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Forward Kentucky
Here’s the electeds who voted to put homeless people in jail
This year’s winner of the “How Bad a Bill Can We Write” award is House Bill 5, supposedly known as the “Safer Kentucky Act,” but more accurately known as the “Incarcerate Kentucky Bill.”. There are many, many things wrong with the bill, but one...
League of Women Voters calls out the Lege ... again
Last week, the Kentucky House of Representatives approved two budget bills (HB1 and HB 6) and we applaud legislators for considering these important bills early in the session. However, the process used to move the bills through the House Committee on Appropriations & Revenue (A&R) and to the House floor...
What do anti-DEI Kentucky legislators fear?
An article appeared in The Winchester Sun on Saturday, written by Sarah Michels of Bluegrass Live. The article details the attempts by the Kentucky Legislature in its current session to strip the efforts of our public schools and universities from most forms of teaching and practicing concepts related to diversity and inclusion.
Interfaith group calls on Metro Council to issue resolution on Palestinian ceasefire
We abhor the loss of life, and the pain and suffering caused by the attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the ongoing anguish of the hostages and their families. We abhor the ongoing loss of life, and the pain and suffering caused by the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank where the world is witnessing a horrific attack on an entire population.
Just remember – I told you so.
We claim we don’t like to say, “I told you so.” But we do, of course. In April, 2021, I wrote in a Courier-Journal op-ed: “So, while Republicans in Kentucky made it easier to vote because they thought it benefited them, you can bet that if the Democrats, with a big boost from minorities, start significantly rebounding in Kentucky, GOP voter ‘reform’ will swiftly become impermanent, and Republican lawmakers will lose no time restricting minority voting.”
The new monster, same as the old monster
The day after the Iowa caucuses, which the former president won decisively, the Associated Press ran a story with this headline: Ex-President Donald Trump set to face jury over sex abuse and defamation claims. Do his supporters care? Weeks of coverage in and about Iowa, millions spent, endless hours of...
Forward Kentucky wins two awards at KPA Convention
Forward Kentucky has been a member of the Kentucky Press Association for a number of years, and our publisher, Bruce Maples, has been on the board for three years. (He’s serving as Treasurer for 2024.) KPA holds an annual convention in January of each year, and one of the...
McConnell meets another legacy moment
When Mitch McConnell kept the Supreme Court from going liberal, then worked with Donald Trump to remake it and other federal courts in the image of the Federalist Society and big-money political contributors, that looked like the primary legacy of McConnell’s decades in the Senate. Then Trump falsely contested...
Beshear underscores support for DEI during Black History Month celebration
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear reaffirmed his support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives during a Black History Month celebration Thursday at the Kentucky Capitol. Amid a flurry of anti-DEI legislation in the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Beshear told the crowd in the Capitol Rotunda that “diversity is an asset” and...
GOP supermajority: Silly, unserious, unconcerned by Kentuckians’ real problems
On Jan. 31, I began my day reading a story that opened with a stunning sentence. “Some residents of a county in Kentucky are going on two weeks without running water, forcing them to use public toilets and catch rainwater to bathe.”. As I was reading this news, a...
House Bill 420: NKY rep aims to legalize recreational marijuana
The medical marijuana program in Kentucky won’t go into effect until 2025, but there’s already a push to legalize recreational marijuana in the Commonwealth. A bill introduced this week would make it legal to buy, sell and grow marijuana in Kentucky. The bill’s title is only fitting also...
Audit of Kentucky’s juvenile jails dinged for isolation, use of force policies
Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball released the results Wednesday of a full performance review of the pre-adjudication detention centers operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Following a request made by the General Assembly, then-Auditor Mike Harmon contracted with CGL Management Group, LLC (“CGL”) in August...
A spices company calmly lays it out about Republicans
My wife discovered Penzeys Spices a few years ago, and since then we have become big fans. We order most of our spices from them, and really value the freshness and flavor, as well as the wide variety and specialty spices. Recently, I discovered two new reasons to support Penzeys...
School admins weigh in on House budget
The Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA), is releasing the following statement on the Kentucky House Current Budget Proposal:. “KASA extends its gratitude to our dedicated legislators for their unwavering commitment to Kentuckians through House Bill 6 (HB6). We understand the challenges lawmakers face when crafting budgets, and we acknowledge their dedication to the betterment of our state.”
Scared of young voters, Repubs pass anti-college-ID bill
Senate Republicans have passed a bill that would keep students from using university-issued identification cards as their primary ID to vote. Dare one suggest that the GOP is pushing the measure because en route to reelection, Gov. Andy Beshear carried every Kentucky county with a public university save one?. SB...
Kaylee Raymer on HB 5
This week we invited Kaylee Raymer of KY Policy to talk about HB 5 and how it is moving along in the legislature. She provided insights into changes the bill experienced this week and also efforts to make the bill less bad. Before speaking with her, Jazmin and Robert talked...
How to talk about Trump with a MAGA cult member
Progressives, corporate Democrats, and moderates deal with the danger that is Donald Trump by decrying that he is a fascist wannabe dictator. That’s true, of course, but it’s not helping your cause. For real MAGA cult members, that’s a feature, not a bug. If you aren’t into persecuting Black and Brown people and thrilled by authoritarianism, you wouldn’t be a cult member. So that won’t ever work. If anything, as with any bully, it increases their endorphin levels to think that you’re scared.
There is no ‘crime epidemic.’ Lawmakers should not saddle Kentucky with even more prisoners and costs.
HB 5 would increase out of control mass incarceration. HB 5 would expand the reach of the death penalty. HB 5 would increase the costs of incarceration, robbing our state of needed funds for other priorities. In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan during a debate with Jimmy Carter, there...
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