Commentary

State Representative Ryan Dotson wants you to know that he is running for the United States Congress. He wants you to know he’s a veteran, a pastor, and a God-fearing man. But above all else (truly, above all else) he wants you to know that he has thought very deeply about penises. Not his…

There’s a familiar sound drifting through downtown Lexington right now. It’s the soft whir of feasibility studies spinning up. The polite clink of champagne glasses. The reassuring phrase world-class landing just so. And behind it all, a chorus: Trust us. The Herald-Leader’s recent tour through Lexington’s blossoming arts proposals reads like a city finally…

I’ll admit it: it’s kind of refreshing to see a candidate show up with energy. In a city where too many campaigns feel like they were workshopped by a consultant who’s never paid rent, the enthusiasm is honestly… enviable. Lexington needs candidates who want to swing at big problems instead of politely circling them.…

Like many Americans, Saturday morning I woke up with a sense of déjà vu. Footage of military strikes against Venezuela, authorised by President Donald Trump, gave me flashbacks to the “shock and awe” I witnessed when we invaded Iraq. My stomach turned, not just as a sometime-foreign policy analyst, but as an Appalachian. I’ve…

Cities don’t always wake up by shouting. Sometimes they wake up by squinting. In 2025, Lexington didn’t revolt. It didn’t storm City Hall. It just started connecting dots—and once that starts, it’s hard to stop. What looked like a handful of unrelated controversies slowly revealed a pattern: big promises, glossy presentations, and a governing…

On Dec. 5, a group of engineers, planners, academics, and consultants gathered to talk about Lexington’s stormwater future. They discussed wetlands, sewer capacity, growth plans, pollution data, and manuals that will quietly shape how the city grows for decades. They also did it without a publicly posted agenda. That absence wasn’t a clerical oversight.…

Andy Barr’s Senate campaign this week tried to project inevitability.Instead, it projected Microsoft Excel. The headline brag was impressive: more than 100 House endorsements. Triple digits. A show of force. A campaign press release flexing like it just finished leg day. Then NBC News started calling people. And suddenly the endorsement list began behaving…

As Lexington heads toward the 2026 mayoral election, the outlines of a familiar but still-fluid contest are beginning to emerge. At its core, the race is shaping up as a test of whether voters want to double down on experience and continuity—or whether the city’s growth pressures, housing costs, and civic frustrations create an…

The superintendent stood at the podium this week and did that thing administrators do when they want gravity without fingerprints. “These are tough decisions,” Demetrus Liggins said, as families pleaded for their schools, programs, and communities. Mergers. Closures. Right-sizing. The whole greatest-hits album of institutional sorrow. And yet — funny thing — none of…

Some weeks, Lexington feels less like a city and more like an invitation-only club — velvet rope, bouncer, and all. This week’s guest list: the people who can actually afford to stay in public office. Hannah LeGris left the stage recently. Not for lack of love for the job, but because the numbers simply…