human rights
Former Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin’s son back in U.S. after being removed from abusive facility
The adopted son of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is back in the United States — after he was removed earlier this year from an allegedly abusive Jamaican youth facility and left in care of that country’s child welfare system. The boy, 17, is in a placement worked out with help of Jamaican children’s authorities […]
Juvenile justice: ‘From nothing to something and then right back to nothing’
The mood was celebratory as Kentucky and federal officials crowded into the Capitol Rotunda on a cold January day in 2001 to announce the end of five years of federal oversight of the state’s problem-ridden juvenile justice system. “We’re never going to slide back to where we were in 1995,” said then-Juvenile Justice Commissioner Ralph […]
‘Effectively dead,’ housing discrimination laws in Louisville, Lexington fall to veto override
FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill targeting local source-of-income discrimination bans just a day after the governor had issued the veto.? House Bill 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, immediately became law Wednesday because of an emergency clause in the bill.? In a gathering with […]
10,000 Kentuckians marched to demand racial equality. My grandmother was one of them.
I never got a chance to ask my grandmother about what March 5, 1964 was like for her. What she heard from speakers on the steps of the Kentucky Capitol. If she saw Martin Luther King Jr. or Jackie Robinson. What she felt standing with thousands of others from across Kentucky. She didn’t speak much […]
As Kentucky lawmakers push anti-DEI bills, Black scholars define diversity
FRANKFORT — Against the backdrop of the Kentucky General Assembly considering a couple of bills that would limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in education, a panelist of Black scholars and academics met to define the state’s past and present with DEI.? The discussion concluded the Kentucky Legislative Black Caucus’ annual Black History Speakers Series […]
‘Becoming bell hooks’ to premiere on KET in February
KET will celebrate the February premiere of its documentary “Becoming bell hooks” with preview screenings in Louisville and Lexington. A KET release says the documentary “explores?the life and legacy of Kentucky-born author bell hooks, who wrote nearly 40 books and whose work at the intersection of race, class and gender serves as a lasting contribution […]
Lexington leaders appeal for peace in Mideast, mutual respect at home
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton on Tuesday released a joint statement with religious, civic and business leaders in Kentucky’s second-largest city appealing for peace in Gaza and Israel and respect for a diversity of views at home. Gorton, Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers and a group of Jewish, Muslim and Palestinian leaders in Lexington have been […]
John Rosenberg, civil and human rights activist, to receive honorary degree from University of Kentucky
John Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor who worked as a civil rights attorney in the U.S. Justice Department and built a nonprofit legal aid organization in Eastern Kentucky, will receive an honorary degree from the University of Kentucky at the December commencement. Rosenberg will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters at the ceremony which begins […]
Rosalynn Carter acclaimed by admirers for her pioneering advocacy for mental health, caregiving
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has died, according to the Carter Center, leaving a rich legacy of championing mental health and women’s rights. She will be buried at the ranch house in Plains she and former President Jimmy Carter built in 1961. She died Sunday just days after the family announced she had entered hospice […]
Letcher prison opponents urge Congress to reject Rogers’ ‘fast-tracking’ provision
More than 185 organizations — from across Kentucky and the nation — are urging Congress to reject “fast-tracking” construction of a federal prison in Letcher County. A Sept. 19 letter to leaders and members of congressional appropriations committees urges them to remove language that Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky put into a House appropriations bill […]
‘They are important to us’: Remains of Sisseton Wahpeton children returning home
Amos La Framboise and Edward Upright didn’t know that they’d never see their homes and families again. The boys, of the Spirit Lake and Lake Traverse bands of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, set off to Pennsylvania in 1879 to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. They didn’t know they would die at the school before […]
Parents have no right to allow their children’s gender transition, Republicans say
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on a panel for limited federal government on Thursday argued that parents should not be allowed to let their transgender children have access to gender-affirming care. “A parent has no right to sexually transition a young child,” the chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, […]