Mountain View
Kentucky Lantern
Men behaving badly, the Kentucky legislature edition
When Rep. Daniel Grossberg’s attorney, Anna Whites, said that he has no plans to resign after multiple sexual harassment allegations, my first and only thought was: He deserves due process, and he should resign. The Legislative Ethics Commission is investigating Grossberg’s alleged behavior unbecoming a state representative. There is additional Lexington Herald-Leader reporting that three […]
New challenge arises as Kulkarni is renominated as Democratic candidate in KY House election
LOUISVILLE — Another legal obstacle to Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni’s reelection was filed in Franklin Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon. William Zeitz, a Democrat who challenged Kulkarni in May’s primary election, has joined with Dennis Horlander, a Democrat who previously represented the 40th House District, in suing election officials after Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams […]
The 10 states where voters could decide on abortion directly
After abortion rights were upended federally in June 2022, Kansas voters got a chance to weigh in on a ballot measure that was something of a test balloon just a couple of months later. Defying expectations, nearly 60% of voters rejected an anti-abortion constitutional amendment. Since then, voters in states with both conservative- and liberal-leaning […]
Adopted. Abandoned. But not forgotten.
I am a children’s rights attorney based in New York City. For over a decade I have advocated for youth who no longer live with their adoptive parents — what I call broken adoptions — and raised awareness about adoption subsidy misuse. In March 2024, Chelsea Maldonado, a survivor of Tranquility Bay in Jamaica, contacted […]
‘Full steam ahead:’ U.S. official from Mingo County works to protect coal miners from black lung
This Labor Day, as a new federal rule is being rolled out to prevent deadly black lung disease in miners, Christopher Williamson is remembering the coal miners who fought for the creation of his agency and who weren’t afforded the protections that current and future workers hopefully will. Williamson, assistant secretary for the U.S. Mine […]
Breathitt County, J.D. and me
Sigmund Freud says we embrace mythical origin stories of leaders, warriors, and saints to disguise their true identity and to give them mystical powers or political agency. Freud gives the example of Moses in the Bible who grew up as a young man of wealth and privilege in Pharaoh’s palace. However we do not think […]
Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump are in a tight race for the White House. Every voting bloc will count – including members of labor unions and other people in their households. The majority of union leaders have over generations endorsed Democratic candidates, and this race is no exception. Although rank-and-file […]
A second public university in Kentucky closes its diversity office under GOP lawmakers’ pressure
A second Kentucky public university has disbanded its diversity office under pressure from Republican lawmakers. Northern Kentucky University President Cady Short-Thompson wrote in an email to campus: “The circumstances under which universities across the Commonwealth and the country find themselves, coupled with the legislative priorities of state leaders for the upcoming session, require universities to […]
Democratic state lawmaker pleads not guilty to DUI-related charges
LOUISVILLE — Kentucky state Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless driving and driving under the influence in Jefferson County District Court Friday morning. The 62-year-old Democratic lawmaker from Shivley was arrested by local police early Tuesday. According to the arrest citation, she refused to take a field sobriety test and a preliminary […]
Feds: Justice coal companies have no defense against move to hold them in contempt
Federal attorneys asking a court to hold 23 of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family-owned coal companies in contempt for nonpayment of health and safety fines entered a filing this week saying the companies shouldn’t have entered into a payment plan if they knew they couldn’t honor it. The filing, entered Tuesday in the U.S. […]
‘It’s always going to be there’: The Greenbrier’s potential sale causes concern for its neighbors
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — At Lewisburg’s Carnegie Hall, president and CEO Cathy Rennard watched with some anxiety earlier this month as news unfolded that The Greenbrier Hotel was facing foreclosure due to unpaid debts by its owners, Gov. Jim Justice and his family. The hotel, a crucial part of The Greenbrier resort, which is Greenbrier County’s […]
Governments often struggle with massive new IT projects
Idaho’s state government was facing a problem. In 2018, its 86 state agencies were operating with a mix of outdated, mismatched business systems that ran internal processes like payroll and human resources. Some of the programs dated back to the 1980s, and many were written in programming languages they don’t teach in engineering schools anymore. […]
Grossberg not welcome at local party events as embarrassments mount for Louisville Democrats
The Louisville Democratic Party is asking Rep. Daniel Grossberg to “temporarily refrain from participating” in the party’s events amid a Legislative Ethics Commission investigation. Meanwhile, the executive director of the state Democratic Party said situations involving a few state representatives from Louisville have “certainly been concerning” but pushed back on suggestions that they could hurt […]
Utilities that opposed Kentucky’s new energy planning commission are now part of it
Gov. Andy Beshear has filled two seats on a new energy planning commission with utility executives who, like Beshear, opposed the commission’s creation. Kentucky lawmakers earlier this year created the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to slow the retirement of power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Investor-owned utilities and environmentalists opposed the […]
How a survey of women in the 1920s changed the way Americans think about sexuality
American women still have fewer orgasms than men, according to new research that suggests that decades after the sexual revolution, the “orgasm gap” is still very much in effect. One of the study’s lead authors at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction told The New York Times that the gap persists […]
Americans’ perception of AI is generally negative, though they see ‘beneficial applications’
A vast majority of Americans feel negatively about artificial intelligence and how it will impact their futures, though they also report they don’t fully understand how and why the technology is currently being used. The sentiments came from a survey conducted this summer by think tank Heartland Forward, which used Aaru, an AI-powered polling group […]
Louisville residents warn legislative task force against splitting up their school district
LOUISVILLE — Several speakers, including Jefferson County Public Schools students, warned a legislative task force against breaking up Kentucky’s largest school district in a Tuesday evening meeting. However, the co-chairs of the Efficient and Effective School Governance Task Force said deciding to split the district, which serves almost 97,000 students, was not under its purview. […]
Vape retailers move to reinstate their legal challenge of 2024 Kentucky law
Kentucky vape retailers plan to appeal the dismissal of their challenge to a 2024 state ban on selling some vaping roducts. A Franklin Circuit judge in late July dismissed their lawsuit challenging the 2024 law. Greg Troutman with the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, which represents vape retailers, filed a notice of appeal Tuesday with the […]
Kentucky could be in violation of federal law without more community-based mental health care
LOUISVILLE — The U.S. Department of Justice says it has “reasonable cause” to believe Kentucky is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in Jefferson County. This finding comes after a two-year federal investigation “focused on whether Kentucky subjects adults with serious mental illness to unnecessary segregation in psychiatric hospitals in Louisville.” In a 30-page report […]
Trees are ‘medicine,’ UofL research finds
LOUISVILLE — A research project years in the making through the University of Louisville, The Nature Conservancy and other partners has found planting thousands of trees and shrubs in a south Louisville neighborhood has improved the health of hundreds of residents. The University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute launched the Green Heart Louisville […]
Kentucky Lantern
3K+
Posts
16M+
Views
The Kentucky Lantern is an independent, nonpartisan, free news service. We’re based in Frankfort a short walk from the Capitol, but all of Kentucky is our beat. We focus on how decisions made in the marble halls of power ripple through the lives of Kentuckians. We bring attention to injustices and hold institutions and officials accountable. We tell the stories of Kentuckians who are making a difference and shine a light on what’s working. Our journalism is aimed at building a fairer, healthier Kentucky for all. The Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit, coast-to-coast network of journalists that works to fill gaps in state government reporting caused by the declining numbers of state and local journalists.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.