Opinion — Brian Miller: BIA of NKY applauds new legislation on dual credits for trade students
The Building Industry Association of Northern Kentucky (BIA) proudly applauds the approval of Senate Bill 164 during the 2024 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. This groundbreaking legislation opens doors to enhanced educational pathways for construction trade students, particularly those studying the licensed trades of electric, plumbing, and HVAC. Senate Bill 164 introduces a transformative...
Opinion – Tom Fitzgerald: The fault lies not in their stars — most likely, it’s in their laws
To the average person, “venue” is the place where some organized event happens — a concert, a conference, or (particularly in March) a basketball game.
To a person who suffers a legal wrong or injury, it is the court where the law says a criminal or civil case must be filed.
The general rule on venue for civil lawsuits claiming personal injury or property damage is that a lawsuit is filed where...
Opinion – Moe Lundrigan: School Choice helps all students; parents leading KY to an educational boom
It’s always nice to see individuals cherry-pick information to fit the narrative they wish to push. The recent opinion pieces and news articles I have read have done an amazing job at this.
I have watched for far too long individuals essentially mock and belittle parents and grandparents who want to send their kids to a school outside their zip code or beyond their financial means.
We often hear...
Joe Heller: A cartoonist’s look at news of week: Easter, Baltimore’s Key Bridge, growing nest egg
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 – Amye Bensenhaver: House Bill 509 did not emerge from the legislative session; will it be back?
Reporters frantically recapped the last day of the 2024 Regular Session — before the ten day veto period and final two day veto override period — as lawmakers scrambled out of legislative chambers just before midnight Thursday.
It was business as usual for a General Assembly which has, as one reporter noted, a serious time management problem.
Amye Bensenhaver
Absent from their reporting...
Opinion – Bill Straub: What’s “anti-American” about a surge in energy options and a focus on environment?
Rep. Brett Guthrie, who to this point has proven as exciting as a bowl of day-old oatmeal, has apparently decided to stir things up a bit, joining the MAGA crowd to declare that President Biden is being downright “anti-American.”
The issue drawing the consternation of the Bowling Green Republican is energy, maintaining the administration’s policies have “crippled American energy independence...
Opinion – Tom Fitzgerald: The rise of the “Frankfort Knows Best’ legislature
It is said that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind. That is nowhere more apparent than with the Kentucky General Assembly and its occasional respect for local governance.
Lawmakers purport to respect “local control” and to value home rule — the idea that, within limits, communities and their local elected officials are in the best position and should have the flexibility...
Opinion — John Schaaf: High-dollar lobbyists are moving some of Frankfort’s most controversial bills
As the last days of the Kentucky General Assembly unfold, big-dollar lobbyists in Frankfort are pushing their most controversial bills toward passage.
Lobbyists recently shoved their private school voucher amendment across the finish line to set up a massive fight this fall between Kentucky taxpayers and a handful of multi-billionaires who probably couldn’t find this state on a map.
The school voucher...
Opinion – James Klotter: Legislature plods on, falling victim to competing interests, narrow partisanship
During the current legislative session, the budget that finally emerges will be the result of some compromise and a good deal more behind-the-scenes action. The Republican majority paid scant attention to the Democratic governor’s recommendations. Some observers have argued that having a Republican governor at this time would have better served the state given that party’s overwhelming supremacy...
Opinion — Richard Nelson: Legislation mandating age verification to access adult content long overdue
A bill proposing age verification limits on websites where children can access adult content is currently making its way through the Kentucky legislature. Children are frequently exposed to pornography but not without consequence to their innocence and developing brains.
In a 2021 interview, Grammy-winning singer Billie Eilish told Howard Stern that she began watching pornography at age 11. She said...
Joe Heller: A cartoonist’s view of weeks news — Trump payment, ahh Spring!, brackets, airport security
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 – Amye Bensenhaver: Discussing House Bill 509 relating to access to public records and meetings
With only a few days remaining in the 2024 Regular Session, the fate of House Bill 509, “An Act relating to access to the records and meetings of public agencies,” is still uncertain.
The bill passed out of the House of Representatives last week, with virtually no “debate,” by a vote of 61-31. It was assigned to the Senate State and Local Government Committee on March 15.
Did...
Opinion – Bill Straub: Jamie Comer, alias Comer Pyle, has proved to be abject failure; no facts on his side
It was brutal…BROOO-TAL!
Had it been a beer league softball game the mercy rule would have been imposed, before the first pitch.
But this didn’t take place on the diamond. It was at a congressional hearing in DC. And the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, our old pal Rep. Jamie Comer, R-TheFrankfortLoop, emerged from it all like a punch-drunk lightweight who traded blows...
Letters to Editor: Joe Geraci urges fighting smoking, church officials decry HB 18’s housing prejudices
Joe Geraci, cancer survivor, urges action on smoking
As our state faces an alarming rise in e-cigarettes and tobacco use, lawmakers must bolster funding for programs that address tobacco use. As someone who has survived tobacco-related lung cancer, I am calling on Sen. McDaniels to increase funding to $10 million for the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program to combat this alarming trend.
The...
Opinion – Kimberly Kennedy: Legislature shattering higher ed, despite impact on job, student recruitment
Kentucky’s legislators are poised to take a sledgehammer to higher education, with SB 6, their latest attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives. An overhauled bill, banning all DEI programs in higher ed, passed the House and now seeks Senate approval. It also encourages litigation and bans certain scholarships and housing communities as well as publicly funded or mandated diversity...
