
By Linda Blackford | Editor
"I'll sue you."
"No, I'm gonna sue YOU."
That's where we seem to be in Kentucky as of June 17. A coalition of prediction markets companies, which let you bet on what might happen, is mad because our legislature has give them a hefty tax rate on the zillions of dollars they're making here. But just a week after their lawsuit, Attorney General Russell Coleman announced he had a bone to pick over how those companies are operating in our state. Stay tuned.
Some sad news from Elizabethtown, where a 40-year-old domestic violence shelter is shutting down.
Also guess what? More Americans are going hungry, thanks to food prices and new limitations on food stamps.
And because you can't have a day go by without mentioning data centers, I try to answer the question: Are data centers the new coal mines of Kentucky?

A coalition of prediction market companies is suing Kentucky over its tax rate. (Photo illustration by Getty images)
By Liam Niemeyer
Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing two prominent prediction market companies over allegations that they operate unlicensed and illegal sports gambling operations – just a week after a coalition of these companies sued Kentucky over its tax rates.

A 2024 list of Kentuckians who died because of domestic violence, ranging in age from 19 to 73. (Sarah Ladd/Kentucky Lantern)
By Sarah Ladd
ISpringHaven, a domestic violence organization in Elizabethtown, will close on June 30, its partner organization, ZeroV, announced Wednesday.

By Kevin Hardy
People shop the shelves at the Ritenour Co-Care Food Pantry just outside of St. Louis last week. The nonprofit has seen rising need as grocery prices soar and thousands of Missourians lose federal food assistance. (Photo courtesy of Ritenour Co-Care Food Pantry)

COMMENTARY
By Linda Blackford
Are data centers the new coal?
Or are they the new landfills? Or the new prisons?
The comparisons aren’t perfect, but they are easy to make: a brand new shiny industry owned by out-of-state corporations comes to a beleaguered region with the promise of (some) jobs, part of an ephemeral promise to buttress the failing economies and depopulating regions of Kentucky.
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