If child care were more available and affordable in the state, around 16,000-28,000 people could join or rejoin the workforce and that could add around $600 million, conservatively, to the economy, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce estimates.   The estimate comes from a report released Thursday, which analyzed the economic impact of more affordable child care […]

LOUISVILLE — Republican megadonors Joe and Kelly Craft again joined Central Bank in bidding $10 million on a country ham for charity.  Kelly Craft, a former United Nations ambassador and 2023 Republican gubernatorial candidate, and her husband, coal executive Joe Craft, have had the winning bid at the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast […]

MASON COUNTY  — Tim Grosser drove his truck across a pasture toward cattle he raises with his son Andy on the farm he’s owned for more than 30 years. “It’s peaceful,” Grosser said, mentioning the smell of fresh mown hay.  “We just cut it and let it cure and rake it, roll it up, and […]

Central Appalachia — and Eastern Kentucky in particular — is running out of time to turn a century of decline into a future worth staying for. Population loss is now the coalfields’ defining trend, and in some counties it’s accelerating toward collapse. Data from the Kentucky State Data Center’s “Kentucky: By the Numbers” series shows […]

Kentucky advocates for people with Alzheimer’s are excited by new research showing that lifestyle interventions like exercising and learning can slow cognitive decline.  Published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in July, The U.S. POINTER Randomized Clinical Trial showed that being social and keeping the brain active can improve brain health over […]

Heading into the respiratory illness season, states and clinicians are working to encourage pregnant patients to get COVID-19 vaccinations, even though the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services no longer recommends that they should. Along with being older and having an underlying health condition, pregnancy itself is a risk factor. Pregnant women are more […]

What do Catholic social teachings say about immigration, especially in the face of increased federal emphasis on immigration enforcement?  That was the subject of a special meeting at the Diocese of Covington Curia on Monday night. Hosted by the Sisters of the Inter-Community Justice and Peace Committee, which is made up of members of the […]

When it comes to food, everyone craves great quality — especially when it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables. There’s something universal about scanning a table for the freshest apple, the juiciest peach or the ripest ear of corn.  Each week in Kentucky, more than 700 customers share in that ritual at our Fort Thomas […]

UnitedHealth Group’s multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company. Pharmacy benefit managers, often called PBMs, act as middlemen that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug companies, insurance plans and pharmacies. Some lawyers and advocates say PBMs helped […]

Advertisements promoting the abortion pill will be at gas stations across West Virginia and Kentucky over the next few weeks. Mayday Health, a New York-based health education nonprofit, will run the ads at 104 rural gas stations through Sept. 7. The campaign started Aug. 11. The advertisements say “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more […]

As students across Kentucky return to campus, our colleges and universities face difficult times. Higher education is viewed with a great deal of suspicion by those outside its inner sanctum, though recent data suggests a subtle shift toward a more positive view. Institutions of learning are under mounting pressure to show their value to society, […]

A Democratic lawmaker asked Republican Auditor Allison Ball if her office’s recent critical audit of the Kentucky Department of Education makes the case for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s universal pre-K plan.  Ball presented the findings of the audit released last month during a Monday meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Education. The audit said […]

SHELBYVILLE – A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes. Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, […]

Mandates from President Donald Trump’s administration to retain aging coal plants could cause a massive spike in energy costs, according to an independent analysis commissioned by several environmental groups. Orders from the U.S. Department of Energy to save coal plants from retirement could cost ratepayers more than $3 billion per year, according to a report […]

While the nation was distracted by headlines about celebrity trials and summer storms, a seismic shift occurred in American education policy: The U.S. Department of Education was effectively gutted by President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Billed as a move to return power to the states, this legislation dismantles the infrastructure of […]

Week after week, a teenage Brandon Long sat through counseling sessions that he said framed his identity as a failure. Now an ordained minister in northern Kentucky, Long told Kentucky state lawmakers about the years he spent undergoing therapy designed to rid him of his “same-sex attraction.” “Just imagine yourself being told, session after session, […]

The lifeless body of a ten-year-old Breathitt County boy was located on August 12, more than twenty miles from his home, and his mother has been charged with his death. Felicia Ann (Spicer) …