Childhood should be carefree. Every child deserves to feel safe, cared for and nurtured. This includes the nearly 10,000 Kentucky children in foster care and almost 100,000 in kinship care, a rate which is more than double the national average.
Gov. Matt Bevin's newfound confidence that he has enough votes to pass a pension-relief proposal eerily reminds us of the '80s Great White classic "Once Bitten Twice Shy." In other words, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
While the 2019 General Assembly adjourned more than two months ago, I appreciate the opportunity to continue sharing details about the laws we passed. This series of columns, which began in early April, is still relevant as legislation passed this year goes into effect on Thursday, June 27, …
During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump at one point called for hiking the federal minimum wage. Now, his administration is actively standing in the way of any hike at all. House Democrats who continue to push for an increase should be loudly reminding Trump's base -- which is largely made up…
Ask anyone today where they get their news, and there's a very good chance they'll say either "Facebook" or "Google." Yet, neither of those global corporations are in the reporting business. They are both publishers of other people's news, not generators of original news content.
Mr. Stewart went to Washington. Once as an actor 70 years ago, and Tuesday as a real-life citizen fighting for fellow Americans. Both Mr. Stewarts made history by advocating justice.
As a member of the Kentucky House, I am often asked what I do when the legislature is not in session. While we are considered a "part-time" legislature, we are constantly engaged in legislative work, both here at home and in Frankfort. The time between sessions, called the Legislative Interi…
What's happened to the decisive, conservative and determined leadership we saw that resulted in Republicans taking majority control of the state House in the November 2016 election and then passing monumental legislation during the first week of the 2017 session that brought more positive ch…
Seven out of 10 voters rate their health insurance coverage and the medical care they receive as good or excellent. Despite that, only 34% give our nation's health care system positive reviews. Not surprisingly, therefore, health care reform has consistently been a top voter concern election…
I have been a U.S. Army officer responsible for the welfare of other soldiers, a business owner responsible for the livelihoods of my employees, and now a governor responsible to more than 4 million Kentuckians and 30,000 state employees. Yet, by far, the greatest and most sacred responsibil…
Some in the business community are decrying the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to allow carriers to automatically block robocalls unless customers opt out, saying it will make it harder for them to hawk their services to people who haven't indicated they're interested in…
To the Editor
Drumroll please.
WASHINGTON -- The abortion issue is more divisive than ever, thanks to extreme anti-abortion legislation recently passed in some states and, lately, to Democratic presidential candidates seemingly vying to be the most pro-choice.
For more than a generation, James Carville's campaign maxim, "It's the economy, stupid," has been held up as an essential truth of American politics.
It's been 30 years since the Kentucky Supreme Court's Rose v. Council for Better Education decision that declared the entire body of the commonwealth's school laws unconstitutional.
In a recent report, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has confirmed what serious economists had long predicted about the Republican tax cuts of 2017: They have had little effect on wages; average taxpayers saw little benefit; and the cuts aren't going to "pay for themselves" wit…
The computer hard drives of a deceased Republican political operative have revealed, indisputably, the real reason the GOP wants to include a controversial citizenship question on the 2020 census: to make it easier to gerrymander congressional districts against minority voters for the benefi…
Adolescent and teen use of e-cigarettes or vaping products has doubled or nearly doubled in Kentucky in the last two years, according to the 2018 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey. About one in four 10th and 12th graders and one in seven 8th graders in the Commonwealth vaped in 2018.…
With all the fake sincerity he could muster in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky insisted repeatedly that he was taking a principled stand when he blocked President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee from consideration to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scal…
We all know Kentucky is known for our horseracing and bluegrass music, but we also have a reputation for having the kindest and most hospitable residents, as well as safe, wholesome communities throughout our commonwealth. According to a recent report, Kentucky ranks seventh in the nation fo…
The Commonwealth Policy Center held a public meeting on the proposed religious freedom amendment to the Paducah Fairness Ordinance and took questions from the public last Tuesday. Altogether, 60 concerned citizens attended the meeting hosted by First Baptist Church of Paducah. The meeting wa…
Another of Kentucky's off-year primary elections, complete with poor - if somewhat better than expected - turnout and the completely unnecessary and wasteful spending of millions of taxpayer dollars, has come and gone.
Over the past few weeks, I have used my column to share with you some of the legislation we passed during the 2019 regular legislative session. This week, I would like to take a break from that and reflect on Memorial Day. In the fast-paced world we live in, it can sometimes be reduced to ju…
There's a reason for the wise old admonishment that domestic politics should "stop at the water's edge." Whatever disagreements Americans have with one another, there has always been an understanding that during foreign engagements, U.S. politicians must present a united front. President Don…
Since public schools are tax-funded, they're barred by the First Amendment from promoting "an establishment of religion." But as institutions of learning, they would be remiss in not educating children about a topic as significant to history and current events as religion is.
The stage is set for the governor's race, and the drama already has begun.
While long-ago Kentucky Gov. Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler Sr. insisted he "never met a Kentuckian who wasn't either thinking about going home or actually going home," the latest population numbers show that while people aren't exiting the Bluegrass State like residents in neighboring Ill…
The Islamic Republic of Iran is an enemy of the United States. It poses a constant threat to American interests.
At the 2016 Olympic trials, sprinter Tori Bowie ran a lifetime best of 10.78 in the 100-meter dash.
Imagine walking into your doctor's or dentist's office for an appointment and being refused service because there's something about you the receptionist just doesn't like. All the receptionist has to do is cite a religious objection, and her rights trump yours.
President Donald Trump spoke plainly during National Police Memorial Week last Wednesday in declaring his support for law enforcement.
As voters across Kentucky headed to the polls Tuesday to vote in the Primary Election, I thought I would review for you some of the bills we passed into law regarding our election process here in the Commonwealth.
"The primary election is upon us, turnout will be low; For those who vote Democratic, there's something you should know: Much is at stake in your primary, perhaps more than meets the eye; Rocky Adkins really wants to be governor, did you ever wonder why?"
When a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KyCIR) released an expose' early in Derby week showing that the horse racing industry was paying for its own video gambling regulations, the state's newspapers completely ignored the story.
The labor market is simply not what it once was, and if businesses are going to succeed, they will need to figure out how to recruit and retain the best employees.
Attention Walmart shoppers: Better stock up now because some big price increases are heading your way. The cold, hard reality of President Donald Trump's tariff battle with China is that American consumers, farmers and workers in export-related jobs will be the ones footing the bill. And the…
Sometime before the end of June, Governor Bevin is expected to call the General Assembly to the Capitol to address an issue that cannot be ignored: a sky-high jump in retirement costs for nearly 120 human-service agencies and our regional universities.
The timing is perfect. I wrote a few weeks ago recommending a Trump version of the Green New Deal. Except President Donald Trump's Green New Deal would not be about green energy or global warming. It would be about the "green" that most Americans care about: money.
As technology evolves, so do lame attempts by criminals to scam honest, hardworking people out of their money, time and more.
Kentucky's pension children shouldn't pay for the sins of their retirement-systems' fathers.
The United States has the greatest military in the history of the world.
Farmers Report Suffering Financial PTSD as Trade War Threats Escalate.
The Washington Post has documented more than 10,000 times when President Donald Trump has made false or misleading claims.
Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. In the U.S., 1 in 5 adults live with a mental health condition, and 20 percent of youth age 13 to 18 live with a mental health condition. During May, the National Alliance for Mental Illness focuses on raising …
America is facing a second Cold War.This version is not against the Russians, although you can say they are involved on the fringes of the conflict. No, this standoff is between factions of our own citizens, bitterly divided over where our country is and where they think it should be going.W…
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free -- provided they pay a fee first.
Amid the scorched-earth partisan warfare that is Washington politics these days, President Donald Trump and top Democrats have reached a rare agreement in principle for a huge undertaking. Their goal -- an urgently needed national infrastructure overhaul -- has virtually no details attached …
The Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees grabbed the wheel two years ago this month and abruptly overcorrected a pension system whose tires had dropped off a steep shoulder on the side of a road winding toward a very uncertain future for the commonwealth's retirement plans and, by e…
While the nation's preeminent gun-rights organization met last week amid internal turmoil, another mass shooting unfolded involving one of the very weapons whose possession the National Rifle Association blindly defends. It was a timely reminder of why the NRA's potentially existential troub…
Now that the 2019 Legislative Session is over, I am not in Frankfort on a daily basis. However, I still return quite a bit for meetings. I like the drive to Frankfort because it gives me the opportunity to see so much of Kentucky. Some representatives have farther to travel than others, but …
Fifty-three percent of voters believe political corruption is a crisis in the United States, while another 36% believe it is a significant problem but not a crisis.
When I hear "welfare payments," I think "poor people."
The celebration that took place Tuesday at GenCanna in Winchester was fitting for a community that has quickly become one of the major players in an industry that will generate new growth and revenue for Kentucky’s agriculture community.
"Why don't we have real data on charter schools?" shouted the headline atop a hit piece on these public schools of choice in The Nation a few years ago.
Independent satellite records have confirmed ground data showing the past five years to be the hottest on record globally, scientists announced last week. It's another outcropping in the mountain of evidence that earth's climate is being fundamentally altered by human activity.
Toymakers whose toys injure kids can be sued. Carmakers that put dangerous cars on the highways and kill people can be sued. The U.S. cigarette industry is paying more than $200 billion for the toll of its deadly products. Yet the manufacturers of guns that kill almost 40,000 Americans yearl…
It's time for the U.S. government to crack down on American illegals. Not the undocumented migrants crossing the southern U.S. border but rather the American citizens who are taking up arms, forming militia patrols and holding migrants at gunpoint as self-appointed vigilante enforcers.
