By Linda Blackford | Editor
Naturally, on the day before a long weekend, the news exploded. First off, reporter McKenna Horsley published a deep dive on Kentucky’s county registration numbers, which are a lot more blue than Kentucky’s actual voting results would suggest.
Then she turned to the Kentucky Fair Board, which is the latest source of power plays between the executive and legislative branches. Big changes are happening right before the Kentucky State Fair in August.
The state released its annual domestic violence report. Not worse, not better, but overall just a shocking amount of interpersonal violence, including at least 25 homicides.
Our West Virginia partners also wrote about a federal bill that would increase benefits for miners with black lung disease. The bill is co-sponsored by Kentucky Congressman Morgan McGarvey. The story points out that West Virginia Republicans did not sign on; and neither did Kentucky’s Republican representatives, who often hold forth on the need to support the coal industry.
Late in the afternoon, Kentucky Senate candidate Charles Booker asked: What is going on with the health of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell?
Oh yes, and then the Public Service Commission opened an investigation into Kentucky Power.
And in time for July 4th, read Al Cross’s homage to Seventy Six, Ky., in his native Clinton County.
Happy Fourth of July!
Primary Election Day at the Tates Creek Lexington Public Library precinct in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Arden Barnes for the Kentucky Lantern)
By McKenna Horsley
While Republicans have been gaining more members through Kentucky voter registration in the last few years, Democrats still hold the registration edge in some Kentucky counties.
People wait in line for rides at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville in August 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
After Supreme Court decision, Beshear’s Kentucky State Fair Board removes CEO
By McKenna Horsley
After the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Andy Beshear should have appointment power over the State Fair Board, the board removed the leader of the organization that oversees the fair.
A memorial in the parking lot of the Hardin County Justice Center, where Erica Riley and her mother Janet Rylee were killed on their way to a domestic violence hearing. Erica Riley was seeking protection from the man who shot them and later killed himself. The photo was taken Sept. 22, 2024 in Elizabethtown. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
By Sarah Ladd
At least 25 Kentuckians were killed by an intimate partner in 2025.
That’s according to the 2025 Domestic Violence Data Report, released Thursday, which cites Federal Bureau of Investigations data because Kentucky doesn’t have a way to track domestic violence homicides.
76 Falls in the community of Seventy Six, Kentucky. (Photo by Ryan Hermens, courtesy of Spirit of 76.)
COMMENTARY
By Al Cross
SEVENTY SIX, Ky. – If the increasing turmoil in Washington makes you worry about our country’s future as we prepare to mark the 250th anniversary of its independence, come with me to Seventy Six.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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