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Anonymous Group Targets Lexington Mental Health Clinic With Unverified “Drug Rehab” Claims; Hearing Postponed to April
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A secretive advocacy group calling itself “Concerned Citizens of Chevy Chase” has been running an online campaign urging residents to oppose a proposed mental health facility in the Chevy Chase neighborhood — characterizing it as a “drug rehab clinic” despite official planning documents and the facility’s own executives describing it as…
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All Hearts on Deck: How a Hip-Hop Artist and Five Crisis Mediators Cut Lexington’s Gun Violence by 60 Percent
In 2011, the city created a task force to fight a rash of shootings. In 2017, a mayor proposed something different — a program that would wrap its arms around the neighborhoods doing the shooting. By 2025, gun violence had dropped to its lowest level in a decade. On October 13, 2011, Mayor Jim…
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210: How Lexington Built an Overdose Response from a Single Position and $155
In 2018, the city created one coordinator to fight an epidemic that was killing 200 people a year. By 2024, fatal overdoses had dropped 43 percent. The $7 million in settlement money still hasn’t been spent. On April 12, 2018, Dr. Svetla Slavova walked to the podium at a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council meeting…
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House Bill 2 creates new barriers to Medicaid for Kentucky families
By House Democratic Caucus Chair Lindsey Burke The Kentucky House Democratic Caucus stands united in opposition to House Bill 2 — the “One Big Bad Medicaid Bill” — that would make it even harder for Kentuckians to access and keep the health care they depend on. At a time when families are facing rising…
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The $36 Million Hole: How Lexington Studied Its Housing Crisis for a Decade While the Problem Quadrupled
An investigation into nearly 20 years of city meeting transcripts reveals a pattern of study, debate, and deferral — while the affordable housing gap grew from 6,000 units to 30,000. On a Tuesday afternoon in February 2014, a consultant named Charles Buki stood before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council and laid out the math.…
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Is Fascism Back? What the Source Code of History Actually Tells Us
The word is everywhere — hurled as an insult, invoked as a warning, debated by scholars who can’t agree on its meaning. But tracing fascism to its roots reveals patterns that are harder to dismiss than any definition. You hear it everywhere now. On cable news, in congressional speeches, in arguments at Thanksgiving dinner.…
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Lexington Wipes Out $5.6M in Medical Debt as Council Advances Carbon Monoxide, Solar Proposals
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Vice Mayor Dan Wu announced Wednesday that a second wave of medical debt relief has erased $5.6 million in unpaid bills for more than 3,200 Fayette County residents, bringing the city’s total debt cancellation to roughly $18 million for nearly 10,000 households since the program launched. Wu shared the news during…
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Lexington Planning Commission Adjourns in Seven Minutes as All Zoning Cases Delayed
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Planning Commission’s zoning hearing lasted just seven minutes Thursday after every item on the docket was postponed, leaving a proposed 67-townhome development, a South Broadway car wash and a rewrite of economic development zoning rules all in limbo for at least another month. The Feb. 26 session…
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Lexington Misses Vision Zero Safety Targets as MPO Questions Governor’s Highway Priorities
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Lexington recorded seven more traffic fatalities and 54 more serious injuries than its safety goals called for last year, the region’s transportation planning body learned this week, even as staff raised pointed questions about whether the governor’s recommended state highway plan would help close that gap. The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning…