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Louisville launching five-year plan for universal preschool
Kentucky’s largest city took steps Tuesday to implement universal, free and optional preschool for its 3- and 4-year-old citizens. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that a new nonprofit called Thrive by 5 Louisville will work over the next five years with both public and private dollars to get children in the city better prepared for kindergarten by providing grants to providers and assistance to families.
‘Public money for nonpublic schools’ amendment meets bipartisan resistance but clears House
After a couple hours of debate, 12 House Republicans joined Democrats in opposing a constitutional amendment that would allow Kentucky lawmakers to give public dollars to nonpublic schools. However, 65 Republicans supported the priority legislation, House Bill 2, in a 65-32 vote on Wednesday. If also approved by the Senate,...
Kentucky House passes bill that adds loopholes to open records law
The House approved a Republican-backed bill that open government advocates have repeatedly warned would add loopholes to Kentucky’s open records laws. Rep. John Hodgson (R-Fisherville) recently said in the House State Government Committee that House Bill 509 seeks to modernize state open records laws, which were established in the 1970s before widespread use of email and text messages. He reiterated that intent on the floor Tuesday.
General Assembly announces calendar changes
Legislative leadership announced Wednesday, which is day 50 of the 60-day regular session of the 2024 General Assembly, they have made a series of adjustments in the meeting schedule for the remaining days of the session. While lawmakers will meet as usual on Thursday and Friday of this week, several...
Opponents from across the political spectrum testify against sweeping crime bill
Kentucky’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday heard a slew of testimony from across the political spectrum opposing an omnibus crime bill. Senate Judicial Committee Chair Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R-Fruit Hill) said that while House Bill 5 was up only for discussion Tuesday, he expects a committee vote on the legislation Thursday.
A hard look at the new Republican Party and the threat it poses
It is clear that Donald Trump has finally completed his takeover of the Republican Party. He has easily won almost all the primaries. Haley is gone, McConnell has caved, and Trump has placed a MAGA loyalist and a family member in charge of the Republican National Committee. We can no...
Bill aimed at curbing Kentucky's youth 'vaping epidemic' passes House
A bill to curb what its sponsor called the youth “vaping epidemic” in Kentucky passed the state House on Monday and is now in the Senate. Sponsor Rebecca Raymer (R-Morgantown) told her colleagues that she was inspired to work on the issue after hearing from school officials across the state about how “rampant the vaping is in our schools.”
Regressive, ‘lock them up’ House Bill 5 would be a costly mistake for Kentucky
As a public defender for 37 years and as a person who has requested common sense, evidenced-based reforms of our criminal legal system, I know House Bill 5 is the wrong direction. HB 5 is an imprudent policy with an irresponsible expenditure of funds. Lock them up and throw away...
The Safer Kentucky Act source list is ‘cut and paste’ from a Georgia policy paper
The source list Republican lawmakers are using to support the Safer Kentucky Act appears to come from a 2023 paper arguing for solutions to crime in Atlanta. Conservative criminal justice reformer Joey Comley said he discovered the paper used the exact same citations and formatting while researching to speak on the bill ahead of a Tuesday committee hearing.
“I’m sick of people being mean for Jesus”
Back in the late ‘80s, I served as minister of music and education in a Southern Baptist church in Chattanooga. This was during the time when the so-called “fundamentalists” took over the Southern Baptist Convention. If you know anything about that time in the SBC, you know...
Gaming their own law: Will Senate Republicans follow House lead on trail of another income tax cut?
Remember when Republican lawmakers — spurred on by the Chamber of Commerce — put Kentucky on the sober, responsible path to ending the state income tax?. We were assured this route would protect Kentucky from becoming another Kansas. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s “pro-growth” tax cuts had put the Sunflower State into an economic tailspin. Things got so desperate the Republican legislature repealed the tax overhaul and Kansas became a cautionary tale.
It’s Sunshine Week? Or ... is it?
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.
NKY reps in KY House send two bills to Senate: ‘Momnibus’ and easing teacher shortage
Two bills spearheaded by NKY representatives have been approved by the Kentucky House and are headed to the Senate for consideration. A maternal health bill nicknamed “Momnibus’ was unanimously approved by the Kentucky House last week after about 20 minutes of discussion, it was reported by Isabella Sepahban, a University of Kentucky student, for the Kentucky Lantern.
Kentucky Senate’s pro-coal bill would burden ratepayers, make energy transition more chaotic
For many years, Kentucky’s three-person, non-partisan Public Service Commission (PSC) has presided over Kentucky’s investor-owned and co-operative electric utilities. It has been guided by two principles — that utilities should meet the energy needs of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional customers using the reasonable least-cost alternative. And that those utilities, for the privilege of having a geographic monopoly over providing that service, should deliver adequate, safe, and reliable energy to customers.
Our legislature is being invaded by out-of-state extremists
Many bills passed by the General Assembly each year receive strong bipartisan and even unanimous support. Many of these good bills begin as conversations with Kentuckians who have encountered barriers and concerns that need to be addressed, or who have come up with ideas to help their fellow Kentuckians statewide. This practical problem-solving approach is the cornerstone of good government.
Thanks to Katie Britt, I know things must be all right at the border
I know, I know! As in any other even-numbered year, I, too, have been listening to Republicans scream about the Wide-Open Southern Border™. For years, they’ve been telling us that we should be so terrified of undocumented immigrants that we need to arm ourselves to the teeth, subsidize Wayne LaPierre’s luxurious lifestyle at the NRA, and shoot dark people on sight.
The open records bill is better, but still has significant problems
There were few surprises in the March 7 meeting of the House State Government Committee at which a committee substitute for House Bill 509 passed by a vote of 12-4-2. HB 509, as originally introduced, proposed two changes to the open records law and one change to the open meetings law.
McGarvey scores a perfect 100 in this retiree group’s scorecard
Seven-in-ten Republican voters in the 2022 congressional mid-term were 50 or older according to the Pew Research Center. The Alliance for Retired Americans’ just-released 2023 Congressional Voting Record suggests that Democrats are far better than Republicans on what the ARA calls “critical retirement security issues, today.”. Nationwide, Democrats...
Biden ‘hit it out of the ballpark again’
United Auto Workers retiree Kirk Gillenwaters said President Joe Biden “hit it out of the ballpark again” with his State of the Union speech. “I was still on a high from when he spoke to us and hit it out of the ballpark,” said Gillenwaters, a longtime Kentucky union activist and president of the Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans. In January, he attended the UAW’s annual Community Action Program legislative conference in Washington where Shawn Fain, the union's president, announced that the UAW was endorsing Biden.
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