Kentucky should consider creating triage centers to temporarily house children in state care who can’t immediately be placed in foster homes, said Kentucky Youth Advocates executive director Terry Brooks. (Getty Images)

After receiving what she called “numerous” complaints about foster children in Kentucky sleeping in office buildings without supervision by trained staff, state Auditor Allison Ball said Tuesday the Office of the Ombudsman will investigate.

Calling it an “ongoing crisis” that is “years” in the making,? Ball said the ombudsman will investigate the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to get at the root causes.?

Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the problem isn’t new — and solving it won’t be? simple or cheap.?

It involves a “niche population” of high-needs youth who likely need specialized care, he told the Lantern.?

“It’s not typically 5-year-old kids who look like they fell off a TV commercial,” Brooks said. “You’re talking about older kids, teenagers, high levels of acuity, probably some special needs, probably with a history of aggressive behavior. I’m painting a portrait of a young person who we definitely need to care for, but we know it’s going to take creativity and resources to be able to do that.”?

A spokesperson for the auditor said the office thinks the practice has “been going on for two years and has affected about 300 children, but we’ll know exactly once we dig in.”??

The cabinet said in a statement that it has “taken action to address the challenges that come with placing youth with severe mental and behavioral problems or a history of violence or sexual aggression with foster families or facilities.”

“We’ve publicly addressed this many times with lawmakers and have offered more funding to secure additional safe, short-term care options for youth,” a cabinet spokesman said. “When one of these placements are necessary, we work to make sure each youth has a safe place to stay until a placement can be made. We urge those interested in becoming a foster parent to help us meet the needs of all our youth, please visit?KyFaces.ky.gov.”

In 2023, The Courier Journal reported that a shortage of available and willing foster families was a factor in the state’s decision to house some youth in a Louisville office building. WDRB reported earlier this year that the practice has continued, despite concerns raised by a Louisville judge.

“My office has continued to receive numerous complaints of foster children and teenagers sleeping on cots and air mattresses in office buildings, often not supervised by trained staff,” Ball said in a statement. “I have instructed the Ombudsman’s Office to investigate this issue to uncover the problems associated with this ongoing crisis.”

“The vulnerable children of Kentucky deserve to be placed in nurturing environments where they are provided with the resources, stability, and care they need,” Ball said.?

Staff are still trying to confirm how many office buildings are involved, a spokesperson for Ball said, though “we can confirm that this is not exclusively a Jefferson County issue.”?

Sleeping in an office building can compound trauma youth already have experienced, Brooks said. “It certainly is not going to create a positive childhood experience,” he said. “It’s going to create more adversity to kids who have already experienced too much adversity.”?

Kentucky ‘can’t do this on the cheap’?

Kentucky needs more families to foster, but it also needs a better system to support children who can’t be placed, Brooks said. Kentucky must “incentivize” — through higher wages and reimbursements — a “willingness to take on tough cases.”.?

Lawmakers can look to Tennessee, he said, which has faced similar problems and responded by increasing? payments to foster parents and wages to state staff working with higher-needs children.

“They have just owned the fact that,‘if I’m getting paid $15 an hour, I’m probably not going to be volunteering to get bitten, spit on and other issues with tough kids,’” Brooks said.??

Another solution Kentucky should consider, Brooks said, would be? to create triage centers — safe, secure, designated spaces — to temporarily house children who can’t immediately be placed.?

“If the General Assembly cares about those kids sleeping in offices as much as (CHFS Secretary Eric Friedlander) and Auditor Ball, then they’ve got to take action,” Brooks said. “And it can’t be rhetorical. It has to be resources. So I don’t know if that is looking at existing resources, I don’t know if that’s taking the big swing (and) reopening the budget, but you can’t do this on the cheap.”?

This story was updated with response from the cabinet.?

Patients who qualify for medical cannabis — with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions — can apply for cards Jan. 1. (Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky awarded its first 26 medical cannabis licenses through a lottery held Monday at the Kentucky Lottery Corporation in Louisville.?

The first round of licenses, drawn by state lottery staff, went to 16 cultivators and 10 processors.?

Monday’s winners will get an email within 24 hours and must pay a licensing fee within 15 days. Failure to do so will result in licensing forfeiting, said Sam Flynn, the executive director of the Office of Medical Cannabis. Winners will have to renew after a year.?

Gov. Andy Beshear called the Monday drawing a “big step forward.”?

“Medical cannabis can help people, especially with really serious conditions,” Beshear said after the drawing. “People will be buying product that is grown here, that is processed here, that is tested here, that would otherwise be in other states.”?

Flynn said the program is focused on equitable access for Kentuckians who qualify for medical cannabis.?

“??We want to make sure that these folks have access points throughout the state,” he said. “We want to make sure they have the safest possible medical products and the best possible care available.”??

In a statement, Kentucky Lottery President and CEO Mary Harville said, “over the 35 years of its existence, the Lottery has been known for conducting drawings for a plethora of its draw-based games, first with machines and balls, and now, with state-of-the-art random number generators.”?

“These drawings are conducted with the highest level of integrity and are in accordance with industry established procedures,” said Harville. “We are happy to be able to bring this level of integrity to the cannabis drawings.”

A bipartisan effort?

In 2023, the legislature legalized medical marijuana for Kentuckians suffering from chronic illnesses.?

Then, the bipartisan House Bill 829 that became law during this year’s legislative session moved up the medical cannabis licensing timeline from January 2025 to July 1, 2024.?

During the application period, July 1–Aug. 31,? the state received 4,998 applications for medical cannabis business licenses, including 918 cultivator and processor applications, according to Beshear’s office.?

Patients who qualify for medical cannabis — with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions — won’t be able to apply for cannabis cards until Jan. 1.

Flynn said providers who write certifications for those cards will prescribe types and amounts like any medication.

“We want to make sure that this is safe, that it’s driven by health care and health care decisions,” Flynn said.

“Help is on the way,” Beshear said. “There is a new day coming in Kentucky…where you’re going to be able to get safe medical cannabis to help you with your conditions.”???

A lottery date for the dispensers will be announced on Thursday, Beshear said.?

The winners?

The 10 processor winners are:?

1. KYP LLC – Jefferson County?
2. Kaldem Holdings – Muhlenberg County?
3. Limestone Processing – Fayette County?
4. Hilltop Healing Investco – Warren County?
5. Bijal Kentucky LLC – Boyd County?
6. AJ Alchemy Labs LLC – Barren County?
7. Jill’s Dispensary LLC – Christian County?
8. One Leaf Technologies LLC – Bullitt County
9. Ice House Processing, LLC – Fulton County
10. LMMKY LLC – Warren County

The 16 cultivator winners are:?

1. Natural State GreenGrass CannaCo LLC – Warren County?
2. KSYKAPP, LLC – Barren County
3. NG Health LLC – Fayette County
4. Armory Kentucky LLC – Estill County
5. JMOKY LLC – Warren County
6. Canopy Capital LLC – Grant County
7. L&O Legacies – Boyd County?
8. Synapse Remedies LLC – Jefferson County?
9. CW Bluegrass, LLC – Daviess County?
10. Popp Cultivation LLC – Bracken County?
11. Arizona Bay Investments LLC – Lincoln County?
12. Wong Investments, LLC – Christian County?
13. Joseph Serock – Christian County?
14. Elevated Essence LLC – Bullitt County?
15. Slaughter Branch LLC – Hopkins County?
16. Goeing Blue LLC – Fayette County

Katelyn Foust traveled from her Oldham County home to a birthing center in Indiana to give birth to baby Jude. (Photo provided)

After compromises from lawmakers, St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky is now neutral on legislation to clear the way for freestanding birth centers in the state.?

Representatives for the health system have previously voiced some opposition, saying hospitals are best equipped to handle the unpredictability of birth.?

Marc Wilson with Top Shelf Lobby spoke on behalf of St. Elizabeth Healthcare during Thursday’s meeting of the legislature’s Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations.?

“I’m happy to report that St. Elizabeth Healthcare is neutral on this legislation as presented to us in the most recent draft, and thank you for allowing us to have a voice,” said Wilson.?

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

He then joked: “I had to read that statement, because I’ve been told if I misspeak, that world markets will crash.”??

Freestanding birth centers are health care facilities that are meant to feel like a home. They do not offer c-sections or anesthesia. They are for low-risk pregnancies, and not every pregnancy will qualify for such a birth.?

Neutrality ‘a big deal’?

St. Elizabeth’s new position removes a political obstacle and is expected to help win some lawmakers’ votes for birthing centers.

Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, an Alexandria Republican who’s sponsored bills on this issue the last two years, told the Lantern St. Elizabeth’s neutrality is a “big deal.”

“They’ve also been a good steward alongside me to convene stakeholders and really listen to: ‘What do the doctors acknowledge are a concern?’ so they have been able to bring together the community that really is only accustomed to hospital-based births, to recognize that there are alternatives, and to acknowledge that this is a very good alternative, or to stay neutral, is an acknowledgement, and I’m very appreciative of that.”?

Funke Frommeyer believes several changes in the draft bill helped turn the tide — specifically, requirements that freestanding birth centers have medical malpractice insurance, are located within 30 miles of a hospital that provides obstetric care and have a licensed physician in oversight. The new version will also allow hospitals to own freestanding birth centers.?

The bill she will file in 2025 — a sister bill to the one Louisville Rep. Jason Nemes will file in the House — notably removes the certificate of need process for freestanding birth centers that have? no more than four beds.

Nemes, who’s repeatedly sponsored freestanding birth center legislation, told colleagues in the committee that 2025 is the year it will pass: “It’s a better bill than it’s been,” he said, “and it’s ready to roll.”?

“St. Elizabeth has a very important voice, both in Frankfort and a big footprint …. in Northern Kentucky,” Nemes told the Lantern after the meeting.?

The Kentucky Hospital Association — a potent force with lawmakers — has opposed making it easier to open birthing centers in Kentucky. A spokeswoman has not yet returned a Lantern email asking whether the organization’s opposition has softened in response to the recent changes in the draft legislation. The hospital association has voiced support for reforming the certificate of need process, but not an outright repeal. KHA president and CEO Nancy Galvagni has also said removing birthing centers from the CON process “would put women and babies at risk” and “roll back decades of progress in maternal care.”

‘Challenging compromises’?

Mary Kathryn DeLodder, the director of the Kentucky Birth Coalition, said she hopes the new St. Elizabeth stance is “meaningful” to the legislators who represent the area.?

But it didn’t come without a price.?

“When it comes to legislation, sometimes you have to make compromise, and sometimes compromise is hard,” she told the Lantern. “This was a time that we … felt we had to make some challenging compromises in order, for the greater good, to get birth centers, because we would rather have birth centers than not have birth centers.”?

Among those compromises, she said, is the point requiring licensed physician oversight.?

“We feel that there are lots of midwives, different types, who are very qualified to serve in that capacity,” she said.

She also cited the worsening physician shortage as a concern.?

“I hope that there will be physicians in Kentucky who want to serve in this role for birth centers,” DeLodder said. “We don’t want it to be a barrier for birth centers. We don’t want it to be something that has an additional cost for centers if they have to pay a position to fill that role.”?

She added: “If you trade one barrier for another, you haven’t really gained anything.”?

Nemes acknowledged this issue is “a concern.”

“We want to get them, first off, that’s the most important thing, and then we’ll see how they work out,” he said. “I think that might be a problem in some places, and in some places it won’t be. So, we’ll just see what happens. But … obviously it’s a concern because there’s a physician shortage.”

Background?

Advocates have iterated that people who want a low-intervention birth will do everything they can to get it. Every year, Kentucky babies are born in neighboring states after their parents traveled for the care they can’t get in the commonwealth.?

In 2022, 110 Kentuckians traveled to Tree of Life, the freestanding birthing center in Jeffersonville, Indiana. That is an increase from 107 in 2021 and 71 in 2020.

And around 60% of the Clarksville Midwifery practice in Tennessee are people who come from Kentucky, the Lantern has reported. That means about 25-30 Kentucky babies every year are being born just beyond the border in the Volunteer State.?

Just between those two practices, hundreds of Kentuckians are leaving the commonwealth to deliver in neighboring states.

In the past advocates have said having freestanding birth centers would offer a middle ground for people who will choose a home birth. Kentucky recorded 177 home births in 1988 and 900 in 2021. Home birth is legal in all 50 states.?

This story may be updated.??

From left, Norma Hatfield, Auditor Allison Ball and Alexander Magera, the auditor's general counsel, addressed an interim legislative committee, Oct. 23, 2024. (Screenshot)

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has launched an inquiry into whether the Beshear administration can implement a law aimed at helping kinship care families.?

Ball’s office will look at what money, if any, the cabinet has available and if federal dollars could help with implementation, she said, and is the result of an official complaint filed by Norma Hatfield, president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky.?

This comes amid a monthslong $20 million dispute between the General Assembly and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) that’s kept a 2024 law from going into tangible effect and helping Kentuckians who are raising minor relatives.?

“We have a lot of reasons to be involved in this issue,” Ball told members of the Interim Joint Committee Families and Children Wednesday. “At this point, we are going to make all attempts to make this a collaborative effort with the governor and CHFS but rest assured, we’re going to do everything that we can to figure out the facts.”?

The new law, which went into effect — on paper — in July, allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments. This is much needed relief for the thousands of kinship care families in Kentucky, advocates have said.?

‘Flabbergasted:’ Help for kinship care families passed unanimously. $20M price tag could derail it.

Beshear alerted lawmakers to what he called a funding omission in an April letter — five days after he signed Senate Bill 151 into law. He asked them to use the final two days of the 2024 session to appropriate the $20 million for implementation.?

Cabinet officials have said they cannot implement the law without the money, while lawmakers have pressed them to apply for federal funding or use existing budget dollars.?

Hatfield thanked the auditor for getting involved.?

“There are a lot of families, the longer we wait, that are missing opportunities for more long term support that deserve it,” she said. “And I’m just very grateful.”?

A CHFS spokesman said there are no federal dollars available to implement the bill from the Administration for Children and Families.

“This administration is dedicated to the care and welfare of children in the commonwealth,” the cabinet said in a statement. “Team Kentucky is 100% focused on the children who rely on us for their safety and well-being. We’re supportive of the bill, but there is a cost that must be addressed before implementation can occur.”

Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, who sponsored the law, told the Lantern she is “thrilled” to have a third party looking into the issue.?

“Those kids that are in crisis and they are welcomed into the arms of family members — we owe them. We owe them some support,” she said. “And so I’m just really encouraged that somebody has heard our pleas.”?

The past few months of back and forth on the issue have been “really frustrating,” she said. And she wants to see certain parts of the bill that don’t require money implemented, including getting regulations written.?

But, said Raque Adams: “If the auditor came back, that hypothetical, and said, ‘you know, the governor is absolutely right,’ then my response would be, ‘Okay, let’s open up the budget and figure out what we can do.’”??

A panel discusses the Clean Slate initiative in Louisville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — When James Sweasy was 19 years old, he was convicted of a felony related to marijuana and spent the next 20 years of his life held back by his record.?

He got a lawyer and started the “multi-months” process of expungement when he was in his early 40s, he said.??

“No taxation without representation. … I can’t go on my kid’s field trip, right?” he remembers thinking. “I can’t elect a school board member that’s overseeing my kid? I don’t get a voice in that, but you’ll happily take my tax money? I didn’t like that.”??

Sweasy was part of a five-person panel who spent nearly an hour Tuesday night at the Women’s Healing Place in West Louisville discussing Kentucky’s current process for crime expungement — and their proposal to ease and automate that process, which is expected to come before the legislature next year.

“The computer would notice that (a crime) is now eligible (for expungement) and start the process and move the process forward” without a person having to file a petition or hire a lawyer, explained Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.?

In 2024, a slate of bipartisan lawmakers sponsored the proposal as House Bill 569, but it failed to advance past the committee stage. It’s unclear who would sponsor an automatic expungement bill next year.

In Kentucky, about 572,000 people are eligible to have their records fully cleared, according to data from The Clean Slate Initiative. But not everyone has the means and know-how to hire a lawyer, apply for expungement and ultimately clear their records, advocates said.?

Sweasy called Kentucky’s current expungement system “archaic” and a “nightmare” full of “bureaucratic red tape” that was “not cheap.”?

Njuguna said the proposed legislation would automate the current “complex” and “expensive” expungement process.?

Crimes currently eligible for expungement would go through that process paperless and automatically. The proposal? does not expand eligibility for expungement, Njuguna said, and only covers Kentucky crimes. Sexual and other violent crimes would not be eligible for automatic expungement.

“The current expungement process is complex, costly,” said Njuguna. “If you don’t have a lawyer, you probably aren’t going to get it figured out.”??

This can hold Kentuckians back, he said, because many employers are reluctant to hire people who have been convicted of crimes.

“Having a criminal history prevents people from getting back into the workforce,” Njuguna said. “And so we’re trying to even that floor and give people clean records, get people back into the workforce to be able to reclaim their lives.”??

A federal judge in California has ordered the EPA to consider at least requiring a warning on fluoridated water. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor)

A Republican lawmaker will once again push to end Kentucky’s requirement for certain utilities to add or adjust fluoride levels in drinking water.

Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, filed House Bill 141 in 2024, but it died without clearing either chamber.?

Speaking before the Interim Joint Committee on State Government Tuesday, Hart said he wants to “undo an unfunded mandate” and give communities choice on whether they consume water with added fluoride. The legislation he plans to introduce in the 2025 session wouldn’t? ban the use of fluoride, he said.?

Fluoride is a naturally-occuring mineral, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and can be found in most water.?

In August, the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said “higher levels of fluoride exposure, such as drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter, are associated with lower IQ in children.” In September, a federal judge in California ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “engage in rulemaking regarding the chemical” ranging from “requiring a mere warning label to banning the chemical.”?

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee, took care to say his ruling “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health” but that the evidence of its potential risk now warrants some kind of EPA action.

Cindi Batson, a nurse with Kentucky for Fluoride Choice, testified alongside Hart.?

“One of the things Kentucky cannot afford to do,” she said, “is to ignore this risk in our state.”?

Distrust of fluoride ‘mind-boggling’; mineral is ‘time-tested’ and a ‘good thing,’ dentists say

Health advocates sent the committee a letter asking lawmakers to keep fluoride in community water. Those who signed the letter are Delta Dental of Kentucky, Kentucky Dental Association, Kentucky Dental Hygienists’ Association, Kentucky Oral Health Coalition, Kentucky Primary Care Association, Kentucky Voices for Health and Louisville Water Company.??

“Despite our historic issues with poor oral health in Kentucky, we have made strides towards? improvement in oral health by leading the nation with 99% of Kentucky communities with water? fluoridation programs,” the letter states. “We as a Commonwealth cannot afford to move backward.”?

Kentucky water utilities could opt out of putting fluoride in drinking water under advancing bill

Hart said the federal ruling and summer report put Kentucky at risk of liability issues.?

“We mandate this be put in our water,” he said. “Now that the data and the research is showing that it does create an unreasonable health risk, when people start seeing the outcomes — or if they, unfortunately, have a health problem based on the water fluoridation in our water because we’re mandating it — at some point the state’s gonna be responsible for that.”?

The pro-fluoride advocates wrote in their Tuesday letter that they have a “unifying interest to improve the oral health for all people in the Commonwealth? of Kentucky” and “are deeply concerned about any efforts to remove water fluoridation programs in our? communities.”?

The 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 7.

Read the letter supporting fluoridation of water for dental health

A crowd protesting anti-transgender legislation staged a "die in" on the Kentucky Capitol grounds on March 29, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

The U.S Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments on Dec. 4 in a challenge to state restrictions on gender-affirming medical care that has implications for Kentucky.

US Supreme Court review of gender-affirming care for youth could impact Kentucky law

The court agreed in June to take the appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams and their 15-year-old transgender child, two anonymous plaintiff families and Memphis physician Dr. Susan Lacy.

The Biden administration also asked the Supreme Court to review the law.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld bans enacted in Tennessee and Kentucky ending access to puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for transgender minors. The laws were enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures in 2023.

In June, ACLU-KY Legal Director Corey Shapiro said, “Our clients and their doctors simply want to provide the best medical care that is necessary for these amazing youth. We remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree and ultimately strike down these bans.”

The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, has trained counselors available around the clock. Reach them at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/, or by texting START to 678678.

about 15,000 former inmates reenter Kentucky society annually, said Kerry Harvey, an advisor to the governor. (Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear has established a council aimed at promoting employment of Kentuckians reentering society after incarceration.?

Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to establish the Governor’s Council of Second Chance Employers. The 15-member council will “educate employers and local communities on the benefits of second-chance hiring,” according to Beshear’s office.?

The council will also “advocate for laws and investments to improve reentry outcomes and develop best practices for effective reentry programming,” Beshear said.?

Members are to meet quarterly and provide an annual report to the governor’s office including their findings and recommendations.?

“Investing in second chances makes us safer and addresses some workforce challenges that we’re seeing all across the country,” Beshear said during a Thursday press conference.?

The initial council will have these members, with two-year terms, according to the executive order:?

• Tyler Stegall with BlueOval S
• Barbara Aker with More than a Bakery
• Steve Powless with Lifeline Recovery Center
• Rob Perez with DV8 Kitchen
• Stephen Johnson with Martin Contracting?
• Nick D’Andrea with UPS?
• John Estus with Amazon?
• Chad Mills with Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council
• Ryan Quarles, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
• Tami Wilson with Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
• LaKisha Miller with Kentucky Chamber of Commerce?

The remaining four members will be the governor and the secretaries or designees of three cabinets — Health and Family Services, Education and Labor, and Justice and Public Safety.

The council will “give us folks that not only can communicate the success that they have had with second chance employment, but they also can provide feedback for us and our programs to make sure we’re doing it right, to make sure that the skills that we’re providing while someone is incarcerated match up with the jobs that are on the other end and to create a flow of communication where we can try to do better and better and better in real time getting that feedback,” Beshear said.?

Kerry Harvey, special advisor for reentry programs, said about 15,000 former inmates reenter Kentucky society annually. And, he said, “successful reentry programming offers an enormous return on investment to taxpayers” and can help prevent recidivism.?

“Everybody wins if those who reenter society from prison succeed,” he said. “And in this context, success means that our reentering inmate does not commit a new crime, does not reoffend.”?

“It means that our reentering inmate obtains meaningful employment at a living wage and can support their families, both financially and emotionally,” Harvey said. “It means that they become role models for their children and their grandchildren.”???

DeleteMe expands on Kentucky Safe at Home which lets victims of domestic violence hide their addresses when registering to vote and to use the state Capitol as their address on public records. (Getty Images)

Reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.?

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams’ office has launched a program to help domestic violence survivors delete their personal identifying information (PII) from the internet.?

Called DeleteMe, the program is a national privacy company that removes personal information from certain online sites. Eligible information includes addresses and phone numbers, said a spokesperson for the office.

The program is available only to the 125 members of the Safe at Home program, which came out of a 2023 law. Safe at Home lets victims of domestic violence hide their addresses when registering to vote without a protective order from a judge. It also allows the state Capitol to be the address on public records and lets those moving from out of state easily join the program.?

“Last year, I extended protections to domestic violence survivors to prevent their information from being displayed on government records,” Adams said in a statement, referring to the Safe at Home program. “This year, I am proud to extend those protections to information that can be found easily online.”

Since informing members about the DeleteMe program on Oct. 1, about 15 participants signed up immediately, said spokeswoman Michon Lindstrom.?

As of Wednesday, she said, “there have been about 800 total listings removed (an average of 51 a person) and 4,500 PII removed (an average of 322 a person).”?

“It works kind of like Rocket Money, where they contact places to cancel your subscription. DeleteMe contacts these data broker sites and requests to have the PII removed,” she explained. “Some (data) are instantly removed but some can take a couple of weeks depending on the site.”?

Safe at Home participants who want to opt in for the DeleteMe program should call or email the secretary of state’s office.?

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, left, and House Speaker David Osborne are among the Republicans who declined to answer the Right to Life candidate survey this year. They conferred during the State of the Commonwealth address in the House chambers on Jan. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky Right to Life is endorsing in fewer legislative races this year — 45 candidates for the General Assembly received an endorsement from the anti-abortion group, down from 86 in 2022 and 88 in 2020.

Planned Parenthood’s Tamarra Wieder said the decrease in endorsements is a sign that Kentucky politicians no longer want to take the unpopular stands required to win a Right to Life endorsement.??

Wieder, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Kentucky, said it’s an “incredible indictment on the brand and on the movement.”?

“What this shows is that they have become too extreme, even for their followers,” Wieder said. “They are out of step with Kentuckians, and I think it also shows the legislature is afraid of putting their name on anti-abortion policies.”?

Addia Wuchner, Kentucky Right to Life executive director, did not respond to a Lantern reporter’s voicemail and an email sent to an address posted on Kentucky Right to Life’s website last week.

In a newsletter sent in response to the story, the organization acknowledged “challenges” facing Kentucky’s anti-abortion movement … “as public opinion evolves.”

“While we respect diverse opinions, it’s crucial to clarify that (Kentucky Right to Life) does not measure its mission by popularity or changing political winds,” the email said. “We remain guided by a steadfast moral compass, prioritizing the protection of life over convenience.”?

In order to be considered for an endorsement, the Kentucky Right to Life Victory PAC requires candidates to answer questions about issues important to the group and sign the survey. The organization also considers voting record, a candidate’s involvement in organizations related to abortion, electability and background.?

In 2024, about 50 Republican candidates “declined” to answer the survey, according to the endorsement report. Right to Life endorsed 45 legislative candidates and “recommended” others based on their voting history.?

All 100 House seats and half of the 38 Senate seats are on the ballot every two years, although many seats go uncontested.

The Lantern used information from VoteSmart to count endorsements from earlier elections; Kentucky Right to Life Victory PAC’s voter guides from prior elections are not posted on its website.

It’s unclear if everyone marked as “declined” this year received the survey.?

Although endorsed by Right to Life at times in the past, the top Republicans in both chambers of the legislature are not endorsed this year. Among those listed as declining to answer the group’s questions: Senate President Robert Stivers, House Speaker David Osborne, Senate President Pro Tem David Givens and Speaker Pro Tem David Meade.

Other prominent Republicans listed as declining to respond are House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy and Senate budget committee chairman Chris McDaniel.?

All of them were still recommended by Right to Life based on their voting records.

A Senate GOP spokesperson said Stivers and Givens “agree that their voting record speaks for itself.”?

No Democrats answered the Right to Life survey this year and none were endorsed.

Candidates wary of surveys in general

Political considerations about abortion changed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federally-guaranteed right to abortion in 2022. The ruling allowed a near-total abortion ban that Republican lawmakers had already put on the books to take effect in Kentucky. It has no exceptions for victims of rape or incest and a narrow exception to protect the life of a pregnant patient.?

Morgan Eaves, the executive director of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said the decline in candidates taking the Right to Life survey shows that “Kentucky Republicans know that their extreme anti-choice and zero exceptions policy is unpopular, and that’s why they’re running away from it now.”?

Republicans, however, gave little sign of backing off the abortion ban during this year’s legislative session. Although lawmakers of both parties sponsored bills to loosen abortion restrictions, none of the measures made any headway. Bills protecting in vitro fertilization also failed to advance, after the temporary suspension of the fertility treatment in Alabama stirred a political storm.?

Republican Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state, was reluctant to say if the decline in GOP candidates responding to the Right to Life survey signaled a rift with the organization. Candidates, he said, have become more wary of surveys in general. Advocacy interest groups are trying to advance an agenda and elect people who are part of their causes, Grayson said. A? lawmaker seeking reelection recently complained to him about “gotcha” questions on candidate surveys.?

Challengers are more likely to respond to surveys, Grayson said, while incumbents can point to their voting records, floor speeches and websites.

‘ … not that much more to give’

Last year Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear used the abortion ban to his advantage against Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. Cameron had been endorsed by Right to Life but waffled on abortion after Beshear aired ads attacking him as extreme for opposing rape and incest exceptions. (Kentuckian Hadley Duvall, who spoke in a Beshear ad about being impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12, is now playing a prominent role in the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic? candidate for president.)

The year before, in November 2022, Kentuckians had defeated an anti-abortion constitutional amendment that Republicans put on the ballot before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Republican strategist Tres Watson, a former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said it’s not Republican politicians who have changed but Right to Life. Having gained its long-time goal of outlawing? abortion in Kentucky, the organization is “continuing to ask for more when there’s just not that much more to give.”

“I think that the leadership over there needs to reconsider their relationship with candidates and with the legislature if they want to continue to be an influencer in Frankfort,” Watson said of the group.?

Weider of Planned Parenthood said the Right to Life questionnaire “is more extreme than ever.”?

Watson said he thinks Republican lawmakers support adding exceptions for rape and incest to the abortion ban. “I think that if you were to remove elections from the equation, I think that an exceptions bill would pass easily among Republicans,” Watson said. “But I think that the threat of Kentucky Right to Life coming out and attempting to make pro-life legislators appear to be pro-abortion liberals is preventing that from passing.”?

Watson said when he worked for the state Republican Party candidates were advised not to respond to a survey from Northern Kentucky Right to Life “because it asked you to take extreme positions that didn’t sit well with independent voters and center right Republicans.”?

IVF among the questions

Kentucky Right to Life’s 2024 questionnaire asks candidates about their support for maintaining a ban on assisted suicide, banning mail-in abortion pills, adding a “Human Life” amendment to the U.S. Constitution to include “all human beings, born and unborn” and more. It highlights issues surrounding in vitro fertilization in which unused frozen embryos are discarded.?

Questions included:?

• If you are in a position to do so, would you advocate, support, sign into law and/or defend against legislation that would permit the cloning of human embryos or laboratory-created life for the purpose of the harvesting their stem cells for research or therapeutic cloning? (procedures requiring the creation and destruction of human lives)
• Do you believe that embryos created through IVF (in vitro fertilization) should be protected as all other lives??
• Do you believe medical schools and nursing programs operating in conjunction with universities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that receive state funding should have mechanisms in place such as conscience exceptions that permit students to be excused from participating in specific curricular activities and training, i.e. abortion procedures that violate the student’s religious or ethical beliefs?
• Are you morally and/or medically opposed to chemical abortions, such as RU-486, the abortion pill, and other drugs known to prevent the newly created human being from attaching (implantation) to his/her mother’s womb or medications that cause the woman’s body to expel her developing child in the early stages of her pregnancy?
• Do you agree that the personal protection afforded to every member of the human race under the Fourteenth Amendment should be extended equally to the preborn?

Eaves, the Kentucky Democratic Party chief, said most Kentuckians and Americans “believe in some form of pro-choice policy.”

Is IVF protected in Kentucky? Depends on whom you ask.

In May, the Pew Research Center reported that 63% of Americans “say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”?

Gallup polling also shows the majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in certain cases.?

Additionally, 54% of those surveyed by Gallup in May considered themselves “pro choice” and 41% considered themselves “pro life,” the largest gap since 1995.?

Weider of Planned Parenthood said the effects of the abortion ban on health care, especially for? people who are experiencing miscarriages or nonviable pregnancies, will continue to push politicians away from Right to Life.

?“You are starting to see pushback on what was once, I would say, a badge of honor for the majority of conservative politicians in Kentucky,” she said. “And I think it is an indictment on what has happened to Kentucky and health care. And we are seeing the daily fallout.”??

This story was updated with response from Kentucky Right to Life.?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the federal agency charged with enforcing nursing home regulations. (Photo by Getty Images; logo courtesy of CMS)

Kentucky is joining 19 other states in challenging a Biden administration rule that sets minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.

The nursing home industry has pushed back against the rule, saying it couldn’t afford to comply even if enough new staff could be found amid a widespread health care workforce shortage, Kentucky Health News previously reported.?

Kentucky nursing-home industry says Biden staffing mandate ‘impossible’ to meet

Twenty state attorneys general, including Kentucky’s Russell Coleman, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, seeking to overturn and reverse the new regulations.?

The Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Rule requires nursing homes that receive Medicare or Medicaid payments to provide 3.48 hours of direct nursing care per resident each day, including a defined number for registered nurses (0.55 per resident per day) and nurse aides (2.45 hours per resident per day).

About 211 Kentucky long-term care facilities do not meet staffing requirements, according to the lawsuit. To comply, they would need to hire 185 registered nurses and 1,336 nursing assistants, the lawsuit states.?

The 66-page court document criticizes the rule as an “existential threat to the nursing home industry” that will put some out of business and cause “irreparable” harm.?

“Senior citizens and other vulnerable members of society rely on nursing homes and similar facilities to meet their needs when family members cannot,” the lawsuit says. “Although the nursing home industry certainly has had its share of challenges, it fills a vital need in our communities that cannot be replaced. Instead of addressing the legitimate challenges nursing homes face, the defendants put forward a heavy-handed mandate.”?

“And the main victims,” the lawsuit says, “will be the patients who will have nowhere else to go.”?

The Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities said in a statement that it “appreciates the Attorney General’s support in the national effort to challenge the CMS staffing mandate, which, if fully implemented, could place an undue burden on long-term care providers.”

“We encourage the administration to collaborate with the long-term care community to develop regulations that prioritize sustainable, quality care for Kentuckians without jeopardizing the resources essential to achieving this goal,” the association said.

Kentucky has joined 12 other states and the District of Columbia in seeking monetary damages from TikTok for harm it has allegedly caused to youngsters. (Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exploiting minors and being “designed to addict and otherwise harm” them.

In filing the lawsuit Tuesday in Scott County, Coleman joins a dozen states and Washington D.C. in seeking payouts for what they describe as a pattern of knowingly hurting youth.

The other states that have sued are California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

The Kentucky lawsuit says TikTok is “designed” to be “an addiction machine” that targets children.

Michael Hughes, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.”

“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,” said Hughes.

What’s in the lawsuit?

Coleman’s lawsuit accuses the company of unfair and deceptive acts that violate Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act, failing to warn consumers of the potential dangers in consuming the platform’s media and more.

“Unlike other consumer products that have appealed to children for generations — like candy or soda—with social media platforms there is no natural break point where the consumer has finished the unit of consumption,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, social media platforms are a bottomless pit where users can spend an infinite amount of their time.”

TikTok’s Michael Hughes said the company does take steps to protect users.

“We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16,” Hughes said. “We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry wide challenges.”

Speaking in Northern Kentucky Wednesday, Coleman promised to “force (TikTok) to answer for creating and pushing an app designed specifically to addict and harm Kentucky’s children.”

“TikTok is more than trendy dances or funny videos. It’s a specially crafted tool to suck in minors, leading to depression, anxiety, altered development, and more,” Coleman said.

“TikTok intentionally manipulates the release of dopamine in young users’ developing brains and causes them to use TikTok in an excessive, compulsive, and addictive manner that harms them both mentally and physically,” the Kentucky lawsuit says.

Forbes reported in 2022 that watching TikTok videos is like taking drugs, calling it a “pleasurable dopamine state” that is “almost hypnotic.”

Filed in Scott Circuit Court, the 125-page lawsuit contains frequent blocks of redacted material. Those include information from internal TikTok documents, that “for the time being remain subject to certain confidentiality agreements,” said Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Coleman’s office.

Coleman is seeking an injunction to halt TikTok’s “ongoing violations,” actual and punitive damages and penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.

TikTok also is fighting a federal law enacted by Congress earlier this year that would ban the app in the U.S. unless its owner, ByteDance, sells it to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19.

What does research show?

In a 2023 report, the U.S. Surgeon General said social media use among youth can have both positive and negative effects. For example, youth may be able to find community and connection through social media that they otherwise lacked. But their mental health can decline with that use, and they can have increased anxiety and depression.

“Because adolescence is a vulnerable period of brain development, social media exposure during this period warrants additional scrutiny,” the surgeon general report said.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children’s wellbeing, says tech companies need to:

• Ade-quate-ly and inde-pen-dent-ly assess- the impact of social media on chil-dren and adolescents.
• Pri-or-i-tiz-e user health and safe-ty when design-ing and devel-op-ing social media prod-ucts and services.
• For-mal-iz-e a strat-e-gy for inves-ti-gat-ing the requests and com-plaints of young peo-ple, fam-i-lies, edu-ca-tors and others.

Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised Coleman “for standing up against the social media giant – and standing up for Kentucky’s young people.”

“There is nothing more paramount than upholding our kids’ mental health and safety, especially as kids increasingly find themselves in digital spaces,” Brooks said. “The addictive nature of the social media platform TikTok can harm kids’ developing brain, expose them to unrealistic standards and unsafe situations, and put them at risk of sexually explicit content and exploitation.”

Read the complaint

Rep. Kim Banta says constituents tell her their kids are afraid to go to school because of the fear of gun violence. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text the suicide prevention lifeline at 988.?

A Northern Kentucky Republican will file a bill in the 2025 legislative session to hold parents and guardians civilly accountable for gun violence or misuse carried out by minor children in their care.?

Rep. Kim Banta of Fort Mitchell, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, thinks of the legislation as a “wake up call,” she told the Kentucky Lantern.??

“I have constituents that … tell me their kids are literally afraid to go to school,” she said. “We just need to start kind of zeroing in on: if you’re under 18, your parents are responsible for your behavior.”??

Under her bill, people who are hurt or threatened by a minor using a gun could sue the minor’s parents or guardians and be awarded monetary damages.?

Banta? believes such legislation could incentivize parents and guardians to properly store and secure weapons (or separate them from ammunition), which could in turn lower suicide rates among youth and curb school shootings — and the threat of them.?

In 2023, nearly 4% of Kentucky high school students reported they carried a weapon like a gun or knife on school property at least one day within the month before they were surveyed, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kentucky Department of Education. That number rose to around 6% for the year before they were surveyed, and excluded weapons carried for hunting or target sport purposes.?

That survey also found 11% of high school students had at least one day within the month before they were surveyed when they were absent from school because they felt unsafe at school.?

Finally, 8% of students in 2023 reported they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once during the year before the survey.?

The Kentucky Department of Education also reports 15% of high school students and 17% of middle school students in the state considered suicide “seriously” in the last year. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

In its annual report, Kentucky’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel found children were increasingly injuring and killing themselves with guns they had wrongful access to.?

Among those, the Lantern reported in February, was a 4-year-old who played with a loaded gun he found in a glove compartment of a car and fatally shot himself. Another instance involved a 14-year-old boy whose friend fatally shot him with a loaded gun found in a parents’ bedroom.?

The panel said at the time that the legislature should research national models and develop legislation to promote safe storage of firearms.

What’s in Banta’s bill??

Banta’s bill, which is being drafted during the interim, would combine the state statutes that hold parents accountable for vandalism their children commit and when parents sign their child’s driver’s license.?

“The proposal is that a parent is responsible, civilly, for any gun violence that their child under 18 years old would perpetrate,” said Banta.?

That includes threatening someone with a gun, shooting a neighbor’s dog or injuring or killing a person. People who were wronged would then have a legal opening to sue the parents or guardians of those minor children.?

Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, will be the primary co-sponsor.?

A draft of the two-page bill, provided to the Lantern, says guardians are civilly responsible for “any negligence or willful misconduct of a minor.”?

The bill draft says parents and other guardians would be considered responsible and subject to paying civil damages under any of these circumstances:?

• They permitted the minor to have the firearm.
• They know that the minor has previously been adjudicated delinquent of an offense that would be a felony if the minor had been an adult.
• They know that the minor has a propensity to commit violent acts.?
• They know or have reason to know that the minor intends to use the firearm for unlawful purposes.?

The bill excludes emancipated minors or government or private agencies or foster parents who, through court order, are assigned responsibility for a minor.?

“My key motivator is just trying to get people to recognize that even though we live in a society where it is perfectly legal to own and use guns, I just think we need to back up for a minute,” Banta said. “We need to say, ‘Okay, I’m a gun owner, but that is going to extend to me being responsible for my children’s use of the guns.’”?

She hopes to get the bill before the House Judiciary Committee as early as possible during the session. She’s confident it passes constitutional and Second Amendment muster, she said.?

“I’m not restricting guns. I’m not telling you you cannot buy your child a gun. But what I’m telling you is: just be aware that you are as responsible for that child with that gun as you are with a car,” Banta said. “So if they do some damage, or they … threaten people… you’re going to be responsible civilly for it.”?

Banta already — favorably — discussed her bill with Speaker of the House David Osborne, R-Prospect, she said, and believes there is appetite to pass such legislation.?

That’s because, she said, “parental responsibility” is “everything that the (National Rifle Association), everything that gun ownership preaches” just “reinforced” with statute.?

“It’s just a matter of being very, very responsible with your gun ownership,” Banta said.? “Rather than a Sandy Hook or a Georgia incident, I’m hoping that parents will say, ‘yeah, no, you’re 16. You’re not old enough to be … on your own with a gun, or where I don’t know where you are with a gun.’”?

“I’m not telling a parent you can’t let your child go hunting by themselves anymore, and he’s 15 or 16,” she added. “I’m just telling you that if he goes and he shoots at the neighbor and kills their cow, you’re responsible. You’re gonna pay for that cow. You are responsible.”?

Banta doesn’t anticipate any funding needs for the bill, calling it an “ink and paper” policy.

“I just want people to feel safer,” Banta said. “And I want to pass something that just … makes sense.”?

A list of Kentuckians who have died because of domestic violence, ranging in age from 19 to 73. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

FRANKFORT — Kentucky must examine its gun laws to make sure it’s doing all it can to protect survivors of domestic violence, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.?

His comments came after he signed a proclamation in the Capitol Rotunda making October 2024 Domestic Violence Awareness Month.?

He joined advocates from ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence) and others to honor 26 lives lost in recent years to intimate partner violence — including Erica Riley, who was fatally shot outside the Hardin County Justice Center in August.

After 2 women die in ‘ambush’ outside Hardin courthouse, what can Kentucky do better?

Beshear said Kentucky needs to provide “real protection” for people leaving abusive situations.?

“We have sadly seen far too much violence after someone takes out (a protective order), and we’ve got to make sure that we are filling all of those holes,” Beshear told reporters. “We’ve got to look at transportation. We’ve got to look at ways to keep people’s current location from reaching their perpetrator, and we’ve got to look at how we navigate the judicial system to where that person doesn’t have to face their perpetrator … every so often in court.”?

Riley was at the courthouse on the morning of Aug. 19 for a hearing on her emergency protective order. Police say the man who she was seeking protection from shot her and her mother, Janet Rylee, in an “ambush” in the courthouse parking lot right before the hearing. They both died.?

“It’s important that we have that system that provides everyone their day in court,” Beshear said, “but at the same time, doesn’t make someone face their abuser face to face, over and over.”?

That could be accomplished virtually, he said, an idea supported by the head of the domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, where Riley died. He also said the state “ought to look at” how to uniformly provide court escorts to people headed into hearings for protective orders.?

“We know we had a shooting outside of one of our courthouses where someone should be safe,” Beshear said. “And so whether that’s looking at where the parking lots are, how it’s designed, whether we have other entrances for those involved in these types of cases, or whether an escort in and out would work, we don’t want it to happen again. So the most important thing is we figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”?

Beshear also said Kentucky must have a cultural shift in how it views domestic and intimate partner violence.?

“We’ve got far too much toxic masculinity, far too many people speaking in violent terms,” he said. “We should show our families what being a responsible adult is, and that … committing acts of violence doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a monster.”?

Beshear has previously voiced support for a “red flag” law, which would allow temporary restrictions on gun possession by individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Coercive control

The gathering also heard a Kentucky lawmaker call for adding coercive control to Kentucky’s protective order law. Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said she will sponsor a bill to help survivors access “court assistance earlier in the process.”?

Dietz’s legislation is a key piece of policy advocates who work in violence prevention support.?

Currently, protective orders are available in Kentucky to people who have experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, like loss of financial and medical autonomy, isolation, surveillance and more.?

“Most folks view domestic violence as that battering, that physical assault,” Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV, previously told the Lantern. “You’ll see the signs, the billboards, with the black eye … that happens. But what we think is happening a lot more, that we’re not able to see in the homes, are these controls.”?

Coercive control is a “huge indicator” of violence, Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, previously told the Lantern. In adding it to the emergency protective order (EPO) statute, she said, “we could save lives.”??

“Being able to recognize coercive control as a piece of intimate partner violence, or even a lead into intimate partner violence,” Burch said, “would be very important to getting ahead of this issue … not just responding after violence has already occurred.”

Not a ‘private issue’?

Andrea Robinson, president of the ZeroV board of directors, told the gathering that? Kentucky must break the “norm of silence” when it comes to domestic violence.?

“The current social norm of silence is based on the belief that intimate partner violence is a private issue, that it is between a couple, or … that it only affects those individuals in the relationship,” said Robinson. “The norm of silence only serves to hurt, isolate, shame and stigmatize survivors, making it harder for them to flee an abusive partner.”??

Breaking that can include checking on neighbors and loved ones, wearing purple to raise awareness of domestic violence and sharing resources with people who may need them, Robinson said.?

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?

In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

Across the state in 2024, ZeroV programs provided emergency shelter to 2,788 people, including 1,120 children, and provided 336,145 total services, it says.?

“In Kentucky, we don’t tolerate domestic violence,” Beshear said. “It is every single one of our obligations to say something when we see it, to get over that thought that it’s private.”??

A memorial in the parking lot of the Hardin County Justice Center, where Erica Riley and her mother Janet Rylee were killed on their way to a domestic violence hearing. Erica Riley was seeking protection from the man who shot them and later killed himself. The photo was taken Sept. 22, 2024 in Elizabethtown. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

This story also discusses suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Georgia Hensley feels like she’s been “screaming in a padded room” for too long about gaps in the way Kentucky protects survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence.?

Now that two women are dead in her town, “suddenly there’s two or three people at the tiny window on the door” listening to those concerns, said Hensley, the CEO of SpringHaven, which helps survivors of intimate partner violence in Kentucky’s Lincoln Trail District.?

“It truly has been like begging for help and no one was listening … and that’s abhorrent,” Hensley said. “It should not take the death of a woman and her mother and the severe injury of her father for all of us to begin talking about the issues that we needed to be discussing anyway.”?

A month after a woman and her mother were gunned down in the parking lot of the courthouse in Elizabethtown on the day of her emergency protective order (EPO) hearing, advocates who work to end intimate partner violence told the Lantern the state can and should do more to protect survivors.?

That includes, they say, passing a Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention Orders (CARR) bill, which would establish a process for temporarily removing guns from people at risk of hurting themselves or others. In other words, a “red flag” law.?

In 1994, Congress barred anyone who is subject to a domestic violence protective order — or who has been convicted of the crime of domestic violence — from possessing or buying a gun or ammunition. The United States Supreme Court upheld that law this year, saying it is constitutional to disarm a person in those circumstances.?

Kentucky is not among the 32 states that have enacted their own laws and protocols to separate domestic abusers from guns, even temporarily. As a result, protection for victims varies across the state, said Darlene Thomas, the executive director of GreenHouse17, a Fayette County-based nonprofit working to end intimate partner violence.?

The violent deaths in Elizabethtown, Hensley says, should spur action.?

“The community is enraged,” she said. “Citizens are enraged. And our officials need to be listening.”??

What happened in Elizabethtown???

In early August, Erica Riley asked the court system to protect her from a man with whom, police say, she’d had a relationship.?

A judge granted her request, issuing an emergency protective order (EPO) on Aug. 8 and scheduling a hearing to consider extending the order.?

On the morning of the hearing, Aug. 19, Riley arrived at the Elizabethtown courthouse, family by her side.?

The man in question, Christopher Elder, 46, was there too.?

Jeremy Thompson, the Elizabethtown police chief, said that Elder shot Riley and two others in an “ambush type style” in the parking lot right before 9 a.m., when the hearing was scheduled.?

Riley died there, police say, the day before she was to turn 38.?

Her mother, Janet, later died at the hospital, police say. Erica Riley’s father was also injured and hospitalized, but has since been released, according to a police spokesman.??

Within hours of the shooting, police publicly named Elder as their suspect. He led police on a multi-county, 100-mile car chase. After a standoff in a parking lot in Christian County with at least nine first responder agencies, he shot himself at 11:15 CST, according to Kentucky State Police.?

Elder was airlifted to Vanderbilt Hospital and died that day.?

Domestic violence, guns a lethal combination

While the Elizabethtown shooting got widespread attention, the key details aren’t uncommon.?

The majority of murder-suicides (62%) in the United States have an intimate partner component, the nonprofit Violence Policy Center said in a 2023 report.?

Almost all of those — 95% — were a man killing a woman and 93% of those involved a gun.?

Most female homicide victims were killed by a current or former male partner, according to research published in the National Library of Medicine last year.?

That same research showed victims of intimate partner violence are five times more likely to die if their abuser has access to a gun — and 1 in 8 convicted perpetrators of intimate partner violence admit they used a gun to threaten someone.??

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

When police respond to a domestic violence or adjacent situation, they are required to file a form called a JC-3. Of the roughly 41,000 Kentucky JC-3s filed in 2023, 97 involved a gun.?

Hundreds more — 399 — involved terroristic threatening.

Research shows when abusive partners have access to guns, they’re more likely to kill. A 2023 paper published in the National Library of Medicine found victims were five times more likely to die when a firearm is involved.?

Advocates who work to end intimate partner violence told the Lantern that Kentucky needs a way to remove weapons from the hands of domestic violence? perpetrators.?

Unfunded mandate

Even though the Supreme Court says it’s constitutional to disarm people who are the subject of domestic violence protective orders, that’s basically an “unfunded mandate” in Kentucky, said Thomas with GreenHouse17.?

“Our systems throughout the commonwealth are having to figure out who gets them, who collects them, who stores them, who marks them for storage,” she explained. “How do people get them back? When do they get them back? What’s the process for people to get their weapons back when they’ve been removed?”?

There’s no funding in Kentucky to carry out the federal law, Thomas said, which results in an uneven application across the state.

“Some courts will sometimes ask the sheriffs to go confiscate the weapons. Sometimes they’ll tell a person, ‘you have to turn those weapons over to your attorney or to the sheriff’s department,’” she said. “All the systems are a little different by how they do it, but the federal law says they have authority to help see that weapons are not in the hands of abusers, right? How they go about doing that can look very different county to county, judge to judge, situation to situation.”?

Based on existing laws, any firearm Elder had “should have been removed from his possession at the time he was served,” said Hensley, who is also an attorney.

It’s unclear if the gun used in the August shooting was registered to the suspect. No official information about the gun and how it was obtained is available, a police spokesman told the Lantern.?

“The way that most sheriff’s departments serve those petitions and request for firearms is simply … they’ll knock on the door, (say), ‘Here you go, sir. Do you have any firearms in the house?’ And if the perpetrator says, ‘No,’ that’s it,” Hensley explained.?

Whether or not a police officer has the legal ability to enter the home and search for those weapons is a complicated question, Hensley said. “I would probably argue, as an attorney: no,” she said.?

One exception could be if the petitioner told authorities that the alleged perpetrator did have access to weapons.?

Still, she said: “truthfully, that’s an uphill legal battle. They would really need to obtain a warrant or see something.”?

Leaving is dangerous. It doesn’t need to happen alone.?

Leaving an abusive situation — when it’s often most dangerous for survivors — is difficult, but doesn’t have to happen alone.?

In Elizabethtown, Hensley organized a court escort volunteer service after Riley’s death.?

“I don’t have any faith in the legislature or in our leadership to get that done, so I’ve done it,” she said. “And is that something that a nonprofit should be forced to do? Probably not. But is it something that we’re going to do? Yeah, it is. It is because safety is the most important thing.”?

Still, survivors sometimes must enter a courthouse or go through a door at the same time as an abuser or sit together in a waiting area, advocates say.?

But there are simple — and inexpensive — solutions to those physical barriers, said Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), such as bringing in the parties at different times and through different entrances and having a designated space for petitioners to wait separate from respondents.?

It’s also currently up to a judge’s discretion if they hold domestic hearings over Zoom, Hensley said.?

But it’s a policy she says the General Assembly should codify.?

Doing so could lessen some of the physical stress of a hearing, she said. But, there are downsides.?

“These cases can often be difficult to determine, and so much of it is based on body language and … a determination of who you believe,” she said. “And some of that is very difficult to do via Zoom.”?

While there are safety gaps, the state has a lot working in its favor: a robust network of violence prevention programs and researched-backed primary prevention, which involves educating children and other community members about intimate partner violence, said Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky.??

“There’s barriers to staying. There’s barriers to leaving,” Burch said. “When I think about that preparation to leaving or making a big change there, reach out to your local program. We are here. You don’t have to walk that journey alone.”

Could a red flag law help???

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sponsored CARR in 2024 but he’s leaving the Republican-controlled legislature after deciding not to run for reelection this year.?

His co-sponsors for CARR were all Democrats. One of them, Louisville Sen. David Yates, is “working to build support from colleagues in the Senate to carry the bill with him” in 2025, a Senate Democrats spokesman said.?

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that people dealing with suicidality are more likely to live if they lose access to guns and other “lethal means” temporarily, until intense feelings pass. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Aurora Vasquez, the vice president of State Policy & Engagement with Sandy Hook Promise, a national nonprofit that works to end gun violence, said temporary removal is key to “defuse the situation.”

“It’s often painted as though CARR is producing a permanent loss of Second Amendment rights,” she said.?

But the goal with CARR, she said, is to “give people help in the moment they need it most, so that they don’t lose their Second Amendment rights.”?

“We can’t collectively as a society — and Kentucky certainly should not, given that it has a robust gun culture — should not look away from the fact that gun owners sometimes need help, and it’s okay,” Vasquez said. “As human beings, we all sometimes need help, right? Being a firearm owner does not exclude us from that.”??

There’s no way to know if CARR could have saved Erica Riley’s life, Yannelli said.

“What we do know is that getting firearms out of the hands of an abuser will save lives,” she said.??

Thomas with GreenHouse17 agreed.?

“Weapons escalate situations and not deescalate them,” she said. “I think CARR protections … would help our law enforcement and our communities feel a little safer with temporary gun removal for somebody that’s experiencing an episode of some kind.”

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” (Photo by Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued a pharmacy benefits manager he says played a “role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky.”?

The complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court Wednesday, names Express Scripts and affiliates as defendants and targets alleged practices over the last two decades.

“The opioid crisis was fueled and sustained by those involved in the supply chain of opioids, with manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and Pharmacy Benefit Managers …including Express Scripts, each playing a role,” Coleman wrote in the suit.?

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” It also accuses the company of “colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in the deceptive marketing of opioids in order to alter perceptions of opioids and increase their sales,” among other things.?

It also accuses the company of:

• Colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers to restrict or eliminate utilization management tools on national formularies that would have limited opioid prescribing and/or dispensing.?
• Deciding not to act on the vast amount of data and other information they had about the epidemic in order to limit the overflow of opioids into communities throughout the United States, including in Kentucky.?
• Dispensing prescription opioids through their mail order pharmacies without effective controls against diversion, in violation of Kentucky law and federal law.?

A spokesperson for Express Scripts’ parent company, Evernorth, has not yet responded to a Lantern request for comment.?

The lawsuit says its purpose is to “abate public nuisance caused in substantial part by these Defendants’ unreasonable acts and omissions fueling the opioid epidemic.”?

“Express Scripts’ central role in the opioid crisis was facilitated by their unique combination of knowledge and power that provided them with the extraordinary ability to control the opioid supply throughout the United States.”

He is seeking a jury trial, among other relief.?

“The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,” Coleman said in a statement. “Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families’ pain.”?

Read Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Express Scripts

Virginia Moore’s widow, Row Holloway, tears up as she taps a Virginia bobblehead sitting on Gov. Andy Beshear’s lectern. (Screenshot)

Kentuckians who are deaf or hard of hearing can get free radios designed to alert other senses about dangerous weather through a new program named after the late Virginia Moore.?

Moore died on Derby Day in 2023 at 61. Before that, she interpreted? in American Sign Language news of many deaths and announcements about COVID-19’s hold on Kentucky for Gov. Andy Beshear during the worst of the pandemic.?

Moore served as executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. People who knew her have described her as a fierce advocate for the hard of hearing community.?

Now, an emergency preparedness program called “Moore Safe Nights” will honor that legacy.?

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management (KYEM) used federal grant money to buy 700 radios that have vibrating and bright spotlight attachments specifically for people with hearing impairments.?

The vibrating attachment can go under a person’s pillow and shake them during an alarm. The other can be attached to a bed frame and it will brightly flash in the dark. They will also display text of alerts from the National Weather Service.?

“As Kentuckians know all too well, severe weather can strike at any hour; the most dangerous time is when people are sleeping,” Beshear said during a Thursday press conference. “The deaf and hard of hearing community is particularly vulnerable during this time, since they cannot hear the various alarms and severe weather sirens upon which most of us rely.”?

Anita Dowd, who serves as the executive director for the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, called the radios a “game changer.”?

“As one of the 700,000 Kentuckians with hearing loss, and mama to two daughters with hearing loss, I can personally attest to how profound the impact will be from this program,” Dowd said. “For people like myself who can’t access information through auditory channels, we often depend on our other senses to keep us aware. In a way, our eyes become our ears, and when we close our eyes and go to sleep, that access to awareness is gone.”?

Kentucky sign language interpreters embody others’ words, are servants at heart

Moore’s widow, Row Holloway, teared up as she tapped a Virginia bobblehead sitting on Beshear’s lectern.?

“I’m glad that her memory is still alive as she continues to serve people in Kentucky,” Holloway said.?

How to get a free radio?

You must live in Kentucky and be hard of hearing to qualify for this program.?

Eligible Kentuckians can go to https://www.kcdhh.ky.gov/msn/ or call 800-372-2907 or 502-416-0607 to apply for a radio. They will be distributed on a first come, first served basis, Beshear said.?

To watch a video in American Sign Language about this program, visit this site.?

Funding for the initial 700 radios came from an emergency preparedness grant and Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program funds, Beshear said.

“While only 700 radios are available under this initial funding, KYEM and all of us will seek additional funds to try to make sure one of these is available for absolutely everyone who needs them,” Beshear said. “I hope we get all 700 out very quickly.”?

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — Kentuckians in recovery say the state needs to better educate youth about addiction, digitize expungement for certain crimes and make harm reduction and community-based services more widely available to combat overdoses.?

About 30 people gathered at the Women’s Healing Place in the West End of Louisville Wednesday as part of a “Public Health is Public Safety” tour aimed at finding solutions to the opioid crisis and raising awareness about what addiction looks like person to person.?

That tour has made six stops across the state this year — in Ashland, London, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Lexington and, now, Louisville.?

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org, which organized Wednesday’s panels, said drug criminalization often drives people to harder substances.?

“We made all these laws on prescription opioids. Everybody went to heroin. We made stricter laws on heroin. Everybody went to fentanyl. We’re making stricter laws on fentanyl, and everybody’s going to xylazine,” he said. “The measures that we’ve got in place now are really, really making it hard for us to keep getting the overdose rates lower.”?

Bowman also worries a 2024 law that supporters called the “Safer Kentucky Act” and opponents said would criminalize homelessness could cause overdose deaths indirectly.?

Another provision of? House Bill 5 created a first degree manslaughter charge when a person “knowingly sells fentanyl or a fentanyl derivative to another person,” which results in that person’s death.?

“It’s kind of like a drug-induced homicide law,” Bowman said. “And it’s going to make folks scared to call 911.”?

Carson Justice, a 17-year-old from Eastern Kentucky who said addiction has affected her entire community, including her parents, said the state should invest in more harm reduction and less criminalization.?

“Instead of bad policies like House Bill 5, we could have prison after care, we could have harm reduction resources, we could have IDs, we could have all kinds of things,” she said.?

By focusing more on harm reduction, she said, “Not only could it save us thousands of dollars, it could save thousands of lives.”?

Lawmakers should also focus on revamping reentry programs, lowering what counts as “intent to distribute” and ensuring people can access a full range of treatment while incarcerated, Bowman said.?

Several panelists who discussed their treatment and recovery echoed that point, saying they did not have access to help while behind bars.?

Amanda Bourland, who has lived through addiction and incarceration and is now the vice president of mission advancement at Recovery Now, said “when I got out of prison, there were no resources for me.”?

“Four years in prison, in a row, and nobody said, ‘would you like to learn how to live a life in recovery?’ Nobody said, ‘do you think you have a problem with drugs and alcohol?’ Bourland said. “What they said was, ‘Chow ladies.’ ‘Lights out ladies.’ ‘Meds, ladies.’ That was it.”?

‘Trauma is the gateway’?

Over the course of three hours, two panels and a series of small group discussions at the women’s campus of The Healing Place, advocates and people in recovery emphasized that widespread access to harm reduction is key to lowering the number of Kentuckians dying from overdose.?

Harm reduction is anything that decreases the harm a person may experience — like wearing a seat belt when driving or brushing teeth to avoid cavities. In the context of substance use, harm reduction includes the use of the overdose-reversal Narcan, fentanyl test strips, syringe exchange programs and more. Harm reduction emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission, says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration??

Stigma sometimes stands in the way of recovery, advocates said.?

“In this country, we still view substance use disorder as a moral failing,” said Tara Hyde, the CEO of People Advocating Recovery who is also in long-term recovery. “And until we, as a community, really gather together and really start to create more of an argument against that narrative, they’re going to continue with that, because that’s all that they know.”?

Stephanie Johnson with Vocal KY said the word “addiction” is still quite stigmatized — and asked the audience, “how many people would not move or have gotten dressed without a cup of coffee this morning?”?

“Changing the narrative,” she said, “is harm reduction.”?

Focusing on mental health for people in active addiction and recovery is also “huge,” Johnson said.?

“You can have a mental health issue without having a substance use issue,” she said. “You will not have a substance use issue without having any mental health issue. We have got to address mental health. Trauma is the gateway.”?

Youth education and recovery funding?

Lawmakers should codify a requirement for schools to have uniform education on mental health, Hyde told the Lantern. There are “quality” programs available, she said, but “there’s no requirement, so not every school gets that.”?

“This is a systemic problem. And we can’t just, (say) ‘oh well, this school has it, and this school doesn’t,’” she said. “You can’t just make it bounce like that; that’s a really big problem.”?

The state could also save itself money, Hyde said, by funding long-term recovery programs. Usually a person attempts recovery an average of six times before being successful, she said, meaning their treatment could cost around $180,000 by the end of those attempts, which are usually in short-term programs.?

Some research suggests longer programs are more effective, especially in dealing with severe cases.?

“A lot of that money is already being spent,” she said. “Medicaid is paying for each attempt — six on average.”?

Justice’s mother, Beckie Rose, shared a panel with her daughter.?

She’s from Pike County — from “coal mines and coal fields and mountains,” as she described it, as well as “ground zero” of the opioid epidemic.?

Rose is in long-term recovery now, and she advocates for a better future for her daughter and Eastern Kentucky community.?

“We have way more in common than we have differences,” Rose said. “And I would just like to see our communities and our families come together, and instead of incarcerating disease, start treating disease.”??

Cover art from "Kinship Across Kentucky: Recommendations from Caregiver Voices in 2024." Around 55,000 Kentucky children are being raised by a relative or fictive kin, according to the report. (Kentucky Youth Advocates)

Kentuckians who are raising a minor relative need better access to mental health care, housing and other basic support services, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The report, from Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, is based on two online surveys and nine in-person listening sessions aimed at learning more about the challenges facing kinship caregivers.?

Most of the caregivers surveyed were white women. They reported needing assistance with food, clothing and school supplies. Participants also said they needed help with finances, housing, information technology, peer support, respite care, mental health care and legal assistance, according to the report. They also reported child care as one of the most difficult supports to access.?

Norma Hatfield, president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, said during a Wednesday forum discussing the report that sometimes kinship caregivers like herself focus on caring for the youth in their charge and “don’t always take care of themselves.”?

“It’s pretty darn stressful,” she said. “You may need somebody, from a therapeutic perspective, to have some of those conversations, especially if the abuse is really bad and there’s a criminal case going on.”

Kinship caregivers may be caring for a grandchild, for example, who’d been abused by the grandparent’s child.?

“I look at it as: to kind of help me deal with my emotion, process that, and then step back and (see) how can I best help the child at the same time? And that’s hard. That’s why it’s challenging and confusing, because you also have yourself and how you feel, and you also have the child and the system.”?

Sometimes that mental health support may include medication or more intensive services, Hatfield said, but most of the time talk therapy addresses the need.?

Lesa Dennis, the commissioner for the Department of Community Based Services, spoke alongside Hatfield during the KYA forum and said kinship care in Kentucky is a “priority” for her department.?

“We still have a lot of work to do in this space, and we’re very committed to it,” Dennis said.?

During the 2024 legislative session, the General Assembly passed a law that allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments. However, a funding dispute that arose after the fact has left that help hanging, more than two months after the law went into effect.?

Policy recommendations?

The report makes numerous recommendations, including:

• Expand community-based mentorship opportunities for youth in kinship care and their caregivers.?
• Provide or facilitate comprehensive reunification services for kinship families to create opportunities for children to return safely to their birth families, when appropriate.?
• Provide judges a bench card related to kinship care utilization and needed supports
• Increase the frequency and accessibility of trainings on the unique experiences and needs of kinship families to DCBS staff, private foster care agency staff and community mental health providers.
• Provide comprehensive informational packets and educational materials for new kinship caregivers.?
• Utilize best practices to actively seek the most appropriate placement for the child when identifying kinship and fictive kin caregivers, including addressing disproportionality in the placement of children of color into foster care instead of kinship care.

• 

It’s not clear yet which of these policies, if any, would require legislation during the next session.?

“I think a lot of those things can be accomplished through working together with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Department for community based services,” said Shannon Moody, chief policy and strategy officer for the nonpartisan KYA. “We would definitely want to have some additional conversations to figure out what would need or require statutory change, but I don’t know if we anticipate any of those recommendations being moved forward for pursuit in the 2025 legislative session.”?

Around 55,000 Kentucky children are being raised by a relative or fictive kin, according to the Tuesday report. That includes both formal (the state is involved) and informal (the state is not involved) situations. In 2023, about 1,500 Kentucky children were placed in a relative or fictive kin home by the state.?

Kentucky’s known prevalence of kinship care is 6%, according to the report, making it twice as high as the national average.

Ben Lovely, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, looks through a zebrafish tank. Lovely is working with zebrafish to study fetal alcohol syndrome. (Photo provided)

LOUISVILLE — Over the next five years, University of Louisville researchers plan to expose about 1.5 million fish eggs to alcohol in hopes of better understanding fetal alcohol syndrome in humans.

Using a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers will specifically study zebrafish as a model for better understanding human facial defects associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol. They started their work in May and will finish in 2029.?

Ben Lovely, the study’s lead researcher and an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the university, said zebrafish are “a really strong model for humans” because they share more than 80% of the same genes.?

“If you have a gene that’s associated with cancer in humans, you’re probably going to find it in fish, and it can lead to cancer in a fish,” Lovely explained.?

Because of this, he told the Lantern, he can study the effects of alcohol on humans via the fish, learning more than he would be able to in a human study. Fish are well equipped for such a study, he said — he can study developing embryos outside the mother.?

“Part of the issue with looking at placental mammals like humans, like mice, is maternal effects and embryonic effects,” he said. “So you have two different things going on here.”?

With his zebrafish, which are raised in a facility on-site and “get fed and mate” for a living, he can take eggs that adult fish laid and? study them in petri dishes — about 100 at a time to ensure they don’t die from over-density. Zebrafish are a freshwater member of the minnow family.?

During their time in the dish, researchers control how much alcohol is added to the solution in each dish, which also has water and nutrients.?

“The alcohol goes right into the fish, gets right across the eggshell and into the fish itself,” he explained. The alcohol dose isn’t enough to kill the fish, he said.?

These fish are also perfect for monitoring early development.?

“They develop pigments once they reach adult stages, but as embryos, they’re transparent,” Lovely said. “You can see right through them. So we can actually watch the cells live in a developing fish over time. You can’t really do that in a placental mammal, because you’d have to remove the embryo to get that to happen.”?

Decreasing stigma?

Babies who were exposed to alcohol while in utero — especially in the early weeks when a person may not know they are pregnant — can be born with? fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which includes the incurable fetal alcohol syndrome.?

People born with this may have “abnormal facial features” like a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip, a thin upper lip and small eyes, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Other symptoms can include learning problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and more.?

Both the alcohol consumption and the facial features he is specifically studying can lead to stigma, Lovely said.?

“The first thing we see as humans is the face. So facial birth defects are hugely stigmatizing,” he said. “To understand their origins, their prognosis, everything about them is going to be key in really helping identify these issues early, if we can, especially prenatally, that would be more ideal.”?

Alcohol, too, “has its own stigma,” he said.?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2019 that about 42% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended. The early weeks and months of pregnancy are a key time for the developments of FASD, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“So you combine those two: there are a lot of individuals who are drinking and do not know they’re pregnant,” Lovely said. “They don’t want to be accused of harming their child because they didn’t know, right? That’s the stigma. So it’s very difficult for him to do human studies. It’s very difficult to find patients — very few mothers want to admit to this.”?

But through his zebrafish study, he said, he hopes to move in the direction of genotyping a person to see their sensitivity to alcohol and look at the issue more from a gene perspective and less from a social perspective.?

“A lot of researchers now … say ‘prenatal exposure,’ we don’t say ‘the mother drank,’” he said. “We don’t say anything about the mother, to avoid stigmatizing the mother. So we try to couch it from ‘this has happened to the developing embryo,’ not ‘this was done to the developing embryo.’”?

The CDC said this year that about 1 in 20 school-aged children in the country could have FASDs.? Not every fetus that’s exposed to alcohol will develop FASD issues.?

Because of this, the University of Louisville says that “understanding what genes might increase that risk could lead to better therapeutics and help mothers make safer, more informed choices.”?

Baptist Healthcare Corbin, above, and Westcare in Pike County are in line for federal funding to expand access to drug treatment. (Baptist Healthcare Corbin)

Two Eastern Kentucky health care providers have received $5.7 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to expand opioid treatment programs.?

Westcare Kentucky in Ashcamp and Baptist Healthcare System in Corbin received $3 million and $2.7 million, respectively. The grants will be spread over four years.?

They’ll use the funds to “create new or expand existing access points for treatment and recovery services, support the behavioral health workforce and collaborate with social services to ensure coordinated care and sustainable impact in rural communities,” according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which is in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).?

Westcare, part of a nonprofit network of behavioral health provicers, is located in Pike County, which was among the five Kentucky counties in 2023 with the most fentanyl and meth-related overdose deaths.?

In 2023, there were 1,984 fatal overdoses in Kentucky, down from 2,135 in 2022. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those — about 79% of the 2023 deaths. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023’s overdose deaths.?

Despite the overall decrease, the number of Black Kentuckians who died from a drug overdose increased from 259 in 2022 to 264 in 2023.?

“We know that where you live should not determine your access to or the quality of the care that you receive,” Carole Johnson, the administrator of HRSA, said in a statement. “And, we are taking action to deliver for rural families by supporting high-quality substance use disorder treatment and by helping rural hospitals continue to serve their communities.”

Community clinics will use $4.7 million in federal money to integrate mental health and substance use treatments more fully into primary care services.?(Getty Images)

Eight community health centers in Kentucky have received nearly $5 million in federal funds to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder treatments across the state.?

The $4.7 million in grant money comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).?

Centers will use the money to integrate mental health and substance use treatments more fully into primary care services.?

“Access to behavioral health care is critical for communities of color and underserved groups,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “HRSA-funded health centers have a proven record of success in reaching underserved communities. This funding expands their access to essential behavioral health services that will benefit entire communities.”??

The grant money is going to these centers:?

• Cumberland Family Medical Center in Burkesville received $600,000.
• Grace Community Health Center in Corbin, $600,000.
• Health First Bluegrass in Lexington, $600,000.
• Health Help in McKee, $600,000.
• Health Point Family Care in Newport $500,000.
• Kentucky Mountain Health Alliance in Hazard, $600,000.
• Lewis County Primary Care Center in Vanceburg, $600,000.
• Sterling Health Solutions in Mount Sterling, $600,000.

Carole Johnson, the HRSA administrator, called mental health and substance use disorder treatments “essential elements of primary care, and there should be no wrong door for families to get the behavioral health care they need.”

From left, Amanda Hall, Jayden Spence and Cortney Downs testified Sept. 19 before an interim legislative committee in Frankfort. (Screenshot)

When Jayden Spence was 5 years old, he watched police take his mother, Amanda Hall, away in handcuffs.?

The experience “terrified” him, he told Kentucky lawmakers. It also left him a lingering “mistrust” of the justice system.?

Spence and Hall lent their stories to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Thursday and asked members to pass legislation in 2025 that would give weight to a person’s role as a caregiver when judges are making decisions about sentencing.

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said there were more than 115,000 youths in the state from 2021-2022 who reported having a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives.?

Parental incarceration is considered an adverse childhood experience (ACE) that can have far-reaching negative effects on a person’s development and life. It can also lead to foster care, housing disruption and financial hardships, among other things, Downs said.?

“We often hear that parental incarceration (can) be described as a shared sentence, mainly because of the pretty substantial effect that it has on kids and then also the … family members … who step in to also care for those kids,” she told lawmakers.?

Having a parent behind bars can also “weaken the bond” between parent and child, Downs said. In some cases, it can “derail” that relationship entirely.?

“Ultimately, we do understand that we need to hold people accountable for their actions,” Downs said. “But there’s an equally important need for us to find a balance between applying consequences that really do match the actions, and then also considering the impact that it has on their kids.”??

Hall and Spence?

When Spence watched his mother being arrested, it continued a cycle that went back to Hall’s own childhood trauma.?

Hall was in second grade when her mother, whom she said was a survivor of domestic violence, was arrested.

“I vividly remember going to school the next day … and seeing the newspaper on my teacher’s desk and that had a description of my mom’s arrest,” said Hall, who lives in Louisa. “I got an overwhelming sense of shame, and that feeling stayed with me for years, along with a lot of anger.”?

Her mental health deteriorated after that, she said, as well as her trust in authority.?

“I started experimenting with drugs, and after being prescribed opioids, I became fully addicted,” Hall said. “Then my arrest followed, and things kept spiraling downward.”?

While incarcerated, she said, she missed her daughter’s first steps and first words and her son’s kindergarten graduation.?

“It was devastating,” she said. “I hated myself for what I had done to them, and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t change.”?

She got treatment upon her release and was reunited with her children, though “that incarceration haunts me.”?

Spence, a sophomore at Morehead State University, said Hall’s incarceration when he was a child “completely disrupted” his routine and left him with “anger,” “sadness” and a “deep sense of longing.”?

“I loved my mom, and I just wanted her to come home so we could be together,” he said. He also missed the chance to live with his little brother and be a big brother to him.?

“This experience has left a lasting impact on me. It shaped how I view the justice system. I have a deep mistrust of it, and a mistrust that only grew stronger after I saw how hard it was to rebuild her life, to be judged for her past,” he said. “Every time she was told ‘no’ because of her convictions, every negative comment said about her, I felt that too.”??

Hall lives in fear, she said, of the future.?

“I want that cycle to end with me,” Hall said. “And so far, I think it will. But that fear remains.”?

What could a Kentucky law on this look like??

Joey Comley, the Kentucky and Tennessee state director for Right On Crime, said other states — Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee — have passed “caregiver mitigation and diversion programs.”?

Under these programs, judges consider at sentencing if a person is a primary caregiver and waive incarceration in favor of community supervision and potentially treatment if it is needed, such as substance abuse treatment, physical or sexual abuse counseling, vocational or educational services, anger management, parenting classes and family counseling.?

Exceptions to the waiver could include people who committed violent offenses, sex offenses, serious offenses and offenses involving the use of a firearm, he said.?

Kentucky could also save a lot of money with such legislation, Comley said.?

“If Kentucky were to implement some form of caregiver consideration legislation, it stands to save this Commonwealth almost $64,000 per eligible parent who is essentially subject to community enforcement as opposed to incarceration,” he said. That figure includes foster care and incarceration expenses.?

There is, Comely said, “ample opportunity for legislation in a space to save money, to preserve the family unit and to do what is best for these parents, these children and the community.”?

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball, center, spoke to lawmakers on July 30 about access to computerized records of child and elder abuse cases. Ombudsman Jonathan Grate is at left and Alexander Magera, general counsel in the auditor's office, is at right. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services must give the office of the ombudsman read-only access to a computer system, iTWIST, that stores information about abuse and neglect cases, according to an agreement approved by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

The access must be granted by the end of day Thursday, Sept. 19, Shepherd said in a Wednesday ruling.?

He also requires a report on the status of that access within five business days.?

This comes after months of back and forth between Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball’s office, which now houses the ombudsman, and the Beshear administration.?

On Sept. 4, Shepherd ordered the dispute into mediation and told the parties to agree on a mediator or he would assign one. They agreed on retired United States Magistrate Judge James D. Moyer.?

The memorandum of understanding that Shepherd approved was signed by Jonathan Grate, the new ombudsman, and Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).

Ball’s office assumed oversight of the ombudsman from CHFS on July 1, thanks to a law enacted last? year by the legislature, Senate Bill 48.?

Ball filed a lawsuit for the access in late August that named Gov. Andy Beshear, Friedlander and Ruth Day, the chief information officer of the Commonwealth Office of Technology.??

The ombudsman investigates and resolves complaints about agencies in CHFS, including protective services for children and elderly Kentuckians. Grate, the ombudsman appointed by Ball, can’t do his job without access to iTWIST, (the Workers Information System), Ball previously told lawmakers.

The parties differed in their legal interpretations. The cabinet said access to iTWIST was limited by state law to cabinet social service officials under Kentucky Revised Statute 620.050. The state auditor’s office said the ombudsman is covered under that statute despite moving from the cabinet to auditor’s office.?

In his latest ruling, Shepherd said the parties will work on legislation for the 2025 session to address the issue in statute.?

James Hatchett, a spokesperson for Beshear’s office, said “today’s resolution is similar to many offers made by the cabinet over the last several months to address the situation until the General Assembly can act.”?

“Throughout this process, the governor has agreed the ombudsman should have access to these records, but must do so in a way that complies with applicable state law,” Hatchett said.?

Stephanie French, a cabinet spokesperson, said CHFS is? “happy” with the resolution that allows “the cabinet and ombudsman both to comply with the applicable law” following months of “significant disagreement on how the law applies to the iTWIST system.”?

“We look forward to working with the ombudsman in the upcoming legislative session if necessary,” French said.?

In a statement, Ball said, “While it is unfortunate that it required a lawsuit for the governor and CHFS to agree to restore the necessary iTWIST access to the ombudsman’s office, I am pleased with today’s outcome. The agreed order entered by the court today makes sure that the governor and CHFS can no longer stop the ombudsman from accessing iTWIST. They can no longer try to look over the ombudsman’s shoulder while we fight to help people.”

Gov. Andy Beshear, surrounded by advocates for mental health and LGBTQ Kentuckians, signs an executive order Wednesday banning conversion therapy on young Kentuckians. (Governor's office)

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.?

Calling it a “dangerous practice,” Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Wednesday that bans conversion therapy on minors in Kentucky.?

Speaking in Frankfort, Beshear said such attempts to alter a young person’s gender expression or sexual attractions have “no basis in medicine”? — a view supported by experts in medicine and mental health.

Conversion therapy has been condemned by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), among other medical and psychological organizations. AACAP says conversion therapies “lack scientific credibility and clinical utility” and “there is evidence that such interventions are harmful.”??

The practice involves “interventions purported to alter same-sex attractions or an individual’s gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome” according to the AACAP.?

The American Psychological Association says that people who have undergone “sexual orientation change efforts” are much more likely to be depressed and suicidal. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

Beshear’s executive order states that neither state or federal dollars can be used “for the practice of conversion therapy on minors.”?

“Today’s action does not force an ideology on anybody,” Beshear said. “It does not expose anyone to anything in a library or school. It simply stops a so-called ‘therapy’ that the medical community says is wrong and hurts our children.”

Beshear’s order comes after Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, has repeatedly sponsored legislation to ban conversion therapy in Kentucky. Each year, her bill has had bipartisan support. Given that, it’s always been a “mystery” to her why it didn’t pass, she told the Lantern Wednesday.?

“That’s a question I’ve asked myself for six years: Why can’t we get this across the finish line?” she said. “It’s such a discredited practice. It has caused such harm to so many young Kentuckians, including suicide. And it has had such strong bipartisan support.”??

“I’m incredibly grateful for the executive order, and that, at long last, there will be protections in place,” Willner added.?

Snags in 2025??

Beshear’s move could hit snags in the 2025 legislative session.?

Rep. Josh Calloway, R-Irvington, wrote on social media that he would file legislation next year to “stop this governor from pushing his harmful far-left agenda on struggling kids.”?

Calloway shared a screenshot of the email the governor’s office sent to announce the executive order and wrote, “why is @AndyBeshearKY determined to keep vulnerable children confused?”

“I will fight this with every fiber of my being,” Calloway wrote. “I am also exploring other legal options to stop egregious overreach.”??

Meanwhile, 12 Republican Senators slammed Beshear for the order, which they said “disregards the First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion and speech and violates the fundamental parental rights and responsibilities for their children.”?

“Time and again, the Kentucky Supreme Court has told the governor he lacks the power to create policy in the Commonwealth. Yet again, the governor is defying the Supreme Court, the General Assembly, and the doctrine of separation of powers,” those senators said in a statement. “The executive order uses such vague and overbroad language that health care providers are at risk, and children will be left without needed mental health care.”

The 12 Republican state senators issuing the statement condemning Beshear’s action are: ?Senate President Robert Stivers, Manchester; Robby Mills, Henderson;? Shelley Funke Frommeyer, Alexandria; Lindsey Tichenor, Smithfield; Whitney Westerfield, Fruit Hill; Gary Boswell, Owensboro; Donald Douglas, Nicholasville; Greg Elkins, Winchester; John Schickel, Union; Phillip Wheeler, Pikeville; Majority Whip Mike Wilson, Bowling Green; Max Wise, R-Campbellsville.

Willner is “sure there will be efforts” to block the executive order, she told the Lantern.??

“There are people who, I think, willfully misunderstand what this is about, and that this is a practice that traumatizes people for decades, for the rest of their lives, and that ends lives prematurely,” she said. “And for people to misunderstand this is beyond disappointing. I will do everything I can to make sure that any efforts to turn this back will fail, and I really hope that they will.”?

Protections ‘at long last’?

Advocates for mental health in Kentucky praised Beshear’s action.

Sheila Schuster, the executive director of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, called the practice “torture” and teared up as she spoke alongside Beshear in the Capitol Rotunda.?

Her coalition has listed ending conversion therapy as a top priority for the legislature for nearly a decade, citing the “harm” the practice causes.

“While we have not been successful in the legislature, it’s not for lack of effort from our heroines and heroes,” Schuster said.

Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, said Beshear would “save countless Kentucky kids’ lives” with the move.

“Today, we all join Governor Beshear to send a crystal clear message to all of Kentucky’s queer kids and their families,” Hartman said. “You are perfect as you are.”

Eric Russ, the executive director of the Kentucky Psychological Association, called conversion therapy a discredited practice that “has no place in the mental health care of LGBTQ youth.”?

“We know that survivors of conversion therapy not only do not change their sexual orientation, but have worse mental health outcomes, including self blame, guilt, shame, anxiety, depression,” Russ said. “We know the best thing we can do as mental health providers is to affirm the identity of the kids in our care. When a kid walks into a licensed mental health professional’s office with their family, we have an ethical obligation to provide them care that is supportive, evidence based and affirming to their sexual orientation identity.”?

Louisville Metro Police headquarters. (LMPD)

LOUISVILLE — Paul Humphrey will serve as the next Louisville Metro Police Department chief after filling the role on an interim basis since June.?

His predecessor, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, resigned in late June after being placed on administrative leave amid an investigation of her handling of sexual harassment allegations within the department.?

“The sworn and professional staff of LMPD work tirelessly each day to make Louisville a safer city,” Humphrey, a University of Louisville graduate, said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to serve our residents, business community, and visitors.”?

Humphrey, who lives in Louisville with his wife and three children, joined the police force in 2006 as a patrol officer and then worked as a patrol supervisor in four divisions, according to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office. He became commander of the city’s SWAT team in 2017, “is credited with restructuring the SWAT Team, creating a new culture of improvement and accountability while managing the team’s training, tactical planning, and operating budget,” the mayor’s office said.?

Humphrey has worked in several other LMPD roles. He also sits on the board of St. Xavier High School, where he attended, and Kentucky Law Enforcement Council, according to the mayor’s office.?

Attorney General Russell Coleman said the appointment “has the potential to be the most impactful public safety decision made by a Metro Louisville Mayor during my time as Attorney General.”

“We look forward to zealous collaboration with Chief Humphrey and the essential agency he now leads to reduce violent crime, effectively implement Group Violence Intervention (GVI) and keep Louisville families safe,” Coleman said in a statement.

Greenberg called Humphrey “thoughtful, fair, and decisive.”

“He has earned my respect, and he has earned the respect and trust of this community, including the hardworking men and women of the Louisville Metro Police Department,” Greenberg said. “He understands the importance of community policing and he will demand accountability from his officers, his command staff, and himself. LMPD needs stability in its leadership, and I’m confident Chief Humphrey will bring that stability.”

Humphrey’s promotion follows several high-profile controversies in the department.

The department has had six leaders since 2020.That year, following the police killing of Breonna Taylor, Louisville saw months of protests. Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot while police served a no-knock warrant. In 2024, police arrested professional golfer?Scottie Scheffler during the PGA Championship. Those charges were later dismissed.

The City of Louisville earlier this year began?negotiating a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to correct civil rights violations by the LMPD.

This story may update.?

New Hampshire collected PFAS-laden firefighting foam during a take-back program for fire departments in August. Disposal is through a technology called the PFAS Annihilator that breaks down the powerful chemical bonds. (New Hampshire Bulletin/Courtesy of Revive Environmental)

Over a lifetime, Kentuckians are repeatedly exposed to environmental pollutants known as “forever chemicals” — and a new study links such exposure to colorectal (colon) cancer.?

Specifically, researchers at the University of Kentucky looked at long-term exposure to PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) in mice and confirmed their findings in human cells. Results showed that exposure — commonly in food and water — can chip away at an enzyme in the intestines (HMGCS2) that can help protect against cancer.

Research has established that PFOS can increase risk of other types of cancer, including breast and liver, but this is the first to study the effects of the chemicals on this enzyme.?

One of the researchers, Yekaterina Zaytseva, said it’s “not so easy” to mitigate these pollutants in the environment.?

So, she turned her attention to its effects on the human body, and how to intercept them.??

“We try to understand how these pollutants affect human health and … how we can mitigate the effect of these pollutants,” she said.?

Scientists wanted to learn, she said, “if people live in (an) area with high exposure to these chemicals, how we can help … to prevent the harmful effects of these chemicals, or if they (are) already exposed, how we can mitigate … how they can get rid of these pollutants in their body.”?

PFOS falls under the umbrella of? per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are manmade and don’t break down in the environment easily because they have a molecular bond — carbon and fluorine — that’s among the strongest. Thus they have earned the nickname “forever chemicals.”?

Their commonplace applications make exposure more complicated. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences explains that PFAS “are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant to stains and create firefighting foam that is more effective.”?

PFOS are among the five “forever chemicals” included in a drinking-water regulation issued by the Biden administration in April. Utilities will be required to reduce PFAS in drinking water to the lowest level that can be reliably measured.

‘Forever chemicals:’ Now that feds have acted, some say Kentucky should do more

In Kentucky, state testing revealed 83 of 194 water treatment plants had at least one PFAS, as did 36 of 40 monitoring station testing surfaces, the Lantern has reported. In 2022, nearly 900 Kentuckians died with colorectal cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.?

Damage over time?

People who have colorectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease tend to not have the HMGCS2 enzyme, Zaytseva said, “suggesting that it’s actually … kind of protective against cancer.”?

During exposure to PFOS, she said, “this enzyme is also lost.”??

But this breakdown happens over time, and a person wouldn’t necessarily notice it happening based on side effects in the body.?

“If you have, for example, chronic exposure to PFAS, you don’t see … this enzyme shut down right away,” said Zaytseva. “You wouldn’t notice this. We try right now … to look at this as a potential biomarker of PFOS exposure.”?

The study, led by Josiane Tessmann, a post-doctoral scholar working in Zaytseva’s lab, was published in the journal Chemosphere.

In 2023, the General Assembly passed a law that now requires health plans in Kentucky to cover biomarker testing. The law, sponsored by Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, is aimed at lowering cancer mortality in the state.?

Biomarker testing “is a way to look for genes, proteins, and other substances (called biomarkers or tumor markers) that can provide information about cancer,” according to the National Cancer Institute.?

How to protect yourself

Future research will look at specific diets that can help.?

For now, she said, high fiber diets appear to “partially mitigate the harmful effect of these pollutants on liver and also microbiota.” It cannot, however, fully stop the loss of the enzyme.?

There are also several water filters that can help reduce PFAS in drinking water, as well as non-PFAS cooking pans.?

“You just need to be kind of aware of this. But it’s no need to panic,” Zaytseva said. “Just … carefully look (at) what you buy and what you consume.”??

Measles is highly contagious. (Getty Images)

A Western Kentucky University student has a confirmed case of measles and may have exposed others, according to the Barren River Health District and the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

The student is unvaccinated against the highly contagious disease, the health departments said.?

The student, whose name, gender and other identifying information were not released, recently traveled internationally. This is where they “are presumed to have been exposed to measles.”?

Upon returning, and “while infectious with measles,” the student attended public events on Aug. 28, 29 and 30, the health department said.?

People who were at the following locations may have been exposed:?

• The Commons at Helm Library (WKU)
  • 1906 College Heights Blvd #11067 in Bowling Green?
  • Wednesday Aug. 28, 2024, (7:45 a.m. – 10? am and 8 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.)
  • Thursday Aug. 29, 2024, (7:45 a.m. – 10 a.m.)
  • Friday Aug. 30, 2024, (7:45 a.m. – 10 a.m.)
• WKU student union Starbucks
  • 1906 College Heights Blvd in Bowling Green
  • Wednesday Aug. 28, 2024, 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
• Simply Ramen restaurant trivia night
  • 801 Campbell Lane in Bowling Green?
  • Thursday Aug.? 29, 2024, (7 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.)

Measles “spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes,” according to the World Health Organization. It can cause serious complications and death, according to WHO, which reported most deaths from measles in 2022 were in unvaccinated children.?

Vaccination is the best defense against measles, WHO says.?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a first dose of MMR vaccine for children 12–15 months and a second dose between ages 4–6. Teens and adults should also stay up-to-date on this vaccine, the CDC says, which is generally available at pharmacies.?

Symptoms of measles are fever, cough, watery eyes, runny nose and rash.

If you have questions about exposure or your risk, call your healthcare provider or the Barren River District Health Department at 833-551-0953.

Renderings of the Community Care Campus under construction in Louisville's Smoketown neighborhood. (Volunteers of America)

LOUISVILLE — Construction has begun on Louisville’s Community Care Campus, a multi-building site in the Smoketown area aimed at providing housing, medical and other services to unhoused people in Kentucky’s largest city.?

The campus, funded in part by the General Assembly, is now slated to open in 2027, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Tuesday. Demolition of several existing structures on the campus grounds will begin next week.?

Greenberg was joined on the future grounds by Jennifer Hancock, the president and CEO of Volunteers of America, which is planning and will operate the campus.?

“Every day, we see how homelessness has increased on our city streets, and the need for more housing services has become even more urgent,” Hancock said. “My colleagues and I are ready and eager to address this challenge — and opportunity — for our city head on.”?

House Republican Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, and Senate Democratic Floor Leader Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, also spoke.?

How is the campus funded??

The $58 million campus will include shelter for unhoused families, a health clinic, transitional housing for young adults, food services and an office for Louisville Metro Police.?

The campus will also include a playground, activity courtyard and family lawn, according to 2024 floor plans.?

Of the $58 million price projection, $23 million was appropriated by the General Assembly and Louisville Metro Government. Another $19 million came from low income housing tax credits. VOA raised an additional $1 million, and says it will announce a major investment next week, which will go toward the remaining $16 million needed to finish the project.?

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers approved a two-year budget, which included $100 million for projects in Louisville, including the Community Care Campus.

Hancock said the police office on the campus is “not built on a premise of enforcement.”?

“If that has to happen, of course, we need them to do their jobs,” she said. “But there is so much upside to having them be part of the community that we are going to create.”?

Greenberg said having a police presence in the campus will be a chance for police to “develop stronger relationships with nonprofit partners” and “build relationships with individuals themselves to show that we are policing in a new way in this city.”?

In August, the Department of Justice said Louisvillians needed better access to community based services to end a cycle of over-policing as a solution to mental health crises.?

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said the Community Care Campus is “a response to the DOJ report, but it is not in response to the DOJ report.”?

What the data shows?

A report from The Coalition for the Homeless showed that between 2018 and 2021, homelessness in Louisville increased 41%, from 7,572 to 10,640. The number of people who sought non-shelter services also increased from 75 to 3,724.?

Of those in need, Hancock said Tuesday, “the greatest problem today is the number of families who are unhoused.” So, while the Community Care Campus will help individuals, she said, it will prioritize families.?

The campus will have an economic benefit to the city, Greenberg and others said.?

In 2023, Greenberg said, 15% of fire department runs “involved encampments or interactions with people experiencing homelessness.” That includes medical responses and runs to fires in homeless shelters, encampments, vacant house fires and fires started by squatters, a VOA spokesperson said.?

Also in 2023, the city spent $400,000 on removal of solid waste — both garbage and human waste — left at encampments. That’s down from $600,000 in 2022, according to VOA data.?

Stivers praised Greenberg’s efforts to make sure Louisville has “a great downtown for the purpose of being functional and aesthetically really good looking.”?

“But it’s not going to be someplace that people want to come to if there’s a large homeless population in and around the area that don’t feel safe,” Stivers said. “I can talk about all the economics, I can talk about all the tourism, but let’s talk about basic humanity. We need to take care of those who most need help.”?

While VOA works on the campus, it will also open a temporary shelter for families and children during the upcoming winter months, Hancock said.?

Rep. Rachel Roarx, D-Louisville, said the campus is “a great step in addressing one of our most important issues” in her county.?

“It’s not only about housing,” she said. “It’s about providing critical services in one place that truly wraps around an entire individual, young person, family and sets them on a path to stable housing in the future.”??

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, addressing the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, proposes putting $3.6 million from settlement funds into youth prevention, Sept. 10, 2024. (Photo courtesy Office of the Attorney General)

Kentucky’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission voted in favor of spending $3.6 million over the next two years on a three-part addiction prevention campaign geared toward youth proposed by Attorney General Russell Coleman Tuesday.?

The funds that the commission is in charge of distributing, which come from legal settlements with drug companies, “represent the shared pain of families across this commonwealth,” Coleman said Tuesday.?

He asked the commission for permission to spend a slice of this “blood money” to reach young people across Kentucky between the ages of 13 and 26. No members voted against his request, and no one abstained. The money will be split into $1.8 million each year.

Coleman’s campaign, modeled after a Florida initiative, has three parts. The first is an ad campaign called Better Without It, to be featured on social media, on college campuses and more. Coleman pointed to the well-known “Click it or ticket” campaign as an example that “these types of education campaigns can work.”?

The ads, which will also be pushed by influencers, will be tailored to Kentucky, using photographers and creators who Coleman said can make the material “look and sound and feel and smell like the commonwealth.”?

The second arm of the campaign is to “weave together” Kentucky’s “patchwork” of school-based prevention programs so kids have access to more cohesive resources. Lastly, Coleman said, the campaign will “elevate and draw attention to the ongoing work of this commission.”?

Overdose deaths in Kentucky decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row, according to this year’s Drug Overdose Fatality Report. In 2022, 2,135 Kentuckians died from an overdose, marking the first decline since 2018. Ninety percent of those deaths were from opioids and fentanyl.?

In 2023, the number of fatal overdoses was down to 1,984. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those — about 79% of the 2023 deaths. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023’s overdose deaths.?

From 2021 to 2023, around 460 Kentuckians under the age of 34 died from overdoses, according to that report.?

“We know young people are more likely to be influenced by their peers than (by) someone who looks like me,” Coleman said. “Honest and productive conversations about the dangers of substance abuse among students can be a force multiplier.”?

People in their teens and early 20s and those with a family history of addiction are most at risk for opioid use disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic.?

“I’m asking you to zealously collaborate with us so that we can reach young people where they are to prevent them from taking their first — and in this environment, too oftentimes their last — experimentation … with this poison,” Coleman told commission members.?

Coleman said “as little as one fentanyl pill can — and is — killing our neighbors. … We live at a time where there is no margin of error. It simply does not exist. There’s no such thing as safe, no such concept or notion of safe experimentation with narcotics.”

The commission was created by the state legislature in 2021 and has nine voting and two non-voting members.?

Kentucky receives installments toward $900 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. So far, it has awarded 110 grants worth more than $55 million toward treatment, prevention and recovery efforts.??

The commission next meets on Oct. 8.?

Spalding University in Louisville. (Spalding University photo)

Spalding University, a private, liberal arts college in Louisville, has named Anne Kenworthy as its 11th president, the institution announced Monday.??

Kenworthy, who comes from the Catholic Christian Brothers University in Memphis, will take over the role on Jan. 1.?

She also worked at Crichton College and the University of Memphis, according to Spalding, which was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.?

“Dr. Kenworthy’s exemplary leadership and dedication to mission-driven education make her an ideal fit for Spalding University,” Kellie Sheryak, Spalding University Board of Trustees Chair, said in a statement. “Her commitment to service, both in education and the broader community, aligns with the legacy of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. We are excited to see how her vision will advance our educational excellence mission and promote peace and justice.”??

Kenworthy was chosen unanimously by the Board of Trustees, according to Spalding. Her predecessor, Tori Murden McClure, retired at the end of June after a 14-year tenure.?

“I am excited and humbled to be starting the new year as a member of the Spalding University community,” Kenworthy said in a statement. “I have been impressed with Spalding’s reputation for meeting the needs of the times, and I am committed to expanding Spalding’s reach and impact in the region.”?

The Kentucky legislature outlawed the sale of some vaping products, effective Jan. 1, 2025. (Getty Images)

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 Court of Appeals.

Troutman, on behalf of the retailers, had sued Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and Secretary of State Michael Adams, arguing the new law did not pass constitutional muster.?

In a July 29 opinion, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate disagreed. He dismissed the challenge, saying the law did not violate the state Constitution.?

House Bill 11, which passed during the 2024 legislative session, goes into effect Jan. 1. Backers of the legislation said it’s a way to curb underage vaping by limiting sales to “authorized products” or those that have “a safe harbor certification” based on their status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).?

Opponents have said it will hurt small businesses, lead to a monopoly for big retailers and could drive youth to traditional cigarettes.?

Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Phillip Morris, lobbied for the Kentucky bill, according to Legislative Ethics Commission records. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the company is pushing similar bills in other states. Altria, which has moved aggressively into e-cigarette sales, markets multiple vaping products that have FDA approval.

A two-year federal investigation focused on access to treatment in Louisville for adults who have mental illness and whether their civil rights are being violated. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

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 Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) found Kentucky doesn’t adequately treat Louisvillians with serious mental health issues in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination.?

Jefferson County, the report says, relies too heavily on psychiatric hospitalizations, police and detention that could be avoided with community-based mental health services, which it also does not adequately connect people with following hospitalization.?

Key points in the report include:?

• In 2022, 16% of people admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Louisville were also sent to jail.?
• In 2022, 1,100 people were admitted more than once to a psychiatric hospital.
• More than 500 had three or more such hospital admissions.?
• Thousands of others are admitted once.?

“Many” people in the county spend more than a month in such hospitals, according to the report, which calls the facilities “highly restrictive, segregated settings in which people must forego many of the basic freedoms of everyday life.”?

“Admission to these institutions can be traumatizing, and it can upend the lives of people who experience them. With the right community-based services, many of these hospitalizations could be prevented.”??

Louisville expanding an emergency mental health response service

“Because of the lack of community-based services, law enforcement officers are routine responders to mental health crises in Louisville,” the report states. “Many of these encounters could have been avoided with community-based services, and those community services could have provided an alternative to incarceration in Louisville Metro Detention Center.”?

In a Tuesday letter to Gov. Andy Beshear, the DOJ outlined “unnecessary segregation, and serious risk of segregation, in psychiatric hospitals” for people in Louisville with serious mental health issues. It also warned it could file a lawsuit to force Kentucky to comply with the ADA if it cannot reach a resolution.?

The Beshear administration “continues to prioritize Kentuckians’ mental health,” spokeswoman Crystal Staley said, pointing to Beshear’s emphasis on mental health Medicaid coverage and the utilization of 988.

“We are surprised by today’s report as the cabinet has not heard from the Department of Justice since last September,” Staley said. “There are sweeping and new conclusions that must be reviewed as well as omissions of actions that have been taken. We will be fully reviewing and evaluating each conclusion.”

“To?the Louisville area mental health providers, the administration recognizes your hard work and wishes today’s report had fully acknowledged all that you are doing,” Staley added.

Louisville ‘not unique’?

“People with serious mental illnesses in Louisville are caught in an unacceptable cycle of repeated psychiatric hospitalizations because they cannot access community-based care,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “We thank Kentucky for its full cooperation with our investigation, including readily providing access to staff, documents, and data.”?

“We also recognize that Kentucky has already begun taking important steps to expand access to a range of key services, including crisis response services; medication management supports; and housing and employment supports,” Clarke added. “Our goal is to work collaboratively with Kentucky so that it implements the right community-based mental health services and complies with the ADA.”?

Marcie Timmerman, president of Kentucky’s chapter of Mental Health of America, said one of the “largest barriers” to better access to community-based services emphasized in the report is funding.?

“Louisville is not unique in Kentucky in not providing all the available service arrays,” she told the Lantern.?

The legislature needs to put more money into mobile crisis units, Timmerman said, that could help people upstream — before they are experiencing mental health emergencies.?

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky said in a statement that the findings go “beyond the violations.”?

“These findings,” he said, “are also about recognizing the dignity and potential of every individual who has mental illness.”

RiverValley Behavioral Health Hospital is a nonprofit psychiatric hospital providing specialized inpatient services for children and adolescents ages 5-17 in Owensboro. (RiverValley Behavioral Health)

Eligible boys in the care of the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services or Juvenile Justice system who need “complex mental and behavioral health care” can now access inpatient treatment in Owensboro, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Tuesday.

Called The BIRCH, the 10-bed inpatient program operates out of RiverValley Behavioral Health’s adolescent psychiatric hospital. The program will admit males between the ages of 12-17 within DCBS or those “dually committed” in the Department for Juvenile Justice (DJJ).

It has already admitted its first patients following a Tuesday ribbon cutting, according to the cabinet.

Wanda Figueroa-Peralta, RiverValley’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the program is a “significant advancement in the care and support of our most vulnerable youth.”

“This program reflects our commitment to providing the highest level of care for those who need it most, ensuring every young person has the opportunity to heal, grow and thrive,” Figueroa-Peralta said.

The program is aimed at “youth with a history of challenging behaviors related to their mental health conditions,” according to the cabinet. Saff expect children to be in the program “longer than typical inpatient acute psychiatric hospitals.”

Admission decisions are made by the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (BHDID), Department of Juvenile Justice Mental Health Treatment Director, the Department for Medicaid Services, the Department for Community Based Services and RiverValley Behavioral Health, the cabinet said.

The BIRCH funding comes from a DCBS contract with the Department for Medicaid Services (DMS), according to the cabinet.

This announcement came days after West Kentucky Republican Sen. Danny Carroll criticized his fellow lawmakers for failing to fund a special mental health facility for youth in the juvenile justice system during the 2024 legislative session.

Carroll, R-Benton, filed Senate Bill 242 this year, which would have directed Kentucky to spend $22 million on a special mental health juvenile detention facility and create a process to test and treat minors with serious mental health issues within DJJ. The bill passed the Senate and died in the House.

In a response to The BIRCH opening, Carroll said “any increase in the number of beds to serve troubled youth is a step in the right direction.”

“This progress follows intense and very productive conversations involving all stakeholders during the last session,” Carroll said in a statement sent to the Lantern. “My hope is that the legislature will finalize the mental health proposal for troubled youth proposed in (Senate Bill 242) in the future.”

A cabinet spokesman said youth from anywhere in the state, not just near Owensboro, can access The BIRCH.

“Today we are providing a little hope because now there is help,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “This program is helping us meet the needs of those who could not be served in our existing programs. This special space will assist the youth who need and deserve a higher level of care.”

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball, center, spoke to lawmakers on July 30 about access to computerized records of child and elder abuse cases. Ombudsman Jonathan Grate is at left and Alexander Magera, general counsel in the auditor's office, is at right. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has filed a lawsuit against the Beshear administration in Franklin Circuit Court in her ongoing effort to ensure the office of the ombudsman has access to information about abuse and neglect cases.

This move comes after Ball and the administration have gone back and forth on access for the past two months. The lawsuit names Gov. Andy Beshear, Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander and Ruth Day, the chief information officer of the Commonwealth Office of Technology.??

In the lawsuit, Ball pointed to efforts to resolve the dispute with the cabinet and says “regrettably, the time has now come for the judiciary to step in and end the cabinet’s and the governor’s obstruction.”?

“The governor supports changing the law in the next legislative session to provide access. In the meantime, the administration has tried to work with the auditor’s office to provide them with the maximum access allowed under the current law, but they have refused,” Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for Beshear, said in a statement. “On numerous occasions the cabinet believed a resolution had nearly been reached, only to find the auditor’s office had changed its position. Today’s action shows the auditor would rather play politics than work with the cabinet on a solution – one that meets the requirements set forth by the General Assembly.”

In response to that Beshear statement, auditor spokesperson Joy Pidgorodetska Markland said Beshear “is the only one making this political.”

“As outlined in our lawsuit today, our office has never changed our position,” Markland said. “The auditor and ombudsman want to help vulnerable Kentuckians across the commonwealth and need iTWIST access in order to do so. This is not political; this is doing the job they were sworn to do. The governor’s administration is obstructing access and has repeatedly changed positions throughout our negotiations. The closest we came to reaching an agreement was while he was auditioning to be Kamala Harris’ running mate.”

Kentucky lawmakers hear about efforts to resolve dispute over access to abuse, neglect records

Ball’s office assumed oversight of the ombudsman on July 1, thanks to a new law enacted last? year by the legislature,? Senate Bill 48.?

The ombudsman investigates and resolves complaints about agencies in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, including protective services for children and elderly Kentuckians. The ombudsman appointed by Ball, Jonathan Grate, can’t do his job without access to iTWIST, (the Workers Information System), Ball previously told lawmakers.?

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) believes access to the computer system iTWIST is limited by state law to cabinet social service officials under Kentucky Revised Statute 620.050, with some exceptions for certain parties within the cabinet, law enforcement and prosecutors, outside medical or social service officials and the parent or guardian of the child in question, the Lantern has reported.?

Ball’s office says the ombudsman is covered under that statute despite having moved out of CHFS and into the? auditor’s office.

“There is simply no legitimate reason for the cabinet to refuse to allow the office to have full, direct and real-time access to iTWIST,” the Monday lawsuit says.?

“The Commonwealth Office of the Ombudsman needs access to iTWIST to serve the people of Kentucky, especially its most vulnerable children and adults,” Ball said in a statement. “We have tried everything in our power to reach an agreement with the cabinet to restore iTWIST access. But unfortunately, Governor Beshear and the cabinet are more interested in placing unworkable and unlawful constraints on our access than helping the Commonwealth’s endangered children and adults. I am committed to pursuing every path forward to ensure the well-being of all Kentuckians.”

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, called on the Kentucky legislature to put more funding into improving treatment and conditions for Kentucky kids being held in detention. (LRC photo)

Sen. Danny Carroll slammed the Kentucky legislature on Friday for not funding his proposal to spend $22 million on a special mental health juvenile detention facility.?

The West Kentucky Republican filed Senate Bill 242 during the 2024 session, which would have also created a process to test and treat minors with serious mental health issues in the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The bill passed the Senate and died in the House.?

“By that bill dying in the house, we have left DJJ hanging,” Carroll said during a meeting of the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council. “We have directed them to do certain things, and we didn’t give them the money to do it.”??

Kentucky Republican pitches $165 million to improve care, safety of juveniles in state detention

He called the bill’s death “one of the most disappointing times in my entire career in this legislature.”

“We as a legislature, we have pointed fingers at DJJ. We have pointed fingers at the governor. And now, we have some culpability in this problem because we had the opportunity to finish this out. We had the opportunity to establish a mental health detention center to treat the most severe kids that are detained and we didn’t do it. We let the bill die. We have a crisis in this commonwealth that everybody agreed was a crisis, until it came time to pay for it, and then all of a sudden, it wasn’t a crisis.”??

All eight of Kentucky’s youth detention centers are under federal investigation for possible abuses. Meanwhile, advocates worry about a new state law requiring more kids charged with violent offenses to be held in Kentucky’s troubled juvenile jails.??

Another new state law, passed in 2024, allows more minors to be tried as adults, which could also increase the number of juveniles in detention.?

“With (the Department of Justice) being in town, we’re going to probably … end up under another consent decree in the commonwealth,” Carroll said. “And my colleagues in the legislature, it’s on us.”?

Carroll’s bill allocated $90 million for building two all-female regional detention facilities as well. Female juvenile inmates are currently being transferred to Boyd County.?

“Maybe this next session, we finalize how the regional centers are going to be set up, and then we also need to, once again, approach the mental health detention center that we had planned,” he said.?

Kentucky recently finished the fiscal year with a $2 billion General Fund surplus plumping up the Budget Reserve Trust Fund to $5 billion. Both statutory triggers were met for reducing the state income tax rate by another half percentage point in 2025 to 3.5%, which would be the third income tax reduction since 2022. Reducing the income tax is a top priority for the Republicans who control the legislature.

Republican lawmakers in recent years have repeatedly blamed Gov. Andy Beshear for violence and understaffing in juvenile detention facilities and criticized the administration for mismanagement. Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg,in May said the federal investigation into DJJ should be a “crucial wake-up call for the Beshear administration.”

Beshear criticized the legislature for not funding Carroll’s mental health facility, among other things.?

In January, a report from Republican Auditor Allison Ball found “??disorganization across facilities” and a “lack of leadership from the Beshear Administration” within DJJ. She also criticized the Beshear administration for “the unacceptably poor treatment of Kentucky youth.”

Carroll called for more unity in approaching solutions to the crises within DJJ.?

“There’s been a lot of finger pointing back and forth with this and folks, it’s time for that to stop. We’ve got kids with mental health issues that are sitting in jail cells today and will be there a longer period of time because this legislature failed to act, and that’s unacceptable,” he said. “We cannot point fingers. We cannot start blaming and then just let it die during the session. We’re no better than who we’re pointing fingers at if we do that. And that’s what happened last session.”?

“I’m going to catch heck for this, but at this point, I really don’t care,” Carroll added. “We have let our kids down, no question about it, and we’ve got to fix this, and we’ve got to fix it soon.”?

Staffing issues improving?

During the same meeting Friday, DJJ staff said the staffing issues that have plagued the department are on the mend. Still, there remain 100 funded but vacant positions, according to Myrissa Ritter, a human resource branch manager in the Justice and Public Safety Office.?

From July 2023 to July 2024, DJJ detention staff increased from 344 to 448, Ritter told lawmakers. Security staff increased 274 to 329, making for the “most significant growth,” she said.?

Mental health employees such as social workers, clinicians and psychologists increased from 217 to 241 over the past year as well. Youth workers and administrative staff numbers also improved, from 581 to 615 in the same time frame.?

Ritter credited Senate Bill 162, a law passed by the legislature in 2023 that allocated millions toward improving salaries for DJJ employees. With that money, Ritter said, DJJ can now start correctional employees out at $50,000 a year instead of the previous $30,000.?

“While we have made significant progress in staffing,” she said, “we will continue to seek ways to ensure that the department remains adequately staffed.”?

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, who co-chairs the council, asked about the current conditions of facilities. DJJ Commissioner Randy White, who serves on the council, said that “by and large, the infrastructures are okay right now.”?

One facility has a stuck thermostat that’s being repaired, he said, and there are “some drain lines” in need of repair.?

“We are prepared for heat, but one never knows,” he said, “because repair needs evolve.”?

Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, will propose expanding protective orders to also cover coercive control. (LRC Public Information)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

A Northern Kentucky Republican intends to file a bill that would add coercive control to Kentucky’s protective order legislation.?

Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, presented a draft of her bill to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Friday in Frankfort.?

“We’re all aware of the devastating effects of domestic violence on individuals, families and communities,” she said. “There is a significant gap in our current laws that we can address, and that is coercive control.”

Currently, someone in Kentucky can get a protective order if they’ve experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, Dietz explained.?

“It involves a pattern of behavior aimed at undermining a victim’s autonomy and freedom,” she said of coercive control. “This can include manipulation, isolation, financial control and threats, none of which necessarily involve physical violence, but are equally devastating.”?

Coercive control is “consistent” and “repetitive” behavior in which one person exerts control over another through isolation, threats, surveillance, loss of financial freedom and medical access and more, explained Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky.?

The ION Center provides free services, including emergency shelter, pet boarding and court advocacy to survivors of intimate partner violence in a 13-county area.?

Through “complete domination,” Burch explained, people in these situations can experience “a loss of total self.”?

Such control doesn’t always include physical violence, Burch said, though it can. People in these situations might lose access to money, not be allowed to drive or seek medical care and more, she said. They might be encouraged to quit their job, not hang out with their friends or be threatened with separation from their children.?

“Coercive control is utter control,” she told lawmakers. “We worked with (a) survivor who had three children. The kids were never allowed to play outside. Mom was not allowed to potty train kids. The abuser withheld soap, hygiene products, hygiene time, controlled food, controlled whether the children were allowed to school.”??

Allowing victims of coercive control to get protective orders, Burch said, would put Kentucky in line with eight other states that have coercive control language in their statutes. Another eight states, including Illinois, have similar language.?

Kentucky State University. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Kentucky’s Department of Public Health will now offer an internship program to Kentucky State University students who wish to get hands-on experience in the field while studying.?

Employees of the Department of Public Health (KDPH) will also get tuition assistance for continuing their education at Kentucky State University (KSU). Such employees can take five or fewer courses per academic year for free.?

KSU becomes the 10th postsecondary institution in the state to benefit from such a? partnership with KDPH, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Thursday. The other institutions are Bellarmine University, Eastern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Pikeville, Simmons College of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University.

KSU president Koffi Akakpo said in a statement the new partnership, which is effective immediately, will “benefit our students, the future of the public health workforce and the citizens of Kentucky.”?

KDPH says it’s hired nine full-time employees as a result of its Student Internship Program, which created 40 internships and hosted 107 students.?

“Public Health supports an easier path to a healthier life for all Kentuckians,” Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said in a statement. “Those interested in entering the field can choose from a full spectrum of services, from newborn screenings and nutrition education to administering vaccines, medication programs and so much more. The professional development opportunities, provided through our programs, will help students find their niche in improving health outcomes for large populations.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2022 that the COVID-19 pandemic “strained many essential frontline professionals, including public health workers.”?

From March 2020 to January 2022, the CDC said, most public health workers had a COVID-19 component to their job. At the time, the CDC said, “40% of the workforce intends to leave their jobs within the next 5 years.”?

A 2023 study published in the health policy journal Health Affairs examined those public health workforce trends before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.?

Researchers said then there is “critical urgency needed to address the shrinking state and local governmental public health workforce that has the potential to jeopardize the safety, security, and economic prosperity of the U.S.”?

That study concluded: “Given the likelihood of increasing outbreaks and future global pandemics, recruitment and retention must be prioritized, especially for younger staff, who represent the future of the public health workforce.”?

Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer wants the legislature to beomce "more diligent around proactive wellness. (LRC Public Information)

Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer filed paperwork Wednesday to start a new legislative caucus focused on holistic wellness.?

The Alexandria Republican, who has often touted Kentucky’s need for what she calls a “wellness revolution,” said she is hoping for approval by Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne within a week.?

Funke Frommeyer wants the caucus to look at Medicaid spending, prior authorization, pharmaceutical issues and more, she told the Lantern.

She also wants to look at “some basics around daily activity and quality nutrition,” she said, as well as focus on environmental issues that contribute to overall health.?

“My goal with the wellness caucus is to get legislators together that see issues and maybe work more closely and collaboratively on how are those issues affecting wellness, and get more diligent around proactive wellness,” she said.?

Kentucky can and should, she said, make “radical, incremental changes” to improve health outcomes.?

Midwife Danielle Ray, right, discusses infant safety at the Tree of Life birth center with, from left, Senators Shelley Funke Frommeyer, Lindsey Tichenor and Adrienne Southworth. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A group of Kentucky lawmakers visited a freestanding birth center in Indiana Thursday to learn about an issue that promises to come up again during the 2025 legislative session.??

Tree of Life, a freestanding birthing center in Jeffersonville — right across the Ohio River from Louisville — accepts only clients with low-risk pregnancies. It was founded by physicians and midwives with WomanCare, an obstetrician and gynecology group in Indiana.?

And more than half — 61% — of its total births last year were Kentuckians who traveled out of state for the care they can’t get in Kentucky, which has no freestanding birth centers.?

This comes as lawmakers have considered — for years — whether or not Kentucky would be served by lifting or modifying its certificate of need (CON) requirements for freestanding birth centers.?

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

Advocates blame the state’s lack of freestanding birth centers on the certificate of need laws, which mandate a process that attempts to hold down health care costs by certifying that there is a need for a service, be that extra beds in a hospital, an extra MRI machine or a new facility altogether, like a freestanding birthing center.?

Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, who invited her fellow lawmakers to the center for Thursday’s tour and fact finding mission, said she wanted her colleagues to see firsthand what they will vote on next year.?

She and House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, — both staunch advocates for freestanding birth centers — told the Lantern they intend to again sponsor bills in 2025 to reform CON in a way that allows Kentucky to open freestanding birth centers.?

Birth, Funke Frommeyer said, “is a physiologically natural process, but when we’re in the committee room and you’re talking about it, immediately you come up with ‘it’s not safe,’” she said. “So, I wanted people to see what ‘safe’ looks like.”?

Other lawmakers who joined her and Nemes included Republican Senators Julie Raque Adams of Louisville, Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield, Adrienne Southworth and John Schickel of Union as well as Rep. Rachel Roarx, D-Louisville and Rep. Dan Fister, R-Versailles.?

Mary Kathryn DeLodder of the Kentucky Birth Coalition, said she believes the tour gave good insight to people neutral on the birth center issue — and gave advocates more fuel.?

Nemes agreed.?

“Some people, in their mind, they don’t know what a birthing center is. And some people, when they think about it in their mind, it’s like, ‘is this just like a hotel room? How safe is this?’” he said. “So we wanted people to come here and say, ‘Look, these people are serious about making sure that the mom and the child are healthy, not just for the moment of birth — certainly that — but leading up to it and after it’.”?

Tree of Life has four rooms, eight midwives and three partnering physicians.?

As of 2022, there were more than 400 freestanding birth centers in 40 states and Washington D.C., according to the American Association of Birth Centers.?

Kentucky babies. Indiana born.?

Tree of Life is one of the out-of-state centers that’s delivered hundreds of Kentucky babies, born to mothers who travel for the care they cannot get in the commonwealth.?

And the number of Kentucky babies born to Tree of Life is on the rise.?

In 2023, 120 Kentucky residents gave birth at the center, making up for 61% of all births at Tree of Life.?

In 2022, 110 Kentuckians traveled to Tree of Life, an increase from 107 in 2021 and 71 in 2020.?

As of July 31, 69 Kentucky residents have delivered at Tree of Life in 2024, representing 57% of the births, according to center data.?

One of the Kentucky women who chose to deliver at Tree of Life — an hour drive from her Trimble County home — is Paige Thompson.?

She wanted midwifery care and didn’t want to give birth in a hospital. She also wanted to be the first woman in her family in many years to have a vaginal birth.?

When she delivered in 2022, she felt “very comfortable” at Tree of Life, which is right across the street from Clark Memorial Hospital, making for quick transfers if necessary.?

“If I birth here with a midwife, I can eat and drink whatever I want,” she explained. “I can move however I want. I can birth in whatever position feels right to me. I can birth in the tub — which I didn’t, but… it’s an option — and those are really big for me.”??

Tree of Life isn’t alone in delivering Kentucky babies. The Clarksville Midwifery practice in Tennessee delivers about 25-30 Kentucky babies every year.

This is a sticking point for Funke Frommeyer, who acknowledged Kentucky’s poor maternal health vital statistics.?

“I want Kentucky to show that we’re having many wonderful, healthy births,” she said. Since birth centers only work with low-risk pregnancies, their clients are often having the lowest intervention births. But if they travel to another state for that experience, she said, Kentucky doesn’t get statistical credit for them, meaning the state is “missing the opportunity” to show its “great, healthy births without all the trauma.”?

For Jessie Powell, a doula who lives in Meade County and comes with clients to Tree of Life, giving birth in that type of environment is all about comfort of the mother and informed consent, she said.?

“It’s hard, because birth is such an emotionally-driven situation,” she said. “It’s physically impossible when you’re in such an emotionally-driven situation to really be able to break down risks and benefits on your own and be able to take the whole picture into account.”?

Rebekah Shirrell, one of the center’s midwives who previously worked as a nurse for nearly 20 years, said she understands concerns around safety at birth centers. Every birth center experience is set up to handle an emergency, she said, and transfer to the hospital is quick if necessary.?

“Nobody wants a bad birth outcome, ever,” she said. “Nobody gets into (this) for that.”?

A rabid bat, the first this year, has been found in Louisville. (Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — The Louisville health department says a bat found in the East End was positive for rabies, a rare but deadly viral disease.?

This is the first rabies case in Jefferson County this year, Ciara Warren, environmental health manager at the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW), said Thursday.?

“It is quite rare, but it is always a possibility,” she said.

The bat, found in the 40207 ZIP Code on a homeowner’s porch, is now dead after euthanasia and testing. The homeowner covered the bat and called the health department, and she was not exposed to rabies.?

In 2023, Jefferson County had two rabies-positive bats, according to the health department. Previous year totals are:?

• 2019 – 4 bats?
• 2020 – 2 (1 bat, 1 dog)?
• 2021 – 7 bats?
• 2022 – 3 bats?

The health department does not know where the 2024 bat could have contracted rabies, Warren said. Rabies typically spreads through blood or saliva.?

How to stay safe if you come across a bat?

Health department staff said if you come across a bat, the safest thing is to assume the bat has rabies, and do not touch it.?

Instead, cover the bat with something, if possible. Then, call the health department at 502-574-6650 and ask for someone with the rabies prevention program for further help and instructions.??

“Bat teeth are very tiny, so most of the time, you do not know if you’ve been bitten or scratched by a bat,” Warren said. “Sometimes bats, if they do have rabies, and maybe are further along since they’ve contracted it, they might be showing some signs, maybe swooping kind of low, laying on the ground. They might look a little bit sick. You might think that they have rabies, but the safest thing to do is just avoid it, and do not touch any bat.”?

If someone is unsure of exposure, one should call their doctor immediately, said Dr. Kris Bryant, associate medical director at LMPHW and pediatric infectious disease specialist at Norton Children’s Hospital.?

“Rabies is a viral infection, and once the virus enters your body from the bite or a scratch of an animal or even just handling an infected animal, the virus travels to the brain and can cause severe inflammation,” Bryant said.?

Symptoms of rabies include confusion, agitation and coma.?

“Once you develop symptoms, there is no treatment for rabies,” Bryant said. “Once you develop symptoms, the infection is uniformly fatal. So the most important thing to do is to prevent exposures by not handling bats.”?

If someone suspects exposure but isn’t sure, they can seek post exposure prophylaxis, which in the case of rabies is a series of rabies vaccines and a dose of rabies immune globulin, Bryant said.?

They should call their doctor to discuss that treatment as soon as possible, Bryant said.?

Even though human rabies is rare, “once someone has symptoms, we don’t have effective treatments,” she said. “And so once someone is sick with rabies, they almost always die.”?

How to protect pets?

Since 2019, one dog has tested positive for rabies in Jefferson County.?

Ideally, all pets would be vaccinated against rabies ahead of time, Warren said. Either way, pet owners should call their veterinarian immediately to discuss options. There is no cure for pets, like humans, so all pets should stay up-to-date on their rabies vaccines.?

“They would most likely recommend a 10-day quarantine, which is just where you monitor your animal for 10 days to make sure they don’t develop any signs or signs or symptoms of rabies,” Warren said.?

Symptoms in a dog or cat include lethargy, foaming at mouth, stumbling and aggression.?

Kentucky’s non-doctor health care workforce is on the mend, though state hospitals still have thousands of unfilled positions.?(Warodom Changyencham/Getty Images)

Kentucky’s non-doctor health care workforce is on the mend, though state hospitals still have thousands of unfilled positions.?

That’s according to an August report released by the Kentucky Hospital Association that shows 12% of positions in the state’s hospitals were empty in 2023, with nurses being the most in-demand. The data comes from 94% of the state’s acute care hospitals that responded to an association survey.?

The report shows Kentucky hospitals had a nearly 17% vacancy rate for registered nurses (3,899 positions) last year. That’s down from 19% in 2022.?

This decrease “indicates to us that all the hard work that our hospitals are doing is starting to pay off,” Nancy Galvagni, the president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, told the Lantern. “Things are trending in the right direction.”?

However, the number of vacancies is still too high, she said.?

“We don’t want to have a false impression that there is no problem anymore,” she said. “There’s absolutely a problem with 16% — almost 4,000 — vacancies. That’s very concerning. This is still a critical issue.”?

Kentucky — and the nation — have a well-documented nursing shortage, which was exacerbated by COVID-19-induced burnout and an aging worker population.?

“We’ve been having a nursing crisis, really, since COVID, the pandemic, which caused a lot of nurses to either retire early; some new nurses decided they didn’t want to continue in nursing, or certainly at the bedside,” Galvagni said. “And our members have been working extremely hard to invest, through pay, through efforts to retain nurses, to improve the work environment.”?

Retention and recruitment?

About 11% of hospital registered nurses are nearing retirement, the report shows. About 15% of the state’s RNs are 55 years or older, putting them about a decade out from retirement.?

Appealing to young Kentuckians is key for the hospital association, Galvagni said.?

“The older baby boomers are pretty much very few in the workforce,” she said. “So, our hospitals are looking (at) how they can appeal to those younger workers.”?

Sometimes staff visit schools to show students what a career in medicine could look like, she said.?

They want “to make health care careers appealing to younger people and exciting, and (we’re) trying to get them to think about health care careers when they’re choosing a career for the future,” she said. “We have to get more people choosing to enter the health careers.”?

Hospitals are also working to increase pay and offer better benefits for the nurses in their employ.?

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed bills that Galvagni expects to improve retention and recruitment for Kentucky’s nursing workforce.?

Among those are House Bill 194, which made it a Class D felony to assault a health care worker.?

“Of course, that’s not the silver bullet, but it’s helpful,” Galvagni said. “Hopefully (it) acts as a deterrent, and because that is a concern … for our health care workers.”??

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 159, which decriminalized medical mistakes made by health care providers. Galvagni believes this new law can help recruit people to health professions in the state.

“I believe it sets Kentucky apart from even many other states that don’t have that law,” she said. “I think all of these bits and pieces help make a better environment in our state for health care workers.”?

Meanwhile, staffing shortages in any health facility can impact patients’ experience, Galvagni said, especially when it comes to speed of care.?

“If you’re coming to the emergency room, it could mean a longer wait to get seen,” Galvagni said. “It also might mean that hospitals can’t have all their beds open. … Hospitals have a lot of physical beds, but you can’t put patients in beds if there’s not enough staff. It could mean, if you’re having elective surgery, that it’s a longer way to get that scheduled.”??

Other key takeaways?

The report shows, for 2023:?

• Kentucky’s hospitals have 8,641 full time vacancies for a total workforce vacancy of 12%. That’s down from 15% in 2022.?
• Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants are the most needed.?
• Kentucky’s hospitals have 3,899 unfilled registered nurse positions, 254 licensed practical nurse vacancies and 1,264 nursing assistant vacancies.??
• Among registered nurses, there are significant shortages for psychiatric (24% vacant), medical surgical (23% vacant) and critical care (19% vacant).
• Millennials (39%) and Generation Z (23%) together represent about 63% of the current RN workforce in Kentucky. These workers are 40 and younger.?
• Generation X (born between 1966 – 1980) represents 27% of the RN workforce in Kentucky.?
• Baby Boomers (57 and older) are 11% of the RN workforce in Kentucky.?

UK President Eli Capilouto (Photo by Mark Cornelison | UK Photo)

The University of Kentucky is disbanding its Office for Institutional Diversity effective immediately, President Eli Capilouto announced Tuesday.?

No one will lose their job, Capilouto said in a Tuesday afternoon email sent to staff. Other offices will absorb people and services. That includes a new office called the Office for Community Relations.?

“We share the value that out of many people, we are one community,” Capilouto wrote. “But we’ve also listened to policymakers and heard many of their questions about whether we appear partisan or political on the issues of our day.”?

The office’s goal, according to its website, was to “enhance the diversity and inclusivity of our university community through the recruitment and retention of an increasingly diverse population of faculty, administrators, staff and students, and by implementing initiatives that provide rich diversity-related experiences for all to help ensure their success in an interconnected world.”?

This comes after diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at public universities came under scrutiny during Kentucky’s 2024 legislative session — and nationally.?

Though Kentucky lawmakers failed to pass a bill that would have ended DEI programs and offices at public universities and colleges, the discussion will continue during the interim.?

The email from Capilouto says the university will also “not mandate diversity training” and will remove diversity statements from in hiring documents.?

He also pointed to the national DEI discussion, writing that “universities across the country are grappling with the same questions that we are asking and being asked around diversity, equity and inclusion.”?

“Kentucky legislators have made clear to me in our conversations that they are exploring these issues again as they prepare for the 2025 legislative session,” Capilouto wrote. “If we are to be a campus for everyone, we must demonstrate to ourselves and to those who support and invest in us our commitment to the idea that everyone belongs — both in what we say and in what we do.”?

Republican praise?

Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy,? who sponsored unsuccessful legislation to defund DEI offices this year, praised UK for the decision.?

“I appreciate the University of Kentucky for taking this step and remain hopeful that other institutions, as well as the Council on Postsecondary Education, will follow their lead and recognize that this failed experiment has done nothing to make postsecondary education more accessible,” she said in a statement.?

“Our efforts have always been aimed at eliminating unconstitutional, unnecessary, costly and duplicative bureaucracy while still making sure campuses are open and welcoming to a diversity of students and staff,” Decker said.?

Senate Republican Whip Mike Wilson, who sponsored another bill aimed at limiting DEI, called this disbandment a “positive step in the right direction” and said “I would encourage other institutions to follow UK’s initiative. I trust this development, and the university’s efforts are sincere.”?

“We will get a chance to hear from the university and find out more details on what they are doing at our next Interim Joint Committee on Education meeting in September, when the topic of DEI will be on the agenda,” Wilson said. “A true elimination of these DEI policies in our public universities will end the division they promote, allowing our colleges and universities to be the true bastion of free thought we need them to be.”

‘A change without a difference’

Sen. Reggie Thomas, the minority caucus chair who represents Lexington and the University of Kentucky, told the Lantern he was “disappointed to hear” of the move, but doesn’t believe it means UK has abandoned a commitment to inclusion.

“I feel confident that UK is going to still continue to be very active in recruiting Black students, to make sure that that there are groups that will encourage cultural affinity amongst themselves,” he said. “I think that’s a change without a difference.”

Essentially, Thomas said: “there’s more to supporting cultural diversity in any institution other than a name.”

And, given that the DEI conversation “is going to rear its ugly head again in 2025,” he said, “President Capilouto and the UK administration is being proactive in terms of saying ‘look, we’re going to disband our office, but not disband the notion.'”

Psychologist and Eastern State Chief Administrative Officer Lindsay Jasinski celebrates with emergency psychiatrist and Eastern State Chief Medical Officer Andrew Cooley at the July ribbon cutting for EmPATH. (UK Photo)

This story mentions suicide and mental health. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.?

Kentucky’s first psychiatric emergency unit cared for more than 150 people in its first 10 days of operation — more than half of whom were dealing with suicidality.

The EmPATH (which stands for Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing) unit is on Eastern State Hospital’s campus in Lexington, but is serving a wide-ranging population, with patients traveling from as far as Danville, Ashland and Somerset. It opened July 30, the first of its kind in Kentucky.?

There are 30 EmPATH units in the country, which have open floor plans, as opposed to individual rooms. People who seek care during mental health crises can walk around, hang out on a patio for fresh air and even talk to peer support specialists who have histories of mental health issues and can relate to patients.?

“??They can move … to an area that has sunshine and they can see outdoors, but it allows them to sort of choose their space, whatever works for them, to help decompress whatever that behavioral health crisis was,” Eastern State Chief Administrative Officer and psychologist Lindsey Jasinski said.?

Kentucky’s EmPATH unit, funded by the University of Kentucky,? is about 11,000 square feet, has a 12-person capacity and only sees patients 18 and older.?

Anyone who is experiencing a mental health crisis that is impacting their day-to-day functioning can seek help at the unit at 1354 Bull Lea Road in Lexington.?

How does the EmPATH unit work?

As soon as a patient comes into EmPATH, they’re seen “nearly immediately,” Jasinski said. The facility takes insurance, but will treat people whether or not they have it. If that is the case, Jasinski said, the unit works with that patient to develop a sliding scale payment plan based on their ability to pay, which means they won’t face a flat rate.?

The unit has three peer support specialists — employees who have histories of mental health issues and are specially certified to speak peer-to-peer with patients — who are available seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.?

These specialists greet patients as soon as they walk in the door. They may ask a new patient if they need food or water, sunshine or air. They are also trained in de-escalation.?

“The key part of what they provide in this environment, and this is sort of central to all of what EmPATH does, is they provide hope that things can be different,” Jasinski explained. “And I think that is a very, very powerful message for someone to leave with, not only the medications they need, not only the therapy they need, but a sense of hope that things can be different.”??

As soon as they arrive, patients receive a pillow, blanket and a recliner, which they can move around the unit as they see fit.?

Patients can stay up to 23 hours in the unit, after which they either go home or are transferred to inpatient care or substance use recovery treatment.?

If there is immediate risk the patient will hurt themselves or someone else, staff can involuntarily hold them. But that is rare, said Marc Woods, who’s worked at Eastern State Hospital for more than 30 years and is its chief nursing officer.

“Safety first,” emphasized Dr. Andrew Cooley, a UK HealthCare psychiatrist and chief medical officer for Eastern State Hospital. “We are going to protect someone who can’t protect themselves. And if that requires further inpatient admission, then that’s what we would have to do. That’s when it would convert from a voluntary process to involuntary.”?

But most — Woods estimated about 90% — of the unit’s patients go home after visiting the unit.?

In its first week and a half of operation, patients were a mix of walk-ins and outside referrals.?

Decreasing mental health stigmas?

Stigma around mental health in general and around mental health hospitalization is improving, Woods said, but it’s still present.?

“We’ve had a couple of families and patients even come in … saying that they’ve really avoided seeking help because they don’t want to go to the (emergency department), or, they’re embarrassed by having to go to the ED,” Woods said. “And they’ve come to us, they’ve expressed they were happy to have a place to come where they felt like they didn’t have to be embarrassed by some of the things they had going on in their lives.”?

Stigma is perpetuated, Jasinski said, when people and media link mental illness with violence.?

But: “Our folks with mental illness that we see are much more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of violence,” she said.?

She and the other EmPATH staff are keen to break through stigma around mental illnesses. They will measure success in this effort, they said, by making sure people are coming and getting help from the unit and when they see the number of deaths by suicide decrease. In 2022, at least 823 Kentuckians died by suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The suicide prevention lifeline is 988.?

“If we can treat behavioral health emergencies just like any other need, we can reduce stigma around that, and this allows folks to get very timely, effective intervention and stabilization for behavioral health crisis in a specialized setting for them,” Jasinski said.?

Part of de-stigmatizing mental health is to decriminalize it, she said, which is a goal the staff is working toward.??

“Historically, within the mental health system, there’s been a lot of involvement of law enforcement,” Jasinski said. “There’s some criminalization that has happened with mental illness. What would be great is if law enforcement never had to touch these folks.”?

Easing strain for physical health emergency rooms?

A key part of Kentucky’s EmPATH unit is to treat mental illnesses in the state and lower stigma around that care. But it also “makes an impact on the entire ecosystem,” Cooley said.?

“With this design, patients that have mental illnesses are not congesting routine emergency rooms, where … they would wait commonly for hours and hours,” he said.?

And traditional emergency rooms aren’t trauma-informed and calming places, Jasinski said.?

“If you are anxious or overwhelmed, it is not a place that’s going to make you feel less anxious,” she said. “Typically, it’s very loud. There’s a lot going on.”?

Medical providers are also going to prioritize patients with gunshot wounds or heart attacks, Woods said. At EmPATH, though, staff have a singular focus on treating the mind.?

“This is a low bar type of entry,” Cooley said. Staff will medically screen anyone who walks through the door. “In the past, emergency services — or urgency services — had high bars, and the threshold was way too high: ‘You’re too sick’ or ‘you’re not sick enough.’”?

He added: “We’re not saying no to anybody who walks in the door.”?

Even if the unit is at capacity, Jasinski said,?we would still see patients, medically screen them, and then decide the best place for them to be.”

They could also be transferred to a nearby hospital unit, if need be, she said. “Our goal is to treat every patient we can possibly serve.”

The hope for expansion?

Not yet two weeks in, “What we’ve learned is that we’re going to be busy, and we have been busy already,” Jasinski said.?

But she and others are already looking to support organizations around the state that want to open similar units.?

“We don’t want this to be the only EmPATH,” she said. “There needs to be many, many more of these.”??

Chan Kemper with her daughters, Tavi and Mika. (Photo provided)

This story discusses postpartum depression and suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.?

Before having children, Chan Kemper pictured how the experience would go.?

“I was determined to have the hippiest, dippiest, crunchy, earth goddess pregnancies and deliveries that I could have,” said Kemper, 43.?

The attorney, who is from the Virgin Islands and now lives in Louisville, researched “the crap out of pregnancy” and her baby, she said. “I didn’t do that much research about after.”??

She had a fairly smooth experience with her first baby, Tavi, whom she had at 37. In fact, she said, it was “so fine” that she and her husband decided to have another baby right away.?

After having her second child, Mika, at 39, “it was just immediately different,” said Kemper, who was then diagnosed with postpartum depression (PPD).?

Her blood pressure spiked and she could not breastfeed. She cried nonstop — to the point of dehydration. Prozac didn’t help what Kemper described as a “profound sense of sadness.” She feared her baby would die, a fear that escalated when Mika had to be hospitalized with a severe urinary tract infection.?

Eventually, “I just thought to myself, ‘I don’t want to be here,’” she recalled. “And I meant like, ‘I don’t want to be here on this Earth.’ And I had never felt like that in my life, ever.”?

Kentucky therapists who treat postpartum and perinatal depression said people who have it can often experience suicidal ideation — which needs to be addressed immediately. People with PPD also often experience headaches, irritability, trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression, low self esteem, visceral feelings of panic, trouble connecting with their baby and more.?

Societal stigma and cultural shame can compound these symptoms, therapists say, making it a debilitating illness.?

The illness can affect anyone, therapists say, but is more likely to affect people of color and those with a history of trauma, anxiety and/or depression.?

What is postpartum depression??

Rebecca Kerr, a Bowling Green therapist who specializes in PPD, said it falls under the umbrella of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) and is “very common.”?

PPD “doesn’t necessarily discriminate,” said Kerr. “Really, anyone could experience postpartum depression, but there are populations that may be more vulnerable. So, if you have a personal history of depression, anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), anything like that, you may be more prone to experiencing it.”

Wesley Belknap-Greene, a Richmond therapist, said it’s important to distinguish between PPD and the “baby blues.”?

Baby blues can mimic some of the symptoms of PPD — but they don’t last past two weeks and come on because of hormone shifts following delivery.?

“A lot of people, probably especially around here, who have experienced actual true postpartum depression have systematically, continuously been told ‘oh, it’s just the baby blues,’” said Belknap-Greene. “Whether that’s a thing with rural America, Appalachia, … mental health has not been talked about in this country historically.”?

Baby blues is an “emotional disruption” for sure, she explained. But “perinatal depression, or postpartum depression, is this? debilitating, very difficult, deep, dark depression that makes it difficult for the mother to be able to provide care to herself, let alone her baby.”??

The film industry has added stigma, Belknap-Greene said, by depicting PPD as a condition in which a mother wants to kill her baby. While it can take that form, she said, it’s “very rare.”?

Chan Kemper’s story?

In addition to feeling like she didn’t want to live anymore after giving birth to her second child, Kemper recalls feeling guilty for feeling that way.?

“I had … access … to a lot of things, and I still felt alone,” she said. “As a Black woman, I felt even more like I’m supposed to be strong, and I wasn’t. I wasn’t strong at all.”?

Even her cat, Cosmo, whom she described as “the worst cat ever,” was “distressed by my distress.”

Kemper’s blood pressure spikes turned out to be panic attacks — and she feels her race was a factor in those symptoms being dismissed. She went to the hospital when she “felt like I was having a heart attack” with “insanely high” blood pressure and sat waiting for care.?

“I think there would have been more concern or care if I had not been a Black woman,” said Kemper, who is also Jewish. “I’m … larger, I’m tall, and I feel like it’s like, ‘oh, she’s strong, she’s fine.’ And it’s like, ‘no. I deserve, and I need, help.’”??

But, she said, lack of mental health care for new mothers is an equal opportunity offender “across the board.”?

Kemper got into therapy and on the right dosage of medication, and is doing “so much better” but “I’m still crawling my way out of this.”?

She would like to see classes focused on PPD, just as there are birth classes, as well as more public health education about PPD.?

“There’s so many red flags,” she said. “We don’t talk about it. … I think it’s so important to talk about things that are stigmatized.”??

She predicts fewer new mothers would be surprised by the symptoms if more people — and health organizations — talked about PPD publicly.

“I had no clue that this could ever happen to me,” Kemper said. “I did not in a million years think that there were signs that I should have been looking out for or having my partner look out for.”?

Kemper isn’t alone. Other Kentucky mothers who spoke to the Lantern about their PPD experiences described feelings of loneliness and depression exacerbated by shame and guilt that took them by surprise.?

Proctor and Luntzel?

Vashti Proctor, one of those mothers, found out she was pregnant — unplanned — in March 2021. COVID-19 was everywhere and racial justice protests were ongoing following the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville.?

Proctor, who lives in Louisville, said she considered abortion, which was legal at that time in Kentucky.?

“I was literally scared out of my mind to think that I’m gonna enter a Black child, a Black baby, into this world when a Black woman was just shot and killed … in her home,” Proctor said. “That was very, very scary for me.”??

With support from her family, she decided against abortion and gave birth to Aaliyah in December 2021. At her four-week checkup, she got on Zoloft to help with her PPD symptoms.?

The stressors compounded quickly. Proctor, who had to work, couldn’t find child care — much less affordable child care — for the baby. So, she took her to work with her until she found an opening — which remains her second highest bill behind only rent.? She nursed on demand while not being able to sleep at night.?

The first person in her friend group to have a baby, the then-28-year-old had entered a new chapter of life her friends couldn’t relate to. The COVID-19 pandemic also kept her from a social life. Therapy was too expensive. There was a national formula shortage.?

All this made her feel “really heavy” and “very overwhelmed,” she said. Having more accessible child care would have helped her in her transition to motherhood, she said.?

It would also be helpful if there were more medical providers who look like her, she said. A 2020 study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that Black babies were twice as likely to survive when their doctor was also Black.?

Autumn Luntzel of Bowling Green had a slightly different experience. She felt immense guilt when she had her son in late 2019 and the depression, numbness, anxiety and sadness hit her.?

“I’m never going to be a better mom,” she remembers thinking. “My husband’s never going to divorce me so I need to just end it all so (my son) can have a better mom.”?

Reid, her son, was happy and healthy. Her husband was “very hands on.” Her career thrived.?

But Luntzel, the daughter of Bangladesh immigrants, felt tremendous pressure to be perfect, she said.?

“My whole personality is my parents — specifically my dad — sacrificing everything to have the life that I have,” she said.?

So, she thought, “here I am being sad and I shouldn’t be.”?

In February 2021, Luntzel attempted to end her life: “I truly believed that Reid, my son, needed a better mom because I couldn’t be a good mom to him because of the way that I was feeling.”

Her husband found her after that attempt, and helped her get into an intensive six-month therapy program, where she began taking medication. She no longer lives with suicidality and advocates for mental health in her community.?

What policies could help combat PPD in Kentucky??

PPD doesn’t have much space in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses (DSM) — a paragraph compared to pages for other conditions, Belknap-Greene said.? More research and space for the condition is much needed, she added.?

Kentucky also needs a universal, paid parental leave, she said. That would put it in line with 13 states and Washington D.C. that provide paid family and medical leave.??

“If mom and dad — or mom and mom, dad and dad, whatever that nuclear family looks like — if there’s not that opportunity to provide secure attachment, we’re looking at a whole host of other issues for the baby,” said Belknap-Greene.?

Research published in the National Library of Medicine in 2023 backs up the importance of leave, saying that “paid, longer maternity leave is associated with less postpartum depression.”?

During the 2024 legislative session, a bill that would have given teachers 20 days of maternity leave died. Another bill to give state workers with at least a year on the job up to four weeks of paid leave made it through the Senate but failed to advance in the House.?

There is bipartisan appetite in Congress to pass paid parental leave, with bipartisan and bicameral working groups working on solutions. Members’ legislative framework for such solutions includes having public-private partnerships and cross-state program harmony.?????

Meanwhile, Kentucky therapists and mothers who spoke to the Lantern agreed: screening mothers earlier would be a huge step toward combating postpartum depression and anxiety early.?

“We should start screening moms before they deliver,” said Kerr. But certainly, screening them as they are leaving the hospital after delivery would help as well.?

“If it were up to me, that would be a thing that had to be discussed before discharge,” Belknap-Greene said. And: “A follow up appointment for mom needs to be done much sooner than the two-week checkup for the baby.”?

Because she spent so much time internalizing her PPD symptoms, Luntzel said having OB-GYNs better trained to spot those symptoms early would have helped her. She’d also like to see mental health professionals give on-site consultations with new moms at hospitals after delivery.?

Mental health services like therapy should generally be more accessible as well, she said. The Lantern previously reported Kentuckians are more likely to pay out of pocket for mental health services than medical services.?

“Mental health, in general, I think, needs to be discussed more because our brains are so complex, and yet we treat it like it’s just this one being and that’s just not it,” Luntzel said. “I don’t think it’s okay to treat it like that.”?

Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration, was in Louisville Thursday to discuss ways Kentucky can improve maternal health outcomes.?

After moderating a roundtable on the topic, Johnson discussed maternal health issues facing Kentucky with the Lantern. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.?

Kentucky Lantern: Maternal health issues are very complicated, very intersectional, but in your work, do you ever see there is one domino issue, if you will, that, if you can tackle that, other things sort of fall into place??

Carole Johnson: It is a lifespan issue. That’s why we really think about it as: We have to support women of reproductive age in the community. We have to make the clinical setting as high quality and ready for complications as possible. We have to have a system that gets people connected to prenatal care as quickly as possible, and then postnatal.?

We have to make sure that — new parenting is hard — that people get the supports that they need, and that we’re tackling things like maternal depression. So, we really think about it as that continuum.?

I think sometimes with health policy problems, we tend to think about, ‘well, what happens inside the four walls of the clinic?’ And this is not one of those issues. This is an issue that’s about that, but it’s also about all the other ways that we make sure that pregnant women and new moms are healthy.?

KL: I know Kentucky is not alone in this, but in Kentucky, we see a lot of our statistics around maternal health impact Black women and other women of color more than white women. Does racism play a role in driving that fact? And if so, how do you tackle racism with policy??

CJ: What we know is what the data tells us, which is that Black and Indigenous women are dying at two to three times the rate of white women, and those disparities persist even when you control for things like education or income or the like. So there are systemic issues here that we have to address, but part of it is obviously about access … and being heard in the healthcare system.?

What we hear repeatedly when we do these roundtable sessions around the country is about women’s voices not being heard. Women know when something’s wrong or know when they need something, and their voices are not always heard.?

It matters that we center this work around women’s experiences, and that’s why we’re doing things like investing in community-based doulas so that women have an advocate and a voice in the healthcare system, particularly when they’re pregnant, when … all their energy should be about making sure they’re managing their own health, not about trying to fight for the access and services they need.?

That’s why we’re investing in more midwives. That’s why we’re investing in more (obstetricians) who come from the communities that we want them to serve in. That’s why we’re really focused on what does access look like? And access that isn’t just about checking a box on a map, but that actually is a trusted community provider that will listen to and support women’s needs.

KL: For the past few years, we’ve had a bipartisan debate in Kentucky on whether or not we should clear the path to have freestanding birth centers. Do those tend to help statistics around maternal mortality??

CJ: Sometimes the scope of services in freestanding birth centers can raise different levels of debate.?

Where there are freestanding birth centers that are able to manage less higher complexity deliveries, in a place where there’s a maternal health desert, … those are the kinds of things that we have to be thinking about.?

There are far too many counties in this country where access to maternal health services means getting on the road and driving for a very long time and and often ending up in the emergency room in a community hospital that may not have the preparedness and all the strategies that are necessary to have the healthiest deliveries.?

KL: Some of our debate revolves around the concern that rural hospitals could lose income as a result of people choosing to go to another facility. Do you see that as a problem, generally?

CJ: I actually think rural hospitals can be creative about thinking about what kind of partnerships in the community they can have. So I don’t know that it has to be an either or question if we can think about the kind of partnerships that would make it possible for rural hospitals to be part of that solution too.?

KL: We heard a lot today about mental health and substance use disorders. How key is it to talk about mental health when we talk about maternal mortality??

CJ: Mental health and substance use disorders are the leading cause of maternal mortality, and the data clearly shows about 80% of maternal deaths are preventable. That is a call to action for all of us around addressing maternal mental health and substance use disorders.?

It is heartbreaking, the stigma that still exists around these issues. A lot of times, when women are pregnant, … they think they have to be super women. We need to make sure that there’s a low barrier to entry to getting support and services for mental health and substance use disorders.?

We’re actually fighting right now in D.C. to make mental health and substance use disorder required services in our primary care settings, because that’s what we need to do. We need to make it part of the equation. We don’t want to be in a place where someone’s ready for help and raises their hand and what they get is a referral (to) ‘go call these numbers and see if you can find someone.’

KL: A key part of Kentucky’s Momnibus bill that became law this year is that the state made pregnancy a qualifying condition for insurance coverage in Kentucky. How important is it to have that insurance and to get that prenatal care??

CJ: We in the Biden Harris administration, one of our proudest accomplishments is getting health insurance to more people.?

It’s vital that we do that and we do everything possible so that people have coverage. We also need to make sure that there’s a place you can use that insurance card and we need to make sure that’s a high quality place that you can use that insurance card.

Coverage is critical, but it’s not sufficient. We need more.?

HRSA Roundtable in Louisville (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — Maternal health is complicated, and reducing mortality around birth takes a comprehensive approach, advocates from across Kentucky said at a Thursday roundtable moderated by Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration.

During the roundtable, which took place at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Louisville, Johnson said Kentucky is now eligible for more than $8 million in federal funding through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program. Kentucky’s version of this is called HANDS (Health Access Nurturing Development Services), which is a voluntary service that offers parenting guidance to new or expecting parents.?

“We are thrilled to be here,” Johnson said to a room full of parents, medical providers and other maternal health advocates. “We’re thrilled to put these resources on the table but we know that what it takes to actually execute on them is all the work that happens by all of you around this room.”?

She also praised Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, who spearheaded Kentucky’s move to pass a maternal health “Momnibus” bill during the 2024 legislative session and was present Thursday.?

Momnibus, which made pregnancy a qualifying event for insurance coverage in Kentucky, among other things, was? “a big bill. It was a big lift,” said Moser, who chairs the House Health Services Committee. “I’m excited to see how it gets implemented.”?

What is working for maternal health in Kentucky??

Kentucky has dismal maternal mortality rates, which is worse for women of color than white women.?

The 2023 March of Dimes report showed the state once again had high maternal mortality, which was worse for Black Kentuckians. The state has a maternal mortality rate of 38.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, higher than the national rate of 23.5 deaths per 100,000 live births.

A 2023 state report on maternal mortality also showed substance use disorder contributed to nearly 60% of all maternal deaths. Most maternal deaths in Kentucky — 88% — are preventable, that report from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said.

Advocates around the table Thursday said improving maternal health has to involve a comprehensive approach that looks at physical and mental health as well as social determinants of health, like reliable transportation, safe housing and clean water, among other things. Several shared the work they’re doing to meet those needs.?

Bethany Wilson, who is in long term recovery and now works at the University of Kentucky to treat substance use disorder during and after pregnancy, said shame, lack of transportation and lack of education were all barriers she faced when pregnant.?

“While in addiction, I was, of course, unengaged in the healthcare system altogether, despite having serious medical conditions,” she said. “But when I learned about my pregnancy, so many emotions came — just embarrassment, fear, guilt, sadness.”?

Now she shares her story and information about resources with UK patients to promote harm reduction and health education.?

“Word of mouth is a huge piece,” she said. “The word-of-mouth patients that have engaged in our program will tell other people in their community through them knowing that it’s a safe place to come.”?

Capric Walker, who heads the University of Louisville’s 550 Clinic to provide care for HIV-positive people in seven counties, including Jefferson, said she focuses heavily on educating patients that HIV is “no longer a death sentence.”?

HIV can pass to a fetus during pregnancy and birth, though treatment can lower the chances of that happening, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“We do a lot of education for them to help them understand what their full options are because mental health and depression and substance use are real concerns for many of them,” Walker said. “Our populations really have high instances of depression because of the history and the stigma around this diagnosis.”?

Her program’s retention among patients after delivery is around 90%, she said.?

Where are the gaps??

Kentucky needs more resources for first-time fathers, said Lance Newman, who works with Black Birth Justice in Louisville to offer just such support in a program he’s still developing.?

“We talk about maternal health, and we don’t really speak about how important the father is,” he said. “Fathers need job placement help, they need that workforce help. They need that substance abuse help. They need a lot of advocacy.”??

The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality backs that up, saying fathers’ positive involvement throughout pregnancy and beyond can have a positive health impact on mother and baby.?

Josh Hawkins, a Louisville father, said he needed mental health and job resources when his daughter was born and believes other fathers need support too.??

“We can … certainly help with maternal and infant mortality rates and alleviate some of that as well,” he said. “We want to be involved, too. We really do.”?

Dr. Mark Barns of UofL recommends taking a COVID-19 booster and flu shot together this fall. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — COVID-19 is “alive and well” in Kentucky, cautions infectious disease expert Dr. Mark Burns, as hospitalizations for the virus rise and students and teachers head back to school.

Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services data shows an uptick in emergency department visits and hospitalizations from COVID-19 as of Aug. 1.?

In July there were 438 hospitalizations for the virus in Kentucky up from 292 hospitalizations in July of 2023.

Also in July 2023, there were 736 emergency room visits for COVID-19, up to 1,704 last month.?

This comes as the virus is on the rise in Kentucky, among 35 other states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the country, especially the South and Midwest, is seeing increased numbers of the COVID-19 virus ahead of the new school year and holiday season.??

“It is out there,” Burns told reporters Monday. “But the good news is, of course, you still have protection from the vaccines.”?

The CDC recommends everyone six months and older get vaccinated against COVID-19. A new vaccine booster is expected this fall, possibly in September, as an update to the fall 2023 shot.?

“We’re hoping that everybody will take it along with the influenza vaccine — or the flu shot,” said Burns, who is an associate professor at the University of Louisville and a medical doctor with UofL Health. “It is safe to take them both at the same time. We’re in a place now where we’re going to try to make it more of a yearly vaccine as opposed to every three, four or five months.”?

As children head back to school, Burns said, they should be diligent about hand washing, covering coughs and general good hygiene that can reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.?

And if a person feels sick, they should stay home to lower the risk of spreading the virus to others, he said.?

“If they’re contagious, then they will spread it on,” he said. “So we’re asking people who are ill to stay home.”

This story has been updated to correct an error in an earlier version about the rate of increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19.

Speaking in Bowling Green against Kentucky's abortion laws, Dr. Janet Wygal said: “No physician should be forced to wait until someone becomes sick enough to intervene with basic necessary health care because the government says so.” (Getty Images)

Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund members, who in June announced a pro-abortion access messaging campaign, gathered at the Warren County Courthouse in Bowling Green Thursday to say their campaign has reached 1.8 million people through digital ads.?

Ona Marshall, who founded KRFF and co-owned one of Kentucky’s last two abortion clinics, also criticized Kentucky’s lack of avenues for citizens to put abortion access on the ballot.?

“We could follow the lead of other states that are moving to protect reproductive rights,” she said. “These are states that have citizen-led ballot initiatives to protect abortion access in their state constitutions. But that choice isn’t possible in Kentucky.”?

Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Florida and Maryland will have abortion-related questions on the ballot this November, States Newsroom has reported. Others are working to qualify and follow suit, including Arizona, Montana, Missouri and Arkansas. Kentucky is one of 24 states that do not allow citizen-led ballot initiatives.?

Thursday’s event came two years after a judge reinstated Kentucky’s abortion ban — after a brief injunction following the fall of Roe V. Wade and subsequent trigger law.?

“Kentucky is in a health care crisis, and our choices to reverse this dire situation are being limited by lawmakers,” Marshall said. “Our freedom in Kentucky is not being protected, our freedom is being denied. Our lawmakers can repeal the abortion bans and restore our freedom.” Marshall co-owned Louisville’s EMW Surgical Center, which provided abortions Louisville’s but closed when the abortion ban took effect..?

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022, a “trigger law” went into effect in Kentucky that banned abortions. Another law bans abortions after six weeks. Doctors have previously said many people don’t know they’re pregnant at the six-week mark.?

Later that year, Kentucky voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment that would have stated there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution. Only the legislature has the power to put constitutional amendments on the ballot in Kentucky.

Kentucky does not have abortion exceptions for rape or incest, though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have filed unsuccessful bills to change that in recent years.?

Kentucky has an exception in cases where the life of the pregnant person is at risk. Dr. Janet Wygal, an OB-GYN who spoke alongside Marshall Thursday, said that’s not enough.?

“No physician should be forced to wait until someone becomes sick enough to intervene with basic necessary health care because the government says so,” said Wygal. “These laws create an environment of fear and uncertainty, not only for doctors and their patients seeking abortion care, but also for those needing the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including IVF (in vitro fertilization), contraception and cancer screenings.”?

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball, center, spoke to lawmakers on July 30 about access to computerized records of child and elder abuse cases. Ombudsman Jonathan Grate is at left and Alexander Magera, general counsel in the auditor's office, is at right. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the state auditor’s office said Tuesday they are open to entering a memorandum of understanding to ensure the office of the ombudsman has the access it needs to a computer system that stores information about abuse and neglect cases.?

The two parties are still hashing out the language of such an agreement, though.?

This comes after some back-and-forth between the cabinet and state Auditor Allison Ball, whose office now oversees the ombudsman. That move happened on July 1 thanks to a new law enacted last? year by the legislature — Senate Bill 48 — that moved the office from the cabinet to the Auditor of Public Accounts.?

Welcome move to boost child protection in Kentucky trips over conflicting views of the law

The ombudsman, whose job it is to investigate and resolve complaints about cabinet agencies including protective services for children and elderly Kentuckians,, can’t do that job without access to iTWIST, (the Workers Information System), Ball testified before the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children.?

“I don’t think that there’s any issue about, any disagreement about, whether or not … we need the access,” she said. “It’s totally clear, we need the access. But right now, we’re being prevented from the access.”??

The database includes suspected child or elderly abuse and neglect case reports, investigations and findings records and other medically sensitive information.?

The cabinet believes access to the computer system iTWIST is limited by state law to cabinet social service officials under Kentucky Revised Statute 620.050, with some exceptions for certain parties within the cabinet, law enforcement and prosecutors, outside medical or social service officials and the parent or guardian of the child in question, the Lantern has reported.?

The state auditor’s office believes the ombudsman is covered under that statute.?

Eric Friedlander, Cabinet for Health and Family Services secretary, said SB 48, which reorganized several government operations, “was a big bill” and that all of its provisions have been carried with resoling access to the database being the only remaining stumbing block.?

“Everything has been done and completed — we have one issue,” he said. “And this is where we have a disagreement, but we will continue to try to work through it.”??

No need to further victimize children through legislative ineptitude or gubernatorial stubbornness

The auditor wants to make sure no language in a memorandum of understanding limits her access to the court system should she need it, she said.?

“We’re not trying to shut off their avenue to any court,” said Wesley Duke, the cabinet’s general counsel.?

Meanwhile, Ball said confidentiality is important to her and the new ombudsman, Jonathan Grate.?

“Of course, we’re going to comply with the law. Of course, we’re going to keep confidentiality,” Ball said. “Our goal is making sure the public is served, vulnerable communities are served, children are served, the elderly who are in positions of being possibly abused, these people are protected. So that is our goal. I believe them when they say that they want to do that, too.”??

Several lawmakers said they will pass legislation in 2025 to clarify the ombudsman should have access to the iTWIST system.?

Meanwhile, Ball said, complaints from the public continue to pour in.?

“It needs to be resolved very, very quickly,” she said. “We’ve had almost a month providing almost no services to these people who are being impacted by this.”?

Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, asks officials from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services about the implementation of Senate Bill 151, a measure on relative and fictive kin caregivers. The discussion was part of Tuesday’s Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children.(LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Republican lawmakers slammed the Beshear administration Tuesday for “picking and choosing” what laws to implement amid funding disputes that threaten 2024 laws to help kinship care families and create a statewide child abuse reporting system.?

Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, repeatedly told lawmakers during the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children that the cabinet needs appropriations from the legislature to implement the new laws in question.?

“This is a specific program that has a cost,” he said. “It needs to be funded.”?

When pressed if his team had looked into federal grant money to help with implementation, Friedlander replied: “I think we can ask. And we’ll be happy to ask.”?

‘Flabbergasted:’ Help for kinship care families passed unanimously. $20M price tag could derail it.

Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, the committee’s co-chair, said she finds it “very concerning” that the cabinet said there was no money when it had yet to inquire about federal funds.?

“I find it even more funny that currently in the administration that you all serve, there’s rumor that the governor will be running for vice president,” Heavrin said. “And what a fantastic opportunity to show his working relationship with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the federal government, and how well they could work together.” ?Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has received national attention as a potential running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president.

The Lantern previously reported on the funding dispute, which includes a $20 million price tag on one bill and a $43 million one on another; the legislature didn’t allocate funding for the bills during the 2024 budget session. The Beshear administration says it’s not responsible for finding the money and cannot implement the laws without an allocation.?

The first bill discussed Tuesday, Senate Bill 151, allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child when abuse or neglect is suspected to later become eligible for foster care payments. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has said it cannot implement the law without $20 million.?

Some new Kentucky laws are in limbo as governor says lawmakers failed to fund them

The second, House Bill 271, mandates creation of a statewide system for reporting child abuse 24/7 that the administration estimates would cost $43 million. Friedlander said this bill would require the cabinet to increase the load social workers carry in a time when the state has a shortage of social workers.

‘Picking and choosing’?

Beshear alerted lawmakers in an April 10 letter to what he called a funding omission — five days after he signed SB 151 into law. He asked them to use the final two days of the 2024 session to appropriate the $20 million.

Beshear cited a Kentucky Supreme Court decision from 2005 during? former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration, saying if the legislature doesn’t provide funding to implement a policy, then it “does not intend for the executive branch to perform those services over the biennium.”

House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford, criticized Beshear and said the case shouldn’t apply to this situation since it arose after the General Assembly failed to pass a budget for the 2004-2006 budget cycle.?

“This is just another example of the executive branch picking and choosing what they want to do,” said Meade. “This is funding that we’re talking about for kinship care, some of our most needy families in this state. These are political games that have been played for the last four years and it infuriates me that he continues to play them right now with these most needy families.”?

During the committee, Louisville Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams, the Majority Caucus chair and primary sponsor of SB 151, asked Friedlander about any programs in the cabinet that are funded with general cabinet dollars.?

He said there are “many appropriations” within the cabinet budget, “particularly those that are ongoing across the biennium.”?

“I believe that the cabinet funds programs that are not codified in state law,” she said. “I believe that (the department for community based services) funds programs that are not codified in state law. This — 151 — is codified. So the thought is, how can you find things that are not line itemed in the state budget, and then claim you can’t do this because it’s not line itemed in the state budget?”?

“This is a specific program and a specific piece of legislation that has a cost associated with it,” Friedlander replied. “We communicated that on multiple occasions.”?

He also said: “We do not have a policy disagreement. What we have is a funding disagreement.”?

‘Floored’ and ‘disappointed’?

Norma Hatfield, the president of Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, told the Lantern after the meeting that she is “floored” and “disappointed” by the delay in a solution for families like herself who are raising relatives.?

“I just can’t believe this is happening,” Hatfield said. “This is wrong.”?

She testified during committee that there are parts of the law that wouldn’t require funding — like asking children being removed from their home which relative they’d like to live with.?

During the next committee meeting, on Aug. 28, the cabinet will return and give an update on inquiries into any available federal funds.?

In the meantime, Raque Adams told the Lantern, she’s worried the cabinet is susceptible to a lawsuit that would only drain funds further.?

“We need to focus on getting money into establishing this program for those vulnerable kids,” she said. “We don’t need to waste more cabinet resources on a lawsuit.”??

Franklin County Court House (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2024 law banning the sale of some vaping products.?

In doing so, Wingate sided with the lawsuit’s defendants — Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and Secretary of State Michael Adams — who filed a motion to dismiss.?

Greg Troutman, a lawyer for the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, which represents vape retailers, had argued that the law was too broad and arbitrary to pass constitutional muster because it is titled “AN ACT relating to nicotine products” but also discusses “other substances.” The state constitution says a law cannot relate to more than one subject.?

In his opinion, Wingate said the law doesn’t violate the state constitution.?

The law’s title “more than furnishes a clue to its contents and provides a general idea of the bill’s contents,” he wrote.?

The law’s “reference to ‘other substances’ is not used in a manner outside of the context of the bill, but rather to logically indicate what is unauthorized,” Wingate wrote.?

The lawsuit centers around House Bill 11, which passed during the 2024 legislative session and goes into effect Jan. 1. Backers of the legislation said it’s a way to curb underage vaping by limiting sales to “authorized products” or those that have “a safe harbor certification” based on their status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).?

Opponents have said it will hurt small businesses, lead to a monopoly for big retailers and could drive youth to traditional cigarettes.?

Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Phillip Morris, lobbied for the Kentucky bill, according to Legislative Ethics Commission records. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the company is pushing similar bills in other states. Altria, which has moved aggressively into e-cigarette sales, markets multiple vaping products that have FDA approval.

“The sale of nicotine and vapor products are highly regulated in every state, and the court will not question the specific reasons for the General Assembly’s decision to regulate and limit the sale of? nicotine and vapor products to only products approved by the FDA or granted a safe-harbor certification by the FDA,” Wingate wrote in a Monday opinion. “The regulation of these products directly relates to the health and safety of the Commonwealth’s citizens, the power of which is vested by the Kentucky? Constitution in the General Assembly.”??

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, as well as Taylor and Adams, praised the ruling in their favor.

Coleman said the ruling “underscores” that the “General Assembly is empowered to make laws protecting Kentuckians’ health and charting our course for a bright future.”

“The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control appreciated the clarity gained from the Courts that this law is constitutional,” Taylor, the commissioner, said in a statement. “ABC will continue with its implementation efforts and will be prepared to enforce the law when it takes effect in January.”

Rep. Rebecca Raymer, R-Morgantown, who sponsored the bill, said she’s “pleased to see the Court rule in favor of our efforts to ensure the health and safety of Kentuckians. As a lawmaker, mother and health care provider, I believe we owe it to the people of this state, particularly our children, to ensure that the products they are using are safe.”

“If a product can’t get authorized or doesn’t fall under the FDA’s safe harbor rules, we don’t know if the ingredients are safe, where they’re from, or what impact they will have on a user’s health,” Raymer said in a statement.

Sen. Brandon Storm, R-London, who carried the bill in the Senate, echoed Raymer.

“Judge Wingate made the correct ruling and did well in articulating that HB 11 and other bills focused on oversight of products to safeguard the health and safety of Kentucky residents is a constitutional responsibility entrusted to the Kentucky General Assembly,” he said. “As lawmakers, we have a great responsibility to steer public policy in a direction that better protects the public, especially when it involves negative health consequences for Kentucky children. I’m pleased HB 11 will stand and look forward to working with my colleagues further to protect the health and well-being of our constituents.”

Lisa Sobel says she has put her hopes for having another child on hold because of uncertainties around Kentucky's abortion law. (Photo provided)

LOUISVILLE — Lisa Sobel thinks any Kentuckian who has a uterus should have standing to challenge the state’s abortion ban.?

The Kentucky Supreme Court and, more recently, a judge in Louisville, disagree.?

Meanwhile, Sobel, one of three Jewish women challenging the ban on religious grounds, says she’s left in a “holding pattern.” She is afraid to risk having another child in a state where physicians must wait to terminate a pregnancy until a patient is at risk of dying.?

Sobel’s lawsuit is the second challenge to Kentucky’s abortion ban to run aground on the issue of standing without advancing to an examination of the laws’ merits or constitutionality. Standing is the question of whether plaintiffs’ circumstances meet legal standards entitling them to challenge the law.?

Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards ruled in June that Sobel and her co-plaintiffs — Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — lack standing because they are not pregnant or currently trying to conceive by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Therefore, he said, the harms they allege in their lawsuit are “speculative” or “hypothetical.”?

That followed the Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023 that abortion providers could not challenge the ban on behalf of their patients.?

The Supreme Court ruling poses “a massive hurdle,” said Angela Cooper of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, “by asking someone who is navigating an unwanted pregnancy to pause pursuit of their medical care to file a lawsuit.”

The rulings have left the ban in place and the path for its opponents unclear but still open.

Edwards, in ruling against Sobel and her co-plaintiffs, also acknowledged “serious concerns regarding the substantive constitutionality” of Kentucky’s abortion laws — concerns that he said “will ultimately need to be revisited and addressed by the Kentucky Supreme Court.”

Sobel’s lawyers, Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper, have filed an appeal that could return the larger questions to the state Supreme Court, which will soon have a new member.

Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter isn’t seeking reelection this year. His 5th Supreme Court District seat will be filled either by Pamela Goodwine, a Kentucky Court of Appeals judge and former circuit and district judge in Lexington, or Erin Izzo, an attorney from Lexington. The race is nonpartisan but Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who opposes Kentucky’s abortion ban and calls it extreme, has endorsed Goodwine, and his political action committee has contributed $2,100 to her campaign.

University of Louisville constitutional law professor Sam Marcosson said Edwards and the state Supreme Court took a “very narrow” view of standing — and that there is room in the law for the new Supreme Court to relax its standing demands if the justices have the appetite to do so.

“I think that’s certainly possible, at least something the Supreme Court could do,” he said. “Whether it will or not, whether the makeup of the court will make that more likely? Impossible to say at this point.”

Marcosson noted the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned abortion rights has recently avoided ruling on the merits in two abortion cases. The court had the chance to limit access to mifepristone, which is used in medication abortions, but did not. On the other hand, the court had a chance to “protect abortion rights” in an Idaho case and did not.

Marcosson said the decisions suggest “the court doesn’t want to continue, at least for the time being, having abortion on its docket and reaching cases on the merits, the way they did when they overruled Roe.”

Who has standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban??

There are a few scenarios in which a person would have clear standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion law, said Marcosson.?

“A woman who is, in fact, pregnant and and wants to obtain an abortion that would be, or might be, illegal under Kentucky law — that’s the obvious scenario,” he said. Such a person could later miscarry or have the baby and “standing wouldn’t change.”?

Another scenario, hinted at by the Edwards decision, is if a person is actively undergoing IVF while suing, Marcosson said.?

But, it’s unclear if she would need to be actively taking injections to release eggs and trigger ovulation. “I think that’s the weakest part of the opinion to me,” Marcosson said.?

Someone who is at risk of injuries could have legal standing, he explained.?“The law of standing has always said that injuries … don’t have to actually have already been incurred,” he said. “You can sue to prevent injuries.”?

So, one could sue based on a hypothetical, and different judges and a different court could see it differently than Edwards did.?

“Anytime you have a case involving prevention of future injury, the question is always going to be, well, how certain does the court have to be that the injury will occur, and how soon will it occur?” Marcosson said. “There’s no bright line for that.”?

Potash and Kemper take issue with the judge basing part of his rejection of their lawsuit on a reading of Roe V. Wade. Marcosson said that while this is “noteworthy and eye popping” it’s “not unprecedented.” A decision can be overruled for one purpose while the reasoning behind other parts of the decision remains valid for use in future cases, Marcosson said. ?

Sobel thinks only one thing should determine standing. “Anybody who has a uterus in the state of Kentucky should have standing on this issue,” she said.?

IVF is not a ‘fairy tale’?

Unlike Judge Edwards, the women and their lawyers do not see theirs as a hypothetical situation at all.?

Kentucky abortion law states that an embryo is an “unborn human being” from egg fertilization to birth, a Christian belief not shared by Jewish people. The women argue the abortion law violates the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That definition in Kentucky law also makes them uneasy about trying to conceive through IVF, which involves destroying or indefinitely storing fertilized eggs; they also fear what would happen if a wanted pregnancy went wrong and they lacked access to abortion.

The lawyers say the courts and legislature have not offered the reassurance the women and others like them need that IVF is protected.?

One of the plaintiffs, Kalb, has nine frozen embryos right now that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve. The 33-year-old doesn’t plan to carry nine children, and worries about what she can legally do with the rest of the embryos at a time when Kentucky lawmakers disagree on what protections exist for the IVF process.?

In the 13 months while she waited for a ruling, Sobel, who conceived her three-year-old daughter through in vitro and would like to have another child, said, “I have met with multiple doctors for gynecological procedures.”?

“So, to just write me off because … I’m not currently paying to move forward with IVF, and saying that I’m not seeking it, is really unfair,” she said.?

The process takes a lot of time, and she also has to make sure her body is “ready to accept” the treatments.?

“At any given time, you could be happily going along and then your doctor says, ‘hey … we have to push pause,’ or ‘we need to make a change because your hormones are out of whack,’ or ‘your lining isn’t perfect,’ and so then you have to go and take a side road before you can get back on the main track.”?

Potash acknowledges that Attorney General Russell Coleman has said that IVF is protected in Kentucky but points out that local prosecutors are not bound by Coleman’s statement.?

Sobel’s interpretation of Edwards’ June ruling is “the judge doesn’t understand what the process of IVF and being part of the infertility community is like.”?

IVF isn’t the “fairy tale” way of starting a family, she said, in which “you went out for a nice, romantic night, you had sex, and magically, six weeks later, you find out you’re pregnant.”?

It involves an intricate process involving shots, egg retrievals, mixing eggs with sperm in a lab and implantation. There are usually eggs leftover in this process, which can be donated, stored or discarded.?

“I don’t want to get to the point,” Sobel said, “where I’m stuck paying indefinitely for embryos I can’t use because I don’t want to face criminal prosecution.”?

Storing them can cost thousands annually.? The women fear prosecution if they are forced to discard embryos, a common part of the IVF process.?

“I’m still young enough that should I choose to do more rounds of (in vitro fertilization) I could,” said Sobel, 40. “That might not be the same in five, six years. But right now, my safest option for my health and my well being is to continue to wait to get clarity from the court system on whether or not IVF is truly protected, and the only way to do that is to take out the fetal personhood laws that are on the books.”?

Addia Wuchner, a former legislator and the executive director of the Kentucky chapter of Right to Life, which opposes abortion, sees IVF as being protected in the state, in line with the attorney general’s position.?

“If anyone is projecting fear or concerns,” she told the Lantern, “it’s misplaced.”?

What happens next

“A random bank of judges” within the Court of Appeals will consider arguments from both sides, Potash said, who added “we’re looking forward to some review.”?

Meanwhile, Marcosson said the state Supreme Court does have a pathway to change its rules of standing, if the appeal of the Edwards ruling or someone with a “stronger case for standing” reaches the high court.

But since “two judges can take a very different view of how speculative the harm really is, and how impending it really is,” the appeals panel could side with the women on the issue of standing and return their case to the circuit judge for further consideration.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky is still looking for an opening and plaintiffs to challenge the law. ?Cooper said that despite the state Supreme Court’s “unprecedented and impractical demand” on standing, “we are undeterred in our commitment to restoring access to abortion care in the Commonwealth, and the legal path remains open, however fraught with obstacles it may be.”?

Meanwhile, Sobel feels she must wait out the case before making decisions to expand her family because of the potential harm to her health.?

“My one option is … not to take the risk of dying,” she said. “Which is really what I’m faced with here, is that I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”??

The Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati is home to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether a case involving former University of Louisville professor Dr. Allan M. Josephson’s comments about how to treat gender dysphoria should go to a jury trial.?

Judges heard oral arguments Tuesday morning, the latest in a roughly five-year legal battle to reinstate Josephson as chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and reimburse him for legal fees.?

It’s unclear when the court could rule. Should it side with Josephson, the case will return to district court and undergo a jury trial, Travis C. Barham, one of Josephson’s lawyers, told the Lantern. Should it rule against Josephson, Barham said, he can request a review from the full 6th Circuit.

Josephson is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm. He argues that university officials punished and then fired him in 2019 because of what he said during a panel discussion about children experiencing gender dysphoria.

Jeremy Rogers, who argued opposite Barham, has not responded to a Lantern email seeking an interview.?

During oral arguments Rogers said actions by the individual UofL officials who are being sued by Josephson were not a violation of his constitutional rights.

But Barham argued that as an employee of an institution that gets public dollars, Josephson should enjoy free speech protections.?“A victory for Dr. Josephson is a victory for everybody,” Barham said. “The irony here is that the university is advancing a legal position that would nuke the free speech rights of all professors, of all persuasions, of all viewpoints.”?

But, he added: “Whether you agree with Dr. Josephson, whether you disagree with Dr. Josephson on the issue, we should all be in favor of the idea that professors should be able to express (their views) freely, without censorship and without punishment.”?

The case?

The 2017 comments in question were met with criticism from Josephson’s colleagues, who saw them as anti-LGBTQ and “demanded that the University take disciplinary action against” him, court documents allege.?

Before this, Josephson was chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology for more than a decade.?

The Courier Journal reported in 2019 that the professor made the comments while on a panel before The Heritage Foundation, a D.C.-based conservative think tank. Those comments included:?

• The “notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.”
• “Transgender ideology neglects the child’s need for developing coping and problem-solving skills necessary to meet developmental challenges.”?
• Parents should “use their collective wisdom in guiding their child to align with his or her biological sex.”

Court documents say that within seven weeks of the comments, “defendants demanded that he resign his position as division chief and effectively become a junior faculty member.”??

Barham was feeling hopeful after Tuesday’s arguments, which he said went “very well.”

“It is … frustrating to attorneys, but it’s even more frustrating to clients with the way that these cases sometimes unfold in a very slow motion fashion,” he said. “This case really should be in front of a jury….So I hope that the judges will make a decision quickly.”

Kim Davis, then the Rowan county clerk, waved to supporters at a rally outside the Carter County Detention Center on Sept. 8, 2015 in Grayson. Davis was ordered to jail for contempt of court after refusing a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Kim Davis, then the Rowan County clerk, made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to several same-sex couples based on her religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, based in Orlando, Florida, and labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed the brief Monday with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, according to a news release from Liberty Counsel and first reported by Jezebel.?

Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a Tuesday press release that “Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority.”

“This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation,” Staver said.?

U.S. District Judge David Bunning in 2015 ordered Davis to jail for five days for contempt for refusing to comply with a court order. Bunning earlier this year ordered Davis to pay ?$260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the couples she refused a marriage license. Bunning had earlier ordered Davis to pay the couple, David Ermold and David Moore, $100,000 in damages for violating their constitutional rights. Liberty Counsel is appealing Bunning’s decisions.

Davis lost her bid for reelection as Rowan County clerk in 2018.

Chris Hartman, the director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, told the Lantern Tuesday that the latest legal move on Davis’ behalf is “sad and desperate” but also within the realm of possibility under the current U.S. Supreme Court.

“The threat of anti-LGBTQ hate groups … is real, however, and it comes as no surprise that they are seeking to overturn LGBTQ marriage in America. With an arch-conservative Supreme Court that’s already upended half a century of abortion rights, anything is unfortunately possible.”?

Court documents filed by Liberty Counsel point specifically to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, saying the court should overturn Obergefell for the same reasons. In the abortion case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court could use the same rationale to overturn earlier decisions on same-sex marriage and access to contraception.

“Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution,” say court documents filed by Liberty Counsel. ?

In a statement to the Lantern, Staver reiterated: “We want to overturn the jury verdict because there is no evidence to support it, to grant religious accommodation for Kim Davis and to overturn the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges.”

Ermold and Moore were married Oct. 31, 2015 in an outdoor ceremony on the Morehead State University campus, which the student newspaper, The Trail Blazer, covered.?

Read Liberty Counsel’s brief

Free vaccines are available in Kentucky at public health departments and private medical offices through the Vaccines for Children program. (Getty Images)

Kentucky’s outbreak of whooping cough comes amid a decline in childhood vaccinations, which a health insurance industry group is looking to combat by funding a messaging campaign to address vaccine hesitancy and increase immunization rates.?

“This outbreak is a stark reminder of what can happen when immunization rates fall,” Tom Stevens, the president of the Kentucky Association of Health Plans (KAHP), told reporters on a call Tuesday. “It’s not just about individual protection. It’s about community immunity.”

In response to the problem, KAHP is giving Kentucky Voices for Health $360,000 over the next three years to spend primarily on public service commercials for television and radio.? The grant money will be split into $120,000 per year.?

Kentucky has more cases of the highly contagious whooping cough than it has since 2019. There are no known deaths as of July 23. Of Kentucky’s 2024 cases, four infants, one school-aged child and three adults have been hospitalized, according to the cabinet.?

Most cases are in children of school-going age, though some cases are in infants — who are most at risk for complications — toddlers and adults, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.?

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s low rate of vaccination “puts our children at unnecessary risk and it strains our health care system,” Stevens said.?

“Immunizations are one of the most effective public health interventions we have,” he said. “They protect our children from preventable diseases and help maintain the overall health of our communities.”

The nonprofit will measure its campaign success on a few factors, according to Kelly Taulbee, the director of communications and development for Kentucky Voices for Health. Those include an increase in school-aged children getting vaccinated and a decrease in the number of kids sick and hospitalized.??

The COVID effect?

Taulbee pointed to the “polarization” of the COVID-19 pandemic as setting vaccinations back during a time many children stayed home from in-person schooling and other events.?

After COVID-19 vaccines hit the market in late 2020, myths quickly spread about the shots. In early 2022, Volunteers of America told The Courier Journal that social media -fueled misinformation was a driving force behind lower-than-desirable vaccine rates across Kentucky.?

Misinformation persists in 2024, when Kentucky lawmakers made false claims about vaccines during the legislative session.?

“Kentucky has still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels” of vaccination,” Taulbee said. “That drop in community immunity is fueling the return of these vaccine-preventable illnesses like measles and pertussis.”

And, she said, “families really can no longer afford to treat these diseases and the vaccines that can prevent their spread as an afterthought.”?

In 2022 the World Health Organization blamed the pandemic for the biggest drop in childhood vaccinations in 30 years.?

The National Library of Medicine also published a paper in 2024 that blamed a “resurgence of measles cases” on “decades of false claims of vaccine adverse events that have included a misleading association with autism, vaccine complacency and hesitancy, and reduced childhood vaccination rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”?

How accessible are vaccines in Kentucky??

During the 2024 legislative session, Russell Republican Rep. Danny Bentley got a law passed that makes it easier for children to get routine vaccinations.?

House Bill 274, which allows Kentucky pharmacies to continue administering vaccines to children ages 5-17 with parental or guardian consent, went into effect this month.?

“It’s such a simpler access point that we want families to keep in mind,” Taulbee said. “Everybody’s busy. It is a go-go-go, six-second paced life and so if it’s easy for you to pick up dinner, pop into Walgreens and get your child shots on the way home, it’s a lot easier for some families instead of having to take off work and run around town and get to places before they close at 4, 4:30.”?

People can also call the Kentucky Infectious Disease and Vaccine Call Center at 855-598-2246 for help finding a provider, Taulbee said.?

“And please, never ever look at cost to be an issue,” she added. Most childhood vaccines can be received for free — from Kentucky’s public health departments or private medical providers — through the Vaccines for Children program, which is federally funded and was launched in 1993.?

“We want to make sure,” Taulbee said, “that every Kentucky student has the best possible start to the new school year and is ready for success both inside and outside of the classroom.”?

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on July 13, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

In the hours after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, Brian Clardy, historian and Kentucky delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, worried that a divisive fight for the nomination could spell electoral disaster for Democrats in November.

“Democrats cannot afford to go into this thing split. They just cannot afford to do it. History has proven that when Democrats are divided, Democrats lose,” Clardy, a professor at Murray State University, said in an interview with the Lantern Sunday evening.?

Twenty-four hours later, any chance of a spirited open contest had all but evaporated as Democratic delegates, including those from Kentucky, unified behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden’s choice to succeed him as president.

Fresh off endorsing Harris on national television, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear spoke Monday morning to a virtual meeting of Kentucky’s delegates who will head next month to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Beshear, on a short list of ?potential running mates for Harris, urged the state’s delegates to come out in support of the vice president, which they did almost unanimously.?

“She’s ready to lead, and so there was not much debate at all,” said delegate and state lawmaker Reggie Thomas, who was in the meeting and chairs the Kentucky Senate Democratic Caucus. ”We support Kamala Harris and we’re ready for her to become our nominee and to take on and defeat Donald Trump,” Thomas said.

Only one of Kentucky’s 59 delegates dissented, saying she didn’t yet know Harris’ stand on a ceasefire in Gaza, according to someone who attended the meeting but did not remember the dissenting delegate’s name. Kentucky Public Radio also attributed the dissenting vote to concerns about Israel’s war in Gaza.

First-time delegate Robert Kahne of Louisville said he is impressed by the speed with which Democrats have coalesced around Harris, including potential rivals who have endorsed her. “My personal opinion is Democrats are mostly about one thing: defeating Donald Trump. Not having to talk about each other — and talking about Donald Trump — is better,” said Kahne.

Kahne is realistic about the unlikelihood in Kentucky of any Democrat defeating the former Republican president. Trump has carried the state twice by wide margins. No Democrat for president has won Kentucky since Bill Clinton in 1996.

But Kahne says the rejuvenated Democratic ticket at the top of the November ballot could help Kentucky Democrats turn out voters in state legislative races, especially in suburban districts. “If you give up now you’re never going to win,” he said.

Kahne, who hosts “My Old Kentucky Podcast,” also predicts that abortion will be a major issue in the first presidential election since the fall of Roe v. Wade and that voters’ perception of the economy could break for Democrats “at just the right time.”

In 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, Kentuckians, to the surprise of many, defeated an anti-abortion constitutional amendment; voter worries about the loss of abortion rights also contributed to disappointing results for Republicans in midterm congressional races that year. Nonetheless, courts in Kentucky have allowed the state’s near-total ban on abortion to stand. And attempts by Democrats and Republicans to loosen the restrictions have gotten nowhere in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Ona Marshall, founder of the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund, sees Kentucky at a “critical crossroads” and says “one of the major ways that we can have a path forward here is to get federal protections.”

Marshall says Harris has been a more outspoken advocate for reproductive rights than Biden. “She’s been fighting all along to restore rights and protect reproductive freedom in every state.”?

A spokesperson for Kentucky American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told the Lantern the chapter is “encouraged by VP Harris’ record on abortion access.”

Among the delegates “enthusiastically” endorsing Harris was Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who also praised Biden and said his presidency would be “historic for cities like Louisville” and the country.?

Greenberg told reporters? he is looking forward to the convention. “I’m excited to get together with folks from around the country to talk about what we can do to continue to make historic investments in cities like Louisville,” Greenberg said. “We need to make sure that we continue to partner with the federal government to make Louisville safer, stronger and healthier. I know Vice President Harris is committed to that, Gov. Beshear is committed to that and I look forward to working with mayors and other elected officials across the convention on plans to continue to do that in the coming years.”?

Lots of talk about Beshear’s shot at vice president

Speculation about Beshear’s chances of becoming Harris’ running mate dominated political talk in Kentucky Monday as Democrats touted the governor’s electoral appeal and Republicans voiced more skepticism.

Kahne, the Democratic convention delegate, dismissed the conventional wisdom that candidates should pick a running mate who can help carry a swing state as obsolete and said it “very rarely works out in that way.”?

Kahne says Harris and Beshear would complement and balance each other. “Andy Beshear would make a great contrast to Kamala Harris. And they also have a lot in common. They were both attorneys general and state politicians deeply loved by their bases.”

Tres Watson, former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said being tapped as vice president would be great for Beshear but a “horrible move” for Harris, who would gain neither an electoral or fund-raising advantage from putting Beshear on the ticket.

Watson also predicted that Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance would “run circles around” Beshear in a debate. “I think other than being a white guy, what does Andy Beshear bring to this ticket? Nothing,” Watson said.

During his Monday morning appearance on MSNBC, Beshear took swipes at Vance, who wrote about his Eastern Kentucky family roots in his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” ?

“I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like, because let me just tell you that J.D. Vance ain’t from here,” Beshear said.

Later in the day, according to CNN, Vance responded with a swipe at Beshear. “It’s very weird to have a guy whose first job was at his dad’s law firm and inherited the governorship from his father to criticize my origin story.” Vance added that “nobody gave me a job because of who my father was. I’m proud of that.”

Republican Trey Grayson, a former secretary of state, said Beshear, a three-time (counting attorney general) elected Democrat in a red state, could bring a “middle American presence” to the Harris ticket.

“I’m not convinced he’s going to get it, but I understand why he would certainly be on the list,” Grayson said, adding there’s “no downside” for Beshear in pursuing what could be a path to raise his political profile and put him in line for a cabinet position or even the presidency.

Grayson said Republican Vance, whose memoir recounts a childhood made turbulent by his mother’s addiction and family dysfunction, has a more interesting life story than Beshear, the son of a prominent elected official and two-term governor. But Beshear has more political experience than Vance.

Also, running mates are often asked to go on the offensive, which is not the Beshear brand, although Harris might be looking for something different in a running mate, Grayson said.

Beshear joining the Harris ticket would not put Kentucky in play, Grayson said. “We’re just too Republican. Trump’s too popular.”

Thomas, the Democratic state senator, was more optimistic about a Democrat’s chances of winning Kentucky’s eight electoral votes with Beshear on the ticket. “That’s not going to be an easy task. … I wouldn’t go as far to say that Kentucky will turn blue overnight, but I think Kentucky will get behind him should he be on the national ticket,” Thomas said.

Conventions past

In an interview with the Lantern, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton, a Democrat, also stressed the advantages of a? harmonious convention. Patton cited 1972 when Kentucky Gov. Wendell Ford and most of the the state’s delegates supported Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson. The convention nominated Sen. George McGovern, who lost in a landslide to incumbent President Richard Nixon.

Clardy, the history professor, cited the tumultuous Democratic convention from four years earlier in 1968 as what the party should avoid. After President Lyndon B. Johnson, weakened by popular opposition to the Vietnam War, chose not to seek reelection, Nixon won the White House.

Patton said he supports Harris or any Democrat who can oppose Trump. Patton said he has “serious doubts” that Trump, if he wins, would abide by the constitutional limit on presidents serving only two terms.

One big advantage Harris brings over other would-be Democratic nominees: Money. She can argue that her position on what was the Biden ticket qualifies her campaign to tap the $96 million already in Biden’s war chest at the end of June, though Republicans will almost certainly challenge that view.

Harris would be the first Black woman to become president — though not the first Black woman to run for president, a distinction that belongs to Shirley Chisholm, also the first Black woman to be elected to Congress. Clardy said passing over Harris, a graduate of the historically Black Howard University, would have produced “deep resentment” among Black voters, potentially causing them to sit out the election and handing the presidency to Trump.?

(Kentucky Department of Public Health)

Kentucky is seeing higher numbers of pertussis (better known as whooping cough) this year than the past few years, though no deaths have been reported by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.?

As of June 17, Kentucky had 130 cases, which the cabinet said “indicate that the state is experiencing an elevated rate of infection not seen in Kentucky since 2016-2017.” During those years, there were 463 and 449 cases.?

Of Kentucky’s 2024 cases, four infants, one school-aged child and three adults have been hospitalized, according to the cabinet. Most cases are in children of school-going age, though some cases are in infants — who are most at risk for complications — toddlers and adults, the cabinet says.?

Brice Mitchell, a cabinet spokesman, said it’s “not surprising to see an increase this year.”

“Pertussis is endemic in the U.S. and spikes in diseases incidence occur every 3-5 years,” he said. “Incidence of pertussis was low in Kentucky and the U.S. throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, likely due to social distancing measures and mask usage.”

The highly contagious respiratory illness often starts with a runny nose and mild coughing, which then advances to “rapid, violent coughing fits,” the cabinet says. People may also experience trouble breathing and throwing up.?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated against whooping cough. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services reports 91% of kindergarteners and 85% of children in seventh grade are up to date on their required pertussis immunizations.?

“Anyone can get pertussis, though infants are at greatest risk for life-threatening illness,” Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said in a statement. “Fortunately, vaccinations are available to help prevent serious disease.”?

House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, questions officials from the Administrative Office of the Courts about the VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) system during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary, July 18, 2024 in Frankfort. (LRC Public Information)

A House Republican leader on Thursday criticized the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for a three-year lapse in automatic notifications to Kentucky crime victims about their court cases.?

Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, the House majority whip, said the AOC should have requested the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to relaunch these notifications through Victim Information and Notification Everyday, commonly called VINE, during this year’s session of the General Assembly.

“We would have funded it,” he said during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary. “This is something very important to us. I think we’ve made that pretty clear last year.” Kentucky currently enjoys a record general fund surplus.?

The situation, Nemes said, is “extremely frustrating” as he criticized “the courts’ recalcitrance.”?

Katie Comstock, the executive director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, told Nemes that “we only have so much bandwidth and so much requests” during the budget cycle.?

She pointed to the budget priorities that were funded in the new two-year state budget — maintenance for rundown courthouses, pay increases and mental health courts.?

“I would love to say that I have unlimited budget requests when I come to you all and have priorities,” she said. “I don’t.”?

Fixing the expensive problem

VINE was created largely in response to the killing of Kentuckian Mary Byron on her 21st birthday in 1993 by a former boyfriend. She thought he was still in jail on charges of raping, assaulting and stalking her. Her family had asked to be notified of his release but was not.

VINE launched in 1996, allowing victims and others to sign up to be alerted when an offender is being released from custody and when protective orders are served or expire. Victims receive notifications via automated text, email or calls.

VINE is still providing notifications when offenders are released from custody. But in 2021 it stopped sending notifications of court dates when the AOC stopped sharing that information because of security concerns. AOC officials had begun “to have concerns about the potential monetization and protection of our court data,” Comstock testified. She later said “we have no evidence that that was happening.”?

At that time AOC stopped sharing victim data with Appriss, which operates VINE. The system is registration-based, meaning to get notifications one needs to sign up for them, said Alexis Williams, the branch manager at the Department of Corrections’ Victim Services Branch.?

Prosecutors currently inform crime victims of court updates, be it by email, letters or phone calls. VINE? still sends notifications when an offender is being released from incarceration.?

‘We ought to fix:’ Kentucky crime victims aren’t getting automatic court notifications?

“VINE relies on comprehensive data from the state to provide timely and accurate notifications,” said Jarrod Carnahan, the vice president of Government and Victim Services at Appriss. “Data elements often include case numbers, court dates, event types, courtroom notifications, and defendant identification information.”??

“I want to emphatically reiterate that our organization does not retain search history or engage in any unauthorized use of registered or victim information,” Carnahan said. “The only use of registered data is in the instance we are legally required to provide it or if it is within the provisions of the VINE service.”?

Since appearing before a legislative committee last September and being scolded for the delay in notifications by lawmakers, the parties came back to the table to discuss solutions, Comstock said.?

Appriss “has proposed a solution that addressed those data concerns” from 2021, Comstock said, but it will cost.?

“They now want us to finance the cost of the notification platform to the tune of $500,000 for a one time implementation fee and $360,000 for a service fee for the first 12 months with annual service fees increasing after that,” she told lawmakers. “That proposed cost far exceeds any cost we currently undertake for comparable services.”?

And, she said: “we don’t have the funds appropriated in our base budget to pay for the service.”?

Another potential solution is to revamp the existing court text notification system for this purpose, which would cost money but not as much. Another hurdle: the court system would need to collect victims’ contact information for the notifications to work.?

“Currently, we don’t have victim emails and phone numbers to send them notifications and collecting victim information hasn’t thus far been a function of the court system,” Comstock said.??

Meg Savage, the chief legal officer of ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), said she hopes lawmakers can find a solution “soon” to make “notifications effective, efficient and reliable.”?

“At a point in survivors’ lives when so much is already uncertain and overwhelming, removing the stress of uncertainty about when they need to be in court will be a great benefit, reducing unneeded trips to the courthouse or multiple calls to and from prosecutors’ offices,” Savage said. “A well-functioning notification system will hopefully make an already stress-filled process just a little bit easier for all victims of crime in the Commonwealth.”??

‘Not acceptable’?

“At the end of the day, this is now three years the court system has decided to stop notifying our people,” Nemes said. “It’s their responsibility to do it and they’re not doing it.”?

Carnahan with Appriss said the notifications could be up and running within 45 days if they were to get access to the needed data immediately.?

AOC could not meet its end of it within that time frame, Comstock with AOC said, because they would need to make changes to their system.?

Nemes suggested the committee bring back the court system for updates every two months until the issue is resolved. The next meeting is Aug. 23.?

“I want to be very clear that it’s not acceptable,” Nemes said. “It hasn’t been acceptable for a long time and it needs to be resolved.”??

VOA’s Freedom House, a program for pregnant and parenting women who have substance use disorders, wants to improve completion rates for Black women.(Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — The Volunteers of America chapter that includes Kentucky will spend $123,000 over the next nine months to make sure more Black women get access to treatment for substance use disorder.?

Volunteers of America Mid-States is using this grant money, which came from the Kentucky Association of Health Plans, to fund a new initiative called Access Justice.?

With the grant money, scholar, writer and activist Brandy Kelly Pryor will specifically evaluate VOA’s Freedom House, which is a program for “pregnant and parenting women” who have substance use disorders. Her report is due April 2025.?

The 31-year-old program, with locations in Louisville and Manchester, also lets minor children (under the age of 18) stay with their mothers during treatment. Kelly Pryor will primarily study Louisville and potentially branch out elsewhere at a later time.?

Jennifer Hancock, the president and CEO of Volunteers of America Mid-States, told the Lantern this move is in direct response to the high rates of maternal mortality among Black women and the disproportionately high overdose rates among Black Kentuckians.?

Kentucky overdose deaths decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row, according to the Drug Overdose Fatality Report.?

In 2022, 2,135 Kentuckians died from an overdose, marking the first decline since 2018. Ninety percent of those deaths were from opioids and fentanyl.?

In 2023, the number of fatal overdoses was down to 1,984. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those — about 79% of the 2023 deaths. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023’s overdose deaths.?

Despite the overall decrease, the number of Black Kentuckians who died from a drug overdose increased from 259 in 2022 to 264 in 2023, the Lantern previously reported.?

A 2023 state report on maternal mortality also showed substance use disorder contributed to nearly 60% of all maternal deaths. Most maternal deaths in Kentucky – 88% — are preventable, that report from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said.?

Freedom House locations have also seen lower program completion rates for Black Kentuckians, Hancock said.??

“I think some of it is about the stigma that they face coming into treatment,” Hancock said. “I think that there could be some cultural and familial pressures that they experience disproportionately.”?

Kelly Pryor’s study is expected to provide answers as to why Black Kentuckians leave the Freedom House program without completing it, she said.?

“Women, generally speaking, have to be convinced that they deserve treatments and that they are worthy of getting this help and support versus trying to do it on their own,” Hancock said.?

In her analysis, Kelly Pryor will “identify gaps in care and opportunities for improvement, ensuring that substance use disorder recovery services are equitable and accessible for everyone who needs them,” VOA said.?

The nonprofit will then come up with plans to fill any gaps in care and access.?

Hancock doesn’t know if the solution will be “an internal-to-VOA process that needs to be improved, or if it’s more of a public campaign that we need to wage to reassure Black women that they’re worthy of treatment, that treatment is a place where they can feel supported and feel seen and heard.”?

“I haven’t reached any conclusions around that,” she said. “I’m remaining really curious at this point in time.”?

The measure of success, Hancock said, will be when VOA and Freedom House start seeing “better engagement rates of Black women” and higher program completion rates.?

“Building on principles of healing justice, we will ensure a process that facilitates those most affected, leading us toward the best solutions for recovery and prevention,” Kelly Pryor said in a statement. “This effort will take time and involve critical self-reflection, yet the return will have an indelible impact on Kentucky and beyond.”

Kentucky had many fewer maternity care providers than the national average in 2022 — 69 per 100,000 women ages 15–44 compared with an average of 79 nationally.?(Getty Images)

As the worst of COVID-19 subsided in 2022 and a trigger law banning most abortions went into effect upon the fall of Roe v. Wade, Kentucky was already among the worst-performing states for women’s health.?

This insight comes from The Commonwealth Fund’s 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care, a first-of-its kind ranking that examined health outcomes, insurance coverage, abortion restrictions and other measures in all states and Washington D.C.?

Data is mostly from 2021 and 2022 and was collected primarily from public sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.?

Released Thursday, the report shows Kentucky had many fewer maternity care providers than the national average in 2022 — 69 per 100,000 women ages 15–44 compared with an average of 79 nationally.?

Kentucky women between the ages of 18 and 44 are also less likely than the national average to report seeing a medical provider for a routine checkup, the report shows.?

“Based on the evidence and data, one thing is absolutely clear: women’s health in the U.S. is in a very fragile state,”? Dr. Joseph Betancourt, the Commonwealth Fund president, said during a Wednesday press call.?

“There are stark disparities in women’s access to quality health care among states, across racial, ethnic and socio economic lines,” Betancourt said. “These inequities are long standing no doubt, but recent policy choices and judicial decisions for restricting access to reproductive care have and may continue to exacerbate them.”??

The report’s goal, Betancourt said, is to offer states and the nation a “vital baseline for tracking the ripple effects” of the United States Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion as well as “impacts of new policy restrictions on reproductive care.”?

Researchers said Wednesday on a national press call that where a woman lives can indicate a lot about her ability to access and afford all kinds of health care.?

“We are seeing a deep and likely growing geographic divide in U.S. women’s ability to access vital health services and maintain their health, particularly among women of reproductive age,” said Sara Collins, one of the research authors.?

In Kentucky, a“trigger law” went into effect upon the high court’s Roe reversal. Now, abortions in the state are banned in most cases.?

Also in 2022, Kentucky voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment that would have stated definitely that? there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.

Kentucky does not have exceptions for rape or incest, though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have filed unsuccessful bills to change that in recent years. There is an exception in cases where the life of the pregnant person is at risk.

The scorecard report is “generally reflecting what was happening in 2022,” explained David Radley, one of the research authors. “So, after the main impacts of COVID, but largely before or concurrent … with the implementation of state abortion bans immediately following the Dobbs decision.”?

“We expect to update this report over time to track how state policy actions — specifically how new restrictions on access to abortion services — impact women’s health and the care they receive,” Radley said during a Wednesday press call.?

Maternal, infant death rates higher in Kentucky than nation

Some key takeaways from the report include:

• From 2020-2022, Kentucky had a rate of 31.4 maternal deaths while pregnant or within 42 days of termination per 100,000 live births. That’s higher than the national average of 26.3.?
• In 2021, Kentucky’s infant mortality rate was higher than the national average — 6.2 per 1,000 live births compared with 5.4 nationally.?
• All-cause mortality among women ages 15-44 in 2022 was 176.3 per 100,000, far higher than the national average of 110.3. Kentucky is one of the worst in the nation on this point. “Suicide, cancer and complications from pregnancy are among the leading causes of death for women in this age range,” Radley said. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.?

Some data was not available for Kentucky, including the percentage of women who were asked about depression in their postpartum care or the percentage of women who got a flu shot within a 1-year time span before or after delivery.?

The report also does not show the percentage of women who self-reported having postpartum depression symptoms or the percentage of women who experienced intimate partner violence around delivery.?

Other takeaways from the report include:?

• 73% of Kentucky women between the ages of 50-74 reported getting a mammogram in the last two years compared with 77% nationally.?
• 80% of Kentucky women ages 21-65 reported getting a pap smear in the past three years, compared with 82% nationally.?
• 69% of Kentucky women 65 and older received a pneumonia vaccine, compared with 73% nationally.?
• 33% of Kentucky women between the ages of 18-64 have received an HIV or AIDS test, compared with 44% nationally.?
• 65% of Kentucky women between 45-74 reported getting a sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy in the past decade or a fecal occult blood test in the past two years, compared with 60% nationally.

Bright spots

While Kentucky performed poorly overall, data shows a few points where the state did better than the national average.

In 2022, for example, 6% of women in Kentucky between 19-64 reported not having health insurance. That’s lower than the 10% national average.?

Additionally, 12% of Kentucky women between 18-44 said in 2022 they’d needed to see a doctor in the past year but couldn’t afford to. That’s lower than the national average of 17%. Kentucky also has a higher rate of women in this age group who have someone they think of as their health care provider.?

Dr. Laurie C. Zephyrin, one of the study authors and the senior vice president for advancing health equity at The Commonwealth Fund, said in a statement that “it is disheartening to see the rising disparities in women’s health across the nation.”?

“Our country’s fractured landscape of reproductive health access will make it even more difficult to close these widening gaps, especially for women with low incomes and women of color in states with restricted access to reproductive care,” said Zephyrin. “Instead of limiting care, federal and state policymakers should work to ensure that women have access to the full continuum of care throughout their lives.”

The Commonwealth Fund, founded in 1918, is a charitable foundation focused on promoting “a high-performing, equitable health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including people of color, people with low income, and those who are uninsured.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and his vice presidential prospects had been the center of speculation in his home state for weeks. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

In a Wednesday letter sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he supports reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III.?

That would move marijuana from a DEA designation that says it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” to having “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”?

Easing federal marijuana rules: There’s still a long way to go

Marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I drug since 1970, when Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.?

Beshear’s letter comes near the end of public comment on a Biden administration proposal to reclassify marijuana. The common period ends July 22. So far the proposal has generated almost 32,000 comments.?

Beshear’s letter also comes as Kentucky is accepting applications for cannabis business licenses ahead of a 2025 legalization for medical marijuana. Medical providers can also apply to Kentucky’s Board of Medical Licensure and Board of Nursing for permission to write cannabis prescriptions beginning next year.?

The bipartisan House Bill 829 that became law during this year’s legislative session moved up the medical cannabis timeline from January 2025 to July 1, 2024.?

Under this law, qualifying patients with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions will be able to use marijuana to treat their chronic illnesses.?

“The jury is no longer out on marijuana: It has medical uses and is currently being used for medical purposes,” Beshear wrote. “The recognition is overwhelming – and bipartisan. In Kentucky, for example, I signed a medical marijuana law that passed with support from Republican legislative supermajorities and a Democratic Governor.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended the classification change a year ago. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the Attorney General would “initiate the rulemaking process to transfer marijuana to schedule III.”?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office did not yet respond to a Lantern inquiry into where Coleman stands on the proposed change.

A Valentine meet and greet benefit with Ethan in 2022 sold out. (Kentucky Humane Society)

Legislators and advocates who pushed for years to make dog and cat torture a felony on first offense gathered in the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday to celebrate a new Kentucky law that does just that.?

House Bill 258, also called Ethan’s Law, allows a person to be charged with a Class D felony the first and every time they torture a dog or cat. It was previously a Class A misdemeanor on first offense and Class D felony after that.?

The law’s namesake, Ethan, won hearts over as he recovered from severe neglect in 2021. During the session, Ethan, primarily a brindle Presa Canario, came several times to Frankfort to testify in favor of it.?

It passed the legislature this year with bipartisan support and Gov Andy Beshear signed it into law in April. It went into effect Monday.?

The new law defines torture as the “intentional infliction of or subjection to extreme physical pain or serious injury or death to a dog or cat, motivated by intent or wanton disregard that causes, increases, or prolongs the pain or suffering of the dog or cat, including serious physical injury or infirmity.”?

Ethan’s owner, Jeff Callaway, has said that after being sold as a puppy, Ethan was traded for drugs and endured a “hellish” chapter of his life that ultimately led to him being abandoned in the Kentucky Humane Society parking lot. Veterinarians nursed him back to health, which included helping him gain around 50 pounds and learn to walk again.

Louisville Republican Susan Witten, who sponsored Ethan’s Law, said Tuesday that it “makes Kentucky a better place to live — not just for dogs and cats that we love but for every community, for every person in our community.”?

That’s because, she and others pointed out, research suggests people who harm animals are more likely to hurt people.?

“It’s unimaginable the pain our furry friends can go through when they’re left helpless (in) restraints,” Secretary of State Michael Adams said. “These animals suffer broken bones, starvation, even impalement.”?

He praised the legislative move to “keep our best friends safe, and punish those who hurt them.”?

The review panel’s next review of child deaths in Kentucky comes out in February 2025. The 2024 report showed children 4 years old and younger were the most at risk for overdose. The panel also found “a significant increase” in firearm injuries in children, the Lantern previously reported. (Getty Images)

If you suspect child abuse or neglect, call the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Child Abuse Reporting Hotline at 1-800-752-6200.?

Kentucky’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel has a full complement of members for the first time in several years, analysts told members of the Legislative Oversight & Investigations Committee Thursday.

For about four years the panel slot reserved for a practicing social worker was vacant, with the exception of a six-day stint in January 2023, committee analyst Jacob Blevins told lawmakers.?

Youngest Kentuckians increasingly fall victim to accidental overdoses

That position was filled June 6.?

After the former social work clinician retired in 2020, there was a period of about two years during which the Kentucky Board of Social Work did not forward recommendations for new members to the attorney general, Blevins said.?

In recent years state government has suffered from a shortage of social workers, a trend that started to reverse in 2023. Marc Kelly, the executive director of the Kentucky Board of Social Work, said this was “an issue with appointing people” to the panel.?

“Finding Licensed Clinical Social Workers for the panel has been challenging,” Kelly said. “However applications for Licensed Clinical Social Workers have recently increased so we are hopeful that this will not be a problem going forward.”

In January 2023, “An appointee was selected by the attorney general,” Blevins said, “but immediately resigned due to professional obligations.”?

The panel, established in 2012 to review child deaths and near-deaths from abuse or neglect, has five ex officio non voting members and 17 voting members.?

The social work clinician, Allison Motley-Crouch of Salt Lick, is a voting member. Motley-Crouch will serve a two-year term ending June 30, 2026.?

The panel’s next report comes out in February 2025. The 2024 report showed an increase in children dying from drug overdoses, especially children 4 years old and younger. The panel also found “a significant increase” in firearm injuries in children, the Lantern previously reported.?

Andrew Kenner donates blood at the Kentucky Blood Center on May 22, 2024, in Lexington. His son, Adam, donated blood at the same time and his wife donated later in the day. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — A Taylor Swift ticket giveaway worth thousands of dollars and aimed at incentivizing more people to donate blood worked, Kentucky Blood Center donor numbers show.??

From May 28 through June 29, anyone who donated at any Kentucky Blood Center location was entered to win two Eras Tour tickets for Nov. 3 in Indianapolis.?

The anatomy of Kentucky’s blood supply, and why more need to donate

The winner, who has not yet been announced, will also get a $500 gift card to help with travel. Seat Geek shows tickets for that day range from $1,988 to $6,486 apiece.?

Blood donors also received Swift-themed t-shirts and friendship bracelets, which are often exchanged by people in the Swift fandom at concerts.

During the month of the giveaway, 1,592 first-timers donated with the Kentucky Blood Center. That’s up from 929 during the same time period in 2023 and 799 during the same time period in 2022.?

During the giveaway time period, the center saw 9,233 total registrations, up from 8,479 in 2023 and 7,537 in 2022.?

The number of young donors dipped dramatically during the pandemic, in part because mobile drives couldn’t go into schools. In recent years, schools have allowed mobile blood drives to resume.

Still, donations haven’t reached pre-pandemic levels yet, which staff say is possibly because of lingering discomfort due to COVID-19.

A big goal of the Swift giveaway was to incentivize younger donors, KBC spokesman Eric Lindsey told the Lantern.?

While age data isn’t yet available, the increase of first-time donors “leads us to believe that we met our goal in terms of bringing in, bringing in a new crowd,” Lindsey said Monday.?

“The fact of the matter is, we brought in people who have never donated blood before,” he said.?

Donor data from the month of the giveaway shows that about 17% of all donors were first time donors. That’s more than 6% higher than the past two years.?

With any increase in new donors, the rate of deferrals is expected to increase. A deferral is when someone is turned away for issues like low iron or failure to meet other eligibility criteria.?

The deferral rate did increase to 15% during the month of the giveaway, up from around 13% the past two years during the same time. Despite this, Lindsey said, the rate of deferral was “honestly not as high as we thought it would be.”?

Thanks to the increase in donations, the center was able to keep a steady supply of blood despite the expected decrease in donations over the July 4 holiday, when donation centers were closed.?

“We did so well in terms of total blood collected,” Lindsey said, “that we just went through that (holiday) period, and yet we still have a really healthy supply.”?

Lawyers for the state on Monday defended the legislature's decision to outlaw some vaping products. The Kentucky Vaping Retailers Association and the Kentucky Hemp Association are challenging the law. The hearing was held in the Franklin County Court House. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate heard arguments Monday in a case challenging the constitutionality of a 2024 law banning the sale of some vaping products.?

This comes as the defendants — Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and Secretary of State Michael Adams — filed a motion to dismiss the case.?

Should Wingate grant that motion, the plaintiffs — the Kentucky Vaping Retailers Association, the Kentucky Hemp Association and four vape shops — will appeal the decision, their lawyer told the Lantern. The plaintiffs have also filed a motion for judgment.?

Either way, the case is far from settled. It’s unclear when a decision could come, as Wingate said it will “take a while” for him to review.?

Kentucky’s new anti-vaping law ignites constitutional challenge

The arguments?

The lawsuit centers around House Bill 11, which passed during the 2024 legislative session. Backers of the legislation said it’s a way to curb underage vaping by limiting sales to “authorized products” or those that have “a safe harbor certification” based on their status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).?

Opponents have said it will hurt small businesses and lead to a monopoly for big retailers.?

Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Phillip Morris, lobbied for the Kentucky bill, according to Legislative Ethics Commission records. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the company is pushing similar bills in other states. Altria, which has moved aggressively into e-cigarette sales, markets multiple vaping products that have FDA approval.?

Greg Troutman, a lawyer for the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, which represents vape retailers, told the judge Monday that, among his issues with the new law, is the way it defines “vapor products” and “other substances,” looping e-cigarettes and vapable hemp and marijuana products together. He argues that combination makes the law too broad and arbitrary to pass constitutional muster.

Troutman argued that because of this, the title of the bill, “AN ACT relating to nicotine products,” didn’t fairly represent the content of the legislation.?

Lindsey Keiser, an assistant attorney general, countered that the title doesn’t need to fully cover the content of the bill.?

“It’s long settled that the title does not need to have a detailed index of everything that’s contained within the bill,” she told the judge.?

Keiser also argued that “the fact that the FDA has approved so few indicates that there is a lot of concern about these products.”

“So,” she said, “it’s reasonable then for Kentucky to … say that ‘if the FDA is only approving this limited number, we too will only approve this limited number.’”??

Later this year, the U.S.? Supreme Court will decide whether or not the FDA was unfair in its denial of at least a million vaping product applications, the Associated Press reported in early July.?

Troutman, arguing for the vape retailers, said the state law is flawed because it’s based on a flawed federal process. “We’ve got a state process that is predicated before a federal process that itself has been deemed arbitrary by at least two federal courts,” he said.?

Meanwhile, HB 11 is set to be enforceable starting Jan. 1, 2025, the same day patients with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions — will be able to apply for cannabis cards for medical marijuana.?

Naloxone (Narcan) nasal spray can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, tasked with distributing opioid settlement dollars, has new members, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office announced Tuesday. ?

The commission was created by the state legislature in 2021 and has nine voting and two non-voting members.?

Kentucky receives installments toward $900 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. So far, it has awarded 110 grants worth more than $55 million toward treatment, prevention and recovery efforts.??

The commission’s new and re-appointed members are:?

• State Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, who will serve as a non-voting member. He was appointed by Speaker of the House David Osborne.?
• Karen Kelly, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, who will serve as a non-voting member. She was appointed by Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester.??
• Jason Roop, an assistant professor of business and theology at Campbellsville University. Roop was appointed by the attorney general. He will “represent victims of the opioid crisis,” the AG’s office said, and serve until 2026.?
• Van Ingram, the executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, was first appointed to the commission in 2022. He will now serve until 2026.
• Patricia Freeman, a professor in the University of Kentucky’s College of Pharmacy, who was appointed by the university from the HEALing Communities study. She will now serve until 2026.?

Chris Evans is the executive director of the commission. Other members are:

• State Treasurer Mark Metcalf
• Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander
• Von Purdy, the vice president for Advancement and Community Engagement at Simmons College
• Darren “Foot” Allen, a retired Kentucky State Trooper
• ?Karen Butcher, who represents the opioid victim community.?

“As a person in long-term recovery, I take very seriously the responsibility to help ensure more people have access to innovative, transformative and life-saving treatment modalities,” Jason Roop said in a statement. “The recovery journey doesn’t end when treatment is completed, and establishing and maintaining a recovery-friendly ecosystem in our communities remains paramount to our continued success for many years to come.”?

Overdose deaths decreased in Kentucky in 2023 for the second year in a row, though 1,984 still died. That’s down from 2,135 in 2022.?

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those 2023 deaths — about 79%. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023’s overdose deaths.?

Despite the overall decrease, the number of Black Kentuckians who died from a drug overdose increased from 259 in 2022 to 264 in 2023.?

Ingram, the executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said this is “a lot more work left to do” on prevention efforts. “We will keep supporting addiction treatment programs until every Kentuckian is saved and has found recovery.”?

The commission will next meet on July 29.?

DeleteMe expands on Kentucky Safe at Home which lets victims of domestic violence hide their addresses when registering to vote and to use the state Capitol as their address on public records. (Getty Images)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

Over a seven-month period last year, there were nearly 27,000 alleged cases of child abuse with a domestic violence component in Kentucky, the 2023 Domestic Violence Data Report shows.?

From April 22 to Dec. 31, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and help hotlines received 26,582 “unique reports” of child abuse “in which there were also allegations of domestic violence,” according to the statewide report, released Monday.??

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said this number is “pretty alarming.”

“Those are real people, and … this is a significant part of their life, day in and day out,” Downs told the Lantern. “Parents, the non-offending caregivers, are having to think every day about how to keep their kids safe in a very different way than a lot of other parents. You have older siblings who are having to think about how to keep their younger siblings safe in a very different way than a lot of other people.”???

The report also shows the number of adult Kentuckians who experienced intimate partner violence decreased slightly in 2023 from 2022.?

In 2022, the first of its kind report showed about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes.

The 2023 report shows that from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

This includes, according to the report, “being fearful or concerned for safety, any post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, injury, need for medical care, housing services, victim advocate services, and/or legal services, missing at least one day of work or school, and/or contacting a crisis hotline.”?

The state began gathering this data in compliance with a 2022 Republican bill that directed agencies to annually gather and publish data on domestic and dating violence and abuse.?

Data in it comes from the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet’s Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center, Kentucky State Police, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Administrative Office of the Courts.

By the numbers?

The report shows that in Kentucky last year:?

• 41,887 electronic JC-3 forms (documenting alleged violence) were filed. This is up from 2022, when there were 38,708 electronic JC-3 forms filed across Kentucky.?
• 7,744 arrests were made for incidents involving domestic or dating violence and abuse. This is down from 2022, when there were 8,867 arrests. The decrease is because the report excluded human trafficking this year, according to the Justice & Public Safety Cabinet, “to help provide the state a better snapshot for progress to be made.”?
• 17,036 emergency protective orders were served by the Kentucky State Police.? This is an increase from 2022, when police served 16,402 emergency protective orders (EPOs), which are short-term restrictions on? the accused’s movements until the issue can go before a judge, which the court system aims to do within two weeks.?
• 15,104 individuals received services from ZeroV’s 15 regional domestic violence programs.
• 23,381 crisis/hotline calls were received through ZeroV’s 15 regional domestic violence programs. This is an increase from the 21,241 crisis calls in 2022.

‘Scary’ to report

What is known about intimate partner violence in Kentucky isn’t the whole picture; research suggests only around 54% of domestic violence incidents like rape or assault are reported to police.?

“The true prevalence and impact of domestic violence goes far beyond the scope of the data captured within this report,” the report says.?

The data that is known “is almost like the tip of the iceberg,” said Downs. “There are probably a lot more people — hundreds, thousands, potentially, of other people — across the state who are experiencing this currently, have experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives, and just didn’t say anything.”?

And any amount of interpersonal violence is too much, advocates say.?

Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), said “any level of violence greater than zero is a concern that deserves the attention of our commonwealth.”?

Ending such violence needs a comprehensive approach, she said.?

“We need a strong support system that makes sure everyone can access food, healthcare and housing, which would make it easier for survivors to get away from abusive relationships,” Yannelli said in a statement. “And finally, we need to abolish the cultural norms that allow for and perpetuate (intimate partner violence) to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

Community members — and lawmakers — need to band together to end cycles of violence and the stigma around reporting it, Downs with KYA said.?

“In general, I think it is very hard, it’s very scary, it’s very dangerous to even report at all, to tell anyone about what’s going on,” she said.?

Solutions to ending violence will be different in different areas of the state, Downs said. ?“It’s 2024. This isn’t a new or emerging issue, and so reading this report, to me, felt like an urgent call for action.”?

Lawmakers should work to find solutions to ending violence, she said, and listen to input from the experts in different regions.

“We all know somebody or multiple people who have gone through it. Non-offending parents and their children really cannot afford to have those in positions of power spending another year being just horrified or shocked by the data and then not following through with action.”?

House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, left, and Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, present Senate Bill 47, a bill to legalize medicinal cannabis, before the House Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee, March 30, 2023. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Kentuckians can now begin applying for a cannabis business license, and medical providers can apply to Kentucky’s Board of Medical Licensure and Board of Nursing for permission to write cannabis prescriptions.?

This is thanks to a bipartisan House Bill 829 that became law during this year’s legislative session and moved up the medical cannabis timeline from January 2025 to July 1, 2024.?

In 2023, the legislature legalized medical marijuana for Kentuckians suffering from chronic illnesses.?

Patients who qualify — with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions — still won’t be able to apply for cannabis cards until Jan. 1.?

Applications will remain open until Aug. 31. There are a limited number of licenses that the state will distribute to cultivators and dispensers, and winners will be chosen in a lottery system. Kentucky will award 48 licenses to dispensaries in 11 regions across the state, 10 to processors and 16 to cultivators.?

Lottery winners are expected to be announced in October, Gov. Andy Beshear previously said. Filling the applications via lottery, Beshear said in April, is a way to keep the process more equitable.??

“It creates a more fair process,” he said. “Not one where people bid against each other and only then the big companies can be a part of it.”?

Applicants will be required to pay an application fee and provide documentation including business history, operating plans and financial information.?

“The program is focused on ensuring cannabis business licensing is fair, transparent and customer-service oriented,” Sam Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis, said in a statement.?

Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, the primary sponsor of HB 829, said the new timeline is “the culmination of a long effort to provide for the safe use of medical marijuana to provide relief to Kentuckians suffering from pain and disease.”

“We’re taking the regulatory process seriously,” Nemes said, “and looking forward to seeing it move forward.”

For more information on applying, visit this website.?

From left, Jessica Kalb, Sarah Baron and Lisa Sobel are challenging Kentucky's abortion ban. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards has ruled against a motion made by three Jewish women seeking to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban on religious grounds.?

In a 9-page Friday night opinion, Edwards wrote the women do not have standing and that their concerns are “hypothetical.”

Citing several precedential cases, the judge said the issue was not yet a concrete problem and lacked “ripeness.”?

“Individuals cannot manufacture standing merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending,” Edwards wrote.

Louisville judge hears arguments in Jewish women’s challenge of Kentucky’s abortion ban

Therefore, he wrote, “plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate the existence of a justiciable controversy as defined by generations of case law.”?

This comes more than a month after the judge heard oral arguments, which heavily focused on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the extent to which it overlaps with the state’s abortion ban.?

One of the plaintiffs has nine frozen embryos that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve, just as Kentucky lawmakers are split on what protections exist for IVF in the state.?

The women’s lawyers — Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper — argued that by banning most abortions, Kentucky had imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.?

They also said their plaintiffs — Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — feel Kentucky’s current laws around abortion inhibit their ability to grow their families.?

Benjamin Potash, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, told the Lantern in a text that the decision “makes numerous obvious errors,” such as basing part of the ruling on a reading of Roe V. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion but was overturned in 2022 by the United States Supreme Court.?

Assistant Attorney General Lindsey Keiser defended the law on May 13 for the state attorney general, who praised Friday’s decision “to uphold Kentucky law.”?

“Most importantly, the Court eliminates any notion that access to IVF services in our Commonwealth is at risk,” Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement. “Today’s opinion is a welcome reassurance to the many Kentuckians seeking to become parents.”

Potash said the judge’s decision is “disappointing” and said “we look forward to review by higher courts.”??

“After 13 months of waiting, we received a nine page decision that we feel fails to comport with the law,” he said. “Our nation is waiting for a judiciary brave enough to do what the law and our traditions require.”?

Allison Adams, right, will succeed Ben Chandler as CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. (Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky)

After nearly a decade at the helm of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Ben Chandler is set to retire at the end of 2024.?

The foundation announced his plan Thursday and said its current chief operating officer, Allison Adams, will take his place. She will serve as president and CEO starting Jan. 1.?

Chandler became CEO of the foundation in 2016 after serving as state attorney general and representing Kentucky’s 6th U.S. Congressional District from 2004 to 2013.?

As attorney general from 1995 to 2003, he won a $45 million settlement to compensate the public for charitable assets that were lost in the Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield merger. The money from the settlement was used to start the foundation.

Chandler is from Versailles, in Woodford County, where his family publishes The Woodford Sun.?

“It has been an incredible experience to lead the Foundation that I helped make possible during my time as an elected official,” Chandler said in a statement. “We have achieved things that many deemed impossible. While I am so proud of what we have accomplished these last eight years, I know there is still much to be done. I have the utmost confidence and trust in the organization’s future with Allison at helm.”

Reducing tobacco use has been a priority for Chandler. He and the foundation advocated for increasing the state tax on cigarettes, which the legislature did in 2018, and for a tobacco-free school campus bill in 2019 that resulted in more school districts adopting tobacco-free campus policies.

Chandler led the foundation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting vaccine confidence through statewide campaigns, event, and research, according to a release from the foundation.

Marianne Smith Edge, chair of the board of directors, said, “The board is grateful to Ben and all that he has done for the foundation over the last eight years. His vision to lead the organization into policy advocacy has resulted in many wins for the health of Kentuckians.”

The new CEO?

Adams joined the foundation in September 2020 and served as its vice president for public policy before being named COO in January 2023, according to the foundation.?

Before her time at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Adams, who is from Maysville, directed the Buffalo Trace District Health Department. She’s also worked as a registered nurse and for the Kentucky Health Department Association.?

“I am so honored and thrilled to have been chosen to take the reins of such a dedicated and respected organization,” Adams said in a statement. “It has been a privilege to work with Ben these past four years to address the unmet health needs of Kentuckians. Our state still faces many health challenges, and I will not waiver in my commitment to creating a Commonwealth where every single person has what they need to live a healthy life.”

The report recommends that states and health plans expand their behavioral health networks by raising reimbursement rates — “as they do for medical/surgical providers.” (Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky’s largest city is expanding a program that directs certain mental health 911 calls away from police.?

Louisville’s two-year-old Crisis Call Diversion Program will begin operating 24/7 as of July 1, the mayor’s office announced Thursday. That’s an expansion from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.?

This deflection program works by triaging 911 calls to discover if the caller is having a mental health crisis and operates in all Louisville Metro Police Department divisions. MetroSafe workers, who answer 911, ask questions of callers like “are you experiencing a mental health crisis?”?

If a person has a weapon, needs medical attention or is threatening a person or themselves, they aren’t eligible for deflection-only response from a crisis triage worker (CTW). Sometimes, police and mobile crisis workers may respond together.??

Since its 2022 launch, Louisville says its program deflected around 4,000 calls with 1,500 of those this year.?

Seven Counties Services, a community mental health center, is partnering with the city on this expansion. Seven Counties will have 46 employees to work on deflection as of July 1. That includes 13 crisis triage workers and 27 mobile crisis responders, the mayor’s office said.??

“By further expanding our deflection program to operate around the clock, we’re ensuring even more people across our city will be able to benefit from these services, as well as giving our police officers more hours available to focus on violent crime,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement. “We know these additional service hours will make a difference and will help build on our progress to make Louisville a safer, stronger and healthier city for all our people.”?

LMPD Deputy Chief Steven Healey says the program “has helped our officers focus more on crime-related incidents and better allocate our resources, which in turn, assists our residents and visitors.”?

“Sometimes” Healey said, “a call simply does not warrant a police response.”

“We are honored to continue providing compassionate, equitable, and intentional care to individuals in times of crisis,” Nicole Wiseman, deflection unit manager at? Seven Counties Services, said in a statement. “This expansion of hours will help build a more resilient community for all.”

Need mental health care in Kentucky?

• If you are in immediate crisis, text or call 988.
• To look for a mental health therapist near you, visit:?Psychology Today?and search by ZIP Code.
• Check out the Kentucky Psychological Foundation’s?Behavioral Health Roadmap.
• Find a support group?through Kentucky’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

A “Bans off our bodies” pin was worn to an election night watch party in Louisville celebrating defeat of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment in Kentucky on Nov. 8, 2022. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

LOUISVILLE — Between 2014 and 2021, 6,162 people called the Kentucky Health Justice Network Abortion Support Fund to seek financial help to get an abortion.?

In a new study published last week, researchers analyzed calls made to the abortion support fund and compared them with the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s records of abortions.?

And while the available data paints a picture of life in the years before the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, researchers said they think the data is relevant in a post-Dobbs world.?

“We talk a lot about reproductive autonomy and having the ability to make choices that are best for us and the reproductive context,” said Melissa Eggen, one of the researchers and a faculty member at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. “And we know that in a post Dobbs world, that restrictive policies don’t allow for that agency or autonomy.”??

Eggen and her co-researchers found a higher percentage of people who called the abortion fund for help were Black, younger than 30 and further along in their pregnancies than the population in the KDPH’s abortion records.?

They concluded young, Black Kentuckians were more likely to need financial assistance or emotional support to get an abortion. Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for health care for lower-income people and those with disabilities, did not cover Kentucky abortions before the procedure was outlawed in most cases.?

“We also know that those are people who are impacted most negatively by poor outcomes” during and after pregnancy, Eggen said.?

In 2023, the KDPH found Black women were twice as likely to die around childbirth than their white counterparts. Kentucky is about 87% white, according to the United States Census Bureau. Meanwhile, about 9% of the population is Black and 4% is Hispanic.??

For the June 21 study, “we’re looking at a period of time in Kentucky when abortion was getting more restricted, but we didn’t have a total ban,” said Mikaela Smith, a research scientist with Ohio Policy Evaluation Network at The Ohio State University.?

“This can serve a little bit as a case study for states that still have abortion available, but are trying to further restrict it. So in that way, we can say…‘Hey, here’s what happened with Kentucky.’”?

The study?

Researchers sought to “assess characteristics of abortion fund callers” with their research.?

To do so, they analyzed KHJN’s administration records showing the age, race and pregnancy gestation of people who called the abortion fund. They then compared those data points with abortion data from the public health department.?

They found the fund “supported” — financially and otherwise — 6,162 people during the seven years before Roe V. Wade was overturned. During that time, 28,741 people had abortions in Kentucky.?

The people who called for help in getting their abortions were more likely to be at least 14 weeks gestation.?

“Compared with state data, KHJN supported a higher percentage of young people, people of color, and people at later gestations,” the report concluded. “These findings support evidence that structurally vulnerable groups are more likely to face barriers to care and that abortion funds provide essential support necessary for reproductive equity.”?

These findings are “not too surprising,” Smith said. However, “being able to apply it in this specific political context felt really important.”?

Senate Republican Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, confers with Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, about the implementation of Senate Bill 151 during the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children meeting, June 19, 2024. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

A funding dispute between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican lawmakers threatens to delay long-awaited financial relief for grandparents and other kinship caregivers who are raising children in Kentucky.?

Beshear signed and says he supports a new law that allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments.

The sticking point is $20 million the Beshear administration says is needed to implement the change.?

Beshear alerted lawmakers to what he called a funding omission in a letter in April — five days after he signed Senate Bill 151 into law. He asked them to use the final two days of the 2024 session to appropriate the $20 million.

The bill sponsor, Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, said changes were made in the bill to satisfy fiscal concerns raised in February by Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) Secretary Eric Friedlander and that she thought the issues were resolved.

“We did a committee sub over in the House with the cabinet’s proposed language, and again, everybody was on board, and it passed out overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support,” Raque Adams told the Lantern.

It’s unclear what will happen when the new law takes effect July 15.

The cabinet is “supportive of the bill, but there is a cost that must be addressed before implementation can occur,” said CHFS spokesman Brice Mitchell.

But Raque Adams, chair of the Senate Republican caucus, said implementing the law is nonnegotiable.

Beshear in his letter to lawmakers cites the state Constitution and two court cases, including a 2005 state Supreme Court decision, that he says preclude the executive branch from spending money the legislature has not appropriated.

“The omission of an appropriation is the same as its elimination,” Beshear wrote.?

Constitutional law expert Sheryl Snyder, a Louisville attorney, reviewed letters sent by the Beshear administration to lawmakers and told the Lantern the cabinet is correct in that it cannot implement a bill that doesn’t have an appropriation attached.?

There may be some wiggle room, however, for general budget dollars to be spent if they aren’t earmarked for another purpose, he said.?

‘In shock’

When the bipartisan bill passed the legislature unanimously, Norma Hatfield, who is raising two grandchildren, thought help was finally on the way for Kentuckians like her.?

Hatfield, president of the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, said the funding dispute has left her “flabbergasted” and “in shock.”

“It’s not a good faith effort when you don’t try to do the best you can do with what you have in serving the children and families in Kentucky,” she said. “And in this particular case, we’re talking about the most traumatized.”?

An estimated 59,000 Kentucky children are in what’s commonly called kinship care. Research shows that staying with family has better outcomes for children. But government financial support for kinship care has been lacking in part because caregivers make an important decision hastily, under stress and without all the information they need.

When the state removes a child from a home, grandparents and other family members often choose to take temporary custody rather than have the child go into state custody. State custody is the first step toward foster care. That first decision is permanent under current law which has excluded kinship caregivers who take temporary custody from ever receiving the $750 a month that foster parents receive for each child.

The new law would give kinship caregivers 120 days to apply to become foster parents for their minor relatives. It also allows children who are being removed from homes to request their preferred familial caregivers, if they are able.?

Until 2013, the state offered a monthly payment of $300 per child to kinship care providers who took in children. But the state closed the kinship program to new applicants 10 years ago, citing budget pressures. Since then, Kentucky has restored some assistance, prodded in part by a class-action lawsuit that successfully argued kinship caregivers were providing essentially the same services for free that foster parents are paid for.

‘Difficulty moving forward’?

During a June 19 meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children, Raque Adams asked Lesa Dennis, the commissioner of the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), about her plans to implement the new law.?

“At this time, we are still hopeful in the near future that there will be an additional pathway for funding of Senate Bill 151,” replied Dennis, who has been in her role for about a year. “But without that support, the cabinet will have difficulty moving forward with implementation.”?

The next day, Raque Adams put out a public statement criticizing the administration. “Kentucky’s vulnerable children and cherished relative and fictive kin caregivers deserve better than this administration’s selective enforcement of duly passed laws that are non-negotiable,” she said at that time.?

The Republican Party of Kentucky fired off several posts on X (formerly Twitter) criticizing Beshear, including one that asked why Beshear and Kentucky Democrats “always fail the most vulnerable Ky children.”

A look back at the timeline

On Feb. 5, Raque Adams received a fiscal note from the Legislative Research Commission stating that SB 151 “should have no additional fiscal impact to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.” That note also said “there is no anticipated fiscal impact to the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet or the Administration Office of the Courts,” according to a copy provided to the Lantern. ?(No fiscal note is included with SB 151 on the legislature’s website.)

But three days later, on Feb. 8, CHFS Secretary Friedlander sent a letter to Raque Adams saying the bill would cause “significant fiscal impact to the cabinet, and would need to be financed using only General Fund dollars.”

Following the Feb. 8 letter, Raque Adams said she had a phone call with Friedlander on Feb. 12. The changes the cabinet wanted were incorporated into a House committee substitute, she said. It passed out of the House committee in late February.

At that time, Raque Adams said, she believed all issues with the bill were resolved.?

Beshear signed SB 151 on April 5.?

Five days later, his office sent a letter to the legislature listing numerous bills, including SB 151, for which the legislature had made no appropriation.?

Also on April 10, Friedlander wrote again to the General Assembly to say the bill would cost $20 million. That figure was based, he wrote, on $15.3 million going to 50% of eligible fictive kin caregivers. That also includes the cost of “additional staff to process” the 1,000 extra applications, an estimated $4.4 million each year for a total of $19.7 million.?

“These costs are unlikely to be federally reimbursable because the child would remain in the relative’s/fictive kin’s care,” he wrote. That would leave the cabinet to foot the bill, he said.?

Morgan P’Pool, communications manager for Senate Republican leaders, said the administration raised no concerns with lawmakers about the bill’s costs from Feb. 23 until April 10.

By then, the state budget had been passed and the session was almost over. The legislature adjourned sine die on April 15.

The two-year state budget approved this year gave DCBS around $1.8 billion annually, while the state has a record financial surplus.?

Whether the cabinet can dip into its general budget dollars to pay for SB 151 depends, said Snyder, “on how the language of the budget pigeonholes the funds.”?

Still crusading for ‘kinship care’ families

“If the funds are earmarked for certain activities, then they can’t change that by spending it on something else,” he said. “If, however, they’ve got a general appropriation for cabinet activities, then they could use some of that money for that purpose.”??

Raque Adams questioned how the cabinet came up with the $20 million estimate.

“If you read the bill, we give the cabinet full administrative regulatory authority,” Raque Adams said. “So they, through regs, can design what the implementation looks like for 151. I’m not telling them what it looks like. They get to design it. So the fact that they haven’t designed what the implementation of 151 looks like, but they have a price tag associated with it, is a real disconnect for me. How can you have a price tag on implementation of a program that you haven’t designed yet?”?

What’s next?

Raque Adams insists the administration is obliged to implement the new law.

“It was a law that was passed, and it’s incumbent upon the administration to implement that state law,” she said. “You don’t get to pick and choose which laws you like and which ones you don’t like. You have to implement. You have to implement what we pass.”?

She added: “It’s like saying ‘I don’t have any money to pay my taxes.’ Well, you still have to pay your taxes.”???

Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for Beshear’s office, said: “Lawmakers had the opportunity to deliver the funding during the session but chose not to. It is simple: The state cannot implement programs and policies if we don’t have the funding needed to do so – and the Kentucky Supreme Court agrees.”

Indeed, Snyder, a past president of the Kentucky Bar Association, said “the appropriation clause of the Constitution provides that the legislature has the power of the purse. So unless they have appropriated funds, the executive branch has no right to spend the money that’s not been appropriated.”?

“So if the situation is a statute has been passed that would require the cabinet to undertake certain action that’s not been funded then the cabinet is correct that they can’t perform the action that’s not been funded,” Snyder added.?

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, called on Beshear to “step up.”

“The resounding support of SB 151’s passage in both Chambers of the General Assembly and signed by the Governor left kinship caregivers and kid advocates across the Commonwealth feeling hopeful about removing barriers to critical supports,” Brooks said. “And yet, our kids being raised by grandparents, other family members, or close family friends are now being put at risk because of political power struggles. We ask that the Governor and his Cabinet step up the same way our kinship caregivers step up for kids everyday.”

The interim Families and Children Committee will take up this issue again during its July 30 meeting.

“The reality is that kinship caregivers thought they were getting some help and assistance, and they’re not — again,” Hatfield said.?

Meanwhile, Raque Adams is “optimistic” the cabinet will implement the bill.

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said, “and we need to make the kids of Kentucky a priority.”?

The news was happier for supporters of reproductive rights in Kentucky as they celebrated the defeat of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment in November 2022. Less than five months earlier the Dobbs decision has allowed a near-total ban on the procedure to take effect in Kentucky. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Arden Barnes)

LOUISVILLE — Two years to the day after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, advocates and physicians in Louisville and Lexington slammed the fallout from Kentucky’s almost total ban on the procedure.

Kentucky’s U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey was in Louisville Monday morning alongside Planned Parenthood and others to say “the law in Kentucky is extreme; it is cruel, and it is harming women and families.”?

In Lexington, abortion access advocates with the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund (KRFF) announced a campaign that will include billboards, trucks and digital ads to “call attention to the harmful effects these bans have on the medical community and all Kentuckians,” said Ona Marshall, who founded KRFF and co-owned Louisville’s EMW Surgical Center, which provided abortions but closed after the ban took effect.

The billboards will go up early next month, she said.?

The campaign will also urge “Kentuckians to sign a pledge calling for an end to the state’s restrictive abortion laws.” Republicans have a supermajority in the state’s legislature, and haven’t appeared willing as a caucus to loosen the abortion restrictions.?

Several physicians who spoke out Monday against the abortion ban said Kentucky’s law is forcing them to delay care and to make decisions that are not the best for patients. Also, they said, the ban is disproportionately burdening lower-income Kentuckians who can’t afford to travel to other states where abortion is legal.

Dr. Alecia Fields, an OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in Lexington that “the aftermath” of the 2022 SCOTUS decision “has been terrifying to witness.”?

“As a doctor, I have been faced with decisions that I never thought possible,” Fields said. “Decisions that are not based on good medicine, but are driven by state law.”?

Dr. Caitlin Thomas, another OB-GYN, said unplanned and unwanted pregnancies can put Kentuckians in difficult situations.?

“Individuals who are not in physical, financial or emotional states to continue pregnancies are left with a difficult decision on whether they need to travel out of state for abortion or to continue pregnancy and suboptimal conditions,” Thomas said. “Furthermore, this creates a dichotomy where only those with means are able to have full control of their reproductive decisions, leaving those most vulnerable without appropriate options.”??

Dr. Callyn Samuel, an OB-GYN who spoke in Louisville, said she’s seeing high risk women forced to carry a complicated pregnancies to her. Providers, she said, greatly fear “legal ramifications” for treating complicated conditions.?

“We as providers now also have to fill out quite lengthy paperwork for patients who come in with simple things (like) ectopic pregnancies — that are emergencies at times — and even to the point where we’re having to fill this paperwork out before we’re able to provide care to them, which has halted their care and definitely caused harm…by not allowing their care to be performed as soon as possible,” Samuel said.?

‘Fear and intimidation’

Rebecca Gibron, the CEO of the Planned Parenthood chapter that includes Kentucky, said the ban is forcing survivors of rape into difficult decisions.?

“These survivors are forced to stay pregnant here if they can’t afford to find care outside of Kentucky,” Gibron said in Louisville.?

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022, a “trigger law” went into effect in Kentucky that banned abortions. Another law bans abortions after six weeks. Doctors have previously said many people don’t know they’re pregnant at the six-week mark.?

That same year, Kentucky voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment that would have stated definitely that? there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.

Kentucky does not have exceptions for rape or incest, though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have filed unsuccessful bills to change that in recent years. There is an exception in cases where the life of the pregnant person is at risk.?

Physicians bring message to Frankfort: Abortion bans forcing us to violate our oath to do no harm

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have argued to no avail that the restrictions Kentucky has in place are unconstitutional.?

Amber Duke, the executive director of Kentucky’s ACLU chapter, said her goal is to “keep fighting until our right to access the full range of care is restored.” The ACLU represented an anonymous plaintiff in December who said she was pregnant but didn’t want to be.?

Jane Doe and the ACLU sued then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron in an effort to access abortion in the state. Her case was dismissed a week before Christmas after her fetus lost cardiac activity and the pregnancy became nonviable.?

Marshall with KRFF said the abortion law in Kentucky is “incredibly vague related to when an abortion can be provided to save a patient’s life.”?

“Why should politicians decide how far her health must deteriorate before physicians can act? The laws create an environment of fear for doctors and hospitals alike,” Marshall said. “How do you practice medicine in an atmosphere of intentional fear and intimidation?”?

Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Experts and lawmakers continue to split over whether Kentucky should reform its controversial certificate of need process.?

Two Republican lawmakers on different sides of the issue — Sen. Stephen Meredith of Leitchfield and Rep. Marianne Proctor of Union — spoke Thursday during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, & Administrative Regulations.

Meredith, who was previously a hospital executive, said that repealing certificate of need (CON) would create more competition among for-profit providers and would harm patients who rely on Medicare and Medicaid. He said the amount of dollars Americans spend on health care is already a “crisis that’s truly of biblical proportion.”?

As of 2022, Americans were spending more than $13,000 per person on health care. Meredith said he recently got a bill of $39,000 for an emergency room visit and hospital stay.

“We have to address the cost, but the problem is, what’s going to be presented today, I believe, will not address that issue. It’s going to be suggested that by implementing free market principles in health care, we can reduce costs and increase access to care,” Meredith said, adding that the opposite would happen in rural areas of the state.

However, Proctor argued that rural hospitals are already facing challenges. She said that since 2005, four rural hospitals have closed in Kentucky. Nationwide, 104 rural hospitals have closed since 2005, according to Becker’s Hospital CFO Report, including 14 in Tennessee and five in West Virginia.

In her Northern Kentucky district, Proctor said, constituents are “??clamoring for choices in their health care hospitals.” She added that she is concerned that dominant providers can “swoop in” communities and close rural hospitals, and gave an example of a Northern Kentucky provider, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, purchasing an Owen County hospital and then closing it.

She said Meredith had valid points but that under the certificate of need law, Kentucky imposes restrictions on health care providers that apply to no one else. “What other industry do we allow that?” she said. “But we’re doing it with our most important, which is health care.”?

Proctor appeared alongside Jaimie Cavanaugh, legal policy counsel for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public-interest law firm that defines its mission as defending “Americans from government overreach and abuse.” Cavanaugh said that federal administrations — from Reagan to Biden — have repeatedly recommended that states repeal CON laws since the 1980s.

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, was set to testify Thursday, but did not appear because he had COVID-19, according to co-chairman Sen. John Schickel, R-Union.?

CON in Kentucky??

The certificate of need requirement is a mechanism for reviewing and approving or rejecting major capital expenditures by certain health care facilities, based on an area’s need, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).?

Kentucky health care providers defend certificate of need

Many legislative attempts to reform the CON process in Kentucky have failed in recent years. The Kentucky Hospital Association supports the current law, warning that without CON protections, out-of-state companies would come in and “cherry pick” privately-insured patients, leaving Kentucky hospitals even more dependent on lower-paying government insurance programs and rendering them no longer able to afford to provide unprofitable but needed medical services.

Sometimes called the “competitor’s veto,” certificate of need (CON) laws are in effect in 35 states and Washington D.C. As of Jan. 1, NCSL reports 12 states either repealed CON or allowed their state programs to “expire.”?

Last year, a legislative task force spent six months studying CON and concluded more study was needed. A resolution filed to reestablish that task force for the summer of 2024 did not pass in this year’s session. Schickel said he had spoken with legislative leadership about renewing the task force, but the leaders wanted to cut back on task forces and use established interim committees to review issues like CON.?

During extreme heat, stay out of the sun and in air conditioning when possible.?(Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

Kentuckians can expect high temperatures this week, with portions of the state predicted to reach 100-degree heat indexes from Tuesday to Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.?

High temperatures can be dangerous, particularly for children, people who are chronically ill or pregnant and older adults.?

It’s not safe to leave pets or children in cars, as they can quickly overheat and even die. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 29 children died from heatstroke inside vehicles last year.?

During extreme heat:?

• Drink plenty of water and non-alcoholic fluids.?
• Stay out of the sun and in air conditioning when possible.?
• Avoid strenuous outdoor activities.?
• Wear lightweight and loose clothes.??
• Take rest breaks often.?
• Check on loved ones and acquaintances.?
• Don’t leave pets or children alone in cars.??
• Call 911 if someone around you experiences heat stroke. Symptoms of heat stroke include headaches, confusion, nausea, dizziness and loss of consciousness, among others. Heat exhaustion symptoms include dizziness, weakness, heavy sweating and more. To combat symptoms, loosen clothing, sip water and move into a cooler area. If symptoms don’t improve, get medical help.?

For information on cooling centers around Kentucky, call 211.?

Rep. George Brown, D-Lexington. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Kentucky Rep. George Brown, D-Lexington, says he will file legislation in 2025 to try and establish Juneteenth as an official state holiday.?

Past efforts to do so have failed.?

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free in Galveston, Texas.?

President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, in 1863, but it was not immediately enforced in many areas of the south.?

In late May, Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order making Juneteenth an executive branch holiday.?

Meanwhile, the Legislative Research Commission announced in early June it will “remain open during regular office hours” on Juneteenth and “committee meetings for that day will proceed as scheduled.”?

There are two committee meetings scheduled for that day.?

Gov. Andy Beshear, right, surveys storm damage from storms in May. (Gov. Andy Beshear)

The storms that swept through Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend killed at least 6 people, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.?

The previous known death total was 5. The sixth death was a 99-year-old woman in Laurel County, Beshear said.?

Previous deaths were reported in Hopkins, Caldwell, Hardin, Mercer and Jefferson Counties.?

The late May storms included an EF-3 strength tornado that sped through an adjacent area to the devastating 2021 tornado in West Kentucky.?

Beshear said his administration will submit a disaster declaration request to President Joe Biden’s administration.

The timeline on that, he said, will depend on “when we think we have enough damage documented to where we feel like we have a good probability of getting that disaster declaration.”

“There was a lot of damage,” he said. “And so I believe we at least should get a disaster declaration. We’ve got to make sure that we have enough before we make that application.”

Kentucky is set to receive more than $9 million over the next four years following a national settlement with Johnson & Johnson. (Getty Images)

Kentucky is set to receive more than $9 million over the next four years following a national settlement with Johnson & Johnson over products containing talc, the attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.?

The company agreed to pay out $700 million after Kentucky — along with 42 other states and Washington D.C. — investigated the company for an alleged connection between baby and other powder products and cancer.?

J&J hasn’t admitted to wrongdoing, Reuters reported, but will stop selling the products of concern. As part of its settlement, Kentucky is set to receive $9,381,168.34 over the next four years. That’s about $2.3 million a year.?

“Our Office works diligently to protect Kentucky families from potentially dangerous products,” Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement. “The Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection helps Kentuckians rest assured when they go to the store, they find safe and reliable products for their family.”

Kentucky’s portion of the settlement will go into the state’s general fund, which the General Assembly can then appropriate, an AG spokesman said.?

Chronic absenteeism has risen among students in Kentucky's public schools. (Getty Images)

The number of Kentucky youth who are chronically absent from school skyrocketed during the 2022-2023 school year.?

The reasons for chronic absenteeism are interconnected and complicated — and the negative fallout potential is widespread, from mental health to the economy.?

Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff and child welfare advocates point to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ongoing fallout, as a key culprit in this crisis.?

Building a habit of absenteeism in school carries over into work, said Florence Chang, a KDE program consultant.?

“Chronically absent students, high school students, … are likely to be significantly higher in absences from work,” she said. “There’s some habits there built up that the same people who miss school are the same people that may call in and miss work.”?

Absenteeism can also hurt a child’s ability to get a high school diploma or higher education.?

“Even if a student were to drop out at 18 and pursue a GED, their earning power with the GED is not the same as it is with a high school diploma,” said Christina Weeter, KDE division director.?

Child welfare advocates are keen to turn the trend around. They say doing so starts with parental communication and investments in comprehensive community services that serve kids outside the classroom.?

By the numbers?

In the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years, about 17% of Kentucky children were chronically absent, according to Chang.?

During the 2022-2023 school year, that number increased to 30%. (Data for the 2023-2024 school year is not yet available). This is even more critical for Eastern Kentucky, where 20% of students were chronically absent before COVID-19 and back-to-back deadly floods.?

Now, half or more of the kids in Eastern Kentucky are chronically absent from school, Chang said.??

“Even before the pandemic, that has been an issue in Eastern Kentucky,” she said. “And after the pandemic, and after the disaster hit that region … we can see that they have skyrocketed in absenteeism.”?

In West and Western Kentucky, too, where deadly tornadoes hit in 2021, absenteeism rose.?

“My suspicion is: it has to do with economically disadvantaged, poor counties maybe having less access … to resources, both learning resources and community resources,” said Chang.?

A student is chronically absent if they miss more than 10% of their enrolled time at school, according to KDE. Absenteeism is different from truancy, which has legal implications, explained Weeter. A student can be absent for any reason.?

The increase “is not specific to Kentucky,” Chang said. Chronic absenteeism is usually linked to barriers a student faces, like lack of transportation, a health condition or a work responsibility; aversion to school because of anxiety or lack of connection; disengagement from school following a time during the pandemic when children studied from home; and the idea that school is unsafe or one must stay home for every cough and sneeze.?

“It’s likely it is complicated and a combination of the four reasons — not just one,” Chang said.?

The 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) Monday, links these chronic absences to widespread trauma and poverty. Kids Count is part of a national initiative from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

What does the KIDS COUNT report show??

The new Kids Count report shows there are more Kentucky children not proficient in reading and math. It also shows more high school students are not graduating on time and more 3- and 4- year-olds aren’t in school.?

According to the report, which tracks child welfare year to year:?

• 69% of 4th graders scored below proficient in reading in 2022
• 79% of 8th graders scored below proficient in math in 2022
• 10% of high school students did not graduate on time in 2020-21
• 25% of children were chronically absent in 2021-22
• In 2022, 85% of Black students and 78% of Latino students were not at 4th grade reading proficiency
• 1% of English-language learners were at or above 8th grade math proficiency in 2022.?

Terry Brooks, the executive director of KYA, said kids need enough food, good sleep, a reliable and safe way to get to school, and other supports like mental health services and tutoring to meet educational goals.?

“To be clear, kids are more than their test scores,” Brooks said. “But these scores give us the tools to understand the realities of our classrooms and a roadmap around imaginative reforms and targeted interventions. Innovation in classroom rhythms, school culture and community collaboratives are key to ensuring children meet their milestones, as is recruiting and retaining a strong K-12 and early childhood education workforce.”

Chang with KDE said that the ongoing educator shortage can lead students to feel disconnected from school. If they cannot rely on having a consistent teacher, she said, they may feel less obliged to show up.?

Brooks also called on legislators to “reclaim that legacy” of putting public education first in Frankfort and find common ground on education policy.?

“We need to move from where we are – when seemingly public education is the most politicized and divisive policy issue in Frankfort – and? reclaim the ethos of Kentuckians joining together when it comes to K-12 classrooms,” he said. “That kind of common ground agenda is essential for our children and just as critical in building a strong workforce and economy for the future. That means resources for sure, but it also means engagement by us all and a fundamental restructuring of how we do ‘school’ in Kentucky.”?

What are child welfare advocates seeing throughout the state??

Olivia Raley, a social worker embedded with the Bardstown Police Department, says COVID-19 “set a lot of families and kiddos back” in their social skills and interpersonal relationships.?

“That isolation period of a year or two was very detrimental to kids’ prefrontal cortex … not developing on track, as it should,” Raley said.?

She and her 80-pound sidekick, a certified therapy Siberian Husky named Maverick, help kids who need to report assault feel more comfortable. Maverick, 4, also escorts children in the courtroom when they need extra emotional support. She said having Maverick helps break through defenses easier.?

“I’m a woman, I have a dog,” she said. “We don’t have that initial barrier sometimes where some kiddos are afraid of law enforcement or they’ve been involved in the system so many times.”?

In her work, she’s seeing more and more children disconnected from school and community. During the worst of the pandemic, all these children had to do was sit and look at a screen. Now, she said, they’re reluctant to leave their homes.?

“If kiddos come from a complex trauma-associated family, that’s all they have,” she said. “And they don’t have the school ally, they don’t have gym, they don’t have all these extra curricular activities (where) they could blossom.”

The pandemic further isolated students who lacked internet access, which Raley said became part of their “hierarchy of needs.” If children didn’t have the ability to participate in remote learning, they fell behind.? This makes it more difficult to catch up in person — both educationally and socially.??

This period of time also allowed abused kids to “slip through the cracks,” Raley said.?

Separated by a screen or less, school staff couldn’t see if a child had a bruise or other indicators of mistreatment.?

Additionally, if a child learns, during their formative years, that the outside world is a dangerous place, they may not want to report abuse happening in the home or even go to class surrounded by their peers, Raley said.?

“Because of COVID, a lot of kids were missed,” Raley said. “They’ve been taught that the outside world is scary. Now they have this. And so there are a lot of kiddos that are suffering, emotionally, physically, because of COVID.”?

Where are the parents in this?

Parents play a part in making sure kids are in school, Chang with KDE said. Parental and familial apathy is emerging as a concern, she said.?

During the early years of the pandemic, “parents got an inside view into the instruction and seeing so many of the assignments that could get completed through Google Classroom or … their Chromebook devices,” Chang said. “So they can see ‘oh, well they can just complete this at home,’ thinking … it’s not a big deal if you miss.”?

At other times, a parent keeps a child out of school out of concern for their health, Weeter said.?

“Even before the pandemic, there was a lot of conversation about how some students … wouldn’t show up at school because … it was a bad air quality day,” she said. “And if they didn’t have a school nurse that could give them an inhaler … their parent might keep them home … for health reasons.”?

Not every school district has a nurse, state data obtained by the Lantern shows.?

Additionally, parents’ mental health issues and substance use “can be, absolutely, contributing to absenteeism,” Chang said.?

That’s because if parents are dealing with addictions or other distractions, they’re not monitoring their children, social workers explained. This means no one is making sure those kids get to school.?

Substance use making for ‘very scary time for kids’?

Access to deadly drugs, too, make it “a very, very scary time for kids,” Raley said. The 27-year-old already knows several people from her high school graduating class who died after overdosing.?

In her social work, too, she sees a lot of substance use among youth.?

“Substance use disorder can kill you and kids see that. A lot of kids have lost so many relatives, so many friends, to substance use disorder. And they don’t have a way to tell anybody or to reach out or because they are in this isolated mode right now because of COVID,” she said.?

And yet kids who experiment with substances are exposed to dangerous combinations, she said. The 2023 Drug Overdose Fatality Report shows that in 2023, 92 Kentuckians between the ages of 15 and 24 died from an overdose.

Nine children — between the ages of 0 and 4 — died from overdoses. Between 0 and 5 children between the ages of 5 and 14 met the same fate.??