Demonstrators and members of the Black Womens Collective gather around the Breonna Taylor memorial at Jefferson Square Park on Oct. 3, 2020 in Louisville. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

It is disappointing that a Kentucky federal judge dismissed felony charges against two former police officers charged in the death of Breonna Taylor during a 2020 raid.

But the decision by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III to place blame for the 26-year-old emergency-room technician’s death squarely on boyfriend Kenneth Walker III defies logic. And it reinforces the difficulty of holding police accountable, even when one detective has already pleaded guilty to lies and coverups.

Walker shot once from his legally owned gun as Louisville police burst through Taylor’s apartment door unannounced on March 13 at 12:45 a.m. Police returned fire 32 times, with several bullets hitting Taylor. Her death added fuel to international protests over police killings that summer.

Walker’s decision to shoot is “a superseding cause” of her death, the judge said. “There is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.”

The link appears obvious: If officers had not lied that a drug dealer lived there, the shooting would not have happened. “If they had just knocked on the door and said, ‘It’s the police,’ we would have opened the door,” Walker said in an Instagram post on the ruling.

Also, in a legal system that endorses “stand-your-ground” laws, why is Walker criticized for exercising his right to self-defense? Why single him out when prosecutors dropped charges against him for wounding an officer in the leg, and the city of Louisville reached a $2 million settlement with him over police misconduct?

Will the next argument be that Taylor is responsible for her own death, just for being asleep in her bed when police showed up?

Federal prosecutors intend to appeal the judge’s ruling, according to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer. “The only thing we can do at this point is continue to be patient,” she said in a statement. “The appeal will extend the life of the case but as we’ve always maintained, we will continue to fight until we get full justice.”

What this means right now is that former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, who handled the warrant but were not at the shooting, face only misdemeanor charges that could end with fines.?Jaynes and Meany were charged with depriving Taylor of her constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches. Simpson, a senior judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said the facts did not justify the felony charge.

Jaynes is still charged with conspiring with another detective to cover up the false warrant and of falsifying a document to mislead investigators. Meany is still charged with making a false statement to FBI investigators.

This tragedy began with police efforts to arrest Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, DeMarcus Glover, for drug-dealing. He was arrested the night of the raid at another location.?

Former detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty in federal court to lying on the warrant for Taylor’s apartment by saying it was Glover’s primary address and that they had documented that he kept drugs and cash there. Officers also lied about the need for the more aggressive “no-knock” warrant, said Goodlett, expected to be sentenced in April.

Two officers who did the actual shooting in the apartment have not been charged. A grand jury did not indict them, after then-Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron did not recommend charges. Another officer who shot 10 bullets into the apartment building, endangering other residents, was acquitted in a state trial and won a mistrial in federal court. He is expected to be retried in October.

“You wonder, where’s the accountability?” Sadiqa Reynolds, a Louisville activist and attorney told WHAS11 after the judge’s ruling. “What is in place to prevent an officer from making up a warrant and causing someone’s death? What do we do?”

Louisville government officials have taken some responsibility, at least. A $12 million settlement of a wrongful-death lawsuit included promises of improved crisis intervention, more citizen oversight, and an “early warning” system for troubled officers.

The city also is winding down negotiations over a federal consent decree that would place a judge in charge of overseeing overdue police reforms in 36 areas of operation, including training, administration, community response and employee management.

A two-year investigation into the department exposed violations of residents’ constitutional rights: illegal stops, detentions and arrests; excessive force with neck restraints, stun guns and dog bites; inadequate attention to sexual assault and domestic-violence cases; yelling and name-calling, which escalate conflicts. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the report “an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better.”

Kenneth Walker also deserves better.?

While it is well within the judge’s power and expertise to determine whether police actions were felonies, it’s unfair to brand Walker as Taylor’s killer when he tried to be her protector.?

Without his eyewitness testimony, Breonna Taylor would not be remembered as a promising life unfairly ended but written off as another drug-dealing casualty.

Flowers rest on steps at a makeshift memorial for victims after a mass shooting in Louisville in April 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

As if we needed more examples of our entrenched gun culture, here’s the latest:?Bullets, sold through vending machines — in grocery stores.

The distributor,?American Rounds, recently began installing such machines in a few stores in Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. Customer ID is scanned using facial-recognition software. Yet, there are no checks into criminal, mental-health or domestic-violence backgrounds.

The machines, defenders say, provide more oversight than online purchases which often does not require proof of age. But having more ways for weapon buyers to avoid scrutiny and accountability makes little sense — if there is any real intention to reduce gun violence. Several mass shootings have even happened inside grocery stores.

This development is relevant because the Kentucky legislature has a habit of copycatting pro-gun laws and policies from other states. That has contributed to the state having some of the weakest gun-safety laws and the 16^th?highest gun-death rate. Between 2014-23, there were at least 6,339 shootings, with 2,767 people killed and 5,078 injured, according to the?Gun Violence Archives.

Selling bullets from vending machines sounds more like at April Fool’s joke than any rational policy, said Terry Brooks, executive director of?Kentucky Youth Advocates, an independent nonprofit concerned with families and children.

“Kentucky has experienced a real spike in child and teen deaths by guns,” he said. “The biggest threats to our grandchildren are bullets, not cancer or car accidents.”

Firearm-related incidents — homicides, suicides and accidents — are now the leading cause of death among Kentucky youth, according to federal data. In 2022, there were 388 firearm-related deaths among those age 19 and under, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report.

That’s a rate of 37 per 100,000 young people dead — higher than the national average and a big jump from 2019, when the rate was 29 per 100.000.

If Kentucky lawmakers are looking for gun laws to duplicate, Brooks said, they should support secure-storage regulations passed by?26 states — including GOP-dominated North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Texas.

“We’re not trying to take away your hunting rifles,” he said. “But if you have guns in your home, they should be unloaded, locked up and kept separate from bullets. That’s just commonsense.”

Kentucky allows?people to carry concealed guns without getting a permit or completing a background check and safety training. It does not require the removal of guns from those charged with domestic violence. This year, the legislature followed other Republican states with a law that makes it illegal for law enforcers and state employees to help enforce federal gun laws.?The only substantive state restriction is on a firearm dealer knowingly selling to a felon.

Gun violence is a national public-health crisis, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently declared. More than 48,000 Americans died from gun injuries in 2022. Weekends this summer have been marked by mass shootings that?left dozens of people dead or wounded.

Most adults have either personally or had a family member impacted by a gun-related incident, such as witnessing a shooting, being threatened by gun, or being injured or killed by a gun, according to a?Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

To drive down gun deaths, Murthy calls for a secure-storage law, a ban on?automatic rifles, universal background checks of gun buyers and restrictions on guns in public. But when it comes to gun safety efforts, it has been one step forward and two steps back.

Congress last year passed a?bipartisan law?that toughens background checks for the youngest buyers, keeps firearms from more domestic-violence offenders and helps states pass laws to take deadly weapons away from people who show signs they could turn violent. The U.S. Supreme Court in June?upheld the banning?of weapons in domestic-violence cases.

However, the court also issued a?2022 ruling?against state restrictions on carrying weapons in public and overruled a bipartisan federal ban on the sale of equipment that turns rifles into more deadly machine guns.

Earlier this year, legislative leaders?refused to hold a hearing?on?a bipartisan bill that would allow courts to temporarily remove guns from those experiencing mental-health crises. Whether a secure-storage law would fare any better remains to be seen.

“I’m optimistic that can happen,” said Brooks. “The General Assembly simply has to decide whether it will advocate for the gun lobby or for kids.”

Meanwhile, the business of making bullets easily available, just yards away the bread aisle, is likely to spread.

Would Kentucky lawmakers draw a line against such an unnecessary risk of more deaths and injuries?

Voting is one of the duties and privileges of living in a democracy. You'll also get one of these stickers. The deadline to register to vote in Kentucky is Oct. 7. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

Kentuckians should be proud that Secretary of State Michael Adam received a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Foundation for “protecting access to the ballot and ensuring that our nation remains a beacon of democracy.”?

In a time of rampant election denialism and threats against election workers, this state in 2021 expanded voting access while many Republican-controlled states pushed ways to restrict it. House Bill 574 allowed ballot drop-boxes, countywide voting centers, and in-person voting for three days, including a Saturday, before Election Day.?

Adams, who faced down opposition from within his party, accepted the honor last month “on behalf of the election officials and poll workers across America who sacrifice to keep the American experiment in self-government alive.”?

?Yet our democracy also includes the right, even the responsibility, to challenge government policies. That’s what Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) is doing with its June 28 federal lawsuit against the state’s process of removing voters from the rolls.?

So far, Adams and other election officials have overreacted to the group’s reasonable concern — one that legislators could easily address.

The problem: Kentucky does not notify people when they are dropped from voter rolls or allow them time to respond, as required by the 1993 federal National Voter Registration Act. While the federal law allows some flexibility in how states purge voter rolls, it outlines a process of providing written notice and even time to determine if a person votes in the next federal election.

Kentucky law “allows administrators to remove voters without any notice, opportunity to respond or waiting period, which could lead to eligible voters being wrongly and unlawfully removed,” the grassroots advocacy group said in a news release. A 2023 amendment to the election law requires purging within five days of receiving notice that a voter has registered in another state, The lawsuit asks for an injunction prohibiting the state from canceling voter egistrations until lawmakers can modify the law.?

“The notion that we’re disenfranchising people is absolutely ridiculous,” Adams told Spectrum News. “What we’re doing is preventing fraud, and we have an effort by this shady group that is trying to make it able for people to vote in multiple states at the same time.”

Kentucky’s process for purging voter rolls challenged in federal court

Looking forward to challenging the lawsuit in court, Adams said: “We’ve taken 400,000 voters off the rolls in four years, and we haven’t gotten a single complaint, not once.”

No complaints, however, does not necessarily mean no mistakes. What would it hurt to send notice of expungement, just in case another state’s records are wrong??

Also, there is nothing “shady” about KFTC’s four decades of advocacy, community organizing and voter registration. In other comments, Adams described the nonpartisan group, with more than 14,000 members statewide, as “fringe left-wing activists” aiming to “sow chaos and doubt in our elections.”?

As the recent attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump illustrates, our country has entered a fraught election season. Partisan groups are gearing up to aggressively monitor the polls, challenge individual votes, and block certification of elections. Trump supporters who launched an insurrection after embracing the conspiracy of a stolen 2020 election, now threaten civil war after another possible loss.

In response, 12 states and Washington, D.C., have banned firearms near polling sites. Since 2022, 20 states have passed laws to protect public officials and election workers from doxing, threats of violence and interference with their duties. Kentucky is not one of those states. Republican political dominance reduces the likelihood of being a battleground state during federal elections.?

With little conflict over state election processes, the KTFC lawsuit is seen by Adams as an attack on “a national success story.” However, it simply points out one aspect of state law that needs changing to ensure no citizen is unfairly denied the constitutional right to vote.?

Taking the extra step of notification doesn’t require much courage — just common sense.

(Getty Images)

Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.

It’s hard to accept that such lofty principles, known as DEI, are part of some sinister plot to poison minds and destroy this country.?

After all, America’s prosperity, along with its status as a beacon of civil liberties, is rooted in its blend of peoples from across the world. Yet, the reality of our “melting pot” is that it also includes generations of conflicts between groups seeking to blend in.

That is why it is disappointing, if not surprising, that Kentucky has joined half of the states in portraying efforts to overcome such conflicts as some sort of spreading toxin. Bills aimed at shutting down DEI training in schools and colleges dovetail with movements to ban books, erase racial history, reject LGBTQ citizens, and embrace a conspiracy theory about a plan to replace the white majority.

There is no way that Kentucky – an overwhelmingly white and Republican state – is in danger of being somehow overtaken by supporters of diversity efforts. Yet while demanding free-speech rights, some lawmakers demonize mere discussions contrary to conservative thought.

Sen. Philip Wheeler, R-Pikeville told a reporter that college-level “vitriol” divides people more than unites them: “I don’t think someone who is white should be taught they are a bad person, any more than an African American should be taught they are oppressed.”

Some efforts to elevate marginalized groups could cast blame on some for the actions of past generations. That’s unfair and unproductive. But so is the suggestion from a recent Senate committee hearing that someone hostile to students’ gender identities should be hired as a peer counselor.

Our society continues to change with increasing numbers of minority and mixed-race people; more openly LGBTQ citizens; more progressives, even among young Republicans; and fewer Christian churchgoers, even among conservatives. Taking time to understand the impact of the transformation is a better strategy than trying to erase, ignore or penalize it.?

Yet Senate Bill 6, which the Senate recently approved 26-7, would allow the attorney general to sue colleges and universities on allegations they promoted “discriminatory concepts.” Senate Bill 93 would eliminate DEI programs in K-12 public and charter schools. House Bill 9 would dismantle and defund all DEI offices in public colleges and universities and eliminate race-based scholarships.

This is the case despite a recent survey by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky showing 71% of registered voters agreed that businesses and institutions should manage their DEI programs without government interference.

The bills are inconsistent with state-outlined goals to increase diversity and encourage academic rigor, said Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky, which is 73% white.?

“Freedom to explore and ask questions of anyone or anything — without fear of reprisal — is essential,” he said in a memo to the university. “Across this campus, staff and faculty work to support students of color and from underrepresented backgrounds. We should value and support that work, not diminish it.”

And during a Black History Month celebration, Gov. Andy Beshear reminded that DEI programs also focus on veterans and military spouses, people impacted by generations of poverty and those from rural areas. “Diversity is an asset,” he said, when trying to attract companies to the state.?

The irony of this debate is that DEI efforts are rooted in affirmative-action policies championed by Republican President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. Decades of court rulings eroded support for setting specific quotas for minority hiring and contracting. But interest in diversity spiked after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Widespread, multi-racial protests pushed for more proactive efforts on equity and inclusion.

When the U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled against affirmative action in college admissions, DEI became an easy target. Even some supporters complained that the training was not adding diversity among top corporate officials.?

However, a survey of 400 corporations recently published in Forbes revealed positive impacts: “Companies that prioritize DEI tend to have happier and more innovative employees, boast higher retention rates and are better at problem-solving.”

So, DEI supporters say the training helps bring people together, while critics insist it pulls people apart. The main difference between those perspectives is the fear of losing control. As Rep. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said: “I am sorry people in our society feel so intimidated by other groups that they literally feel they have to pass laws to protect themselves.”

That has often been the best option for the underrepresented. The major difference in this case is that those with the power now fervently insist they are actually the disadvantaged. They are supposedly under siege — all the while turning the screws to further diminish others.?

To prosper, Kentucky needs to benefit from varied knowledge and experiences; to recognize that we don’t all start from the same place; and to allow access to opportunities for those too-often overlooked.

As Nixon said during another time of national turmoil: “We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another — until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.”

Minimum wage word written on wood block with American Dollar-bills. Directly above. Flat lay. Employment concept.

Kentucky is too often slow to embrace beneficial economic and social change. Yet the news that 22 other states and 43 cities and counties raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1 is especially frustrating, considering the years advocates here have pushed for reforms.

We remain one of 20 states still adhering to the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage, set in 2009. Ohio raised its minimum from $10.10 to $10.45 this year. Even West Virginia has a higher rate of $8.75.

For years, the legislature has ignored proposals for incremental increases. In 2016, the Kentucky Supreme Court?struck down?Louisville and Lexington laws to raise rates to around $10,?after a lawsuit by the Kentucky Retailers Federation and the Kentucky Restaurant Association.

State and local governments have raised minimum wages because Congress has stalled in a years-long effort to set a $15 rate. At least 13 states have adopted strategies to reach that goal or higher; a dozen will?automatically adjust the wage for inflation every year.

These decisions, by either legislation or ballot measures, are rooted in the belief that workers deserve to earn a livable wage. Those who still earn minimum wages are mostly women and minorities in service jobs.

Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, filed?SB 42?this year to set a $10 minimum with increases to $15 by 2028. The bill, assigned to the Senate Revenue and Appropriations Committee, would allow cities and counties to raise rates within their areas.?

A federal minimum is meant to ensure “a floor through which no worker could fall,” Dustin Pugel of the Kentucky Economic Policy Center said in a?July analysis. “But since that time, the floor has collapsed through inaction. … It’s past time we gave Kentucky a raise.”

Increasing the state minimum wage should not be viewed as controversial right now. For Kentucky businesses, the biggest challenge is worker shortages, which have forced them to pay higher wages to recruit and retain employees.

For instance, as of Jan 12, the average hourly pay for Kentucky retail jobs was $12.85 an hour, according to?Zip recruiter. The average wage for someone with less than a year’s experience in retail is $13.38, according to the?Indeed?job site.

So, how would raising the minimum to $10 hurt businesses that are already paying more for even entry-level workers??

There are still people struggling to survive off the minimum. In 2022, 4,000 Kentuckians were paid minimum wage and 8,000 were paid even less, according to the?Bureau of Labor Statistics. And there is no guarantee that wages won’t go back down in coming years after another recession or pandemic.?

Right now, Kentucky’s post-pandemic economy is surging, boosted by the infusion of federal funds to businesses, governments, and families. The state now has a record surplus and an historic rainy-day fund that lawmakers may tap. A 2025 plant to build batteries for electric vehicles, expected to pay $24 to $37.50 an hour, is expected to provide another economic boost.

But not if we can’t recruit workers from, or into, a state with a high-poverty image.?

By the end of last year, only 57 percent of Kentuckians worked — among the lowest in the nation. States with the federal minimum wage all have child poverty rates of 20 percent or higher, according to?U.S. Census data analyzed by?24/7 Wall Street, a financial news site. Kentucky’s 22.2 percent child-poverty rate is the nation’s sixth highest.

Raising the minimum wage helps the state become more competitive, said Thomas:?“When workers earn a livable wage, they have more purchasing power, which can lead to increased consumer spending and a boost in local businesses. This, in turn, can create more jobs and help reduce poverty and inequality, ultimately strengthening Kentucky’s economy and its people.”

Business studies offer mixed assessments on the immediate impact of raising the minimum wage on staffing, benefits and work hours. Business leaders often say they are concerned that a wage increase could limit low-income workers’ eligibility for government aid. However, access to better-paying jobs gives them more options for how to support their families.

Higher minimum wages also help businesses, concluded a 2022?study by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University: “It partially pays for itself because you get workers who are more productive and more attached to the firm.”

It makes no sense for Kentucky officials to remain attached to an outdated policy that devalues citizens and further diminishes the state’s competitiveness.

Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom hold a Bans OFF rally in Columbus on Oct 8, 2023, a month before Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative supporting abortion rights — and almost a year after Kentucky voters rejected an amendment denying them. (Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal)

Kentucky abortion-rights advocates are caught in a difficult legal situation: Only pregnant women seeking abortions have the right to challenge abortion bans, the state Supreme Court has ruled.?

The first effort at a class-action lawsuit was recently withdrawn when the 33-year-old Jane Doe discovered her fetus at eight weeks no longer had cardiac activity. Lawyers representing the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood are searching for others willing to sue.

“The court’s decision has forced Kentuckians seeking abortion to bring a lawsuit while in the middle of seeking time-sensitive health care, a daunting feat, and one that should not be necessary to reclaim the fundamental right to control their own bodies,” the groups said in a statement.?

What anti-abortionists overlook — or ignore — is that pregnancy is often full of dangerous complications for the woman and fetus. That exceptions written into some bans are usually vague and narrow. That decisions often must be made urgently, yet doctors and hospitals are afraid of prosecution. And that it is unfair to punish women for unexpected negative consequences.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion in 2022, Kentucky joined 13 other states in a competition for the harshest policies. Abortion was illegal at 24 weeks, when a fetus is viable outside the womb. Kentucky now has both a near-total ban and a six-week one.?

Since then, lawmakers have ignored Kentucky voters’ rejection of a constitutional amendment denying abortion rights. The high court refused to rule on whether abortion is a privacy right. A key factor in Gov. Andy Beshear’s November reelection was the need for ban exceptions for rape and incest. Yet, there is no sign legislative leaders plan to do so.

Meanwhile, momentum builds for abortion rights across the nation in courts and at ballot boxes. Twelve?plaintiffs represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights are?challenging abortion bans in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee.?In Texas, the center filed?a March lawsuit?by 20 women and two OB-GYNs?saying bans make it difficult for those with pregnancy complications.?

Also, activists in at least?nine states seek to put reproductive freedom measures on the 2024 ballot — following the lead of conservative Kansas and Ohio.

The Kentucky lawsuit was filed during the same time Texas officials blocked an abortion for a woman whose fetus had a fatal genetic condition, and an Ohio prosecutor criminally charged a woman after she had a miscarriage.

Kate Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas mother of two, received a judge’s ruling allowing an abortion. The state Supreme Court overturned it because — despite negative impacts on her health and ability have another child — she was not close to dying. The attorney general threatened to sue her husband, her doctor and three hospitals if they aided her. She left the state to have an abortion.

Brittany Watts, 33, of Warren, Ohio, has been charged with felony “abuse of corpse” after having a miscarriage while on the toilet. State law, primarily aimed at medical facilities, requires burial or cremation of fetal remains. She faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.?

The fetus, at 22 weeks, was not viable, a doctor has ruled. Watts was turned away twice from a hospital when she suspected a miscarriage, which happens in about 26 percent of pregnancies, according to the?National Library of Medicine. A nurse reported her to the police. Most states prosecute doctors, not the women. This case could lead to more women being charged.

The cruelty also could spread nationwide. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide by June whether to limit access to?mifepristone,?one of two drugs used in early medication abortions, which account for?more than half?of all U.S. abortions. Using the other drug alone causes more cramping and bleeding.?

This case began with a lawsuit by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a coalition of Christian medical groups and doctors. The drug, safely used for more than 20 years, should not have been approved, the alliance argues. An anti-abortion federal judge in Texas agreed.?

An?appeals court ruled?instead to roll back recent expansions of access to the drug, including through telehealth and mail delivery. Kentucky requires an in-person meeting with a doctor and using the pills only to save a woman’s life. However, the medicine can be ordered online.

The Biden administration, along with the drugmaker Danco, asked the Supreme Court to reject the appeals court’s effort to overrule the Food and Drug Administration’s research and regulation.?

Contrary to the Kentucky high court’s logic on who has the right to sue, this suit was not filed by women who used abortion pills or doctors who prescribed it.?

The alliance maintains its members could someday care for someone after a medication abortion, distracting from other patients and presenting personal conflicts. The primary aim, it says, is to protect women and girls.

Yet those who support the right of women to manage their own health care are speaking up for themselves. Even in Kentucky, lawmakers must realize that the callousness of abortion bans only adds to the outrage.

Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney in Atlanta, is pressing a racketeering case against former President Donald Trump for his attempted interference in Georgia's 2020 election. (Getty Images)

Three Black women — two prosecutors and a judge — are in unenviable positions to lead former president Donald Trump and this nation in lessons on democracy, accountability and the rule of law.

New York Attorney General?Letitia James, Atlanta-based District Attorney?Fani Willis?and U.S. District Judge?Tanya Chutkan?have been bombarded with threats, often racial or sexualized. A Texas woman has been arrested for a death threat against Chutkan; an Alabama man has been charged with targeting Willis.

I worry about their safety. I am also concerned that their gender and race would be used as an excuse to ignore wrongdoing and Trump’s??authoritarian plans?for a second presidency. He insinuates that the prosecutions are part of a vast conspiracy to replace white people.

Yet, there were only 33 Black women — less than 2% — among the nation’s 2,100 elected chief prosecutors in 2022, according to the Reflective Democracy Campaign. And even with President Joe Biden’s successful push to get more women of color into judgeships, there are 59 Black women — 4% — among the 1,409 sitting federal judges.

That these three women hold such high-profile roles in rare prosecutions of a former president underscores this nation’s progress. And it instills hope that it will live up to the promise: “No one is above the law.”

James, the enforcer

James, a Brooklyn native, zeroed in on the Trump organization, whose history includes housing discrimination, unpaid contractors, a fake charity and a scam business school.

She has already won a ruling that the business inflated property values to get loans and then deflated them to unfairly reduce taxes. Trump officials mostly blame the accountants. The current trial will set penalties. James wants at least $250 million to go to the state.

Voluntarily attending the civil trial, Trump lashed out. An appeals court upheld the judge’s order to stop verbal and online attacks against the judge’s clerk. Trump calls James “corrupt,” “racist” and a “political hack.”??He nicknamed her “Peekaboo,” rhyming with a racist slur.

First Black and first woman in her post, James served nine years on the city council and five years as public advocate before being elected in 2018. Her office is challenging the nonprofit status of the National Rifle Association and recently sued Pepsi and Frito Lay for “plastic pollution” of the Buffalo River.

After Trump would rant to the media during trial breaks, James would have her say at the end of the day: “Donald Trump resorted to bullying and name-calling to distract from the facts,” she said. “But the truth always comes out. I will not be bullied. I will not be harassed.”

Willis, the fearless

Many legal experts criticized Willis’ decision to file a criminal racketeering case against Trump and 18 others for various election-interference efforts in Georgia. Yet four defendants — including three former Trump lawyers — have already arranged plea deals before the August trials. No deals, she said, for Trump, attorney Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meanwhile, she is battling defense attorneys trying to postpone the case past the November election.

Introduced to the law by her attorney father, the divorced mother of two spent 16 years as an assistant county prosecutor and a short stint in private practice until elected in?2022. Defeating a six-term incumbent who was her former boss, she is the first woman in the job.

As an assistant prosecutor, Willis led the 2015 prosecution of the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal?which ended in conviction of 11. Last May, her office indicted Grammy-winning rapper?Young Thug?and associates on 56 counts of gang-related crimes.

Taking on Trump has meant having to block Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, from access to her case. Calling her a “lunatic Marxist,” Trump falsely claimed she had a relationship with a rapper she is prosecuting. State lawmakers have sought unsuccessfully to sanction her or remove her from office.

In 2022, CNN asked Willis whether she could even envision prosecuting a former president. She responded that what she envisions is a society where “it doesn’t matter if you’re rich poor, Black, white, Democrat or Republican. If you violated the law, you’re going to be charged.”

Chutkan, the straight shooter

In 2021, Chutkan was assigned a case arguing that executive privilege meant Trump did not have to respond to the House’s Jan.6 investigation. She didn’t buy it. “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president,” she declared.

Now she is overseeing the federal election interference case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. She ruled that Trump is not immune from prosecution. “That position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass,” she wrote. At the request of Smith, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to quickly review that ruling. On Wednesday, Chutkan paused the case until Trump’s appeal of her immunity ruling is resolved.

A Jamaica native, Chutkan grew up in a prominent family; her father is an orthopedic surgeon, her mother directed the national dance group and later practiced law. After college and law school in the U.S., Chutkan spent 11 years as a D.C. public defender, followed by 12 years at a white-collar law firm. The divorced mother of two was nominated for the judgeship by President Barack Obama in 2014, confirmed 95–0 by the Senate.

In preparation for the March 4 trial, Chutkan has issued other no-nonsense rulings. For instance, she:

• Rejected a Trump request to exclude references to Jan. 6 from his trial.
• Issued a gag order on Trump that was largely upheld on appeal.
• Denied Trump review of all the records from the Jan. 6 House investigation. Since he has summaries, she called the request “a fishing expedition” that could delay the trial.

Meanwhile, Chutkan’s security is so tight that U.S. marshals go with her to get coffee in the building where she works. A childhood friend told The New York Times that, after Chutkan was randomly selected for this trial, she called to say: “Please pray for me. I’ve got the case.”

And with Trump promising a second term of personal revenge, crackdowns on civil liberties and destruction of the government, we should pray for our nation as well.

]]> https://www.criminaljusticepartners.com/2023/12/14/a-tiny-minority-in-the-judicial-system-three-black-women-are-safeguarding-the-rule-of-law/feed/ 0 https://www.criminaljusticepartners.com/2023/11/21/what-now-child-care-in-kentucky-faces-a-cliff-as-pandemic-era-federal-aid-has-ended/ https://www.criminaljusticepartners.com/2023/11/21/what-now-child-care-in-kentucky-faces-a-cliff-as-pandemic-era-federal-aid-has-ended/#respond [email protected] (Vanessa Gallman) Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:40:21 +0000 https://www.criminaljusticepartners.com/?p=11859

“It’s not that child care workers are more important than other workers. But every other workforce is dependent on child care,” says Beth Morton, director of a child care center in Lexington and member of a gubernatorial advisory board on early childhood development. (Getty Images)

Rylee Dakota Monn’s salary as a day care teacher mostly went to pay for child care for her own two sons.

“I was working full time but I wasn’t making any money for myself or making much of a contribution to the household,” said Monn, who works at Baptist Health Child Development Center in Lexington. “It was just enough to maybe help pay a utility bill. The way it was, I’m not sure it was even worth working.”

Now, her child care costs are paid through the innovative Child Care Assistance Program Income Exclusion, financed by federal funds that end next year. Under the year-old program, the state pays day care centers the $6,600 average cost for a child for 3,200 families with 5,700 children.

However, most federal funds that bolstered families and day care centers during the pandemic ended Sept. 30. Efforts to approve more congressional funding are not promising. So, the states must find the money and the ideas to deal with a long-neglected system.

In response, the Beshear administration has committed an extra $50 million to help centers before the General Assembly meets in January. Using federal funds that ended in September, the state plans to continue policies that allow more families to afford care. And the legislature last year approved a program that matches subsidies employers give their workers.

All of this is encouraging. But what’s urgently needed is a comprehensive budget plan to counter the real prospect of the state’s too-few centers closing, laying off an already anemic workforce, raising fees, and reducing already-low wages.

At least 32 states have expressed interest in following Kentucky’s lead in helping child care workers. The idea was a response to a dramatic drop in the number of children in centers, said Sarah Vanover, a leader in the program’s creation who is now policy and research director for Kentucky Youth Advocates. State officials realized that parents could not find slots. The classrooms were there; the workers were not. The average $12.39 hourly pay for child care workers could not even compete with fast-food jobs.

?“Ninety-eight percent of jobs pay more than child care workers, including dog walkers,” said Vanover. “So, they can work with kids in a labor-intensive job or stock shelves and make $5 an hour more.”

?Monn can now afford community college classes to train for a job in the medical field. Having her sons, ages 4 and 2, at the same place where she works is also a benefit. “I was taking care of people’s kids everyday but couldn’t afford to have the same treatment for my own.”

Beth Morton, director of the center where Monn works, currently has six workers with eight children through this program. It’s proven to be a good marketing tool for her 32-person staff, she said.

“It’s not that child care workers are more important than other workers. But every other workforce is dependent on child care,” said Morton, a member of a gubernatorial advisory board on early childhood development. “I am very concerned that we are going to see a drop in child care slots. The only thing a center can do when it loses that funding is to lower quality and increase costs.”

A majority of Kentucky voters, regardless of political party, support using taxpayer money to provide high-quality child care, according to a June survey by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and The United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

Prichard proposes a $1 billion annual investment by 2026 for a comprehensive system of child care and pre-school assistance, all-day kindergarten, teacher training and school transportation.

An estimated 45,000 Kentuckians struggle due to a lack of child care and early-education access and affordability, according to a 2022 Kentucky Chamber of Commerce report. More than 46% of parents in a 2020 survey said someone in the family had quit a job, did not take a job, or changed jobs due to child care issues.

“We are encouraging lawmakers to take the child care issue very seriously,” said Charles Aull, executive director of the chamber’s Center for Policy and Research. “We are very vocal about how child care intersects with our economic challenges. The question is: What is the best strategy for it?”

Another unique program, the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership, matches child care subsidies that businesses and nonprofits provide workers. There is no income limit for participants. Funded with $15 million in state money, the one-year pilot program has so far signed up 27 employers paying subsidies to 82 workers for 113 children.

?“It’s slow going. But considering that we stood this up in a year, I feel good about it,” Andrea Day, director of the Kentucky Division of Child Care, told the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue last month. “This is a really good investment in child care in Kentucky.”

While Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan have similar programs, Kentucky’s is the only statewide, taxpayer-funded one, Day said. She generally agreed with impressions from advocates that the program needs better marketing, and businesses need guidance about updating personnel policies and navigating state bureaucracy.

While the program will be carried over to the next year, it really needs to be funded for several years to get it off the ground.

“What it needs is more time and certainty,” said Aull of the chamber. “Employers want to see how a program evolves before jumping into it.”

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s pre-school children continue to lose ground. The state ranks No. 41 in the nation in the number of 3- and 4-year olds enrolled in pre-school, resulting in 53 percent of kindergarteners identified as not ready for the classroom.

One advocate described Kentucky’s child care system as a sickly patient temporarily stabilized by an infusion of federal funding. That treatment has ended. What now?

“Before Covid, people didn’t realize the importance of child care,” said Morton, the day care center director. “We now know we need to do something. But there is no plan.”

An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Rylee Dakota Monn.

Kentucky was a top producer of hemp before World War II. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Over the last few years, hemp’s CBD and Delta 8, a less-potent marijuana alternative, have been sold online and in wellness shops as relief for pain, anxiety and insomnia.

But that could change. A Kentucky agency and a congressional committee are separately seeking comment on how to regulate these products. This is an opportunity for those with experience with them to speak up.

State and federal decisions will help determine if the plant — also used in products as varied as clothing, building supplies and animal feed — could be a financial boost for a state that was a top producer before World War II. The revival effort has suffered from overproduction, the pandemic, legal challenges, lack of federal oversight and limited banking support.

Also, Delta 8, chemically extracted from non-psychoactive CBD, could provide immediate relief to those suffering chronic pain. Medical marijuana?use and sale won’t be legal here until 2025. Currently,?those with?21 medical conditions?are allowed to possess eight ounces. Illinois is the closest state to purchase it.

On Aug. 1, Kentucky became the first state to?draft regulations?for Delta 8. It was in response to a successful lawsuit by the Kentucky Hemp Association which declared the product legal. A state law then called for guidelines to keep it out of the hands of minors.

Some of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ regulations — covering production, manufacture, testing and marketing — are too heavy-handed, say hemp supporters. Not every level of cannabinoids requires the toughest restrictions, they say. And packaging and marketing rules outlined are inconsistent with other states, creating problems with interstate sales.

“I think the regulations have good intentions, but they are geared to a marijuana state and would be burdensome for processors and retailers,” said Katie Moyer, president of the Kentucky Hemp Association and owner of a seed and processing facility in Christian County. “It would be difficult for companies in other states to abide by Kentucky regulations. They may have to avoid Kentucky.”

Dee Dee Taylor, CEO of 502 Hemp Wellness Center in Louisville, complained that a testing regime should not be needed for every product, especially since testing is done on bulk ingredients, such as gummies, that go into various products. Also, regulations require customers to show IDs and sign for deliveries. Meanwhile, little is done to stop the sale of psychoactive hemp products at gas stations and convenience stores.

Said Moyer: “The good news is that the cabinet has been open to opinion and communication. I think it’s fixable.”

A Zoom meeting on the regulations is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 25. If interested, notify the cabinet at 502-584-6746 or?[email protected]?by Sept. 18. Deadline for written comments is Sept. 30.

The battle over hemp has also been fought at the federal level. During the nation’s war on drugs, the plant was illegal. After many states legalized the sale and use of marijuana, Congress agreed to legalize hemp in the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill. At least 47 states now allow hemp production.

A key argument for legalization was that hemp did not have enough psychoactive ingredients to produce a high. However, chemists have been able to extract the?cannabinoids?to create new products.

After a lot of back and forth, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January that it had?concerns about the safety of hemp products and would not regulate them in?the foods and dietary supplement?category, which includes botanicals and herbs.?Hemp supporters, objecting to the stalling and the research that led to that decision, asked Congress to put pressure on the FDA.

There is no doubt that the 2018 farm bill made hemp products legal, Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, argued during a July 27 hearing before the top House and Senate lawmakers with jurisdiction over the FDA.

“Farmers across the nation relied on this government action, and invested considerable time and resources to plant, grow and market commercial hemp crops, and particularly for the market for which there was immediate processing infrastructure and consumer demand: hemp-derived CBD and cannabinoids,” said Miller, a former Kentucky treasurer.

Some of the lawmakers, from the?House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services,?rejected the FDA argument that it needs more time and money to determine another administrative pathway for CBD products.

“The pathway already exists; Congress spoke in 2018. The FDA just needs to do the job that the American taxpayer is paying them for,” saidsubcommittee chair Rep. Lisa McCain, a Michigan Republican. “And if they can’t do their job, maybe we should stop funding them or funding them at reduced levels.”

The committee sought quick, detailed feedback from the hemp industry.?Public comment can be sent to?[email protected]??and?CBD@help.senate.gov.

Regulation — both state and federal — is necessary to not just boost the industry but to protect consumers.?

“Lack of a federal framework has led to the proliferation of unregulated products, some of which raise significant quality, safety and other consumer protection concerns,” said Miller.

Even Taylor, who sells hemp products and worries state regulations could further reduce the number of processors and farmers, recognizes the benefit: “There are states that ban it. I’ll take the regulations.”

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C. federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s indictment for various schemes to overturn his 2020 election loss will get distorted by allegations that Democrats, President Joe Biden and “the deep state” are unfairly trying to prevent his return to the presidency.

Yet in reality, Republicans provided the details of Trump actions to the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and then to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury which issued four felony charges.

These were Trump cabinet members, White House officials and state party leaders who once considered it an honor to work for him. Some took stands out of patriotic duty, others did so to protect themselves legally or politically. But they do deserve some appreciation as this country struggles to right itself during a crisis for democracy.

When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2021 voted to acquit Trump of impeachment charges for Jan. 6, he assured the public that Trump “didn’t get away with anything? —? yet.”

“We have a criminal-justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one,” he said in a speech from the Senate floor.

Well, the legal reckoning is upon us, even after GOP leaders told voters that any criticism of Trump was a partisan, political attack. Too many still genuflect to a man who uses chaos, extremism, grievance and conspiracies to enthrall enough of the party’s base to make him difficult to challenge.

All the while, Trump?—?who appears likely to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — ?is destroying the party he is supposed to lead. He has overseen losses in the House, Senate and the presidency; used party funds to fight his various legal battles while key state operations struggle for money; and encouraged House Republicans to focus so much on revenge and distraction that a government shutdown is likely.

That Republican senators have been fairly quiet after the indictment is one of a few encouraging signs that the situation might change:

• A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted right after the indictment was released, shows 45 percent of Republicans nationwide said they would not vote for Trump in 2024, if he is a convicted of a felony. It showed that 35 percent would vote for him regardless. All others said they didn’t know.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump wanted to illegally refuse to certify the 2020 election results, issued a strong statement after the indictment: “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States. Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career.” A struggling presidential candidate, Pence is likely to be a key witness in a Trump trial.
• Recent New York Times/Siena College polls of Republican voters nationally found waning enthusiasm for “anti-woke” candidates who focus on abortion, gender and diversity issues. Voters are more interested in traditional GOP concerns of economics and security.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?—?who is a distant second in the GOP primary and is the most aggressive attacker of “wokeness”?—?has just shown the nerve to say they Trump is wrong about having won reelection.

Why should non-Republicans care about a party that took a wrong turn?—?long before Trump?—?by catering primarily to older, white and rural voters in a country fast becoming more racially diverse, younger and urban?

Our democracy benefits from the give-and-take and sometimes consensus from political ideologies focused on serving citizens. We can’t tolerate more attacks on democracy, deliberate strategies to divide people, and the general nastiness that the Trump cult has generated.

It’s time for Republican leadership to show some courage and make an effort to return to the party that told President Richard Nixon he should resign over the Watergate break-in and his imperialist thinking. Public support for the indictment and the legal process would reinforce the GOP’s long-touted commitment to law and order.

We will know soon enough. After Republican after Republican testifies, just watch how much? party leaders still insist Trump’s damage is all the Democratic Party’s’ fault.

Republican Daniel Cameron talks about his public safety plan in Louisville, July 11, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

A few observations about Kentucky politicians making national news lately:

Cameron, the follower

Abortion-rights advocates?are right to question whether gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron is seeking the power to prosecute — or just intimidate — women who seek abortions in states where the procedure is legal.

If not, why sign onto?a letter with 18 other GOP attorneys general objecting to a proposed federal privacy rule protecting these women from legal jeopardy?

“Kentucky is not going to be a state of which we prosecute women,” Cameron told LEX18 during a recent LaGrange campaign stop. “We want pregnant mothers to understand that this is going to be a commonwealth in which we support a culture of life.”

But how would this “culture of life” be protected if Cameron becomes governor??Kentucky’s abortion bans currently penalize doctors, not women. Yet lawmakers from GOP states he likes to follow are proposing bills to prosecute women for both surgical and medication abortions.

Cameron said he is simply protecting states’ rights after last year’s Supreme Court decision ending federal abortion rights. The Biden administration’s proposed rule, he said, would limit the ability “to obtain evidence of potential violations of state laws.”

Does that mean Kentuckians are restricted by state laws, no matter where they travel? Such “Big Brother” power is contrary to both the conservative principle of limited government and the right of citizens to mind their own personal business.

That’s why Kentucky voters in 2022 rejected a ballot measure that denied abortion rights. Yet lawmakers ignored voters, and the state now has two abortion bans: one allowing the procedure to save a pregnant person’s life; the other prohibiting the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.

What will happen when Cameron and others jump on the next right-wing anti-abortion bandwagon?

McConnell, the gaslighter

Kentucky’s senior senator is the ruthless strategist who fathered the current super-conservative U.S. Supreme Court.

While Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell stalled hearings of President Barack Obama’s nominee for almost a year until the election of President Trump and his late choice of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Then after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than a month before President Biden’s election, he rushed the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Yet he tried arguing in a?July 10 op-ed?in The Washington Post?that this court is impartial. It reinforced Chief Justice John Roberts’ whining about criticisms from the three liberal justices.

“Evidence from this past term indicates that the court’s defining characteristic isn’t polarization. It is, instead, a politically unpredictable center,” he wrote, adding some statistics and selective comparisons.

There is no doubt that the high court made progress toward engraining the most conservative thinking into public policy.

Consider the welcome decision that ordered Alabama to draw a second congressional district with a large Black population. It came only after this court earlier undermined provisions of the long-bipartisan Voting Rights Act. The court had even allowed Alabama and Louisiana to hold 2022 elections with congressional maps the lower courts had declared unconstitutional.

Is it any wonder Alabama lawmakers?refused to follow the court’s order?when it redrew its map last week?

The court also?killed?what had been limited consideration of race in college admissions. And it was done in a way that has emboldened conservatives to now meddle in how businesses address diversity.

And the?ruling in a case — brought by the group that pushed for the end to abortion rights — concluded that businesses open to the public have a right to discriminate against LGBTQ persons.

So, McConnell can’t soothe away this court’s polarizing role. Too many people will feel the consequences.

Comer, the muddled

U.S. Rep. James Comer’s House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which aimed to take down “the Biden crime family,” is still clouded by unverified information, conspiracy theories, questionable witnesses, and embarrassing tactics.

Some Biden family members used their connections to arrange foreign business deals — which is not illegal. There is still no proof that President Joe Biden financially benefitted from them or altered U.S. policy to aid them. And unlike President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law — who gained billion-dollar deals from China and Saudi Arabia — Biden family members were not top White House advisers.

The investigation is rooted in a 2017?debunked claim of Biden corruption in Ukraine offered by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. It is based on information discovered in a laptop the president’s son, Hunter, left at a repair shop in 2019. Some recent developments:

• Comer’s “credible” but “missing” informant on Biden wrongdoing turned out to have skipped bail on federal charges of being an unregistered agent for China, trying to broker secret arms deals, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and lying to federal agents.
• ?At a recent hearing, two IRS whistleblowers investigating the son’s business activities complained about being hampered by both the Trump and Biden Justice Departments.
• The Delaware U.S. attorney, appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr, insisted he had full authority to investigate Hunter Biden, who is expected this week to??plead guilty to?two misdemeanor tax charges?and a felony gun charge.
• The New York Post?just reported that Hunter’s former business partner will testify that, while working for a Ukrainian energy company, the son often called his father to speak with business associates. Biden only offered pleasantries and platitudes, according to the report. But, if true, it raises questions about how much he knew about the business.
• Comer allowed Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green last week to unveil posters of sexually explicit Hunter Biden photos from the old laptop. She also accused him of promoting prostitution. Biden’s attorney has?filed an ethics complaint against her. Meanwhile, Comer promoted Greene’s actions on the committee’s social media.

The investigation will persist, in part because Comer has?already?gleefully credited?the committee’s work for boosting Trump’s poll numbers for reelection. Meanwhile, it’s getting more confusing to determine what is factual, what is illegal and what is simple desperation politics.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, walks to reporters after attending an FBI briefing in the House Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility at the U.S. Capitol on June 5, 2023 in Washington, D.C. The chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee attended the briefing to review documents pertaining to an allegation that U.S. President Joe Biden accepted a bribe as vice president from a foreign national. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Kentucky Congressman James Comer has had so many embarrassing media interviews about his House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the so-called “Biden crime family.”?

He outlines an elaborate international bribery scheme yet admits he doesn’t have the facts to back it up. He calls out “suspicious activities” but acknowledges they may not be crimes. His informants and whistleblowers suddenly disappear. And he gleefully credits the committee’s work for boosting Donald Trump’s poll numbers, then says he wasn’t referring to Trump at all.

Even conservative media have become frustrated with his muddled pronouncements and lack of real progress. Fox News host Steve Doocy last month challenged his allegation of President Biden influence peddling while vice president.?

“You don’t actually have any facts to that point,” Doocy told him. “There’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”

So, this week Comer threw a hissy fit over old hearsay about Biden and threatened “contempt of Congress” charges against FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee.

But Comer wanted the document to wave around and publicize. His contempt threat lost steam when the House abruptly adjourned Wednesday over an unrelated GOP debate. Comer then accepted Wray’s offer for other committee members to read the document.

The allegation, promoted in 2017 by Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani, says Biden’s push to oust a top Ukrainian official was to protect the energy firm where son, Hunter, was on the board. The rumor was a foundation of Trump’s first impeachment; in exchange for U.S. military aid, he wanted Biden exposed.

Three years ago, a reliable FBI source passed on the same secondhand tip. Trump Attorney General William Barr had prosecutors investigate but found no validation. Biden’s actions were part of an international campaign to remove an official who refused to prosecute corruption.

Yet Comer demands the FBI turn over the form documenting the hearsay. The agency, which does not release unverified tips, wants to protect its source. Comer turned down an offer to review the document at agency headquarters. So, Wray brought the document to Comer and committee vice chair Jamie Raskin and gave them a briefing. But Comer wants the document to wave around and publicize.

“Given the severity and complexity of the allegations contained within this record, Congress must investigate further,” he said. “The investigation is not dead. This is only the beginning.”

It certainly presents a new chance to portray Comer as a righteous warrior, not a bumbler.?

If the charges are endorsed by the committee and full House, it’s unlikely the Justice Department will penalize the FBI. Yet there is real danger in attacks on the agency at a time of heightened domestic terrorism.?

Right-wing lawmakers and conspiracy thinkers now insist the Jan. 6 insurrection and recent gatherings of white supremacists are FBI false-flag operations. And there is a possibility Trump soon could be indicted for trying to overturn the 2020 election and for refusing to return classified documents after he left office.

Now, if Biden did something illegal, it must be exposed. He insists he was not connected to his family members’ businesses. A 36-page report released last month by Republicans on Comer’s committee reported that $10 million flowed from foreign entities to Biden family members, associates and companies during Biden’s eight years as vice president and four years out of office. It showed no money to Biden.?

Despite Comer’s insistence that the report indicates money laundering, it is based on routine banking notifications of any transaction of $10,000 or more. Banks do not investigate whether the transactions are illegal.

Government rules don’t mandate that politicians’ family members make their business dealings public. However, the White House or the Biden campaign should consider offering more transparency to tamp down suspicions of conspiracies.

Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, Romania and China have already been reported. He is being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware. Media reports indicate he could face charges for unpaid taxes and lying about drug use when buying a gun.

We also need to know more about Trump and his children’s business dealings, especially daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, who worked in the White House. She received at least 16 trademarks from China close to the time Trump lifted the ban on a major Chinese company for violating U.S. sanctions.?

Kushner got a $2 billion business deal with Saudi Arabia and the former president partnered with the country to set up an international golf circuit that has now merged with the PGA Tournament.

Recent news reports about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife accepting unreported gifts and trips from a billionaire show how few rules exist to prevent government officials and families from profiting from their connections.

Bipartisan oversight, along with new regulations, would be welcome work for Comer’s committee. Unfortunately, he has tainted himself and the committee with the veneer of extreme partisanship.

For Comer to be taken seriously, he must focus on gathering facts and connecting dots to present a true, clear picture. The smooth professionalism of the House investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection provides an excellent example.?

Until he can deliver that, it would be wise for him to cut back on his camera time. Too many people aiming for media exposure just end up being seen as jokes.

This column has been updated with new information.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron and his wife Makenze during his election party on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at the Galt House in Louisville. (Austin Anthony / for the Kentucky Lantern)

Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s resounding victory in the Republican primary for Kentucky governor is an historic milestone. As the first Black person to be nominated for the office by either party, he has a chance to become the first Black Republican governor from any state.

The win also factors in analyses of the clout and possible comeback of former President Donald Trump, who strongly endorsed Cameron. “The Trump culture of winning is alive and well in Kentucky,” Cameron declared during his victory speech, responding to reasonable complaints that Trump has caused party losses.

However, after a GOP slugfest that motivated few to vote, Kentuckians need a General Election about how the state should solve long-term problems and take full advantage of new opportunities.

Some issues that need to be fully addressed: helping those impacted by frequent flooding; finding workers for the current economic expansion; addressing the shortage of teachers, nurses, and physicians; and curbing drug addiction and poverty.

Whether Cameron is up to that task remains to be seen. He hews closely to right-wing cultural attacks, joining other GOP AGs in a range of lawsuits and letters denouncing abortion rights, environmental regulations, transgender care, and diversity efforts.

“The new religion of the left casts doubt on the greatness of America,” he said in his victory speech. “They embrace a picture of this country and this commonwealth that is rooted in division, that is hostile to faith and that is committed to the erosion of our education system.”

Gov. Andy Beshear, one of the nation’s most popular governors, warned in his victory speech about GOP rhetoric:

“They’re trying to pit us against each other,” he said, “calling anybody who disagrees with them names, telling you it’s OK to yell, even hate your fellow human being. We are so much stronger than that.”

Cameron, an Elizabethtown native who played football and attended law school at the University of Louisville, has had a rapid political rise. It helped that he was legal counsel for Sen. Mitch McConnell while McConnell was majority leader. In his speech at the 2020 GOP convention, he criticized the removal of Confederate statues as “an assault on Western civilization.” With a pleasant demeanor, he shows up across the state and on social media to promote his office, as well as his family.

He touts his decision to join a Nicholasville church’s lawsuit objecting to Beshear’s pandemic ban on mass meetings. A judge ruled in his favor; Beshear adjusted his policy to allow drive-in church services. Cameron also filed a lawsuit for Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee that blocked President Joe Biden’s order that federal contractors get vaccinated. The order was never enforced anywhere.

International, mostly negative attention focused on his investigation into the 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville medical technician killed by police during a misguided raid on her apartment.

Cameron’s grand jury issued no charges for her murder, and some jurors criticized him for protecting officers from prosecution and saying that they found the shooting justified. Meanwhile, the city quickly settled a $12 million wrongful death lawsuit and agreed to new policies, such as ending no-knock warrants.

In March, the federal Department of Justice charged four of the officers involved in the raid with crimes including civil-rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction. That investigation also outlined a range of problems the police have agreed to address.

Cameron continues to defend his investigation and to tout unwavering support for law enforcement. Yet he criticizes the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against Trump’s hush-money payments to a porn actor as weaponizing the judicial system “to try to destroy Trump.” And he feigned ignorance of the recent civil verdict that Trump sexually assaulted a woman in the 1990s and later defamed her.

So, right now it’s hard to know what we have in Cameron.

Is he just another Trump acolyte committed to supporting his divisive movement? Or, could this McConnell mentee help his party regain more practical political moorings?

Is he a moral crusader who rejects those who don’t live up to what he calls “Kentucky values”? Or someone eager to negotiate substantive ideas to serve all?

Either way, it’s going to be a rough and tumble campaign season with a lot of national attention and overwhelming money dumps from both parties.

Let’s demand that the needs of Kentucky citizens don’t get lost in the process.

Kentucky obstetricians have warned that even with exceptions when a mother’s life is in danger, the abortion ban “could force physicians to wait for a patient’s condition to deteriorate so severely that significant bodily harm or even death could occur.” (John Fedele/Getty Images)

Motherhood can certainly be a blessing. But Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban also has made it a risky obligation in a state with one of the highest maternal death rates.

“Pregnancy in Kentucky is too often a death sentence,” said Rep. Lisa Wilner, chair of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus, which has focused on maternal-health issues including addiction, mental health and racial equity. The challenges are huge:

• With 37.7 women for every 100,000 live births dying during or within 42 days after childbirth, Kentucky has one of the highest maternal mortality rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nationally, deaths of new mothers have been rising sharply even before the pandemic. climbing to 32.9 per 100,000 in 2021,
• Black Kentuckians, 8% of the population, have a maternal mortality rate more than double that of whites.
• Substance abuse is the known cause of 53% of all maternal deaths, according to the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
• 34% of Kentucky births in 2020 resulted in Caesarean sections, associated with maternal mortality and severe medical consequences.
• In 2021, 14.2% of mothers received inadequate prenatal care, according to the March of Dimes, which gave Kentucky an F on its annual report card.?Almost half of the state’s 120 counties have little access to maternity care, according to the report.

“If you’re 25 years old and pregnant today, you have a higher chance of dying from your pregnancy than your mother did when she was pregnant with you 25 years ago,” Dr. Jeffrey M. Goldberg of the Kentucky chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told a Senate committee in February. “That’s completely unacceptable.”

It’s also unacceptable that lawmakers prioritized reproduction over voters’ support of abortion rights and then ignored the need for a comprehensive strategy to improve the health of mothers.

Already, women in states with restrictive abortion laws are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or soon after giving birth, according to a research study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute. An analysis by the Commonwealth Fund shows death rates of women of reproductive age (15 to 44) is 34% higher than in states with abortion access.

“Abortion access is health care,” said Jackie McGranahan, senior policy strategist?for ACLU-Kentucky who is active with groups focused on Black maternal health. “The less access to health care, the more we will have poor outcomes If you want safe, healthier births, offer the full range of reproductive care.”

State obstetricians have already warned that even with exceptions when a mother’s life is in danger, the abortion ban “could force physicians to wait for a patient’s condition to deteriorate so severely that significant bodily harm or even death could occur.”

Meanwhile, doctors are avoiding residency programs in states with the most stringent abortion restrictions, a recent report?from the Association of American Medical Colleges found.

Unlike other states with strict abortion bans, Kentucky expanded Medicaid to more citizens in 2014. In 2022, Kentucky expanded coverage to new mothers from two months after birth to a full year. The state also used federal pandemic funds to expand a home-visitation program that advises families from pregnancy until the child is age 2.

Advocates for improving maternal care are pushing for more midwives and doulas – nonclinical aides for before, during and after childbirth – and to license birthing centers for the 700-800 babies?born every year outside of hospitals.

These services, which would especially benefit rural areas with few doctors, should be paid by insurance, especially Medicaid, said McGranahan. Right now, she said, “those who need them most can’t afford them.”

Lawmakers passed a law in 2019 to certify more midwives and doulas, after the hospital association and medical society dropped their long opposition. Yet, while some hospitals have added their own midwife services, the number of ?midwives has only increased by 12, to 131 providers, according to a February Kentucky Lantern report. One obstacle is a $1,000 fee for license renewal. That compares to a $110 fee in Tennessee.

State medical organizations have not embraced birthing centers, where midwives work with clients to create the kind of birthing options they want. The March of Dimes says birthing centers, now operating in 37 states and the District of Columbia, help decrease the rates of C-sections. Kentucky last had a freestanding center in the 1980s.

A major obstacle is the state’s “certificate of need” process, that sets various administrative and financial requirements for medical facilities. Bipartisan bills to exempt birthing centers from that requirement did win support in House and Senate committees this year.

That encouraged Rep, Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, who has championed birthing centers for years. “Families deserve the right to welcome their children into the world in a way that best suits them,” he said.

Helping mothers and families should be the top priority of the next General Assembly after years of preoccupation with right-wing causes that often limit people’s rights.

Lawmakers named the abortion ban, “The Human Life Protection Act.” Mothers are human. Protect them.

An archival photograph of a cotton mill in Georgia, where two young boys stand on electric looms in order to reach the top shelf while at work. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Consider this an early intervention for Kentucky lawmakers and business leaders: Don’t follow other states in weakening child-labor laws.

In the frantic scramble to find more workers to rebuild the economy, businesses are violating federal laws and states are allowing children to work longer, in more dangerous jobs and with less liability on employers.

The U.S. Labor Department reported a 69-percent increase in children being employed illegally since 2018. In the last fiscal year, at least 835 companies employed more than 3,800 children illegally. At least 10 states introduced or passed laws rolling back child protections in the past two years, according to the nonpartisan?Economic Policy Institute.

While there are definite benefits to teens gaining work experience, there is peril in taking steps back to the last century, when young children were exploited rather than educated. We also know that the pandemic has caused children to fall further behind academically and experience more mental-health challenges. Kentucky’s children rank 37^th in child well-being in the 2022 Kids Count survey.

Currently, the state has reasonable regulations that limit work hours for teens, prohibit dangerous work, and even require a 2.0 grade-point average to work during the school year. But that could easily change. Not just because the state has the 48^th lowest workforce participation rate. Lawmakers also operate in lockstep with other GOP-controlled legislatures.

In a way, they act like children — following the crowd while competing to be the most conservative. Scores of donors, political activists and think tanks help keep all in line. Consider some of the policies Kentucky has duplicated in recent years:

• Imposing extreme abortion laws.
• Ending state gun regulations and refusing to follow federal ones.
• Banning gender-affirming medical care for minors.
• Prohibiting schools from teaching about gender identity.
• Allowing teachers to promote their religious beliefs in schools.
• Blocking payroll deductions for union dues.

None were top priorities for many Kentucky residents. They do, however, fit within a national conservative political strategy, which includes undermining federal regulation of nearly everything.

Recent federal investigations into child-labor violations include?Hyundai and Kia supply chains?in Alabama, at?JBS meatpacking plants?in Nebraska and Minnesota, and at fast-food chains including?McDonald’s,?Dunkin Donuts?and?Chipotle.

Nebraska’s?Packers Sanitation Services recently paid a $1.5 million?fine for employing 102 children in dangerous meatpacking jobs across eight states. Several youths, including a 13-year-old, suffered chemical burns and other injuries. U.S. law prohibits those under age 16 from working in most factory settings. Those under 18 are barred from the most dangerous jobs in industrial plants.

Congress has proposed legislation?to strengthen penalties for violations, yet some state proposals could end up challenging federal guidelines.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law last month legislation that rolls back requirements for businesses to verify the age of a child or get parental permission for work. New Hampshire and Nebraska lowered the age to bus tables where alcohol is served and extended work hours when school is in session.

In Iowa, Republican legislators are currently debating a bill to lift restrictions on hazardous work for 14- to 15-year-olds, allow those 14.5 years to drive to and for work; allow 16 year-olds to serve alcohol; extend work hours and grant employer immunity from civil liability for workplace injuries, illness or death.

Teen workers are low-hanging fruit for businesses challenged by low unemployment and a reshuffled workforce. People are searching for jobs with higher pay, better benefits and improved work conditions. Some businesses have been forced to increase compensation, invest more in automation and broaden recruitment. For example, Kentucky has set up the Prison to Work Pipeline to move former inmates directly into jobs.

During a February meeting of the National Governors Association, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith?explained the situation: “Our economies are going to need to adapt. We will face permanent shortages of nurses and hospitals and people in grocery stores unless we figure out how to manage economies without the growth of human beings to which we’ve become accustomed.”

Learning how to manage the economy should not mean allowing 13-year-olds to work around dangerous chemicals or 14.5-year-olds to drive. Young workers have?much higher rates?of non-fatal injuries on the job and the?highest rates?of injuries requiring emergency-room attention, reports the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

After the Great Depression, this country passed the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act which made clear that sacrificing children was no way to build a strong economy. And it’s certainly not the solution for the current economy, which can prosper only by reshaping the future — not echoing the past.

Kentucky should ignore the siren call of shortsighted solutions.

Louisville's interim police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel embraces a mourner during a community vigil last week for those killed or injured in a mass shooting. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

On a CNN interview about last week’s mass shooting in Louisville, Gov. Andy Beshear talked about his support for a “red flag” law to remove guns from those who are a danger to themselves or others.

“It ensures that everybody’s rights are protected, that evidence is heard. It has every check on it that we could ask for,” he said.

Well, then, why not do something about it?

Beshear could call a special session to try to pass the law. A bipartisan proposal has been waiting for a hearing in the legislature for years, so no need to start from scratch. An influential GOP state senator suggests he is open to finding government solutions to gun violence. And a bipartisan federal law provides money to states setting up “red flag” laws.

That adds up to a political opportunity for a state with the 13^th highest firearm mortality rate in the country.

Beshear — more mediator than activist — could prefer not to take on this challenge in an election year. But what has he got to lose? Those who insist on no gun restrictions likely won’t vote for him anyway. And he could attract more energized supporters, especially among younger voters.

Republicans would risk a backlash by refusing to work with Beshear on a reasonable measure that Republican U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell supports.

Even if the effort fails, it would have created “the conversation” on gun safety Beshear keeps saying he wants.

In the Louisville tragedy, a disgruntled employee opened fire in a downtown bank, killing five — including a Beshear close friend — and injuring eight. The 25-year-old shooter was killed by police.

It’s unclear if anyone knew his intentions in the days before. His mother called police after his roommate called her, but the massacre had already begun. She did not know he had bought an AR-15 rifle, news reports said.

A red-flag law probably “wouldn’t have stopped this situation,” Beshear said on CNN. “Maybe it will the next one. I don’t want another family to go through this.”

Top leaders of Kentucky’s GOP supermajority have responded little beyond “thoughts and prayers.” That contrasts with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, who lost a friend in the March 27 shooting that killed six in a Nashville Christian school. Lee signed an order toughening gun background checks and asked lawmakers for a red flag law in a month. He also suggested that Kentucky could benefit from one.

Lee’s response followed waves of citizen protests for gun regulation and an embarrassing effort by lawmakers to expel three Democrats who briefly joined the protests from the House floor. That overreaction backfired to the point where some positive action was necessary.

Slightly encouraging is a tweet from Senate Judiciary Chair Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville: “We’ve got to have conversations about what the government can do to protect against gun violence. Government cannot be the only solution, but it must be part of it. I don’t pretend to have a solution, but I’m willing to find one.”

This is no guarantee of negotiation. But at least he is not echoing National Rifle Association talking points. Just as important: He is not seeking reelection, allowing some freedom from party politics.

One proposal, the Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention Act, would allow police to seek an order to temporarily store guns or transfer them to a trusted person outside the household. If a judge approves, an evidentiary hearing is required within 14 days. After the individual is out of crisis and receiving support services, the court could return the weapons.

The idea — endorsed by groups on youth advocacy, family supports and mental-health services — is the brainchild of a Louisville woman who survived her own workplace shooting. Whitney Austin was shot 12 times at a Cincinnati bank in 2018. Four people died, including the shooter. After her recovery, the former bank executive set up the Whitney/Strong nonprofit on violence prevention and gun safety.

In media interviews about the Louisville shooting, Austin stressed the need for solutions: “This is not about divisiveness. This is not about guns are good, guns are bad. This is about finding where there is common ground and working together. I always have hope that change will come.”

Beshear doesn’t “want to give anybody false hope” about new gun-safety measures. Yet he seems to think that recounting the trauma of losing his friend could somehow become a catalyst for change.

Yet, his experience is not unique. Most Americans — 54 percent — say they or a family member have personal experience with some form of gun violence, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

What are we going to do about it? That’s the question.

Gov. Beshear has led Kentucky with compassion and stability through difficult times — the pandemic, floods, and tornados. Yet there are times when citizens need a leader to show not just empathy but a steely fight.

Many families that receive government assistance for child care still pay a lot out-of-pocket. A new Biden administration rule will lower those costs and improve payments to day care providers. (Getty Images)

Kentucky lawmakers, concerned that the state has half the workers it needs, cut unemployment benefits to force those who lose jobs to get back to work quicker and set up a program to get ex-inmates directly from prisons into jobs.

But a direct, long-overdue way to beef up the workforce would be to provide affordable and quality child care.?

“The lack of accessible child care already accounts for a loss of over $570 million in lost earnings, business productivity and tax revenue each year in Kentucky,”??according to Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, co-chair of the bipartisan?Early Childhood Education Task Force.

Also, the flow of $763 million in federal pandemic funds for state child care ends in September. The Biden administration plan to restart child-tax credits to parents — a 2021 program that reduced child poverty by half — is unlikely to gain GOP congressional support.

With the federal infusion, the Beshear administration increased income limits for families receiving subsidies, raised payments to providers and suspended co-pays for low-income families. The governor’s office is looking for a way to continue some of this support until the 2024 legislative session.

But Kentucky cannot afford to wait to elevate child care as a top priority.

“Kentucky’s child care sector is like an unstable medical patient,” said Benjamin M. Gies of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. “The patient suffered for years prior to the pandemic, thanks to a failed business model that left over half of all Kentuckians in a child care desert. Federal pandemic relief placed the patient in stable, but still critical, condition.”

The state needs a comprehensive refashioning of all early-childhood education — including what’s offered in schools and in approved homes —into a more seamless system, argue children’s advocates.

Prichard proposes a $1 billion annual investment by 2026 to include funds for child care and preschool assistance, all-day kindergarten, teacher training and school transportation. For example: Washington state’s Fair Start for Kids Act sets $1.1 billion in permanent funding to make child care more affordable.

Last year, the Kentucky legislature approved an innovative Employee Assistance Partnership Program, in which the state matches the contributions businesses and nonprofits make to employee child care. This $15 million, one-year pilot program starts taking employer applications in April.

“We need to encourage more of our businesses here in Kentucky to start looking at offering some type of child care as a benefit to their employees, just as they would insurance or leave time,” said Mandy Simpson of Metro United Way. “Our commonwealth cannot afford to see child care access worsen.”

State economic officials should follow President Biden’s lead in mandating that microchip companies seeking federal incentives must provide quality child care. Access to child care should be part of negotiations over state business incentives.

To understand how dire Kentucky’s situation is, here are some challenges facing children, providers, and families:

The state ranks No. 41 in the nation in the number of three- and four-year olds enrolled in preschool. That’s a fall from No. 28 in 2008.?In 2020, only 53% of public-school kindergartners were identified as being ready for the classroom. That does not bode well for the future generations of potential workers.

Prichard, United Way and other advocates produced an August survey of 500 childcare providers, which found that the end of pandemic funding means:

• Over 70 percent will be forced to raise tuition.
• Close to 40 percent would cut staff wages.
• Close to 30 percent would lay off staff.
• Over 20 percent of would permanently close.

In the decade before 2021, the number of providers dropped 46.3%, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP). To serve rural areas with few providers, the legislative task force proposes training more people to provide home-based day care. Another proposal suggests zoning-law changes to allow child care centers to open closer to where people work.

Most providers used federal funds to pay staff, according to the survey. Average annual pay for Kentucky child care workers in 2020 was $20,423, which was under the $21,960 poverty line for a family of three. The legislative task force has proposed that the state consider ways to improve pay, training and education.

It’s ironic, Simpson said, that the state is counting on child care workers to help raise families out of poverty “when they are in poverty themselves.”

The state’s reimbursement rate for providers varies based on county, age of the child and provider licensing. The daily rate for full-day infant care can range from $27 to $47. The federal standard is to pay 75% of the market rate. Kentucky, however, pays just 57% of the market rate for infant care in licensed centers, according to a March report by the Center of American Progress.

An estimated 45,000 Kentuckians struggle due to a lack of child care and early education access and affordability, according to a Kentucky Chamber?Foundation report. More than 46 percent of parents in a 2020 survey indicated that someone in the family had quit a job, did not take a job, or changed jobs due to child care issues. Of the state’s 525 public preschool programs, only 94 provide full-day services.

Parents without state subsidies pay an average $35.55 per day for full-time toddler care in a mid-to-large-sized licensed center, according to a KECP report. At five days a week, 50 weeks per year, that’s nearly $8,890 — more than the $5,460 annual full-time community-college tuition.

In July, Kentucky increased income limits for families to qualify for state subsidies. Now, a family of four can earn up to $5,504 a month, up from $4,417. Work, job search or enrollment in educational programs remain requirements for the aid.

Other states also have increased income limits. Iowa doubled to $90,000 the amount families could earn and allowed for a gradual transition off aid, rather than an abrupt cutoff.

Overall, Kentucky’s child care situation “can look and feel really bleak,” Simpson said. Yet she is optimistic that key lawmakers and officials understand the issues and proposed ideas. “It’s putting them operational — that’s the challenge,” she said.

Perhaps the care of preschoolers and the financial burden on families really will matter now that state leaders desperately search for workers. As Rep. Heavrin puts it: “Child care is the workforce behind the workforce.”

On what would have been her ?28th birthday, June 5, 2021, Breonna Taylor was remembered with an art installation in Louisville. Months of protests following her death in 2020 led to yesterday's U.S. Justice Department report exposing a culture of unconstitutional abuse in the Louisville police. (Getty Images)(Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

The fallout of the 2020 Breonna Taylor killing by police, resulting from an invalid warrant, made clear that the Louisville police department has serious problems in management and training.

But a two-year federal investigation into the department exposed the depth of the bullying and overall disrespect toward citizens. Attorney General Merrick Garland rightly described the results in the report as “heartbreaking. … It is an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better.”

The department violated residents’ constitutional rights: illegal stops, detentions and arrests; excessive force with neck restraints, stun guns and dog bites; inadequate attention to sexual assault and domestic-violence cases; yelling and name-calling, which escalate conflicts.

Black residents were targeted and routinely called “animal,” “monkey” and “boy.” A group of detectives in 2018 and 2019 filmed themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians as they drove by and then distributed the cellphone videos. Two detectives pleaded guilty in June to civil rights violations in that case.

The department “cites people for minor offenses, like wide turns and broken taillights, while serious crimes such as sexual assault and homicides go unsolved,” Garland said at a press conference in Louisville. Meanwhile, an inadequate internal-affairs department and a confusing citizen-complaint process make it harder to root out troublemakers.

It’s the type of policing one would expect to find in the Deep South decades ago, not today in Kentucky’s largest and most racially diverse city.

“This report paints a painful picture of LMPD’s past, but it helps point us in the right direction for our future,” said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who took office in January. “To those people who have been harmed, on behalf of our city government, I’m sorry.”

The city and the police department will now negotiate a consent decree that would place a judge in charge of overseeing overdue reforms in 36 areas of operation, including training, administration, community response and employee management.

The totality of the department’s rot would not have been laid bare without the demands of Breonna Taylor’s family, vigilant protests by Louisville citizens and the support they garnered across the country. Continued scrutiny is essential for substantive change.

Garland praised some reforms already under way as part of the Metro government ‘s $12 million settlement of the Taylor wrongful death lawsuit. They include improved crisis intervention, more citizen oversight, and an “early warning” system for troubled officers.

DOJ has charged?four former Louisville police officers in connection to that raid. They lied to get a no-knock search warrant and opened fire on the 26-year-old emergency-room technician who had been in bed when she heard pounding then police breaking down her apartment door.

Over the last five years, the city has paid more than $40 million to settle?dozens of lawsuits?accusing police of complaints ranging from wrongful arrests to drivers who were stopped and searched illegally.

Federal scrutiny presents an opportunity for Louisville and other local governments in Kentucky to rethink public safety, taking best practices from cities that have gone through the consent-decree process. It would not only benefit citizens but also the officers who deserve a well-run department that adequately prepares them to protect and serve.

“My hope is that everyone in Louisville will come together and see the findings of this report as an urgent opportunity to take intentional steps for positive, lasting change,” Gov. Andy Beshear?said in a tweet.

Tamika Palmer, mother of Breonna Taylor, views the DOJ report as validation that “Breonna’s death is not in vain.”

“Our fight will protect future potential victims from LMPD’s racist tactics and behavior,” she said. “The time for terrorizing the Black community with no repercussions is over.”

Americans' attendance and membership in all houses of worship declined in 2020 to less that 50 percent for the first time, according to Gallup. (Photo by Getty Images)

The 16-day outpouring of spiritual fervor at Asbury University in Wilmore was a welcome reminder that religion should be a search for peace and purpose rather than a strategy for divisiveness and dominance.

Christianity is too often used to force others — especially women, minorities, and LGBTQ persons — into narrow thinking and proscribed paths. The nondenominational Christian college wisely kept the event from being taken over by grandstanders seeking national media attention.

While working as a religion reporter, I met followers of many faith traditions — all seeking answers to eternal questions about life and death. I also documented the discord and schisms routine in most organized religions.

The Asbury event reminded me of the enthusiasm and promise of Christian evangelism when it surged in the late 1970s. What remains of it is in danger of being usurped by a hostile Christian nationalism, which seeks dominance in a multi-cultural country.

The good news is that 73 percent of Americans reject that idea of a Christian-only nation, according to?a new survey?from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution. What’s troubling is that 50 percent of Republicans and two-thirds of white Protestants do support such thinking.

In fact, the survey reports that half of Christian nationalism adherents, and nearly 4 in 10 sympathizers, support having an authoritarian leader to keep Christian values in society.

“Christian nationalism is a new term for a worldview that has been with us since the founding of our country — the idea that America is destined to be a promised land for European Christians,” said Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the research institute. “While most Americans today embrace pluralism and reject this anti-democratic claim, majorities of white evangelical Protestants and Republicans remain animated by this vision of a white Christian America.”

The evangelical movement disrupted mainline denominations, demanding personal “born again” relationships with Jesus through expressive worship, including spiritual healing and speaking in tongues. Still socially conservative, many followers left their churches to form interdenominational ones focused on spreading the faith and engaging in community service.

Soon televangelists turned evangelical religious practices into big business. That was followed by the “prosperity gospel” trend, insisting that followers deserved earthly fortunes. Then activists organized them into grassroots forces for the rich and politically ambitious.

Now, aided by spreading conspiracy theories, strategists attempt to recast evangelicals as warriors against evil “others.” In the survey, Christian nationalists agreed with the statement: “True patriots might have to resort to violence to save our country.”

Christian nationalists say discrimination against whites is as big a problem as it is against Blacks, the survey shows, and that immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic values.

This is all happening as U.S. attendance and membership in all houses of worship declined in 2020 to less that 50 percent for the first time, according to a survey by Gallup, which has measured church membership for 80 years.

More adults say they have no religious preference. Those with preferences are increasingly shunning organized religion. That’s happening in all generations, but especially among young adults.

So, groups and individuals promoting Christian nationalism decided Jesus had to be rebranded to appeal to the young.

A new three-year $1 billion ad campaign, “He Gets Us,” portrays Jesus as a refugee, a social-justice advocate and even a victim of cancel culture. One major campaign funder is Hobby Lobby owner David Green, a supporter of anti-gay laws. He also won the legal fight allowing companies to declare their religious rights justify denying employee contraception benefits.

The media campaign is unlikely to make much difference because digital-savvy young people can see through slick marketing,??Kevin M. Young, a pastor and biblical scholar on social media, told CNN.

“Jesus doesn’t have an image problem, but Christians and their churches do,” he said. “Young people are savvy. One of their primary issues with evangelicalism, and the modern church in America, is the amount of money spent on itself.”

Whether momentum from Asbury students’ spontaneous worship reflects some form of religious revival remains to be seen, especially on the campus. The college has been criticized in recent years for not supporting LGBTQ-affirming teachers and students.

As Asbury theology professor Thomas H. McCall wrote in Christianity Today, during the event: “The worship we are experiencing in the chapel must have real-life implications for our fellowship outside of it. This is especially important as we are currently working through difficult issues around race and ethnicity.”

Getty Images

My oldest granddaughter recently married a non-binary person, meaning “they” reject being labeled either male or female. I have used the wrong pronoun a few times because their caring nature feels feminine to me — which I acknowledge is old-fashioned thinking.

I will get the pronouns right because it is callous to misgender someone or question their preferences, especially if you care about them. Even if it doesn’t easily compute for you.

Yet the Kentucky Senate last week passed SB 150, which would prohibit any requirements that school staff and students use other students’ preferred names or pronouns — voiding the guidance issued by state education officials last year.

“The terms ‘he’ and ‘she’ communicate fixed facts about a person, and teachers should not be forced to violate their consciences regarding what they know to be true or not true,” said sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville.

This narrow thinking is part of a national parental-rights crusade unfairly attacking educators. The movement has roots in the pandemic chaos, which raised fears about loss of control. Yes, so much in the country is changing, as always. This time, we grandparents and parents are not the ones causing the upheaval.

So, activists and politicians encourage parents to micromanage schools: censoring library books; restricting classrooms discussions on race and gender; discriminating against transgender girls in sports, which Kentucky did last year.

Gender diversity is nothing new. It is just more openly discussed because the children today’s parents reared are more accepting of others’ differences. And after a childhood traumatized by mass-shootings, the pandemic and hostile social media, they are concerned about their own mental health. They declare who they are and hope for acceptance.

Rejection, however, endangers them. The 2022 national?survey?by The Trevor Project, which studies LGBTQ youth, found that nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide in the past year because of bullying. Fewer than one in three of these youth found their home life supportive.

Now, just imagine connecting daily with scores of young people dealing with relationships, sexuality, identity, home life and the general stress of growing up. And your job is to create a safe place where they can get an education, build character and envision a future.

It’s not sound strategy to make them feel insecure or rejected because of who they say they are at any moment in time. Educators should work with parents to help students learn and grow. But teachers shouldn’t feel obligated to report to parents which name a student is using this month.

For one thing, teachers don’t know if there is family discord, whether the student could be in danger. Teachers are not hired to be social workers, family counselors or potential witnesses in divorce or custody cases. And they are not obligated to reflect the view of a parent who refuses to see or accept what is happening with their child.

Teachers have never had it easy, but the pandemic also presented serious challenges with remote learning and trying to reduce the spread of the virus. What began as protests about the handling of the pandemic morphed into attacks on teachers, including extreme allegations of sexual grooming. Such vitriol, which lessened as schools reopened and parents returned to work, is still considered a factor in a nationwide teacher shortage.

As of last month, Kentucky had 1,500 teacher vacancies with a high 20-percent turnover rate. Also, the average state teacher pay, when adjusted for inflation, dropped for the seventh year in a row. Yet, some speakers at a recent House Education Committee hearing said teachers were leaving the classroom to reject policies on student pronouns.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass responded: “The people who are making pronouns and transgender issues and ‘woke’ issues a priority in our education are politicians.”

The best result would be for those demanding parental rights to accept a middle ground.

Allow educators to create safe learning environments for all students — regardless of identity. Then, parents spend more time talking to their own children about how they see themselves and their place in an increasingly diverse world.

The U.S. Supreme Court held a special sitting Sept. 30, 2022, to mark the investiture of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended. (Photo from Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

Far-reaching legal cases, including a ruling by a Kentucky federal judge, raise serious concerns about whether the lives of women — and their decisions about their own lives — really matter.

On Feb. 2, a Texas appellate court issued a ruling that it was unconstitutional to remove guns from abusive domestic partners, putting more women and children in the crosshairs. That same day, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Lexington made a similar ruling in the case of a Harrison County man. Appeals are expected in both cases.

The justification for such troubling decisions: It’s what men of colonial times would have decided.

This “mind meld” with the long-gone ignores that — in the here and now — an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month in this country. Abusers with firearms are?five times more likely to kill?their female victims. Kentucky has the second-highest rate of domestic violence, according to reported data.

These court decisions leave survivors “even more vulnerable, putting them at increased risk of abuse, injury, and death,” according to the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence, representing 15 organizations across the state. “When people who commit domestic violence have access to firearms, the lethality risk increases by 1,000 percent for survivors, their families, and for community members.”

The resurrection of gun laws from the late 1700s is based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year against New York’s concealed-carry restrictions. The high court declared that Second Amendment cases must be decided “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Many judges, who depended on a 30-year federal law calling for gun removal, are now struggling with new, murky guidelines. The Texas appeals court initially ruled for gun removal, but the case was refiled after the Supreme Court ruling.

The three-judge panel of the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a man who pleaded guilty to violating a protective order for threatening his ex-girlfriend, their child and a neighbor at gunpoint, can keep his weapons.

In the Kentucky case, police visited a man who was harassing his wife by text and found him with a pistol, which violated a protective order. He still faces a charge for lying to a gun dealer about not being under court order when purchasing the revolver. Yet, he is not in trouble for lying to the courts about even possessing a gun.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which will appeal the Texas case, argues that guns were taken away from dangerous people during the nation’s early years. The appellate judges, two appointed by President Trump and a third appointed by President Reagan, responded: “The purpose of these ‘dangerou-sness’ laws was the preservation of political and social order, not the protection of an identified person from the specific threat posed by another.”

By that logic, no one using a gun to kill or threaten someone could be seen as a danger to the “political and social order.” The way the country is headed, gun rights will take priority over all other rights, including the right to life.

Unless, of course, it’s the life of the unborn.

The crusade to control women’s reproductive decisions has shifted from closing clinics to denying legal abortion medication. Activists and Republican attorneys general, including Kentucky’s Daniel Cameron, threaten drug chains willing to sell the medicine.

This has serious consequences for women in Kentucky, where abortion is still illegal — despite voter rejection of an anti-abortion ballot measure. The state Supreme Court has yet to sort through the legalities of multiple abortion bans passed by the legislature.

The pills —?mifepristone?and?misoprostol?— have been safely used for 22 years and are required to be taken during the first 10 weeks of gestation. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of federal abortion rights last year, the Biden administration has approved prescriptions by mail, through telehealth and from pharmacies.

A group called The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is suing the Food and Drug Administration for approving the pills. The lawsuit?claims approval was not done legally and is not supported by evidence of safety and efficacy.?Courts and federal agencies have disputed such claims in the past. Yet an injunction from the judge could stop nationwide distribution.

U.S.?District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump in 2019, is a former attorney for a Christian legal advocacy group.?He has argued against abortion, same-sex marriage, no-fault divorce, birth control and sex outside of marriage. He set a Feb. 24 for final briefs in the pills case.

On Jan. 22 — the 50th anniversary of the overturned Roe v. Wade abortion ruling — Vice President Kamala Harris, at a Florida rally, read?an order?calling on government agencies to protect privacy and abortion access, including to the pills.

“Let us not be tired or discouraged, because we’re on the right side of history,” she told the crowd.

Yet the courts seem determined to drag the nation back in history to a more misogynistic time.

Since the pandemic recovery began in May 2020, there have been 40,000 more hires than quits every month on average in Kentucky. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Why must someone laid off from a job be further penalized by the state? To be denied long-established unemployment benefits? To be pressured to take an available job rather than find one that advanced a career?

Yet Kentucky lawmakers decided the state must become a harsh taskmaster, snapping a whip to get people back into the workforce quickly, as if they are simply widgets to fill any hole.

Even in a year of high inflation and a possible recession. Even knowing that rural areas offer limited job opportunities. And outright ignoring that those who qualify for unemployment are workers — not those who choose to live on government aid.

The current policy, pegged to a three-month unemployment rate, has cut the duration of benefits from 26 weeks to 12 weeks. Job seekers must accept “suitable” jobs within 30 miles of home — even if the pay is low and it doesn’t fit work experience.

Gov. Andy Beshear rightly labeled as “cruel” these changes pushed by conservative think tanks and businesses that pay the benefits. Kentucky is one of six states curtailing a program created during the 1930s Great Depression.

Barriers to benefits only force people onto government rolls and longer periods of joblessness, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Unemployment — at its lowest level in more than 50 years — is not holding back job growth. “Recent research illustrates that slashing unemployment benefits will not significantly boost employment, despite rhetoric to the contrary,” the center said.

Such shortsightedness reflects a growing disrespect for the working class, which only erodes citizen support of government. Hostility is apparent in authoritarian philosophies pushed by the wealthy, failed trickle-down economics embraced by politicians, and a Christian nationalism labeling others evil.

Kentucky lawmakers have elevated corporate interests over workers; given themselves an 8% raise while denying teachers a 5% increase during a teacher shortage; and prioritized tax cuts, rather than needed services, in spending surpluses created by federal pandemic aid.

Jonathan Miller, former Kentucky Finance and Administration secretary and author of a book on community values, put it succinctly: “It’s a scary time. People are looking for other people to blame. It’s leading to results that hurt working people, people who have been pigeonholed and denigrated.”

Business leaders and some lawmakers insist unemployment cutbacks are needed because Kentucky has half the workers needed for open positions. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, for example, is wisely working to help former inmates move directly into jobs.

But those currently in the workforce also face challenges: remote work, staff cutbacks, mass firings by email, and increased use of automation and artificial intelligence.

Workers are engaged in “a great reshuffling,” according to a 2022 report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The state’s older population is leaving full-time work; those in low-paying jobs are looking for better ones. Since the pandemic recovery began in May 2020, there have been 40,000 more hires than quits every month on average, the report said.

Worker shortage could also result from Kentucky’s .01 percent population growth from 2020 to 2022, based on Census data. The Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville is predicting only a 6.2 percent population increase by 2050, mostly from growth in Fayette, Warren, Jefferson, Boone and Scott counties.

Not enough people are relocating here. Kentucky’s appeal is undermined by such realities as 22 percent of our children live in poverty and the state has the fifth-lowest life expectancy rate. Changes are needed to improve the quality of life. For example, raising the minimum wage would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands — mostly women with children — and put more money into the economy.

Kentucky’s minimum wage is set at the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, which has not changed for 13 years. A full-time worker earns $15,080 a year — $9,780 less than the federal poverty rate for a family of three. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 4.4% of Kentucky workers earn minimum wage — nearly twice the national rate of 2.3 percent.

Twenty states raised wages this year either through legislatures, ballot measures or earlier planned increases. Eight states have approved plans for a $15 minimum.

Lawmakers could at least allow growing urban area to increase wages. In 2016, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that increases by Lexington and Louisville violated state law. Allowing exceptions in the law and monitoring the impact would be reasonable step by the legislature.

Addressing obstacles to building a robust workforce won’t be easy. But it must rise beyond faulty assumptions and quick fixes that penalize people unfortunate enough to lose a job in an uncertain economy.

“We’re a religious state,” said Miller. “And I wish we could fulfill those religious values, with compassion for those who need it the most.”

Kentucky was a top producer of hemp before World War II. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear’s order allowing Kentuckians with at least one of 21 medical conditions to possess eight ounces of medical cannabis was a welcome response to decades of legislative foot-dragging. The drawback: Of the 37 states where it’s legal, Illinois is the closest to fill out-of-state prescriptions.

Meanwhile, another cannabis option is already available here: Delta 8, a naturally occurring compound in hemp.

Often called “diet weed” because it is less psychoactive than marijuana, it is legal under state and federal law. For some, it could provide relief from pain, anxiety, insomnia, seizures and other maladies lessened by marijuana use.

“Most people don’t realize that hemp and marijuana is the same plant, just lower milligrams,” said Dee Dee Taylor, CEO of 502 Hemp Wellness Center in Louisville. “You don’t have to risk driving to another state. Hemp is 100 percent legal in Kentucky.”

In response to an August court decision reinforcing Delta 8’s legality, Beshear issued an executive order for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to propose much-needed guidelines for its manufacture, labeling and sale. The regulations, Beshear said, would “serve as a template for when the General Assembly fully legalizes medical cannabis.”

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles has been pushing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate dosing and advertising for hemp products.

Citing thousands of accidental poisonings, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control have issued warnings about Delta 8, including concerns that potentially harmful chemicals could be used in its processing.

“The No. 1 impediment of hemp in America is the FDA,” Quarles said. “The FDA needs to do their job and give us guidelines on what their view is on the potential regulatory aspects of CBD and other cannabinoids.”

State and federal regulations could boost Kentucky’s $43.5 million hemp industry, once heralded as a future replacement for tobacco. It is trying to rebound after overproduction, the pandemic economy and haphazard federal oversight.

Hemp products include paper, rope, textiles, biodegradable plastics, biofuel and animal feed. Most profitable now is CBD oil, which gained mainstream acceptance as a health product. The nonintoxicating oil is used in processing the Delta 8 THC, which generates the high.

Delta 8 surprise

“I was just as surprised as anybody else when I learned about Delta 8. I don’t even think the government knew,” said Katie Moyer, president of the Kentucky Hemp Association, about 100 businesses that grow, process and sell hemp products. “Maybe it’s a loophole, but I am not really mad about it. It’s giving people an option.”

In 2021, acting upon an advisory from the state Department of Agriculture’s general counsel, Kentucky State Police ?raided some shops selling Delta 8 on grounds that it was a controlled substance. The association sued the agriculture and public-safety commissioners. Boone Circuit Judge Rick Brueggemann issued a permanent injunction against charging retailers and producers with criminal activity. The association also fought back a bill to ban Delta 8.

This session, medical marijuana is understandably a legislative priority of activists concerned about health care, citizen rights and harsh drug laws. A bill passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate. Another bill proposes a 2024 constitutional amendment to allow adults to possess up to an ounce and to cultivate up to five plants.

“Kentuckians from across the commonwealth overwhelmingly support cannabis reform,” said Kungu Njuguna, policy strategist for ACLU of Kentucky. “We urge individuals to call, text, email, and/or schedule a meeting with their legislator.”

But the GOP Senate doesn’t appear eager to follow the Democratic governor’s lead during an election year. Senate President Robert Stivers said he might support medical marijuana – but only for the dying.

That means even more lives lost to opioids and other drugs that send people to morgues or prisons. As one of the top states for marijuana cultivation during the nation’s war on drugs, Kentucky should have been a leader, rather than a straggler, on marijuana reform. As once the ?greatest producer of?hemp?and now the fourth-largest producer, Kentucky could lead in pharmaceutical hemp.

The industry will get congressional attention this year during reauthorization of the farm bill.

Moyer, owner of Kentucky Hemp Works, a seed and processing facility in Christian County, welcomes state regulation: “At first I was nervous. I always worry when government wants to get involved. But I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Delta 8 should be limited to adults, with products placed behind counters and certificates of analysis on file, Moyer said.

Taylor also wants it sold in shops where consumers can be educated. “To me, this is medicine,” she said. “I don’t feel like anybody should buy a health-care product at a gas station.”

Kentucky’s hemp business is losing ground. In 2019, the state licensed 978 growers and 200 processors. In 2022, there were 240 growers and 93 processors. In 2019, 60,000 acres were approved for production. In 2022, it was 5,530.

“There was a big boom and then, all of a sudden, it became hard to sell,” said Moyer. “The government would say it was a matter of supply and demand. But the demand was always there. The bottleneck was government regulation. For a new industry, we were learning as we go. And so was the government. We are building back up.”

For Taylor, hemp is more than a business; it’s a lifesaver. Her husband, John, endured five years of seizures, despite taking 28 pills a day, she said. Told by doctors to expect a low quality of life, the veteran started using CBD oil. Now seizure free, he operates a CBD processing business.

“In Kentucky, they will promote bourbon, but they won’t even fathom how much cannabinoids can help people,” she said. “I think it comes down to money. It’s typical politics.”

Kentucky's Constitution endorses slavery for one group of citizens: inmates. (Getty Images)

This column, ?first published by the Kentucky Lantern earlier this month, inspired Marc Murphy’s political art that we are publishing on the holiday honoring?asassinated?civil rights hero the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Kentucky resisted the end of slavery, refusing to certify the 13^th Amendment at the time and only freeing people six months after June 19, 1865, the day celebrated as the Juneteenth holiday. Legislators finally ratified the amendment in 1976.

And to this day, the state Constitution endorses slavery for one group of citizens: inmates. Reads Section 25: “Slavery?and involuntary servitude in this State are forbidden, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

Kentuckians should follow the lead of Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont and Oregon which voted Nov. 8 to remove similar language from their constitutions. The votes have not ended prison labor but have raised discussions about work mandates and low pay.

Such reassessment could benefit Kentucky, which has backtracked on once-touted criminal-justice reform. Urgently in need of workers, government and business leaders recently announced plans to move ex-inmates quickly into jobs. How people are treated while incarcerated could influence the success of those efforts.

The slavery exception was written into the U.S. Constitution as former slave states sought to retain a flow of cheap labor. New laws, called the?Black Codes, criminalized vagrancy, unpaid fees and even bad language to keep prisons and jails full of workers who could be leased out.

A congressional bill, the Abolition Amendment, aims to close the loophole. If approved, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Said Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a bill sponsor: “The loophole in our constitution’s ban on slavery not only allowed slavery to continue but launched an era of discrimination and mass incarceration that continues to this day.”

It angered Terrance A. Sullivan, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, to realize Kentucky is among the minority of states that retain the slavery exception. He is lobbying legislators for a ballot measure to change it.

“I want people to be as mad as I am that it exists,” he said in a column in the Courier-Journal. “I want people to call, text, tweet, email or whatever they prefer to their elected officials to help me make sure this time next year that this section is amended, and slavery can forever be in the past in Kentucky.”

Kentucky was once hailed for 2011 legislation aimed at reducing incarceration. Ten years later, analysis by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy showed it had failed. If Kentucky were a country, its 30,000 inmates would rank it as the seventh highest incarceration rate in the world, the report concluded.

In that decade, lawmakers passed 59 bills that enhanced felony penalties, especially for drug offenses. They passed 10 bills that reduced criminalization. Instead of the projected $422 million savings from fewer imprisonments, the state’s corrections budget increased 72 percent. We spent more to lock people up than to engage youth, mitigate poverty and develop job skills.

Kentucky puts inmates to work within prisons and in the community. The standard pay is $1.56 for an eight-hour workday; 78 cents for those getting credit for time served, according to the Department of Corrections. Kentucky Correctional Industries operates in 15 industries – including warehousing, manufacturing, textiles, printing, and furniture making. About 600 inmates worked in 2021 in eight prisons and four farm operations.

Also, during the last fiscal year, 3,109 low-risk state inmates in county jails worked at local recycling centers and animal shelters, performed roadside cleanup, and collected garbage. Their labor, compared to paying others minimum wage, saved the counties about $34 million, according to the department’s annual report.

Low wages generate feelings of exploitation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s June report?on prison labor. Governments take up to 80 percent of wages for room and board, court costs, restitution and other fees. Also, prisons charge high costs for necessities like phone calls, hygiene products and medical care.

The ACLU argues that inmates should get state minimum wages and fewer deductions. “They should be properly trained for the work they perform,” the report concluded, “and we should be investing in programs that provide incarcerated workers with marketable skills.”

About 13,100 state inmates are released annually; most have problems finding full-time work with benefits. The majority of inmates are age 40 or younger, serving 10 years or less for property crimes.

The Beshear administration and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce announced a Prison-to-Work Pipeline ?that would match jobs with inmates leaving all 13 prisons and 19 local jails that house state inmates. “The goal is for reentering inmates to have a job offer and be ready to start to work the day they walk out the gate,” Justice and Public Safety Secretary Kerry Harvey said during the November announcement.

Kentucky has 160,000 open jobs but fewer than 80,000 people actively pursuing careers, said chamber president and CEO Ashli Watts. “Not only are we able to connect individuals in need of employment with employers looking for candidates, but we are able to connect individuals in industries where they have prior experience and skills,” she said.

This effort holds promise, although it is also urgent that the legislature reevaluate its “tough on crime” posture that leads to building more prisons and packing inmates in county jails.

Some may dismiss concern about the slavery exception as nothing more than symbolism. But it is easier to rebuild lives – and the workforce – if the state is not also sending the message that some citizens are only worthy of indentured servitude.

Getty Images

A Lexington wife and mother was killed in her home Nov. 23 — three days after a judge rejected an emergency protective order that police encouraged her to seek. The ruling: “No imminent threat.”

The man she was divorcing called police to report he had shot her. Convicted of a past drug felony, he wasn’t supposed to possess a gun. And he had a history of domestic abuse with another woman. In news reports, court officials said the woman should have put all his history into her request. Yet a victim often doesn’t know an abuser’s full criminal history, which police and court officials can easily discover.

This tragedy is a case where “red flag” laws — allowing removal of firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or others — might have saved a life. Under these laws, now in 19 states and the District of Columbia, police and sometimes family members can request a court order to prevent murders, suicides, or mass shootings. In Kentucky, a person under an emergency protective order can keep guns and ammunition.

Abusers with firearms are five times more likely to kill their victims, according to the Kentucky Coalition on Domestic Violence, which supports gun-removal laws “to prevent future tragedies from occurring while preserving the lawful use of firearms for sport and personal protection.”

Both Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell support such laws, most of which passed after the 2018 massacre at a Florida high school. In Kentucky, a bipartisan bill for temporary removal of guns has been stalled in recent years but is to be refiled in the upcoming legislative session.

Meanwhile, the Beshear administration should seek funding under the new Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which includes $750 million in grants to set up red-flag laws or other gun-removal strategies in closely supervised drug courts and mental-health courts.

Kentucky is undeniably a pro-gun state: A 2019 law allowed people to carry a concealed gun without getting a permit or completing a background check and safety training. But it makes no sense to ignore the realities of how illegal gun use is making the state more deadly:

• The firearm mortality rate is the 13th highest in the nation at 20.1 deaths for every 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• At least 902 people died from firearm injury in 2020, up from 694 in 2015.
• Of firearm deaths, 63% are suicides; and guns are the leading cause of death among Kentucky children and teens, according to EveryStat.org.
• This year, the state has had nine mass shootings — where four or more people have been injured or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That compares to three in 2021.

A Louisville wife and mother, who was seriously wounded in a mass shooting, is the primary force behind the bill for temporary removal of guns from those in crisis.

Whitney Austin was shot 12 times in a 2018 shooting at a Cincinnati bank. Four people died, including the shooter. After her recovery, she set up a nonprofit, Whitney/Strong. It works closely with Sandy Hook Promise, a national gun-safety organization formed after the 2012 massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Since 2019, Austin has proposed the Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention (CARR) bill, which would allow police to seek an order to temporarily store guns or transfer them to a trusted person outside the household. If a judge approves, an evidentiary hearing is required within 14 days. After the individual is out of crisis and receiving support services, the court could return the weapons.

The legislation has had bipartisan sponsorship and been endorsed by various organizations, including those dealing with youth advocacy, family supports, and mental-health services. New sponsors have not been announced to replace retired GOP Sen. Paul Hornback and Democratic Sen. Morgan McGarvey, who was elected to Congress.

Despite positive feedback from some lawmakers, the proposal has not been heard by the joint judiciary committee. “That’s the goal of 2023 — that we have a conversation,” said Austin. “I don’t know when it will pass. But I do know it will pass. We are on the side of the people.”

Austin, a gun owner herself, is especially concerned about suicides by firearms, which are higher in rural areas. Suicides are connected to mass shootings, she said. The shooters often seek “suicide by cop” or kill themselves after killing innocent people. “It really doesn’t matter how or when you were shot,” she said. “The experience of thinking your life is going to end is the same.”

The biggest obstacle facing CARR is the fear by some that removing guns — even temporarily from someone threatening harm?— is a denial of every gun owner’s rights.

“We are on the side of supporting and protecting the Second Amendment,” said Austin. “Gun owners have crisis moments like anybody else. We want them safe and protected.”

Protecting citizens from needless injury and death requires Kentucky lawmakers to seek some balance between gun rights and public safety.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a key negotiator in the past, says it's up to the Republican House and Democratic president this time. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, after beating back a challenge to his leadership position, offered a reasonable analysis on why his party fell short of midterm election hopes.

“We underperformed among indepen--dents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party, and leadership roles, is that they’re dogged in chaos, negativity, excessive attacks,” Kentucky’s senior senator told reporters. “And it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters.”

Yet, the next day McConnell voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which aims to protect people in interracial and same-sex marriages from discrimination. He reinforced impressions of negativity and chaos, showing little compassion for families unnerved by recent violence, court rulings and state laws targeting LGBTQ citizens.

His unexplained vote was especially confusing since he is in an interracial marriage with Elaine Chao, a Cabinet secretary in two GOP administrations.

Fortunately, 12 Republicans — out of 50 — joined Democrats on Nov. 29 to give final Senate approval to the bill, which is expected to pass the House. An earlier House version won support from 47 of 214 GOP lawmakers, none from Kentucky.

Still, this an opportunity for McConnell to demonstrate the type of leadership that he says independents and moderates seek. Despite a well-deserved reputation for blocking legislation, he has supported recent bipartisan initiatives: investments in infrastructure and in semiconductor manufacturing, as well as reforms in gun safety and veterans’ health care.

On the night of the final vote on the marriage bill, McConnell did receive media attention for coming close to criticizing former president Donald Trump for hosting a dinner for an unapologetic white supremacist. “Anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” he said. Trump, running for president again, responded by calling McConnell “a loser.”

What is really lost in GOP infighting is a party leader who would speak up for those targeted by hate groups, including those in same-sex or interracial marriages.

The marriage bill does not order states to perform these marriages. It requires them to re-spect marriage licenses, adoption orders and divorce decrees issued by other states. It also repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a moot bipartisan law that describes marriage as only between a man and a woman. Polygamous marriages are not recognized and nonprofit religious groups won’t have to provide support or facilities for same-sex marriages.

The push for this legislation is a reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June overthrow of the nearly 50-year federal right to abortion, allowing states to set up restrictions and bans. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas encouraged challenges to other privacy rights, including same-sex marriage approved by the court in 2015.

The 6-3 conservative court majority is one of McConnell’s proudest accomplishments. While Senate leader, he refused a hearing for a Democratic nomination for nearly a year and rushed a GOP nomination in a month right before the presidential election. So, in a sense, he is a catalyst for the marriage bill.

Some marriage bill critics — including Kentucky Reps. Andy Barr, Hal Rogers and Brett Guthrie — call it a political stunt, since there are currently no court challenges. But it’s hard to trust a court that so easily overturns precedent and appears too partisan.

Others complain that it does not go far enough to protect religious freedom. Yet, 40 faith organizations sent a letter of support to the Senate, saying they consider the right to marry who you choose “a matter of human dignity.”

A March Public Religion Research Institute poll found that majorities of most major religious groups support same-sex marriage. That includes 83% of Jewish Americans, more than 70% of Catholics and Protestants, and more than half of Muslims. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) said it would not oppose same-sex marriage if it didn’t infringe on the church’s practices.

Still, some evangelical and conservative policy groups have criticized McConnell for not demanding that GOP senators vote against the bill. Politicos could argue that his under-the-radar negative vote was a strategy to acknowledge those critics without standing in the way of passage.

Yet GOP catering to the political extremes is a major reason McConnell will not return to the top Senate post in January. It’s why he and other party leaders are still afraid to call Trump out by name. Unless his priorities change, McConnell will struggle to persuade voters that his party is not as scary as it seems.

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)

If Kentucky voters had approved the ballot measure denying any constitutional support for abortion rights, the results certainly would have been used to argue for retaining restrictive bans.

So why shouldn’t the rejection of that measure be a key factor in the Kentucky Supreme Court’s various decisions about the constitutionality of abortion laws??

The legislature put it on the ballot. Voters rejected it. Yet Solicitor General Matthew Kuhn, speaking for Attorney General Daniel Cameron, argued during a Nov. 15 hearing that the vote should have no bearing on the court’s abortion decisions.?

What disrespect. Not just to those who must leave the state to get the medical procedure but to? all citizens who actually thought lawmakers wanted their opinions. Citizen feedback is especially needed when the legislature is dominated by one political party walking in lockstep.

“It strikes me that a ballot initiative is the purest form of democracy,” outgoing Deputy Chief Justice Lisabeth Hughes rightly responded to Kuhn during the hearing. “It is the people, themselves, speaking.”

Now it is the court’s time to speak up with sorely needed clarity about three abortion bans. The justices should eventually side with arguments from abortion providers and a lower court decision that punitive bans violate the right to privacy and reproductive freedom.?

Expected first: a decision on whether abortions can temporarily resume until there is a full hearing on the legality of a ban from conception and one from six-weeks — before women even know they are pregnant.?

The 15-week ban, based on the Mississippi law that enabled the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to end federal abortion rights, will be challenged in a separate lawsuit. None of the Kentucky laws provide exceptions for rape or incest. The Roe v. Wade ruling, overturned earlier this year by the Supreme Court, had allowed abortion to around 24 weeks, when the fetus was viable outside of the womb.?

Since Kentucky’s constitution is “silent” on abortion, Republican Kuhn argued, the legislature — not the courts — has the final say. But several justices pointed out that women had no voice at all in politics and law when the 1891 constitution was drafted. This is 2022.?

“It is the role of the legislature to legislate, but they must do so within the confines of what this court tells them is constitutionally permissible,” responded Heather Gatnarek of the American Civil Liberties Union in Kentucky, which supports abortion providers.

What the court should not permit is the silencing of women who seek to retain some control over their own bodies. It should not allow the legislature to keep Kentucky mired in the past. Nor should it give its blessing to a legislature determined to dismiss the voters who have told them their policies are too extreme.?

Kentuckians have spoken. It must matter.