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...
Joe Heller: Cartoonist’s view of week’s news: Leap Year, embryos, Trump vs. Haley, global warming
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 – Stephen Voss: Whatever a Biden-Trump rematch brings, most of us won’t like it
Americans have become accustomed to picking the lesser of two evils when we vote.
Political participation these days is as much about keeping the other side out of power as it is about getting our picks into office.
Still, many were holding out hope that this year’s contest for Leader of the Free World might offer something more uplifting than a rematch between President Joe Biden and former...
Opinion – Bill Straub: Mitch McConnell’s period of reign most ‘consequential’ in recent Senate history
The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution lasted less than a year.
Mitch McConnell’s tenure as Senate Republican leader, a positioned he announced he will be exiting after the November elections, has lasted a record 17 years.
So, choose your poison – a quick beheading during one Reign of Terror or a 17-year tape loop of the Louisville lawmaker droning on about domestic policy during another?
Sacre...
Opinion – Mitch McConnell: Stepping down; now is time for next generation of leadership in U.S. Senate
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Wednesday on the Senate floor regarding his decision to step down as Senate GOP leader in November:
“As some of you may know, this has been a particularly difficult time for my family. We tragically lost Elaine’s youngest sister, Angela a few weeks ago. When you lose a loved one, particularly at a young age, there...
Opinion – Mitch McConnell: Sobering lessons have been drawn from Russian aggression in Ukraine
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Tuesday on the Senate floor regarding the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
“Nearly twenty years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union as the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th) century.’
“And for decades, he has worked incessantly...
Opinion – John Schickel: SB 14 secures a fair and just environment for Kentucky’s small businesses
As Senate Licensing and Occupations chair, my focus has always been supporting Kentucky’s small businesses.
On Friday, the state Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), which I co-sponsored, addressing issues within the Kentucky Cosmetology Board and reducing barriers for nail technicians. Sen. Reggie Thomas of Lexington sponsored the bill. He’s a great friend and has visited...
Opinion – Vanessa Gallman: What’s driving attacks on books, diversity, history? Fear of losing control
Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.
It’s hard to accept that such lofty principles, known as DEI, are part of some sinister plot to poison minds and destroy this country.
After all, America’s prosperity, along with its status as a beacon of civil liberties, is rooted in its blend of peoples from across the world. Yet, the reality of our “melting pot” is that it also includes generations of conflicts...
Joe Heller: Cartoonist’s view of week’s news — misinformation, sneakers, Putin, potholes
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 – With antisemitism on the rise, we must support Kentucky’s teachers in holocaust education
By Dr. Janice W. Fernheimer, Dr. Karen Petrone and Jeff Polson
University of Kentucky
Antisemitism has been on the rise in Kentucky and across the U.S. since 2016, including a 36% increase nationally in antisemitic incidents from 2021 to 2022, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). We are appreciative that Governor Andy Beshear has taken this trend seriously by establishing the Kentucky Antisemitism...
Opinion – Bill Straub: James Comer’s empty talk about accountability; he has a lot of explaining to do
Rep. Jamie Comer loves to talk about accountability. He loves accountability so much he even learned to spell it. It’s all accountability all the time with Jamie, here, there and everywhere. He even changed the name of the congressional panel he chairs to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
Slick move.
Comer, R-TheFrankfortHook, has consistently spent the past 13 months holding President...
Opinion – Wes Cottongim: Kentucky can do better and must; legislature should fund teacher raises
After lunch, I sat down to answer emails. To no surprise, my inbox had messages regarding the current legislative session in Frankfort. We are a little half way through this year’s legislative session and we find ourselves in an all too familiar position of having to fight for adequate funding for schools as well as our educators. One particular email encouraged me to reach out to my legislators...
