Commentary
Kentucky’s juvenile justice challenges cannot be solved through incarceration alone
It takes just two words to summarize the deeply troubling problems facing Kentucky’s juvenile justice system: systemwide failure. ?This is not an indictment of any administration, party, branch of government, or group of children’s advocates.? It’s an indictment of all of us. For years, Kentucky’s system has let down far too many justice-involved youth by […]
Is the new AP African American Studies course dangerous? Students don’t think so
Three days after the nation honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education announced that no Florida public high school would be allowed to teach the nation’s first and only Advanced Placement or AP African American Studies course at the college level. She asserted […]
Do women’s lives matter to federal courts?
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 […]
“Furry” fears far from reality, so why do some Republicans fan them?
FRANKFORT — I researched “furry” so you wouldn’t have to. I had been only peripherally aware of the hoax that schools are equipping restrooms with litter boxes to accommodate students who identify as animals. Then the Kelly Craft-Max Wise campaign dumped an allusion to this tall tale onto the Kentucky Senate floor and into the […]
Abraham Lincoln was no favorite son in his native Kentucky
No son of Kentucky is more famous or more revered than Abraham Lincoln,?who was born on Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville. His birthplace is a national shrine. His statue stands tall in the Capitol rotunda in Frankfort. Lincoln was the first Republican president, and today Kentucky is one of the reddest Republican red states. Yet […]
Legislative session is a battleground in Kentucky governor’s race
FRANKFORT. – The General Assembly is back in the state capital, and we can safely assume the governor’s?not happy about it. Andy Beshear is a Democrat running for a second term, and the legislature is run by Republicans who want a?fellow partisan to replace him. It’s the first time a Kentucky legislature controlled by one […]
But what’s the forecast?
Political art by Marc Murphy inspired by Liam Niemeyer’s reporting: “Millions in donations were sent for tornado relief. Survivors wonder where the money is.”
Secret juvenile justice work group the latest in Kentucky legislature’s contempt for transparency
Across the nation — ?and particularly in Arizona and Mississippi — opposition is rising to state legislatures’ direct and indirect efforts to exclude themselves from public oversight. A chorus of newspapers, including The Washington Post, have exposed — if not decried — this groundswell of legislative secrecy. For nearly a half century, Kentucky’s open records […]
Punitive Republican policies won’t whip Kentucky into prosperity
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 […]
Black police officers aren’t colorblind
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Once again, Americans are left reeling from the horror of video footage showing police brutalizing an unarmed Black man who later died. Some details in the latest case of extreme police violence were gut-wrenchingly familiar: a police traffic stop of a Black male […]
Grandparents need Kentucky legislature to increase KTAP support
Robert F. Kennedy said, “The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.” For the children of Kentucky, we certainly have our work cut out for us. For several?years, Kentucky was No. 1 ?in child abuse and neglect. Right now, we’re ranked No. 5. 1 ?We place many of these […]
Pain of police killings ripples outward to traumatize Black people and communities across?U.S.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. As the video goes public of Black police officers in Memphis beating Tyre Nichols to death, it is a stark reminder of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. That set up the largest protests in U.S. history and a […]