The Dairy Del Ice Cream shop on 7th Street Road in Louisville that Virgil Harris owned before his murder in 1979. (Jefferson Circuit Court clerk)

Brian Keith Moore has spent most of his life in prison, serving a death sentence for the 1979 murder of Virgil Harris.?

From the beginning, Moore said he was framed by an old friend. He’s spent decades filing appeals and fighting to get out of prison.?

Over the years, judges acknowledged the delicate balance between his guilt and innocence — that the evidence he killed Harris is equal to the evidence he didn’t — and that DNA testing could tip the scales.?

Now, Moore and his defense attorneys from the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy say they have DNA test results that show Moore did not wear the jacket prosecutors said the killer wore — a claim pinned on Moore during his initial trial in 1980 and again in a 1984 retrial.?

David Barron, Moore’s attorney, wrote in an August motion that the results “show exactly what Moore has said for more than four decades.”?

“It should therefore be a simple conclusion that Moore’s convictions should be vacated,” Barron said in the motion.?

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Annie O’Connell will decide what happens next. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.?

Kentucky Attorney General spokesperson Kevin Grout told the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting the office will work with the Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney to oppose the motion to vacate Moore’s conviction. But in court filings, Attorney General Rusell Coleman said the state’s attorneys are juggling a heavy caseload and need time to review the case.?

O’Connell gave Coleman until February 2025 to respond.?

Every day counts for Moore, 66. He bounces between a hospital and the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange. Medical records show he suffers from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and acute respiratory failure. He said several surgeries meant to fix degeneration in his spine have made the problem worse. He’s in constant pain, depends on a wheelchair, and he said he can’t write grievances because he can’t close his right hand around a pen.?

Moore’s attorneys said in court documents that, if released, Moore would spend his days at an assisted-living facility. He worries he could spend the rest of his life paralyzed from untreated medical ailments.?

“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Moore said in an interview earlier this year over a video visit from a bed at the prison. “Even if I’m found not guilty and turned loose and get beaucoups of money and all this type shit, none of that’s no good if I’m paralyzed from my neck down.”?

Moore is one of 26 people on Kentucky’s death row. If Moore’s conviction was vacated today, his would be the 13th capital case in Kentucky overturned based on DNA evidence, according to the Kentucky Innocence Project. Nationwide, only two people to have cases overturned spent more time on death row than Moore, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that provides data and analysis concerning capital punishment.?

Moore’s case highlights how courts and lawmakers prioritize process and finality over fairness and due process, said Robin M. Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.?

“Even if you are the most ardent supporter of the use of the death penalty, nobody wants to see an innocent person executed, and we have this sort of faith in our justice system that the appellate process is going to be able to identify the mistakes and correct them before we have the ultimate injustice,” Maher said. “But the reality is, the law is not really set up to favor innocent people. It’s really set up, after conviction, to uphold that conviction.”?

This year, 19 people have been executed in the United States. Last month, prison officials in Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, despite evidence of his innocence so strong the victim’s family and prosecutors who brought the case against Williams asked the court to stop his execution.

The Williams case belies a simple fact, Maher said: As long as America punishes people by killing them, courts will get it wrong and we will execute innocent people.?

“If we are uncomfortable with that fact, then we need to rethink what we’re doing,” Maher said.?

Dana Maley, one of Virgil Harris’s granddaughters, wrestles with those same questions. Maley ran for Florida state Senate in 1994 and published campaign material with Moore’s face on it, emphasizing her belief in the death penalty and desire to limit the number of appeals convicted people could file so cases don’t drag on for decades.?

“When I did feel strongly about it, when I was running for office, I felt like, what does society owe somebody who is rightfully convicted of a heinous crime?” Maley said in an interview with KyCIR.?

Now, Maley said she’s not so sure. The death penalty has been misapplied, she said, and is prone to inconsistency and bias. Maley said she’s never doubted Moore’s guilt — he’d been convicted, after all. She’s put Moore’s fate out of her mind long ago and doesn’t know what to make of the new evidence.?

“Whatever happens to him, happens to him,” Maley said. “I wouldn’t be fighting heavy duty one way or the other at this point.”?

A birthday murder?

Maley remembers “Pa Pa Virgil” as a hard worker and tolerant man who was active in the church and community.?

He owned Dairy Del Ice Cream on 7th Street Road in Louisville, where it still stands today. Maley and her sister worked at the shop for a few summers as teenagers, taking the bus from St. Matthews.?

August 10, 1979 was Harris’s birthday. He started his day at the Dairy Del, turning on equipment and straightening things out before going to buy bananas at the old A&P Grocery. As he left the store just before noon, a witness saw someone wearing a mask kidnap Harris at gunpoint.

The kidnaper drove Harris and his red wine colored 1978 Buick Electra to a secluded spot on Jefferson Hill Road. They pushed Harris down an embankment, shot him four times in the head, stole his watch and a bag of cash meant for the bank.?

When he didn’t show up for his birthday dinner that afternoon, his family started to worry. His son Jerry Harris, a popular police officer at the training academy, reported him missing around 8 p.m. and told fellow officers to be on the lookout.?

But by then, prosecutors were already working out a deal for Moore’s arrest.?

A few hours after Virgil Harris was killed, an attorney representing a man named Kenny Blair called an assistant Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney looking to make a deal.?

Facing eight years in prison on robbery and burglary charges, Blair offered information about Harris’s murder in exchange for a lighter sentence.?

He pinned the killing on his then-friend, Brian Keith Moore.?

Moore met Kenny Blair in 1975. Blair was a full 10 years older and willing to buy beer for Moore and his underage friends.?

Years later, a psychologist would say a chaotic childhood left Moore searching for guidance, ready and willing to fall in line behind anyone who projected paternalistic authority.

Blair, who friends called “Big Man” or “Jesus”, offered that, in his own way. He introduced Moore to hard drugs and quick scores, showing him how to steal cars and strip them for parts.?

Police arrested Moore in the early morning hours of August 11, the day after Harris’s murder, as he and Blair pulled into a parking lot at the Shady Villa apartment complex in Newburg.?

Moore said he remembers one officer running a pistol in front of his face as he was handcuffed, telling him “you have no idea who that old man you killed was.”?

Moore said that was the first he heard of a murder.?

Did they get it right??

At trial, prosecutors had a stack of evidence they said pointed to Moore’s guilt.?

A witness said they saw Moore driving Harris’s car after the murder. Police said they saw Moore tuck a gun under the seat of Blair’s car when they pulled into the apartment complex and they found lead residue from a recently fired gun on his hands. He also had Harris’s watch and car keys.?

Three Jefferson County Police detectives testified that Moore confessed to killing Harris during an interview a few days after his arrest while a tape recorder was turned off. But Moore said he never confessed.

KyCIR requested the original investigative case file, but it’s gone. Police officials provided a check out slip showing a county police detective took the files in 2001, but they were never returned.?

The Jefferson County Police Department handled the investigation. The department merged with the Louisville Police Department in 2003.?

Moore was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980, but that verdict was overturned because of improper comments made by a prosecutor during closing arguments. A jury found him guilty again in 1984.?

But even in 1984, prosecutors Joseph Gutmann and Larry Simon acknowledged the strongest evidence against Moore was circumstantial.?

“The case came down to whose story you found more convincing, Kenny Blair’s or Brian Keith Moore’s,” Joseph Gutmann, the assistant commonwealth attorney who prosecuted Moore’s second trial, said in a recent interview with KyCIR.?

As Moore tells it, he said he woke up around noon the day of Harris’s murder to Blair walking into the apartment with some groceries and a money bag.?

Moore said Blair told him he had stolen a car — a 1978 Buick. Not surprising, Moore said, the two spent the previous week partying and committing petty crimes like stealing car radios.?

Moore said Blair gave him a watch and asked him to drive the car out to his mother’s house in Shepherdsville that afternoon to drop off the groceries.?

Moore and another witness testified that Blair borrowed Moore’s gun the night before the murder and returned it the following afternoon.?

Looking back, Moore is certain Blair set him up. But he’s not sure Blair committed the murder. The clothes prosecutors said the killer wore were too small for both men, according to Moore.?

Blair died in 1995. His side of the story is found in court transcripts reviewed by KyCIR. “I might have committed a few crimes, but I’ve never hurt nobody,” Blair testified.

Blair said Moore told him he killed a man at Jefferson Memorial Forest and took Blair to the location of the body. Blair said he called his attorney to offer information because he didn’t want to be implicated.?

But in recent court filings, Moore’s attorney said Blair’s cooperation with police and prosecutors — he arranged the arrest, led police to the body and provided the clothes allegedly worn by the murderer — left “plenty reason to believe” he set up Moore.?

Moore’s attorneys in the years after the murder found 10 people willing to testify that Blair confessed to killing Harris. But Blair denied ever confessing.?

During the trials as many as 10 uniformed police officers sat in the courtroom, something Moore’s defense argued could intimidate the jury or weaponize goodwill towards police and stack the deck against Moore.?

Gutmann and Simon both told KyCIR they felt pressure to secure another conviction and death sentence for Moore during the 1984 retrial.

“Because the family of the victim, you know they are people in law enforcement,” Simon said. “And it was sort of like the family of the victim was expecting this to happen again.”?

Gutmann and Simon said they both now oppose the death penalty.?

Gutmann thinks about Moore from time to time, and the other men he helped sentence to death. He wonders: did they get it right??

“I was naive to think that we could never get it wrong, that, in other words, somebody could never be put to death mistakenly,” Gutmann said. “And I don’t believe that anymore.”?

Harmless error?

During his 1984 closing argument, Gutmann said the prosecution’s most important witness was a clerk at a Drivers Licence Bureau who said Blair was in her office around 11 a.m. the day of the murder.?

For a moment, Blair had a rock solid alibi from a civil servant.?

But during the appeals process, Moore’s attorney Bill Yesowitch with the state’s Department of Public Advocacy found a police report in the case file that said Blair was in the office at 1 p.m., two hours later than the witness claimed.?

“When I saw that police report, I mean all kinds of bells and whistles went off,” Yesowitch said.?

Yesowitch based an appeal on this new information in 1995, arguing Moore’s previous attorneys failed to follow-up on this key piece of evidence and deprived Moore of a fair trial.?

The Kentucky Supreme Court in 1998 ruled that Moore’s defense counsel was deficient when it failed to challenge this testimony, but it did not harm Moore’s case. The court upheld the conviction.?

Yesowitch, now retired and living in Florida, is still convinced of Moore’s innocence. Yesowitch said the Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling chalks up mistakes made by Moore’s earlier attorneys as a “harmless error.”?

“How do you have a harmless error in a death penalty case?” he said.?

An execution delayed?

David Barron calls the murder of Virgil Harris a “real life who-done-it,”one that could lead to the execution of an innocent man.

Barron took over Moore’s case in 2005 and focused on getting DNA testing on clothes the murderer was allegedly wearing — a suit jacket, floral shirt and a pair of black shoes.?

Moore said the outfit wasn’t something he’d wear. Plus, the pants, a size 34 waist, were six inches smaller than the pants Moore wore the day he was arrested.?

But days before Barron filed a motion in court for a judge’s order to do DNA tests, Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo wrote a letter to Gov. Ernie Fletcher asking to schedule Moore’s execution in April 2006.?

This came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected Moore’s request for relief from a federal judge a few months earlier — exhausting his opportunities to appeal his conviction.?

“It was our office policy to try and push those death penalty cases, because they had just been in the process so long,” Stumbo said in an interview with KyCIR.?

Barron requested the execution be put on hold while the DNA testing worked its way through the court.?

Stumbo didn’t work on Moore’s case directly, he said, but he doesn’t harbor any doubts about the conviction his office secured. Two sets of jurors sentenced Moore to death, he said, and the new DNA evidence doesn’t exonerate Moore.

“This guy’s argued this DNA crap, it looks to me, to excess,” Stumbo said. “Just because the Commonwealth thought he was wearing those clothes, maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, that doesn’t exonerate him.”?

Stumbo’s firm belief in the death penalty stems from his faith in jurors’ ability to come to the right conclusion.?

But two months after Stumbo asked to schedule Moore’s execution, Barron talked to a man who served as a juror on the 1984 trial, Geoffrey Ellis. Barron told Ellis what they’d learned since the initial trials — how Moore could be innocent.?

Ellis, a well-known preacher and community leader in Louisville until his recent death, penned a 12-page affidavit questioning the conviction.?

“Based on the evidence brought to my attention after the trail and comparing that information to the evidence presented at trial, I have doubts about Brian Keith Moore’s guilt,” Ellis wrote. “The now known contradictions on this important issue are important to this case and whether Brian Keith Moore should have been convicted.”?

KyCIR talked with Ellis by phone before his death. He declined to comment further.

Can DNA tip the scales??

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge James M. Shake ordered DNA testing a month after Stumbo tried to schedule his execution.?

“The court finds the evidence set forth above is equally consistent with Moore’s assertion that he was set up by Blair and his girlfriend,” Shake said in his ruling.?

Shake wrote that DNA testing could help shift the balance in Moore’s favor.?

Prosecutors challenged his decision, and the case went to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which upheld Shake’s order and added there was even more evidence than Shake listed to “support Appellant’s [Moore’s] theory that he had been framed.”?

The judges said if testing excluded Moore as a source of the DNA, it would demonstrate he wasn’t wearing the clothes the lower court had already decided the murderer was wearing.?

But by then, the pants and shoes had gone missing, according to a response filed in court by the state crime lab.?

Tests on the jacket and floral shirt were inconclusive because the items didn’t contain enough biological material.

Barron, Moore’s attorney, then asked for more advanced DNA testing by a private lab.?

But Judge Shake retired without scheduling a hearing on the request. There’s been little movement in the case since then, as the DNA testing hung in limbo.?

Earlier this year, Moore’s defense team obtained an order from Judge O’Connell to release the evidence to a private lab for testing.?

The results show Moore is not the source of the DNA on the suit jacket. The results did not identify who the DNA belonged to.?

In August, Barron filed the motion to vacate Moore’s conviction based on the test results. The Jefferson Circuit Court and the Kentucky Supreme Court have already ruled a DNA test that backs Moore’s claim would have likely changed the outcome of his trial, Barron argues in the motion.?

“The only missing link then was that the DNA testing had not been [completed] and thus we did not have the results,” Barron wrote.

Moore reckons the first 20of his sentence were fair game, karmic retribution for his years of lawlessness.?

But Moore said he does not want to die in prison for a crime he insists he didn’t commit.?

“Anything I’ve done wrong, it’s been well paid for,” Moore said. “I didn’t kill this guy. So, if I was to die tomorrow, I would go knowing that I didn’t do this. And if there’s a higher power, he knows I didn’t do this.”

This story?is republished from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Media.?

A federal judge found merit in a case filed by retired coal miners alleging that CONSOL Energy engaged in a decades-long scheme to rob them of lifetime health benefits that were promised as a condition of employment (Karen Kasmauski | Getty Images)

Several retired coal miners are feeling validated this month as a federal judge found merit in their case alleging that CONSOL Energy engaged in a decades-long scheme to rob them of lifetime health benefits for them and their spouses that were promised as a condition of employment.

The coal miners who brought the case all worked at CONSOL Energy mines between 1969 and 2014. Unlike many of their colleagues, they abstained from joining a union to work in the CONSOL mines, largely due to promises made by leaders at CONSOL that if the workers stayed non-union, they would earn higher wages and receive lifetime health benefits that were competitive with those offered by the United Mine Workers of America.

Thousands of miners took CONSOL operators at their word that their benefits would remain as long as they served the company for at least 10 years or worked until they were 55 years old. The promises of lifetime health benefits were repeated time and time again — at human resources fairs, informational workshops for employees, company picnics and more — to workers across different states and different mining operations.

But in 2014, as many of the miners were forced to retire in preceding years due to downsizing at the mines and a sale of some CONSOL properties to Murray Energy, those promises were proven to be false.

Miners — who were told numerous times without question that their health coverage would persist for them and their spouses into retirement — began getting letters saying that coverage was coming to an end.

Allan “A.J.” Jack, a 75-year-old former coal miner who retired in 2009 after spending 18 of his 39 year career underground for CONSOL in Pennsylvania, remembers getting the initial letter in the fall of 2014 telling him the benefits would expire in 2019. Less than a year later, he received another letter from CONSOL, this one saying both he and his wife’s medical, dental and prescription insurance coverage would end on Dec. 31, 2015.

“I was devastated. I mean, you retire and you just know that you’re going to have this,” Jack said in an interview with West Virginia Watch. “Why would anybody tell you time and time again that you were going to have these benefits and then take them away? It really is devastating.”

Jack was initially told of the lifetime health benefits in an orientation in 1991. He was working at another mine in Pennsylvania at the time but — based largely on the promises of lifetime benefits, which were already guaranteed to miners affiliated with the UMWA, and a 401(k), which union miners did not qualify for — decided to leave his job and begin work at the Enlow Fork mine in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Throughout his nearly two decades with CONSOL, not one manager mentioned to him that the company reserved the right to terminate the retiree benefits at any time.

According to the order issued on Sept. 30 by Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr., the fact that CONSOL executives repeatedly failed to tell employees working for the company in different states, at different mining operations and in different departments this fact was a clear misrepresentation of benefits and therefore a violation of the company’s fiduciary obligations.

Terry Prater, a 69-year-old who worked for CONSOL for 15 years in Kentucky, unexpectedly retired from his job on Sept. 30, 2014. He showed up to work for his evening shift that day like he usually did. In the middle of his shift, Gerald Kowzan — who worked in human resources for CONSOL — addressed employees, telling them that anyone who retired on or after Oct. 1 would not be receiving their promised lifetime health, dental and prescription insurance benefits. A coworker asked what would happen if they retired before midnight. Kowzan told them if they did, they could get the benefits for five years.

“There were six of us there on the night shift who had put the time in and were of age to retire. So at 11 o’clock, we hollered in the foreman’s radio. We told him to come and get us, we’re retiring,” Prater said. “I got my insurance and kept it for 15 months, then I got the letter that it was going to be taken away. Just like that and it was gone.”

A ‘union-busting scheme’

Sam Petsonk, a labor rights attorney who litigated the CONSOL case along with attorneys from the nonprofit legal advocacy organization Mountain State Justice, said the repeated lies told by CONSOL to its employees were clearly part of an overarching scheme to keep the mines from being unionized.

This was despite attempts at those mines by workers over decades to gain union recognition and join the UMWA.

“Anyone who’s lived in Appalachia over the last 30 years has watched this union-busting scheme unfold. I mean, many miners wanted to organize a union at these operations,” Petsonk said. “I grew up in these communities. I watched the parents of many of my friends choose to work in non-union jobs because of misrepresentations just like this. An entire generation of wealth that our miners thought they had earned is now gone because of these broken promises.”

Before beginning to offer the promise that CONSOL employees would have lifetime benefits, the company was a “wall-to-wall” union operation, Petsonk said. The misrepresentations were an attempt to compete with union operations, where workers were guaranteed more protections and legally mandated to receive those lifetime benefits through an act of congress.

“The judge found and agreed that Bobby Brown, the CEO of CONSOL [at the time] directed this scheme to defraud thousands of Appalachian coal miners out of joining the union, out of gaining those benefits,” Petsonk said. “That’s what the judge found, that is a finding of fact in this record.”

And the misrepresentations weren’t the only union-busting activities happening at the CONSOL mines. Other attempts were more direct and explicit — and they worked.

Jack remembers colleagues of his at the Enlow-Bailey mining complex beginning work to unionize around 1992. There were picket lines, walkouts and other traditional unionizing attempts. Jack said they had things thrown at them. Four of his tires were slashed. He and his colleagues were threatened and told that unionizing would lower their wages and mean worse health insurance.

“We retired thinking that way, thinking, ‘man, we did have better pay and we’re going to have all these great retirement benefits,’” Jack said. “Well, in the end we ended up with nothing. They gave us nothing they told us they would and they left us all without.”

Jack said it was clear that the attempts by CONSOL to remain non-union was a scheme because of how widespread the lies were told.

Sitting in a courtroom in 2021, when the case went to trial, he remembers looking around at other former miners he’d never met. Most worked in other states, many in different parts of the coal mining operations. All of them, however, had been fed the same lines about lifetime benefits throughout their careers, and now all of them were going without those promised benefits.

“I’m from Pennsylvania. There were some there from West Virginia, from Kentucky. And I just said to the judge, ‘isn’t it amazing that I never saw any of these people before? That we don’t know each other? But we all were told the same thing by the same people,” Jack recalls. “I mean, what are the odds of that? It was clear that it was planned to tell everybody the same thing and to just renege on the whole thing, right?”

What the case means and what’s next for the affected miners

The case brought to the federal court was not an all around win. Only two of the seven plaintiffs — including Prater — were successful in proving their cases against CONSOL, and those successes were only granted in part. Others were thrown out due to limitations with the claims process, missed deadlines and other technical reasons, as well as not enough clear evidence proving that they individually were misled by the company’s leadership.

Overall, at least 3,000 miners were affected by the misrepresentations and lies from CONSOL operators over decades. Petsonk said that while it’s good that the court saw clear merit in the case and the claims made within it, much work remains to get justice for all the miners. In last month’s order, the judge wrote that the claims would likely need to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

But that’s nearly impossible, Petsonk said.

Now, he and his colleagues are reassessing and moving forward with filing an appeal to last month’s order in the hopes that the case can turn into a class action proceeding for all those affected.

“We’re very grateful to the judge for finding merit in this case [but] we’re going to ask the appeals court to review, to see this as a class action,” Petsonk said.

In the meantime, however, those affected like Prater and Jack will remain in limbo.

While the judge ruled partially in favor of Prater, his benefits won’t kick back in until all appeals are adjudicated. And while the judge agreed that Jack proved his claims against CONSOL, his claim came too late to entitle him to a remedy.

For Jack, who was grateful to the judge for agreeing with his claims, continuing to go without the benefits is having real repercussions in his and his wife’s lives.

Throughout Jack’s last 25 years of employment, he never missed a single day of work. He took pride in what he did and believed those above him who promised his commitment would be worth it.

And coal mining, as well as aging, is hard on the body. Both Prater, Jack and their wives are paying thousands of dollars a year for out-of-pocket medical expenses that they never planned for.

In the years since their promised lifetime benefits were pulled, it’s been difficult for Jack and his wife to enjoy their retirement.

“When you’re working that long, especially for a coal mine, it’s three different shifts, it’s weekends, it’s long hours and a lot of things that you want to do in life, you sort of pull off until you retire,” Jack said. “Hopefully, at that time, your health is good enough to do those things. And so now we want to make plans to maybe travel a little bit, do the things we weren’t able to do when we were younger, but then these medical expenses come up that you never thought you’d have to pay. Those plans you have, you’re putting them aside again, and this time until when?”

This story is republished from West Virginia Watch, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Photos of fentanyl victims are on display at a memorial at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Va. Federal data shows that overdose deaths are rising in Western states even as many states in the East are seeing improvement; the spread of fentanyl may explain much of the geographic movement, experts say. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Despite an encouraging national dip in the past year, overdose deaths are still on the rise in many Western states as the epicenter of the nation’s continuing crisis shifts toward the Pacific Coast, where deadly fentanyl and also methamphetamine are finding more victims.

Overdose deaths remain sharply higher since 2019. Many states are working on “harm reduction” strategies that stress cooperation with people who use drugs; in some cases, states are getting tougher on prosecutions, with murder charges for dealers.

Alaska, Nevada, Washington and Oregon have moved into the top 10 for rate of overdose deaths since 2023, according to a Stateline analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Meanwhile the biggest one-year improvements were in Nebraska (down 30%), North Carolina (down 23%), and Vermont, Ohio and Pennsylvania (all down 19%).

In Kentucky, overdose deaths declined 18% since 2023. But fatal overdoses remain high in Kentucky at 43 per 100,000 population, the nation’s ninth highest rate.

The spread of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can cause overdose and death even in tiny amounts, explains much of the east-to-west movement in the number of deaths, said Daliah Heller, vice president of overdose prevention program at Vital Strategies, an international advocacy group that works on strengthening public health.

“Fentanyl really came in through the traditional drug markets in the Northeast, but you can see this steady movement westward,” Heller said. “So now we’re seeing overdoses going up on the West Coast while they’re going down dramatically on the East Coast.”

The provisional CDC data estimates drug overdose deaths in the year ending with April 2024, and nationally they decreased by 10%, with more than 11,000 fewer deaths than the year before. But they’re still rising in 10 states and the District of Columbia, including 42% in Alaska, 22% in Oregon, 18% in Nevada and 14% in Washington state. Deaths climbed by almost 1,300 in those states and others with more modest increases: Colorado, Utah and Hawaii.

"/]

Experts are still debating why some Eastern states hit early in the overdose crisis are seeing improvements.

“There’s some kind of improvement spreading from east to west and we don’t know exactly what it is yet. Everybody sees their little piece of the elephant,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, a scientist specializing in opioid disorder and overdose at the University of North Carolina’s Injury Prevention Research Center.

In North Carolina and other states with recent improvements, “it feels like we finally got a lid on the pot, but the pot is still boiling over. Things aren’t really cooling down,” Dasgupta said.

It could be a result of better acceptance of harm reduction policies to help those who use drugs, including no-questions-asked testing of street drugs and providing naloxone to counteract overdoses. Or users may simply be getting more wary of fentanyl and its dangers and unpleasant side effects, Dasgupta said.

"It feels like we finally got a lid on the pot, but the pot is still boiling over. Things aren't really cooling down." - Nabarun Dasgupta, University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center

“Fentanyl is very potent, but potency isn’t the only thing. Otherwise we’d all be drinking the highest proof IPAs (India pale ales),” Dasgupta said.Alaska now has the nation's second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths, about 53 per 100,000 population, behind only West Virginia (73 per 100,000). Other Western states that are now in the top 10: Nevada (47 per 100,000), Washington state (46 per 100,000) and Oregon (45 per 100,000).

The CDC data shows Alaska had the largest increase from 2023 — up 42%, to 390 deaths. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy in August 2023 proposed legislation making fentanyl dealers subject to murder charges in overdose death cases, writing: “Drugs and drug overdoses have had a devastating effect on our state.” The legislation was signed into law this year.

In May, the state kicked off “One Pill Can Kill,” a national?awareness campaign?warning about the dangers of fentanyl.

Fentanyl, mostly in the form of counterfeit 30 mg oxycodone pills, has become tremendously profitable for smugglers in Alaska who make use of airline passengers and air shipments of other products to get drugs into the state, said state Department of Public Safety spokesperson Austin McDaniel. Pills that sell for less than $1 near the U.S. southern border with Mexico can fetch $20 in Alaska, McDaniel said.

“We want to make the dealers think twice about targeting Alaska,” said Alaska state Rep. Craig Johnson, an Anchorage Republican, who supported the bill signed into law July 12.

Johnson’s 23-year-old nephew died of a fentanyl overdose two years ago. “This is personal. I don’t want other Alaska families to go through what we went through. I hope we never have to use it, because that will mean nobody else died.”

Other state and federal authorities are also trying a more punitive approach to the fentanyl crisis: Under a state program in Wisconsin meant to ferret out suppliers, three people were arrested in September and charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the fentanyl overdose death of a 27-year-old man.

In Michigan, two men pleaded guilty this month to federal charges in a mass fentanyl poisoning that led to at least six deathsSuch punitive approaches can backfire, experts say, if they drive people toward more dangerous solitary drug use — where no one can see an overdose and try to help — and away from programs such as free testing to unearth fentanyl hidden in other drugs.

“It’s sort of nonsensical, like saying you can beat something out of people. People are still going to use drugs,” said Heller, of Vital Strategies. “This should be a call to action to wake up and really invest in a response to drug use as a health issue.”

In Nevada, health authorities in the Las Vegas area are stressing more cooperation with residents who use drugs, increasing naloxone distribution and encouraging people to submit their drug purchases for testing so they’re not surprised by counterfeit heroin, methamphetamine or other drugs that are increasingly cut with cheaper fentanyl, said Jessica Johnson, health education supervisor for the Southern Nevada Health District.

For second year in a row, Kentucky overdose deaths decrease?

A state office coordinates goals for county naloxone distribution based on factors such as hospital reports of overdoses. More overdoses trigger more naloxone distribution to community centers, clinics, entertainment venues and even vending machines.

One puzzle in Nevada and in other states is that increasingly, overdoses involve a combination of opioids, such as fentanyl, along with stimulants such as methamphetamine. Almost a third of overdoses in Nevada are caused by both being used together, according to a state report based on 2022 data.

It could be that some people seek the “roller coaster of effects using a stimulant like methamphetamine and a depressant like fentanyl or heroin,” Jessica Johnson said, but mostly she hears that unsuspecting users get cocaine or methamphetamine that’s been cut with cheaper fentanyl.

“We get people saying, ‘Oh I don’t need naloxone because I don’t use fentanyl,’ and our team is able to say, ‘Well, our surveillance data actually suggests there might be fentanyl in your methamphetamine’ or whatever it is.”

Nationally, both drugs are increasingly a factor in fatal overdoses: Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl contributed to 68% of overdose deaths in this year’s CDC data, up from 48% in 2019. Stimulants such as methamphetamine were factors in 35% of deaths, up from 20% in 2019.

Heroin and other partly natural opioids, such as oxycodone, have diminished as factors, together accounting for 13% of deaths in the latest data compared with 40% in 2019.

Some experts theorize that the high potency of fentanyl makes those who use drugs want to tweak or balance the effect with methamphetamine. Fentanyl itself is often cut with xylazine, a non-opioid animal tranquilizer — often known as “tranq” — that can cause unpleasant side effects, including extreme sedation and skin lesions, Dasgupta said.

“During the pandemic, there were a lot of reasons why people were using substances more. Now that things are different, people are tired of the adulteration, the sedation, the skin wounds,” Dasgupta said. “People may take lower doses, and that in itself can help lower overdoses.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

]]>

Kentucky has joined 12 other states and the District of Columbia in seeking monetary damages from TikTok for harm it has allegedly caused to youngsters. (Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exploiting minors and being “designed to addict and otherwise harm” them.

In filing the lawsuit Tuesday in Scott County, Coleman joins a dozen states and Washington D.C. in seeking payouts for what they describe as a pattern of knowingly hurting youth.

The other states that have sued are California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

The Kentucky lawsuit says TikTok is “designed” to be “an addiction machine” that targets children.

Michael Hughes, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.”

“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,” said Hughes.

What’s in the lawsuit?

Coleman’s lawsuit accuses the company of unfair and deceptive acts that violate Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act, failing to warn consumers of the potential dangers in consuming the platform’s media and more.

“Unlike other consumer products that have appealed to children for generations — like candy or soda—with social media platforms there is no natural break point where the consumer has finished the unit of consumption,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, social media platforms are a bottomless pit where users can spend an infinite amount of their time.”

TikTok’s Michael Hughes said the company does take steps to protect users.

“We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16,” Hughes said. “We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry wide challenges.”

Speaking in Northern Kentucky Wednesday, Coleman promised to “force (TikTok) to answer for creating and pushing an app designed specifically to addict and harm Kentucky’s children.”

“TikTok is more than trendy dances or funny videos. It’s a specially crafted tool to suck in minors, leading to depression, anxiety, altered development, and more,” Coleman said.

“TikTok intentionally manipulates the release of dopamine in young users’ developing brains and causes them to use TikTok in an excessive, compulsive, and addictive manner that harms them both mentally and physically,” the Kentucky lawsuit says.

Forbes reported in 2022 that watching TikTok videos is like taking drugs, calling it a “pleasurable dopamine state” that is “almost hypnotic.”

Filed in Scott Circuit Court, the 125-page lawsuit contains frequent blocks of redacted material. Those include information from internal TikTok documents, that “for the time being remain subject to certain confidentiality agreements,” said Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Coleman’s office.

Coleman is seeking an injunction to halt TikTok’s “ongoing violations,” actual and punitive damages and penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act.

TikTok also is fighting a federal law enacted by Congress earlier this year that would ban the app in the U.S. unless its owner, ByteDance, sells it to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19.

What does research show?

In a 2023 report, the U.S. Surgeon General said social media use among youth can have both positive and negative effects. For example, youth may be able to find community and connection through social media that they otherwise lacked. But their mental health can decline with that use, and they can have increased anxiety and depression.

“Because adolescence is a vulnerable period of brain development, social media exposure during this period warrants additional scrutiny,” the surgeon general report said.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children’s wellbeing, says tech companies need to:

• Ade-quate-ly and inde-pen-dent-ly assess- the impact of social media on chil-dren and adolescents.
• Pri-or-i-tiz-e user health and safe-ty when design-ing and devel-op-ing social media prod-ucts and services.
• For-mal-iz-e a strat-e-gy for inves-ti-gat-ing the requests and com-plaints of young peo-ple, fam-i-lies, edu-ca-tors and others.

Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised Coleman “for standing up against the social media giant – and standing up for Kentucky’s young people.”

“There is nothing more paramount than upholding our kids’ mental health and safety, especially as kids increasingly find themselves in digital spaces,” Brooks said. “The addictive nature of the social media platform TikTok can harm kids’ developing brain, expose them to unrealistic standards and unsafe situations, and put them at risk of sexually explicit content and exploitation.”

Read the complaint

Rep. Kim Banta says constituents tell her their kids are afraid to go to school because of the fear of gun violence. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text the suicide prevention lifeline at 988.?

A Northern Kentucky Republican will file a bill in the 2025 legislative session to hold parents and guardians civilly accountable for gun violence or misuse carried out by minor children in their care.?

Rep. Kim Banta of Fort Mitchell, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, thinks of the legislation as a “wake up call,” she told the Kentucky Lantern.??

“I have constituents that … tell me their kids are literally afraid to go to school,” she said. “We just need to start kind of zeroing in on: if you’re under 18, your parents are responsible for your behavior.”??

Under her bill, people who are hurt or threatened by a minor using a gun could sue the minor’s parents or guardians and be awarded monetary damages.?

Banta? believes such legislation could incentivize parents and guardians to properly store and secure weapons (or separate them from ammunition), which could in turn lower suicide rates among youth and curb school shootings — and the threat of them.?

In 2023, nearly 4% of Kentucky high school students reported they carried a weapon like a gun or knife on school property at least one day within the month before they were surveyed, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kentucky Department of Education. That number rose to around 6% for the year before they were surveyed, and excluded weapons carried for hunting or target sport purposes.?

That survey also found 11% of high school students had at least one day within the month before they were surveyed when they were absent from school because they felt unsafe at school.?

Finally, 8% of students in 2023 reported they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once during the year before the survey.?

The Kentucky Department of Education also reports 15% of high school students and 17% of middle school students in the state considered suicide “seriously” in the last year. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.?

In its annual report, Kentucky’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel found children were increasingly injuring and killing themselves with guns they had wrongful access to.?

Among those, the Lantern reported in February, was a 4-year-old who played with a loaded gun he found in a glove compartment of a car and fatally shot himself. Another instance involved a 14-year-old boy whose friend fatally shot him with a loaded gun found in a parents’ bedroom.?

The panel said at the time that the legislature should research national models and develop legislation to promote safe storage of firearms.

What’s in Banta’s bill??

Banta’s bill, which is being drafted during the interim, would combine the state statutes that hold parents accountable for vandalism their children commit and when parents sign their child’s driver’s license.?

“The proposal is that a parent is responsible, civilly, for any gun violence that their child under 18 years old would perpetrate,” said Banta.?

That includes threatening someone with a gun, shooting a neighbor’s dog or injuring or killing a person. People who were wronged would then have a legal opening to sue the parents or guardians of those minor children.?

Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, will be the primary co-sponsor.?

A draft of the two-page bill, provided to the Lantern, says guardians are civilly responsible for “any negligence or willful misconduct of a minor.”?

The bill draft says parents and other guardians would be considered responsible and subject to paying civil damages under any of these circumstances:?

• They permitted the minor to have the firearm.
• They know that the minor has previously been adjudicated delinquent of an offense that would be a felony if the minor had been an adult.
• They know that the minor has a propensity to commit violent acts.?
• They know or have reason to know that the minor intends to use the firearm for unlawful purposes.?

The bill excludes emancipated minors or government or private agencies or foster parents who, through court order, are assigned responsibility for a minor.?

“My key motivator is just trying to get people to recognize that even though we live in a society where it is perfectly legal to own and use guns, I just think we need to back up for a minute,” Banta said. “We need to say, ‘Okay, I’m a gun owner, but that is going to extend to me being responsible for my children’s use of the guns.’”?

She hopes to get the bill before the House Judiciary Committee as early as possible during the session. She’s confident it passes constitutional and Second Amendment muster, she said.?

“I’m not restricting guns. I’m not telling you you cannot buy your child a gun. But what I’m telling you is: just be aware that you are as responsible for that child with that gun as you are with a car,” Banta said. “So if they do some damage, or they … threaten people… you’re going to be responsible civilly for it.”?

Banta already — favorably — discussed her bill with Speaker of the House David Osborne, R-Prospect, she said, and believes there is appetite to pass such legislation.?

That’s because, she said, “parental responsibility” is “everything that the (National Rifle Association), everything that gun ownership preaches” just “reinforced” with statute.?

“It’s just a matter of being very, very responsible with your gun ownership,” Banta said.? “Rather than a Sandy Hook or a Georgia incident, I’m hoping that parents will say, ‘yeah, no, you’re 16. You’re not old enough to be … on your own with a gun, or where I don’t know where you are with a gun.’”?

“I’m not telling a parent you can’t let your child go hunting by themselves anymore, and he’s 15 or 16,” she added. “I’m just telling you that if he goes and he shoots at the neighbor and kills their cow, you’re responsible. You’re gonna pay for that cow. You are responsible.”?

Banta doesn’t anticipate any funding needs for the bill, calling it an “ink and paper” policy.

“I just want people to feel safer,” Banta said. “And I want to pass something that just … makes sense.”?

An ultrasound machine sits next to an exam table in an examination room at a women’s health clinic in South Bend, Ind. A recent study shows that there was a spike in the number of women seeking sterilizations to prevent pregnancy in the months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down the constitutional right to an abortion. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, there was a spike in the number of women seeking sterilizations to prevent pregnancy, a recent study shows.

Researchers saw a 3% increase in tubal sterilizations per month between July and December 2022 in states with abortion bans, according to the study published in September in JAMA, a journal from the American Medical Association. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The study looked at the commercial health insurance claim records of 1.4 million people from 15 states with abortion bans (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming). The study also examined the records of about 1.5 million people living in states with some abortion restrictions and 1.8 million in states where abortion remains legal. The researchers excluded 14 states that didn’t have records available for 2022.

“It’s probably an indication of women [who] wanted to reduce uncertainty and protect themselves,” said lead author Xiao Xu, an associate professor of reproductive sciences at Columbia University. In the first month after the ruling, sterilizations saw a one-time increase across all states included in the study, Xu and her team found. Her team also found continued increases in states that limited abortion to a certain gestational age, but those were not statistically significant.

The researchers compared records for three groups: States with a total or near-total ban on abortion, including states where bans were temporarily blocked; states where laws explicitly recognized abortion rights; and limited states, where abortion was legal up to a certain gestational age.

While the study captures only the early months following the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, experts say it’s part of an increasing body of evidence that shows a growing urgency for sterilization procedures amid more limited access to abortions, reproductive health care and contraception. Other studies have shown increases in tubal sterilization (commonly known as “getting your tubes tied”) and vasectomy requests and procedures post-Dobbs.

Diana Greene Foster, a professor and research director in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, said the results are not surprising, given the negative repercussions for women who seek to end their pregnancies but are not allowed to do so.

Foster led the landmark Turnaway Study, which for a decade followed women who received abortions and those who were denied abortions. It found that women forced to carry a pregnancy to term experienced financial hardship, health and delivery complications, and were more likely to raise the child alone.

“We have found that women are able to foresee the consequences of carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term,” Foster told Stateline. “The reasons people give for choosing an abortion — insufficient resources, poor relationships, the need to care for existing children — are the same negative outcomes we see when they cannot get an abortion.

“So it is not surprising that some people will respond to the lack of legal abortion by trying to avoid a pregnancy altogether.”

As abortion bans delay emergency medical care, this Georgia mother’s death was preventable

Few doctors and services

States with abortion bans and other restrictions also tend to have large swaths of maternal health care “deserts,” where there are too few OB-GYNs and labor and delivery facilities. That creates greater maternal health risks.

One such state is Georgia where abortion is banned after six weeks. Georgia’s abortion ban was temporarily lifted last week by a Fulton County judge, but on Monday the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the ban. Dr. LeThenia “Joy” Baker, an OB-GYN in rural Georgia, said she sees patients in their early 20s who have multiple children and are seeking sterilizations to prevent further pregnancies, or who have conditions that make pregnancy dangerous for them. Her state has one of the highest maternal death rates in the nation.

On Monday, a Georgia county judge struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, meaning that for now, women have access to the procedure up to about 22 weeks of pregnancy. The state is appealing the decision, and it’s expected to eventually be decided by the state Supreme Court.

The county judge’s ruling comes two weeks after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after they couldn’t access legal in-state abortions and timely medical care for rare complications from abortion pills.

Black and Indigenous women disproportionately experience higher rates of complications, such as preeclampsia and hemorrhage, which contributes to their higher maternal mortality and morbidity rates. Baker said some of her patients say they want to avoid risking another pregnancy because of those previous complications.

“I have had quite a few patients, who were both pregnant and not pregnant, who inquire about sterilization,” she said. “I do think that patients are thinking a lot more about their reproductive life plan now, because there is very little margin.”

Along with the state’s abortion restrictions, Baker said women in her Bible Belt community feel social pressure that can push them toward sterilization.

‘Between rock, hard place:’ Will anyone ever have standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban?

“It is definitely more socially acceptable to say, ‘I’m going to get my tubes tied or removed,’ than to say, ‘Hey, I want to find abortion care,’” Baker said.

In states where lawmakers have proposed restrictions on contraception, women might feel tubal sterilization to be the most surefire way to prevent pregnancy. Megan Kavanaugh, a contraception researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health policy research center that supports abortion rights, said the research doesn’t say whether women who seek sterilization would have preferred another form of contraception.

“We need to both understand which methods people are using and whether those methods are actually the methods they want to be using,” said Kavanaugh, whose team studied contraceptive access and use in Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin. “It’s really important to be monitoring both use and preferences in terms of heading towards an ideal where those are aligned.”

Tubal sterilizations can still fail at preventing a pregnancy, Foster said. One recent study noted that up to 5% of patients who underwent a tubal sterilization got pregnant later.

“If people are choosing sterilization who would otherwise pick something less permanent, then that is another very sad outcome of these abortion bans,” she added.

Another recent study, by Jacqueline Ellison, a University of Pittsburgh assistant professor who researches health policy, found that more young patients — both women and men — sought permanent contraceptive procedures in the wake of the Dobbs decision. The study focused on people ages 18 to 30 — the age group most likely to seek an abortion and the ones who previous studies suggest are most likely to experience “sterilization regret,” Ellison said.

A troubled history

The issue also can’t be disentangled from the nation’s history of coercive sterilizations, Ellison and other experts said. In the 1960s and 1970s, federally funded nonconsensual sterilization procedures were performed on Indigenous, Black and Hispanic women, as well as people with disabilities.

“People feeling pressured to undergo permanent contraception and people being forced into using permanent contraception are just two sides of the idea of reproductive oppression in this country,” Ellison said. “They’re just manifested in different ways.”

Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, now has regulations designed to prevent coerced procedures. But the rules can have unintended consequences, said Dr. Sonya Borrero, an internal medicine physician and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Innovative Research on Gender Health Equity.

The process includes a 30-day waiting period after a patient signs a sterilization procedure consent form, Borrero noted. But pregnant women who want the procedure done right after delivery might not reach the 30-day threshold if they go into early labor, she said. She added that some patients are confused by the form.

Borrero launched a tool called MyDecision/MiDecisión, an English and Spanish web-based tool that walks patients through their tubal ligation decision and dispels misinformation around the permanent procedure.

“The importance and the relevance of it right now is particularly pronounced,” she said.

This article is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Daniel Cameron looks over the crowd after conceding defeat on election night, Nov 7, 2023, in Louisville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s attorney general and two University of Louisville physicians waged a legal battle for more than a year that almost no one knew about —? even though it involved the Republican candidate for governor and an issue of intense public interest.

The secrecy around the case – from its outset in June of 2023 – is highly unusual. It ended Monday when the file was unsealed under a Franklin Circuit judge’s order. The Lantern first revealed the case’s existence and reported many of its details in August based on a Court of Appeals ruling and sources with knowledge of the situation.?

The newly unsealed file provides further insights into what happened when the powers of Kentucky’s top prosecutor intersected with abortion politics in an election year.

The dispute involved then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s efforts to pursue a criminal investigation against the two U of L physicians who, when it was still legal to do so, performed abortions and trained medical students and residents at EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville. Cameron also was Kentucky Republicans’ nominee for governor last year.

Kentucky appeals court rejects AG’s efforts to get employment records in abortion case

After the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in the summer of 2022, the physicians testified in court against the near-total abortion ban that immediately took effect in Kentucky.

Cameron, whose office was defending the abortion ban, then sought the physicians’ pay, tax and other records from U of L through the civil discovery process. When that didn’t work he used a grand jury to subpoena the records as part of a criminal investigation that he said would discover whether public dollars had been misused.

In the end, the case turned on what two courts determined were Cameron’s misuse of the grand jury process and his lack of evidence of any crime.

Politics alleged

Lawyers for the physicians argued that Cameron’s actions were motivated by politics, that he was using abortion litigation “for political gain in his gubernatorial campaign” — a claim that Cameron’s office branded “offensive” and “slander.”?

The doctors’ lawyers said Cameron “apparently believes that depicting abortion providers as greedy profiteers advances his arguments that abortions should be outlawed.”?

It’s impossible to know how public knowledge of the case might have affected the 2023 race for governor. By September 2023 — less than two months before the gubernatorial election — the politics of abortion had changed in Kentucky.?

That month Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear began airing powerful commercials featuring a rape victim and a prosecutor criticizing Cameron for opposing exceptions for rape and incest in the abortion ban. And Cameron quickly modified his position, saying he would sign legislation creating exceptions for rape and incest if the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved it.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd tried to unseal the case at that time, but was thwarted by Cameron who immediately appealed the ruling to quash the subpoena and successfully pleaded to keep the case secret at least until the appeals court ruled on its merits.

Beshear defeated Cameron in the governor’s race by about 5 percentage points, and Cameron has since taken a job as executive director of a non-profit group called 1792 Exchange. (That group’s website says it works to? protect small businesses, other non-profits and philanthropic organizations from “woke” corporations.)

AG Coleman ends appeals

Cameron did not respond to an email from the Lantern sent to 1792 Exchange seeking comment on the outcome of his ill-fated investigation.

Current Attorney General Russell Coleman did not ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to review the August Court of Appeals ruling that upheld Shepherd’s decision to quash the subpoena. Rewa Zakharia, chief of the criminal division in Coleman’s office, declined comment on Friday after a court hearing when Shepherd ordered the case finally unsealed. Zakharia referred questions to the office spokesman Kevin Grout, who did not return phone messages from Kentucky Lantern.

One of the attorneys for the doctors, William Brammell, released a statement that said, “We appreciate the judge’s thoughtful handling of this case and ultimate decision to unseal it, making it available to the public.? In a functioning democracy, it’s critical that citizens know what their government is doing and the judge’s decision in this case balances that right to access with our client’s understandable personal privacy interests.”

On Aug. 9 a three-judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Shepherd’s quashing of the subpoena. Its order said the subpoena amounted to a “fishing expedition” and that Cameron’s premise that tax dollars may have been illegally spent on abortions was not supported by the facts of the case.

The appeals court sent the question of whether the case should be unsealed back to Shepherd. On Friday Shepherd unsealed the case with the exception of one document, and he released 177 pages of records Monday with the names of the physicians redacted.

The U of L physicians and another physician who practiced at EMW Women’s Surgical Center initiated the case on July 21, 2023, asking Franklin Circuit Court to quash a subpoena seeking payroll, personnel and other records

They argued that Cameron unsuccessfully sought the same records in the civil case challenging the constitutionality of Kentucky’s abortion ban and that the material sought was not relevant to any possible criminal charges. They suggested a political motive which Cameron hotly disputed.

“It has become clear that Mr. Cameron will use abortion litigation, against providers and others, for political gain in his gubernatorial campaign.”

Cameron said the subpoena was issued as part of his office’s responsibility to investigate “crimes involving the use of public funds.”

The plaintiffs filed the case under the pseudonyms Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and John Row, and asked that the case be sealed to protect their privacy. Cameron offered no objection and Shepherd let the case initially proceed under seal.

As the case proceeded, Shepherd, over the objections of the doctors’ lawyers, gave Cameron the opportunity to present a confidential (“in camera”) written explanation “that will set forth the subject matter of the Attorney General’s investigation.”

Cameron did so. That record remains the only part of the file still sealed. But whatever is in it, it did not convince Shepherd.

Grand jury never asked for or asked for subpoena

The judge wrote a 16-page order quashing the subpoena. Shepherd agreed with nearly all points made by the physicians’ attorneys. He said even the confidential submission from the attorney general “provides no information which grants its office jurisdiction.”

Shepherd said the investigation was brought in the wrong county because the doctors work in Jefferson County. “There is no indication that any of the conduct under investigation took place in Franklin County. Nor is there any allegation that state funds were used directly in any manner that would violate the penal code,” he ruled.

Shepherd noted that while Cameron obtained the subpoena from the clerk of the Franklin Circuit Court, the grand jury never asked for the subpoena or voted to authorize it.

And because the subpoena sought the same records Cameron was unsuccessfully trying to get in the separate civil case, the judge concluded, “this subpoena appears to be a classic ‘fishing expedition.’”

He said the doctors had a right to be concerned the information might be used in a way that would “subject them to vilification or harassment by opponents of abortion.”

The judge also said he was inclined to open the case because the public should know what goes on in court. Shepherd issued a lengthy order in which he attempted to unseal the records. “The Court believes that the public has a right to know, and to decide for themselves, whether the Attorney General is wielding the authority granted to him appropriately and in accordance with the requirements of law.”

But Cameron filed an emergency request to keep the entire file sealed, which the appeals court granted.

In August, the Court of Appeals ruling against Cameron sent the case back to Shepherd to decide whether to unseal the case.

The Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media filed briefs asking that the case be opened.?

Abortion politics: A Kentucky timeline

2019 – Kentucky’s legislature votes along party lines to enact two anti-abortion laws: A ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. A ban on all abortions that would take effect only if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the so-called “trigger law.” Federal courts blocked the six-week ban.

Feb. 26, 2020 – The Family Foundation calls on Attorney General Daniel Cameron to investigate whether medical school faculty at the University of Louisville are violating state law through ties to what was then the state’s only abortion clinic, EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville.

U of L President Neeli Bendapudi firmly rejects the allegations, saying U of L and EMW are separate entities. Residents in obstetrics and gynecology, as part of their training, must learn all aspects of reproductive health care, and abortion provider EMW is the only place they can learn the procedure.

March 30, 2021 – General Assembly approves putting an anti-abortion amendment on the 2022 ballot. It would add a new section stating Kentucky’s Constitution does not secure or protect a right to or funding of abortion.

June 24, 2022 – U.S. Supreme Court ends the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe.

EMW and Planned Parenthood, both in Louisville and Kentucky’s only abortion providers, stop performing abortions “out of an abundance of caution.”

June 27, 2022 – EMW and Planned Parenthood file suit in Jefferson Circuit Court seeking to block enforcement of the abortion ban.?

July 6, 2022 – Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry hears arguments from both sides with Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office defending the abortion ban. Among those testifying are two University of Louisville OB/GYNs who provide abortions at EMW and say abortion is essential to health care.

July 7, 2022 – Republican lawmakers in Frankfort grill U of L medical dean Toni Ganzel about whether public funds have been used to provide abortions. He tells them U of L does not pay physicians to perform abortions. Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, tells Ganzel,? “If university funds are used for abortion, the taxpayers ought to know, and the legislature should take that into account when we’re talking about funding the university and other things.”

July 30, 2022 – Judge Perry issues a temporary order allowing abortions to resume in Kentucky.?

Aug. 2, 2022 – Legal abortions stop after the Court of Appeals grants Cameron’s emergency request to reinstate the two laws banning almost all abortions in the state.?

Aug. 3, 2022 – Two U of L professors suspend their work at EMW. U of L pauses its residency training affiliation with EMW until “we can determine the future of the relationship.”

Nov. 8, 2022 – Kentucky voters defeat the anti-abortion constitutional amendment by almost 5 percentage points, 52.3%? to 47.7% or 742,232 votes to 675,634 votes.

Nov. 15, 2022 – Kentucky Supreme Court hears arguments in abortion providers’ challenge of abortion ban.

Feb. 16, 2023 – Kentucky Supreme Court leaves abortion ban in place, saying abortion providers lack standing to challenge the law on behalf of their patients, leaving unanswered questions about the ban’s constitutionality. Calling it a “significant victory,” Cameron says, “We will continue to stand up for the unborn by defending these laws.”

May 16, 2023 – Cameron wins primary, becomes Republican candidate for Kentucky governor, challenging incumbent Andy Beshear, who opposes Kentucky’s no-exceptions abortion ban, calling it “extreme.”

June 2023 – Cameron issues a Franklin County grand jury subpoena for payroll and personnel information for two unnamed U of L employees, seeking evidence that state funds may have been misused. All parties agree to seal the case.

July 2023 – Jane Does and Roe ask Franklin circuit judge to quash the subpoena.

Sept. 1, 2023 – Democrat Beshear’s campaign airs an ad featuring Jefferson County prosecutor Erin White attacking Cameron for opposing abortion ban exceptions, even for rape and incest victims. ?“Cameron believes rapists deserve more rights than their victims. That’s extreme. And it’s dangerous,” she says.

Sept. 18, 2023 – Cameron changes his position on abortion, saying he would sign legislation creating exceptions for rape and incest if the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved it. He later appears to soften that statement to reassure abortion opponents.

Sept. 20, 2023 – Beshear campaign airs ad in which Hadley Duvall says, “This is to you, Daniel Cameron. To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.”??

?September 2023 –? Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd quashes the subpoena and tries to unseal the case records. Cameron appeals. Court of Appeals grants his emergency request to keep the case sealed, pending a final outcome.

Oct. 4, 2023 – Russell Coleman, the Republican nominee for attorney general says he supports exceptions for rape and incest and will “call on the General Assembly to take a hard look at that issue.”

Nov. 5, 2023 – Beshear and Coleman win their races by comfortable margins.

Aug. 9, 2024 – Kentucky Court of Appeals rejects the attorney general’s subpoena as an improper “fishing expedition” and outside the scope of the Franklin County grand jury because the records sought by the attorney general are from another county. Returns case to Franklin Circuit Court to consider unsealing the file.

Sept. 20, 2024 – Kentucky Lantern and Louisville Public Media file motion asking that records of the case be unsealed.

Sept. 27, 2024 – Shepherd orders the case unsealed with redactions and excluding an “in camera” filing.

A list of Kentuckians who have died because of domestic violence, ranging in age from 19 to 73. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

FRANKFORT — Kentucky must examine its gun laws to make sure it’s doing all it can to protect survivors of domestic violence, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.?

His comments came after he signed a proclamation in the Capitol Rotunda making October 2024 Domestic Violence Awareness Month.?

He joined advocates from ZeroV (formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence) and others to honor 26 lives lost in recent years to intimate partner violence — including Erica Riley, who was fatally shot outside the Hardin County Justice Center in August.

After 2 women die in ‘ambush’ outside Hardin courthouse, what can Kentucky do better?

Beshear said Kentucky needs to provide “real protection” for people leaving abusive situations.?

“We have sadly seen far too much violence after someone takes out (a protective order), and we’ve got to make sure that we are filling all of those holes,” Beshear told reporters. “We’ve got to look at transportation. We’ve got to look at ways to keep people’s current location from reaching their perpetrator, and we’ve got to look at how we navigate the judicial system to where that person doesn’t have to face their perpetrator … every so often in court.”?

Riley was at the courthouse on the morning of Aug. 19 for a hearing on her emergency protective order. Police say the man who she was seeking protection from shot her and her mother, Janet Rylee, in an “ambush” in the courthouse parking lot right before the hearing. They both died.?

“It’s important that we have that system that provides everyone their day in court,” Beshear said, “but at the same time, doesn’t make someone face their abuser face to face, over and over.”?

That could be accomplished virtually, he said, an idea supported by the head of the domestic violence shelter in Elizabethtown, where Riley died. He also said the state “ought to look at” how to uniformly provide court escorts to people headed into hearings for protective orders.?

“We know we had a shooting outside of one of our courthouses where someone should be safe,” Beshear said. “And so whether that’s looking at where the parking lots are, how it’s designed, whether we have other entrances for those involved in these types of cases, or whether an escort in and out would work, we don’t want it to happen again. So the most important thing is we figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”?

Beshear also said Kentucky must have a cultural shift in how it views domestic and intimate partner violence.?

“We’ve got far too much toxic masculinity, far too many people speaking in violent terms,” he said. “We should show our families what being a responsible adult is, and that … committing acts of violence doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a monster.”?

Beshear has previously voiced support for a “red flag” law, which would allow temporary restrictions on gun possession by individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Coercive control

The gathering also heard a Kentucky lawmaker call for adding coercive control to Kentucky’s protective order law. Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, said she will sponsor a bill to help survivors access “court assistance earlier in the process.”?

Dietz’s legislation is a key piece of policy advocates who work in violence prevention support.?

Currently, protective orders are available in Kentucky to people who have experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, like loss of financial and medical autonomy, isolation, surveillance and more.?

“Most folks view domestic violence as that battering, that physical assault,” Angela Yannelli, the CEO of ZeroV, previously told the Lantern. “You’ll see the signs, the billboards, with the black eye … that happens. But what we think is happening a lot more, that we’re not able to see in the homes, are these controls.”?

Coercive control is a “huge indicator” of violence, Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky, previously told the Lantern. In adding it to the emergency protective order (EPO) statute, she said, “we could save lives.”??

“Being able to recognize coercive control as a piece of intimate partner violence, or even a lead into intimate partner violence,” Burch said, “would be very important to getting ahead of this issue … not just responding after violence has already occurred.”

Not a ‘private issue’?

Andrea Robinson, president of the ZeroV board of directors, told the gathering that? Kentucky must break the “norm of silence” when it comes to domestic violence.?

“The current social norm of silence is based on the belief that intimate partner violence is a private issue, that it is between a couple, or … that it only affects those individuals in the relationship,” said Robinson. “The norm of silence only serves to hurt, isolate, shame and stigmatize survivors, making it harder for them to flee an abusive partner.”??

Breaking that can include checking on neighbors and loved ones, wearing purple to raise awareness of domestic violence and sharing resources with people who may need them, Robinson said.?

In 2022, about half of Kentucky women — 45.3% — and around 35.5% of men had experienced intimate partner violence — or threat of it — in their lifetimes, the Lantern has reported. ?

In 2023, that number decreased to 44.5% of women and 32.9% of men.?

Across the state in 2024, ZeroV programs provided emergency shelter to 2,788 people, including 1,120 children, and provided 336,145 total services, it says.?

“In Kentucky, we don’t tolerate domestic violence,” Beshear said. “It is every single one of our obligations to say something when we see it, to get over that thought that it’s private.”??

Mountains near Cumberland in Harlan County bear the scars of mining after the coal was stripped, August 24, 2019. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kentucky’s Republican attorney general citing concerns from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration is trying to block a revamped federal complaint system that citizens have used for decades to report suspected dangers and hazards from the strip mining of coal.?

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, delegated authority to two dozen states including Kentucky to regulate the environmental impacts of mining and mine reclamation.?

The law gave citizens the right to report suspected violations not addressed by state authorities directly to the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) to investigate.?

Federal regulators can then issue a notice with a 10-day deadline to state regulators to either fix the issue or explain why it hasn’t been fixed. After the 10-day deadline, federal regulators can order an inspection of the mine site if they’re not satisfied with the state’s response.?

But a Trump administration rule change in 2020 required federal regulators to gather additional evidence from state agencies before issuing a 10-day notice, something environmental advocates say has bogged down the process and significantly reduced the effectiveness of the oversight mechanism.?

The Biden administration is now seeking to largely restore the original system that allows OSMRE to issue notices without having to gather state input beforehand, a requirement that OSMRE said creates “undue delays.” Under the Biden rule, state feedback would be incorporated into the federal investigation after the 10-day notice has been issued.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and other Republican attorneys general have sued to block the revamped system, ?and a federal judge recently allowed advocacy groups that have utilized the complaint system to intervene in the case.

The Republican attorneys general cited in part concerns from Kentucky Department for Natural Resources Commissioner Gordon Slone, who wrote in a June 2023 public comment that records from federal regulators in determining whether to issue a 10-day notice were “insufficient” compared to records from state authorities.?

“[The department] believes that the OSMRE’s goal should be to ensure that [10-day notices] are only issued when available information — including information that the State regulator can easily provide upon request —? supports the existence of a violation,” Slone wrote.?

Slone also said his department received an average of nearly nine 10-day notices each year between 2010 and 2019. Under the Trump administration system, the number of annually issued notices “plummeted” to 0.6 notices a year.?

Slone argued increased collaboration and communication between federal and state regulators led to fewer notices issued, compared to the increased “administrative burden” he said states would face by having to deal with more 10-day notices under the Biden administration’s action.?

Willie Dodson, the coal impacts program coordinator for Appalachian Voices, one of the advocacy groups intervening in the case, isn’t convinced by those arguments.?

Dodson said he’s used the complaint system in recent years to get Kentucky regulators to address pollution by an Eastern Kentucky surface mine of a waterway that’s home to endangered or threatened aquatic life.?

He said federal regulators can choose not to issue a notice in response to a complaint. He asserted arguments opposing the Biden administration’s revamped system are “just a thinly veiled way of saying that the feds should let us do whatever we want.”

“It doesn’t in any way take away the fact that Kentucky is the primary organization issuing permits, issuing enforcement actions,” Dodson said. “If Kentucky fails to issue enforcement actions that they should be issuing and the community member catches that, the community member can bring the information to OSMRE who then has an oversight role.”?

Tom FitzGerald, counsel for the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council that’s representing the intervening advocacy groups in the court case, pointed to another example decades ago for why a robust complaint system is needed.?

In the 1980s, FitzGerald represented a retired Perry County educator who, the way he described it, worried about a hazardous sediment pond built above her home.?

Before Muriel Smith finalized a divorce in 1981 and took sole ownership of her property, her husband waived the law’s 300-foot buffer requirement and gave written permission to a coal company to conduct “surface mining operations” nearby. But she personally didn’t consent to it, and state coal mine regulators gave the coal company a permit for the pond. The company built it the following year less than a football field from her home.?

When she appealed to Kentucky regulators saying state law had been violated because the pond was built too near to her home and without her permission as the now-sole homeowner, they dismissed it as a “property rights” dispute. So, she turned to the federal complaint system established through SMCRA and appealed to OSMRE.

FitzGerald wrote in a Sept. 13 filing that without the federal? action in response to the complaint system, Smith would have endured years of “living directly below a high-hazard embankment sediment structure illegally located immediately uphill from her home, with the attendant risk of wash out or catastrophic failure of the structure, and the impairment of value and use of her land.”?

The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled in 1986 that the state’s “hands off” approach toward Smith’s request for help was “seriously flawed” and ruled in her favor.?

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

An Eastern Kentucky sheriff charged with murdering a judge earlier in September has retired from his elected office following a request from the governor to step down.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, 43, resigned effective Monday, according to a letter from? Somerset attorney Jeremy Bartley to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s office.

The letter said Stines “had made the difficult decision to effect his retirement” but not as the result “of any ultimatum or in any way as a concession to any allegations” made by prosecutors.

“Rather, Sheriff Stines has made this decision to allow for a successor to continue to protect his beloved constituents while he addresses the legal process ahead of him,” Bartley wrote.?

An attorney for the governor’s office had sent Stines a letter requesting he step down from his elected office by Friday, Sept. 27, or face removal through a Kentucky law.?

Stines pleaded not guilty last week to a charge of murder for allegedly shooting and killing 54-year-old Letcher District Court Judge Kevin Mullins in the Letcher County courthouse.?

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” (Photo by Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued a pharmacy benefits manager he says played a “role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky.”?

The complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court Wednesday, names Express Scripts and affiliates as defendants and targets alleged practices over the last two decades.

“The opioid crisis was fueled and sustained by those involved in the supply chain of opioids, with manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and Pharmacy Benefit Managers …including Express Scripts, each playing a role,” Coleman wrote in the suit.?

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” It also accuses the company of “colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in the deceptive marketing of opioids in order to alter perceptions of opioids and increase their sales,” among other things.?

It also accuses the company of:

• Colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers to restrict or eliminate utilization management tools on national formularies that would have limited opioid prescribing and/or dispensing.?
• Deciding not to act on the vast amount of data and other information they had about the epidemic in order to limit the overflow of opioids into communities throughout the United States, including in Kentucky.?
• Dispensing prescription opioids through their mail order pharmacies without effective controls against diversion, in violation of Kentucky law and federal law.?

A spokesperson for Express Scripts’ parent company, Evernorth, has not yet responded to a Lantern request for comment.?

The lawsuit says its purpose is to “abate public nuisance caused in substantial part by these Defendants’ unreasonable acts and omissions fueling the opioid epidemic.”?

“Express Scripts’ central role in the opioid crisis was facilitated by their unique combination of knowledge and power that provided them with the extraordinary ability to control the opioid supply throughout the United States.”

He is seeking a jury trial, among other relief.?

“The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,” Coleman said in a statement. “Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families’ pain.”?

Read Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Express Scripts

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — Kentuckians in recovery say the state needs to better educate youth about addiction, digitize expungement for certain crimes and make harm reduction and community-based services more widely available to combat overdoses.?

About 30 people gathered at the Women’s Healing Place in the West End of Louisville Wednesday as part of a “Public Health is Public Safety” tour aimed at finding solutions to the opioid crisis and raising awareness about what addiction looks like person to person.?

That tour has made six stops across the state this year — in Ashland, London, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Lexington and, now, Louisville.?

John Bowman, Kentucky campaign organizer for Dream.Org, which organized Wednesday’s panels, said drug criminalization often drives people to harder substances.?

“We made all these laws on prescription opioids. Everybody went to heroin. We made stricter laws on heroin. Everybody went to fentanyl. We’re making stricter laws on fentanyl, and everybody’s going to xylazine,” he said. “The measures that we’ve got in place now are really, really making it hard for us to keep getting the overdose rates lower.”?

Bowman also worries a 2024 law that supporters called the “Safer Kentucky Act” and opponents said would criminalize homelessness could cause overdose deaths indirectly.?

Another provision of? House Bill 5 created a first degree manslaughter charge when a person “knowingly sells fentanyl or a fentanyl derivative to another person,” which results in that person’s death.?

“It’s kind of like a drug-induced homicide law,” Bowman said. “And it’s going to make folks scared to call 911.”?

Carson Justice, a 17-year-old from Eastern Kentucky who said addiction has affected her entire community, including her parents, said the state should invest in more harm reduction and less criminalization.?

“Instead of bad policies like House Bill 5, we could have prison after care, we could have harm reduction resources, we could have IDs, we could have all kinds of things,” she said.?

By focusing more on harm reduction, she said, “Not only could it save us thousands of dollars, it could save thousands of lives.”?

Lawmakers should also focus on revamping reentry programs, lowering what counts as “intent to distribute” and ensuring people can access a full range of treatment while incarcerated, Bowman said.?

Several panelists who discussed their treatment and recovery echoed that point, saying they did not have access to help while behind bars.?

Amanda Bourland, who has lived through addiction and incarceration and is now the vice president of mission advancement at Recovery Now, said “when I got out of prison, there were no resources for me.”?

“Four years in prison, in a row, and nobody said, ‘would you like to learn how to live a life in recovery?’ Nobody said, ‘do you think you have a problem with drugs and alcohol?’ Bourland said. “What they said was, ‘Chow ladies.’ ‘Lights out ladies.’ ‘Meds, ladies.’ That was it.”?

‘Trauma is the gateway’?

Over the course of three hours, two panels and a series of small group discussions at the women’s campus of The Healing Place, advocates and people in recovery emphasized that widespread access to harm reduction is key to lowering the number of Kentuckians dying from overdose.?

Harm reduction is anything that decreases the harm a person may experience — like wearing a seat belt when driving or brushing teeth to avoid cavities. In the context of substance use, harm reduction includes the use of the overdose-reversal Narcan, fentanyl test strips, syringe exchange programs and more. Harm reduction emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission, says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration??

Stigma sometimes stands in the way of recovery, advocates said.?

“In this country, we still view substance use disorder as a moral failing,” said Tara Hyde, the CEO of People Advocating Recovery who is also in long-term recovery. “And until we, as a community, really gather together and really start to create more of an argument against that narrative, they’re going to continue with that, because that’s all that they know.”?

Stephanie Johnson with Vocal KY said the word “addiction” is still quite stigmatized — and asked the audience, “how many people would not move or have gotten dressed without a cup of coffee this morning?”?

“Changing the narrative,” she said, “is harm reduction.”?

Focusing on mental health for people in active addiction and recovery is also “huge,” Johnson said.?

“You can have a mental health issue without having a substance use issue,” she said. “You will not have a substance use issue without having any mental health issue. We have got to address mental health. Trauma is the gateway.”?

Youth education and recovery funding?

Lawmakers should codify a requirement for schools to have uniform education on mental health, Hyde told the Lantern. There are “quality” programs available, she said, but “there’s no requirement, so not every school gets that.”?

“This is a systemic problem. And we can’t just, (say) ‘oh well, this school has it, and this school doesn’t,’” she said. “You can’t just make it bounce like that; that’s a really big problem.”?

The state could also save itself money, Hyde said, by funding long-term recovery programs. Usually a person attempts recovery an average of six times before being successful, she said, meaning their treatment could cost around $180,000 by the end of those attempts, which are usually in short-term programs.?

Some research suggests longer programs are more effective, especially in dealing with severe cases.?

“A lot of that money is already being spent,” she said. “Medicaid is paying for each attempt — six on average.”?

Justice’s mother, Beckie Rose, shared a panel with her daughter.?

She’s from Pike County — from “coal mines and coal fields and mountains,” as she described it, as well as “ground zero” of the opioid epidemic.?

Rose is in long-term recovery now, and she advocates for a better future for her daughter and Eastern Kentucky community.?

“We have way more in common than we have differences,” Rose said. “And I would just like to see our communities and our families come together, and instead of incarcerating disease, start treating disease.”??

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

The Eastern Kentucky sheriff charged with murdering a judge entered a not guilty plea Wednesday and was put on notice by Gov. Andy Beshear that if he does not resign by Friday the governor will act to remove him.?

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, 43, appeared remotely for his first appearance since District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was gunned down Sept. 19 at? the Letcher County Courthouse. Stines surrendered to authorities at the courthouse and was charged with first degree murder.

Stines told Special Judge Rupert Wilhoit III he does not have a lawyer but was accompanied by attorney Josh Miller, director of the state Department of Public Advocacy’s capital trial branch.

Beshear’s office on Wednesday released a letter to Stines from its general counsel, C. Travis Mayo, sent in care of the Leslie County jailer. The letter asks Stines to tender his resignation by the end of Friday, and says that if he does not, Beshear will “move forward with removal” under a Kentucky law.

Stines is jailed at the Leslie County Detention Center.

Lexington attorney Erin Izzo, left, and Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine are running for Kentucky Supreme Court. (Photos provided)

Two women are vying in Central Kentucky for a seat on the state Supreme Court after the chief justice chose not to seek another term.

The candidates are Pamela Goodwine, deputy chief Kentucky Court of Appeals judge, and Erin Izzo, a partner at Lexington law firm Landrum and Shouse. While judicial elections are nonpartisan in Kentucky, political partisans are lining up on opposite sides of this race.?

Last year, Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter announced he would not be seeking reelection in the 5th Supreme Court district, which includes Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott and Woodford counties. He will be succeeded as chief justice in January by Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, who was chosen Monday by her colleagues.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is backing Goodwine saying she would be “a really great Supreme Court justice.” According to campaign finance reports, Goodwine’s donors also? include former Democratic Govs. Steve Beshear and Paul Patton, as well as Democratic state lawmakers. A political organization created this week and organized by the current governor’s top campaign adviser is supporting Goodwine.?

Meanwhile, Izzo has received GOP support — an endorsement from the Clark County Republican Party and donations from local Republican groups in Fayette and Madison counties.

Goodwine told the Kentucky Lantern that “it is critical for impartiality to be demonstrated and upheld in the role of judge and justice.” Judges have a role to fairly interpret the law while also maintaining ethics and integrity, she added.

Judicial watchdog criticizes Beshear’s involvement in Kentucky Supreme Court election

“I have been a registered independent since I became a judge and I am known for continually displaying a strong work ethic along with honesty and integrity to ensure justice for all,” Goodwine said. “My strong reputation for upholding these values along with my 25 years of dedicated service as a judge has earned me respect from all parties. I have staunch supporters from all parties and welcome and accept invitations from all parties to participate in their events.”?

Izzo said she too has attempted to go before a mix of groups that lean left and right or are neutral. She added it “would be dangerous for Kentucky” to open up judicial races to more partisanship in the future.?

“I think as a candidate, there’s not much I can do with my supporters in terms of who’s going to give endorsements and who’s not,” Izzo said. “It doesn’t surprise me, honestly, that Beshear came out and endorsed her given her political leanings. And it doesn’t surprise me that the Clark County Republicans came out and endorsed me because of their political leanings.”

Because of ethics guidelines, Kentucky judicial candidates must avoid indicating their decision in a particular case. Both Goodwine and Izzo discussed their legal philosophies and qualifications with the Kentucky Lantern.?

Justices serve eight-year terms. Both candidates said they intend to serve their full term on the court if elected.?

Goodwine promises ‘dedication to the rule of law and justice for all’

Goodwine said that her 25 years of judicial experience have “given me the vast array of experiences and responsibilities needed to best serve all Kentuckians on the Kentucky Supreme Court.” Goodwine was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals for the 5th Appellate District in 2018. Before that she served on the benches of Fayette County Circuit and District courts.?

Being part of the state appeals court prepared Goodwine to join the Supreme Court, she said in written responses to the Kentucky Lantern, as she interpreted complex legal issues and crafted opinions while managing a high caseload.?

“Upon election to the Kentucky Supreme Court, I will be the first woman and only the fifth person in history to serve at all levels of the judiciary in Kentucky,” Goodwine said. “And I pledge to bring to our state’s highest court not only the legal expertise, work ethic, preparedness and passion for the law that I have built my reputation as a judge, but also a commitment to approaching each case with a dedication to the rule of law and justice for all.”?

After moving to Lexington from her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, in 1979, Goodwine began working as a court reporter before attending the University of Kentucky the following year. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1991 and UK College of Law in 1994. Early in life, Goodwine overcame challenges like the deaths of her parents by the age of 19 and and a life-threatening illness. She said those moments taught her to use “challenges as a springboard to grow and thrive” and accomplish her goals.?

Goodwine, 64, said she knew she wanted to be a judge as a teenager and that was later reaffirmed after her mother’s murder.?

“From the courtroom to community outreach, I’ve witnessed the real impact legal decisions have on people’s lives and that fuels my commitment to serving on the Kentucky Supreme Court,” Goodwine said.???

Goodwine said the Kentucky Supreme Court is “the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution, laws and rulings,” and handles lower court appeals and focuses typically on cases with “significant legal or constitutional decisions” and renders rulings with binding legal precedents.?

As an arbitrator, Izzo says, she does ‘a lot of the same things that judges do’

Izzo said her litigation experience across Kentucky makes her qualified for the state’s highest court. For 19 years, she’s worked on litigation, arbitration and mediations. She compared arbitration to working as a judge and said her philosophy is to interpret the law as it is written.?

“As an arbitrator, we do a lot of the same things that judges do,” Izzo said. “We look at cases. We have attorneys come before us. I hear arguments. I make decisions. I hear evidence. I preside over trials. It’s there. It’s just different that it’s here in a conference room, as opposed to the courthouse.”

Izzo, 46, completed her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth in 2000 and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2005. Before joining Landrum and Shouse in 2011, Izzo’s career experience includes being an attorney at Fulkerson, Kinkel and Marrs in Lexington, working as an assistant Fayette County attorney and being a judicial staff attorney for the Family Division of the 50th Judicial Circuit. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal at New York City firm Seward and Kissel.?

Describing herself as a “constitutionalist” and not “an activist arbitrator” when it comes to applying law, Izzo said she looks at the intent behind how laws were written. She added that “if there’s something there that might be better socially, or might (be) something that I disagree with, it’s not my place to change.”?

“I look at how things are, what the intention of the founding fathers were with our Constitution, and that kind of carries over to what legislative intent was when a law was adopted,” Izzo said. “Because I think if you really want to understand what the legislature intended with the law, you want to know how things were when it was adopted, what was in effect, what was going on at the time, and so that can have an impact on what a statute means outside of the Constitution.”

Izzo was born in Tennessee and raised in a Portland, Oregon, suburb until the age of 7when her family moved to Louisville.?

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. In-person no-excuse early voting begins Thursday, Oct. 31.?

Shawn "Mickey" Stines has resigned as Letcher County sheriff and faces a murder charge. (Leslie County Detention Center)

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, charged with murdering a judge in his chambers last week, will face arraignment Wednesday morning in Carter County.

Stines is jailed in the Leslie County Detention Center.

And he’s still sheriff of Letcher County.

“He still is the sheriff until he would actually resign or be removed,”? said Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association. “Once you’re elected, you are elected through an election cycle.”?

Wagner said the situation facing Letcher County is unlike any he’s seen.

County sheriffs in Kentucky have wide-ranging powers to enforce the laws of the state along with carrying out a number of lesser-known but important duties, including tax collection, vehicle inspections and providing security for local court proceedings.?

Wagner, who served as Fleming County sheriff for nearly 20 years, said it was customary for a chief deputy to take over his duties when he was unable to perform them.

WHJL in Johnson City, Tennessee, reported a sign on the door of the Letcher County sheriff’s office said it would be closed until Oct. 1. The police chief for the county seat of Whitesburg told the TV station local law enforcement and Kentucky State Police were taking calls and responding to emergencies.

The Letcher County clerk’s office is open. The courts are set to reopen Monday, Sept. 30, with all court proceedings being rescheduled.?

Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart, public affairs officer for KSP Post 13 which serves Letcher County, told the Lantern it’s his understanding the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office is planning to install an interim head, though he didn’t know if an interim leader has been named. Attempts by the Lantern to reach the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office were unsuccessful.?

Asked what power Stines has as sheriff while in custody, Gayheart said it’s a hard question to answer. “His involvement with the actual office itself, I don’t know how much control or the influence he would have on them,” Gayheart said.

Stines, 43, will be arraigned remotely Wednesday.

He is charged with firing multiple shots and killing Letcher County District Court Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, after an argument at the Letcher County Courthouse on Sept. 19. Stines surrendered without incident at the courthouse. The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg has reported the shooting was recorded on video in the judge’s office.

Chief Regional Judge Rupert Wilhoit of Grayson was appointed as a special judge in the case by Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter. Wilhoit’s court is more than 100 miles north of Whitesburg.

Under Kentucky law, Gov. Andy Beshear has the power to remove a peace officer for “neglect of duty.” Alternatively, the Kentucky legislature has the power to impeach and convict elected officials to remove an official from office, which lawmakers did in 2023 with a former commonwealth’s attorney.?

Days before the alleged shooting, Stines gave an eight-hour deposition in a federal court case alleging a former Letcher County deputy forced a woman to have sex in lieu of paying court fees the woman couldn’t afford. Stines is a defendant in the suit for allegedly failing to properly supervise the deputy. It has been stayed in light of the criminal charge against Stines.?

Almost 8,000 holders of H2-A visas worked on Kentucky farms in fiscal 2023, including harvesting burley tobacco. (Getty Images)

Seven Kentucky farmers last week sued the U.S. Department of Labor to block new federal protections for foreign farmworkers who enter the country on H2-A temporary visas.

On Monday Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman joined them, saying the new rule would clear the way for farmworkers in Kentucky to unionize.

Also moving to intervene to block the new rule are Republican attorneys general in Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia, according to a release from Coleman’s office.

A federal judge in Georgia earlier this year blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the rule in 17 other states.

Announced in April, the rule expands protections to seasonal workers, including against employer retaliation, unsafe working conditions and illegal recruitment practices. It requires that vans used to transport workers have seat belts.

Coleman, a Republican, said the new regulation “would force Kentucky farmers to allow temporary foreign-migrant workers to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. It would add excessive new bureaucratic burdens to Kentucky agricultural employers, who are already struggling to make ends meet.”

The Labor Department issued H2-A visas to 378,000 temporary workers, most from Mexico, in fiscal year 2023, according to Rural Migration News. Almost 8,000 of the temporary workers were employed in Kentucky.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Kentucky’s Eastern District, also include organizations that help growers navigate the H2-A process, including the Lexington-based Agriculture Workforce Management Association, which says it is “owned and managed by agricultural employers.”

They argue that without authorization from Congress, the Labor Department lacks the authority to confer “certain new ‘rights’ on foreign agricultural workers who are employed temporarily in the United States on H-2A visas, as well as on American agricultural workers deemed to be engaged in ‘corresponding employment’ with the H-2A workers.”?

Federal law requires the Labor Department to determine U.S. workers won’t lose work or wages to foreign workers admitted under the temporary visas.

Unveiling the rule in a California vineyard, U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su said it “is meant to give H2-A workers more ability to advocate for themselves, to speak up when they experience labor law abuses.”?

Coleman said the rule “will force new burdens on our growers, making it harder to get their products to market and raising costs on families at the grocery store.”

The attorney who filed the suit, Joe Bilby, is a former general counsel in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

Kentucky Supreme Court (front, from left) incoming Chief JuDebra Hembree Lambert, outgoing Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter, Michelle Keller. (Back row, from left) Christopher Shea Nickell, Kelly Thompson, Robert Conley, Angela McCormick Bisig. (AOC photo/Brian Bohannon)

State Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert will become the first woman to be Kentucky’s chief justice starting next year.?

Justices on the court selected Lambert to serve as the next chief justice on Monday. She will serve a four-year term starting Jan. 6, 2025, according to an announcement from the Administrative Office of the Courts.?

Lambert represents the 3rd Supreme Court District and was elected to the court in 2018. In a statement, she said she was “humbled and honored to have been elected by my colleagues” to serve as chief justice.?

“I know it is certainly no small task to lead the Judicial Branch of government,” Lambert said. “Our judges, clerks and administrative employees handle large dockets and special programs with great efficiency. While it may be notable that I will be the first woman to serve as chief justice in Kentucky, I am most proud to be a small-town kid from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky who has had a lot of support and encouragement along the way.”??

Lambert is a native of Bell County and now lives in Pulaski County with her husband, Joseph Sharpe. Lambert earned her degrees from Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky College of Law. She previously was married to former Chief Justice Joseph Lambert, who left the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2008.

Last year, Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter announced he would not be seeking reelection in the 5th Supreme Court district.?

“Chief Justice-elect Lambert is a hard-working, dedicated and experienced member of the Kentucky Court of Justice, having served as Family Court Judge, Court of Appeals Judge and Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court. Altogether, she has served as a judge or justice for more than 17 years,” VanMeter said. “I am confident that Chief Justice-elect Lambert will lead the Judicial Branch with integrity and ensure the efficient and fair administration of justice for this great commonwealth.”

Before joining the Supreme Court, Lambert was on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and was appointed as a family court circuit judge in the 28th Judicial Circuit by former Gov. Paul Patton in 1999. She practiced law in Mount Vernon as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney and city attorney.?

Lambert also leads the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health and volunteers as a certified suicide prevention trainer.

From left, Amanda Hall, Jayden Spence and Cortney Downs testified Sept. 19 before an interim legislative committee in Frankfort. (Screenshot)

When Jayden Spence was 5 years old, he watched police take his mother, Amanda Hall, away in handcuffs.?

The experience “terrified” him, he told Kentucky lawmakers. It also left him a lingering “mistrust” of the justice system.?

Spence and Hall lent their stories to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Thursday and asked members to pass legislation in 2025 that would give weight to a person’s role as a caregiver when judges are making decisions about sentencing.

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said there were more than 115,000 youths in the state from 2021-2022 who reported having a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives.?

Parental incarceration is considered an adverse childhood experience (ACE) that can have far-reaching negative effects on a person’s development and life. It can also lead to foster care, housing disruption and financial hardships, among other things, Downs said.?

“We often hear that parental incarceration (can) be described as a shared sentence, mainly because of the pretty substantial effect that it has on kids and then also the … family members … who step in to also care for those kids,” she told lawmakers.?

Having a parent behind bars can also “weaken the bond” between parent and child, Downs said. In some cases, it can “derail” that relationship entirely.?

“Ultimately, we do understand that we need to hold people accountable for their actions,” Downs said. “But there’s an equally important need for us to find a balance between applying consequences that really do match the actions, and then also considering the impact that it has on their kids.”??

Hall and Spence?

When Spence watched his mother being arrested, it continued a cycle that went back to Hall’s own childhood trauma.?

Hall was in second grade when her mother, whom she said was a survivor of domestic violence, was arrested.

“I vividly remember going to school the next day … and seeing the newspaper on my teacher’s desk and that had a description of my mom’s arrest,” said Hall, who lives in Louisa. “I got an overwhelming sense of shame, and that feeling stayed with me for years, along with a lot of anger.”?

Her mental health deteriorated after that, she said, as well as her trust in authority.?

“I started experimenting with drugs, and after being prescribed opioids, I became fully addicted,” Hall said. “Then my arrest followed, and things kept spiraling downward.”?

While incarcerated, she said, she missed her daughter’s first steps and first words and her son’s kindergarten graduation.?

“It was devastating,” she said. “I hated myself for what I had done to them, and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t change.”?

She got treatment upon her release and was reunited with her children, though “that incarceration haunts me.”?

Spence, a sophomore at Morehead State University, said Hall’s incarceration when he was a child “completely disrupted” his routine and left him with “anger,” “sadness” and a “deep sense of longing.”?

“I loved my mom, and I just wanted her to come home so we could be together,” he said. He also missed the chance to live with his little brother and be a big brother to him.?

“This experience has left a lasting impact on me. It shaped how I view the justice system. I have a deep mistrust of it, and a mistrust that only grew stronger after I saw how hard it was to rebuild her life, to be judged for her past,” he said. “Every time she was told ‘no’ because of her convictions, every negative comment said about her, I felt that too.”??

Hall lives in fear, she said, of the future.?

“I want that cycle to end with me,” Hall said. “And so far, I think it will. But that fear remains.”?

What could a Kentucky law on this look like??

Joey Comley, the Kentucky and Tennessee state director for Right On Crime, said other states — Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Washington and Tennessee — have passed “caregiver mitigation and diversion programs.”?

Under these programs, judges consider at sentencing if a person is a primary caregiver and waive incarceration in favor of community supervision and potentially treatment if it is needed, such as substance abuse treatment, physical or sexual abuse counseling, vocational or educational services, anger management, parenting classes and family counseling.?

Exceptions to the waiver could include people who committed violent offenses, sex offenses, serious offenses and offenses involving the use of a firearm, he said.?

Kentucky could also save a lot of money with such legislation, Comley said.?

“If Kentucky were to implement some form of caregiver consideration legislation, it stands to save this Commonwealth almost $64,000 per eligible parent who is essentially subject to community enforcement as opposed to incarceration,” he said. That figure includes foster care and incarceration expenses.?

There is, Comely said, “ample opportunity for legislation in a space to save money, to preserve the family unit and to do what is best for these parents, these children and the community.”?

Law enforcement personnel continued to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club on Monday after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump a day earlier. The FBI is leading the investigation and has said the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump” while he was golfing at his West Palm Beach, Florida, club. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Ryan Wesley Routh appeared in federal court Monday on two firearm charges after being apprehended by local law enforcement Sunday in what the FBI is investigating as a possible assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Authorities found a rifle in an area Routh was seen fleeing on Sunday, but acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh did not fire his weapon. Trump was unharmed, his campaign confirmed shortly after Sunday’s incident.?

The Secret Service agent who spotted someone holding a rifle near the treeline of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, fired toward the suspect. Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, was golfing at the time.

The incident is being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in two months. He sustained an injury to his ear during a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

The Trump campaign Monday blamed Democrats and the media for the shooting.

“Democrats and the Fake News must immediately cease their inflammatory, violent rhetoric against President Trump — which was mimicked by yesterday’s would-be assassin,” the campaign said in a statement.

Routh, 58, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe in West Palm Beach federal court and was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and for obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in prison.

Routh is being held in pretrial detention, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI special agent Mark Thomas.

The FBI is leading the investigation.

Separately, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state will conduct its own investigation into the possible assassination attempt to determine if Routh broke any state laws.

A detention hearing on the federal charges is set for Sept. 23, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Initial investigation

According to an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, at 1:31 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, a Secret Service agent walking the perimeter of the golf course spotted a rifle poking out of the tree line. The agent fired toward the rifle.

Rowe said at a Monday press conference that Routh did not have a line of vision at the former president and he did not fire his weapon.

“The agent who was visually sweeping the area … saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,” Rowe said. “The subject, who did not have line of sight to the former president, fled the scene. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agents.”

Routh fled in a Nissan SUV, according to the charging documents. A witness took photos of the license plate and local law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle in Martin County, which borders Palm Beach County.

West Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the witness was able to identify the driver as “the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.”

Routh was the sole person in the vehicle, according to the complaint.

According to the charging documents, agents found at the site Routh fled a digital camera, two bags, an SKS-style 7.62 x 39 rifle, which is the predecessor to the AK-47 assault rifle that law enforcement initially said they found Sunday, and a scope.

They also found a bag of food and noticed the rifle had the serial number obliterated “to the naked eye,” according to the filing documents.

The weapon also must have crossed state lines, Thomas noted.

“SKS-style 7.62 x 39 caliber rifles are not manufactured in the state of Florida,” Thomas wrote. “Therefore, I submit that there is probable cause to believe that the SKS-style rifle, which was seized from the tree line at Trump International… traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.”

The officers who stopped Routh on Interstate-95 noted that the license plate associated with the Nissan is registered to a 2012 white Ford truck that was reported stolen, according to the complaint.

Law enforcement found a July 10 Facebook post in which Routh directed his followers to contact him on WhatsApp and listed a contact number, according to the complaint.

Phone records associated with that number indicated that the phone “was located in the vicinity of the area along the tree line described from 1:59 a.m. Eastern to 1:31 p.m. Sunday,” according to the complaint.

Secret Service response

The incident follows the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the Secret Service was heavily criticized for its response.

Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned and Congress established a bipartisan task force to investigate the July shooting.

The leaders of that task force, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, have requested a briefing from the Secret Service on the security response to the shooting in West Palm Beach.

Members of Congress have been more complimentary of the Secret Service’s response to the Florida incident.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, commended the agency’s response during an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Monday.

“What I understand happened is that those agents that were with him yesterday saw that barrel of that gun between the bushes on a golf course. I mean, you know, that’s a difficult thing to spot. Thankfully, they did,” Johnson said. “But unlike in Butler, they did not pause. They immediately pulled their weapons and fired. I think that’s why this guy, the suspect, the shooter, threw the gun in the bushes and ran.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on the Senate floor Monday that senators are open to giving the Secret Service more funding in legislation this month needed to keep the government open past Sept. 30.

“If the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared to provide it for them,” he said. “Possibly in the upcoming funding agreement.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday they’d been briefed on the matter and condemned political violence.

Prior arrests, Ukraine activism

In 2002, Routh was convicted in Greensboro, North Carolina, for possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which is a felony in the state. He was arrested after fleeing law enforcement and barricading himself for three hours in a business, according to the Greensboro News & Record.

He was also arrested in North Carolina in 2010 for possession of stolen goods.

Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami field office, said during a Monday press conference that the FBI is conducting interviews with family and friends in Honolulu and Charlotte, North Carolina.

He added that in 2019 the FBI received a tip that Routh possessed a firearm, which was illegal because of his felony record. When FBI agents followed up, the tipster “did not verify providing the initial information,” Veltri said.

The agency referred the matter to Honolulu police, he said.

Routh was interviewed by The New York Times last year about his efforts to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Routh, who had spent time in Ukraine and does not have any U.S. military experience, said he had planned to illegally obtain documents to move those Afghan fighters from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine.

“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” Routh told the Times in the interview.

He wrote an ebook that he published on Amazon Kindle about his time in Ukraine, during which he became disillusioned about the country’s ability to win its war against Russia.

Kathleen Shaffer, who said Routh was her fiancé, set up a GoFundMe in 2022 to help Routh travel to Ukraine for 90 days to fight in the war.

The fundraiser has been deleted, but can be accessed through internet archives.

“Any and all funds will support purchase of additional flags, tactical gear, any supplies needed for incoming volunteers, and hostel lodging,” according to the fundraiser, which raised $1,865 out of its goal of $2,500.

States Newsroom called a number associated with Shaffer, but could not reach her.

Public records show Routh currently lives in Kaaawa on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

In 2018, Hawaii News Now interviewed Routh about torrential rains in Kaaawa. Routh talked in the interview about a recent home project he finished after buying his home a year prior.

EMW Women's Surgical Center before it closed. (Photo by Deborah Yetter)

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has scheduled a hearing Sept. 27 on whether to unseal a case that appears to involve efforts by the Kentucky attorney general’s office to subpoena employment records of two University of Louisville physicians who previously provided abortion services at a private clinic in Louisville.

Shepherd’s order Thursday comes a month after the Kentucky Court of Appeals rejected the attorney general’s efforts to obtain the employment records through a grand jury subpoena, calling it a “fishing expedition.”

Kentucky appeals court rejects AG’s efforts to get employment records in abortion case

While the appeals court identified the plaintiffs only by pseudonyms Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, and the employer as John Roe, the Kentucky Lantern, citing sources with knowledge of the case, reported Aug. 9 that the case involved two U of L physicians, and their part-time employer, EMW Women’s Surgical Center, where the physicians provided abortion care and trained medical residents.

Parties have not commented on the details of the case, which remains sealed.

Abortion services have been largely banned in Kentucky under state law since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision which had established abortion as a constitutional right. Kentucky law now permits abortion only to save the life of a patient or prevent disabling injury.

Shepherd’s order Thursday said secrecy prevented the press or public from getting involved in the proceedings because “they had no knowledge of the pendency of the case.”

“Members of the public or press who might have objected to the sealing of the record had no notice or opportunity to be heard … nor was any party who might have objected to the sealing of the record able to participate in the appeal,” he said.

Shepherd has directed that any party, including the press or public, who wants to intervene in the case or be heard over the matter of keeping the record sealed, file a motion with the court by Sept. 20.

“The Kentucky Supreme Court has held that the public and the press have a right to be heard in connection with any decision to close judicial proceedings,” his order said.

The dispute arose last year under former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, an anti-abortion Republican, who sought a subpoena for employment records of Jane Doe 1 and 2. The effort followed a call from some Republican legislators for an investigation into whether the public salaries of the doctors, on the faculty at U of L medical school, overlapped with any payments they received for their work at EMW.

But the clinic and the doctors went to Franklin Circuit Court to quash the subpoenas as improper, initially asking the case be sealed to protect their privacy. Cameron’s office also asked that it be sealed to protect the secrecy of the investigation.

The judge agreed to quash, or reject the subpoenas, but the attorney general appealed the decision and also asked the appeals court to order that the case remain sealed while an appeal was pending.

Shepherd’s order notes that the parties — Jane Does 1 & 2 and the employer — took no position on whether the records should remain sealed at that point.

Meanwhile, Cameron left office? at the end of 2023 and Republican Russell Coleman took over as attorney general in 2024, taking over the case.

On Aug. 9, the appeals court rejected the attorney general’s efforts to obtain the employment records of the two Jane Does with a subpoena, saying it was outside the scope of his office.

It also sent the case back to Shepherd to determine whether the case should now be unsealed, which he will take up at the hearing Sept. 27.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, addressing the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, proposes putting $3.6 million from settlement funds into youth prevention, Sept. 10, 2024. (Photo courtesy Office of the Attorney General)

Kentucky’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission voted in favor of spending $3.6 million over the next two years on a three-part addiction prevention campaign geared toward youth proposed by Attorney General Russell Coleman Tuesday.?

The funds that the commission is in charge of distributing, which come from legal settlements with drug companies, “represent the shared pain of families across this commonwealth,” Coleman said Tuesday.?

He asked the commission for permission to spend a slice of this “blood money” to reach young people across Kentucky between the ages of 13 and 26. No members voted against his request, and no one abstained. The money will be split into $1.8 million each year.

Coleman’s campaign, modeled after a Florida initiative, has three parts. The first is an ad campaign called Better Without It, to be featured on social media, on college campuses and more. Coleman pointed to the well-known “Click it or ticket” campaign as an example that “these types of education campaigns can work.”?

The ads, which will also be pushed by influencers, will be tailored to Kentucky, using photographers and creators who Coleman said can make the material “look and sound and feel and smell like the commonwealth.”?

The second arm of the campaign is to “weave together” Kentucky’s “patchwork” of school-based prevention programs so kids have access to more cohesive resources. Lastly, Coleman said, the campaign will “elevate and draw attention to the ongoing work of this commission.”?

Overdose deaths in Kentucky decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row, according to this year’s Drug Overdose Fatality Report. In 2022, 2,135 Kentuckians died from an overdose, marking the first decline since 2018. Ninety percent of those deaths were from opioids and fentanyl.?

In 2023, the number of fatal overdoses was down to 1,984. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of those — about 79% of the 2023 deaths. The 35-44 age group was most at risk, the report shows. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of 2023’s overdose deaths.?

From 2021 to 2023, around 460 Kentuckians under the age of 34 died from overdoses, according to that report.?

“We know young people are more likely to be influenced by their peers than (by) someone who looks like me,” Coleman said. “Honest and productive conversations about the dangers of substance abuse among students can be a force multiplier.”?

People in their teens and early 20s and those with a family history of addiction are most at risk for opioid use disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic.?

“I’m asking you to zealously collaborate with us so that we can reach young people where they are to prevent them from taking their first — and in this environment, too oftentimes their last — experimentation … with this poison,” Coleman told commission members.?

Coleman said “as little as one fentanyl pill can — and is — killing our neighbors. … We live at a time where there is no margin of error. It simply does not exist. There’s no such thing as safe, no such concept or notion of safe experimentation with narcotics.”

The commission was created by the state legislature in 2021 and has nine voting and two non-voting members.?

Kentucky receives installments toward $900 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. So far, it has awarded 110 grants worth more than $55 million toward treatment, prevention and recovery efforts.??

The commission next meets on Oct. 8.?

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, prevailed in Franklin Circuit Court on Monday. (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT —?Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued a ruling Monday afternoon that allows state Rep. Nima Kulkarni, a Louisville Democrat, to seek reelection in November after months of court battles that went to the state Supreme Court. However, the lawyer for a primary challenger has already filed another appeal.

In his order, Shepherd wrote that it was “not in the public interest for the Courts to intervene and dictate the result of this election” and that doing so “would effectively disenfranchise the voters of the District.”?

“In the circumstances of this case, the public interest requires denial of injunctive relief, which would thwart the will of the voters, as well as the will of the political party whose nomination is at issue,” Shepherd wrote.

Shepherd’s ruling is consistent with Secretary of State Michael Adams’ action in response to a state Supreme Court ruling that found that because of problems in her filing papers, Kulkarni was disqualified from the May primary election in the 40th House District. After that ruling, Adams declared a vacancy on the November ballot and invited political parties to submit nominees.?

Democrats in Louisville nominated Kulkarni. The Republicans did not nominate a candidate.

On Monday, Shepherd denied Democratic primary challenger William Zeitz’s request to be named as the qualifying candidate for the general election. Later in the day, Steven Megerle, the lawyer who sought to disqualify Kulkarni, said he submitted a request for an emergency review of? Shepherd’s order to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The appeals court recommended transferring the case to the Kentucky Supreme Court on Tuesday.??

Megerle called denying Zeitz’s request the “death penalty” to his candidacy and that Kulkarni could have continued to seek office in other ways.?

“She would have still been able to run as a write-in candidate had she been disqualified and the vacancy not declared by the secretary of state,” Megerle said.?

In an unofficial vote count, Kulkarni received 78% of ballots cast in the May primary election. Zeitz received the remaining 22%.

Megerle first represented former state Rep. Dennis Horlander, a Democrat defeated by Kulkarni in the 2018 and 2020 Democratic primaries for the 40th House District. Horlander’s initial case was a challenge to the validity of Kulkarni’s nomination papers, as one of the two signatories was not a registered Democrat, as required by state law, at the time of signing.?

In the Franklin Circuit case, Megerle represented Horlander and Zeitz — the latest legal conundrum regarding the eligibility of Kulkarni. The pair joined together in suing election officials to challenge Adams’? declaration of a nominating vacancy.?

James Craig, an attorney for Kulkarni said that the outcome shows that “elections matter.”?

“This district has chosen Rep. Kulkarni to be their agent in Frankfort, and their voices matter,” Craig said. “We’ll continue to defend them for as long as Mr. Horlander continues to try to set them aside.”?

The various parties in the latest lawsuit all appeared before Shepherd Monday morning. Megerle sought an emergency injunction that would order Adams to put Zeitz on the ballot by issuing a certificate of nomination. Meanwhile, Craig argued that the Supreme Court’s opinion on the matter of declaring a nominating vacancy was clear. He added that Kulkarni had been chosen twice to seek another term in office —?once by the unofficial votes cast in the primary and again when the local party nominated her for the general election.?

Michael Wilson, deputy general counsel for the secretary of state, told the court that Adams had acted in good faith based on direction from the Supreme Court’s opinion. Wilson added the office’s primary concern was printing ballots in a timely manner.?

The deadline to print ballots for the general election is Sept. 16. Monday is the deadline for the secretary of state to certify candidate names with local county clerks.?

The?secretary of state’s office plans to follow the ruling of the court.?

This story was updated Tuesday afternoon.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mathew Mueller)

The manufacturer of a so-called “risk-free” gaming machine is hitting the pause button in Kentucky after Attorney General Russell Coleman said the machines are illegal under a ban passed by lawmakers last year.?

Bob Heleringer, an attorney for Prominent Technologies, told the Lantern the company strongly disagrees with Coleman’s advisory but is directing businesses with the “risk free” machines to turn them off while a legal challenge to the ban continues.?

The slot-style gaming devices? — dubbed “gray machines” because of their murky legal status — were found in many bars and gas stations around the state; the legislature outlawed them in 2023 in a bill signed by Gov. Andy Beshear.?

Opponents argue the machines are illegal gambling, while proponents refer to the machines as “skill games.”?

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this year that manufacturer Prominent Technologies said their machines had been changed to become “no risk” games that comply with the ban. The machines tell the user whether their next game will win money or lose money, which the company argues removes the risk from using the machines.?

But Coleman in an advisory released Tuesday wrote such games are illegal because the user still will not know the outcome of future games beyond the next one. “Thus, the game lures the player into continuing to play on the chance that the next game play will result in a win worth more than he will have to pay for the current play,” Coleman wrote. “This hope that the subsequent game play will be a winner is the ‘element of chance’ that makes these so-called ‘Risk-Free Plays’ games illegal gambling devices. There is no safe harbor in Kentucky’s gambling laws for this kind of game.”?

Coleman in his advisory wrote that with a Franklin Circuit Court ruling upholding the “gray machines” ban, local prosecutors are “free to investigate and prosecute any violations of the Commonwealth’s gambling laws, including the laws related to ‘gray machines.’” That ruling is being appealed by plaintiffs including the company Pace-O-Matic, a competitor to Prominent Technologies.?

Heleringer, the lawyer for Prominent Technologies, said the company notified Coleman’s office in January that it was installing “risk free” games and attorneys for the company met with staff from Coleman’s office in August. He said that despite the two sides’ disagreement, the company would resolve matters in the “legal arena.”?

Heleringer derided Coleman’s use in the advisory of a court decision from 1918, in which Coleman compared the “risk free” game machines to slot-style machines that offered users “redeemable chips.”?

“No one is lured into anything,” Heleringer said. “If they make a conscious decision as an adult to play a game and that game tells them the next play is not a winning game, not a winning move, they can elect at that point to get their money back.”?

Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton, D-Shively, speaking during a legislative committee meeting, Jan. 18, 2024. (LRC Public Information)

LOUISVILLE —?Kentucky state Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless driving and driving under the influence in Jefferson County District Court Friday morning.?

The 62-year-old Democratic lawmaker from Shivley was arrested by local police early Tuesday. According to the arrest citation, she refused to take a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test after officers asked.?

An attorney representing Chester-Burton appeared in court Friday morning and entered the not guilty plea on her behalf. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for November.?

Chester-Burton was previously arrested for a DUI in 2020 after falling asleep in a drive-through line at a White Castle while she was mayor of Shivley. She later pled guilty, according to court records.?

She began her first term in the House in 2023. She represents the 44th House District, which includes a western part of Jefferson County.?

Chester-Burton won her Democratic primary earlier this year. No Republican challengers filed to run against her.?

House Democratic Caucus leaders Reps. Derrick Graham, Cherlynn Stevenson and Rachel Roberts released a statement Tuesday after Chester-Burton’s arrest: “While we do not yet have details, we are very concerned about the charges facing Rep. Chester-Burton. Without knowing more information, we are unable to comment further at this time.”?

Gov. Jim Justice stands with his family — daughter Jill, wife Cathy and son Jay — at his final State of the State address in Charleston, W.Va., on Jan. 10, 2024. (Office of the Gov. Jim Justice)

Federal attorneys asking a court to hold 23 of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family-owned coal companies in contempt for nonpayment of health and safety fines entered a filing this week saying the companies shouldn’t have entered into a payment plan if they knew they couldn’t honor it.

The filing, entered Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia and first reported by West Virginia MetroNews, comes in response to a memorandum filed last week by Justice family attorneys. In that filing, they contend that the companies in question are too broke to pay the nearly $600,000 they still owe to the government.

In Tuesday’s filing, the federal attorneys say this claim has been made with no evidence and, as such, should not be considered as a valid defense against putting the companies in contempt. Further, the companies should not have entered into a settlement agreement in 2020 if they knew they would not be able to pay what they owe on the set schedule.

“[The companies] willingly and knowingly entered into the payment plan and consent judgment in this case, representing to the government and the Court that it would comply with the payment plan in the consent judgment,” the filing reads. “However, they now claim that they faced financial difficulties at the time of the consent judgment that preclude them from being able to pay. If [the companies] knew they could not comply with the consent judgment at the time of execution, they should have said so.”

In 2023, according to the filing, representatives for the Justice companies told the government that they “had difficulty” making payments, but that the situation would be remedied by borrowing money from another business to catch up on payments. Federal representatives agreed at that time to adjust the payment plan.

“Yet once again, [the companies] failed to comply with the adjusted payment plan. [They] have not provided any explanation for their noncompliance,” the federal attorneys write. “Between August 2023 and?present, [the companies] did not communicate to the government an inability to pay on the modified schedule, nor did they seek alternative payment arrangements with the government.”

In a memorandum earlier this month asking the court to hold the companies in contempt, federal attorneys provided dozens of emails sent between Aug. 14, 2023 and July 9, 2024 reminding the companies of their debts and the past due amounts.

Responses from the companies’ attorneys were few, even as the companies fell months behind on their payments.

“Instead of notifying the government about their alleged inability to comply with the consent judgment, [the companies] have kept their proverbial heads in the sand,” the federal attorneys wrote in Tuesday’s filing. “Even when the government notified Defendants in July 2024 that the government would have no choice but to seek action with the Court unless payment in full was made, [they] offered no explanation or response.”

In last week’s memorandum from the Justice companies, attorneys argued that it would be improper to hold the companies in contempt since their financial struggles are not self-inflicted and have existed since they agreed upon the payment plan. They said the economic downturn in the coal industry is to blame for the financial challenges at the companies. The federal government, they continue, was aware of these challenges.

Since payments were being made — albeit sporadically — from 2020 on, the feds argued Tuesday that this defense shouldn’t stand.

Also in last week’s memorandum, Justice family attorneys requested discovery for the ongoing case. While alleging a dire financial situation at the companies, they did not provide any exhibits or evidence to back up this claim in their filing.

In Tuesday’s filing, federal attorneys say that the request for discovery is “unnecessary and a delay tactic.” The companies, they say, are responsible for proving they are unable to meet their financial obligations and evidence underscoring that claim can be presented at a hearing for the case if it exists.

The nearly $600,000 the federal government is seeking to collect comes from a decade’s worth of unpaid health and safety fines at Justice-owned coal mines. The debt, at one point, totaled about $5.13 million from hundreds of violations incurred since 2014.

The government initially filed suit against the Justices in 2019 to collect the money. In 2020, the Justice-owned companies and the government entered into an agreement where the family would make monthly payments to pay off the debt by March 2024. The debt, however, was not paid off.

Justice has maintained that he is not at all directly involved in his family’s business empire, leaving the companies in the leadership of his children despite refusing to enter most of his businesses into a blind trust.

He said earlier this month that, “if there’s a problem, it gets taken care of … We may be a few minutes late to the fire, but we always show up at the fire.”

Last week, however, Jay Justice — Jim Justice’s son and president of several of the family’s companies — failed to “show up at the fire.”

A federal judge in Alabama filed an order last Thursday finding Jay Justice and Bluestone Coke — of which he is president — in civil contempt.

The order, according to Inside Climate News, came after Jay Justice failed to attend a hearing — despite being ordered to do so by the federal court — for a lawsuit alleging the coking plant is responsible for polluting groundwater and rivers and violating the Clean Water Act.

“[Jay Justice and Bluestone Coke] have violated three separate court orders requiring them to produce responses and negotiate, in good faith, dates for depositions,” the order reads.

The story is republished from West Virginia Watch, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

A two-year federal investigation focused on access to treatment in Louisville for adults who have mental illness and whether their civil rights are being violated. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — The U.S. Department of Justice says it has “reasonable cause” to believe Kentucky is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in Jefferson County.?

This finding comes after a two-year federal investigation “focused on whether Kentucky subjects adults with serious mental illness to unnecessary segregation in psychiatric hospitals in Louisville.”?

In a 30-page report Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) found Kentucky doesn’t adequately treat Louisvillians with serious mental health issues in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination.?

Jefferson County, the report says, relies too heavily on psychiatric hospitalizations, police and detention that could be avoided with community-based mental health services, which it also does not adequately connect people with following hospitalization.?

Key points in the report include:?

• In 2022, 16% of people admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Louisville were also sent to jail.?
• In 2022, 1,100 people were admitted more than once to a psychiatric hospital.
• More than 500 had three or more such hospital admissions.?
• Thousands of others are admitted once.?

“Many” people in the county spend more than a month in such hospitals, according to the report, which calls the facilities “highly restrictive, segregated settings in which people must forego many of the basic freedoms of everyday life.”?

“Admission to these institutions can be traumatizing, and it can upend the lives of people who experience them. With the right community-based services, many of these hospitalizations could be prevented.”??

Louisville expanding an emergency mental health response service

“Because of the lack of community-based services, law enforcement officers are routine responders to mental health crises in Louisville,” the report states. “Many of these encounters could have been avoided with community-based services, and those community services could have provided an alternative to incarceration in Louisville Metro Detention Center.”?

In a Tuesday letter to Gov. Andy Beshear, the DOJ outlined “unnecessary segregation, and serious risk of segregation, in psychiatric hospitals” for people in Louisville with serious mental health issues. It also warned it could file a lawsuit to force Kentucky to comply with the ADA if it cannot reach a resolution.?

The Beshear administration “continues to prioritize Kentuckians’ mental health,” spokeswoman Crystal Staley said, pointing to Beshear’s emphasis on mental health Medicaid coverage and the utilization of 988.

“We are surprised by today’s report as the cabinet has not heard from the Department of Justice since last September,” Staley said. “There are sweeping and new conclusions that must be reviewed as well as omissions of actions that have been taken. We will be fully reviewing and evaluating each conclusion.”

“To?the Louisville area mental health providers, the administration recognizes your hard work and wishes today’s report had fully acknowledged all that you are doing,” Staley added.

Louisville ‘not unique’?

“People with serious mental illnesses in Louisville are caught in an unacceptable cycle of repeated psychiatric hospitalizations because they cannot access community-based care,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “We thank Kentucky for its full cooperation with our investigation, including readily providing access to staff, documents, and data.”?

“We also recognize that Kentucky has already begun taking important steps to expand access to a range of key services, including crisis response services; medication management supports; and housing and employment supports,” Clarke added. “Our goal is to work collaboratively with Kentucky so that it implements the right community-based mental health services and complies with the ADA.”?

Marcie Timmerman, president of Kentucky’s chapter of Mental Health of America, said one of the “largest barriers” to better access to community-based services emphasized in the report is funding.?

“Louisville is not unique in Kentucky in not providing all the available service arrays,” she told the Lantern.?

The legislature needs to put more money into mobile crisis units, Timmerman said, that could help people upstream — before they are experiencing mental health emergencies.?

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky said in a statement that the findings go “beyond the violations.”?

“These findings,” he said, “are also about recognizing the dignity and potential of every individual who has mental illness.”

RiverValley Behavioral Health Hospital is a nonprofit psychiatric hospital providing specialized inpatient services for children and adolescents ages 5-17 in Owensboro. (RiverValley Behavioral Health)

Eligible boys in the care of the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services or Juvenile Justice system who need “complex mental and behavioral health care” can now access inpatient treatment in Owensboro, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Tuesday.

Called The BIRCH, the 10-bed inpatient program operates out of RiverValley Behavioral Health’s adolescent psychiatric hospital. The program will admit males between the ages of 12-17 within DCBS or those “dually committed” in the Department for Juvenile Justice (DJJ).

It has already admitted its first patients following a Tuesday ribbon cutting, according to the cabinet.

Wanda Figueroa-Peralta, RiverValley’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the program is a “significant advancement in the care and support of our most vulnerable youth.”

“This program reflects our commitment to providing the highest level of care for those who need it most, ensuring every young person has the opportunity to heal, grow and thrive,” Figueroa-Peralta said.

The program is aimed at “youth with a history of challenging behaviors related to their mental health conditions,” according to the cabinet. Saff expect children to be in the program “longer than typical inpatient acute psychiatric hospitals.”

Admission decisions are made by the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (BHDID), Department of Juvenile Justice Mental Health Treatment Director, the Department for Medicaid Services, the Department for Community Based Services and RiverValley Behavioral Health, the cabinet said.

The BIRCH funding comes from a DCBS contract with the Department for Medicaid Services (DMS), according to the cabinet.

This announcement came days after West Kentucky Republican Sen. Danny Carroll criticized his fellow lawmakers for failing to fund a special mental health facility for youth in the juvenile justice system during the 2024 legislative session.

Carroll, R-Benton, filed Senate Bill 242 this year, which would have directed Kentucky to spend $22 million on a special mental health juvenile detention facility and create a process to test and treat minors with serious mental health issues within DJJ. The bill passed the Senate and died in the House.

In a response to The BIRCH opening, Carroll said “any increase in the number of beds to serve troubled youth is a step in the right direction.”

“This progress follows intense and very productive conversations involving all stakeholders during the last session,” Carroll said in a statement sent to the Lantern. “My hope is that the legislature will finalize the mental health proposal for troubled youth proposed in (Senate Bill 242) in the future.”

A cabinet spokesman said youth from anywhere in the state, not just near Owensboro, can access The BIRCH.

“Today we are providing a little hope because now there is help,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “This program is helping us meet the needs of those who could not be served in our existing programs. This special space will assist the youth who need and deserve a higher level of care.”

Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton is the former mayor of Shively and a state lawmakers since 2023. (LRC Public Information)

Kentucky state Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton was arrested for driving under the influence in Jefferson County early Tuesday morning.?

Chester-Burton, a 62-year-old Democratic lawmaker from Shivley, was arrested around 1 a.m. on Garrs Lane in Shivley, a spokesperson for the Shively Police Department told the Kentucky Lantern. She was charged with reckless driving and a second offense of driving under the influence.?

According to Louisville Metro Corrections records, the representative was booked around 2:30 a.m.?

Chester-Burton began her first term in the House in 2023. While she was mayor of Shivley, she was arrested for DUI in 2020 after falling asleep in a drive-through line at a White Castle.

House Democratic Caucus leaders Reps. Derrick Graham, Cherlynn Stevenson and Rachel Roberts released a statement Tuesday afternoon: “While we do not yet have details, we are very concerned about the charges facing Rep. Chester-Burton. Without knowing more information, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

According to the arrest citation, police officers were responding to a domestic violence call when Chester-Burton drove her vehicle into oncoming lanes of traffic and “sat there for a minute forcing an oncoming vehicle to pass around her in the opposite oncoming lane.” Chester-Burton then pulled into the correct lane, but stopped her vehicle in the middle of the road and put it into park.?

When officers approached Chester-Burton, they “could smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” from her and her speech was fast and slurred, the report said. Chester-Burton told officers she was coming from Frankfort and “people were calling her and asking what was going on in Shively.”?

One of the officers asked Chester-Burton how much she had to drink, but she “would never directly answer the question” and kept referring to the calls she was getting, the report said. She attempted to get back in her vehicle a few times, but officers stopped her “in fear of getting behind the wheel intoxicated.” She asked to “call the chief,” the report continued, and added she attempted to get into her backseat but almost fell.?

Chester-Burton declined to do a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test, the report said. Chester-Burton was asked again to do a field sobriety test “numerous times” and she “stated that she would not and she would beat it like she did the last one.”?

After arrest, Chester-Burton again asked to call the chief “but she was denied and placed under arrest,” the report said.?

“The subject on spontaneous utterance to the officer transporting her to jail stated that ‘these guys act like they haven’t ever been to a birthday party,’” the report said.?

Chester-Burton will be arraigned in Jefferson District Court Friday morning.

This story was updated Wednesday morning to reflect an updated court docket.?

Hazard, the Perry County seat, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony)

The Eastern Kentucky city of Hazard is facing another legal obstacle in its effort to begin collecting a restaurant tax.

Attorney General Russell Coleman is appealing a Franklin Circuit Court order that said Hazard was eligible to? pursue the tax. He called it “an unlawful tax” for the city of about 5,200.

The restaurant tax, created by the state legislature in 1980, is levied in about 50 of Kentucky’s 418 cities on retail sales of food and beverages in all restaurants in the city. The tax rate is not to exceed 3% and revenue from it is to be used to promote tourism.

Hazard sued the state, claiming it was being discriminated against by not qualifying to enact the tax. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd last May ruled in favor of Hazard, opening the door for it and other communities to join the list of those imposing the tax. He ordered the Governor’s Office of Local Government to include on the list of cities eligible to impose the restaurant tax “all similarly situated cities” under the population of 8,000 like Hazard.??

At the request of Hazard, Shepherd amended his order on Aug. 15 to say it applies only to the city of Hazard “and has no broader application (to other cities) because this suit is not a class action suit.”??

The judge also deleted his previous requirement that the Governor’s Office of Local Government must include a list of other cities eligible to impose the restaurant tax.

Ed Jones, a Paducah attorney who is representing Hazard, said the city sought the amended order. “Ours was not a class action suit. We thought it should only apply to Hazard and the judge agreed with us. We talked to some cities about joining us earlier but they decided not.”

Other cities interested in imposing the restaurant tax now must start their own legal challenge if they want to pursue it, he said.

Morgain Patterson, director of municipal law for the Kentucky League of Cities, agreed.

She said the judge’s order last spring purported “to expand the number of cities that can assess the restaurant tax on a prospective basis, but the language of the ruling is unclear as to which cities that may include, except that it specifies the city of Hazard is eligible.”

“Now the judge has dropped from his initial order any other city besides Hazard from seeking eligibility for the tax,” she said late last week.

She said the judge’s initial and amended orders “preserved the right of cities that currently assess a restaurant tax to continue to do so.”

Shepherd’s amended order on Aug. 15 was good news for Hazard until Attorney General Coleman a few days later decided to appeal Shepherd’s ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

“We were ready to go with the tax but the attorney general’s appeal has stopped it for now. We hope this is only temporary and we can proceed with the tax,” said Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini. “I really don’t understand the reason for the appeal.”

Coleman said in a statement, “The Attorney General’s office will continue to defend the statute and oppose attempts to impose an unlawful tax.”

In his appeal filed Aug. 19, Coleman said allowing Hazard to implement a restaurant tax now is “a recipe for confusion given that this court (the Court of Appeals) might reverse the circuit court’s judgment.”

He said the appellate court should stay — or put on hold —? the circuit court’s judgment while the state’s appeal is continuing.?

Neither Gov. Andy Beshear or the state Department for Local Government were parties in the lawsuit.? Both were dismissed by an agreement to follow any court order entered in the case, said department spokesman Logan Fogle.?

?In his ruling last spring, Shepherd took issue with parts of a state law — KRS 91A.400 — that say which cities may impose the tax.

Before 2015, Kentucky’s cities were divided into six classes based on their population at the time of classification. There were more than 400 classification-related laws on the books that affected issues like public safety, alcoholic beverage control and revenue options.

After Jan. 1, 2015, that classification of cities was changed, making Louisville and Lexington 1st-class cities and others home rule class.

The amended restaurant tax law allowed the state Department of. Local Government to maintain a list of “authorized cities” that as of Jan. 1, 2014, were classified as cities of the 4th- or 5th-class.

The law said in addition to a 3% transient room tax placed on lodging, the legislative body in an authorized city could levy a tax on tourism.

Shepherd said the restaurant tax law makes an unconstitutionally arbitrary distinction of cities eligible to enact the restaurant tax based on population and classification status on an arbitrarily chosen date, Jan. 1, 2014.

The judge added that the law “fails to provide a pathway to correct the misclassification of cities like Hazard, whose population has always met the statutory criteria for belonging in the 4th class (with the authority to enact the restaurant tax) rather than the 3rd class.”

But Shepherd declined to hold all of the law unconstitutional, especially in light of the financial reliance some cities have on the tax.

He noted that many tourism projects have been funded by cities authorized to levy the restaurant tax and that many bonds are financed using proceeds generated by the tax.

The pool at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jamie Lucke)

Former University of Kentucky swimming coach Lars Jorgensen has formally denied allegations of sexual abuse contained in a lawsuit brought by two former UK swimmers and assistant coaches.

Nineteen weeks after a lawsuit was filed in federal court accusing Jorgensen of repeated rapes of Bridgette Alexander, a female swimmer who has since transitioned as Briggs Alexander, and of sexually abusing a second plaintiff known as Jane Doe, Jorgensen denied all of their allegations and asked U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell to dismiss the case in a Friday afternoon court filing.

“The conduct of this defendant was not the proximate cause or a substantial factor in causing any of the injuries or damage, if any occurred, alleged by the plaintiff,” Jorgensen’s response said.

The 20-page response from Lexington attorney Anthony Pernice did not provide an alternative version of the events described by Alexander and Jane Doe in their lawsuit. Previously, another attorney representing Jorgensen had characterized the relationships as consensual, a claim vigorously disputed by the plaintiffs.?

The University of Kentucky, UK Athletics Ddirector Mitch Barnhart and former UK swimming coach Gary Conelly are also defendants in the case, accused of negligence in their response to complaints about Jorgensen’s conduct that date to his 2012 hiring as Conelly’s assistant and heir apparent.?

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Megan Bonanni, said Jorgensen’s response “does not confront the fundamental concerns raised in our April lawsuit. This maneuver seems designed to evade responsibility rather than address the serious allegations. Our commitment to securing justice for the courageous individuals who have bravely shared their experiences of abuse and a toxic environment at the University of Kentucky remains resolute.”?

The university has sought to eliminate four of the six counts in which it is a named defendant, claiming sovereign immunity as a state institution and arguing it cannot be held liable for Jorgensen’s alleged conduct because it was not within the scope of his employment.??

Jorgensen’s response was initially due on July 26, but that deadline passed without a filing or an application for an extension.

On Aug. 9, the Liberty Mutual insurance company sought a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend or indemnify Jorgensen against the lawsuit. Jorgensen’s homeowners policies contained a personal liability limit of $500,000 per “occurrence,” a term the company defines as an “accident.” According to the company’s filing, Jorgensen’s policies included an exclusion for “expected or intended injury” and do not cover “an insured’s intentional or criminal acts.”

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, called on the Kentucky legislature to put more funding into improving treatment and conditions for Kentucky kids being held in detention. (LRC photo)

Sen. Danny Carroll slammed the Kentucky legislature on Friday for not funding his proposal to spend $22 million on a special mental health juvenile detention facility.?

The West Kentucky Republican filed Senate Bill 242 during the 2024 session, which would have also created a process to test and treat minors with serious mental health issues in the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The bill passed the Senate and died in the House.?

“By that bill dying in the house, we have left DJJ hanging,” Carroll said during a meeting of the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council. “We have directed them to do certain things, and we didn’t give them the money to do it.”??

Kentucky Republican pitches $165 million to improve care, safety of juveniles in state detention

He called the bill’s death “one of the most disappointing times in my entire career in this legislature.”

“We as a legislature, we have pointed fingers at DJJ. We have pointed fingers at the governor. And now, we have some culpability in this problem because we had the opportunity to finish this out. We had the opportunity to establish a mental health detention center to treat the most severe kids that are detained and we didn’t do it. We let the bill die. We have a crisis in this commonwealth that everybody agreed was a crisis, until it came time to pay for it, and then all of a sudden, it wasn’t a crisis.”??

All eight of Kentucky’s youth detention centers are under federal investigation for possible abuses. Meanwhile, advocates worry about a new state law requiring more kids charged with violent offenses to be held in Kentucky’s troubled juvenile jails.??

Another new state law, passed in 2024, allows more minors to be tried as adults, which could also increase the number of juveniles in detention.?

“With (the Department of Justice) being in town, we’re going to probably … end up under another consent decree in the commonwealth,” Carroll said. “And my colleagues in the legislature, it’s on us.”?

Carroll’s bill allocated $90 million for building two all-female regional detention facilities as well. Female juvenile inmates are currently being transferred to Boyd County.?

“Maybe this next session, we finalize how the regional centers are going to be set up, and then we also need to, once again, approach the mental health detention center that we had planned,” he said.?

Kentucky recently finished the fiscal year with a $2 billion General Fund surplus plumping up the Budget Reserve Trust Fund to $5 billion. Both statutory triggers were met for reducing the state income tax rate by another half percentage point in 2025 to 3.5%, which would be the third income tax reduction since 2022. Reducing the income tax is a top priority for the Republicans who control the legislature.

Republican lawmakers in recent years have repeatedly blamed Gov. Andy Beshear for violence and understaffing in juvenile detention facilities and criticized the administration for mismanagement. Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg,in May said the federal investigation into DJJ should be a “crucial wake-up call for the Beshear administration.”

Beshear criticized the legislature for not funding Carroll’s mental health facility, among other things.?

In January, a report from Republican Auditor Allison Ball found “??disorganization across facilities” and a “lack of leadership from the Beshear Administration” within DJJ. She also criticized the Beshear administration for “the unacceptably poor treatment of Kentucky youth.”

Carroll called for more unity in approaching solutions to the crises within DJJ.?

“There’s been a lot of finger pointing back and forth with this and folks, it’s time for that to stop. We’ve got kids with mental health issues that are sitting in jail cells today and will be there a longer period of time because this legislature failed to act, and that’s unacceptable,” he said. “We cannot point fingers. We cannot start blaming and then just let it die during the session. We’re no better than who we’re pointing fingers at if we do that. And that’s what happened last session.”?

“I’m going to catch heck for this, but at this point, I really don’t care,” Carroll added. “We have let our kids down, no question about it, and we’ve got to fix this, and we’ve got to fix it soon.”?

Staffing issues improving?

During the same meeting Friday, DJJ staff said the staffing issues that have plagued the department are on the mend. Still, there remain 100 funded but vacant positions, according to Myrissa Ritter, a human resource branch manager in the Justice and Public Safety Office.?

From July 2023 to July 2024, DJJ detention staff increased from 344 to 448, Ritter told lawmakers. Security staff increased 274 to 329, making for the “most significant growth,” she said.?

Mental health employees such as social workers, clinicians and psychologists increased from 217 to 241 over the past year as well. Youth workers and administrative staff numbers also improved, from 581 to 615 in the same time frame.?

Ritter credited Senate Bill 162, a law passed by the legislature in 2023 that allocated millions toward improving salaries for DJJ employees. With that money, Ritter said, DJJ can now start correctional employees out at $50,000 a year instead of the previous $30,000.?

“While we have made significant progress in staffing,” she said, “we will continue to seek ways to ensure that the department remains adequately staffed.”?

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, who co-chairs the council, asked about the current conditions of facilities. DJJ Commissioner Randy White, who serves on the council, said that “by and large, the infrastructures are okay right now.”?

One facility has a stuck thermostat that’s being repaired, he said, and there are “some drain lines” in need of repair.?

“We are prepared for heat, but one never knows,” he said, “because repair needs evolve.”?

Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, will propose expanding protective orders to also cover coercive control. (LRC Public Information)

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.?

You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.?

A Northern Kentucky Republican intends to file a bill that would add coercive control to Kentucky’s protective order legislation.?

Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, presented a draft of her bill to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Friday in Frankfort.?

“We’re all aware of the devastating effects of domestic violence on individuals, families and communities,” she said. “There is a significant gap in our current laws that we can address, and that is coercive control.”

Currently, someone in Kentucky can get a protective order if they’ve experienced physical violence or face immediate threat of physical violence. But some survivors face a more nuanced abuse, Dietz explained.?

“It involves a pattern of behavior aimed at undermining a victim’s autonomy and freedom,” she said of coercive control. “This can include manipulation, isolation, financial control and threats, none of which necessarily involve physical violence, but are equally devastating.”?

Coercive control is “consistent” and “repetitive” behavior in which one person exerts control over another through isolation, threats, surveillance, loss of financial freedom and medical access and more, explained Christy Burch, the CEO of the ION Center for violence prevention in Northern Kentucky.?

The ION Center provides free services, including emergency shelter, pet boarding and court advocacy to survivors of intimate partner violence in a 13-county area.?

Through “complete domination,” Burch explained, people in these situations can experience “a loss of total self.”?

Such control doesn’t always include physical violence, Burch said, though it can. People in these situations might lose access to money, not be allowed to drive or seek medical care and more, she said. They might be encouraged to quit their job, not hang out with their friends or be threatened with separation from their children.?

“Coercive control is utter control,” she told lawmakers. “We worked with (a) survivor who had three children. The kids were never allowed to play outside. Mom was not allowed to potty train kids. The abuser withheld soap, hygiene products, hygiene time, controlled food, controlled whether the children were allowed to school.”??

Allowing victims of coercive control to get protective orders, Burch said, would put Kentucky in line with eight other states that have coercive control language in their statutes. Another eight states, including Illinois, have similar language.?

In this file photo former Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is shown at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Kentucky’s Executive Branch Ethics Commission is seeking to reverse a judge’s ruling that cleared former Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes of ethics violation charges.

The commission’s request to the Kentucky Court of Appeals is expected to complicate for the time being any decisions that Grimes may have about returning to politics.?

Speculation about that intensified this week with Grimes’ attendance at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She has been mentioned as a possible candidate in 2026 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell, who defeated her in 2014 to win reelection.

Grimes posted photos of herself on Facebook and ?X (formerly Twitter) at the convention with the message “Let’s Go!” to show her support for Kamala Harris as president and Tim Walz as vice president.

The convention has featured keynote speeches by former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, who lost to Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race. The Clintons are close friends to Grimes’ father, former state Democratic Party chair and caterer Jerry Lundergan of Lexington. He was convicted of election finance violations in 2020 stemming from his daughter’s campaign against McConnell and sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.

Repeated calls Wednesday and Thursday to Grimes seeking comment about the appeal and her appearance at the Democratic convention were not returned.

It was not clear who gave Grimes credentials to attend the convention but a Kentucky Democratic political operative said she was not a party delegate or alternate. Party spokesman Jonathan Levin said the party was not releasing the names of any delegate or alternate for security and privacy reasons. Andy Westberry, spokesman for the Kentucky Republican Party, said his party gave a list of names of delegates to its national convention last month in Milwaukee to reporters for planning purposes only and on an embargoed basis.

Would voters care?

Grimes, who was secretary of state from 2012 to 2020, may have success in politics again regardless of the resolution of the appeal to reinstate the ethics charges, said Stephen Voss, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky.

“We’ve seen voters forgive candidates for legal troubles for years. Consider Donald Trump,” said Voss.?

The political scientist said voters tend to ignore the charges against the candidates unless they are personally affected by the charges. “How personally relevant to them is the legal problem?” he asked.

“Of course, it’s more advantageous to have a clean, legal slate and you always know your opponents are going to use everything they can to get you.”

Dewey Clayton, political science professor at the University of Louisville, said it’s “very possible” that Grimes can make a political comeback.?

“She has held public office. She comes from a political family with high name recognition,” he said.? “It’s never good to run for any public office under a cloud of suspicion and that cloud is still there to a degree for her with the appeal, which I was not aware of.”

The biggest obstacle for Grimes to run for any national office, said Clayton, is that she is a Democrat in “a very red” state.?

“But I think she can have a political future if she wants it, though there are some variables like the appeal that still need to be played out.”

Grimes’ attorney, J. Guthrie True of Frankfort, said, “We obviously would have preferred no appeal but we are confident in the circuit court ruling that was a complete vindication for her.”

Background on ethics allegations

The five-member Executive Branch Ethics Commission unanimously filed its appeal to the Court of Appeals on June 15, questioning several parts of the circuit court’s order.?

In April, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd cleared Grimes of the commission’s charges that she improperly ordered the downloading and distribution of voter registration data from her public office while she was Kentucky’s secretary of state.?

The commission had been investigating Grimes for several years. As secretary of state, Grimes was the state’s chief elections officer. In her position, she had access to data from the state Voter Registration System in the State Board of Elections.

Shepherd, in his 33-page order, agreed with Grimes’ arguments that the commission’s charges were barred by the five-year statute of limitations and that the record did not support a finding of any violations of the state executive branch’s code of ethics.

The commission had charged that Grimes violated the ethics code by sharing voter information without requiring an Open Records request or other “established process of government.”

Grimes submitted that all the voter data at issue was information in the public domain, that she had full legal authority and discretion as secretary of state to access and share such information. She claimed no statute or regulation was violated by the sharing of such public information.?

Shepherd faulted the Ethics Commission for not conducting an evidentiary hearing in the case to hear testimony from witnesses.

Because the commission acted against Grimes without a hearing, “the evidence in the record relied upon by Grimes is not disputed,” the judge’s order said.

He also said the complaint against Grimes was filed outside the applicable statute of limitations.?

He noted that the attorney general’s office and the Ethics Commission had been investigating for more than eight years allegations of misconduct by Grimes.

“After exhaustive investigation by both the attorney general and the Ethics Commission, there was no allegation concerning any substantive violation of any statute or regulation regarding the integrity of the voting roll,” the court order said.?

“There was no allegation of tampering with the voting rolls, no allegation of improper registration or voting, no allegation of any irregularity in any vote count or tabulation, no allegation of altering any identification of any voter, no allegation of any action that could impact the outcome of any election during Secretary Grimes’ tenure as chief state election officer.”

The order added that the attorney general’s office never brought any criminal charges against Grimes and that the matter was referred to the Ethics Commission.?

Beshear says he’s focused on Kentucky; others say his time in the national spotlight isn’t over

The only allegations pursued by the Ethics Commission were that Grimes allegedly acted unethically in accessing public information in the voter registration system by downloading voter information onto a thumb drive when she was a candidate for reelection.

The commission also looked at whether Grimes improperly shared information on new voter registrations for certain House districts in response to a request made informally through the office of the state House speaker without requiring a formal open records request or charging a fee.?

The judge noted that the commission’s final order did not dispute that Grimes would have lawful access to the voter data but that the crux of its complaint against Grimes was that she “downloaded the lists for a private purpose, without paying the mandatory fees or submitting sworn forms required by law.”

The court order said the commission failed to expressly allege what “private purpose” was served by placing voter data on a flash drive.

“What that ‘private purpose’ could have been is entirely unclear to the court,” the order said. “It further remains unclear what ‘established process of government’ was violated by Grimes’ act of downloading VRS data onto a flash drive.?

“This lack of detail relating to what ‘established government process’ was violated and how using a flash drive constitutes a violation” casts doubt that the commission was proving its allegation by clear and convincing evidence, Shepherd’s order said.??

The commission had said in November 2021 that Grimes must pay $10,000 in fines for two ethical violations pertaining to handling of voter data.

Susan Clary, executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, said the panel particularly is concerned about the statute of limitations in its daily work.

She said the commission is independent and that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear had no input on the panel’s decision to appeal the Grimes case.?

“The governor is covered by the ethics code so he must let it act independently,” she said. “No way can he be involved with its decisions.”

The Beshears and Lundergans have been involved in a decades-long political family rivalry that stems from state legislative races in the 1970s between the governor’s father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, and Jerry Lundergan. Both Steve and Andy Beshear, however, supported Grimes in her 2014 race against McConnell.?

Steve Beshear lost to McConnell in 1996. His son has been mentioned as a possible candidate in 2026 for McConnell’s U.S. Senate seat but the younger Beshear has said he wants to serve out the remainder of his term as governor, which ends in 2027. As Harris considered Beshear as a possible running mate, the governor said, “I love my job. I love serving the people of Kentucky. The only way I would consider something other than this current job is if I believed I could further help my people and to help this country.”?

McConnell, who will be 84 in 2026, has not yet said whether he will again seek reelection.

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, prevailed in Franklin Circuit Court on Monday. (LRC Public Information)

Republican Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams has opened a path for Democratic state Rep. Nima Kulkarni to appear on the November ballot, although further legal challenges could arise.

Adams declared a vacancy in the nomination process for Louisville’s 40th House District on the heels of legal challenges against Kulkarni’s candidacy. However, attorneys on both sides disagree on if Kulkarni is eligible to be nominated.?

In a statement issued after the Kentucky Supreme Court finalized its disqualification of Kulkarni Thursday morning, Adams said he interpreted the new opinion to mean that no primary election had occurred since Kulkarni’s candidacy was challenged before votes were cast. Therefore, “the true and legitimate will of the people has not yet been expressed,” Adams said, citing the Supreme Court’s opinion.?

“I take this as a directive to me to certify that a vacancy exists in the nomination for state representative in the 40th District,” Adams said. “I intend to permit the Democratic and Republican Parties to nominate candidates for this office, and give the people a choice.”

The Kentucky Supreme Court in June issued a one-page preliminary order disqualifying Kulkarni as a candidate in the primary election because of problems in her filing papers. On Thursday, the court issued a final 5-1-1 ruling and addressed questions around the nomination process.?

The lawsuit against Kulkarni, filed by former Democratic state Rep. Dennis Horlander, whom Kulkarni unseated in 20018, challenged the validity of her candidacy papers.

Kulkarni’s attorney, James Craig, said they appreciated Adams’ “swift work, which the voters of District 40 deserved.”?

“Notwithstanding today’s Supreme Court decision, Rep. Kulkarni remains eligible to seek her party’s nomination after the declaration of a vacancy, and she intends to seek the nomination,” Craig added.?

Kulkarni won the unofficial primary vote in the district by 78% over challenger William Zeitz. No Republican candidates filed for the election. Kulkarni defeated Horlander in the 2018 and 2020 Democratic primaries in the 40th House District. Kulkarni is seeking a fourth term in office.?

However, Horlander’s attorney, Steven Megerle, told the Kentucky Lantern that Kulknari cannot be nominated by Democrats in this election. He cited a recent state law that bars disqualified primary candidates from running for the same office.?

“The Jefferson circuit court judge should issue a final order with directions on next steps to all of the parties on how this should proceed,” Megerle said. “And we will await his direction, but it is absolutely clear that Ms. Kulkarni has been disqualified, and under the new statute, she cannot be a nominee in the general election.”

In contrast, Craig pointed to a previous brief from Megerle in the lawsuit that said disqualifying “a first-place finisher after the election does not entitle the second-place finisher to ascend to a nomination he was unable to obtain through the ballot box.”?

As for Horlander, Megerle said that he believes Zeitz is the qualifying candidate for office and should be certified as such.

“If the courts and the secretary of state think otherwise, Mr. Horlander will consider the options that may in the future open up,” Megerle said.

Justices weigh in

Horlander filed the lawsuit to challenge the signatures on Kulkarni’s candidacy papers. State law says the documents must be signed by two witnesses who are Democratic voters in the 40th District. At the time of signing, one witness was a registered Republican and changed her registration after the filing deadline. Kulkarni previously testified she thought the voter was a registered Democrat and only later became aware of the issue.?

State law places the burden on candidates to ensure the accuracy of their election filing papers, the court wrote in its majority opinion, written by Justice Shea Nickell.

“It is not unreasonable or unduly harsh to demand strict compliance with clearly enacted legislative mandates for ballot access,” the opinion said. Assuring one’s required election filings are compliant is among the first duties of anyone intent upon seeking public office.”

Justice Kelly Thompson issued an opinion dissenting in part. He wrote that while he agreed with the court’s interpretation that the Court of Appeals could determine if Kulkarni was a bona fide candidate, he disagreed “with its ultimate resolution of that issue.”?

Thompson said he was persuaded by arguments from Justice Angela McCormick Bisig that an 1990 update to state law regarding the candidate nomination process created “sufficient ambiguity that they should be interpreted as intending” to amend previous state law. Thompson called the “hypertechnical requirements” of the law “a trap for unwary candidates who file for office” and suggested the Kentucky secretary of state and General Assembly address the issues.?

Bisig wrote in a dissenting opinion that the court should uphold the ruling of Jefferson County Circuit Court that would have allowed Kulkarni to remain on the ballot. She wrote about different interpretations of the 1990 changes.?

“Given the two possible interpretations of the amendment to the filing requirements statute, I would recognize the long-standing principle that uncertainty or doubt in statutory language ‘should be resolved in favor of allowing the candidacy to continue,’” Bisig said, citing a 2003 case. “The idea of liberal construction of election statutes that favors the goal of broad voter participation is deeply embedded in Kentucky law.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional comments.?

Read the Supreme Court ruling

As Attorney General Dan Cameron sought to get the employment records of two University of Louisville physicians who performed abortions at the EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Deborah Yetter)

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Court of Appeals has rejected efforts by the office of the state Attorney General to use a Franklin County grand jury subpoena to get employment records in a case that appears to involve two University of Louisville physicians who performed abortions at EMW Women’s Surgical Center and trained residents at the clinic.

Because the case is sealed, the appeals court decision does not identify the parties by name, using pseudonyms Jane Doe 1 and 2 and the employer, Roe, as those seeking to quash the subpoena.

But the details closely track a dispute that arose in 2022 when Republican lawmakers sought an investigation of whether the public salaries of physicians at U of L overlapped with their work at EMW, which paid them separately.

Sources with knowledge of the case told The Lantern the appeals decision involved the attorney general’s efforts to obtain the physicians’ employment records including personnel files, job descriptions and payroll records from EMW.

The appeals court, in an order issued Friday, rejected those efforts as a “fishing expedition” and said further, that the subpoena filed by former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, is outside the scope of the Franklin County grand jury because the information and records the attorney general sought are from another county.

The matter should be left to prosecutors in the county where the records and activities occurred, the order said.

“While we do not wish to overuse the hackneyed phrase of a ‘fishing expedition,’ we reiterate that the (attorney general) was fishing in the wrong pond,” the order said.

The appeals court upheld the decision of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to quash the subpoena but ordered the case to remain sealed pending his further review.

Since leaving office at the beginning of this year Cameron has been working as chief executive of 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit that says it aims to “steer public companies back to neutral on divisive, idealogical issues.” He did not respond to requests for comment about the case that Kentucky Lantern sent to that organization on Friday and in a phone message.

Kevin Grout, the spokesman for Attorney General Russell Coleman, who is now handling the case, said “We have received the opinion. We are reviewing it to decide next steps.” Grout declined to respond to questions seeking details about the case.

William Brammell Jr., identified in the opinion as an attorney representing Jane Doe 1, said, “We appreciate and agree with the court’s thoughtful opinion.”

But because the case remains under seal, Brammell said he could make no further comment. Other lawyers representing parties in the case did not respond to requests for comment.

Abortions largely ended in Kentucky after the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark, 1973 Roe v. Wade decision returned control to the states. Kentucky already had laws on the books banning all or most abortions except in life-threatening circumstances.

GOP lawmakers called for investigation

But some Republican lawmakers had questioned the role of U of L physicians at EMW, citing U of L’s public funding, and called for an investigation.

“If university funds are used for abortion,” said Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville at a legislative hearing in 2022, “the taxpayers ought to know, and the legislature should take that into account when we’re talking about funding the university and other things.”

Nemes and other lawmakers said further investigation was warranted.

Cameron filed a grand jury subpoena in June 2023 seeking payroll and personnel information of the two Jane Does, the appeals opinion said. At the time, Cameron, a Republican, was running for governor against incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who won a second term.

Through the subpoena, the attorney general “sought to compare the employees’ records for evidence that unspecified and indirect state funds may have been related to some malfeasance connected with their work,” the opinion said.

In July 2023, the Jane Does and Roe asked the Franklin circuit judge to quash the subpoena and in September, the judge did so, the appeals opinion said

But the judge also unsealed a portion of the record, it said.

The attorney general appealed the decision and asked that the case remain sealed, which the appeals court agreed to do, it said.

Friday’s 23-page opinion is the first public record in the case filed more than a year ago, and said it tries to strike a balance between “the necessary secrecy of grand jury proceedings and the right of the public to know what its government is doing.

“We conclude that the public issuance of this opinion with appropriate pseudonyms for most participants will achieve the proper balance,” it said.

But in its description of the case, the appeals court leaves clues that indicate the conflict pits the Attorney General’s Office against EMW and its doctors. For instance, it states that the doctors have two employers, and the second employer gets a small percentage of its funding from the state.

U of L gets some, though not the majority, of its funding from the state. EMW, a private clinic, received no public funds.

The attorney general had argued it should have access to the information it sought through subpoena because state funds may be involved.

The appeals court rejected that argument, saying of the Jane Does, “They are employees, and their employers, not the Commonwealth, are responsible for their paychecks.”

The Appeals court order is written by Judge Kelly Mark Easton with Judges Glenn Acree and Pamela R. Goodwine concurring in the decision.

It vacates the order by Shepherd, the trial judge, to unseal some of the records in the case and sends the case back to him “for further proceedings on the sealing of the record.”

“All of this court’s record, except for this opinion, will remain sealed recognizing the authority of the circuit court to first decide what, if any, further information should be made public,” the order said.

Abortion ban factors into governor’s race

EMW was one of two Louisville clinics that provided abortions in Kentucky until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and a pair of laws passed by the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly took effect, banning almost all abortions in Kentucky.

The two laws, one the “trigger law” banning abortion and the other, banning abortions after six weeks — before many women realize they are pregnant — took effect after the high court ruling.

They permit abortions only to save the life of or prevent disabling injury to a patient, with no exceptions for rape or incest — which became a heated issue in Cameron’s unsuccessful run last year for governor against Beshear.

Cameron, an anti-abortion Republican who defended the laws in court, was criticized in a Beshear campaign ad by a young woman who had been raped and impregnated at age 12 by her stepfather and said laws Cameron defended would have forced her to bear the child.

Hadley Duvall, an Owensboro native who is now in her early 20s, told?the Kentucky Lantern last year that she began sharing her story about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

She recently went national with her story through a campaign ad supporting President Joe Biden on the same issue. Biden dropped his bid for re-election July 21 and his vice-president and abortion rights advocate Kamala Harris is now seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

In 2020, the conservative Family Foundation of Kentucky questioned U of L’s arrangement with EMW, suggesting public money might be going to fund abortions services.

They called on Cameron to investigate and a spokeswoman for Cameron said at the time he would consider doing so.

The spokeswoman said Cameron was committed to enforcing the state’s laws, “which prohibit the use of public funds for abortions. We will review any information provided to determine whether a further inquiry is warranted.”

At the time, then-U of L President U of L President Neeli Bendapudi firmly rejected such allegations, saying “we comply, not just in this program, but in every program with all federal and state laws.”

Addiction Recovery Care, Kentucky's largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment, has offices and other facilities in Louisa, photographed June 27, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

Kentucky’s largest provider of addiction treatment services, Addiction Recovery Care, or ARC, is the subject of an? FBI investigation into possible health care fraud, according to a July 30 post on a website of the federal agency’s Louisville office.

ARC, which is funded almost entirely through Kentucky’s Medicaid program, has not been charged with any crime but the agency is asking people with information to fill out an online form “if you believe you were victimized by ARC or have information relevant to this investigation.”

ARC, a for-profit company based in Louisa, and whose CEO and affiliates have emerged as prolific political donors in recent years, said in a statement from spokesman Kyle Collier that it is cooperating with the FBI.

“We have recently learned that there is a federal investigation into ARC,” the statement said. “As we all know, healthcare is one of the most highly regulated fields in the country, and addiction treatment is among the most highly scrutinized healthcare services. ARC is a trailblazer in the field of addiction services. We are confident in our program and in the services we offer. We, and our legal counsel, are cooperating fully in the investigation.”

Collier directed further inquiries to ARC’s chief legal officer, Jessica Burke, who provided a similar statement.

ARC has developed a reputation for aggressive expansion since it was launched by Tim Robinson, a Lawrence County lawyer who founded the company with a single halfway house for alcohol treatment in 2010. Fueled by the availability of new Medicaid funds for substance use disorder treatment since 2014 under the Affordable Care Act, ARC operates some 1,800 treatment beds in 24 counties and reaches hundreds more clients through outpatient services, the Kentucky Lantern reported in July.

Recovery CEO gives big to support Democrat Beshear and a host of Republicans

Last year, ARC took in $130 million in Medicaid funds, the government health plan which gets most of its money from the federal government, making it by far the state’s largest provider of substance use services.

Robinson and? his wife, Lelia, own ARC and some related entities which provide them with an annual income of $533,400, according to a 2022 tax filing of a related non-profit company, Odyssey Inc.

The company has been singled out for praise by politicians including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who spoke at an ARC ribbon cutting for a new ARC facility in March.

“With the help of organizations like ARC, we are working to build a safer, healthier commonwealth for our people,” Beshear said.

He also praised Robinson, ARC’s founder, in his State of the Commonwealth speech in January.

“With us today,” Beshear said, “is Tim Robinson, founder and CEO of ARC, an essential partner in our fight against addiction. … I’m proud to say we now have more treatment beds per capita than any other state in the country.”

From mid-2021 through the end of 2023 Robinson, his corporations and employees gave at least $252,500 to political committees supporting Beshear, according to reporter Tom Loftus’ analysis in the Kentucky Lantern of campaign finance records.?

The donations to Democrat Beshear were a shift in the giving pattern for Robinson, a lifelong and loyal Republican. He also gave big to?Beshear’s opponent in the 2019 governor’s race, Republican incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin.

The Lantern’s analysis shows that — including money contributed to Beshear committees — Robinson, his corporations and employees have made at least $570,000 in political contributions over the past decade as his for-profit company grew.

He also has donated to Kentucky Republican lawmakers including some who wrote recent letters on ARC’s behalf, asking that rate cuts proposed to ARC and other addiction providers be suspended until further study.

Kentucky lawyer climbed out of alcoholism, launched a recovery boom

The rate cuts of 15% to20% proposed by three of the six private insurance companies that process state Medicaid claims became public this week at a legislative hearing. ARC and another provider told lawmakers that such cuts would devastate Kentucky’s efforts to turn the tide of addiction to drugs and alcohol.

“Kentucky has made significant strides in access to treatment,” Matt Brown, chief administrative officer for?Addiction Recovery Care, or ARC, told a legislative committee Tuesday. “With these cuts, it could completely set back addiction treatment in our state 20 years.”

Six national insurance companies known as managed care organizations, or MCOs, handle the majority of the state’s $16 billion a year Medicaid business. Under contracts with the state, they are paid a fixed rate per member to cover the cost of care.

Brown, the ARC official, told lawmakers this is no time to cut payments for addiction services, citing some indicators of success.

Brown noted that overdose deaths in Kentucky have declined for the past two years after years of rising. Kentucky also has the most treatment beds per resident, most of them through ARC, he said.

The state’s latest?annual?overdose report, released in June,?shows a decrease in deaths to 1,984 from 2,200 the year before, a decline of 9.8%.

In a statement released after the hearing on the cuts, the Kentucky Association of Health Plans, which represents the MCOs, said its members?“are proud to work collaboratively with quality, trustworthy?providers of behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment” and access to those services is “top of mind” to ensure those in need receive care.

“Health plans strive for the best networks possible and are encouraged by the state to prioritize plan member outcomes and value-based care,” it said.

The FBI posting on the website seeking information on ARC does not provide further information about the nature of the investigation,

A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A questionnaire people are asked to fill out includes several questions including whether they have been or are a patient at ARC and if so, what services were received. It also asks whether the person responding has ever made a complaint before about ARC and if so, to whom.

A voter prepares a ballot at the Sugar Maple Square voting location in Bowling Green, May 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

A judge has removed Democrat Richard Henderson as a candidate for the state House in Shelby County because of errors in his candidacy filing papers.?

The action July 30 by Shelby Circuit Judge Michelle Brummer at the request of Shelby County Judge-Executive Dan Ison leaves Republican incumbent Jennifer Decker unopposed in the Nov. 5 election for the state’s 58th House District. The district covers most of Shelby County.

Henderson, an IT employee who had no opposition in the May Democratic primary, was the first Black Democrat to seek the seat.

He said he will not appeal the judge’s order, “but we will come back in 2026.”

He said he plans to run again in two years for the House seat. “It will be a great opportunity then to flip this seat back to Democratic, especially with the success Democrats expect in keeping the White House this November.”

Decker, of Waddy, did not respond to calls for comment about Brummer’s order.?

Ison has said Decker did not ask him to file the lawsuit, which he did with Shelby County citizen Janrose Stillwell,?

Ison said he was involved in a similar case years ago and decided that it was his duty as Shelby County’s top Republican official to challenge Henderson’s papers.

Henderson’s attorney, Fielding Ballard of Shelbyville, questioned that, saying Ison filed the lawsuit after Henderson handed out “all his campaign cards” at Shelbyville’s annual Dogwood Festival in the spring.

In their lawsuit against Henderson, Ison and Stillwell claimed Henderson violated the state law that requires a candidate’s notification petition to be signed by the candidate and “by not less than two registered voters of the same party.”

Henderson’s candidacy papers were not signed by a single registered Democratic voter, said the legal challenge against him.

The lawsuit said Adam Muntzinger and Taunya Muntzinger were the two citizens who signed Henderson’s papers and both were registered Republicans in the district at the time They changed their party affiliation to Democrat in March of this year.

Henderson, in a response to the court, denied the allegations and said he believed the persons signing his candidacy papers were registered voters of his party “from all conversations and statements” he had with them over the years.?

Judge Brummer in her four-page order noted that recent guidance on the issue was provided by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in a similar Jefferson County case.

Ison’s attorney, state Rep. Jason Nemes of Louisville, did not return calls seeking comment.

Ballard, Henderson’s attorney, said Brummer’s ruling was expected, given the recent Kentucky Supreme Court decision involving the case in Jefferson County.

In early June, Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter issued a one-page order that said incumbent state Rep. Nima Kulkarni of Louisville was disqualified as a candidate in this May’s Democratic election for the 40th District House seat.

The Supreme Court order in the Kulkarni case came one day after the state’s highest court held a hearing on her eligibility to run in the May primary election. She handily won the primary and had no opposition for the November general election.

Kentucky Supreme Court disqualifies Kulkarni in state House race

VanMeter’s order said a majority of the court upheld the decision by the Kentucky Court of Appeals that Kulkarni should be disqualified from the race because of errors in her candidacy filing papers.

He said the order was issued for the benefit of the parties involved and that the Supreme Court would issue an opinion “in due course.”?

It is not clear what will be done to make sure the Jefferson County district has a state representative for the next two years, beginning Jan. 1. Kulkarni was the only one on the ballot.

Kulkarni did not return phone calls about the situation.

Steve Megerle, a Covington attorney representing former state Democratic Rep. Dennis Horlander, who filed the suit against Kulkarni, said, “We are waiting for the Supreme Court to say something about what will happen.”

He said Horlander is prepared to seek legal action to make sure that Kulkarni’s name is not on the November ballot. He noted that ballots are to be prepared by mid-August.

Lisa Sobel says she has put her hopes for having another child on hold because of uncertainties around Kentucky's abortion law. (Photo provided)

LOUISVILLE — Lisa Sobel thinks any Kentuckian who has a uterus should have standing to challenge the state’s abortion ban.?

The Kentucky Supreme Court and, more recently, a judge in Louisville, disagree.?

Meanwhile, Sobel, one of three Jewish women challenging the ban on religious grounds, says she’s left in a “holding pattern.” She is afraid to risk having another child in a state where physicians must wait to terminate a pregnancy until a patient is at risk of dying.?

Sobel’s lawsuit is the second challenge to Kentucky’s abortion ban to run aground on the issue of standing without advancing to an examination of the laws’ merits or constitutionality. Standing is the question of whether plaintiffs’ circumstances meet legal standards entitling them to challenge the law.?

Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards ruled in June that Sobel and her co-plaintiffs — Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — lack standing because they are not pregnant or currently trying to conceive by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Therefore, he said, the harms they allege in their lawsuit are “speculative” or “hypothetical.”?

That followed the Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023 that abortion providers could not challenge the ban on behalf of their patients.?

The Supreme Court ruling poses “a massive hurdle,” said Angela Cooper of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, “by asking someone who is navigating an unwanted pregnancy to pause pursuit of their medical care to file a lawsuit.”

The rulings have left the ban in place and the path for its opponents unclear but still open.

Edwards, in ruling against Sobel and her co-plaintiffs, also acknowledged “serious concerns regarding the substantive constitutionality” of Kentucky’s abortion laws — concerns that he said “will ultimately need to be revisited and addressed by the Kentucky Supreme Court.”

Sobel’s lawyers, Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper, have filed an appeal that could return the larger questions to the state Supreme Court, which will soon have a new member.

Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter isn’t seeking reelection this year. His 5th Supreme Court District seat will be filled either by Pamela Goodwine, a Kentucky Court of Appeals judge and former circuit and district judge in Lexington, or Erin Izzo, an attorney from Lexington. The race is nonpartisan but Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who opposes Kentucky’s abortion ban and calls it extreme, has endorsed Goodwine, and his political action committee has contributed $2,100 to her campaign.

University of Louisville constitutional law professor Sam Marcosson said Edwards and the state Supreme Court took a “very narrow” view of standing — and that there is room in the law for the new Supreme Court to relax its standing demands if the justices have the appetite to do so.

“I think that’s certainly possible, at least something the Supreme Court could do,” he said. “Whether it will or not, whether the makeup of the court will make that more likely? Impossible to say at this point.”

Marcosson noted the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned abortion rights has recently avoided ruling on the merits in two abortion cases. The court had the chance to limit access to mifepristone, which is used in medication abortions, but did not. On the other hand, the court had a chance to “protect abortion rights” in an Idaho case and did not.

Marcosson said the decisions suggest “the court doesn’t want to continue, at least for the time being, having abortion on its docket and reaching cases on the merits, the way they did when they overruled Roe.”

Who has standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban??

There are a few scenarios in which a person would have clear standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion law, said Marcosson.?

“A woman who is, in fact, pregnant and and wants to obtain an abortion that would be, or might be, illegal under Kentucky law — that’s the obvious scenario,” he said. Such a person could later miscarry or have the baby and “standing wouldn’t change.”?

Another scenario, hinted at by the Edwards decision, is if a person is actively undergoing IVF while suing, Marcosson said.?

But, it’s unclear if she would need to be actively taking injections to release eggs and trigger ovulation. “I think that’s the weakest part of the opinion to me,” Marcosson said.?

Someone who is at risk of injuries could have legal standing, he explained.?“The law of standing has always said that injuries … don’t have to actually have already been incurred,” he said. “You can sue to prevent injuries.”?

So, one could sue based on a hypothetical, and different judges and a different court could see it differently than Edwards did.?

“Anytime you have a case involving prevention of future injury, the question is always going to be, well, how certain does the court have to be that the injury will occur, and how soon will it occur?” Marcosson said. “There’s no bright line for that.”?

Potash and Kemper take issue with the judge basing part of his rejection of their lawsuit on a reading of Roe V. Wade. Marcosson said that while this is “noteworthy and eye popping” it’s “not unprecedented.” A decision can be overruled for one purpose while the reasoning behind other parts of the decision remains valid for use in future cases, Marcosson said. ?

Sobel thinks only one thing should determine standing. “Anybody who has a uterus in the state of Kentucky should have standing on this issue,” she said.?

IVF is not a ‘fairy tale’?

Unlike Judge Edwards, the women and their lawyers do not see theirs as a hypothetical situation at all.?

Kentucky abortion law states that an embryo is an “unborn human being” from egg fertilization to birth, a Christian belief not shared by Jewish people. The women argue the abortion law violates the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That definition in Kentucky law also makes them uneasy about trying to conceive through IVF, which involves destroying or indefinitely storing fertilized eggs; they also fear what would happen if a wanted pregnancy went wrong and they lacked access to abortion.

The lawyers say the courts and legislature have not offered the reassurance the women and others like them need that IVF is protected.?

One of the plaintiffs, Kalb, has nine frozen embryos right now that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve. The 33-year-old doesn’t plan to carry nine children, and worries about what she can legally do with the rest of the embryos at a time when Kentucky lawmakers disagree on what protections exist for the IVF process.?

In the 13 months while she waited for a ruling, Sobel, who conceived her three-year-old daughter through in vitro and would like to have another child, said, “I have met with multiple doctors for gynecological procedures.”?

“So, to just write me off because … I’m not currently paying to move forward with IVF, and saying that I’m not seeking it, is really unfair,” she said.?

The process takes a lot of time, and she also has to make sure her body is “ready to accept” the treatments.?

“At any given time, you could be happily going along and then your doctor says, ‘hey … we have to push pause,’ or ‘we need to make a change because your hormones are out of whack,’ or ‘your lining isn’t perfect,’ and so then you have to go and take a side road before you can get back on the main track.”?

Potash acknowledges that Attorney General Russell Coleman has said that IVF is protected in Kentucky but points out that local prosecutors are not bound by Coleman’s statement.?

Sobel’s interpretation of Edwards’ June ruling is “the judge doesn’t understand what the process of IVF and being part of the infertility community is like.”?

IVF isn’t the “fairy tale” way of starting a family, she said, in which “you went out for a nice, romantic night, you had sex, and magically, six weeks later, you find out you’re pregnant.”?

It involves an intricate process involving shots, egg retrievals, mixing eggs with sperm in a lab and implantation. There are usually eggs leftover in this process, which can be donated, stored or discarded.?

“I don’t want to get to the point,” Sobel said, “where I’m stuck paying indefinitely for embryos I can’t use because I don’t want to face criminal prosecution.”?

Storing them can cost thousands annually.? The women fear prosecution if they are forced to discard embryos, a common part of the IVF process.?

“I’m still young enough that should I choose to do more rounds of (in vitro fertilization) I could,” said Sobel, 40. “That might not be the same in five, six years. But right now, my safest option for my health and my well being is to continue to wait to get clarity from the court system on whether or not IVF is truly protected, and the only way to do that is to take out the fetal personhood laws that are on the books.”?

Addia Wuchner, a former legislator and the executive director of the Kentucky chapter of Right to Life, which opposes abortion, sees IVF as being protected in the state, in line with the attorney general’s position.?

“If anyone is projecting fear or concerns,” she told the Lantern, “it’s misplaced.”?

What happens next

“A random bank of judges” within the Court of Appeals will consider arguments from both sides, Potash said, who added “we’re looking forward to some review.”?

Meanwhile, Marcosson said the state Supreme Court does have a pathway to change its rules of standing, if the appeal of the Edwards ruling or someone with a “stronger case for standing” reaches the high court.

But since “two judges can take a very different view of how speculative the harm really is, and how impending it really is,” the appeals panel could side with the women on the issue of standing and return their case to the circuit judge for further consideration.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky is still looking for an opening and plaintiffs to challenge the law. ?Cooper said that despite the state Supreme Court’s “unprecedented and impractical demand” on standing, “we are undeterred in our commitment to restoring access to abortion care in the Commonwealth, and the legal path remains open, however fraught with obstacles it may be.”?

Meanwhile, Sobel feels she must wait out the case before making decisions to expand her family because of the potential harm to her health.?

“My one option is … not to take the risk of dying,” she said. “Which is really what I’m faced with here, is that I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”??

The Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati is home to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether a case involving former University of Louisville professor Dr. Allan M. Josephson’s comments about how to treat gender dysphoria should go to a jury trial.?

Judges heard oral arguments Tuesday morning, the latest in a roughly five-year legal battle to reinstate Josephson as chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and reimburse him for legal fees.?

It’s unclear when the court could rule. Should it side with Josephson, the case will return to district court and undergo a jury trial, Travis C. Barham, one of Josephson’s lawyers, told the Lantern. Should it rule against Josephson, Barham said, he can request a review from the full 6th Circuit.

Josephson is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm. He argues that university officials punished and then fired him in 2019 because of what he said during a panel discussion about children experiencing gender dysphoria.

Jeremy Rogers, who argued opposite Barham, has not responded to a Lantern email seeking an interview.?

During oral arguments Rogers said actions by the individual UofL officials who are being sued by Josephson were not a violation of his constitutional rights.

But Barham argued that as an employee of an institution that gets public dollars, Josephson should enjoy free speech protections.?“A victory for Dr. Josephson is a victory for everybody,” Barham said. “The irony here is that the university is advancing a legal position that would nuke the free speech rights of all professors, of all persuasions, of all viewpoints.”?

But, he added: “Whether you agree with Dr. Josephson, whether you disagree with Dr. Josephson on the issue, we should all be in favor of the idea that professors should be able to express (their views) freely, without censorship and without punishment.”?

The case?

The 2017 comments in question were met with criticism from Josephson’s colleagues, who saw them as anti-LGBTQ and “demanded that the University take disciplinary action against” him, court documents allege.?

Before this, Josephson was chief of the UofL medical school’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology for more than a decade.?

The Courier Journal reported in 2019 that the professor made the comments while on a panel before The Heritage Foundation, a D.C.-based conservative think tank. Those comments included:?

• The “notion that gender identity should trump chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics when classifying individuals is counter to medical science.”
• “Transgender ideology neglects the child’s need for developing coping and problem-solving skills necessary to meet developmental challenges.”?
• Parents should “use their collective wisdom in guiding their child to align with his or her biological sex.”

Court documents say that within seven weeks of the comments, “defendants demanded that he resign his position as division chief and effectively become a junior faculty member.”??

Barham was feeling hopeful after Tuesday’s arguments, which he said went “very well.”

“It is … frustrating to attorneys, but it’s even more frustrating to clients with the way that these cases sometimes unfold in a very slow motion fashion,” he said. “This case really should be in front of a jury….So I hope that the judges will make a decision quickly.”

Kim Davis, then the Rowan county clerk, waved to supporters at a rally outside the Carter County Detention Center on Sept. 8, 2015 in Grayson. Davis was ordered to jail for contempt of court after refusing a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Kim Davis, then the Rowan County clerk, made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to several same-sex couples based on her religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, based in Orlando, Florida, and labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed the brief Monday with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, according to a news release from Liberty Counsel and first reported by Jezebel.?

Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a Tuesday press release that “Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority.”

“This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation,” Staver said.?

U.S. District Judge David Bunning in 2015 ordered Davis to jail for five days for contempt for refusing to comply with a court order. Bunning earlier this year ordered Davis to pay ?$260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the couples she refused a marriage license. Bunning had earlier ordered Davis to pay the couple, David Ermold and David Moore, $100,000 in damages for violating their constitutional rights. Liberty Counsel is appealing Bunning’s decisions.

Davis lost her bid for reelection as Rowan County clerk in 2018.

Chris Hartman, the director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, told the Lantern Tuesday that the latest legal move on Davis’ behalf is “sad and desperate” but also within the realm of possibility under the current U.S. Supreme Court.

“The threat of anti-LGBTQ hate groups … is real, however, and it comes as no surprise that they are seeking to overturn LGBTQ marriage in America. With an arch-conservative Supreme Court that’s already upended half a century of abortion rights, anything is unfortunately possible.”?

Court documents filed by Liberty Counsel point specifically to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, saying the court should overturn Obergefell for the same reasons. In the abortion case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that the court could use the same rationale to overturn earlier decisions on same-sex marriage and access to contraception.

“Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution,” say court documents filed by Liberty Counsel. ?

In a statement to the Lantern, Staver reiterated: “We want to overturn the jury verdict because there is no evidence to support it, to grant religious accommodation for Kim Davis and to overturn the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges.”

Ermold and Moore were married Oct. 31, 2015 in an outdoor ceremony on the Morehead State University campus, which the student newspaper, The Trail Blazer, covered.?

Read Liberty Counsel’s brief

Rebekah Bruesehoff, a transgender student athlete, speaks at a press conference on LGBTQI+ rights, at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Bruesehoff spoke out against a proposed national trans sports ban being considered by Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

A federal appellate court has upheld blocking central parts of new Title IX rules from the Biden administration and granted an expedited hearing in October.?

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday to block the rules from taking effect Aug. 1, shortly before most schools begin their academic year. The rules, created by the U.S. Department of Education, were aimed at protecting students from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.?

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the majority opinion that all judges on the panel agreed the central parts of the rules should not take effect on Aug. 1.?

“It is hard to see how all of the schools covered by Title IX could comply with this wide swath of new obligations if the Rule’s definition of sex discrimination remains enjoined,” Sutton said. “Harder still, we question how the schools could properly train their teachers on compliance in this unusual setting with so little time before the start of the new school year.”?

Judge Andre Mathis wrote in a dissenting opinion that he would grant a partial stay, as requested by the Department of Education.?

“I am cognizant of Plaintiffs’ argument that the benefits of enacting the Rule’s unchallenged provisions are outweighed by the expense or confusion of phased implementation,” Mathis wrote. “But most of the expense is attributable to provisions that Plaintiffs neither directly challenge nor cite as a source of harm.”?

The lawsuit was filed by Republican attorneys general in six states — Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement that Title IX, which was established more than 50 years ago, “created equal opportunities for women and young girls in the classroom and on the field.” The Sixth Circuit ruling, he added, made it the first appellate court “to stop President Biden’s blatant assault on these fundamental protections.”?

“This ruling is a victory for common sense itself, and it’s a major relief for Kentucky families,” Coleman said. “As Attorney General and as a Dad, we’ll keep up the fight for my girls and for women across Kentucky so they can continue to fulfill their potential for the next 50 years and beyond.”

Madelyn Spalding, who works with the Kentucky LGBTQ+ youth-focused Louisville Youth Group and is a facilitator with the Kentuckiana Transgender Support Group, said it was “clear that the attorney general doesn’t care about these kids” who are part of the LGBTQ+ community in K-12 schools. She also added that as a transgender adult, she’s worried Coleman will use the arguments against the Title IX rules “as a roadmap to go after transgender adults.”

Spalding said blocking the Title IX rules would “create conditions that ostracize, exclude, erase, silence these youth with no repercussions.” Spalding added that adults who could speak up for students in these situations might lose school administrations’ support.

Spalding called it “disingenuous and harmful” to suggest that transgender kids are taking opportunities away from cisgender women or girls.

“I worry for the opportunities that are being taken away from women who are trans or cis(gender) being able to equally compete in ways that don’t boil down to essentially just their sex,” Spalding said. “It’s going to limit opportunities across the board and create social hierarchies, and what they’re doing is ingraining those — they’re enshrining those right now in the schools to keep down a certain type of student and show them there’s no place for them at the school.”

In June, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky sided with Coleman and the other five GOP attorneys general. The judge said the Department of Education “seeks to derail deeply rooted law” with its proposed Title IX rules.?

“At bottom, the Department would turn Title IX on its head by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity.’ But ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ do not mean the same thing,” Reeves wrote. “The Department’s interpretation conflicts with the plain language of Title IX and therefore exceeds its authority to promulgate regulations under that statute.”?

Established in 1972, Title IX was created to prevent “discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance,” according to the Department of Education.

Coleman’s office said in a press release that K-12 schools that failed to comply with the new Title IX rules would have risked losing federal funding. Kentucky’s public and private schools received a total of $1.1 billion in federal funding last year.

The Biden administration introduced the rules to “build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona previously said in a statement. The rules also would have rolled back Trump administration changes that narrowly defined sexual harassment and directed schools to conduct live hearings, allowing those who were accused of sexual harassment or assault to cross-examine their accusers.

The Lantern has sought comment from the U.S. Department of Education on the latest ruling.

This story was updated with additional comments.?

Candles glimmer as friends and family engage in prayer during a vigil. (Photo by Hailey Roden, LINK nky)

“We have never dealt with this before,” was how Florence Police Chief Jeff Mallery described the mass shooting of seven people in the early hours of July 6.

“I know it’s gone on throughout the nation, but this is the first time that we’ve had a mass shooting in Florence,” Mallery said during a press conference that afternoon.?

Devastation ripped through the community as four victims, ranging in age from 19 to 44, died of injuries suffered at a 21st birthday party on Ridgecrest Drive. Twenty-year-old Shane Miller, 20-year-old Hayden Rybicki, 19-year-old Delaney Eary and 44-year-old Melissa Parrett were killed.

Three victims were recovering in the hospital at press time. Among them is 19-year-old Chloe Parrett.?

During a packed vigil for the victims at Crossroads Florence Church on July 9, Bruce Parrett, Chloe’s father and ex-husband of Melissa Parrett, said that Chloe’s mother is the reason she is alive.?

Chloe still faces a long road to recovery: Both of her lungs were affected by her injuries and are unable to hold air, according to her father. “She’s never going to be the same,” Parrett said.?

Attending the memorial was his first time leaving the hospital since Chloe was admitted. He said he was overwhelmed and surprised to see the outpouring of support.?

“The support is just phenomenal. I thought there would be a few people that knew us and knew the other families, but this is definitely the village coming together to help those in need,” he said.

While Parrett is grateful for the support, he said his outlook for the future is grim.?

“I mean, I’m not very hopeful for the future. I really am not after this has happened. I love the support, but it’s just so devastating. Now I’m worried about things like this happening again. If it happened to me, it could happen to anybody. And I hate to see that other families are going to have to go through situations like this.”?

He said guns are too easily accessible to people who shouldn’t have them. “I don’t know what the answer is, but I know what the answer is not,” said Parrett. “The answer is not sitting on our hands and doing nothing.”?

The party was being held for Parrett’s son at the time of the shooting, Mallery said.

Mallery said other partygoers told officers the shooter fled in a vehicle. Officers were able to track down the suspect and attempted to stop him near Farmview Drive and U.S. 42, but the suspect fled again. A chase ensued. Finally, the suspect drove off the road into a ditch on Dale Heimbrock Way near Hicks Pike. The officers found the suspect with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital, where he died.?

The suspect has since been identified as 21-year-old Chase Garvey. Court documents indicate Garvey was on probation for a felony charge of unlawfully transacting with a minor in 2021, a charge he received after pleading down from two other felony charges after sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl in his car.?

He was committed to house arrest before accepting the lower charge instead of facing trial. He was then sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was probated on the condition that he not interact with the victim, not commit any more crimes, engage in psychological counseling and maintain employment. He was scheduled to come off of probation in 2027.

Mallery said Garvey’s motive is still under investigation and that he didn’t believe the shooting was connected to Garvey’s past crimes. It is illegal for felony offenders to own a gun, and how Garvey obtained one is still unclear.?

Remembering the victims?

Rybicki’s mother, Cherri McGuire, wrote a letter to her son in his obituary. “You were an unexpected gift from God. You were smart, witty, kind, so handsome and the most loving human being I have ever met. You made me become a stronger and better person. You are my angel. I hope you know how much I love you; I cannot even put it into words.”

Connor Velpreda remembers his best friend, Rybicki, as “a good soul.” He said that “the way he carried himself impacted so many hearts.”

“Through everything he’s endured in this life, the common denominator was always that contagious grin that never seemed to fade,” Velpreda said. “He is someone I am proud to call my best friend, and he was a best friend to more than just [me].”

Shane Miller’s aunt, Sheryl Beatty, sent LINK nky’s media partner WCPO a statement about her nephew, whom she said aspired to be a police officer.

“Shane was a young man that any parent would be proud to call their own. He was always smiling with a kind word for everyone. He was a fun person to be around; he woke every day happy with a positive outlook. He was a charismatic person when people met him they would want to continue to be a friend of his. He enjoyed his friends, but his best friend was his cousin Sergio. Family was everything to him,” Beatty said.?

“Shane was a young, beautiful, amazing man with an old soul. His joy was doing anything outdoors from fishing to kayaking. Shane bought two kayaks, one for him and one for Sergio. He was a bright light to this world and will always be one to his family. There are no words for the pain of his loss or how much he will be missed.”

On July 8, Paige Johnson, a friend of Eary’s, stopped by the memorial set outside the home where the shooting happened.

“Everybody that knew Delaney like seriously loved her so much,” Johnson told WCPO. “Like she was such a joy. Such a light in everybody’s lives.”

Johnson attended Cooper High School with Eary, who was a few years younger. The two shared a love of singing and dancing, she said.

“We had a few friends who would pick us up, and we would all just go to this club that we have for Cooper’s Navigators Ministry, and we all had sunglasses on and I’m sitting on Delaney’s lap, and we’re just like singing and we’re dancing,” Robinson said. “It was awesome. Delaney was just that type of person who would just sit there – dance, laugh, anything like that.”

Leah Moore, who was at the birthday party but left before the shooting, said she’s going to miss Melissa Parrett, who was hosting her son’s birthday party.

“What I’m going to miss most about Missy, especially Missy, is her spirit, her personality,” Moore said. “A lot of people will tell you that people close to them are one of the best people you’ve ever met. Truly, Missy was that.”

A community rallies

Shortly after the tragedy, the community jumped into action to support those reeling from the loss.?

Boone County Public Schools offered free emotional and psychological counseling July 8 to local students and families.?

“This weekend’s tragedy hit home to the Boone County community,” read an announcement from the district. “Some of the victims were connected in some way to the Boone County School District. We would like it to be known that counseling services will be available for any students or families who may need support.”

The next day Crossroads Church in Florence held a community night of prayer, at which Florence Mayor Julie Metzger Aubuchon addressed the community in an emotional speech.

“I had the opportunity of visiting Chloe, Claire, Connor [the three surviving victims] yesterday in the hospital,” Aubuchon said. “They are fighting. Tonight, as we gather at Crossroads Florence, we can connect, support one another, and begin that healing process.”

On July 10, Florence offered professional mental health and pet therapy services at the Florence Government Center.?

LINK nky Kenton County reporter Nathan Granger, LINK nky contributor Hayley Jarman, and WCPO’s Molly Schramm, Valerie Lyons, Krizia Williams and Michael Coker contributed to this story.

This story is republished from LINK nky.

Former President Donald Trump (Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)

MILWAUKEE —The federal classified documents case against former President Donald Trump was dismissed Monday by a Florida judge on the grounds that the Department of Justice unlawfully appointed special counsel Jack Smith.

The order, while likely to be appealed, makes the possibility even more remote that Trump will be tried before the election on any of the federal charges pending against him. The order came on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, during which Trump will be officially nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

Trump, who on Saturday was injured at a Pennsylvania rally in what is being investigated as an attempted assassination, has also been federally charged in Washington, D.C., for his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election results. The case is pending as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.

In May, Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in New York state court for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s sentencing has been delayed until September while the court reviews the federal immunity decision.

Trump has also been indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges — though the case is bogged down in personnel matters — and has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions in penalties following multiple civil suits.

Trump reaction: Dismiss all ‘witch hunts’

Trump, who arrived in Milwaukee Sunday, wrote on his social media platform Monday that all cases against him should be dropped following the attempt on his life by the 20-year-old gunman identified by law enforcement as the shooter. The gunman was killed at the scene.

“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts — The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count), and the Georgia ‘Perfect’ Phone Call charges,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A representative for Smith said Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special counsel is legal.

“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel. The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order,” spokesman Peter Carr said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the ruling “good news for America and for the rule of law” and a “critically important step” in unifying the country after Saturday’s shooting in Western Pennsylvania.

In a statement issued from Milwaukee, the Louisiana Republican said

“House Republicans repeatedly argued that Special Counsel Jack Smith abused his office’s authority in pursuit of President Trump, and now a federal judge has ruled Smith never possessed the authority in the first place.”

“As we work to unify this country following the failed assassination attempt of President Trump, we must also work to end the lawfare and political witch hunts that have unfairly targeted President Trump and destroyed the American people’s faith in our system of justice,” Johnson continued.

Republican lawmakers largely echoed Johnson.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York said in a statement that she applauds District Judge Aileen Cannon’s “courage and wisdom” to dismiss the case brought by the “corrupt” special counsel.

“Case Dismissed! Big win for the rule of law,” South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman wrote on X.

The GOP’s Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana also posted on the platform: “Winning. More to come. MAGA.”

The dismissal order

In Monday’s 93-page order, Cannon wrote Smith’s appointment violates two clauses of the U.S. Constitution that govern how presidential administrations and Congress appoint and approve “Officers of the United States” and how taxpayer money can be used to pay their salaries and other expenses.

“Upon careful study of the foundational challenges raised in the Motion, the Court is convinced that Special Counsel’s Smith’s prosecution of this action breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law,” wrote Cannon, who sits on the bench in the Southern District of Florida.

She was nominated by Trump in 2020 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate later that year.

In February, Trump’s team filed the motion to dismiss the case, accusing Smith of being unlawfully appointed and paid.

The classified documents case against Trump presented a historic first for the United States — a former sitting president had never been charged with federal crimes.

A federal grand jury handed up a 37-count indictment in June 2023 charging the former president and his aide Walt Nauta with felonies related to mishandling classified documents after his term in office, including storing them at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.

A little over a month later a new indictment was handed up, adding new charges against the former president and also adding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira as a co-defendant.

Cannon’s order dismisses the July 2023 superseding indictment.

The court will now close the case and cancel any scheduled hearings. Any pending motions are considered moot, according to Cannon’s order.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats slam ‘misguided ruling’

Cannon’s dismissal of the case was met with shock from Democrats, who view Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as a serious, prosecutable offense.

The indictment against Trump detailed how U.S. government documents marked “secret” and “confidential” were stored at Mar-a-Lago, an active social club in Palm Beach, in a ballroom, bathroom and shower, bedroom, office space and storage area.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Monday that the “breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence.”

“It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned,” the New York Democrat said.

Conor Lamb, a former congressman from Pennsylvania, wrote on X that Saturday’s failed assassination on Trump does not exonerate him from taking and keeping classified records as he left the Oval Office.

“In the same way that the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump was unacceptable, it was unacceptable for Trump to fail to protect our country’s secrets.? Trump is a victim of the 1st but that doesn’t change that he is the perpetrator of the 2nd.? Accountability for both,” Lamb wrote.

Not Above the Law, a coalition of 150 organizations, issued a statement calling the ruling “flatly wrong.”

“The special counsel statute is clear. Its constitutionality has been upheld by multiple courts in the past, and Judge Cannon has no grounds to reject such a well-settled principle,” read the statement signed by the organization’s four co-chairs.

“Accountability, protecting the rule of law, and justice cannot be further delayed. We expect Judge Cannon’s ruling not only to be swiftly appealed, but also promptly reversed,” continued the statement from Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen; Praveen Fernandes, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center; David Sievers, interim organizing director at MoveOn; and Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs at Stand Up America.

Lawyers for the state on Monday defended the legislature's decision to outlaw some vaping products. The Kentucky Vaping Retailers Association and the Kentucky Hemp Association are challenging the law. The hearing was held in the Franklin County Court House. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate heard arguments Monday in a case challenging the constitutionality of a 2024 law banning the sale of some vaping products.?

This comes as the defendants — Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and Secretary of State Michael Adams — filed a motion to dismiss the case.?

Should Wingate grant that motion, the plaintiffs — the Kentucky Vaping Retailers Association, the Kentucky Hemp Association and four vape shops — will appeal the decision, their lawyer told the Lantern. The plaintiffs have also filed a motion for judgment.?

Either way, the case is far from settled. It’s unclear when a decision could come, as Wingate said it will “take a while” for him to review.?

Kentucky’s new anti-vaping law ignites constitutional challenge

The arguments?

The lawsuit centers around House Bill 11, which passed during the 2024 legislative session. Backers of the legislation said it’s a way to curb underage vaping by limiting sales to “authorized products” or those that have “a safe harbor certification” based on their status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).?

Opponents have said it will hurt small businesses and lead to a monopoly for big retailers.?

Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Phillip Morris, lobbied for the Kentucky bill, according to Legislative Ethics Commission records. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the company is pushing similar bills in other states. Altria, which has moved aggressively into e-cigarette sales, markets multiple vaping products that have FDA approval.?

Greg Troutman, a lawyer for the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, which represents vape retailers, told the judge Monday that, among his issues with the new law, is the way it defines “vapor products” and “other substances,” looping e-cigarettes and vapable hemp and marijuana products together. He argues that combination makes the law too broad and arbitrary to pass constitutional muster.

Troutman argued that because of this, the title of the bill, “AN ACT relating to nicotine products,” didn’t fairly represent the content of the legislation.?

Lindsey Keiser, an assistant attorney general, countered that the title doesn’t need to fully cover the content of the bill.?

“It’s long settled that the title does not need to have a detailed index of everything that’s contained within the bill,” she told the judge.?

Keiser also argued that “the fact that the FDA has approved so few indicates that there is a lot of concern about these products.”

“So,” she said, “it’s reasonable then for Kentucky to … say that ‘if the FDA is only approving this limited number, we too will only approve this limited number.’”??

Later this year, the U.S.? Supreme Court will decide whether or not the FDA was unfair in its denial of at least a million vaping product applications, the Associated Press reported in early July.?

Troutman, arguing for the vape retailers, said the state law is flawed because it’s based on a flawed federal process. “We’ve got a state process that is predicated before a federal process that itself has been deemed arbitrary by at least two federal courts,” he said.?

Meanwhile, HB 11 is set to be enforceable starting Jan. 1, 2025, the same day patients with a history of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer or other approved medical conditions — will be able to apply for cannabis cards for medical marijuana.?

An FBI Evidence Response Team investigator walks behind a crime scene. The FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report, which was released in early June, suggests that violent crime dropped by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2023. (Ann Arbor Miller/Associated Press)

Violent crime in the United States dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to the FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report released last month.

The FBI’s data, collected from nearly 12,000 law enforcement agencies representing about 77% of the country’s population, suggests violent crime dropped by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2023.

The data, which covers reported crimes from January to March, shows a 26.4% decrease in murders, a 25.7% decrease in rapes, a 17.8% decrease in robberies, and a 12.5% decrease in aggravated assaults. Reported property crime also fell by 15.1%.

Nevertheless, the widespread public perception that crime is rising — a perception reinforced by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and many other GOP candidates — could figure prominently in November’s election. And state legislative and gubernatorial candidates from both parties likely also will cite crime statistics on the stump.

In a Gallup poll conducted late last year, 63% of respondents described the crime problem in the U.S. as either extremely or very serious. This is the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.

In May, Trump wrongly called FBI data showing a decline in crime “fake numbers.” This month, he erroneously claimed that the FBI’s crime statistics exclude 30% of cities, including the “biggest and most violent.”

He could have been referring to the fact some departments couldn’t report data in 2021 because the FBI switched data reporting systems, but experts say the overall numbers remain valid.

President Joe Biden has also used crime statistics for political gain. In a May campaign email, Biden said that Trump “oversaw the largest increase in murder in U.S. history.” While this is not entirely inaccurate — the country did see the largest one-year increase in murders in 2020 — it omits context regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval following George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.

Beshear vetoes sweeping anti-crime bill along with parts of state budget

The latest FBI crime statistics align with other early data from 2024. In May, the Major Cities Chiefs Association released first-quarter data from a survey of 68 major metropolitan police departments showing a 17% drop in murders compared with the same period last year.

The FBI’s latest data is preliminary and unaudited, which means it will change as more law enforcement agencies refine their numbers throughout the year. National crime data is incomplete, as it only includes crimes reported to police, and not every law enforcement agency participates in the FBI’s crime reporting program.

Despite the data’s limitations, some criminologists and crime data experts say the data is reliable. Some say the FBI’s data likely overstates the decreases, suggesting the drop in violent crime is likely less dramatic but still trending downward.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to the accuracy of the data, so it matches but probably overstates what the trends are,” Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, a data consulting firm that specializes in crime data, told Stateline in an interview. “In theory, everything will get more accurate as the year goes on.”

Although national data suggests an overall major decrease in crime across the country, some criminologists caution that that isn’t necessarily the case in individual cities and neighborhoods.

“It looks good for the nation as a whole, but even with these great reductions, there are cities in the United States that have likely experienced increases that bucked the trend,” Charis Kubrin, a criminology, law and society professor at the University of California, Irvine, told Stateline.

The average American’s understanding of crime and crime statistics is heavily skewed by media coverage that focuses largely on when crimes are committed and by misleading political rhetoric, according to criminologists and crime data experts.

Instead of relying on statistics, which can feel impersonal, people tend to cling to anecdotes that resonate more emotionally. Politicians take advantage of this, Dan Gardner, author of the book “Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear,” told Stateline.

“If you are a political operative, capitalizing on fear of crime is incredibly easy to do,” Gardner said.

Telling a tragic story and framing it in a way so that voters feel they or their families could become victims of similar crimes unless they vote for a specific politician is a common, highly effective tactic, he added.

This use of fear as a motivator can drive people to the polls, Gardner said, but it also distorts public perception of crime.

“It’s a lousy way to understand the reality of personal safety and society, but it’s a very compelling form of marketing,” Gardner said.

The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, released a report this month urging police and the federal government to provide more timely crime data. The report emphasizes that crime data, especially national data, often lags up to a year, which hampers public understanding of crime trends and limits officials’ ability to make informed policy decisions to proactively address public safety issues.

“We need to accelerate improvements in our [crime] data,” John Roman, a senior fellow and the director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at NORC at the University of Chicago, told Stateline. Roman also is the chair of the Council on Criminal Justice’s Crime Trends Working Group. “The democratization of this data is really critical to more effective policy and programming.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and?part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network. ?Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

Kentuckians will be voting this fall on two constitutional amendments. This is the view approaching the Sugar Maple Square polling site in Bowling Green, May 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

A grassroots advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against Kentucky election officials alleging the state’s process for removing voters from rolls violates federally protected voting rights.?

The state’s top election official responded that undoing the law during a presidential election year would “sow chaos and doubt.”?

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) filed the lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky against Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams and the State Board of Elections, which includes Republican and Democratic members.?

The complaint alleges that Kentucky’s election law, which was changed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and became permanent in 2021, violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. KFTC says the federal act requires registered voters who have moved to receive notice in writing to confirm their address and have time to respond before they are removed from voter rolls. Kentucky’s law “flagrantly violates these requirements,” KFTC argues, by not giving voters notice before removal.?

Adams issued a statement Tuesday saying he plans to defend the law in court. The 2021 changes, known as House Bill 574, were signed into law by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.?

“Kentucky’s elections are a national success story,” Adams said. “Three years ago, Kentucky enacted a bipartisan law to prevent voting in more than one state in a presidential election. Now that a presidential election is underway, a fringe left-wing activist group is trying to undo that law and sow chaos and doubt in our elections. We believe voters should vote in only one state, and we expect to prevail in court.”

In addition to the removal process, the 2021 state law also has provisions for no-excuse in-person early voting and updates to regulations for absentee ballots.?

The secretary of state also said that 4,362 individuals had been removed from the voter rolls in June. Of that group, 3,030 were deceased, 603 were convicted of felonies, 554 had moved out of the state, 78 voluntarily deregistered, 52 were duplicate registrations and 45 were adjudged mentally incompetent.

KFTC is asking the court to permanently enjoin election officials from canceling voter registrations without following provisions required by federal law.?

The group’s lawsuit also says it registered more than 2,000 new voters during last year’s governor’s race and plans to “directly register even more prospective voters due to the presidential race.”?

KFTC will hire 15 people across the state for this year’s voter registration program, which includes field training and webinars.?

Founded in 1981, KFTC’s mission is to “challenge and change unfair political, economic and social systems by working for a new balance of power and a just society.”

Read Kentuckians for the Commonwealth v. Michael Adams

From left, Jessica Kalb, Sarah Baron and Lisa Sobel are challenging Kentucky's abortion ban. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards has ruled against a motion made by three Jewish women seeking to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban on religious grounds.?

In a 9-page Friday night opinion, Edwards wrote the women do not have standing and that their concerns are “hypothetical.”

Citing several precedential cases, the judge said the issue was not yet a concrete problem and lacked “ripeness.”?

“Individuals cannot manufacture standing merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending,” Edwards wrote.

Louisville judge hears arguments in Jewish women’s challenge of Kentucky’s abortion ban

Therefore, he wrote, “plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate the existence of a justiciable controversy as defined by generations of case law.”?

This comes more than a month after the judge heard oral arguments, which heavily focused on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the extent to which it overlaps with the state’s abortion ban.?

One of the plaintiffs has nine frozen embryos that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve, just as Kentucky lawmakers are split on what protections exist for IVF in the state.?

The women’s lawyers — Benjamin Potash and Aaron Kemper — argued that by banning most abortions, Kentucky had imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.?

They also said their plaintiffs — Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — feel Kentucky’s current laws around abortion inhibit their ability to grow their families.?

Benjamin Potash, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, told the Lantern in a text that the decision “makes numerous obvious errors,” such as basing part of the ruling on a reading of Roe V. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion but was overturned in 2022 by the United States Supreme Court.?

Assistant Attorney General Lindsey Keiser defended the law on May 13 for the state attorney general, who praised Friday’s decision “to uphold Kentucky law.”?

“Most importantly, the Court eliminates any notion that access to IVF services in our Commonwealth is at risk,” Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement. “Today’s opinion is a welcome reassurance to the many Kentuckians seeking to become parents.”

Potash said the judge’s decision is “disappointing” and said “we look forward to review by higher courts.”??

“After 13 months of waiting, we received a nine page decision that we feel fails to comport with the law,” he said. “Our nation is waiting for a judiciary brave enough to do what the law and our traditions require.”?

Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Nicholasville, sponsor of the bill outlawing "gray machines" says the ruling will put enforcement on firmer ground. (LRC Public Information)

A Kentucky judge has upheld the legislature’s 2023 ban of so-called “gray machines,” agreeing with the attorney general that the law does not violate free speech or equal protection guarantees and isn’t unconstitutional special legislation.?

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd in his ruling Friday sided with arguments made by Attorney General Russell Coleman defending House Bill 594, which banned the slot-style machines commonly found in many bars and gas stations around the state.?

The machines’ moniker is derived from their murky legal status, an “allegedly gray area” that Shepherd referenced in his 52-page ruling. Opponents characterize the games as illegal gambling. Proponents refer to them as “skill games” and have argued a ban would let the horse racing industry monopolize gambling in the state. Churchill Downs had filed an amicus brief in defense of HB 594.

Shepherd in his ruling wrote that plaintiffs, including “skill-based” gaming company Pace-O-Matic, had not proved their claim that HB 594 violated the constitutional right to free speech by targeting the “Burning Barrel” game because the legislature didn’t like the ideas the game expressed.

“The Court is not persuaded that HB 594 targeted Burning Barrel because of its expressive content, but rather enacted HB 594 to target the conduct of unregulated wagering,” Shepherd wrote.?

Shepherd also wrote that while HB 594 did appear to benefit Kentucky’s horse race tracks, which had supported the ban, that appearance in and of itself didn’t make the law unconstitutional special legislation.?

Coleman in a statement said lawmakers “took a bold and bipartisan step to protect Kentucky children and families when they outlawed gray machines.”

“After the law was challenged, our Office launched a vigorous defense of the statute and the General Assembly’s fundamental role as our Commonwealth’s policymaking body,” Coleman said. “The resounding victory in the Franklin Circuit is a testament to the top-flight work of our attorneys, and I’m honored to work alongside them every day.”

Guthrie True, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Lantern he was disappointed in the ruling but hadn’t had time to review it in detail. True said he planned to talk to his clients about a potential appeal.?

Lobbying efforts around? HB 594 dominated spending in the 2023 session of the Kentucky legislature, with two groups on opposing sides spending nearly $600,000 in ads over two months, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. The legislation sharply divided Republicans in the GOP-dominated legislature as it eventually got final passage and was signed by Democratic Gov. Andy Behsear.?

House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, opposed the ban while also representing a “gray machine” company as an attorney. Nemes told the Lexington Herald-Leader an ethics opinion he requested and received from the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission said it was ethical?to advocate and vote on HB 594 because the legislation affected the entire “gray machines” industry, not just his client. House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, was a co-sponsor of HB 594.

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this year that slot-style machines had begun to reappear in gas stations, with “skill based” machine companies arguing the machines were changed to become “no risk” games as to not run afoul of HB 594.?

Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Nicholasville, the primary sponsor of HB 594, told the Lantern the companies essentially haven’t changed. He believed Shepherd’s ruling will give the attorney general and county attorneys “a whole lot more teeth” to enforce the law.?

“They’re just an extension of the gray machines because there’s still an element of chance — it’s just a secondary element,” Timoney said. “Russell Coleman will have a much more clear direction on how to relay messaging to the county attorneys pertaining to [House Bill] 594.”

Timoney, who was defeated in a primary election last month, said he didn’t believe additional policy was needed in a future legislative session, saying the key now will be enforcing the law that’s already on the books.?

This story was updated with a statement from Attorney General Russell Coleman. Additional context was also added regarding an ethics opinion Rep. Jason Nemes received.

A protester at a Planned Parenthood Great Northwest rally in Boise, Idaho, holds up a sign about the EMTALA case on April 21, 2024. (Otto Kitsinger/Idaho Capital Sun)

As expected after the court said it inadvertently uploaded the opinion prematurely on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision Thursday remanding a case about emergency abortions in Idaho back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for now.

The decision was 6-3, with conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissenting. It was issued “per curiam,” meaning there is no lead author of the overall opinion.

The justices affirming the decision wrote that they determined the court took the case too early in the process. It granted the request to hear the case in January before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals could hold its own hearing on an injunction that blocked enforcement of the law against emergency room physicians who might need to perform an abortion to prevent a pregnant patient from experiencing significant health effects from infection or other conditions. The government argued Idaho could not enforce its criminal abortion ban in emergency rooms because it would violate a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which requires Medicare-funded hospitals to treat patients who come to an emergency room regardless of their ability to pay.

Loss of federal protection in Idaho spurs pregnant patients to plan for emergency air transport

When justices agreed to hear the case, the court also dropped the injunction, leaving doctors in Idaho open to prosecution under its criminal abortion ban, which carries penalties of jail time, fines and the loss of a medical license. Idaho’s civil law also allows immediate and extended family members to sue the doctors for up to $20,000 over an abortion procedure.

Idaho’s ban contains only an exception to save the pregnant patient’s life, not to prevent detrimental health outcomes, including the loss of future fertility, which is a risk with severe infection or bleeding. Without further clarity written into the law, doctors have said they can’t confidently assess when to safely intervene to save someone’s life. Rather than take the chance, high-risk obstetric specialists have airlifted patients to a facility out of state that can freely perform the procedure before it’s too late. In 2023, the state’s largest hospital system said at their facilities such transfers happened once, but occurred six times between January and April, when the injunction was lifted.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is typically conservative in her rulings, said the court’s decisions to hear the case and drop the injunction were premised on the belief that Idaho would suffer “irreparable harm” under the injunction and that the cases were ready for the court’s immediate determination. She wrote that the briefings and oral argument in April shed more light on the case, and made it clear that conscience objections were covered under EMTALA and other concerns about an interpretation that would include emergency mental health concerns did not apply.

“I am now convinced that these cases are no longer appropriate for early resolution,” Barrett wrote.

Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, president of a group of Idaho physicians who have spoken out against the ban and submitted a brief to the court in the case, said the decision is not the end of her coalition’s work.

“We are relieved by the Supreme Court’s decision,” Gustafson said. “However, this ruling addresses only a small part of the ever-increasing barriers across the health care landscape. The coalition remains committed to advocating for comprehensive policy updates to fill the gaps in healthcare access created by Idaho’s restrictive laws, which jeopardize patient safety. We will not relent until private healthcare decisions are once again at the discretion of patients and their physicians, free from political interference.”

Ahead of the decision, more than 6,000 doctors from around the country also appealed to the court to protect ER physicians, along with medical professionals in Idaho and advocacy organizations.

The case now returns to the Ninth Circuit to resume the process, but it could ultimately return to the Supreme Court at a later date.

Protesters gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, while justices hear oral arguments about whether federal law protects emergency abortion care. (Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom)

A document inadvertently uploaded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s website on Wednesday appears to indicate the court will send a case regarding emergency abortion care in Idaho back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rather than make a decision, according to reporting from Bloomberg Law.

Rather than rule on the merits, the unofficial opinion, as cited by Bloomberg, essentially says the court took the case too soon in the process. The court acknowledged the document was accidentally uploaded for a short period of time on Wednesday, and told Bloomberg an official opinion will be released “in due course.”

“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website,” said Patricia McCabe, the court’s public information officer. “The Court’s opinion in?Moyle v. United States?and?Idaho v. United States?will be issued in due course.”

According to the unofficial opinion, the decision is 6-3, with Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissenting.

The opinion, if it holds true, would reinstate the lower court’s injunction that blocked enforcement of the law as it relates to Idaho’s emergency room physicians who might need to perform an abortion when a pregnant patient is at risk of potentially serious health problems. The U.S. Justice Department sued Idaho over its near-total abortion ban in 2022 and said prosecuting physicians under those circumstances would violate the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which requires Medicare-funded hospitals to treat patients who come to an emergency room regardless of their ability to pay.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had scheduled an “en banc” hearing for the case in January, but after attorneys for the state of Idaho and religious conservative law firm Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, the Ninth Circuit hearing was vacated and so was the injunction.

Without the injunction, ER doctors are subject to the full extent of Idaho’s abortion ban, which carries penalties of jail time, fines and the loss of a medical license. Those doctors are also subject to Idaho’s civil law that allows immediate and extended family members to sue for up to $20,000 over an abortion procedure.

Idaho’s ban contains only an exception to save the pregnant patient’s life, not to prevent detrimental health outcomes, including the loss of future fertility, which is a risk with severe infection or bleeding. Without further clarity written into the law, doctors in Idaho have said they can’t confidently assess when to safely intervene to save someone’s life and avoid losing their medical license or face between two and five years in prison. Rather than gamble with someone’s life, States Newsroom reported high-risk obstetric specialists have airlifted patients to facilities out of state that can freely perform the procedure before it’s too late. In 2023, such transfers happened once, but occurred six times between January and April, according to the chief medical officer of one of Idaho’s largest health systems.

Those transfers were cited by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson as reasons for their decision to send the case back to the Ninth Circuit.

“As a practical matter, this Court’s intervention meant that Idaho physicians were forced to step back and watch as their patients suffered, or arrange for their patients to be airlifted out of ldaho,” Brown Jackson wrote in the unofficial opinion.

At a scheduled event in Boise, Idaho, on Wednesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said it was important to wait and not speculate about the opinion until it was official. But if true, Becerra said it affirmed the government’s position that anyone in America who is at risk of health problems or death should be able to seek care in an emergency room.

“Whether the care that a professional says you need to stabilize your health or to save your life is an abortion or not, the bottom line is none of us wants to be denied access to an emergency room when we need it,” Becerra said. “And (it’s) why I continue to say when Roe v. Wade was struck down, it impacted more than just abortion care — it impacted access to care, period.”

Dr. Loren Colson, a family physician in Idaho, said at the event that if the opinion holds true, it is only a small comfort to doctors in the state.

“This teeny tiny little carveout allows us as physicians in very specific scenarios to provide the care and hopefully not Life Flight people out of the state so they can go somewhere else to get the care that we can easily provide here, but it does not fix our problem here,” Colson said. “We still have a huge problem when it comes to being able to access abortion.”

The court is scheduled to release more opinions Thursday and Friday morning, and the official ruling could come on either of those days.

A lawsuit filed by attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana alleged the federal government pressured social media companies to target conservative speech across a range of topics, from the efficacy of vaccines to the integrity of the 2020 presidential election (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected arguments by Missouri and Louisiana that the federal government violated the First Amendment in its efforts to combat false, misleading and dangerous information online.

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court held that neither the states nor seven individuals who were co-plaintiffs in the case were able to demonstrate any harm or substantial risk that they will suffer an injury in the future.

Therefore, they do not have legal standing to bring a case against the federal government.

Plaintiffs failed to prove that social media platforms acted due to government coercion, Barrett wrote, rather than their own judgment and policies.?In fact, she wrote, social media platforms “began to suppress the plaintiffs’ COVID–19 content before the defendants’ challenged communications started.”

Plaintiffs cannot “manufacture standing,” Barrett wrote, “merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending.”

The ruling overturns a lower court decision that concluded officials under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump unlawfully coerced social media companies to remove deceptive or inaccurate content out of fears it would fuel vaccine hesitancy or upend elections.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who inherited the lawsuit from his predecessor, has called the federal government’s actions “the biggest violation of the First Amendment in our nation’s history.”

But those arguments were greeted with skepticism by the court in March, with justices from across the ideological spectrum punching holes in the lawsuit and raising concerns about the consequences for public safety and national security.

In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the government’s actions in this case were not ” ham-handed censorship” that the court has routinely rejected, but they were coercive and illegal all the same.

“It was blatantly unconstitutional,” he wrote, “and the country may come to regret the court’s failure to say so… If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not a message this court should send.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill released a statement on social media calling Wednesday’s ruling “unfortunate and disappointing.”

“A majority of the Supreme Court gives a free pass to the federal government to threaten tech platforms into censorship and suppression of speech that is indisputably protected by the First Amendment,” Murril said. “The majority waves off the worst government coercion scheme in history.”

In an emailed statement, Bailey made no mention of the court’s decision to dismiss the case, instead declaring that his office will continue to pursue evidence of social media censorship by the federal government.

“Missouri is not done,” Bailey said. “We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all.”

The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Missouri and Louisiana, along with seven people who either were banned from a platform or whose posts were not prominently featured on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and X, then known as Twitter.

Among the co-plaintiffs is Jim Hoft, founder of the St. Louis-based right-wing conspiracy website Gateway Pundit. Hoft has built a career on promulgating false conspiracies on a wide range of topics, from the 2018 Parkland school shooting to former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

His company recently filed for bankruptcy as it faces defamation lawsuits in Missouri and Colorado filed by people who say they faced threats after being vilified by Gateway Pundit in false stories.

During appeals court arguments last year, the attorneys general specifically cited Hoft, claiming that he is “currently subjected to an ongoing campaign by federal officials to target the content on his website.”

Hoft claims claims that Twitter, in December 2020, censored content about the Hunter Biden laptop story at the urging of the federal government. But Barrett wrote that Twitter acted according to its own rules against posting or sharing “privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent.”

There is no evidence, Barrett wrote, that Twitter adopted its policy in response to pressure from the federal government.

Benjamin Agui?aga, the solicitor general for the Louisiana attorney general, argued before the court in March that the government has no right to try to persuade social media platforms to violate Americans’ constitutional rights, “and pressuring platforms in back rooms shielded from public view is not using the bully pulpit at all. That is just being a bully.”

Emails obtained as part of the lawsuit, Agui?aga argued, show the government badgered platforms behind closed doors, abused them with profanity and “ominously says that the White House is considering its options… all to get the platforms to censor more speech.”

“Under this onslaught,” he said, “the platforms routinely cave.”

The federal government, represented by Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general, argued Agui?aga’s accusations simply don’t hold water.

There is no evidence that decisions by social media companies to remove or deprioritize content can be attributed to the government. Instead, Fletcher argued, the companies made their own decisions relying on their own content moderation policies.

There was no coercion or attempted intimidation, Fletcher said, and the best proof is that social media companies “routinely said ‘no’ to the government.”

This story is republished from the Missouri Independent, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel has resigned. (Louisville Metro Police Department)

Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel has resigned after being placed on administrative leave amid an investigation of her handling of sexual harassment allegations within the department.?

Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Tuesday that the chief’s resignation was effective immediately. He appointed Acting Chief of Police Paul Humphrey, who had been leading the department while Gwinn-Villaroel was on leave, to serve as the interim chief.?

In a statement, Greenberg said Humphrey “is fully empowered to make the decisions necessary to reduce gun violence, improve public safety, manage the department, take disciplinary action and implement the policy and priority changes we agree are necessary, particularly surrounding sexual harassment and police misconduct.”?

The mayor also thanked Gwinn-Villaroel for her service.?

“The people of Louisville expect all of us in public service to work together with integrity to make our city safer, stronger and healthier, and I am confident Interim Chief Humphrey and his team at LMPD will do that,” Greenberg said.?

Gwinn-Villaroel was suspended less than two weeks ago as a harassment allegation became public. While she was not involved in the alleged conduct, an attorney representing the initial accuser Maj. Shannon Lauder said the chief became aware of her complaint against Maj. Brian Kuriger during a command staff meeting.?

In the days following, Sgt. Lauren Carby filed a lawsuit against LMPD and alleged sexual harassment from Lauder and her husband, Lt. Jeff Lauder. Another lawsuit was filed by officer Christine Silk, who accused officers Justin LeMon and Dale Cottongim of sexually harassing her multiple times.?

Greenberg and Humphrey said immediate changes would be made to LMPD’s sexual harassment policies and procedures to more clearly define sexual harassment, improve and expand the reporting process, implement new training and add support systems for employees who report sexual harassment.?

Greenberg said it was “the beginning of what I expect to be major improvements and transformative reforms at LMPD” and more announcements will follow.??

“Let me be abundantly clear: LMPD will not tolerate sexual harassment. We are implementing significant policy updates. We have begun enhanced training and are revising and improving our reporting and handling processes,” Humphrey said. “Additionally, a variety of support systems are available for employee wellness including through our Summit Wellness Center. We are committed to accountability and fostering a safe work environment that is welcoming where all employees feel comfortable and secure.”

Gwinn-Villaroel became the permanent chief in 2023 after serving as interim chief of the department. LMPD has had six different leaders since 2020.?

In that time frame, the department has gained national criticism for various incidents, including the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, while officers were serving a no-knock warrant and, more recently, arresting professional golfer Scottie Scheffler during the PGA Championship but the charges have been dismissed.?

The City of Louisville earlier this year began negotiating a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to correct civil rights violations by the LMPD.

Gwinn-Villaroel joined the department in 2021 as deputy chief. She previously worked at the Atlanta Police Department.?

The news was happier for supporters of reproductive rights in Kentucky as they celebrated the defeat of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment in November 2022. Less than five months earlier the Dobbs decision has allowed a near-total ban on the procedure to take effect in Kentucky. (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Arden Barnes)

LOUISVILLE — Two years to the day after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, advocates and physicians in Louisville and Lexington slammed the fallout from Kentucky’s almost total ban on the procedure.

Kentucky’s U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey was in Louisville Monday morning alongside Planned Parenthood and others to say “the law in Kentucky is extreme; it is cruel, and it is harming women and families.”?

In Lexington, abortion access advocates with the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund (KRFF) announced a campaign that will include billboards, trucks and digital ads to “call attention to the harmful effects these bans have on the medical community and all Kentuckians,” said Ona Marshall, who founded KRFF and co-owned Louisville’s EMW Surgical Center, which provided abortions but closed after the ban took effect.

The billboards will go up early next month, she said.?

The campaign will also urge “Kentuckians to sign a pledge calling for an end to the state’s restrictive abortion laws.” Republicans have a supermajority in the state’s legislature, and haven’t appeared willing as a caucus to loosen the abortion restrictions.?

Several physicians who spoke out Monday against the abortion ban said Kentucky’s law is forcing them to delay care and to make decisions that are not the best for patients. Also, they said, the ban is disproportionately burdening lower-income Kentuckians who can’t afford to travel to other states where abortion is legal.

Dr. Alecia Fields, an OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in Lexington that “the aftermath” of the 2022 SCOTUS decision “has been terrifying to witness.”?

“As a doctor, I have been faced with decisions that I never thought possible,” Fields said. “Decisions that are not based on good medicine, but are driven by state law.”?

Dr. Caitlin Thomas, another OB-GYN, said unplanned and unwanted pregnancies can put Kentuckians in difficult situations.?

“Individuals who are not in physical, financial or emotional states to continue pregnancies are left with a difficult decision on whether they need to travel out of state for abortion or to continue pregnancy and suboptimal conditions,” Thomas said. “Furthermore, this creates a dichotomy where only those with means are able to have full control of their reproductive decisions, leaving those most vulnerable without appropriate options.”??

Dr. Callyn Samuel, an OB-GYN who spoke in Louisville, said she’s seeing high risk women forced to carry a complicated pregnancies to her. Providers, she said, greatly fear “legal ramifications” for treating complicated conditions.?

“We as providers now also have to fill out quite lengthy paperwork for patients who come in with simple things (like) ectopic pregnancies — that are emergencies at times — and even to the point where we’re having to fill this paperwork out before we’re able to provide care to them, which has halted their care and definitely caused harm…by not allowing their care to be performed as soon as possible,” Samuel said.?

‘Fear and intimidation’

Rebecca Gibron, the CEO of the Planned Parenthood chapter that includes Kentucky, said the ban is forcing survivors of rape into difficult decisions.?

“These survivors are forced to stay pregnant here if they can’t afford to find care outside of Kentucky,” Gibron said in Louisville.?

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022, a “trigger law” went into effect in Kentucky that banned abortions. Another law bans abortions after six weeks. Doctors have previously said many people don’t know they’re pregnant at the six-week mark.?

That same year, Kentucky voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment that would have stated definitely that? there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.

Kentucky does not have exceptions for rape or incest, though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have filed unsuccessful bills to change that in recent years. There is an exception in cases where the life of the pregnant person is at risk.?

Physicians bring message to Frankfort: Abortion bans forcing us to violate our oath to do no harm

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have argued to no avail that the restrictions Kentucky has in place are unconstitutional.?

Amber Duke, the executive director of Kentucky’s ACLU chapter, said her goal is to “keep fighting until our right to access the full range of care is restored.” The ACLU represented an anonymous plaintiff in December who said she was pregnant but didn’t want to be.?

Jane Doe and the ACLU sued then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron in an effort to access abortion in the state. Her case was dismissed a week before Christmas after her fetus lost cardiac activity and the pregnancy became nonviable.?

Marshall with KRFF said the abortion law in Kentucky is “incredibly vague related to when an abortion can be provided to save a patient’s life.”?

“Why should politicians decide how far her health must deteriorate before physicians can act? The laws create an environment of fear for doctors and hospitals alike,” Marshall said. “How do you practice medicine in an atmosphere of intentional fear and intimidation?”?

An abortion rally in downtown Nashville took protesters on a route to the Tennessee Capitol and the federal courthouse in June 2022. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

In Arizona, the state’s highest court upheld a Civil War-era abortion ban. Florida and South Carolina moved to restrict abortion to six weeks — before many people know they are pregnant. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “children,” temporarily throwing fertility treatments, such as IVF, into uncertainty and igniting a national debate.

Meanwhile, anger and fear unleashed citizen-driven ballot initiatives around the nation that sought to protect abortion access, and in some cases, competing efforts to codify no right to abortion in some state constitutions.

And amid all of that, emergency room physicians in Idaho and other states nationwide are still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether they are subject to criminal penalties for providing an abortion even during a medical emergency.

It has been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision after 50 years and ushered in the Dobbs era, allowing states to freely regulate abortion access for the first time since 1973. Dobbs triggered confusion and chaos in the reproductive health care landscape as patients and providers attempted to parse an ever-changing patchwork of laws around the country during considerable legal wrangling.

Some trends have emerged with particular salience and offer a possible preview of what is to come before and after the November election.

Ban states see as much as 26% reduction in medical residency applications

One of the most significant effects of Dobbs is among obstetric providers in the 14 states with abortion bans. The Association of American Medical Colleges published data in May showing fewer new graduates of U.S. medical schools applied to residency programs in states with bans. The decreases were particularly noticeable in ban states such as Tennessee and Alabama, with decreases of about 20% in both between 2023 and 2024.

Missouri showed one of the largest decreases at 25.7%, a drop from the previous year, which was still down almost 11%. Arizona experienced an even steeper decline of 26.4%, even though it is a state with a 15-week ban rather than a near-total ban.

Kendal Orgera, lead research analyst at the Association’s Research and Action Institute, said the data is collected between September and May 31 each year, and overall, there was an increase of just eight applicants for OB-GYN specialties nationwide.

“The biggest thing is the areas that already have problems with access to care are going to feel the impact first and foremost,” Orgera said.

Some ban states, such as Idaho and Mississippi, do not have residency programs specifically for OB care and have to rely on outside recruitment. That can make it especially difficult to fill positions in those states, Orgera said, in part because many people who match with a residency program tend to stay in that state to practice full time.

“People (who are in residency programs) are in their 20s and 30s, and they want to choose a home for the long term,” she said. “These are people who want to settle down and have families. Would a physician who wants to become pregnant choose a state with ban laws?”

It was the reason Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung left her job in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after her fellowship. In January 2023 she moved to Denver, Colorado where abortion is legal. “It became abundantly clear I had a giant target on my back as the only person doing this kind of care,’’ she told Tennessee Lookout last year. “There was nothing that anyone, including the hospital, could do to protect me from criminal prosecution.”

For now, Orgera said she can’t say with certainty whether the restrictive abortion laws are actually the reason for the drop in applications, but the Association is working on a survey that would be given to prospective residency applicants in September asking them to give those reasons.

“I’m hoping the sample size is large enough to give us some good data to work from,” she said.

Infant, maternal mortality rates expected to rise in states with restrictions

Prior to the Dobbs decision, maternal and infant mortality rates were already higher in states that attempted to restrict abortion access as much as possible without outright bans, including placing limits on who could provide an abortion and instituting waiting periods.

Now, as physicians in some states struggle to determine sometimes vague language in the law about when an abortion is deemed acceptable, pregnant patients have been forced to wait to receive care, resulting in near-catastrophic consequences. A doctor in a rural area of Idaho said in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that after a patient of hers experienced a very premature rupture of membranes, when the amniotic sac breaks, she felt forced to wait until the patient developed a serious infection called chorioamnionitis before she felt safe to intervene and terminate the pregnancy.

Florida resident Anya Cook had a similar story of her water breaking at 16 weeks — just after the deadline of 15 weeks for an abortion that existed in Florida at the time — and she was sent home. She later miscarried and hemorrhaged so much blood she nearly died.

A group of women in Texas sued the state over its abortion ban because they experienced serious medical complications and said they couldn’t receive proper treatment. The Texas Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit at the end of May, but similar lawsuits are still pending in Tennessee and Idaho.

Maternal mortality rates across the country decreased between 2021 and 2022, the last year of available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it remains much higher among Black women and higher in states with more abortion restrictions. As of 2022, the rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19.0 among white women and 16.9 for Hispanic women.

Cumulative data from the CDC between 2018 and 2022 showed Tennessee with the highest maternal mortality rate of 41.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, followed by Mississippi with 39.1 and Alabama at 38.6. All three states have high Black populations and are often classified as maternity care deserts, with entire counties that do not have hospitals or providers for obstetric care. Research has shown that maternal mortality increased between 1995 and 2017 in states that increased their abortion restrictions.

The numbers are much lower in states with broad abortion access, including California with the lowest number at 10.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, followed by Minnesota at 12.3.

The data for post-Dobbs years is still undetermined, but experts have predicted those numbers will increase further now that the procedure is criminalized for providers in 14 states. Some experts have also speculated that the data in states with bans may become less reliable as well because of fears of prosecution.

Numbers for infant mortality are consistent with the maternal mortality trends as well. The same set of CDC data between 2018 and 2022 shows the highest infant mortality rate in Mississippi, with a death rate of 8.7 infants per 1,000 births. The next highest is in Arkansas, with a rate of 7.63, followed by Louisiana with 7.56. Inadequate access to prenatal care is again cited as a contributing factor, and one recent study from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine linked abortion restrictions with an increase in unintended pregnancies among families that already struggle to access adequate health care.

“With the widening gap in comprehensive reproductive care access across the U.S., it is very concerning to consider that the current disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes will likely be exacerbated,” the study said. “Unless policies are implemented to improve the equitable access to and provision of comprehensive reproductive care, birthing individuals will have very different experiences of care and health outcomes depending on geography. This includes not only access to abortion facilities but to health insurance and access to care in rural areas.”

‘We are still in the very nascent stages’ of abortion ballot initiatives

With lawmakers and special interest groups continuing to pass abortion bans and restrictions, some citizens have taken matters into their own hands and asked voters to weigh in on what state policy on abortion should be.

So far, four state ballot initiatives meant to enshrine abortion access have officially qualified for the November ballot, in Colorado and Maryland, where access is already broadly legal, and in Florida and South Dakota, where a six-week ban and near-total ban are in effect, respectively. As of Friday, the organizers working to ensure abortion access remains in Montana said they collected more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot there as well.

Arizona, Arkansas and Nebraska face deadlines for signatures in July, according to the Fairness Project, a ballot initiative-focused group that has been assisting volunteers with financial and organizational resources in Arizona, Florida, Montana and Missouri. The Project also worked on the successful ballot initiatives in Michigan and Ohio over the past two years.

Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, said the initiatives require significant financial resources. Even if it looks like abortion-rights advocates have a lot more funding than the anti-abortion rights side, as was the case in Ohio and Kansas, the resources required to pass an initiative are vast in order to gather enough signatures and reach out to voters ahead of the election.

“They aren’t in a place where they’ve had to show any of their cards,” Hall said. “Their side is just getting to sit on whatever war chest they have to use later this year.”

Kansas was the first testing ground for a ballot measure focused on abortion in the wake of the Dobbs decision. That election took place on Aug. 2, 2022, less than two months after the opinion was released. It would have amended the state constitution to say there is no right to an abortion and given the legislature authority to then pass laws regulating and potentially banning it. It was resoundingly defeated by a nearly 59-41 point spread, and abortion is still legal in Kansas until 22 weeks.

However, legislators in Kansas have continued to pass anti-abortion measures, including a bill in April that requires providers to ask patients for the “most important reason” for their abortion before the procedure. The Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Great Plains are suing the state over the law.

Although some could take that as a negative sign of the effectiveness of successful ballot initiatives, Hall said that initiative was different because it was not affirming access to abortion. In Ohio, voters gave explicit approval to add reproductive rights to the state constitution.

“Ohio had a six-week abortion ban that was poised to go into effect,” Hall said. “The courts dismissed that ban and now … Ohio lawmakers (are) saying, ‘The voters have spoken, and you need to recalibrate your expectations. So Kansas is not the right comparator, because their lawmakers still do feel that they have a lot of wiggle room about what they can do because there’s no explicit constitutional protection.”

Hall said for as many states as there are already going after initiatives, she thinks this is just the beginning.

“We are still in the very nascent stages of reproductive rights ballot measures being a thing in this modern era,” she said.

Litigation overload is a strategy for a national ban, ACLU attorney says

One thing that’s certainly been difficult to keep track of in the post-Dobbs era is how many cases are pending in courts nationwide at the state and federal level, including two recent cases before the U.S. Supreme Court involving access to mifepristone and emergency abortion care.

Jennifer Dalven, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the firestorm of litigation is part of the overall strategy of anti-abortion activists.

“In the Dobbs majority opinion, there was this notion that the decision would somehow end litigation, and the briefs on our side certainly said that wasn’t true, that wasn’t going to happen, in part because the other side — this was never their endgame,” Dalven said. “The endgame is to ban abortion nationwide and not to stop there. Abortion is obviously at the forefront of what we’re seeing most often but we’re seeing other aspects of reproductive care, including IVF and contraception, under threat.”

While the mifepristone and ER abortion care cases are examples of anti-abortion litigation, many more lawsuits are taking place at the state and district court levels to challenge the bans and other abortion-related laws that have passed since 2022. Many challenges to the overall abortion bans have been unsuccessful, while others are still pending. Other lawsuits are still underway to preserve access to the abortion pill, to challenge abortion laws meant to restrict interstate travel, or to clarify that an abortion is permitted in medical emergencies to preserve a patient’s health, not just to prevent death. Another recent lawsuit is challenging Kansas’ recent law requiring providers to gather information about a patient’s “most important reason” for getting an abortion.

If former President Donald Trump wins in November, Dalven said she expects anti-abortion litigation and lawmaking to increase, especially if Trump follows the outline of the Heritage Foundation’s abortion and reproductive health care wish list in Project 2025.

“It’s incredibly important that people know that when they are thinking about casting their ballot in November,” she said.

Some advocates find silver linings in the past two years

Some reproductive rights scholars, even those who have been researching the issue for more than 30 years like Tracy Weitz, have found reasons to hope in the post-Dobbs era.

“I think what’s inspiring is the extent to which the resilience of the abortion delivery system has shown up,” Weitz said.

During the COVID pandemic, access to medication abortion through the mail rapidly expanded, she said, and it made it easier to ramp up that system further when the Dobbs decision came in June 2022. Now, about 18% of all abortions in the U.S. are obtained through telemedicine, particularly in states that have passed shield laws to protect providers from prosecution by other state governments where abortion is banned.

“Many of us knew that before Dobbs, access was terrible,” Weitz said. “Even in states where access was good before Dobbs … we’re seeing increased utilization of abortion because some of the barriers in those states have been reduced.”

She added that more people are realizing there is more than just one type of abortion patient — not just those who don’t want to have a baby — and both populations are hurt by abortion bans.

“I think people who banned abortions really thought you could distinguish between the kind of OB care that’s necessary when someone has a wanted pregnancy and the kind of OB care that you do in abortion, and they didn’t understand that it’s the same medical intervention,” Weitz said. “You can’t ban one without impacting the other.”

Protesters rallied in the Kentucky Capitol against anti-trans legislation, March 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to review a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth could have implications for a similar law in Kentucky.?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal asked the court to review the Tennessee law after a ruling by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. That same appellate court overturned a district judge’s decisions and also allowed Kentucky’s law to take effect last year.?

Like Kentucky’s law, the Tennessee law prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors that includes puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. The Supreme Court will consider if Tennessee’s law violates the Equal Protection clause in the 14th Amendment.?

Kentucky’s Republican-controlled General Assembly easily passed its law in the 2023 legislative session, overturning a veto from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. In addition to the ban on gender-affirming care for minors, the law included directing local school districts to make policies keeping people from using bathrooms, locker rooms or showers that “are reserved for students of a different biological sex” and placing restrictions on sex education in public schools.?

The Biden administration also requested the Supreme Court review the Tennessee case.?

In a statement, the ACLU of Kentucky said that while the court’s review does not formally include the Kentucky law, the outcome could impact Kentucky. ACLU-KY and the National Center for Lesbian Rights represent parents who are challenging Kentucky’s law.?

“Our legal team is pleased that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider reversing the Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding these cruel and unconstitutional laws,” said ACLU-KY Legal Director Corey Shapiro. “Our clients and their doctors simply want to provide the best medical care that is necessary for these amazing youth. We remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree and ultimately strike down these bans.”

According to SCOTUSblog, a decision could come from the Supreme Court in the summer of 2025 after arguments are heard in the fall.?

Hadley Duvall, left, a Kentucky woman who has emerged as an abortions rights advocate, and Vice President Kamala Harris discuss abortion access on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. (Screenshot via MSNBC)

An Owensboro woman who appeared in a pivotal campaign ad for Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection appeared on national television with Vice President Kamala Harris Monday morning.?

Hadley Duvall, who has emerged as an abortions rights advocate, sat next to the vice president to discuss abortion access in an exclusive interview that aired on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. ?

“Women today, if they’re walking in the shoes that I was in, which was pregnancy from rape, then they don’t have any option in a lot of states, and they’re at risk for having no options after the election,” Duvall said. “And that’s very terrifying.”?

Duvall and Harris spoke on the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a decision that ushered in near-total abortion bans in 14 states, including Kentucky.

After her campaign ad for Beshear aired last fall, Duvall told the Kentucky Lantern she initially wanted to share her story to help other survivors of abuse. At the age of 12, she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant, but latered miscarried. She said at the time that she immediately began “thinking about your options” after looking at a positive pregnancy test.?

“Think about what these extremists are saying to a survivor of a crime of violence to their body, a survivor of a crime that is a violation of their body, and to say to that survivor, ‘And you have no right or authority to make a decision about what happens to your body next,’” Harris said. “That’s immoral.”?

Harris said Duvall is “doing such important work to be a voice” on this topic.?

The interview aired ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate scheduled for this Thursday on CNN. Democratic President Joe Biden will face former Republican President Donald Trump, who recently said states should make decisions on abortion policies.?

Beshear, who is increasingly stepping onto a national stage, appeared with Duvall at a reproductive rights event in Nashville over the weekend and decried “extremism” in state abortion bans.?

Duvall then appeared with First Lady Jill Biden at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Kentucky’s “trigger law” immediately went into effect and banned most abortions in the state. While there are no exceptions in the law for cases of rape or incest, there are very narrow exceptions to save the life of the mother. Kentucky voters later rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to specify the state constitution does not include the right to an abortion.?

Senate Democratic Whip David Yates, of Louisville, filed a bill to add exceptions in cases of rape and incest to Kentucky’s abortion law earlier this year, but the measure did not pass. He called it “Hadley’s Law” in honor of Duvall.

A blanket given to Anne Angus at the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Colorado, one of the only clinics in the country that offers termination after the second trimester. Angus said a former patient makes the blankets, called Bananas for Annie, for others who had to terminate for medical reasons.?(Courtesy of Anne Angus)

This is the fifth installment of an occasional States Newsroom series called When and Where: Abortion Access in America, profiling individuals who have needed abortion care in the U.S. before and after Dobbs. The first installment can be found here, the second installment is here, the third is here, and the fourth is here.

Anne Angus has been ready to start growing her family for years now.

She got pregnant on her first try and felt lucky to escape the morning sickness and extreme fatigue that often comes with the first trimester of pregnancy. She quit her job in anticipation of being a full-time mom.

“It was so exciting, I was so ready,” said Angus, who lives in Montana.

She’d bought a few items off Facebook Marketplace by the time she was close to the halfway point, including a bassinet, some toys, a bouncer — and the teddy bear onesie that she holds onto when she tells the story of her doomed pregnancy.

At her routine 19-week anatomy scan, Angus’ doctor said something didn’t look right with the abdomen. But that could mean any number of things with varying degrees of severity, according to her doctor, and they wouldn’t know more until further tests could be completed. And those tests would need to be done by a team of specialists almost 700 miles away, at a children’s hospital in Denver, Colorado. Her appointment was four weeks out from the anatomy scan.

At the end of a series of tests, she met with a team of doctors at the children’s hospital to discuss the diagnosis and next steps. It was called Eagle-Barrett Syndrome, a rare genetic defect that can cause the partial or complete absence of stomach muscles, urinary tract malformations and abnormalities of the testes.

“The little glands running from the kidney to the bladder — his were three times the size of an adult’s,” Angus said. “You’re not even supposed to be able to see them at an ultrasound, let alone have them be very obvious.”

There’s a 50-50 chance her future pregnancies would have the same mutation, which led her to decide in vitro fertilization was the safer way to get pregnant and be able to test embryos prior to implantation in the uterus. But like abortion, access to IVF treatments is becoming another political argument at the state and federal level, leaving Angus to worry that her remaining option for having a child is also at risk.

Following Dobbs decision, clinic was overrun with patients

Before arriving in Denver, Angus had told her husband that even if the diagnosis was severe, she didn’t want to terminate. He understood and supported whatever decision she wanted to make, she said.

But after determining the status of the fetus’ condition, the Denver doctors started to discuss dialysis, kidney transplants, and a variety of other courses of treatment that would be needed after birth.

“All of which sounded to me like they would just be experimenting on my baby, with the experiment being, ‘How long can we keep him alive?’” Angus said. “That did not feel loving and compassionate to me.”

While talking it over with her husband, Angus said they discussed a family member who had a terminal illness.

“It has been devastating to the family to watch this person’s pain increase as they slowly fall apart over the years,” she said. “We didn’t want that for our son.”

It was at that time that they made the decision to let him go without the medical interventions and the idea that he might just slowly slip away in a neonatal intensive care unit, she said.

By that time, it was mid-October 2022, four months after the Dobbs decision that allowed states to once again regulate access to abortion and the ensuing legal and legislative chaos. One of the only places in the country where Angus could terminate at her stage of pregnancy was a clinic in Boulder, Colorado. Montana has a gestational age limit of 21 weeks for termination, so she knew she couldn’t go back home.

“That clinic (in Boulder) was overrun because all of the states that used to have access now didn’t have it, or they were being pushed until much later,” Angus said. “We had a two-week wait from when we made the decision.”

By the time she got to the intake appointment, she was at 26 weeks. There were protesters outside of the clinic, so an escort with an umbrella covered Angus and her husband as they walked inside.

“I remember feeling so much anger and rage at them. You have no idea what’s going on,” she said. “You don’t care at all about my baby’s suffering if he’s born.”

The termination was a few days later. Angus said it was difficult to face the reality of letting go of any shred of hope she had left.

“That was probably the most scared I’ve ever been. Nobody talks about what it’s like to get an abortion at the end of your second trimester. What am I supposed to feel? What’s going to happen? Who do I talk to about this?” she said.

After the procedure, the doctor told her it was a difficult process because of the amount of water retention in the fetus’ body. Angus said she could tell just by looking at him.

“I didn’t see his whole body just because of how medically fragile he was, but you could just tell that it would’ve been a really ugly death for him earthside,” she said.

Insurance didn’t cover the costs. With the travel, lodging and the price of the procedure, Angus and her husband spent $10,000 of their savings.

Frustration continues for Angus as IVF becomes new political target

Throughout 2023, Angus had many appointments for egg retrievals, but she said the process has been emotionally and financially draining.

“We are extremely lucky that my husband has benefits through his work, but we’re also at the end of (those benefits), which is why this is our last IVF retrieval cycle,” she said.

She has a planned embryo transfer in September, but if it’s not successful, she worries about future political decisions around IVF limiting her options. There is only one clinic that offers IVF treatment in Montana.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos are “children” and several IVF clinics in the state closed their doors over liability concerns. In the months since, some states have taken steps to ensure access to the treatment, but congressional bills to protect IVF federally have failed to advance and a politically influential religious sect came out against it for ethical reasons, potentially igniting more ideological battles.

The new political fight over IVF on top of her experience getting an abortion has made Angus fearful about not having explicit protection for the treatment in her state. It has also made her passionate about telling her story, including at the Montana Legislature in early 2023, when legislators did not advance a bill that would have eased some of the remaining restrictions to abortion access in the state.

Although access is still broadly available in Montana, Republicans have tried to change that since the Dobbs decision. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed several anti-abortion bills in 2023, including a 20-week ban, but they’ve so far been blocked in the courts. Gianforte continues to use executive authority to try to limit Medicaid funding and who can perform abortions.

Republicans in the legislature have also made it clear they don’t support a November ballot initiative to amend the state constitution with a right to abortion access, and at least one candidate endorsed by a national anti-abortion group is running for a congressional seat.

“I’m so angry that politicians are inserting themselves into an extremely intimate part of my life. I am trying to grow my family in a way that I can and in a way that is loving and sustainable, and they think they know better than me, and I am so insulted by that,” she said.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. (Photo by Getty Images)

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled against Biden administration guidance on how schools should protect students from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The court ruled Friday that the guidance from the U.S. Department of Education is invalid, upholding a lower court ruling. Kentucky is among the 20 states that supported the challenge to the Title IX guidance. Former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office filed briefs supporting the plaintiffs.

Most of the states in the case, including Kentucky, have bans on transgender athletes competing on school teams corresponding to their gender identity. The federal rules could have been at odds with those state laws or regulations, the plaintiffs argued.?

Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who was among the coalition of AGs, said the ban on transgender athletes “protects female students on the athletic field, as well as in bathrooms and locker rooms.”?

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Kentucky made a similar finding in a case brought by several GOP attorneys general, including Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman. That lawsuit is aimed at rules the Department of Education issued after issuing the guidance.

In a statement about that lawsuit, Coleman said the “ruling recognized the 50-plus years of educational opportunities Title IX has created for students and athletes.”?

A teacher waves to her students as they get off the bus at Carter Traditional Elementary School in Louisville on Jan. 24, 2022, in this file photo. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Two parents have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Jefferson County Public Schools’ plan to drop bus service to most magnet schools this fall, claiming it violates the rights of their children to continue education at schools they currently attend.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville Thursday, comes two months after the board of the state’s largest school system, in a highly controversial move, voted to end transportation to most magnet programs because of a shortage of bus drivers. The vote followed the chaotic beginning to the 2023 school year in which students waited hours for their school buses or missed service altogether because of a restructured transportation system.

JCPS was forced to temporarily suspend the start of classes to try to fix the system.

A JCPS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thursday’s lawsuit echoes concerns of Louisville civil rights leaders who have argued that ending school bus service to magnet schools — which provide specialized programs or training — would disproportionately affect Black and low-income students whose families lack means to transport them to schools outside their home districts.

Overall, up to 15,000 students at nearly 30 schools could be affected although JCPS has said it is working on plans to try to restore some service for magnet schools.

The JCPS action could adversely affect up to 14,000 Black students, said the lawsuit filed by Louisville lawyer Teddy Gordon, a longtime legal adversary of the school system.

“I have come out of retirement and am in poor health in order to right the terrible wrong of JCPS current actions, especially the hardship that JCPS has placed on African American students,” Gordon said in a statement.

The lawsuit claims the JCPS transportation plan violates the rights of Black students, including the plaintiffs. It also claims that JCPS violated the state open meetings law through the hastily called meeting in April when the board adopted the plan.

And it notes the plan was adopted on vote of 4-3, with four white members voting for it, and the three Black members voting no.?

The lawsuit is filed by Mary Bledsaw, of Valley Station, and Taryn Bell, of West Louisville, and claims the lack of bus service would make it impossible for their children to attend their current schools.

Bledsaw has two sons in high school magnet programs, one at Male High and the other at Central High. Neither is close to their southwest Jefferson County home and likely would force both to attend Valley High, which the lawsuit calls “one of the worst high schools in Kentucky.”

Bell has a son enrolled in a magnet program at Whitney Young Elementary and without school bus service, could not attend it any longer, the lawsuit said. Instead, he would have to attend his home school, Martin Luther King Elementary, which the lawsuit also describes as “one of the worst schools in Kentucky.”

The lawsuit asks that a judge find the transportation plan violates the civil rights of students and block the district from implementing it.

JCPS spokesman Mark Hebert said, “We just received a copy of the lawsuit and are reviewing it,”

FRANKFORT — A judicial watchdog is raising concerns about Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s endorsement of a candidate in a state Supreme Court race, an election that is supposed to be nonpartisan under Kentucky’s Constitution.?

The second-term governor will be the special guest at a fundraiser later this week for Supreme Court candidate Pamela Goodwine, a Kentucky Court of Appeals judge, according to an event flier. This November, Goodwine will compete with Erin Izzo, an attorney from Lexington, for the 5th Supreme Court District seat held by Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter who is not seeking reelection.?

The Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee — a private, nonprofit group formed in response to federal court decisions striking down restrictions on partisanship in judicial campaigns — sent a letter to Goodwine on Monday expressing concern about Beshear’s endorsement. It said executive branch members “should not be involved in judicial elections.”

The committee said that if Goodwine touts Beshear’s endorsement, it could “further blur the line between judicial and partisan elections, and have the effect of eroding public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary.”

Goodwine said in response to the committee that the governor’s endorsement is “based upon my record of impartiality, fairness and justice.”?

She added that her commitment to the judicial branch’s nonpartisan nature includes attending Republican and Democratic events, such as the Kentucky Democratic Party’s Forward Together Dinner last week, as well as a Jessamine County Republican Women’s Club meeting, Fayette County Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner and a Franklin County Democratic Executive Committee meeting.?

“Upon election to the Kentucky Supreme Court, I will continue to adhere to the highest ethical standards and, if faced with a situation where my impartiality was reasonably called into question, I would carefully consider the circumstances and if necessary recuse myself to ensure the integrity of the judicial process,” Goodwine said.?

Earlier in the day, Beshear also defended his endorsement of Goodwine during an interview with the Lantern, saying she would be “a great Supreme Court judge.”?

“Being a former practicing lawyer, I know a really great Supreme Court justice when I see it and we need quality justices,” Beshear said. “I think it’s also time for the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, and she’s earned it.”?

The Lantern asked Beshear if his involvement in Goodwine’s race and his opposition to Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools, could be politicizing those races.?

“My goal isn’t to politicize either of those races,” Beshear said. “It’s just to win them both.”?

Beshear first signaled support for Goodwine in March. She was the lone nonpartisan candidate among five endorsements made by Beshear’s PAC, In This Together. The rest were Democrats.?

Goodwine attended the Kentucky Democratic Party’s Forward Together Dinner in Louisville held Friday night on the eve of the party’s state convention. Goodwine mingled with the party faithful and received glowing endorsements in speeches from the governor and his father, former Gov. Steve Beshear.?

“And while it’s a nonpartisan race, this year we’re going to make some history. We’re going to elect the first Black woman as a Supreme Court justice,” the governor said to roaring applause.?

On Monday, Beshear said Goodwine appeared at the Democrats’ dinner as a nonpartisan candidate because she “wants to reach out to everyone.”

The Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee expressed concern about Beshear’s endorsement in its letter, arguing that Beshear’s involvement in her campaign could violate the section of the Kentucky Constitution that establishes nonpartisan judicial races.?

“The intent of that section is to separate the judiciary from partisan politics, and maintaining that separation has long been a major interest of our Committee, which is made up of Democrats, Republicans and independents. We have expressed our concerns to the governor, and now we express them to you,” the letter said.

“The Executive Branch often appears before the Kentucky Supreme Court. This could present an appearance of conflict, if not actual conflict, for any justice who was supported by the sitting governor. While a justice may recuse from a case, the governor appoints the temporary replacement justice. So, we think members of the Executive Branch, especially the governor, should not be involved in judicial elections,” the committee said in its letter to Goodwine.

The committee requested a response from Goodwine before publishing the letter and her response on its website.?

In her response, Goodwine said the most qualified candidates “receive endorsements from a wide array of individuals and organizations based upon their records of exemplary service and any person or organization could potentially be called before any member of the judiciary.”?

Goodwine also said: “Throughout my 25 years of dedicated service as a judge, I have earned respect from members of all political parties as well as a solid reputation for serving with the utmost honesty, integrity, ethics, impartiality, fairness and justice for all. I am committed to continuing to demonstrate these principles on the Kentucky Supreme Court and remaining unbiased in my decision making.

“Having served as a judge for over two decades and as a candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court, I take ethical considerations very seriously and take to heart the importance of maintaining impartiality and upholding the integrity of the judiciary. I have dedicated my life and career to serving with the highest ethical standards and base each of my judicial decisions on the law and the merits of each case.”?

Two years ago, the committee rebuked Joe Fischer, a former Republican state representative, for running an openly partisan campaign for state Supreme Court.?

Kentucky judges have been linked to partisan politics in the past. Last year, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd transferred a lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Education Association after former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron questioned Shepherd’s political contributions.?

Before that, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers hosted a fundraiser for Joe Bilby who was challenging Shepherd.?

In 2016, a U.S. district judge struck down some of Kentucky’s judicial conduct rules aimed at keeping judges and judicial candidates from expressing partisan loyalties.?

The 5th Supreme Court District is made up of Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott and Woodford counties. Beshear won seven of those eight counties in the 2023 general election.

Letter from Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee to Judge Pamela Goodwine

Used syringes are ready for safe disposal at a needle exchange clinic where users can pick up new syringes and other clean items for those dependent on illegal injectable drugs, Feb. 6, 2014 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The leader of the agency that makes grants from the state’s opioid settlements declined to support funding for a syringe-exchange program, saying Attorney General Russell Coleman does not support such programs — which are considered a key tool for reducing harm to people who inject drugs.

Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission Director Chris Evans, who works for Coleman, passed on a June 4 vote that approved a grant to the Boyle County Agency for Substance Abuse Prevention, one of 119 such county agencies.

“This application does increase outreach, which includes educational training, Narcan distribution and referrals to treatment,” Evans said. “However, the request does increase the funding of the syringe-service position, which the Office of the Attorney General does not support syringe exchange programs. So I will be passing on the vote of this application.”

Asked later why Coleman opposes syringe-exchange programs, Coleman spokesman Kevin Grout said in an email, “Attorney General Coleman is committed to supporting effective prevention, treatment and enforcement efforts. He strongly supports the distribution of Naloxone and other overdose reversal drugs. However, he cannot support syringe-exchange programs, which he believes enable drug use without effectively promoting recovery.”

Elected in November, Coleman, a Republican, is a former FBI agent and former U.S. attorney under President Donald Trump.

Syringe exchanges are supported by research. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says injection drug users who have access to syringe exchanges are five times more likely to get treatment than those who don’t. Another study says the exchanges do not encourage drug use or increase the frequency of drug use among current users.

The exchanges were authorized by the state’s 2015 anti-heroin law, in an effort to thwart the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, which are commonly spread by the sharing of needles among intravenous drug users. As of March 14, the state had 80 operational syringe exchange programs in 65 counties.

Later voting against the grant request because of their opposition to syringe exchange programs were commission members state Treasurer Mark Metcalf and retired Master State Trooper Darren “Foot” Allen, whom Coleman appointed to fill a slot representing law enforcement. Allen said, “There’s some people that I trust that tell me this is okay. However, I’m just not in favor of needle exchange. I suspect that this time next year, I won’t change my position but I am open to looking at that option,” he said.

Despite the opposition, Boyle County’s ASAP grant request for $282,610 passed with a 6-2 majority vote. The commission is comprised of nine voting and two non-voting members from the legislature.

Third round of grants approved

The Boyle County grant was the only one put up for a vote that had any opposition at the commission’s June 4 meeting. In all, the commission members approved 51 organizations to receive just over $12 million in grant money.

The legislature created the commission to distribute the state’s portion of the approximately $900 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors, half of which goes to the state and the other half goes to cities and counties. The commission is housed in the attorney general’s office and is headed by Evans, a former chief operating officer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Of the $12 million in this round of grant money, 28 of the awards were given for treatment and recovery, and 23 were given for prevention. This is the third round of state grants, with $32 million awarded to 59 groups in the first round and $13.9 million awarded to 34 groups in the second round.

Asked for brief details of each grant, Grout said they would be announced next Thursday at a press conference at DV8 Kitchen-East End in Lexington, one of the grant recipients.

The 28 new treatment and recovery grants are:

Appalachian Regional Healthcare, $94,572.

Backroads of Appalachia, $167,025.

Boyle County ASAP Board, $282,610.

Celebrate Recovery Fairdale, $30,004.

Center for Employment Opportunities, $255,109.

Chrysalis House, $227,273.

Comprehend Inc., $426,087.

Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, $450,000.

Family Nurturing Center of Kentucky, $221,937.

Family Scholar House, $245,110.

Grin Grant, Lexington, $361,251.

Hope Center, Lexington, $680,280.

Hope Springs Church, $50,462.

Horsesensing Inc., $115,219.

Isaiah House, $250,000.

Ky. Hospital Research and Ed. Foundation (Ky. Hospital Assn.), $250,000.

Lake Cumberland Area Development District, $277,552.

Life Learning Center, $498,500.

Mercy Health – Marcum and Wallace Hospital, Irvine, $179,834.

Natalie’s Sisters, $88,356.

Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization, $331,997.

Ramey-Estep Homes, $222,801.

Recovery Café Lexington, $276,278.

Transitions Inc., $156,000.

Voices of Hope – Lexington, Inc., $538,021.

Volunteers of America Mid-States, $664,587.

Four Rivers Behavioral Health, $232,251.

Young People in Recovery, $301,440.

The 23 new prevention grants are:

Anderson County ASAP, $171,100.

Appalachian Research & Defense Fund (Legal Aid), $125,000.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass, Inc., $185,301.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana, $200,000.

Carter County Public Library, $101,500.

Covington Partners, $225,450.

Cumberland Trace Legal Services (Legal Aid), $125,000.

DV8 Kitchen Vocational Training Foundation and DV8 Kitchens, $151,730.

Girl Scouts of Kentucky Wilderness Road Council, $59,052.

Jewish Family and Career Services, $77,207.

Legal Aid Society, $125,000.

Legal Aid of the Bluegrass, $125,000.

Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital, $76,552.

Operation Parent, $87,011.

The Safety Blitz Foundation, $126,335.

Scott County Sheriff’s Office, $91,847.

Taylor County Schools, $208,824.

Three Rivers District Health Department, Owenton, $320,803.

University of Kentucky Research Foundation, $380,572.

Operation UNITE, $751,850.

Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation, $90,472.

WestCare Kentucky, $100,404.

Young Men’s Christian Association of Greater Louisville, $248,487.

The grant application portal is closed until the commission opens it for the next round of awards.

This article is republished from Kentucky Health News, ?an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Jaquan Porter, 25, says that at a time when he "worried about surviving more than being a kid" Kentucky's juvenile justice system brought structure to his life. He also says the system failed him on multiple levels and that he was later diagnosed with anxiety and other mental health conditions. Porter says having a mentor when he was a teenager would have helped him. (Photo provided)

A state law taking effect next month will require more kids charged with violent offenses to be held in Kentucky’s troubled juvenile jails — at a time when all eight of the youth detention centers are under federal investigation for possible abuses.

That worries Devine Carama, who directs the One Lexington program to tackle gun violence in Fayette County.??

“In no other system would you allow that,” said Carama. “If there’s an investigation that’s this deep and wide, and it’s coming from a federal perspective, I don’t think the time is (right) to implement policy that puts more young people into the system.”

Cortney Downs, chief equity officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, agrees that it doesn’t make sense to place more children in a system that’s troubled enough for the federal government to be investigating it.?

The U.S. Department of Justice announced last month that it is investigating Kentucky’s Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) for possible excessive use of force, prolonged and punitive isolation, inadequate protection from violence and sexual abuse, as well as whether mental health and educational services are available to juveniles in eight detention centers and one youth development center.

The federal investigation follows reports in recent years of understaffing and? violence, including a riot in the Adair Youth Detention Center during which a girl in state custody was allegedly sexually assaulted and a report that employees were attacked at a youth detention center in Warren County. State Auditor Allison Ball in January issued a report that raised multiple concerns including the use of isolation, tasers and chemical agents against juveniles.

Black youth are overrepresented in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system, the Lantern has reported. ?

Downs also worries about another new state law that will allow more minors to be tried as adults and that could increase the number of juveniles in detention.?

“These facilities are still understaffed,” she said. “And so if you’re bringing in more kids, but you don’t have more staff to supervise these kids, manage these kids, we could potentially just continue seeing more of the same issues that we have been seeing.”?

The mandatory 48-hour hold for some accused juveniles was approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Andy Beshear in 2023 as part of broader juvenile justice legislation. Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, tried to delay its implementation this year in a bill that did not pass. ?

As a result, the state must soon detain juveniles who, under the previous law, could have been deemed eligible for release to their families while awaiting a detention hearing.

Morgan Hall, a spokesperson for the Justice & Public Safety Cabinet, said the federal investigation “does not alter current state law.”?

The system has increased employees from 315 to 458 in the last year in preparation for the juvenile population bump, though Hall said “it is difficult to anticipate the potential impact in population numbers” right now.?

The department is also “actively recruiting” licensed clinical social workers to provide required mental health assessments for those coming into the system charged with violent crimes, Hall said.?

“The Beshear administration remains focused on creating safe and secure facilities while making the investments needed to support our at-risk youth in mental health treatment, alternatives to detention, second chance opportunities, education, and employee training,” Hall said.??

‘Apples and oranges’?

Through One Lexington, Carama works with youth who are considered high risk for entering a cycle of violence. Risk factors, identified by school officials, include poverty, food insecurity or having come from a background of violence or a fatherless home. Those children are then partnered with a peer mentor who can give them a sense of community and fill gaps in their lives.

Homicides and nonfatal shootings dropped significantly in Lexington in 2023, the Herald-Leader reported. The decline in violent crime was widespread across the country; still, Lexington officials attribute at least part of the drop in shootings to One Lexington’s work.?

Having a mentor like One Lexington offers would have helped Louisville’s Jaquan Porter who was 14, he says, when he was arrested and incarcerated for robbery. He feels his childhood lacked guidance.?

Porter stayed in the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) system until he was 17. In his alternative program, staff dropped him off at school in a van and picked him up at the end of the day. Now 25, he just got his driver’s license and high school diploma, and plans to start college this fall.?

He’s well on his way to building the life he wants, but he feels like formative teenage years were robbed from him by a system he says failed him on multiple levels.?

Porter isn’t proud of his actions as a young teenager, but, at the time, he said, he didn’t see a way around it.?

The Louisville boy needed food and clothes. So, he stole.?

“I had to worry about survival,” he said. “When I was 14, I was worried about surviving more than being a kid.”?

“I was teaching myself while learning,” he said. While DJJ provided his life with some structure, he said, he left feeling alone again and not equipped to handle the real world.?

Carama says Kentucky should develop juvenile justice policy from a trauma-informed perspective.

“When I go to Frankfort, I hear a lot of lawmakers talk about their upbringing,” he said. “I hear a lot of people reference gun culture in rural areas and use that to compare some of these kids who are growing up in urban areas and I think those are two mistakes. Because, one, it’s apples and oranges.”?

Gun culture in the country and city are “totally different,” Carama said.?

In rural areas, “they’re passing down pistols as family heirlooms. There is wildlife in their immediate surroundings to where hunting is a sport, a family tradition,” Carama said. “They’re not passing down pistols as family heirlooms (in the) East End in Lexington. It’s trauma that’s being passed down. There is no hunting that’s happening in the west end of Louisville.”?

The rate of firearm deaths among Kentucky youth and adolescents was already higher than the national rate when it increased 42% during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Before the pandemic, 2017-2019, there were 3.3 firearm deaths per 100,000 Kentucky kids. From 2020-2022, that increased to 4.7.?

Nationally, the rate increased from 2.4 per 100,000 kids in 2019 to 3.5 in 2022.?

Stigma feeds the cycle?

One Lexington is starting to see more second-generation youth who get involved in gun violence, Carama said. Sometimes that looks like a 5-year-old whose parent was shot growing into a teenager who turns to crime.?

“I think it’s the way trauma works,” Carama said. Some people who experience a trauma try to avoid a similar fate at all costs. Others lean into what they know, he said. “A lot of times, you become the very thing that has destroyed you and your family.”?

One way to break the cycle, Carama said, is to destigmatize mental health issues.?

“There is a physical and mental health lack of access” in some communities, he said. And: “There’s a stigma in brown and Black communities when it comes to mental health.”?

Prevention and early intervention are critical, Downs with KYA said. “The research has consistently said that the younger a child is when they get locked up or get involved with the justice system, the more likely they are to recidivate later in life,” Downs explained.?

Negative impacts of incarceration include missing out on educational or career opportunities, she said.?

Making sure people don’t view mental health with a stigmatized lens and making sure they have resources to work on their minds are key to breaking cycles of violence, Carama said.?

Porter says he was diagnosed with several mental health issues, including anxiety, after his incarceration.?

While in the system, “I didn’t have (anyone) to call on,” he said. “It built up so much trauma to my life.”?

Even now, it’s difficult for him to look at the justice system positively, he said. “How can I depend on someone when they already let me down?”?

‘Significant negative impacts’?

It’s “going to take a while” to finish the Justice Department investigation and develop and implement an improvement plan, Downs said. Meanwhile, more juveniles will be entering a system that’s failing them with “significant negative impacts on kids, on their mental health.”

“I’m glad that . . . something is potentially going to be done and that there’s going to be some oversight,” Downs said. “But it’s also just disappointing that things have been able to deteriorate as much as they have to the point where this is even needed.”

Porter now works with REFORM Louisville, a group within KYA that works to improve options for young people and advocate for good juvenile policy. He works with several community organizations to offer youth mentorship he lacked.

“Anything’s possible,” he said. “I went from having literally nothing to having a whole lot.? I pushed myself. I self-motivated…I never stopped, I never gave up.”??

Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, right congratulated Rep. Mike Johnson, on his election as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Oct. 25, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Republicans in Kentucky’s congressional delegation have denounced the guilty verdicts against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, while the lone Democrat said the New York jury has shown that in this country “no one’s above the law.”

The Republican Party of Kentucky (RPK) posted a statement Thursday night blaming the Biden administration for Trump’s prosecution and conviction and saying that the “overwhelming majority of Kentuckians firmly stand with President Trump.”

The RPK accused the Biden administration of strategically placing the case in “one of the most liberal legal venues in the country,” even though Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan and the case against him was prosecuted by Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s elected district attorney.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

Shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday, McConnell’s account on X posted: “These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.”

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul on X

“How long can our Republic survive once partisans have taken over the judicial process? This verdict will tragically undermine Americans’ confidence in impartial justice. A sad day for America…”

U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-1st District

“Today is a sad day for all Americans. This verdict in New York is another example of Democrats being relentless in their pursuit to weaponize the courts, abuse America’s judicial system, and target President Joe Biden’s political opposition. One thing is clear: Democrats are afraid to face Donald Trump. Americans will make their voices heard this November.”

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-2nd District

“This was a baseless trial brought by a partisan hack prosecutor solely to stop President Trump from regaining the White House. This kangaroo court is an insult to the American justice system and to the very foundation of our constitutional democracy. This is an outlandish abuse of our criminal justice system.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-3rd District

“A New York jury has spoken: Donald Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a felony (34 to be exact). In America, no one’s above the law. Donald Trump is now a convicted felon. He is also the presumptive Republican nominee for president and he is unfit to serve in any public office, especially President of the United States.”

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-4th District

“Guilty on 34 counts, but no underlying crime. Partisan hacks serving as judges, investigators, and prosecutors have turned our legal system into a farce at both the state and federal level.”

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-5th District, on X

“Trump’s trial was an outrage & deeply unfair. It’s a political travesty & will be reversed on appeal. It is a weaponization of the courts for political gain. Biden forces claim victory, but it will backfire & elect Trump. They claim they won this battle, but we will win the war.”

Rep. Andy Barr, R-6th District

“A corrupt New York district attorney pursued this conviction through a sham trial of President Trump, marked by outrageous and unconstitutional tactics. It won’t stop me and millions of Americans from acquitting the President of these politically motivated charges and sending him back to the White House in November.
“After four years of record high inflation, open borders, and foreign policy disasters, Joe Biden has another five months before he will be sentenced to permanent retirement by the American people.”

Women work in a restaurant kitchen in Chicago in March 2023. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a new workplace anti-discrimination law that was passed by Congress with wide bipartisan support, has become fodder in the abortion rights battle between Republican-led states and the federal government. Nam Y. Huh/The Associated Press

Natasha Jackson was four months pregnant when she told her supervisor she was expecting. It was 2008, and Jackson was an account executive at a rental furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina — the only female employee there.

“I actually hid my pregnancy as long as I could because I was scared about what could happen,” she said.

When her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 25 pounds, her employer wouldn’t let her move temporarily to a role where she didn’t need to lift furniture, even though those roles were available, she said. She was forced to go on leave and then lost her job. Her marriage unraveled and she spent time after the birth in emergency housing.

“That hardship affected me years on, and it took away the joy of being pregnant,” said Jackson. “They made me feel guilty and ashamed for having a baby.”

Pregnant workers have new protections. Here’s what to expect from your boss.

Jackson, now 41 and a mother of four who owns her own cleaning company, has spent years working with advocacy groups to fight for better laws to protect pregnant workers. Last year, she was invited to speak at a White House event celebrating the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a new workplace anti-discrimination law for which she had advocated.

But now this law, passed with wide bipartisan support, has become fodder in the bitter battle over abortion rights between Republican-led states and the federal government.

The act fills gaps in state and federal protections by requiring employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant workers and those who have recently given birth or have related medical conditions — unless the employer can prove it would cause “undue hardship” on the business.

Accommodations can include allowing an employee to take additional bathroom breaks, carry a water bottle, or sit instead of stand while on the job. After years of lobbying by nonprofit organizations and business groups, the federal law passed in December 2022. It went into effect last June.

In its rulemaking process, the Biden administration included abortion as a “related medical condition” covered by the law. That means employees seeking abortion care can ask for accommodations from their employers, such as time off work for an appointment or recovery.

This year, 19 Republican attorneys general — including from Jackson’s home state of South Carolina — have sued the administration over that interpretation.

“It seems quite ridiculous to me that some employers want so much control over employees to the point that they feel like they have the right to threaten their job security because of pregnancy or anything associated with it.” – Natasha Jackson, mom of four who once lost her job after asking for pregnancy accommodations? ? ?

The AGs argue the Biden administration is forcing abortion accommodations even in states where abortions are illegal.

“Under this radical interpretation of the PWFA, business owners will face federal lawsuits if they don’t accommodate employees’ abortions, even if those abortions are illegal under state law,” Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement last month announcing the lawsuit filed by Arkansas and 16 other Republican-led states.

But some advocates say the lawsuit threatens protections for all pregnant workers covered under the new law — not just the small subset who need abortion care.

“These states are cutting off their noses to spite their faces,” said Elizabeth Gedmark, an attorney and vice president of A Better Balance, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that provides legal services and has long pushed for a national Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

“These attacks have very real consequences for peoples’ lives and for their economic security and health,” she said.

Jackson fears the lawsuit could lead to fewer workers accessing the care they need to be healthy.

“[Workers] should have the right to proper medical care during pregnancy, after childbirth, after having a miscarriage, or having an abortion,” she said. “It seems quite ridiculous to me that some employers want so much control over employees to the point that they feel like they have the right to threaten their job security because of pregnancy or anything associated with it.”

Into the fray

After Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency known as the EEOC, had to hammer out a set of rules that clarify what employers can and can’t do under the law.

So last summer, the EEOC sought public comment on its proposed rules for how the new law would work. More than 100,000 comments were submitted over a two-month period.

The flood of comments stemmed from opinions about whether the EEOC should include abortion in its definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions” that are covered under the new law.

The vast majority were nearly identical form comments, according to the EEOC. About 54,000 of the comments urged the EEOC to exclude abortion, while about 40,000 supported its inclusion.

In a 3-2 vote, the EEOC ultimately adopted new rules that included abortion care in its definition of conditions covered under the law. The rules are set to go into effect June 18.

But in April, a week after the EEOC announced its final rules, the 17-state coalition of GOP attorneys general argued in its lawsuit that the agency’s “erroneous interpretation” of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act creates an “abortion accommodation mandate.”

“When the law was passed by Congress, it was explicitly understood not to address abortion at all, and the text of the statute does not address abortion,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who is co-leading the lawsuit with Arkansas’ Griffin.

Skrmetti and the other Republican attorneys general point to comments made by lawmakers during debate on the measure that appear to signal Congress’ intent was not to impose abortion-related requirements in states where those abortions would be illegal.

Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who sponsored the pregnant workers bill, said during debate that the EEOC “could not issue any regulation that requires abortion leave, nor does the act permit the EEOC to require employers to provide abortions in violation of state law.”

The 15 other states joining the lawsuit are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

More states have jumped into the fray. In mid-May, Louisiana’s and Mississippi’s attorneys general, both Republicans, filed their own lawsuit challenging the same provision.

And in February, a federal judge in Texas blocked the EEOC from accepting complaints filed by Texas state employees under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. It was a win for Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had sued the Biden administration last year.

Protections at risk

Skrmetti, the Tennessee attorney general, believes the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a good law.

“It was passed with a degree of bipartisanship that you rarely see,” he told Stateline, “and it undermines the efforts of Congress and the popular will when agencies take laws and change them without the authority of the people’s representatives.”

But Gedmark, of A Better Balance, said decades of legal precedent support including abortion as a related medical condition for pregnant workers. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, a federal law passed in 1978, prohibits sex discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions — a definition that the EEOC has long interpreted to include abortion.

Proponents of the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the EEOC’s rules worry the lawsuits will sow confusion among employers and employees. There’s concern, Gedmark said, that a court could render more of the regulations invalid, beyond those that mention abortion.

Skrmetti doesn’t think the 17-state lawsuit will hurt the law’s protections for pregnant, postpartum and lactating workers.

“The optimal outcome would be for the abortion-related pieces of the rule that aren’t supported by the statute to be vacated,” he said. “But the law remains the law regardless of what the [EEOC’s] rules are.”

While states and the feds clash in court, Jackson said she’s focused on making sure as many women as possible know about their new rights.

Whenever she’s out shopping and spots a pregnant store employee, she asks how they’re doing. She asks if they know about their workplace rights, and how to ask their employers for the accommodations they need.

“Whether a mother decides to have an abortion or not, she still needs medical care after the procedure, the same as she would need medical care if she had a miscarriage or regular childbirth,” Jackson said. “I believe that employers need to know the difference between personal [ideology] and business.”
This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the States Newsroom network of nonprofits.

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Hopscotch House, established in 1987 as a retreat for women writers and artists, is located off Wolf Pen Branch Road in eastern Jefferson County. (Photo from Salliebingham.com)

LOUISVILLE — Tucked away on a 412-acre farm in eastern Jefferson County, Hopscotch House, a rambling, five-bedroom farmhouse dating to 1848, was envisioned as a peaceful sanctuary for women artists and writers when the Kentucky Foundation for Women acquired it in 1987.

But its plan to sell the house has triggered an acrimonious battle with philanthropist Sallie Bingham, who launched the non-profit foundation to support female writers and artists in Kentucky and has filed a lawsuit to try to block the sale.

“There didn’t seem to be any way of persuasion,” said Bingham, who founded the foundation nearly 40 years ago with proceeds from the sale of her family’s media companies including The Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times newspapers.

A major complication: Hopscotch House, on a 10-acre site, is surrounded by Wolf Pen Branch Mill Farm, owned by Bingham, who placed the entire farm in a conservation easement to bar development.

The farmhouse, off Wolf Pen Branch Road on a small island of land inside her farm, is listed for sale at $2.75 million.

“I don’t want to see it broken up and some strip mall put in or houses or whatever,” said Bingham, who now lives in New Mexico and operates the farm primarily as a wildlife refuge.

Bingham filed a lawsuit in March in U.S. District Court, demanding that the foundation drop the planned sale and honor her initial vision for Hopscotch House as a retreat for women artists and writers.?

“Creativity demands that women be allowed to retreat, at times, from their world and their obligations,” said the lawsuit, quoting Bingham, who was the foundation’s first executive director. “Hopscotch provides the setting for such retreats.”

As an alternative, her lawsuit proposes the foundation be ordered to turn Hopscotch House over to her or to a Kentucky charity of her choosing.

Complicated tax rules governing nonprofit foundations prevent her from buying the property herself, Bingham said.

There is no contract specifying the use of the farmhouse the foundation owns. Bingham said her original plan for establishing the foundation was by agreement among “friends who understood what I was talking about.”

‘Lacks basic amenities’

The foundation, which no longer uses Hopscotch House for workshops and retreats, has fired back, in a counterclaim calling Bingham’s lawsuit a “malicious, coordinated effort” to block the sale, discourage potential buyers and diminish the property’s value.

The aging farmhouse, which the foundation bought in 1987, needs extensive renovation and its isolated location deters some women from attending events out of safety concerns, its lawsuit claims. Further, lack of reliable internet and water service have become increasingly problematic.

“The house lacks basic amenities that female artists use in the 21st century,” the lawsuit said.

Internet access is outdated and spotty and the farmhouse has no outside water source; it relies on a cistern with water supplied by truck. Upgrades would be extremely costly and likely impossible because the conservation easement protecting the farm restricts construction, digging or disruption to the surrounding property, it said.

Bingham’s true motivation, the counterclaim says, is to block the sale and potential development of the Hopscotch House property, which she has proposed placing in a conservation easement that would enhance the value of her surrounding farm.

The counterclaim, filed by lawyers with Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs, accuses Bingham of defamation through comments and posts on her website, SallieBingham.com, and of breaching her duty as a former executive director of the foundation.

In a reply filed by her lawyers with the Denton Bingham Greenebaum firm, Bingham denies the allegations, dismissing them as a “kitchen sink full” of meritless claims.

“This lawsuit concerns the foundation’s brazen attempt to sell off for its own financial gain certain real property located in the middle of Ms. Bingham’s historic Wolf Pen Branch Mill Farm,” the lawsuit said, property intended to be used for “retreats and residencies for women artists.”

The case, assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III, is pending.

Meanwhile, efforts to sell the property have stalled, said Sharon LaRue, executive director.

Bingham controls access to the site and informed the real estate agent she did not have permission to drive through the farm property to show the home, the foundation’s lawsuit said. This caused the agent to cancel one showing and has left potential buyers in doubt about access to the property, it said.

Further, the legal battle is interfering with the foundation’s main purpose — to use proceeds from the endowment from Bingham to fund the work of women writers and artists throughout Kentucky, LaRue said.

The foundation awards about $350,000 a year in grants, sponsors artists and writers and hosts workshops and retreats.

“This process is keeping us from doing our mission,” LaRue said.

Bingham acknowledged it may be a protracted battle.

“I think we’re in for a long process of legal maneuvering to try to force the foundation to do what it was intended to do,” she said.

The Bingham break-up

The year was 1986 when Barry Bingham Sr., the head of the family-owned Kentucky media empire, shocked the community and made national headlines with the news he was putting the companies — which included two newspapers, WHAS TV and radio stations and Standard Gravure printing — up for sale.

The year before, Sallie Bingham — one of three Bingham siblings who held shares in the family-owned companies — began planning the foundation, which she expected to fund with her share from the sale. She already had been attempting to sell her 15% share in the company, which media watchers said helped trigger the sale.

In a piece on her blog, Bingham said it was her time at the newspaper that inspired her to create the foundation.

“I was aware from my years as book editor at the Courier-Journal of the amount of work that women did at the Bingham companies; almost entirely in lower-paid jobs such as distributing mail, cooking and serving in the company cafeteria, working as secretaries, or cleaning,” Bingham wrote. “These women were about to lose their jobs with the sale of the company.”

Bingham decided to create and endow a foundation that would support and help fund women artists working for social change.

Bingham served as the foundation’s first director from 1985 until her 1991 move to New Mexico.

Bingham, in an interview, said she relinquished management to the board and a new executive director.

“I felt it was better, since I was not going to be living in Kentucky, not to be hovering over the foundation,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bingham had begun acquiring two tracts that make up her Wolf Pen Branch farm.?

When the farmhouse and five acres of land became available, the foundation, under her direction, bought it from the owners with the intent of making it a retreat for women artists and writers. Later, Bingham said five acres and a smaller house? contiguous to the farmhouse became available, which she bought and donated to the foundation.

Bingham, in a blog post, said she named the farmhouse Hopscotch House “because I want the women there to have fun.”

Changing mission

The foundation initially was started with a plan to “spend down” its funds in order to help as many writers and artists as possible, the foundation’s court filing said.

But Bingham later changed the mission to one of maintaining and investing the endowment and using proceeds to fund individuals, it said. The endowment has grown to about $16 million and gives away about 5% of its income annually.

Hopscotch House was meant to be the center of its activities but over time, began to be less feasible as a site for hosting women from across the state, LaRue said.

The 2020 COVID pandemic forced it to suspend hosting group events at the site and because of the need for repairs and other limitations, the foundation ended use of the site in 2022.

It instead has been hosting workshops and retreats through a partnership with the Sisters of Loretto on their campus in Marion County, which LaRue said is more suitable for its participants with lodgings, a dining hall, internet access and other amenities.

In a newsletter sent to members in March 2024, the foundation staff and board members said the foundation had sought professional advice on possible upgrades and repairs to Hopscotch House and learned they would be very costly and difficult to achieve.?

The foundation also surveyed participants for their opinions.

Some mentioned concerns about personal safety, because of the remoteness of the site. Others, including women of color, mentioned not feeling comfortable in the affluent, Eastern Jefferson County neighborhood. Others said they preferred a site in closer driving distance.

“Everyone wanted updated electricity, a sustainable water source, better internet/Wifi options” and other improvements, it said.

After considering these and other factors, the board decided to sell the property, it said.

LaRue said the foundation is seeking to further its mission while adjusting to changing times and needs of artists and writers it supports.

For example, contemporary philanthropy promotes meeting needs of recipients rather than dictating terms. That might involve funding someone’s trip to a conference or providing a grant for an artist or writer to choose a location to work.

“Trust-based philanthropy is the big thing right now,” she said. “People know what they need. We want our community to be part of the decision making.”

LaRue said she and the board remained focused on that mission, but the lawsuit has complicated it, blocking access to funds from the potential sale of Hopscotch House and causing it to spend money on costly legal fees.

“We are still giving out grants, but we are blocked from any action on the house,” LaRue said.

The Adair Youth Detention Center, site of a riot in late 2022, is one of the Kentucky facilities under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. (Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet)

The mood was celebratory as Kentucky and federal officials crowded into the Capitol Rotunda on a cold January day in 2001 to announce the end of five years of federal oversight of the state’s problem-ridden juvenile justice system.

“We’re never going to slide back to where we were in 1995,” said then-Juvenile Justice Commissioner Ralph Kelly. “We know we’re on the road to victory.”

But slide back Kentucky has — despite sweeping reforms enacted under a 1995 federal consent decree that advocates say, by the early 2000s, made it a national model for rehabilitating young offenders.

Now, Kentucky faces the threat of renewed federal oversight after the U.S. Justice Department announced May 15 it is opening an investigation into whether conditions at eight juvenile detention centers and one residential center for offenders violate civil rights of youths.

In a letter to Gov. Andy Beshear, the department said it is investigating possible excessive use of chemical force (pepper spray) and physical force by staff, failure to protect youths from violence and sexual abuse, overuse of isolation and lack of mental health and educational services

And longtime observers of the system who have watched the downward slide — including Earl Dunlap, a juvenile justice expert appointed by the federal authorities? to monitor Kentucky’s compliance with the 1995 consent decree — say it didn’t have to happen.

“Disgusting and sad,” is how Dunlap described it. “You had people in leadership in Kentucky who should not have allowed this to happen. You went from nothing to something and then right back to nothing.”

Dunlap, who is semi-retired and lives in Illinois, said he became so concerned about reports of problems in juvenile justice that in March 2023, he wrote to Beshear warning him of the risk of failing to fully address problems.

While congratulating Beshear on efforts to reform juvenile justice, Dunlap added in his letter he feared such efforts might fall short of federal standards and result in future litigation.

Dunlap said he offered to provide the administration with assistance for reform efforts but did not get a reply.

Beasher’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Dunlap’s letter.

But Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said his organization has found the Beshear administration uninterested in outside input when it comes to juvenile justice, calling it a “closed shop.”

“Not only has there not been any outreach, there has not been a response to folks trying to reach out,” he said.

Problems build for years

Brooks said while problems have been building over the years in juvenile justice, Beshear, now in his second term, and lawmakers ultimately bear responsibility.

“This is clearly on the Beshear administration and the General Assembly,” he said. “Clearly the governor and the General Assembly abrogated their responsibility.”

Beshear defended his administration’s efforts to upgrade juvenile justice in a statement released Tuesday by Morgan Hall, spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Justice and Public Safety.

“In response to violent outbreaks and to enhance security for staff and youth, the Beshear-Coleman administration developed an aggressive plan starting in December 2022 to implement sweeping improvements to Kentucky’s juvenile justice system, for the first time since its creation nearly 25 years ago,” it said.

In December, Beshear announced the state would open a detention center for females only in Campbell County following the sexual assault of a female detainee in Adair County.

Beshear also has sought to address acute staffing shortages by increasing starting pay for youth workers to $39,127 a year and the General Assembly approved about $138 million a year each year in additional juvenile justice funds for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

It also has worked to upgrade medical and mental health services, the statement said.

Efforts also are underway to reopen the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center, which Louisville Metro Council decided to stop funding in 2019 after operating it for nearly 40 years. That forced the state to take on housing juvenile detainees, some in distant counties at understaffed facilities, far away from families and requiring long drives back and forth for court appearances.

Dunlap calls that a huge blunder.

“The ramifications were that the largest volume of kids in the state had to be transported elsewhere,” he said. “It was just plain ridiculous.”

‘Take the initiative’

The legislature, under pressure from the 1995 consent decree, in 1996 created the Department of Juvenile Justice to oversee youths charged with and convicted of offenses, which previously had fallen under the Cabinet of Health and Family Services.

While the previous federal investigation focused on residential centers, where youths found guilty of offenses were sent for treatment, the state also elected to create a system of new regional detention centers to hold children with pending charges. Previously, in many counties, children were held in adult jails, generally in separate units.

Masten Childers II, health cabinet secretary for former Gov. Brereton Jones, said the state went beyond requirements of the consent decree.

Childers, who? oversaw negotiation of the 1995 consent decree with federal authorities, said he was “surprised and disappointed” to learn Kentucky once again is subject to a civil rights investigation of its juvenile facilities.

“If our consent decree had been followed, we would not be talking about this,” he said.

Still, he thinks the Beshear administration can use the investigation to improve the system should it result in federal enforcement.

“Kentucky needs to take the initiative,” he said. “This is not the time to be defensive.”

‘No win here’

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill and longtime proponent of juvenile justice reform, said he’s concerned that the state’s system is becoming more like an adult prison model instead of one focused on rehabilitation and treatment of youths, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and have mental health issues.

The current Juvenile Justice Commissioner, Randy White, appointed by Beshear in March, is a 27-year veteran of the state adult prison system.

“The extent to which we make our system for kids more like a corrections facility and less a place for opportunities for kids, the more harm we’re going to do in the long run,” Westerfield said. “The more we approach it as a baby prison, the more damage we’re going to do.”?

Westerfield said he’s saddened that problems with Kentucky’s juvenile justice system have attracted attention of federal authorities but hopes it results in improvements.

“If this is what it takes, then that’s a good thing,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said, he’s concerned that the juvenile justice system is struggling even as Kentucky lawmakers enact tougher laws on juvenile offenders, citing misleading claims that today’s youths are more violent or that juvenile crime is increasing.

“Juvenile crime is not worse. It’s dropping,” he said. “Adult crime is dropping.”

Juvenile crime has been falling steadily and in 2020, was at its lowest level since 2005, according to a U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report last year.

Still his fellow lawmakers rely on anecdotal events or a headline-grabbing crime as a reason to enact tougher laws, including one that takes effect July 1 to require mandatory, 48-hour detention for youths charged with serious crimes, Westerfield said. That has the potential to send an additional 400 youths a year into state juvenile detention facilities even as those facilities come under investigation by federal authorities.

“There’s no win here except the political victory for the sponsors and for the people who voted for it,” Westerfield said. “They’s going to get to say they’re tough on crime.”

‘Damn pepper spray’

The current federal investigation focuses on the eight detention centers and one residential center, the Adair Youth Development Center, the site of a November 2022 riot, resulting in a serious injury to staff and sexual assault of a female youth. In addition to those facilities the state operates five other youth development centers, eight group homes for juveniles and six nonresidential day-treatment programs.

In recent years, allegations of abuse, solitary confinement, overuse of force and overuse of adult corrections-type measures such as pepper spray have dominated headlines — initially in reporting by John Cheves of the Lexington Herald Leader — and more recently, outlined at legislative hearings including allegations of? sexual misconduct and disproportionate treatment of Black and multiracial youth.?

In January, state Auditor Allison Ball released a report requested by lawmakers detailing a series of serious problems with the system’s detention centers including overuse of force, significant understaffing, lack of clear policies of managing youth behavior and misuse of isolation.

The report, by the consulting firm CGL Management Group, also expressed concern about the Beshear administration’s introduction of pepper spray and tasers into juvenile centers, saying they are largely unnecessary.

“Current nationally recognized best practices do not support the widespread deployment of chemical agents or the use of electroshock devices (such as Tasers) within juvenile detention and instead recommend strategies to reduce or eliminate these uses of force,” it said.

The Justice Cabinet, in a statement, defended the use of pepper spray, also known as oleoresin capsicum, or OC spray.

“Pepper spray is a non-lethal, effective tool for both staff and juveniles, and is issued by adult and juvenile facilities across the country,” it said.

Further, it said, the legislature has mandated that pepper spray and tasers be issued to staff at juvenile justice facilities.

The outside audit warned use of pepper spray is especially risky for children with asthma or other health conditions or those on certain medications.

“As staffing levels improve, further consideration should be given to entirely removing pepper spray,” it said.

Dunlap, the former federal monitor, said he was shocked when Beshear authorized the use of pepper spray in juvenile detention centers last year, calling its use “old school.”

“The first thing I would do is get rid of that damn pepper spray,” he said. “They’re gonna kill someone with it.”

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session of the Kentucky legislature held at the Capitol in Frankfort. Their combined spending was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record set the year before. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — Legislation affecting power plant retirements helped drive spending to lobby the Kentucky legislature to a new high of $12.4 million during the 2024 session.

A bill that created new hurdles for utilities that want to retire power plants fired by fossil fuels spurred investor-owned utilities and power cooperatives to spend much more than usual in trying to influence state legislators.

The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives ranked third in lobbying spending during the session at $129,400, and LG&E and KU Energy came in fourth at $123,400, according to Kentucky Lantern’s review of reports filed with the Legislative Ethics Commission covering the period of Jan. 1 through April 30.

Kentucky Senate advances bill creating new hurdles for utilities to retire power plants

Duke Energy came in eighth place at $100,600 while East Kentucky Power Cooperative ranked 11th at $85,000.

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session, ethics commission records show. And the combined spending of those groups was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record spent lobbying during the 2023 session.

The top spender of all in this year’s session was the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which lobbies scores of bills affecting business each year and is always at or near the top in lobbying spending. For the 2024 session it reported spending $201,300. Among its top priorities this year were budget bills designed to keep the legislature on track to continue lowering the state income tax.

Greater Louisville Inc., the chamber of of commerce for the state’s largest metropolitan area, is also a top lobby spender every year and in the 2024 session if ranked seventh at $104,900.

But the distinctive characteristic of the list of top lobbying groups for this year’s session is that utilities spent more.

The main reason for that was Senate Bill 349 that created a new commission — with significant fossil fuel industry representation — to review a utility’s plan to retire a power plant fired by fossil fuels before that plan could be presented to the state’s official utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

The investor-owned utilities opposed the bill. The member-owned cooperatives supported it.

SB 349 passed both chambers and was later vetoed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear who said it was the wrong approach to helping assure a reliable supply of electricity to Kentucky homes and businesses. But Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate easily overrode Beshear’s veto.

Frankfort commission voices support for city utility as state senator pushes to sell its telecom

Another big spender in this year’s session was newcomer Frankfort Plant Board, which ranked 12th in lobby spending at $81,000 — all spent to successfully defeat legislation unveiled last December by Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, that in its original form would have forced the board to sell its telecommunications services to a private company.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky was the second highest spender on the list. It reported spending $150,700 through the first four months of the year. Its priorities included opposition to House Bill 5, the Safer Kentucky Act, which will increase criminal penalties and create new crimes including street camping. The ACLU also opposed? bills banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and universities.

Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., of Washington, reported spending $102,700 with most of that spent on advertising in opposition to legislation that tightened regulations on pharmacy benefit managers.

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

Others in the top 10 in lobby spending this year were:

• Kentucky League of Cities, which reported spending $109,100.
• Kentucky Hospital Assn., $105,500, whose lobbying efforts included successfully opposing legislation that would have loosened certificate of need requirements on health care providers.
• Altria Client Services, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, $99,920, which lobbied for new restrictions on vape retailers enacted by the legislature and signed by Beshear.

Here is a list of the companies, associations and other groups that reported spending the most on lobbying expenses during the first four months of 2024, according to updated data posted Monday on the ethics commission website.

Nearly 90 percent of the total spending was on compensation for lobbyists, according to the ethics commission website.

Following the list of top lobby spenders is a list of individual lobbyists who received the most in lobbying fees. The ethics commission website shows that there are slightly more than 700 registered lobbyists. Each of those on the list below is a contract lobbyist who represents numerous clients. The list shows the total number of clients represented by the lobbyist and three of the lobbyists’ larger clients.

Groups that spent the most lobbying

Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Frankfort, business ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$201,292

ACLU of Kentucky, Louisville, non-profit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $150,726

Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, Louisville, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $129,416

LG&E and KU Energy, Louisville, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $123,427

Kentucky League of Cities, Lexington, city governments ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$109,113

Kentucky Hospital Assn., Louisville ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $105,490

Greater Louisville Inc., Louisville, business ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$104,900

Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., Washington, pharmacy issues ? $102,693

Duke Energy, Cincinnati, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $100,577

Altria (Philip Morris USA), Richmond, VA , tobacco? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$99,920

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Winchester, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $85,634

Frankfort Plant Board, Frankfort, utility ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$81,032

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, London, non-profit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $79,318

Elevance Health (Anthem), Louisville, insurance ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$78,946

Kentucky Retail Federation, Frankfort, retail stores ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $77,900

Kentucky Justice Assn., Frankfort, justice issues ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $67,141

Kentucky Education Assn., Frankfort, teachers? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$65,181

Kentucky Primary Care Assn., Frankfort, health care ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$64,138

Americans for Prosperity, Louisville, conservative advocacy group ? ? ? ? ? $62,788

Kentucky Medical Assn., Louisville, doctors ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$62,439

?Top paid lobbyists

Patrick Jennings, ?$366,209, representing?72 clients including Kentucky Hospital Assn., AT&T, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

Bob Babbage, $333,500, 48 clients including MCGlobal Holdings, Underdog Fantasy, ROBLOX.

Stephen Huffman, $323,700, 25 clients including Keeneland, Revolutionary Racing, Red Mile.

John McCarthy, $281,454,?108 clients including Churchill Downs, Altria, Netsmart

Ronald Pryor, $242,795, 11 clients including HCA Healthcare, Kentucky Hospital Assn., LifePoint Health.

Sean Cutter, $238,805, 60 clients including Google, Kinder Morgan Energy, RAI Services.

James M. Higdon, $223,494,?60 clients including Unite US, Centigix, YDK! Action.

Kelley Abell, $223,069, 26 clients including Brightspring Health, Dish Network, Ky. Assn. of Adult Day Centers.

Jason Bentley, $218,311, 55 clients including Kinder Morgan Energy, RAI Services, Ky Distillers Assn.

Katherine Hall, $218,064, 70 clients including Ky. Assn. of Health Care Facilities, Necco, Satoshi Action Fund.

Chris Nolan, $214,699, 58 clients including Good Rx, Humana, Ascend Elements.

Jason Underwood, $206,200, 8 clients including Enervenue, United Healthcare, Airbnb.

Laura Owens, $183,250, 34 clients including Archer Gaming, Baptist Health, Cooper Surgical.

Amy Wickliffe,?$176,512, 94 clients including Churchill Downs, Al J. Schneider Co., Kentucky American Water.

Mike Biagi, $166,236, 19 clients including Kentucky Downs, Appalachian Regional Health, Ky. Credit Union League.

Trey Grayson, $160,150, 28 clients including Secure Elections Project, Academic Partnerships LLC, Kentucky Competes.

Dustin Miller, $151,587, 26 clients including Elevance Health, Ky. Consumer Finance Assn., Altria.

John Cooper, $144,514, 22 clients including Ky. Bankers Assn., Ky. Medical Assn., Toyota.

Timothy Corrigan, $141,336, 23 clients including Dow Chemical, Continental Refining, Outfront Media.

Rebecca Hartsough, $136,800, 41 clients including Grant Ready Ky., Novo Nordisk, SidePrize LLC.

State Rep. Nima Kulkarni is on the ballot for reelection to the Kentucky House, but the state Supreme Court will have the final say. (LRC Public Information)

LOUISVILLE —?The Kentucky Supreme Court will allow Louisville Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni to stand as a candidate in Tuesday’s primary election after she has faced legal challenges to her candidacy paperwork.?

The Supreme Court granted the representative’s motion to remain in the 40th House District Democratic primary, reversing a decision from the Kentucky Court of Appeals that Kulkarni was not a bona fide candidate. The Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments in the lawsuit to be heard Thursday, June 6. Certification of the election will follow that.?

Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter signed the order. All seven justices concurred with the decision. The motion was granted on Monday, less than 24 hours before polls opened in Kentucky.?

Kulkarni applauded the decision in a statement and asked Democrats in the 40th House District “to cast their ballot for me, the only candidate in this race who is seeking the office of State Representative in the best interests of our district.”?

“My opponent in this race has not been interested in campaigning, relying instead on legal tricks to take the choice away from voters,” she said. “I’m glad the Supreme Court has agreed to review our case. Democracy should always prevail.”?

Kulkanri is seeking a fourth term in the General Assembly. No Republicans filed to run in the 40th District. Kulkarni has one primary opponent — William Zeitz, of Louisville. Zeitz did not immediately return a request for comment.?

The candidacy challenge was filed in court by Dennis Horlander, who previously represented the House district and lost to Kulkarni in the 2018 and 2020 Democratic primaries. Steven Megerle, an attorney for Horlander, said that he and his client had not spoken with Zeitz.?

“She should pay more attention to the disruption and the electoral process that her continuous appeals have caused,” Megerle said. “And had she spent as much attention wasting judicial resources on trying to engage in lawfare and get back on the ballot, then she may have actually gotten her signatures right in the first place.”?

The lawsuit centers around the validity of Kulkarni’s candidacy papers. The law requires legislative candidates to have signatures from two witnesses who are registered as members of? their political party and who are registered to vote in the election. One of Kulkarni’s witnesses was a registered Republican when she signed the candidacy papers and later changed her registration to Democratic.?

James Craig, Kulkarni’s attorney said the Supreme Court’s decision “means the election continues and that Rep. Kulkarni remains on the ballot tomorrow.” He added that “we anticipate she will win, and win big.”?

Megerle said he was “not entirely surprised” the Supreme Court granted discretionary review to an incumbent lawmaker the day before the primary election.?

Polls are open in Tuesday’s primary election from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hazard, the Perry County seat, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony)

A Franklin Circuit judge has given a legal victory to Hazard and several other Kentucky cities interested in imposing a restaurant tax.

The tax, created by the legislature in 1980, is levied in about 50 of Kentucky’s 418 cities on retail sales of food and beverages in all restaurants in the city. The tax rate is not to exceed 3% and revenue from it is to be used to promote tourism.

Hazard sued the state, claiming it was being discriminated against by not qualifying to enact the tax. Several other cities joined in the suit.

Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini on Wednesday said he was “elated” with the judge’s order and hopes that the city commission will take up implementing a restaurant tax at Monday night’s meeting. He said amenities that appeal to tourists can improve the quality of life for residents as well.

“I don’t think there will be a ‘no’ vote,” he said. “We’re in such a disadvantaged position here. We want to take care of our kids. We want to do for our kids what other communities are doing with things like recreational areas” that the mayor said will also draw visitors.

Logan Fogle, spokesman for the state Department for Local Government, said the court ordered the department “to take all necessary and appropriate steps to implement the order, specifically by including Hazard on the list of eligible cities to impose the tax and by including all similarly situated cities, like Ashland, on the list.”

Gov. Andy Beshear was dismissed from the case earlier by agreed order and the attorney general’s office intervened to defend the state.

Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Attorney General Russell Coleman, said Wednesday the office is reviewing whether to appeal the order.

Unconstitutionally arbitrary

Meanwhile, a director of the Kentucky League of Cities warned that no city should immediately try to impose the tax based on the Franklin Circuit Court ruling because it was not final.

In a 21-page decision issued Monday, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd took issue with parts of a state law — KRS 91A.400 — that says which cities may impose the tax.

Before 2015, Kentucky’s cities were divided into six classes based on their population at the time of classification. There were more than 400 classification-related laws on the books that affected issues like public safety, alcoholic beverage control and revenue options.

After Jan. 1, 2015, that classification of cities was changed, making Louisville and Lexington 1st-class cities and others home rule class.

The amended restaurant tax law allowed the state Department of. Local Government to maintain a list of “authorized cities” that as of Jan. 1, 2014, were classified as cities of the 4th- or 5th-class.

The law said in addition to a 3% transient room tax placed on lodging, the legislative body in an authorized city could levy a tax on tourism.

Shepherd said the restaurant tax law makes an unconstitutionally arbitrary distinction of cities eligible to enact the restaurant tax based on population and classification status on an arbitrarily chosen date, Jan. 1, 2014.

“The statute arbitrarily fails to provide a means of migration for cities whose population after January 1, 2014, either enters or exits throng of 4th and 5th class cities.”

The judge added that the law “fails to provide a pathway to correct the misclassification of cities like Hazard, whose population has always met the statutory criteria for belong tin in the 4th class (with the authority to enact the restaurant tax) rather than the 3rd class.”

But Shepherd declined to hold all of the law unconstitutional, especially in light of the financial reliance some cities have on the tax.

He noted that many tourism projects have been funded by cities authorized to levy the restaurant tax and that many bonds are financed using proceeds generated by the tax.

He said “the proper remedy” is to sever parts of the statute that violate the Kentucky Constitution’s prohibition on arbitrary legislation.

Those parts arbitrarily authorize some cities to impose a restaurant tax based on historical class and leave similarly situated cities without the ability to impose the tax.

The judge also ordered that the Governor’s Office of Local Government include on the list of eligible cities to levy the restaurant tax all similarly situated cities, like Ashland, with population ranges within the parameters of cities that had been classified 4th- or 5th-class.

Hazard and similarly situated cities with populations under 8,000 should be included on the list of cities eligible to levy the tax, the judge said.

“This ruling does not declare that those cities like Elizabethtown or Oak Grove, with current population totals over the 4th class population cap of 8,000 are no longer authorized to levy and rely on the tax,” said Shepherd.

He stressed that the Governor’s Office of Local Governments is directed to include Hazard on the list of cities eligible to impose the tax.

Shepherd said the state’s previous classification system for cities “is frozen in time based on population figures that have now changed or were initially misclassified.”

For clarity, he wrote, the now-repealed city-classification system directed that 3rd-class cities have populations between 8,000 and fewer than 20,000. Cities of the 4th class have populations of 3,000 or more, but fewer than 3,000.

Shepherd said Ashland maintains it has never had a population in this century or last that was as low 8,000, and it was misclassified.

Cities advised to proceed cautiously

Morgain Patterson, director of municipal law for the Kentucky League of Cities, said in an article on the KLC website that the cities of Bardstown, Beaver Dam, Berea, Elizabethtown, Kuttawa, Madisonville, Morehead, Pikeville and Prestonsburg intervened in the lawsuit as former 4th- and 5th-class cities eligible to assess the restaurant tax.

“These cities argued that the restaurant tax statute is constitutional and that invalidating it would cause catastrophe economic harm to those cities that impose the tax,” she said.

But, said Patterson, the judge’s order “purports to expand the number of cities that can assess there restaurant tax on a prospective basis, but the language of the ruling is unclear as to which cities that may include, except that it specifies the city of Hazard is eligible.”

She stressed that the order “is not final and should not serve as a basis for a city to adopt a new restaurant tax.”

Patterson said the order “clearly preserves the right of cities that currently assess a restaurant tax to continue to do so.”

She said the parties in the lawsuit have 10 days from the date of the order to file motions to alter, amend or vacate.

If a motion is filed, that extends the deadline for a party to appeal the decision, she said. Once the court rule on that motion, the parties have 30 days to file an appeal.

Hazard, along with Perry County Fiscal Court, filed the suit in ?January 2023. Shepherd dismissed Perry County as a plaintiff.

Judge’s order in City of Hazard v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

K9 Officer Charity (Screenshot from Attorney General Russell Coleman's Office).

Kentucky’s Attorney General’s office is getting a pawfect new officer who will work in the Department of Criminal Investigations sniffing out technology in child exploitation cases.?

Charity, a yellow lab K9 officer, is trained to detect cell phones, flash drives, micro-SD cards and other technology that the AG’s office said “could contain child sex abuse material.”

According to the American Kennel Club, technology like cell phones and hard drives do have a chemical odor that trained dogs can smell. Because of that, some dogs can help sniff out hidden devices in child pornography cases. Charity can detect this odor, triphenylphosphine oxide (or TPPO).?

This news comes as Kentucky just criminalized the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create deep-fake child porn. The state also just made it a Class D felony to knowingly own or sell a child sex doll — defined as a doll, mannequin or robot that is intended for sexual stimulation or gratification and that has the features of, or has features that resemble those of, a minor.

“Law enforcement needs to stay on the cutting edge of keeping kids safe from exploitation,” Jeremy Murrell, Deputy Commissioner for Counter Exploitation in DCI, said in a statement. “Highly trained K9s like Charity are invaluable in an investigation and will help get predators off our streets and behind bars.”

AG Russell Coleman called Charity “elite” and a “force multiplier.”?

Detective Shelby Guffey, Charity’s handler, said in a statement that “She’s so talented and hardworking. She’s going to make a big difference in our Commonwealth.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the conditions at eight of the youth detention centers and one development center in the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.?(Getty Images)

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into the conditions at eight of the youth detention centers and one development center in the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.?

“The investigation will examine whether Kentucky protects children confined in these facilities from harm caused by excessive force by staff, prolonged and punitive isolation and inadequate protection from violence and sexual abuse,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “The investigation will also examine whether Kentucky provides adequate mental health services and required special education and related services to children with disabilities.”?

U.S. Attorney Mike Bennett for the Western District of Kentucky said in a statement that he “stands ready to protect the rights of all children in Kentucky, including those who end up in juvenile detention” and will work to “conduct a fair and thorough investigation of these allegations.”

Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Keith Jackson said in a statement Monday afternoon that “every juvenile placed in the custody of the state deserves to be safe. We have made progress on the security of our juvenile facilities; we have trained our personnel, protected juveniles and staff against violent attacks and taken corrective action against employee misconduct.”?

“We look forward to being able to talk to the Department of Justice, because as of today, no members of our leadership have been interviewed, and we have not had the opportunity to discuss any incident, policy or issue with the Department of Justice,” Jackson said.?

In a video posted to the Justice website Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said the investigators will “review whether there are unconstitutional conditions including use of unreasonable physical and chemical force by staff, inappropriate use of isolation, failure to protect children from physical and sexual abuse and adequate mental health care.”

Ahead of the 2023 legislative session,?reports of violence?in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system regularly made headlines, including a riot in Adair County during which?a girl in state custody?was allegedly sexually assaulted and?employees were attacked?at a youth detention center in Warren County. DJJ has also faced persistent?staffing issues, the Lantern has reported.?

This session, West Kentucky Republican Sen. Danny Carroll asked his colleagues to build a $22 million special mental health juvenile detention facility as well as create a process to test and treat such children. His bill also would have delayed a requirement for a 48-hour mandatory detention, which came out of 2023 legislation. (The 48-hour hold for some juveniles charged with violent crimes is set to go into effect this July).

Carroll’s proposal did not make it into the final two-year state budget.

“While the General Assembly has provided some help, it recently failed to fund two needed detention facilities, as well as a specialized residence for juveniles with extensive mental illness,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement reacting to the Justice investigation. “Funding was also denied for additional safety improvements. The Department of Juvenile Justice will cooperate with the Department of Justice while also strongly advocating for the safety of its staff.”??

Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, said “the Senate remains committed to addressing these serious issues” in DJJ.

“Our consistent advocacy for policy reforms and budget enhancements aims to rectify the ongoing crisis within the Department of Juvenile Justice,” Givens said in a statement.?“It is disheartening that such measures are necessary, but we hope the impending federal investigation will serve as a crucial wake-up call for the Beshear administration. This is an opportunity to reaffirm commitment to the welfare of Kentucky’s troubled youth and to ensure the safety of the staff in these facilities.”

Second time feds involved?

The investigation is the second time federal justice authorities have examined conditions in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system after allegations of serious abuse and mistreatment of youths.

In 1995, after an extensive review of conditions in the state’s system for housing and treating youths found guilty of crimes, the U.S. Justice Department found the state had violated their civil rights and placed the state under a federal consent decree aimed at reforms.

The investigation followed months of reports of mistreatment of youths and other problems by the Courier Journal and other news outlets.

Violations federal officials cited at the time included abuse and mistreatment of youths housed in centers, poor or no investigations of complaints, overuse of isolation cells, lack of adequate medical and psychiatric treatment and aging, run-down facilities.

The 1995 federal investigation focused mainly on treatment facilities where youths were sent after a judge had determined they had committed offenses, while the investigation announced Wednesday focuses largely on detention facilities where youths are held while charges are pending.

But the resolution of the 1995 investigation led to sweeping changes in both the state’s juvenile treatment and detention systems, hailed at the time as a major advance in reforms.

Under pressure from the consent decree, in 1996, the Kentucky General Assembly created the Department of Juvenile Justice to oversee treatment facilities, pumping millions of dollars into upgrades. Previously, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services had overseen care of youths who committed offenses.

And the state undertook a separate upgrade of the detention system where many youths previously had been held in adult jails in violation of federal guidelines, instead creating a separate system of regional detention centers for youths.

In 2001, then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno held a press conference in Frankfort to announce her department was lifting the 1995 consent decree, citing the substantial improvement to the system.

Kentucky, at the time, had created “an example for the rest of the nation,” said Reno, who served as attorney general under President Bill Clinton.

But at the time, officials warned Kentucky must work to avoid a return to the problems of the early 1990s through vigilance and adequate resources.

From left, Jessica Kalb, Sarah Baron and Lisa Sobel are challenging Kentucky's abortion ban. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Brian Edwards heard oral arguments Monday in the case of? three Jewish women who argue their religious freedom is violated by Kentucky’s abortion ban.?

Much of the arguments focused on in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the extent to which it overlaps with the state’s abortion ban. Several lawmakers filed bills to protect the process in Kentucky this session, but none became law. Some feel IVF is in limbo since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in mid February that frozen embryos are children.?

Is IVF protected in Kentucky? Depends on whom you ask.

The oral arguments?

Aaron Kemper and Benjamin Potash, lawyers for the plaintiffs, argued Monday that Kentucky has imposed and codified a religious viewpoint that conflicts with the Jewish belief that birth, not conception, is the beginning of life.

They also said their plaintiffs — Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron — feel Kentucky’s current laws around abortion inhibit their ability to grow their families.?

One of the plaintiffs, Kalb, has nine frozen embryos right now that she’s paying thousands of dollars annually to preserve.?

“She’s 33 years old; she does not plan on having nine children,” Kemper said.?

“You have three women here who are not pregnant right now, all of whom want to be pregnant,” Potash said. “They’re not able to be pregnant because these laws get in the way.”??

As Kentucky law stands now, there is disagreement on what protections exist for unused frozen embryos and if discarding them is permissible. “We don’t know if terminating a fertilized egg is illegal on day zero,” Kemper said.?

Lindsey Keiser argued for the Kentucky Attorney General’s office — which is named as a defendant — that the “alleged injuries are hypothetical” since the plaintiffs are not pregnant.?

Keiser said “it’s not clear or imminent that (Kalb) will have to dispose (of) all of those” embryos since sometimes implantations fail.?

Furthermore, Keiser argued, since Kentucky’s law defines pregnancy as a fetus inside a woman, “the disposal of embryos that are created through the process of IVF but not yet implanted will not trigger criminal penalties under either the abortion statute or the fetal homicide statute.”??

Since the AG’s position is that IVF in Kentucky is not limited, Keiser said, the government isn’t restricting those rights.

When it comes to abortion, she argued Kentucky does have a “compelling interest” in restricting the practice, even in the context of opposing religious beliefs.?

“Kentucky’s interest in preserving potential life is not limited to preserving it only for those who live long and healthy lives,” Keiser said. “The commonwealth’s interest in preserving life encompasses fostering respect for the sanctity of human life.”?

‘The law is on our side’

Judge Edwards said he will “endeavor to get an opinion out quickly.”?

No matter what the opinion is, Potash said, he expects one side to appeal.

“Eventually, in all likelihood, it will make it up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, where the same issues will be discussed,” Potash said after Monday’s arguments. “What it all boils down to are the issues in our summary judgment motion, and whether we have standing around or our clients have standing to bring those claims.”?

The lawyers said they’re confident their clients have personal standing, or the right to bring this case.?

“If they don’t have standing, no one has standing to challenge abortion rights in America,” Potash said. “They actually have a dispute with the government that needs adjudication. If the courts are going to shut their doors on these women … they’re going to shut the doors on all of us.”?

Jewish women cite Kentucky’s Religious Freedom law in contesting state abortion ban

While waiting for the ruling, Potash said: “We’re confident that the law is on our side, and the facts are on our side.”?

‘I shouldn’t have to leave.’?

Kalb told reporters after Monday’s arguments that because of her condition — she has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which can cause cysts to form in the ovaries and lead to infertility — her pregnancies are more likely to end in miscarriage or abortion or need other complicated interventions.?

In June 2022,, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe. V. Wade, which had established the constitutional right to abortion. Kentucky’s trigger law went into effect immediately, which bans abortion except when the mother’s life is at risk.?

Kalb, who moved to Kentucky in 2020, said the ruling put her plans to expand her family on hold. “Going through IVF again for me means that I have to put myself in that vulnerable situation of being pregnant, and possibly not being able to access care,” Kalb said. To get pregnant before, she said, she only needed one transfer.?

“It wasn’t like I went through four, five, six, seven. So right now, the way the law’s written, I could have to deal with nine pregnancies,” she said. “I’m 33, about to be 34. It’s a really scary situation, especially to have all of this publicly known. So, if the tides were to shift, I mean, there’s nothing protecting me right now.”?

Despite that, the women said it’s important for them to stay in Kentucky and fight to change the laws.?

“My family has been here since the early 1800s, and Jewish,” Sobel said. “I’ve always been a Kentucky Jew. … I always celebrated the Derby. I always cheered for the Louisville Cardinals. Being a Kentuckian is who I am. I shouldn’t have to leave in order to grow my family. I shouldn’t have to leave because the legislators don’t want to recognize that my faith matters too.”

Warby Parker, an online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses, has agreed to pay at least $55,200 to Kentucky for allowing 69 Kentuckians to take its online vision test, contrary to state law, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office said in a news release Friday.

Coleman’s office alleged that from July to October 2021, 69 Kentuckians were improperly given Warby Parker’s online test. “When the attorney general’s Office of Consumer Protection alerted Warby Parker of the problem, the company cooperated with the investigation and took the test offline,” the release said. “Following a voluntary settlement process, Warby Parker will be penalized $138,000. If there are no further violations for five years, the amount will be reduced to $55,200.”

The “Get a Prescription” page on Warby Parker’s website says the online vision test is available to people who “reside in an eligible state, due to state-level regulations,” and disqualifies residents of Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and West Virginia, using their two-letter postal abbreviations.

Kentucky consumers may complain about a business operating in the state to Coleman’s office at https://www.ag.ky.gov/Resources/Consumer-Resources/Consumers/Pages/Consumer-Complaints.aspx.

Because of Idaho’s abortion ban and a court decision that does not protect emergency room physicians from prosecution under that law, some Idaho physicians are advising their pregnant patients, or those trying to become pregnant, to purchase memberships with companies like Life Flight Network or Air St. Luke’s in the Boise area to avoid potentially significant costs if they need air transport in an emergency. (Courtesy of Life Flight)

Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in January to consider a case about whether a federal law regarding emergency medical treatment supersedes an abortion ban in Idaho, air transports out of state for pregnancy complications at one of the state’s largest hospitals have increased from one in all of 2023 to six in the past four months.

St. Luke’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jim Souza said if that pace continues, that number could be 20 patients before the year is over.

“We have limited resources in terms of helicopters, fixed-wing transports and ambulances. If we occupy an air transport with a patient who could completely receive the totality of her care right here, safely, it’s potentially dangerous for other patients,” Souza said.

Idaho’s abortion ban went into effect in August 2022, a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protection for abortion access and allowing states to regulate it instead.

That rise has prompted some Idaho physicians to advise their pregnant patients, or those trying to become pregnant, to purchase memberships with companies like Life Flight Network or Air St. Luke’s in the Boise area to avoid potentially significant costs if they need air transport in an emergency. With or without private insurance, the cost can be thousands of dollars.

“The thought of this becoming the new normal — I don’t want it to be the new normal,” said Blaine Patterson, director of the Air St. Luke’s program, which reported the recent increase in transports by air.

The court will hear oral arguments Wednesday over whether the near-total abortion ban means doctors who may need to terminate a pregnancy to stabilize a patient in a health emergency will have to continue to transfer patients out of state or risk jail time and the loss of their medical license. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Idaho in 2022 over the ban, saying it violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which mandates that Medicare-funded hospitals provide stabilizing care for patients who come to an emergency room regardless of their ability to pay.

In a brief submitted to the court leading up to oral arguments, the Department of Justice cited States Newsroom’s reporting from January that without EMTALA protection in place, doctors said they would have to transfer more patients out of state for abortion care rather than wait for conditions to become life-threatening.

A pregnant patient might come to the ER for a variety of reasons, including high blood pressure, bleeding, or one of the most common occurrences, when the patient’s water breaks before a fetus can live outside of the womb, even with medical intervention. It happened 54 times at St. Luke’s Boise in 2023, or about once a week — though not all of those cases occur before a fetus is viable, which is generally considered to be about 22 weeks of gestation.

After the water breaks, there is often still a fetal heartbeat, even though the fetus ultimately won’t survive without amniotic fluid. And in the meantime, infection can quickly spread throughout the body and turn septic, which is life threatening, or it can lead to hemorrhage. Without the ban in place, a doctor would likely recommend termination of the pregnancy to avoid further complications.

But with the ban, maternal-fetal medicine specialists like Dr. Stacy Seyb of Boise aren’t taking any chances by trying to wait until the law’s exception for saving the patient’s life might apply. If termination needs to be considered, he said it’s better in his judgment to send someone to a facility out of state that can freely offer termination before it’s too late. The longer an infection or other complication persists, the greater risk it poses to a patient’s health and ability to get pregnant again in the future.

“And there are times they may not even need the procedure. But we can’t predict that, and we can’t predict how quickly their status might change,” Seyb said. “I think it’s a great hardship, it’s an extra expense to our medical system, and it doesn’t make sense why something that I’ve been doing for 30 years of my career is now taboo.”

Transport has financial, emotional and potentially physical costs

In a brief filed earlier this month by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious conservative law firm that has argued several abortion-related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the Dobbs decision, attorneys argued on behalf of Idaho that transport out of state for an emergency termination is in line with EMTALA’s requirements.

“If state law allows a doctor to provide a particular treatment, then that service is available at a hospital for EMTALA purposes. But if state law prohibits a particular treatment, then the facility cannot provide it to anyone, no matter the circumstances,” the attorneys wrote.

Typically, only one support person at most can accompany a patient during air transport. That often means other family members must drive hours away from home in this region of the country, and find a place to stay. Seattle or Portland are seven to eight hours away, while Salt Lake City is about a five-hour drive from Boise. Utah has an 18-week abortion ban with an exception to preserve a pregnant patient’s health.

“It’s tough enough losing a pregnancy, but then to go through this in a foreign land,” Seyb said. “I feel very bad for these patients.”

There are also some patients who simply go home and wait it out, he said, because they don’t have the money or resources for air transport. Those patients may end up back at the emergency room later in worse condition.

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the average cost of these flights is between $12,000 and $25,000 before insurance is applied, based on an average 52-mile distance. Salt Lake City is almost 340 miles from Boise. Depending on the patient’s insurance plan details, 20% of that cost could still fall to them to pay out of pocket.

The median cost calculated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is even higher at $36,000 to $40,000.

Besides the emotional and financial toll, Seyb said, there are delays in care caused by first having to make the decision to transfer and decide where the patient should go, then prep the patient for transport and make the journey while hoping no complications occur en route.

The aircraft is equipped to try to handle those situations, but by definition, it is not as well-equipped as a hospital. The specialty care teams that have to ride along for those transports in case of complications are also tied up for many hours and therefore unavailable to other hospital patients who may need them.

There are also considerations around weather in a mountainous region, said Patterson. In a time-sensitive situation, if there is a severe storm or low visibility for other reasons, it will inevitably delay care further.

“If it’s below weather minimums, we aren’t going anywhere. And those apply to everybody,” Patterson said.

‘You should think about’ membership if pregnant in Idaho

Natalie Hannah, spokesperson for the Life Flight Network, said they have not seen an increase in transports for maternal complications, nor have they seen an increase in membership requests. Life Flight has a reciprocal agreement with Air St. Luke’s and many other regional medical facilities around the West, she said, so coverage would be widespread. A membership with Life Flight costs $85 for one year for a household, while Air St. Luke’s charges $60 for one year. A member is required to have private insurance to qualify.

Patterson said a membership with Air St. Luke’s will cover copays and deductibles, and while he might only have recommended it before for those who recreate outdoors in remote areas or who ride motorcycles, he now would advise people to add pregnancy to the list. Seyb agreed that it made sense as a precautionary measure.

“You should think about it,” Patterson said.

The pool at the University of Kentucky's Lancaster Aquatic Center. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jamie Lucke)

The first red flag was raised as soon as Lars Jorgensen was hired.

On June 20, 2012, within hours of news breaking that Jorgensen had joined the University of Kentucky swimming program as an associate head coach, a former assistant coach at the University of Toledo messaged Kentucky head coach Gary Conelly and athletic director Mitch Barnhart with urgent, unambiguous warnings about their new employee.

“I coached at Toledo for a year then had to run away as fast as I could,” Mark Howard wrote, according to court filings. “While there, a former Toledo swimmer made it known to me about a sexual relationship she had with Lars before she had graduated. I confronted Lars about it, and made it very clear that he stay away from any Toledo swimmers for as long as he was alive. Had I known he was interviewing with Kentucky I certainly would have called. I wish you the best and hope he does not bring down your University. This is no joke at all and I cannot stomach the fact that he will be coaching women again.”

That Howard’s message was received was confirmed by Conelly’s concerned response the following day and is included in court filings, but the apparent failure to look further or to appreciate the institutional peril posed by an alleged sexual predator has exposed the university to significant liability and could carry career-threatening consequences for some of its administrators.

A lawsuit filed April 12 by a pair of former UK swimmers and coaches accuses Jorgensen of recurring sexual abuse and repeated rape and the university of “complicity and deliberate indifference” to “credible reports” of Jorgensen’s inappropriate sexual relationships and sexual assaults.

It accuses Barnhart, the UK athletic director, of intentionally concealing serious allegations against Jorgensen; Conelly, the former head coach, of circumventing university policy for reporting complaints of sexual harassment and assault, and UK’s Title IX office of discouraging complaints and failing to take appropriate action in response to Jorgensen’s alleged misdeeds.

Jorgensen spent 11 years at UK, the last 10 as the head coach of its swimming and diving program, before resigning last June after being suspended, ostensibly for NCAA infractions related to excessive time demands on athletes. UK spokeswoman Kristi Willett told Kentucky Lantern both the suspension and Jorgensen’s resignation were prompted by? compliance issues and that “many” of the sexual abuse claims in the lawsuit were not previously known to the university.

Confronted with the lawsuit’s allegations in an interview with The Athletic, Jorgensen insisted “none of that is true.” His attorney, Greg Anderson, told the Lexington Herald-Leader the case has nothing to do with Jorgensen’s private life and is, instead, a reflection “of NCAA woke philosophy” and Jorgensen’s support of Riley Gaines, a former UK swimmer and vocal opponent of trans women competing in women’s sports.

Briggs Alexander, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is a former team captain and coach who competed as Bridgette Alexander at UK from 2014-18, and has since transitioned to a transgender man. The other plaintiff, another former UK swimmer and coach, is identified in the suit as Jane Doe.

Alexander and a third swimmer, identified as Jane Doe 2, allege being raped by Jorgensen — Jane Doe 2 following a 2013 Christmas party, Alexander on four occasions from 2019 through 2021. The other Jane Doe reported being sexually assaulted by the coach.

“He didn’t rape anybody,” Anderson said, according to the Herald-Leader. “He never assaulted anyone. He never battered anyone. He didn’t defame anyone. He never mistreated anyone. He drove his swimmers to be the best that they could. And the facts here do not add up in any way, shape or form.”

Rachael Denhollander, a Louisville-based attorney best known for being the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar of sexual abuse in a case that has resulted in nearly $1 billion in settlements, has been working with the plaintiffs for nearly a year. She’s not the lead attorney but would share in a potential settlement. In an interview, she described Anderson’s assertions as “an absurdity in the highest degree.”

“Warnings about Lars’ predatory sexual behavior (were) received multiple times by UK for years prior to the controversy regarding (trans athletes competing in) women’s sports, with the first coming nearly a decade prior,” she told the Lantern, echoing information contained in the complaint. “All three survivors had disclosed their violent abuse to unconnected individuals prior to speaking publicly. Attempting to dismiss patterned rape allegations from multiple victims by alleging a woke conspiracy is absolute nonsense.”

Anderson did not immediately respond to interview requests left at his Jacksonville, Florida, law office. Efforts to reach Jorgensen and Conelly for comment were unsuccessful. Barnhart declined comment on the suit when approached last Sunday, citing the ongoing litigation.?

Willett said the university police department has been contacted about the allegations and “is in the process of assessing the information received.”

“We are distressed to hear the disturbing allegations of sexual assault and criminal behavior by a former University of Kentucky employee,” Willett said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “No one should be subject to the kind of abuse described in the civil lawsuit filed Friday. . .

“Our top priority is the health and safety of our students and employees. We have no tolerance for harm, harassment or abuse.”

Denhollander has difficulty reconciling those professed priorities with the issues raised by the plaintiffs or the warnings communicated from other campuses during Jorgensen’s tenure.

“Words cost nothing,” she said. “Actions tell everything.”

“I thought I could trust them,” Alexander said during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “I disclosed my abuse and thought it was being taken care of. And months went by and I never heard anything back. So I reached out. I was just repeatedly discouraged and vigorously discouraged to not come forward and not publish this reporting. That’s what’s hurting me the most at this moment.

“Title IX offices are there to protect student-athletes. When our coaches aren’t protecting us in the situation (Jorgensen) wasn’t, we should have been able to trust the Title IX office and none of us could.”

The lawsuit alleges that UK’s Title IX office received warnings about Jorgensen in 2015 or 2016 and that it was alerted in August 2019 to two complaints against him. Alexander contacted UK’s Title IX office in May 2023, the lawsuit says, a year after resigning as assistant coach and the month before Jorgensen resigned.

In response to a request to interview UK’s Title IX staff members and a subsequent list of submitted questions, Willett said “many of the questions you are asking are questions that the University will answer when it responds to the lawsuit at the appropriate time.”??

In the interview, Denhollander said she is aware of four instances — also alleged in the lawsuit — during Jorgensen’s first two years on the job in which UK was either directly alerted to his alleged? improprieties or could have learned of the coach’s sexual relationship with a swimmer he supervised at Toledo through publicity surrounding a 2014 wrongful termination case involving that school’s former softball coach, Tarrah Beyster.

“If you take sexual misconduct seriously, that’s something you’re going to look at and say, ‘This is something I need to take seriously,’ especially if you’ve heard it before,’” Denhollander said.

“There were choices made to ignore red flags, to ignore outright warnings, to discourage survivors from reporting. There were breakdowns in the culture. There were breakdowns in the policies, in the structure of the organization.”

The pattern she perceives is all too familiar.

In blowing the whistle on Larry Nassar, Denhollander prompted scores of other victims to come forward at enormous expense to the institutions for which he had worked. Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million in settlements to Nassar’s victims; USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee another $380 million. According to multiple reports, the U.S. Department of Justice is in the final stages of an agreement that would pay another $100 million to victims for the FBI’s failures in investigating the case.

Additionally, Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon and the entire board of USA Gymnastics resigned under pressure. The price of negligence has been steep.

Since the Nassar settlements involved hundreds of individuals and the Kentucky case currently includes only two plaintiffs, the university’s potential costs are likely much lower. Still, Megan Bonnani, the lead attorney representing Alexander and Jane Doe, says, “We are convinced and have reason to believe that there are more victims and there are witnesses out there.” Jane Doe 2 is not a party to the suit.

University policy discourages but does not prohibit consensual sexual relationships between a supervisor and a subordinate, but requires those relationships be reported to superiors when one party is responsible for evaluating the performance of the other. “The existence of a power differential may restrict the less powerful individual’s freedom to participate willingly in the relationship,” says UK’s ethical principles and code of conduct.

“No records exist of Jorgensen reporting any consensual relationship at any time with people he supervised,” Willett said.

To the extent Jorgensen’s advances were non-consensual, criminal charges could result. That the plaintiffs had not shared their allegations with law enforcement before filing their civil action is consistent with national trends. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), roughly 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported. Of those, only 28 result in conviction and 25 in incarceration.

Going public has its perils, not least among them having to relive disturbing experiences.

“I read my own story and I can’t believe that that happened to me,” Briggs Alexander said. “And I think it’s really important that there are different outlets for people to go to and not just the police, because you never know what could happen to someone if something is reported to police. I didn’t know if I was going to be in danger or taken seriously.”

Alexander v. University of Kentucky

The Kentucky legislature outlawed the sale of some vaping products, effective Jan. 1, 2025. (Getty Images)

Four vape shops, the Kentucky Vaping Retailers Association and the Kentucky Hemp Association have filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court seeking to strike down a new state law outlawing the sale of some of their products.?

Greg Troutman, a lawyer for the Kentucky Smoke Free Association, which represents vape retailers, said he’s “hoping that we can get a resolution to this well before” the law is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.?

“Basically, what we’re asking for is that HB 11 be thrown out, because it’s unconstitutional,” Troutman told the Lantern.?

The lawsuit, which was filed Friday, argues that House Bill 11’s definitions of “vapor products” and “other substances” loop e-cigarettes and vapable hemp and marijuana products together, making it too broad and arbitrary to pass constitutional muster.

It also violates due process by requiring retailers to comply with a nonexistent regulatory process for hemp and other non-nicotine products, Troutman said.

Retailers will be subject to fines and penalties for selling vapable hemp-derived products once the law takes effect, the lawsuit says.?

HB 11’s backers tout the bill as a way to curb underage vaping by limiting sales to “authorized products” or those that have “a safe harbor certification” based on their status with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).?

The bill was backed by Altria, the country’s largest manufacturer of cigarettes which also markets FDA-approved vape products. Altria has spent more than $500,000 lobbying the Kentucky legislature since January 2022, according to records filed with the Legislative Ethics Commission.

The suit alleges the new law requires FDA approval for products that cannot possibly win FDA approval because the FDA has no regulatory process for them, such as those containing amanita muscaria (a mushroom) and hemp-derived products. The law would also apply to vapable marijuana products set to become available in Kentucky 2025 under a law the legislature passed last year, the lawsuit says.?

“Unless the manufacturers are making a therapeutic claim — that is, they’re intended to cure, treat, mitigate disease — they’re not subject to an FDA regulatory process,” Troutman said. “So how can you condition market approval in Kentucky upon complying with a nonexistent process? That is absolutely Kafkaesque.”

The U.S. Congress in 2009 enacted the Tobacco Control Act, requiring the FDA to regulate tobacco products to “protect the public health of the U.S. population and create a healthier future.” The FDA began regulating “electronic nicotine delivery systems” — e-cigarettes — under that authority in 2016.??

The suit also alleges the new law violates a provision in the state Constitution limiting laws to one subject. HB 11 is titled an “Act relating to nicotine products” but applies to non-nicotine vaping products such as those derived from hemp, the lawsuit says.

The defendants are Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and Secretary of State Michael Adams.

In the final days of the session, lawmakers merged HB 11 with Senate Bill 344, which created an e-cigarette registry. The combined bill was signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear on April 5. Some advocates fear the new law could force more people back to traditional cigarettes, which are worse for bodily health than vaping.?

Vape store owners also testified the law could create a monopoly for big retailers and hurt small businesses.?

A spokeswoman for the House GOP said Tuesday while she could not comment on pending litigation, she believes “the legislature’s efforts to keep potentially dangerous e-cigarettes out of the hands of our children will stand the test.”?

Tobacco use can lead to all sorts of health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more. Nicotine is the addictive chemical in tobacco and can harm the developing brain, the CDC says.

Read the lawsuit

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — The trial of former President Donald Trump kicked off Monday in a lower Manhattan courtroom, marking the first time in U.S. history that an ex-president has been tried on criminal charges.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, appeared in the state of New York courtroom, where he is charged with falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal involving a porn star.

The case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is one of four state and federal indictments the former president is facing. But because of delays in the other cases, it may be the only one that goes to trial before the November election, significantly boosting its potential political impact.

Jury selection began Monday afternoon, and is expected to last around two weeks.

But before potential jurors were brought in to the courtroom, Justice Juan Merchan announced rulings on several motions.

Merchan said he would reject a motion from Trump’s defense team which cited alleged conflicts of interest involving the judge’s family and asked him to step down from the case.

“There is no agenda here,” Merchan said, adding: “We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done.”

But Merchan said he would not allow the prosecution to introduce evidence about allegations that Trump committed sexual assaults, calling the claims “rumors.”

Bragg’s team wanted jurors to hear the claims, made in the leadup to the 2016 election, to bolster their case that Trump schemed to hide evidence of an affair, because he was worried about losing support from women voters.

Merchan also said he would not allow the jury to hear the “Access Hollywood” tape, but that prosecutors could introduce into evidence comments made by Trump and caught on the tape. In the recording, which emerged shortly before the 2016 election, Trump brags about grabbing women’s genitals, adding: “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”

Prosecutors asked Merchan Monday to fine Trump for violating an April 1 gag order imposed by the judge. In recent social media posts, Trump attacked Michael Cohen, his former fixer, and the porn star Stormy Daniels.

Merchan said he would hear arguments April 23 on that issue.

Cohen, a former lawyer who has fallen out with Trump, is expected to be a key witness in the case, and Daniels also may testify. Defense lawyers have not yet said whether Trump will testify in his own defense.

Payments to Daniels

At the center of the case are payments totaling $130,000 to Daniels, made by Cohen in the closing weeks of the 2016 election campaign. Cohen admitted in his plea deal the payments were aimed at buying Daniels’ silence about an affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump faces 34 felony counts, and he could face a maximum of four years in prison if convicted. But Merchan also could sentence him to probation without prison time.

Legal experts have noted a major challenge facing Bragg: In New York state, falsifying business records on its own is a misdemeanor, not a felony. But it becomes a felony if the falsification was done to conceal another crime.

Bragg alleges that Trump intended to conceal state and federal campaign finance violations. The payments, prosecutors allege, were illegal and unreported donations to Trump’s campaign, because if Daniels’ story became public, it could have damaged Trump’s image when voters went to the polls.

Bragg also alleges that Trump intended to conceal a tax crime stemming from how Cohen was reimbursed for the payments to Daniels.

Prosecutors don’t need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump committed these alleged underlying crimes. But they do need to show that Trump intended to conceal them — something defense lawyers are expected to strongly contest.

Political effect

The most important impact of any Trump conviction could be political. Most polling averages currently give Trump a very slim lead over President Joe Biden. But there is some evidence that if Trump were to be convicted of a felony, a small but significant slice of the electorate would be less likely to support him.

Though the charges in the case may seem simultaneously salacious and dry — prosecutors will present reams of sometimes arcane corporate documents — democracy advocates say it in fact involves important principles, and centers on a scheme to undermine a fair election.

“This is not a case solely about hush money payments,” Norm Eisen, a legal analyst and prominent Trump critic who was Democratic co-counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment, told reporters Thursday. “It’s about Trump’s alleged actions to hide information from voters to cover up election interference.”

In a small park outside the Manhattan Criminal Court, Trump supporters gathered Monday to affirm their loyalty to the former president, and to lambaste the trial — as Trump himself has frequently done — as a politically motivated witch hunt.

“What’s happening in that courtroom is a total sham,” said Steve Merczynski, of New York City, who wore a hand-embroidered scarf declaring “MAGA again.”

“This is all run by the Biden criminal administration,” Merczynski added. (There is no evidence that the Biden administration influenced the prosecution.)

Another Trump supporter, Dion Cini, said he didn’t want to judge Trump’s personal life.

“I’ve been to Thailand three times,” said Cini, a New Yorker who was once banned from Disney World for holding a Trump 2020 flag on Splash Mountain. “What do you think I do in Thailand, just sit in a chair? No, I go out and have fun and meet women. That’s what we do as men.”

Among the few anti-Trump demonstrators was Marc Leavitt, who stood on a park bench as he played the national anthem and other patriotic songs on a flute.

“I think the rule of law should proceed appropriately, and that’s what’s happening today,” said Leavitt. “And that’s a very good thing for America.”

About 900 companies, trade associations and other groups registered to lobby during the 2024 session of the Kentucky legislature held at the Capitol in Frankfort. Their combined spending was roughly $1 million higher than the previous record set the year before. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT —?The GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature easily overrode nearly all of Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes Friday on the next to last day of this year’s legislative session, cementing a number of Republican priorities into state law.?

In total, Republican supermajorities in both legislative chambers overrode two dozen vetoes of bills and a resolution, including overriding nearly all line-item vetoes of budgetary bills funding state government.

Democratic lawmakers pushed back, unsuccessfully urging Republicans to uphold the vetoes on a number of bills including a sweeping crime bill, a bill creating more barriers to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants in Kentucky, and a bill changing how U.S. Senate vacancies are filled.?

The legislation with overridden vetoes will now become state law with the signature of Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams. Here are some of the key vetoes the legislature overrode.?

Budget bills

Bills funding the state executive branch to the tune of $128 billion, funding the state legislative and judicial branches and road projects saw multiple line-item vetoes from Beshear.

The governor took issue with a number of provisions in House Bill 6, legislation funding state cabinets and agencies. He vetoed provisions that capped executive branch spending to respond to disasters and forest fires, mandated reports to the legislature about the governor’s executive orders and required state executive branch officials get permission from the state treasurer to use state-owned planes for out-of-state travel.

“Executive orders by their very nature are within the Executive Branch’s authority as set forth in the Kentucky Constitution,” Beshear wrote in vetoing HB 6. “The information requested to be provided by the Executive branch in this provision far exceeds anything the Legislative branch has required under its own procedures during the 2024 Regular Session.”?

Both chambers of the legislature overrode nearly all line-item vetoes in state budgetary bills. They sustained a veto of requiring the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources to create a report on abandoned and active coal mine reclamation projects.?

Rep. Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington, echoed Beshear’s concerns on the House floor, saying “it’s not enough to say we’ll come back and have a special session when people are in crisis.”?

“They need a crisis level response. The governor is right: we should sustain his veto as it relates to responding to natural disasters,” Burke said.?

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, said the arguments against the funding limits for natural disasters were “specious” considering the next state fiscal year for the budget begins in July and that the legislature will reconvene for its next legislative session in about six months.?

Some of the reporting requirements and studies that we direct are important,” McDaniel said, mentioning the legislature’s desire to gather more data on Kentucky State Police operations and the Medicaid waiver program.

House Bill 5

The House easily overrode Beshear’s veto of House Bill 5, an omnibus crime bill backed by Jefferson County Republicans in a vote of 73-22. The bill went straight to the Senate, whose members voted 27-10 to override the veto.?

Beshear vetoed the bill earlier this week. He told reporters Thursday that he supported some parts of the bill, such as the carjacking statute and flexibility for the Kentucky Parole Board, but other parts concerned him.?

“This bill has a number of good sections, but I do believe it was cruel to put some of these sections that would have received unanimous approval with others that individuals knew would have been controversial,” Beshear said.?

The governor added that he had been in Louisville this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the Old National Bank shooting that killed five victims, including a personal friend of his. He noted that one provision of the bill would allow for weapons used in murders to be destroyed after an auction sale.?

He criticized one of the most controversial sections of the bill — making street camping a crime in Kentucky. Advocates have argued that would largely impact people who are homeless. Beshear said several ministers contacted him about the issue.?

“I could not in good conscience, with my faith, sign a bill that would virtually criminalize homelessness and would treat an abandoned car better than a car that had a person in it who was suffering from homelessness,” the governor said.?

Beshear expressed concern about the financial impacts of increasing incarceration in Kentucky —?an issue that falls to the executive branch. Lawmakers are also finalizing the next two-year state budget this session. The governor criticized a limitation included that prevents his administration from delving “into unnecessary government expenses if our correction costs go over.”

Advocates from both right and left think tanks said the legislature should have an in-depth fiscal analysis before implementing the legislation. Beshear said his administration tried to give an estimate to the General Assembly but it “never published it — at all.”?

When the veto override vote was being considered in the Senate, Sen. John Schikel, R-Union, said the supporters of HB 5 are “dealing with real life” and not “hypotheticals about homeless people.”?

Senate Bill 299

Legislation backed by Republican leadership in the General Assembly would dissolve the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Department of Charitable Gaming and create a new government corporation to oversee those duties. The Senate overrode Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 299 and forwarded it to the House Friday afternoon.?

Beshear vetoed the bill because he viewed it as an “unnecessary and unworkable bill, and its unintended consequences would tremendously affect horse racing, sports wagering and charitable gaming industries and the ability of people to serve on the newly-created corporation,” he wrote in his veto message.?

The governor told reporters that a conversation should be had about the move during the legislative interim session and pointed out that it was finalized shortly before the veto period began.?

“The Public Protection Cabinet worked so hard to get sportsbetting launched,” Beshear said. “They brought all of their resources to bear and look at how well it’s gone. There’s that old axiom, ‘if it ain’t broke,’ right? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

House Bill 622

Beshear vetoed a measure that would end the governor’s power to fill U.S. Senate vacancies, House Bill 622. In his veto message, the governor wrote that the General Assembly had passed legislation in 2021 to change the process and criticized it for changing “its mind for the second time in three years.”?

“This administration deserves the same authority as previous administrations,” Beshear continued.?

Unsurprisingly, the House and Senate disagreed with him and overrode his veto Friday. The bill had passed through both chambers with bipartisan support.?

Senate Bill 349?

Both chambers of the legislature overrode Beshear’s veto of a bill, Senate Bill 349, backed by Senate President Rorbert Stivers, R-Manchester, creating new hurdles before utilities can retire fossil fuel-fired power plants.?

SB 349 will create a new commission, whose membership would include significant fossil fuel interests, that utilities would have to give notice to about plans to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant before officially filing such a plan before the state’s utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission.?

This commission would create a report for each retirement request analyzing the impacts of and alternatives to the request, including impacts to the state’s electricity supply and whether the retirement would create a “loss of revenue” for local and state government.?

Environmental advocacy groups and Investor-owned utilities including Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) have decried SB 349 as potentially burdening ratepayers with the costs of keeping aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the power grid. Proponents, including national coal industry interests, have backed the bill as a way to secure the reliability of the state’s power grid, an assertion rebuffed by the president of LG&E and KU.?

Beshear’s veto message rejecting SB 349 said he agreed Kentucky “must have energy reliability” but said the new commission wasn’t the right solution, was unconstitutional and something that instead could “jeopardize economic development.”?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has called on Blair to resign. (Getty Images)

A Kentucky prosecutor, who allegedly helped criminal defendants in exchange for sexual favors and methamphetamine, is facing federal wire fraud charges.

Perry County commonwealth’s attorney Scott Blair, 51, of Hazard, was charged with committing honest services wire fraud in a federal criminal complaint Friday, according to a release from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Federal law defines honest services wire fraud as a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.”

The complaint, according to the release, alleges that from April 2020 to March 2024 Blair used his position of public trust and authority to assist various individuals who were facing criminal charges in Perry County. The complaint further alleges there are numerous instances in which Blair requested something of value, including sexual favors and methamphetamine, from multiple individuals, in exchange for taking actions in his official capacity to help those individuals.

The release says the charges were jointly announced by Carlton S. Shier IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Michael E. Stansbury, special agent in charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., commissioner of the Kentucky State Police.

The investigation preceding the complaint was conducted by the FBI, Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and KSP, says the release. .

Blair’s initial appearance is cheduled for Monday at 2:45 p.m.

Coleman, the Kentucky attorney general, issued a statement Friday calling on Blair to resign.?

Reproductive rights advocates gather on the steps of the Arizona Supreme Court to speak out against a near-total abortion ban from 1864 being considered by the judges on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. The ban includes no exceptions for rape or incest and allows only abortions performed to save the patient’s life. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled to make abortion largely illegal in the Grand Canyon State, reinstating a 160-year-old law that forbids all procedures except those to save a woman’s life.

Justice John R. Lopez IV, writing for the court in a 4-2 split decision, said that a 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of gestation depended on the existence of a federal constitutional right to abortion. And since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated that right in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling two years ago, that law can’t overrule one first passed in 1864, when Arizona was a territory.

“Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because (the 15-week abortion law)? does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting (the 1864 law’s) operation. Accordingly, (the 1864 law) is now enforceable,” Lopez wrote.

And that means abortions are illegal in every case except to save a woman’s life.

“In light of this Opinion, physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal…,” Lopez wrote.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called the ruling “unconscionable” and “and affront to freedom.”

“Make no mistake, by effectively striking down a law passed this century and replacing it with one from 160 years ago, the Court has risked the health and lives of Arizonans,” Mayes said in a written statement. “Today’s decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state.”

The ban will go into effect in 59 days.

Anti-abortion groups celebrated the ruling. Cathi Herrod, president of Center for Arizona Policy, which backed the 15-week law while it was moving through the legislature and is behind many of Arizona’s abortion regulations, said that the high court ruled with an eye toward a neutral interpretation of the law, and not to advance partisan priorities.

“Today’s decision preserves a system designed to be blind to all but the law, and in doing so, it upholds the right of life for all Arizonans.”

Arizona governor responds

In a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter, Gov. Katie Hobbs sounded the alarm over the decision and vowed to continue working to protect access to abortion.

“It is a dark day in Arizona,” she wrote. “We are just fourteen days away from one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country. But my message to Arizona women is this: I won’t rest, and I won’t stop fighting until we have secured the right to abortion.”

During a news conference held shortly after the ruling was released, the Democrat called on the Republican-led legislature to repeal the 1864 law, saying it was the right thing to do. Two attempts this year to do just that stagnated in the legislature, where the GOP-majority has the power to decide which bills get heard.

But it seems unlikely that Republicans will respond to the renewed request. House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen filed an amicus brief in the case advocating for the reinstatement of the Civil War-era law, saying that lawmakers never intended to supersede the ban when they passed the 15-week law.

If Republican lawmakers won’t act, Hobbs said, then Arizona voters can in November, when an abortion access amendment is expected to make it onto the ballot.

“To the people across Arizona who are concerned about the future of abortion rights in our state, who are worried about their bodily autonomy, who don’t want to see the freedom of their wives, sisters and daughters restricted, you can make your concerns known at the ballot box,” she said.

Reproductive rights advocates are concerned that a return to a near-total ban will result in uneven health care access for women, as those who can afford to leave the state to seek abortions elsewhere will do so and women who can’t shoulder the cost will be forced to continue carrying unwanted or dangerous pregnancies. Morgan Finkelstein, who in 2020 was forced to travel to California because of Arizona’s limited abortion providers to receive a selective reduction when one of her twins developed a critical heart defect, said that the experience was “traumatic” and should not have to be endured by anyone.

Hobbs told reporters that, while she expects abortion advocacy groups to help women access the health care they need, she is open to discussing ways to support that effort with other governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom.

Hobbs highlighted her executive order that concentrates prosecutorial authority for abortion law violations in Mayes’ office as the most effective strategy to prevent the criminalization of doctors by “overzealous” prosecutors. And while some county attorneys have signaled an interest in challenging that executive order in court, Hobbs said she is confident in the order’s legal basis.

“Bring it on,” she said. “I would not have issued the executive order if I didn’t think it was legally sound.”

Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick, medical director of Camelback Family Planning, one of a handful of private abortion clinics in the Valley, told the Arizona Mirror that she’s committed to keeping her doors open for the entire 59 days that the ruling is paused.

“It is business as usual, and health care as usual, and we will try to see as many people as we can,” she said.

But Goodrick, who has practiced in Arizona for more than 20 years, said she’s confident the November election will bring change, as voters flock to the polls in response to the “extremist” ruling.

The background

The dilemma arose in the summer of 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion and sent the power to regulate the procedure back to the states. Then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich went to court to reinstate the 1864 abortion ban, and convinced a trial court judge that the Civil War-era law should be enforced instead of the 15-week ban passed just months earlier.

The consequences for reproductive health care in Arizona were instantaneous: An uncertain legal landscape led the majority of the state’s nine abortion clinics to provide intermittent services for months. The 1864 law carries with it a 2- to 5-year mandatory prison sentence for doctors who perform abortions for any reason other than saving a patient’s life, and the 2022 law punishes doctors with a class 6 felony and a revoked license.

Women were cut off from potentially life-saving care as the abortion rate saw record lows that year. Whereas abortions in Arizona have consistently exceeded 13,000 since 2011, in 2022 that number plummeted to just 11,407 procedures.

With two conflicting statutes on the books, uncertain doctors shutting their doors rather than risk prison time, and state officials vying over which ban to implement, Arizona courts were tasked with figuring out how to make the laws coexist.

Proponents of the near-total ban argued that the 2022 law included a provision that stated it wasn’t meant to repeal any laws that came before it, signifying that the 1864 law should reign supreme. But reproductive rights advocates pushed back, pointing out that if the 1864 law wasn’t overruled by the 15-week law based on that interpretation, then neither were the numerous abortion law restrictions enacted in Arizona in the 50 years since Roe v. Wade was decided. And keeping in place laws that mandate an ultrasound, a 24-hour waiting period and an informational consultation, among other requirements, meant that abortion must be preserved to some extent.

The near-total ban was brought back into play by a Pima County judge who nullified an injunction holding it at bay that was erected in 1973, under the auspices of Roe.

But the Arizona Court of Appeals later ruled that the 15-week ban should supersede its predecessor, with the judges noting that if the GOP-majority legislature had intended to completely outlaw abortion, it should have been done so explicitly instead of passing what amounted to a gestational limit.

Less than two months later, Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion legal firm, filed an appeal with the Arizona Supreme Court on behalf of Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, the medical director of a chain of Valley-wide anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Hazelrigg was admitted into the case to fill the role of “guardian ad litem”, representing the interests of the unborn in Arizona. The position was added in 1973 when the near-total ban was first challenged.

In a December hearing, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jake Warner urged the justices to reverse the appellate court’s decision, saying that the lower court erred when it ruled to permit elective abortions up to 15 weeks under the 2022 law.

Warner argued that both the 1864 near-total ban and the 15-week gestational ban outlaw all but the most life-threatening procedures. Instead, the way to harmonize the two laws is by allowing the exception baked into the 15-week law for “immediately” life-threatening situations to modify the requirements of the 1864 law, he said.

Until 15 weeks, Warner explained, all abortions would be prohibited unless the mother’s life is in danger, as the 1864 law mandates. After the 15-week point, the threshold for obtaining an abortion would be raised, so that only “immediately” life-threatening emergencies would merit a procedure. A cancer patient, Warner said, is facing a life-threatening situation, but not an “immediately” dangerous prognosis, and so they would not be permitted to obtain an abortion to begin treatment.

In a written statement issued after the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday, Warner called the decision a win for the right to life.

“Life is a human right, and today’s decision allows the state to respect that right and fully protect life again – just as the legislature intended,” he said.

Planned Parenthood Arizona attorney Andy Gaona, meanwhile, rebutted that if the Arizona legislature truly meant to outlaw virtually all abortions, it should have made its intention clearer. GOP lawmakers in Arizona modeled the state’s 15-week ban after the Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, under the assumption that the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold that law and the Arizona copy could stand.

But Arizona lawmakers left out a key provision from the Mississippi law: a clause which stated that any abortion that complied with Mississippi’s 15-week law but violated any other abortion law was nonetheless illegal. Gaona pointed to that as proof that Arizona lawmakers never intended to completely ban abortion.

While the courts worked through the legal parameters of abortion in Arizona, the election of pro-choice Democrats to statewide offices two years ago dampened the threat of a state ban to some degree.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, who ran on a promise to protect abortion access, issued an executive order in July concentrating the prosecutorial authority for abortion law violations in the Arizona Attorney General’s office. Doing so preemptively barred any of the state’s 15 county attorneys from using Arizona’s abortion laws to take a doctor to court. At least one county attorney, Yavapai’s Dennis McGrane, who joined Hazelrigg in advocating for the 1864 law, has indicated an interest in pursuing abortion law violations. AG Kris Mayes, meanwhile, has vowed never to prosecute a single case.

But the legal strength of Hobbs’ executive order has yet to be tested in court. Shortly after she issued it, county attorneys threatened to mount a legal challenge against it, though none has since materialized.

November 2024: the solution?

Reproductive rights groups are aiming to stave off threats from the court rulings and GOP-backed laws by enshrining abortion access in the state constitution this November. The Arizona Abortion Access Act would guarantee the procedure as a right up to 24 weeks of gestation, in a mirror of the standard in Roe. The act would also include an exception for procedures performed after that time if the doctor considers it necessary to safeguard the life, physical or mental health of their patient.

Because it is a constitutional amendment, the initiative needs to collect 383,923 signatures to qualify for the ballot and be considered by Arizona voters. Earlier this month, the campaign announced it has gathered 500,000 signatures, and it plans to continue collecting more to ensure a buffer against signatures that are eventually thrown out during the verification process.

Along with securing enough signatures, supporters of the act must also contend with opposition from the It Goes Too Far Campaign, which is aiming to convince voters that the ballot proposal is too extreme. In an emailed statement, Campaign Manager Leisa Brug said that, despite the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling, the 15-week gestational ban remains the law of the land, and the campaign is focused on ensuring that the effort to enshrine abortion protections doesn’t undermine that.

“Our campaign is committed to exposing the real impact of the vague language of this amendment,” she said, in an emailed statement. “Arizonans deserve to know.”

Democrats in Arizona and across the country are counting on the abortion issue to mobilize voters and deliver wins for party candidates. Abortion access has proven to be a highly motivating concern, even in red states like Kansas, where a record number of voters showed up to reject a legislatively referred ballot measure that would have given lawmakers the power to eliminate abortion protections, and in Virginia, where voters awarded Democrats a legislative majority to defend against the anti-abortion policies of the state’s Republican governor.

Vice President Kamala Harris placed the blame for the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling squarely on former President Donald Trump, who is running to recapture the White House. The campaign to reelect President Joe Biden and Harris has sought to underscore Trump’s involvement in overturning Roe, and link his presidency to the proliferation of abortion bans across the country.

“Arizona just rolled back the clock to a time before women could vote – and, by his own admission, there’s one person responsible: Donald Trump,” Harris said in an emailed statement. “This even more extreme and dangerous ban criminalizes almost all abortion care in the state and puts women’s lives at risk. It provides no exceptions for rape, incest, or health. It’s a reality because of Donald Trump, who brags about being ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe v. Wade, and made it possible for states to enforce cruel bans.”

Trump’s appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court bench secured a conservative majority that later struck down the constitutional right to abortion.

In a joint statement, Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano and state Senator Eva Burch, who has recently become the face of abortion access in Arizona after sharing the difficulties she faced obtaining an abortion, denounced anti-abortion Republicans and vowed to back reproductive rights efforts in November.

“The decision to choose when and how to start a family belongs to each of us as individuals. Donald Trump and extremist Republicans at every level of government have been undermining these rights for years, and we have had enough,” the two said in an emailed statement. “Arizona Democrats are ready to do whatever it takes to protect the people of Arizona from these out-of-touch extremist policies, and take it to the ballot in November.”

The story is republished from the Arizona Mirror, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Gov. Andy Beshear addressed lawmakers on Jan. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed bills creating a nuclear energy authority and outlawing “discriminatory treatment” of filling stations.

He also vetoed a measure similar to one the state Supreme Court overturned last year but that Republicans say is different enough to withstand judicial scrutiny. It allows a change of judicial venue for constitutional challenges and lawsuits against the state.

State lawmakers will reconvene for two days — April 12 and 15 — when the GOP supermajorities are expected to easily override the Democratic governor’s vetoes.? A veto override needs only a majority of each chamber’s approval.?

The governor has signed into law more than 50 bills and resolutions as of Thursday, according to records received by Secretary of State Michael Adams.?

During a Thursday news conference, Beshear highlighted his vetoes, including? Senate Bill 198, sponsored by Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, creating a new research authority to develop nuclear energy in Kentucky.?

Beshear said he has no problem with developing nuclear energy but that the board for the newly established authority “isn’t appointed or really overseen by myself or any other constitutional officer.” Beshear said the authority needs more oversight in order to be constituted as an executive branch agency.

“This is not any opposition to nuclear energy or a development authority, but a development authority has to be created legally, and if it’s going to be an executive branch agency, it can’t be made up of directly selected private sector individuals through legislation,” Beshear said.?

Carroll in a statement said he was disappointed by the veto and that “political considerations often overshadow” efforts to help Kentuckians. Carroll argued that having board members represent “diverse entities” would minimize political influence on the authority’s decisions.?

This veto only delays Kentucky’s progress in exploring nuclear energy opportunities, a path many other states are pursuing,” Carroll said in his statement, urging his fellow lawmakers to override the veto. “It does not encroach on the governor’s executive powers.”

Beshear signed related legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 140, also sponsored by Carroll, which directs the state utility regulator, the Kentucky Public Service Commission, to begin preparations for siting future nuclear power plants. Beshear said he was concerned the legislature didn’t provide specific funding to the PSC to do the new work.

Beshear vetoed House Bill 581, sponsored by Rep. Ken Upchurch, R-Monticello, requiring local governments to allow retail filling stations in any land-use zone where electric vehicle charging stations are allowed. Upchurch has argued that he wants to create an “equal playing field” for electric vehicle charging stations and gas stations, while opponents have warned the bill could exclude small charging stations at public buildings, YMCAs and small shops where chargers are a draw for customers.?

In his veto message, Beshear said the bill “imposes big state government control over local governments’ planning decisions” that? “should be left to the local officials elected to make them.”

Beshear also vetoed House Bill 804, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, which would allow a participant in a lawsuit challenging a state regulation or state law to have cases moved from the court in which a case was filed to an adjacent judicial circuit.

The governor panned the bill as another attempt by the legislature to “violate the separation of powers,” saying the state judicial branch has exclusive authority to determine the proper courtroom or venue for lawsuits.?

“What it attempts to do is take the decision of venue entirely out of the judicial branch and give it to any one of the litigating parties that can just simply ask for a change of venue without any process or evaluation,” Beshear said.?

The Kentucky Supreme Court last year struck down a similar law that had allowed lawsuit participants challenging a state law or regulation — including the attorney general intervening in the lawsuit — to request a change of venue and allow the case to be moved to a new court chosen at random by the Supreme Court clerk.?

The Kentucky Supreme Court in its ruling stated the law violated the separation of powers between state government branches.?

Flannery in legislative committee hearings said HB 804 was “much different” than last year’s law, saying he thought it would comply with the Supreme Court decision.

Rep. Lindsey Burke, D-Lexington in a legislative committee hearing asked Flannery if the law was an “unreasonable restriction” on the power of Franklin Circuit Court judges to hear challenges to state laws and regulations. Flannery said in response that such challenges can be brought in any circuit court across the state.?

House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, said other circuit court judges he knew in the area, not just those in Franklin County, could handle cases involving constitutional challenges.?

“You can be against this for some reasons — that’s fine,” Nemes said. “But you cannot say that the circuit judges in areas contiguous to Franklin County aren’t up to snuff.”?

The circuit court in Franklin County has traditionally heard legal challenges to state laws and regulations because it’s the seat of state government and most state agencies. In particular, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd has been a target of GOP criticism for court decisions.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegeig said the rule would provide a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution” and provide states “flexibility to set their own climate targets.”?(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A federal judge has sided with Kentucky’s Republican attorney general in ruling that the Biden administration overstepped by requiring states to set goals for reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle tailpipes and other sources on federal highways.?

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton, of Kentucky’s Western District, in a Monday order said the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) lacked legal authority to issue the “arbitrary and capricious” rule. Reuters reported the judge stopped short of enjoining the regulation’s enforcement or vacating it, noting a federal judge in Texas had already struck it down nationwide before Beaton could finish considering the case.

Beaton was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020.

The FHWA’s rule would require state transportation departments to establish two-year and four-year emissions reduction targets beginning in 2024. The rule granted states “flexibility” to set goals that “are appropriate for their communities and that work for their respective climate change and other policy priorities.”?

At the time the rule was finalized, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegeig said? in a statement that it would provide a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution” and provide states “flexibility to set their own climate targets.”?

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, transportation contributed 29% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, fueling the increasing effects of human-driven climate change.?

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman along with 20 other Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration to stop the rule from going into effect.?

Coleman in a statement said Biden’s “radical environmental agenda” is costing “Kentucky families, farmers and workers.”?

?“Like all Americans, Kentuckians love our trucks, cars and vans. With this victory in court, we’re slamming the brakes on the Biden Administration’s politics that make no sense in the Commonwealth,” Coleman said.?

A FHWA spokesperson said in an email the agency was reviewing the court decision and remained committed to the administration’s goal of “cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”?

Lawmakers questioned a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet official about the FHWA rule and the lawsuit during a February legislative committee meeting.

Mike Hancock, deputy secretary for the cabinet, told lawmakers the cabinet had a “great relationship” with the FHWA and that the cabinet was “in the habit of meeting federal requirements” to not endanger hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation funding given to the state.?

Protesters take to the streets outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, where justices questioned attorneys about broad changes in access to mifepristone. (Sofia Resnick/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON—As the enormous yellow banner unfurled in front of the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday morning, Laura Clime-Coates turned to her 9-year-old daughter and said, “Those are the names of people who agree with us.”

On the sign, titled “We the People Support Medication Abortion,” were what activists estimated to be half-a-million signatures from people across the U.S. asking the Supreme Court not to restrict mifepristone, a commonly used drug for abortions and miscarriage management. And for Clime-Coates, who said she signed several petitions in support of medication abortion, mifepristone is the reason her oldest child was standing beside her, and the reason she has a little sister at home in Baltimore.

Back in 2009, Clime-Coates said she experienced what she referred to as a missed miscarriage.

“There was no heartbeat, and it was risking my future ability to have children, and I really wanted children,” she told States Newsroom. “The tissue was not developing and threatening my uterus. My choice was to wait around and damage my body or take mifepristone.”

Clime-Coates and her daughter were among hundreds of abortion rights supporters holding signs and chanting, while inside, the justices heard oral arguments in U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, their first major reproductive rights case since overturning Roe v. Wade almost two years ago.

In the absence of a legal precedent protecting the right to terminate a pregnancy, the implications for abortion access in this case are as high as they have ever been. More than a dozen states have banned or heavily restricted abortion since 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, but abortion rates have risen rather than fallen. The Guttmacher Institute recently published data estimating more than 1 million abortions in 2023, of which about 63% were via medication, and that only includes abortions in the formal medical system. Many reproductive rights researchers and providers credit the rise in part to the FDA lifting certain restrictions on abortion medication after more than two decades of consistent safety and efficacy data. Beginning in 2016, the FDA increased the gestational window women could terminate pregnancies using medication, adjusted the dosages, removed in-clinic requirements, and made medication abortion available via telemedicine and directly at pharmacies.

Initially filed in 2022 by anti-abortion doctors and medical groups a few months after Roe was overturned, the case has incurred criticism from throughout the medical and scientific community because of its flawed scientific claims that mifepristone is dangerous and should not have been approved by the FDA. At issue now in the FDA’s appeal to the Supreme Court is whether to uphold the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion that the FDA must reapply older restrictions against the agency’s own scientific determination. The coalition of anti-abortion medical groups?have largely relied on anecdotes from longtime anti-abortion activists, as well as a handful of studies produced by some of the main medical groups connected to the lawsuits, two of which were recently retracted by academic publisher Sage for methodological flaws and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

In anticipation of the oral arguments in this case, those in the pharmaceutical industry have expressed anxiety that a ruling against the FDA could stifle future drug development, by allowing anyone with an ideological opposition to a medication to try to force a drug-policy change.

“This case isn’t about mifepristone,” said Elizabeth Jeffords, the CEO of a small biotech company called Iolyx Therapeutics, on a webinar organized by reproductive health researchers last week. “This is about whether or not the FDA is allowed to be the scientific arbiter of what is good and safe for patients. …. It’s critical for our ecosystem that we continue to have investors, and investors will only come to our ecosystem if they have some certainty. If I had to believe that I would have to stand up to multiple litigations from parties without standing over the course of any drug that we’re working on developing, I wouldn’t have enough money to exist, and all of the little biotech companies would be out of existence as well.”

Pharmaceutical sciences professor Chris Adkins – who sparked the investigation into those studies and has co-authored a new academic paper in the journal Contraception breaking down what he says are significant methodological flaws – said it has been difficult to watch this case advance all the way to the Supreme Court.

“I just hope moving forward that we’ve got more public awareness that our federal courts have not always been the best evaluators of scientific evidence,” Adkins told States Newsroom. “I really hope that the public can really put some pressure on the courts to do a better job at evaluating the scientific and the medical literature, because I think this all impacts each one of us, our families, our futures. … This type of case could threaten regulatory approval or the processes they’re involved with, not just for mifepristone, but for others.”

But for both abortion opponents and supporters outside the Supreme Court Tuesday, the issue is personal.

“I was really glad I had that choice,” Clime-Coates said. “It’s health care! And I would hate for any of my children or any woman or anyone who’s capable of reproduction to not have that choice in the future.”

Alethea Shapiro, a protester from Florida, told States Newsroom she needed mifepristone years ago to terminate a pregnancy for medical reasons. “Hands off our mifepristone!” she yelled in a small circle of activists organized by the Women’s March and the Center for Popular Democracy. Some of the activists had prepared for arrests, but they eventually dispersed while law enforcement officers surveilled the crowd.

Robin Ross, an anti-abortion activist from Amarillo, Texas — home of the conservative federal district court where the case was originally filed, told States Newsroom she had secretly attended abortion rights demonstrators’ planning session the night before but said she learned little beyond logistics. The 57-year-old Navy veteran said she recently became an activist after learning that her teenage mother had attempted to abort her in the 1960s, before abortion was legal throughout the country. Ross said that she has had many health problems, including the inability to have children, because of the abortion attempt (she did not give specifics, but she said it was not the medication abortion method authorized by the FDA, at issue in this lawsuit). She is currently working to make Amarillo a so-called sanctuary city for the unborn.

“As soon as I heard about the ability to put my faith into action and me as an abortion survivor, I instantly wanted to start [anti-abortion activism].

Some anti-abortion activists proudly displayed their pregnant bellies in protest of medication abortion.

“I’m here because I’m 34 weeks’ pregnant. I’m advocating for the rights of my child, my baby in the womb,” said Savannah Evans from Tampa, Florida, who does marketing for the national anti-abortion group Live Action. “ I don’t want her to grow up in a world that sees an abortion as an acceptable option for women.”

At 22, Evans said her pregnancy was unplanned and that she was initially “terrified,” but she and her now-husband chose to parent.

Among the speakers in the largely outnumbered anti-abortion crowd, messages focused heavily on alleged high risks of medication abortion and called on the Supreme Court to order the FDA to reapply the since-lifted restrictions that have made it possible for women to have medication abortions via telemedicine and in their homes.

“FDA, do your job!” shouted Marjorie Dannefelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro Life America. “We certainly do not have complete agreement upon the fact that there are two patients in every pregnancy, but we can at least pledge ourselves to one patient: the woman receiving abortion drugs in the mail in her home alone. … She has become her own abortionist in an unsafe home abortion.”

Recent research on telemedicine abortions, co-authored by University of California San Francisco epidemiologist Ushma Upadhyay, finds a low rate of serious adverse risks. And reproductive rights activists working to expand medication access around the nation said in interviews that abortion drugs are here to stay, even if the Supreme Court sides with the anti-abortion activists, which as States Newsroom reported Tuesday, is far from a sure thing.

“We know that people, no matter what happens with this case, are going to continue to access pills outside of the formal health care system,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, senior legal and policy advisor at Ipas, which for decades has worked in countries with restrictive laws to train providers and help expand access to abortion care. Since the overturning of Roe, she said Ipas has refocused their efforts throughout the U.S., where at least half the states have near-total bans or heavy restrictions. As States Newsroom recently reported, new data shows a rise in self-managed abortions since the Dobbs decision.

“People will continue to get medication abortion through online access, through telehealth service, through online pharmacies, through your community network,” Van Kampen Saravia said. “Self-managed abortion is a WHO-recommended method of care. What Ipas knows from decades of working outside of the U.S. is that abortion with medication is safe and effective. And that’s not going to stop no matter what happens.”

Abortion providers who work in and outside of the formal medical system told States Newsroom they should be able to prescribe the current medication abortion regimen off label, if the FDA is ordered to change its protocol.

“We’re continuing to work because the pills are still on the market, they’re still registered, so they will be available and the doctors have the freedom to prescribe them off label,” said Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of the online clinic Aid Access, which she said has been working with states with shield laws to ship abortion drugs to women in states with abortion bans. She was in front of the court handing out, for free, a small amount of boxes of the abortion-medication regimen. She said Aid Access will continue helping women self-manage their abortions.

“No matter what the Supreme Court is going to do, we’ll be there,” Gomperts said.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has called on Blair to resign. (Getty Images)

More Kentucky juveniles would be tried as adults under a bill that has now been approved by both chambers of the legislature.?

‘Victims before perpetrators:’ Senate passes bill to try certain juveniles as adults?

The House on Tuesday approved Senate Bill 20 which mandates that juveniles 15 or older would be transferred to circuit court for trial as an adult if they are alleged to have used a firearm while committing a Class A, B or C felony.?

Democratic Rep. Lindsey Burke of Lexington opposed the bill, saying it would rush kids in the “school to prison pipeline” to the “finish line.”

Burke and Rep. Keturah Herron noted that the bill reverses a change the legislature made just three years giving juvenile judges discretion to decide whether to transfer a gun case to adult court.

Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, who introduced the measure in the House, said SB 20 is aimed at “very violent criminals.” It is sponsored by Sen. Matthew Deneen, R-Elizabethtown.

A? longtime adult corrections official will head the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.?

The new commissioner, Randy White, worked in the Kentucky prison system for 27 years in multiple roles, including correctional officer, warden and most recently more than five years as deputy corrections commissioner, according to a release from the governor’s office. He retired in December.

White joins recently appointed leaders in the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

Beshear appointed? Keith Jackson justice secretary in February. Jackson, who had been the? cabinet’s deputy secretary since 2021, previously served as Lexington’s chief of fire and emergency services and commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jackson succeeds Kerry Harvey who retired in January.

Mona Womack, the ?justice cabinet’s new deputy secretary, has extensive experience in state government, including 26 years at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services as an attorney, division director and deputy general counsel.

The state’s understaffed juvenile detention facilities have been plagued in recent years by violence and abuse, drawing criticism of Beshear from Republican lawmakers and a critical audit. Lawmakers boosted funding for juvenile facilities and staff pay last year and are expected to do more?this year.

White succeeds Vicki Reed, who retired in January.

A news release from the governor’s office says White will “prioritize reducing youth crime and recidivism, increasing mental health treatment, enhancing employee training and securing all 27 juvenile facilities to better protect youth and staff, while continuing to implement the administration’s aggressive plan to enhance safety in response to violent incidents.”

In addition to eight secure detention centers, the department also runs six youth development centers, group homes and day treatment programs across the state.

The release quotes White: “Juveniles entering the criminal justice system are committing harsher crimes and require stronger rehabilitative programs than when I started in corrections 27 years ago, and as a former deputy commissioner I had a lot of interaction with these juveniles when they would transfer to adult prison,” he said. “And for Kentucky to truly reduce the juvenile population, we must focus our efforts on alternatives to detention, education, programming, employment and mental health. Our juveniles need our support, and I pledge to do just that.”?

A group of politically connected lawyers formed a venture to go after insurers and made millions from one of the largest Medicaid settlements in history. Above, Centene Corporation headquarters in Clayton, Missouri. (Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)

Shalina Chatlani examined the health care system in Mississippi as a part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. This story cannot be republished.

In 2018, when Mike DeWine was Ohio’s attorney general, he began investigating an obscure corner of the health care industry.

He believed that insurers were inflating prescription drug prices through management companies that operated as middlemen in the drug supply chain. There were concerns that these companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, were fleecing agencies like Medicaid, the government-run health insurance program for the poor.

Three years later, after DeWine became governor of Ohio, the state announced an $88 million settlement with one of the nation’s largest insurance companies, Centene.

The case led to a nationwide reckoning for the company, as attorneys general in one state after another followed Ohio’s lead, announcing multimillion-dollar settlements and claiming credit for forcing Centene to reform its billing practices.

On the surface, it appeared that these settlements, which now total nearly $1 billion, were driven by state governments cracking down on a company that had ripped off taxpayers.

But a New York Times investigation, drawing on thousands of pages of court documents, emails and other public records in multiple states, reveals that the case against Centene was conceived and executed by a group of powerful private lawyers who used their political connections to go after millions of dollars in contingency fees.

The lawyers were first hired in Ohio, without competitive bidding. Then, they gathered evidence against Centene of questionable billing practices across the country.

Using information they acquired from Centene and other sources, they negotiated with the company to set the basic framework of an agreement that could be applied in other states. With that in hand, they approached attorneys general in multiple states and made a compelling offer: hire them, at no direct cost to taxpayers, and recoup millions of dollars Centene had already set aside.

So far, the lawyers have been awarded at least $108 million in fees.

The Centene case is just one example in a thriving industry that allows private lawyers to partner with elected attorneys general and temporarily gain powers usually reserved for the government. Under the banner of their state partners, these lawyers sue corporations and help set public policy while collecting millions of dollars in fees, usually based on a percentage of whatever money they recoup. The practice has become standard fare in the oversight of major industries, shifting the work of accountability away from legislators and regulators to the opaque world of private litigation.

Private lawyers do not have to publicly defend the deals they make or prove how aggressively they went after a company accused of wrongdoing. Nearly all their work happens in secret, especially if companies settle before the stage of a lawsuit when evidence is filed with the court.

The lawyers do not even have to disclose who worked on a case or who was paid, so the public may be left unable to monitor potential conflicts of interest even as the lawyers pursue litigation on behalf of the people.

The Centene case was organized by the Mississippi-based law firm Liston & Deas along with at least three other firms, several with close ties to former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who was once considered one of the most influential Republican power brokers in the nation.

The lawyers included Paul Hurst, who served as Barbour’s chief of staff when he was governor and who married into Barbour’s family, and David H. Nutt, one of the richest men in Mississippi, who amassed a fortune funding state lawsuits against tobacco companies. Cohen Milstein, a huge national law firm with deep experience in contingency work for state attorneys general, was also part of the venture.

Though he is not listed in any government contracts as a lawyer of record, Barbour himself was a member of the legal team when Liston & Deas vied for the contract in Ohio.

At the time, Barbour also worked for Centene as a federal lobbyist.

Even now, close to three years after Centene signed its first settlements, no one has fully explained Barbour’s role in the case for the company. There is no way for the public to know whether he influenced the outcome or to measure whether Centene paid its full share, because the data used to calculate what Centene overcharged remains hidden from the public under provisions designed to protect attorney work product.

Barbour and other lawyers said that the former governor worked on the case for less than a year when the group was examining several insurance companies, and that he cut ties when Centene emerged as the primary target. Barbour said he informed Centene and his colleagues about the development and was never involved in negotiations or legal matters. He continued representing Centene as a lobbyist, he said, but his role in the case on behalf of the company was as “more of an observer.”

The lawyers said that Barbour was never paid for his work and that the settlement was not influenced by Barbour’s connections to Centene or to the lawyers who remained. They said each state attorney general reviewed Centene’s billing practices when deciding whether to enter a settlement agreement.

In recent years, P.B.M.s have been widely criticized, including by members of Congress, who have held multiple hearings and proposed legislation. The Centene settlements stand as the most successful attempt to hold a company operating in the industry accountable.

Liston & Deas and its partner law firms uncovered that Centene had arranged discounts with CVS Caremark on certain drugs and then pocketed the savings instead of passing them on to Medicaid. In some states, they revealed that Centene layered on unnecessary management fees that it had not disclosed. Although Centene settled without admitting guilt, the company agreed to be more transparent in how it sets reimbursement rates.

The lawyers noted that they spent several years investigating Centene and negotiating with the company at their own risk, saving states the cost of building a case.

Nutt, one of the lawyers who pursued the case, said states were happy with the terms of the settlements.

“Almost every one of those states audited to determine if our damage model was fair,” Nutt said.

“The formula was based on a triple damages model that we developed. And everybody was quite satisfied with it, because it was three times what anybody could have proven in court.”

Hiring outside counsel

For most of their history, state attorneys general were largely focused on advising state officials on legal matters and representing local agencies in court.

That changed drastically almost 30 years ago, when states came together to sue tobacco companies and won a $206 billion settlement to cover the cost of medical care related to smoking. The lawsuit helped redefine the role of the attorney general as one of the most powerful positions in state government and a natural place to start a political career.

Through high-profile lawsuits against corporations, an attorney general could directly affect policy and build a reputation as a champion of the people.

But complex litigation against large companies can require years of investigation and legal work, with no guarantee of success. Increasingly, states have turned to private lawyers willing to work on contingency as a way to stretch limited resources.

The rise of contingency fee cases kicked off a new wave of lobbying across the nation. Law firms looking for contracts have poured money into attorney general election campaigns and sponsored conferences at high-priced resorts, where private lawyers mingle with attorneys general and pitch their latest ideas for lawsuits.

Many states have capped how much lawyers can be paid in contingency fees and have increased oversight of private firms working for the government. But there remains concern about undue political influence and potential conflicts of interest.

“In theory, there’s an incentive to have the settlement be as big as possible, and of course that’s great for the state,” said Paul Nolette, a professor at Marquette University who has studied how the role of attorneys general has changed over time.

But in reality, lawyers have an incentive to recover the largest amount of money in the shortest amount of time, which could pressure them to water down settlements and compromise on punitive measures, Nolette said.

“I think that does raise some questions about how forcefully A.G.s and private attorneys are prosecuting a particular case,” he said.

Several experts said that contingency cases had recouped billions of dollars on behalf of the public and had become a critical way to regulate the behavior of powerful industries and large corporations.

But inviting private lawyers to help set public policy has inherent risks, they said.

Private lawyers may be more likely to have conflicts of interest because they generally represent many businesses and individuals, not just the citizens of a state.

And unlike most attorneys general, private lawyers are not elected officials. They are not generally governed by open records laws or subject to public pressure, as from legislators setting their budgets.

In the Centene case, Barbour’s associations with both Centene and the private lawyers raise “important questions” about who controlled the case to make sure it was pursued in the best interests of states that settled, said Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Did state A.G.s proactively pursue these cases, or did they passively accept the ‘free money’ or ‘easy money’ of the proposed settlements that the law firms had already negotiated with Centene?” Clark asked.

Christina Saler, a partner at Cohen Milstein, said Barbour’s early association with the legal team was not a conflict of interest because Barbour withdrew from the case before lawyers started investigating Centene.

“After Barbour’s disassociation, we had no further contact with Barbour on this matter,” she said.

A well-connected team

Barbour’s involvement in the Ohio case against P.B.M.s illustrates the potential for favoritism when states hire private lawyers.

Hurst noted the involvement of Barbour when seeking the contract in Ohio, according to emails acquired from the Ohio attorney general’s office through a public records request.

In a June 22, 2018, email exchange, just a few days before the state hired Liston & Deas, Hurst recalled meeting with the attorney general’s staff in Ohio.

Hurst went on to note that members of his team had worked with Barbour while he was in office and that they all “continue to work together now.”

In an email a week later, an assistant attorney general shared Barbour’s cell number with DeWine, saying that Barbour had shared it so he could “call him about this case anytime.”

Barbour, who had served two terms as governor of Mississippi, was a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Known as a prolific fund-raiser, he was credited with bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates across the nation.

In 1991, Barbour co-founded BGR Group, a lobbying firm that quickly became one of the most influential in Washington.

Barbour had known DeWine since he was first elected to the Senate in 1995.

Two decades later, when DeWine was in the midst of a hard-fought campaign for governor, Barbour’s close associates solicited him for the legal work on the Centene case. In October 2018, less than three months after DeWine hired Liston & Deas, he traveled to Washington to visit Barbour’s lobbying firm for several hours, according to calendar records.

At the time, Barbour and others at BGR were registered lobbyists for Centene.

Saler, of Cohen Milstein, said there was no need to inform state officials because Barbour had not been involved in the Centene portion of the case and had exited the venture several years before states hired the lawyers.

Barbour has never been named in state contracts as one of the private lawyers on the case in Ohio or anywhere else.

At least four law firms were involved in the case in two or more states, according to retainer agreements and financial records showing broadly how settlement funds were disbursed.

According to Max Littman, a former data analyst with HealthPlan Data Solutions, the analytics firm that helped identify Centene’s overcharges in Ohio, one important role for many of the lawyers was to use their connections as they presented the overcharges to various states.

Littman, who said he worked closely with the legal team, described the dynamic: Liston & Deas, with roots in a deeply red state, would approach Republican attorneys general, and Cohen Milstein, “who were our Democrats,” would focus on Democratic states.

When The Times asked for records showing Liston & Deas’s qualifications to be hired to represent the State of Ohio, the attorney general’s office said no records existed. Cohen Milstein and other law firms had submitted such documentation in the past when seeking contracts in Ohio.

Settling with states

In June 2021, nearly three years after Ohio hired its outside counsel, two states announced the first settlements with Centene on the same day: Ohio would get $88 million, Mississippi $55 million.

After that, Centene settled in one state after another, often with just months between announcements.

In fact, Centene had already set aside $1.1 billion to handle all subsequent cases. The company estimated the amount after early discussions with the private lawyers that did not involve the state attorneys general who would later work with them.

With a settlement in hand and an estimate of how much each state could collect, the private lawyers had a powerful pitch. The team also had the option to file whistle-blower lawsuits, which can advance without a state attorney general’s having to hire outside counsel.

The team pursued whistle-blower lawsuits in Texas, California and Washington.

In Texas, the whistle-blower lawsuit came with a benefit for Attorney General Ken Paxton: Under Texas law, his office is allowed to recoup “reasonable attorney’s fees” for work associated with such cases. It collected nearly $25 million in legal fees on the Centene case while spending just 561 hours on it, financial records show. That comes out to more than $44,000 per hour of work. The Texas attorney general’s office declined to comment.

Saler said all the state attorneys general decided their own strategies in reaching settlements with Centene based on the best interest of taxpayers in their states.

In states that hired the lawyers on contingency, the attorney general closely reviewed Centene’s billing practices. But no state has revealed whether its own overcharge calculations matched those of the private lawyers.

State officials who hired Liston & Deas and the other firms knew that the lawyers had previously negotiated with Centene. But in a vast majority of states, officials did not explicitly address that fact when talking publicly about the settlements.

In addition, Liston & Deas and most of the states the firm worked for have not revealed exactly how much Centene overcharged for drugs or how settlement amounts were calculated. A few states have offered sparse descriptions, which vary widely.

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office wrote in its settlement announcement that Centene’s activities had a “$2.4 million negative financial impact.” Centene agreed to pay the state nearly 10 times that amount.

The attorney general’s office in Washington, one of the few states where officials agreed to discuss basic details about the settlement with The Times, said the $33 million it recovered amounted to treble damages.

A news release from the California attorney general’s office said the state recovered double its damages, for a total settlement of more than $215 million.

As of last month, Centene had settled in at least 19 states. The Liston & Deas website says Centene will ultimately pay about $1.25 billion to 22 states.

A sweetheart deal?

Some observers believe Centene would have faced stricter penalties if the federal government had taken up the case instead of private lawyers hopscotching from one state to the next.

Several experts in health care fraud litigation and whistle-blower cases said the best way to recoup money for taxpayers would have been to file a federal whistle-blower case, similar to what the lawyers did in state court in Texas and California.

A federal case could have triggered the involvement of the Justice Department, which might have investigated Centene more thoroughly. And a federal case probably would have gotten more attention and media coverage, required more transparency and taken longer to complete, the experts said.

Hurst and other lawyers in the case said they had not filed any type of federal action against Centene.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed that it had inquired about the P.B.M. and Centene cases in Ohio, but no further federal action was taken. The department declined further comment.

Mary Inman, a lawyer at Whistleblower Partners L.L.P. with decades of experience, said one of the reasons Liston & Deas wound up in state court might have been that its case relied on whistle-blowers the federal government was unlikely to approve.

The whistle-blower in Texas was Hurst. In California, the whistle-blower was Matthew McDonald, a lawyer at David Nutt & Associates and the son of Bryan McDonald, who worked in Barbour’s administration when he was governor.

Inman said whistle-blowers are typically insiders with firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing who share information at some risk to themselves, not lawyers who gain information while on the job.

“It’s very unusual,” Inman said. “And it’s something that I, as a longtime lawyer in this space, I would not want to do because atmospherically and reputationally it doesn’t look great.”

Barbour said he believes everyone walked away from the settlements happy — including executives at Centene. As evidence, he cited the company’s stock performance.

“I can’t speak for them, but if I had agreed to pay a big settlement and my stock went up after the first day, I would think it was a pretty good settlement,” Barbour said.

States Newsroom co-published this story with The New York Times as part of its?Local Investigations Fellowship, a one-year program where local reporters produce investigative work about their communities. It cannot be republished.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, speaking on the Senate floor on Feb. 14, withdrew his floor amendments to the crime bill Friday. (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A GOP-backed omnibus crime bill won state Senate approval Friday over the objections of the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Long after I’m gone, we are going to be paying for it — figuratively and literally,” warned Sen. Whitney Westerfield in an impassioned speech that did not dissuade his colleagues from backing House Bill 5.?

The Senate vote was 27-9. Republicans Westerfield and Adrienne Southworth joined the seven Senate Democrats in voting against the measure.?

The sweeping bill includes new or increased penalties for crimes in Kentucky, such as bans on street camping and a three strikes rule for violent offenders. It requires prisoners convicted of violent offenses to serve 85% of their sentences instead of the current 20% before becoming eligible for parole, and classifies more crimes as violent.

Jefferson County House Republicans backing the bill have framed it as necessary to curb crime across the state.?

Westerfield, of Fruit Hill, attempted to soften the bill while it was in the Judiciary Committee that he chairs, but he didn’t get support from members. After opposing the bill in committee Thursday, the senator said he would “explain my vote when the bill hits the floor.”?

Ultimately, the committee adopted a version of the bill that included changes from Westerfield and Sen. John Schickel, R-Union.?

In the Senate Friday, Westerfield withdrew five floor amendments because he didn’t have enough votes. His amendments included small steps like requiring police officers to refer unhoused persons to housing and mental health resources before citing them for illegal street camping and giving officers the option of transporting an unhoused person to a shelter.?

Westerfield, a former prosecutor, isn’t seeking reelection to the Senate. At the beginning of Friday’s session, his colleagues approved a resolution honoring his time in the Senate that included references to legislation he carried to “strengthen the criminal justice system for both offenders and victims.” Senators of both parties rose to heap praise on Westerfield, saying, among other accolades, that his knowledge and leadership on criminal justice issues have earned Kentucky national respect.

However, Republicans’ embrace of HB 5 represents a turning away from efforts in recent years to reduce Kentucky’s high rates of incarceration.

Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, of Georgetown, said he cast his vote in favor of HB 5 to make up for the “bad votes” he’s previously cast on Right on Crime and Smart on Crime measures. He said they seek to “mollycoddle these criminals.”?

“It’s time we rolled back those bad bills and today’s a good start,” Thayer said.?

Schickel, who carried the bill in the Senate, said the bill addresses violent crime in Kentucky while creating new provisions, such as a shopkeeper’s privilege. That allows business owners and employees the ability to use a “reasonable amount of force” to detain someone suspected of shoplifting. Keeping people safe is “one of the most basic responsibilities of government,” he said.?

“When crime is being committed and no one is being held accountable, where is the justice in our community?” Schickel asked.?

House Bill 5’s primary sponsor, Rep. Jared Bauman, R-Louisville, has said the bill is a response to Kentucky “failing to provide the necessary foundation for Kentuckians to achieve prosperity.”?

A few Democrats voiced opposition to the bill while several Republicans spoke in support of the bill. Senate Minority Leader Gerald Neal, of Louisville, said the bill is a “serious mistake.”?

“We’re talking about changing our criminal code and various other aspects of our laws to do something that really is going to take deeper research and engagement in order to address, Neal said. “There’s going to have to be long term solutions.”?

The bill has had opposition from advocates across the political spectrum, but has gained support from groups such as the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police and the Kentucky Commonwealth Attorneys Association.?

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, a progressive think tank, found in an analysis of the bill before its most recent changes that it would cost more than $1 billion over the next decade because of an increase in incarceration expenses.

The House and Senate are expected to easily iron out differences in their two versions of the bill.

Kentucky Supreme Court, from left, back row, justices Christopher Shea Nickell, Kelly Thompson, Robert B. Conley, Angela McCormick Bisig. From left, front, Debra Hembree Lambert, Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter, Michelle M. Keller, Jan. 11, 2023, in the Supreme Court chambers at the state Capitol. (AOC photo/Brian Bohannon)

In a quick turnaround, the Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that five insurance companies will retain the right to oversee most of the state’s $15 billion annual Medicaid business, appearing to end a long-running court fight.

Anthem Kentucky, which had challenged the contract award, will be excluded, according to a Supreme Court order issued Thursday.

The decision comes just one week after the Supreme Court heard arguments on the complex contract dispute and is the result of a tie vote among the six justices who heard the case.

Kentucky Supreme Court hears from insurers fighting over share of state’s Medicaid business

Because the justices were divided 3-3, no opinion was issued on the merits of the case. Instead a single page order stated that court rules dictate that in the event of a tie vote, the 2022 Kentucky Court of Appeals decision will stand.