Opinion – John Yarmuth: Don’t mistake ending Kentucky’s income tax for a valid economic strategy
My brother has been very successful in the barbeque restaurant business. (Full disclosure: I am a passive investor in his company.) Politically, he was always what I call a Rockefeller Republican, pro-business and progressive on social issues. He tended to vote Republican primarily because he wanted to pay less tax and viewed the GOP as the low-tax party.
So it was surprising when, in the summer of...
Opinion – Amye Bensenhaver: FERPA wall keeps secret a school board’s ‘investigation’ of counselor
I questioned the Anderson County Board of Education’s refusal to disclose the investigative report into widely publicized accusations leveled against a high school counselor, and the Anderson County Board of Education took me to school.
My frustration with the board’s denial mirrors the frustration of the sponsor of the 1974 federal law on which the board relied.
In a 2011 interview, former...
Joe Heller: A cartoonists’ view of week’s news — long winter, Biden&Trump again, awards season, it’s cold
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: The irony of Kentucky election reform
I believe that former state Sen. Charles Booker, the progressive who sought to challenge Mitch McConnell in 2020, fell short in his quest for the Democratic nomination due to progressive election reforms.
Democrat Charles Booker (File photo
And while those changes have been scaled back dramatically, I believe that conservative efforts to eliminate the remnants of those policies would hurt conservative candidates...
Opinion – Bill Straub: Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell have their difference; try to count the ways
Sen. Rand Paul, that sentinel of good sense and comity, hopped aboard the Never Nikki express running through the Republican presidential primary this week and did so in a way that provided him with an opportunity to take a nasty shot at an erstwhile compadre – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
Paul, R-Bowling Green, for some reason felt compelled to publicly declare he won’t be voting...
Opinion – Susan Weston: House budget against Big Bold ask; more needed in Early Childhood
The House of Representatives has released House Bill 6, its initial budget proposal for the next two fiscal years.
Here, I’ll summarize the major education elements, including action on the Prichard Committee’s Big Bold Ask and some continuing questions about how the limited step up for child care will work for children and the workforce. Readers can also download our more detailed looks at...
Opinion – Mitch McConnell: As threats to our interests grow, Israel deserves U.S.’s firm support
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Tuesday on the Senate floor regarding national security priorities:
“House and Senate negotiators worked hard to reach an agreement on topline government funding levels for the current fiscal year. And work continues to deliver full-year appropriations through regular order.
“Shutting down the government – even...
Opinion – Jamie Ruehl: Seasonal depression or something more? Understanding suicide…
In the last two months, two people I knew took their own lives. Before those two tragedies, I’ve had other friends who committed suicide. If you’re a veteran like me, odds are you’ve been affected by it. When I was a police officer, I responded to multiple scenes after-the-fact and had to help respond to the emotional roller coasters as family members and friends arrived or were informed of their...
Opinion – John Schaaf: The negative outcomes from using public money for private schools are very real
Like salmon swimming home to spawn, lobbyists are again roaming the hallways of the Kentucky State Capitol.
This year, big-dollar lobbyists representing corporate-run private schools and churches are pushing House Bill 208 to change the state’s constitution to allow politicians to throw billions of tax dollars into private and religious schools.
The bad news is, other states are trying this risky...
Joe Heller: Cartoonist’s view of week’s news — MLK character, January, emergency exits, missing Austin
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 – Kelly Read: Teachers are on a ‘wage strike’ as they leave the classroom for much better pay
“Educators are on Strike in the Commonwealth”
That’s quite the title. And you might look at it and say it’s untrue in Kentucky. Most recently teachers in Oakland and Portland struck, but that’s not the Commonwealth. But the fact is, TEACHERS ARE ON STRIKE here in Kentucky. And please make no mistake about it, teachers are on a WAGE STRIKE.
What’s different about this strike? This...
Opinion – Bill Straub: This is a circus, dear readers, and Gomer Comer lies and flirts with pornography
Besides the fact that they are both proud sons of the old Commonwealth sod, what do Rep. Jamie Comer, wherever he claims to hale from these days, and the late magazine publisher Larry Flynt, of Salyersville, have in common?
Both men promoted pornography.
That revelation leapt to the fore on Wednesday during a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, chaired by Comer, R-TheFrankfortHook,...
Opinion – Al Cross: Republicans, it’s time to stop sniveling about 2020 election, follow the right leaders
The tableau in the rotunda of the state Capitol on the year’s first day of business was, for a moment, reassuring to those of us who worry about the future of the party in which we were long registered and where its current strongman may take it and our country.
The swearing-in of Republican constitutional officers – Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, Auditor Allison Ball, Attorney General...
Opinion – Teri Carter: ‘Having a conversation is not an act of aggression,’ so let’s talk about gun control
Kentucky’s 2024 regular session opened with lawmakers insisting leadership consider rules changes to make the legislative process more transparent. Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, was one of those lawmakers, saying, “Proposing rules changes, having a discussion in this body, having a conversation, is not an act of aggression.”
She was right.
Savannah Maddox (LRC photo)
And yet this is the...
Opinion – Mitch McConnell: The country’s growing national security challenges won’t solve themselves
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Monday on the Senate floor regarding government funding and national security:
“I’d like to begin by wishing our colleagues a very happy new year and welcoming everyone back to begin a new session.
“There’s a tremendous amount on the Senate’s plate, beginning with the unfinished business of the year that...
