Originally published in the News-Graphic in 2004.
Americans everywhere will be honoring members of the armed forces as we celebrate Veterans Day. November 11 of each year is the day set aside to ensure our veterans know we deeply appreciate the sacrifices they have made to keep our country free and safe and to protect our right to recite th…
As an eighth generation farmer, the former chair of the Scott County Board of Education and an active community member, I am the only candidate for Agricultural Commissioner who truly speaks for Kentuckians.
Originally published in the News-Graphic in 1999.
Originally published in the News-Graphic in 1999.
editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part column.
Originally published in the News-Graphic in 1999.
Several months have passed since the conclusion of the 2019 Regular Session, but my work as your senator has not slowed. Between answering your questions, concerns, letters or phone calls, I have met with constituents throughout our district in preparation for the Interim committee meetings …
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. They are not responsible for the circumstances …
Originally published in the News-Graphic in 1999.
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 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…
There are very few Kentuckians who do not remember how they felt when they heard of last year’s shooting at Marshall County High School. As parents who share a strong passion for education, this tragedy shook us to the core.
Originally published in the News-Graphic on April 11, 1999.
Originally published in the News-Graphic on March 14, 1999.
Critics jumping at opportunities to stamp an “anti-public education” label on school choice supporters also unwittingly advocate for something different from a truly public education by defending Kentucky’s antiquated School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) approach as the holy grail of school g…
If, as numerous rankings indicate, Kentucky is a physically unhealthy state, we may be an even- unhealthier commonwealth when it comes to our public pension systems.
City leaders are considering a re-structuring, or change in the organizational structure of city government, without approval by residents. At its Feb. 11 meeting, second reading and a vote will be held on the establishment of a position of chief administrative officer (CAO) that will report…
I read the Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 edition with the front page “Moms Demand Action” article. I believe this organization should disclose to the public they are a shell-front for gun control fanatic, former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
At the present, Sears is barely surviving in bankruptcy court, But, there was a day when Sears was the Amazon of its time. It made the mail-order catalog a staple of American households, and in so doing, brought the latest and greatest products of American capitalism to people in every corne…
The first week of the Kentucky General Assembly’s 2019 regular session is in the books. We had a productive few days in Frankfort and leave in good spirits about what is to come this Session.
It’s coincidental, of course, that legislative sessions in Kentucky begin immediately following the climax of the sports season for the commonwealth’s rabid fans, including the annual titanic-like struggle between the Cards and Cats on the hardwood.
It’s a trend that seems like it should be impossible in the wealthiest nation on Earth. But across America, the rate of maternal mortality is actually climbing — more than doubling in the last three decades.
The changes to Kentucky Medicaid are starting Jan. 1, with the much-disputed work program starting in April. If you’re confused about what’s going on, you’re not alone. The whole process has been a mass of contradictions, litigation, retractions and obfuscation.
Veterans Day, first observed in 1954, created a more inclusive commemoration following World War II. Before then, the United States reserved Nov. 11 for “Armistice Day.”
Americans everywhere will be honoring members of the Armed Forces as we celebrate Veterans Day. Nov. 11 of each year is the day set aside that we ensure our veterans know that we deeply appreciate the sacrifices they have made to keep our country free and safe and to protect our right to rec…
In this world of technology, a lot of people get a little too trigger happy behind a keyboard.
It’s difficult for me to understand why people want to create a theocracy in the United States. Related to that is why people want to cram their religious beliefs down the throats of their neighbors. Hindus and Muslims in India have killed each other for centuries. Christians slaughtered Jew…
You’ve probably heard of the new kind of corporation that’s using business as a force for good. NPR, The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fortune, the Atlantic Monthly and many other major media outlets have covered these Benefit (B) Corporations.
Secretary Meier:
Promises to “properly fund education” remain political staples on campaign trails.
Don’t get personal. Insults are a wedge in the ever-widening divide among us. We are not one-dimensional beings. Have I been guilty of hurtful language in the past? Yes. But now I realize I can voice my opinions and stay polite. Recently, we stayed with folks who have polar opposite politica…
When I heard Bob Fox quote Wham! in a sermon, I knew he was special. I’ve heard references to Saint Michael, but to hear George Michael, somewhat of a patron saint for the LGBTQ+ community, in a church in Kentucky (while not the Bible Belt but at least the belt loops), is rather unusual.
Supporters of the failed Kentucky Wired project along with those simply lacking the political will to pull the plug on this Utopian foray into the dreamy world of government-owned, run and controlled broadband try hard to convince themselves and others that the project is too big — and too…
Gov. Bevin’s strategy verbally attacking teachers for protesting cuts in pensions and benefits, widened to include protesters outside the Bowen Tire company, owned by State Sen. Joe Bowen, a co-sponsor of the pension bill.
A retiring state senator instrumental is pushing pension reform and a homeschooling opponent from eastern Kentucky are the latest additions to this column’s growing list of Liberty Boosters and Busters.
Receiving the commonwealth’s two-year, multi-billion dollar budget plan from our colleagues in the House highlighted one of our busiest weeks yet in the Senate as we reached the two-thirds point of the 2018 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Hundreds of visitors from all corners of Ke…
In the weeks to come, many of you will head to your county clerk’s office to renew your farm vehicle license plates, or “ag tags.” When you do, I hope you will make a voluntary donation to the Ag Tag Fund for the future of Kentucky agriculture.
The latest cold-blooded chapter of “Assault on the Working Class” appeared in Friday’s Lexington Herald Leader article, “Bill seeks to limit unemployment help for Kentuckians.”
The U.S. tax code is massive. Spanning over 73,000 pages, it touches the lives of every American and every American business. Even minor tweaks to the tax code can have an outsized impact. So, it’s not surprising that major reform proposals only make their way through the legislative proce…
Georgetown/Scott County Tourism spent a very busy 2017 bringing visitors to its many attractions and lodgings, raising its profile among social media users and motorcoach operators, hosting travel media, organizing events and in general spreading the word about the city as an enticing destin…
Despite the slick roads and thick accumulation of snow across the commonwealth, the Kentucky General Assembly returned ready to work following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The general atmosphere in the Capitol was one of anticipation as citizens rallied for causes in the Rotun…
In November 2016, the American people sent President Trump to the White House and Republican majorities back to Congress. We worked together to make 2017, by any objective standard, a year of extraordinary accomplishment. While the national media may overlook or downplay any of these success…
Later this month, schools, homeschool groups, organizations and individuals in Kentucky and across America will work together to raise awareness about the importance of opportunity in K-12 education.
Over the past eight years, I received countless letters, emails and phone calls from Kentucky families frustrated by the Obama economy. “The honest, hardworking folks can’t get ahead, the cheaters don’t get caught, and the rich just keep getting richer,” wrote one Kentuckian. “The Obama admi…
Several years ago, while working in London, I heard the Queen say something extraordinary. The English love tradition, and a long-standing tradition is that each year during the Christmas season the monarch gives a brief radio address (now also televised), while everybody stops to listen. It…
Merry Christmas! As you read this message, you are aware that we are only a few short days away from the much anticipated Christmas break. With the holiday season upon us, our attention naturally begins to turn to thoughts of spending time with family and friends, the hustle and bustle of C…
Okay, I admit it, I was hiding. This time of year is difficult for me and my kind. By my kind, I mean men. I hate to shop, I am what you call a search and destroy type shopper. Battle plan, tactical surveillance, feet dry over enemy territory and target acquisition, target in hand, extractio…
Considering Frankfort will soon be forced to pass a painful budget, it might be helpful for legislators to apply the Yellow Pages test, an analogy that, for the older set, hearkens back to giant paper phone books landing on your front porch containing listings for businesses by categories.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet an officer of the palace guard remarks that something is rotten in the state of Denmark when he sees the ghost of the murdered king walking over the palace walls.
