via press release FRANKFORT – Following months of meetings with stakeholders and other legislators, state Representatives Chad Aull and Scott Lewis and state Senator Cassie Chambers Armstrong have filed legislation designed to help more students eat meals for free while incentivizing schools to purchase more Kentucky-grown agricultural products. “What we are calling the Kentucky…
via press release FRANKFORT, KY—Acknowledging the financial strain caused by taxing menstrual products and understanding the repercussions on Kentucky students who lack access to these necessities, State Representative Lisa Willner’s proposed legislation marks a noteworthy stride in advancing menstrual equity. 1 in 4 Kentucky menstruators grapple with the real struggle of affording period products.…
by Amye Bensenhaver, Kentucky Open Government Coalition 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’ October 27 opinion in Kentucky Open Government Coalition v Kentucky…
Photo: SafeRx makes locking pill bottles (left) with a four-digit code to store medications. The BolaWrap device (top right), which aims to help law enforcement detain people without the use of force, shoots a 7½-foot Kevlar tether more than a dozen feet through the air until it wraps around a person’s limbs or torso.…
by Eric Umansky, with additional reporting by Umar Farooq ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. When Barbara and Belvett Richards learned that the police had killed their son, they couldn’t understand it. How, on that September day…
by Jordan Hensley, Legislative Research Commission FRANKFORT — Legislation to temporarily remove firearms from individuals experiencing a mental health crisis may be filed during the 2024 legislative session. Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, said he’s been working on the bill for “a while.” It would focus on crisis aversion and rights retention, or CARR,…
by McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern Kentucky’s recently redrawn congressional and legislative districts will stand for future elections. In an opinion published Thursday morning, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate’s previous decision that the maps were a result of “partisan gerrymanders” but did not find them unconstitutional. “Regardless of how unusual or…
By Lindsay Travis, University of Kentucky/Kentucky Health News A team of researchers at the University of Kentucky is working to better understand the impact of opioid-use disorder on mothers and babies. Every 24 minutes in the United States, a baby is born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) after being exposed via a mother with opioid-use…
By Melissa Patrick, Kentucky Health News Eleven nonprofit organizations have been selected to receive as much as $50,000 each from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky‘s Funding for Recovery Equity and Expansion Program. The FREE Program provides grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to organizations that raise awareness about overdose prevention, reduce the stigma associated…