The five freedoms of the First Amendment Congress shall make no law (1) respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or (2) abridging the freedom of speech, or (3) of the press; or the right of the people (4) peaceably to assemble, and to (5) petition
A guest analysis by Scott Horn, co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition Property Valuation Administrators are earning big bucks selling public records back to the public. In the current fiscal year, they project $1.8 million dollars in income from “miscellaneous” sources. The Department of Revenue can’t tell
A guest commentary by Dr. Tom Hastings After decades of educating us about the horrific history of Texas slaveowners refusing to let their illegally kept African-descended humans know that they were actually free, then-89-year-old African American activist Opal Lee began her historic 1,400-mile walk from her Texas home to
American history is replete with warnings of impending disaster that went unheeded: Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and more recently the climate crisis, Covid-19, and 1/6. Now comes another warning, a “Statement of Concern” (June 1, 2021) from more than 100 authorities on democracy who tell us that the Republicans’
When he heard that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said GOP-backed voter suppression laws really aren’t designed to keep minorities away from the polls, Murray State University historian Bill Mulligan turned to the Good Book. “Increasingly, the old proverb, derived from one of the Gospels [Matthew 13:13], ‘There
The Right has long worshipped no-holds-barred, free-market capitalism. Or so they claimed. But the truth is that, like their alleged devotion to small government, it was always a lie. No Trump sycophant worth his salt hasn’t lamented about these “woke” corporations who won’t go along with the Republican
“Few people think of unions or the plight of the working class when they think of Memorial Day,” Ahmed White wrote in Jacobin magazine four Memorial Days ago. “But they should,” he added. That goes double for those of us who pack union cards. Here in Kentucky, and nationwide, thousands
A guest commentary by William E. Ellis I am an 81 year-old historian, having taught at the high school, junior college, and senior college levels, the last posting at Eastern Kentucky University for 29 years. My major professors always warned about being “present-minded,” by placing or comparing current events into
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace is fed up with the media narrative that Republicans won’t buck Donald Trump because he’s got them shaking in their Guccis or Manolos. “We covered this incorrectly,” she cut loose on the Fourth Estate the other day. “Fear of Trump was the excuse. For
Happy May Day, the international labor day. Today, this union retiree is remembering Josef Simon, an anti-Nazi German trade union hero all but unknown on this side of the Atlantic. Germany’s powerful unions fiercely opposed the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. When he assumed dictatorial powers in March,
Last year, people all across Kentucky and the nation watched in awe as protestors crowded downtown Louisville for over three months. We knew that the spark which set off these mass protests was an appalling act of police violence. But, the more we watched the more we came to realize
The “canary in the coal mine” refers to something acting as an early warning of danger – the former practice of taking caged canaries into coal mines. The birds would die if methane gas became present and alerted miners of the danger. – Free Dictionary Robert Pape and Keven Ruby, senior researchers
From the Letters from an American newsletter. You can subscribe here. The 1918 influenza pandemic killed at least 50 million people across the world, including about 675,000 people in the United States. And yet, until recently, it has been elusive in our popular memory. America’s curious amnesia about
In 2020, Charles Booker made history when he challenged incumbent Mitch McConnell for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Despite a loss, his campaign reached hundreds of thousands of people across the nation and once again brought a spotlight to Kentucky politics, but Booker didn’t stop there. Following
President Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill “brings us one step closer to repairing, rebuilding and restoring our country,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. “Repairing, rebuilding, and restoring” reminded me of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “three Rs” of the New Deal: “relief, reform, and
If you are a regular visitor to this site, you have no doubt noticed some changes. And you may have wondered, Just what is going on with Forward Kentucky? The simplest answer is: We are refocusing our work. For almost six years, we have worked to grow into the go-to
