Commentary
Studies, class-action suit link hair relaxers to cancer. Black women are at risk.
When I saw reports about a National Institutes of Health study that found women who used chemical hair straighteners known as relaxers were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than those who didn’t, a sulfur-scented flashback zapped me back to my first experience getting my hair relaxed. I was 10 or 11, […]
What now? Child care in Kentucky faces a cliff as pandemic-era federal aid has ended
Rylee Dakota Monn’s salary as a day care teacher mostly went to pay for child care for her own two sons. “I was working full time but I wasn’t making any money for myself or making much of a contribution to the household,” said Monn, who works at Baptist Health Child Development Center in Lexington. […]
Union victories could spark new blue collar power in the Bluegrass
Is it possible that blue collar Kentucky workers could finally be reaching a turning point in the long slide in their standard of living? If so, history may credit the victories in the now-ratified new contracts of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the Teamsters. After decades of stagnant wages and eroding job quality, these […]
‘Something wicked’ coming our way?
Bully Mullin, meet Bully Brooks. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., recently threatened to fight Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien during a Senate hearing on unions. On the Senate floor in 1856, Rep. Preston Brooks, D-S.C., nearly killed Sen. Charles Sumner, R-Mass, with a heavy cane. Elected last year, Mullin is all MAGA all the time. He […]
What the veteran hears in the bugler’s call
Promptly at 5 p.m., every day, rain or shine, blizzard or heat, a volunteer bugler wearing a period World War I U.S. Army uniform stands at attention near the flagpole at the National World War One Memorial not far from the White House in Washington D.C. On a brilliant autumn day, I watched as a […]
Where do Beshear, Cameron go from here?
Kentucky voters gave Andy Beshear another four-year term as governor. What will he do with it? The answers may conflict as he considers them personally, politically and governmentally. The latter two are already intersecting, as the Jan. 5 filing deadline for legislative seats approaches and prospective Democratic candidates look to Beshear for support — or […]
Andy Beshear’s success is not a fluke
When Democrat Andy Beshear won the 2019 gubernatorial contest, election observers both inside and outside Kentucky passed off his success as a fluke. Usually, they didn’t even give Beshear credit for his own victory. Instead, they attributed Beshear’s win to his opponent, combative Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. Beshear won because Bevin was “a jerk.” Now […]
Burgone?
Burgoo is long gone as a Kentucky campaign trail staple. “Maybe Kentucky is too sophisticated for burgoo these days,” speculated Northern Kentucky Tribune columnist Bill Straub, a Kentucky Journalism Hall of Famer. He suspects that many Kentuckians, especially younger folks, have never heard of the famous stew that was served at political events for decades. […]
Among all the candidates, which will get the most votes?
Perhaps the most telling TV commercial of this year’s campaigns comes from Secretary of State Michael Adams, the only Republican running for re-election. The 30-second ad begins by showing the top of the ballot, with the slates for governor and lieutenant governor unmarked, then goes to the second race, marking Adams as the choice over […]
Kentucky appeals court rejects gravest threat yet to the open records law
Open government advocates are inclined to rhapsodize about every judicial victory that advances the cause of public agency accountability and defeats government secrecy. But it is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Court of Appeals’ Oct. 27 opinion in Kentucky Open Government Coalition v Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission. One […]
Selling fear for profit
As we watched the aftermath of the mass shooting in Maine last week and listened to vacuous comments from newly-elected U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, my mind kept turning over the title of a famous Roxane Gay essay, “No one is coming to save us,” like a dystopian mantra. “The problem is the human heart, […]
Who will be Kentucky’s governor? Look into my crystal ball.
Last time I went to the grocery in Lexington, one of the stock clerks began tailing me. He held his distance at first, keeping me in eyesight but not approaching, until I started browsing an out-of-the-way clearance rack. Then he made his move. “You’re that UK professor, right?” He asked the question furtively, as though […]