By Linda Blackford | Editor
Happy Thursday!
The Fancy Farm picnic sets up the political season, only this year, it seemed much more focused on the governor’s race in 2027 than midterms in 2026. Reporter McKenna Horsley looks at both sides of the race and what history tells us about what might happen.
Yesterday, I talked about the need for collaboration in our fractured journalistic landscape. Then some collaboration happened with an important story about black lung from our colleagues at Louisville Public Media and NPR, thanks to the new Appalachian News Exchange.
A housing conference told us what we already knew: Kentucky is still not building enough housing, affordable or otherwise, for our population, and it’s hurting a lot of people.
On that topic, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Lexington on Wednesday to tell us about stopping an organ donation program based in Kentucky after years of problems.
Also on Wednesday, Lexington businessman and former U.S. Senate candidate Nate Morris went through the last stages of being confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia. As you’ll remember, that’s what he was promised in order to stop challenging Andy Barr in the GOP Senate primary. UK Professor Robert Farley tells us all about it.
Supporters cheered for Republican Congressman James Comer who is up for re-election this fall, but is considering a run for governor in 2027. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
By McKenna Horsley
U.S. Rep. James Comer appears to be the favorite to win the Republican nomination in next year’s Kentucky governor race before he’s even announced he’s running.
Like many miners with advanced black lung disease, Tim Balthis looks healthy, sitting with his wife Fran Balthis on their porch in Pound, Va. But a scan of his lungs shows so much fibrotic tissue a doctor told Balthis he was surprised he was still alive. (Photo by Roger May of NPR, published through the Appalachian News Exchange.)
By Justin Hicks and Howard Berkes
Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs, all for former patients at her pulmonary rehabilitation clinic in Norton, Virginia.
“Each one of these represents a life that’s gone because of black lung,” Freeman explained as she flipped through the programs, recognizing names and images.
A chart presented by Wendy Smith with the Kentucky Housing Corporation shows the number of buildings permits in Kentucky for housing. Building permits plummeted after the Great Recession in 2008 and haven’t recovered to pre-recession levels since. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)
By Liam Niemeyer
Kentucky is still not building nearly enough homes across all incomes, but especially for lower-income people, to bridge the state’s large housing supply gap that’s burdening some Kentuckians with severe housing costs, according to a state housing executive.
Businessman Nate Morris takes questions from the press after a Jefferson County Republican Party debate for U.S. Senate candidates. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
COMMENTARY
By Robert Farley
On Wednesday, Nate Morris jumped through one of the last hoops to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Colombia. Morris answered questions from the Senate Foreign Relations committee, in preparation for a committee vote that will send his nomination to the full Senate. Morris is a native Kentuckian, a successful businessman, and a popular figure on the ideological right. How common is it for a person of his profile to become a United States ambassador? More common than most think, and much more common in the past two years.
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