Commentary
EPA has lowered the screening level for lead in soil. What that could mean for US households.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. As spring phases into summer across the U.S., kids are spending more time outdoors. Playing outside is healthy in all kinds of ways, but it also poses some risks. One that many families may not be aware of is […]
Feeling stuffy in that echo chamber?
Last Friday, I ran into the Anderson County judge-executive at Five Star where we were both getting gas. I had not seen him in a year. He smiled big and said, “Well hello, Miss Carter!,” walked around his truck to give me a hug, and stayed to chat about our families.? On Saturday, a couple […]
Saying a final goodbye to Willie Mays, baseball’s ‘Say hey kid’
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. In 1959, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev visited San Francisco and members of the International Longshoreman’s Union greeted him with cheers, newspaperman Frank Coniff quipped: “This is the damndest city. They cheer Khruschev and boo Willie Mays.” It was […]
Juneteenth holiday: An important moment to contemplate our nation’s past and present
What in the world could they have been thinking? That’s one of the questions (or, at least, one hopes it is) that most white Americans ask themselves periodically when contemplating the evil of human slavery – the institution that undergirds so much of their modern privilege and wealth. How could any human being ever think […]
Emotion not evidence fuels rush to lock up even more Kentuckians
House Bill 5, the “Safer Kentucky Act,” is emotion-based legislation, rather than the evidence-based legislation Kentucky deserves. Legislators and research organizations who presented data and asked hard questions were stonewalled at every step of development of this legislation, which became law over Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. Kentucky has the eighth harshest criminal sentencing statutes in […]
How DEI rollbacks at colleges and universities set back learning
This commentary is republished from The Conversation. Just four years ago, following the murder of George Floyd, almost every college and university in the U.S. had at least one diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — program. Many had existed long before. These programs ranged from DEI-related degrees and professional training to resources for […]
Kentucky Republicans help Trump tear down the system
When U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell voted not to convict Donald Trump of impeachment for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, which he nevertheless blamed on Trump, he excused himself in part by saying “We have a criminal justice system in this country.” The Senate Republican leader was surely not thinking about the $130,000 in hush money […]
Same basic crime. Why such different reactions?
Donald Trump was an extraordinary politician even before becoming the only former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. Trump’s crime, however, is not extraordinary. It’s basically the same thing that landed former Kentucky Democratic Party chair Jerry Lundergan in prison. Both Lundergan and Trump concealed political spending that by law should have been […]
Pledging allegiance to their corrupt commander, KY Republicans quickly kneel to convicted felon
For a literary, nonpolitical project, I recently had to reread Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel and re-watch the Hulu TV series of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian story about a new United States which adheres not to the Constitution but to a strict, twisted, patriarchal interpretation of the Bible.? In this new U.S., all women are […]
Kentucky’s Republican insurgents gain a little traction
Some of Kentucky’s Republican primaries for the legislature were the latest chapter in a three-decade struggle between traditional, “establishment” elements of the state GOP and those who want it to be more conservative. The latter faction is gaining ground, but is making too much of its modest gains in low-turnout elections influenced by local quirks […]
Search for solutions to Louisville’s civil rights violations must include stakeholders
After a near 12-month reprieve, another person has died in Louisville’s jail.? Richard Graham, 34, allegedly overdosed in Louisville Metro Department of Corrections’ (LMDC) facility early on the morning of May 19. The staff and others held in the jail attempted to provide aid to Graham but were unable to prevent his death.? Members of […]
Bearing flowers and tradition, the next generation takes on the duty of Decoration Day
This story was first published in The Daily Yonder on May 21, 2021 and is is republished here under a Creative Commons license. While their friends are cannonballing into the city pool this weekend, my sons will spend the day in an Eastern Kentucky cemetery, placing flowers on the graves of relatives they never knew. […]