati. I had never seen...

Opinion – Al Cross: McConnell gives way to Trump, but will he still endorse him?

When Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday that he would not run again for Senate Republican leader, he tacitly acknowledged that he doesn’t fit well in a party headed by Donald Trump – whose presidency he aided and whose candidacy he has pledged to endorse. “Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time,” McConnell said, noting his successful efforts to pass...