By Linda Blackford | Editor
Good morning and Happy Thursday!
Data center drama is consuming Americans at a fast clip, and Kentucky is no exception. A proposal in Mercer County is getting plenty of pushback even as proponents try to annex land in the tiny town of Burgin, which has no planning and zoning rules. Reporter Liam Niemeyer found out the drama gets even bigger when it comes to the school board.
On Wednesday, my social media accounts were aflame with news that ICE agents would now be using electric gloves to apprehend suspects. What could go wrong? Then it turns out the gloves are from a Kentucky company, and just last week they were on display for lawmakers. Reporter McKenna Horsley has the story.
Our States Newsroom national desk has an interesting report about how our children’s schools are trying to navigate the endless array of artificial intelligence tools marketed to them, whether or not they help.
And I’m thrilled Tracy Farmer got my puny little joke. For Monday’s newsletter, I alluded to everyone’s favorite topic, the UK Wildcats, to reference a story about expanded hunting of Kentucky bobcats. As Farmer, a former public protection secretary, points out in today’s Commentary, some changes to regulations on hunting point out larger problems in our governance.
This map shows proposed hyperscale data centers across Kentucky. (Source: Kentucky Lantern)
By Liam Niemeyer
On Tuesday, the Mercer County Fiscal Court passed a one-year moratorium on data center construction, the latest turn over months of tumultuous debate in the rural county over whether the community should welcome a hyperscale data center project.
But that county moratorium on data center construction doesn’t include land within the bounds of one small Mercer County city that doesn’t have a planning or zoning body.
A masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent knocks on a car window in Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By McKenna Horsley
Federal immigration agents may soon be outfitted with a device – electrical shock gloves – manufactured by a Kentucky company.
Students study on laptops inside an elementary school in Farmington, Arkansas, on March 19, 2026. School districts nationwide are grappling with which artificial intelligence tools to invest in. (Photo by Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
By Robbie Sequeira
As a new school year begins, some classrooms may use artificial intelligence tools to flag a student struggling with classwork, track attendance or try to raise reading scores.
But as school districts make decisions on which tools are safe and worth spending thousands or millions of dollars on, some officials feel overwhelmed by the array of choices.
A bobcat is caught by a wildlife camera at Boone Creek Outdoors in southern Fayette County. (Photo courtesy Burgess Carey /BCO)
COMMENTARY
By Tracy Farmer
This was a case of the legislature going a little crazy in the closing days of its recent session, when it’s easy for powerful legislators to slip into a bill some provision wanted by their friends, their campaign contributors, or just some constituent who caught their fancy with a half-baked idea.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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