This column first appeared in the Northern Kentucky Tribune, which makes it available to other publications with appropriate credit. FRANKFORT – The Kentucky Democratic Party is having a one-on-one primary election for governor, its first in more than 50 years. Those primaries were usually contests between two factions, one moderately liberal, the other more conservative. […]

Days after launching his bid for governor, Democrat Rocky Adkins will join the lineup of speakers at the upcoming Fancy Farm Picnic, a Kentucky political tradition.  Meanwhile, the state’s top Democrat, Gov. Andy Beshear declined to speak this year. Organizers announced the latest lineup Friday evening. The annual barbecue picnic, a fundraiser for the St. […]

Sharon Kulovsek and her husband moved to the Rowan County woods to be closer to nature and family. What she didn’t expect was to have a gas company representative tell her a planned 30-inch diameter pipeline would run through her yard.  The proposed pipeline route, cutting across their front yard, wasn’t disclosed when they bought […]

A federal judge has dismissed a case from the U.S. Department of Justice against Kentucky election officials that sought to gain access to voter registration data, including sensitive information such as driver’s license and Social Security numbers.  In an opinion released Thursday, District Judge Claria Horn Boom cited a recent ruling regarding Michigan voter data […]

In the 1930s, as Harlan County, Kentucky, erupted into one of the most violent labor conflicts in American history, a quiet reality was unfolding two hundred miles to the west. In Crittenden County, men went into the ground every morning to dig fluorspar—a mineral essential to building the steel for Allied ships, the aluminum for […]

A federal judge denied a motion to temporarily prevent a federal judge from starting as the next dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law.  Last week, professor Ramsi Woodcock filed a lawsuit against the incoming dean, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, as well as UK President Eli Capilouto, Provost Robert DiPaola and the university. […]

FRANKFORT — Thanks to an “unanticipated” corporate income tax payment and revenue surplus, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that Medicaid providers will not suffer a 4% reimbursement cut after all.  Beshear said $255 million from the taxes, as well as additional revenue, will delay any cuts to Medicaid reimbursement through this fiscal year, which ends […]

U.S. Representative Andy Barr, R-KY, is sponsoring a bipartisan effort, backed by Kentucky’s hemp industry, to regulate intoxicating hemp-derived products ahead of an effective ban of such products spearheaded by Kentucky’s senior U.S. Senator, Mitch McConnell.  The Lawful Hemp Protection Act would create a regulatory framework for consumable hemp products that have tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, […]

A lot of people are asking Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to “do something” about U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence from the Senate.  Former Illinois Republican congressman turned political commentator Adam Kinzinger said on Threads Tuesday: “I think the Governor of Kentucky has every right and responsibility to either see Mitch or declare the seat vacant.”  […]

An international company wants to build a hyperscale data center — consuming the equivalent of more than 10% of the electricity produced in the state of Kentucky during the summer — at the site of the former site of the AK Steel mill in Eastern Kentucky. The data center developer Rubix Data Centers is a […]

A 4% cut may sound small. In a state budget, it may look like fiscal discipline. But Kentucky’s Medicaid reimbursement cut is the kind of decision that can save money on paper while costing taxpayers more in real life. The Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services notified providers in June that it would implement a 4% […]

Rocky Adkins, a former Democratic leader in the Kentucky House and senior advisor to Gov. Andy Beshear from Eastern Kentucky, is officially running for governor.  His campaign issued a press release Tuesday morning and released a video on social media. It opens with boxers fighting in a ring and then moves to Adkins speaking over […]

Kentuckians are feeling the strain as residential energy bills sky-rocket and historic heat waves grip the region. Families need solutions that will lower energy burdens and monthly costs. For that reason, Sierra Club Kentucky – alongside six other community advocacy organizations – submitted a letter to the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) asking that the […]

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear appointed his former senior adviser, Rocky Adkins, to the Kentucky State Fair Board, which is embroiled in controversy after the governor gained control of the board following a recent Kentucky Supreme Court opinion.  Adkins, who left Beshear’s administration earlier this month amid speculation that he will run for governor in 2027, […]

Renee Shaw, a notable Kentucky journalist who has worked at KET for 29 years, will retire from the state’s public television network at the end of July.  Shaw, the director of Public Affairs and moderator at KET, hosts Kentucky Edition weekly and Kentucky Tonight, the network’s public policy discussion series. Ahead of elections, she moderates […]

In 1996, the Cigarette Papers was published, revealing how Kentucky’s Tobacco and Health Research Institute at the University of Kentucky presented itself as an independent arm of a publicly funded university, but in fact it was run by tobacco manufacturers and their highly paid lawyers. Although the purported goals of the institute were to conduct […]

An effort by the Mercer County city of Burgin to annex land into its city limits for a potential data center has embroiled the small community in a contentious debate over the impacts of such a project, something that’s also raising strong concerns from local leaders of the county seat. People packed inside the Burgin […]

Families asked that leaders find a way to work together and reverse the cut.

Addiction Recovery Care, once Kentucky’s largest provider of addiction services, has reached a settlement with the federal government over “billing issues,” the  Louisa, KY-based company said in a July 16 news release. It also announced it has reached a separate settlement with a finance company that had accused ARC of fraud. “The resolution of these […]

Gov. Andy Beshear criticized the $3.2 million payout to retiring University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart on Thursday, stating his disapproval despite the fact the funds were privately raised. “Yes, $3 million that could otherwise go to helping students, to better paying faculty, to doing research that could cure this disease that’s afflicting one […]