Commentary
Tennessee has some advantages over Kentucky. Backward tax policy isn’t one of them.
Maybe some Kentucky Republicans are right: we do need a wall along our southern border. Otherwise all those poor and middle class Tennesseans who want to avoid their state’s high sales taxes will keep coming up here and crowding our stores. Who can blame them? Tennesseans now pay state and county sales taxes as high […]
As she runs with a big issue, Kelly Craft raises questions about her approach
This column is reprinted from the Northern Kentucky Tribune,?a nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism. FRANKFORT – Elections should be about issues, not just candidates. So, Republican Kelly Craft is to be commended for making the first substantive commercial in the governor’s race about one of Kentucky’s most difficult issues: drug […]
Instead of turning pandemic aid into a tax cut for the rich, lawmakers should invest in Kentucky
When is a tax cut NOT a tax cut? When a permanent reduction in state revenue is based on a temporary surplus in the state budget. The result is an unsustainable situation — a tax cut that ends up raising taxes elsewhere and harms our ability to fund the vital programs that keep Kentuckians healthy […]
Q: How can a columnist debunk election denialism?
I recently spoke at a nonpartisan event at the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort. During the Q&A, a man asked a question I’ve been grappling with ever since. “What are you doing as a writer to offset the naysayers and the people who believe that elections are rigged and don’t count?” At the time, […]
Why do gas stoves matter to the climate — and the gas industry?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.? Gas stoves are a leading source of hazardous indoor air pollution, but they emit only a tiny share of the greenhouse gases that warm the climate. Why, then, have they assumed such a heated role in climate politics? This debate reignited on Jan. […]
What does ESG mean? Two business scholars explain
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Environmental, social and governance business standards and principles, often referred to as ESG, are becoming both more commonplace and controversial. But what does “ESG” really mean? It’s shorthand for the way that many corporations operate in accordance with the belief that their long-term […]
Louisville sits on $38 million in rent assistance while residents are evicted
This week — like last week and the week before that — some of the 2.394 renters in Louisville who have applied for emergency rental assistance will go to eviction court and get evicted after the city recently received $38 million of emergency rental assistance. More will be evicted without the opportunity to apply for […]
Whatever happened to hemp?
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: […]
Will Kentucky legislature end a patient’s right to one free copy of medical records?
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Just another attempt by Kentucky lawmakers to take from the poor and give to the rich. The pretext for this most recent money grab is the “huge burden on the health-care system when it comes to medical records” and a promise to “lower overall health care costs.” HB […]
Kentucky still reaps slavery’s bitter fruit as prisons and jails swell with ‘indentured servants’
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 13th Amendment at the time and only freeing people six months after June […]
How the distortion of King’s words enables more, not less, racial division within American?society
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is just the latest conservative lawmaker to misuse the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to judge a person on character and not race. In the protracted battle to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker […]
How does a child become a shooter?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.? In the aftermath of a shocking incident in which a first grader shot and seriously injured a teacher at a school in Newport News, Va., the city’s mayor asked the question: “How did this happen?” Some details are now known: The child took […]