The number of drug, alcohol, and tobacco events recorded by schools have increased in schools at all levels across Kentucky, according to data collected by Infinite Campus, an online student information tracking system. A look at the data from 2017-28 through 2022-23 found that Kentucky’s elementary schools saw a 475% increase in drug, alcohol, and tobacco events, from 140 events to 805. Kentucky middle schools saw a 281% jump, from 2,336 to 8,912. High schools saw a 107% increase, from 8,995 to 18,651. “The biggest increases are with the younger students. So it tells us like forecasting ..read more

As the ink dries on the last bills from the 2024 legislative session to be signed into law or vetoed, we offer a final reminder of the importance of the Commonwealth’s open records laws and what Kentuckians stand to lose if we permit our lawmakers and governor to modify those laws – on the thinnest of legal pretexts – with the goal of advancing an anti-open government endgame. On April 22, The State Journal reported that Kentucky State University “is ‘freezing’ its relationship with the Kentucky State University Foundation.” What does this have to do with open records and public agency oversi ..read more

When Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman told state lawmakers in January about the budget needs of his office, Rep. Patrick Flannery (R-Olive Hill) asked if he needed more resources to address a “regulatory avalanche” regarding a “green agenda” coming from the federal government.  Coleman, a Republican, said his office would welcome them, saying there was a “shotgun of regulation targeting the coal industry, targeting coal-fired power plants” in the near term.  The two men were referring to regulations either finalized or in the process of being finalized by the Biden administ ..read more

Here we are – the first reporting period for this spring’s primary. And we’ve got the numbers for you to peruse, analyze, worry about, talk about, and generally geek out on. Notes on the Finance Table We’ve only included competitive races – ones where there is either a contested primary in a party, or a contested race in the fall, or both. If a district only has one filed candidate, that district is not included. Within each district, we’ve indicated the party of the individual candidates by both name and color. If a candidate has green cells in their money columns, it means that they told t ..read more

“Southern autoworkers aren’t listening to the GOP’s BS any more.” That grabber headline on a recent Thom Hartmann musing sent me to my old copy of W.J. Cash's 1941 book, The Mind of the South, a controversial and consequential study of Southern society. “The UAW’s successful unionization effort ... at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee — the first successful unionization effort at a car factory in the South since the 1940s — is breaking the brains of Republicans in that region,” Hartmann wrote in The Hartmann Report online. “They’re truly astonished that wor ..read more

I’ve written about this subject before (Wincity Voices, February 14, 2024) but the subject is so important that it deserves additional commentary. I shall likely write about it again before the November elections because of its potential impact on public school funding. The reader may also wish to read the March 15 Kentucky Lantern piece on charter school legislation by McKenna Horsley. The Kentucky legislature has approved placing a proposal to change the Kentucky Constitution on the November ballot. This proposed amendment would allow the General Assembly to pr ..read more

Slight name change – but the same summary of today’s political news ..read more

Kentucky is one of a minority of states that produces most of its electricity by burning coal. A byproduct of that legacy today: creating millions of tons of what’s known as coal ash, a waste from burning coal containing a slew of toxic metals that’s often stored by utilities and power producers in impoundment ponds and landfills. Without proper protections or cleanup at these coal ash sites, the ash can be blown into the air or seep into nearby groundwater. Coal ash impoundments failing have led to environmental disaster, such as when more than 1 billi ..read more

Baseball legend Pete Rose (you know, the fellow who’s not in the MLB Hall of Fame) acknowledged some time back that he has in his lifetime read only one book. It was the one he wrote, titled Pete Rose: My Story. For what it’s worth, Charlie Hustle thought it was pretty good. That little nugget sprang to mind when it was revealed the Sage of Monroe County, our own Rep. Jamie Comer (R-TheFrankfortLoop) is considering adding writer to his curriculum vitae with a book centered on his madcap adventures as a junior grade G-Man pursuing The Biden Crime Family™ to the ends of the earth, even tho ..read more

With less than four weeks to go until Kentucky’s primary election, political action committees and the interests that fund them are prepared to spend heavily on Republican races for the state legislature — re-opening divisions within the GOP caucus in Frankfort. At least a half dozen races pit candidates from the “liberty” wing of the GOP against what are often considered more mainstream or “establishment” Republicans. The liberty faction distinguishes itself from Kentucky’s GOP establishment by taking a harder line opposing government spending and regulations, to the point of challengin ..read more