By Sarah Ladd | Health and policy reporter
This morning we have a story about child advocacy in Kentucky — and what one longtime advocate believes state leaders must do better for kids in the future. Sarah Ladd has that story.
We also have some UK news. McKenna Horsley reports former University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart is set to move to a part-time role with the university that includes a schedule for $3.06 million in severance payments.
Finally, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey has urged Louisville’s investor-owned electric utility to ensure that electricity ratepayers don’t bear the costs of hyperscale data centers, as Liam Niemeyer reports.
Happy Friday and thank you for reading the Kentucky Lantern.
Terry Brooks at Children’s Advocacy Day in Frankfort on March 4, 2026. (Sarah Ladd/Kentucky Lantern)
By Sarah Ladd
Ask Terry Brooks how Kentucky’s children are really doing and the answer depends on what data one wants to explore.
The longtime child advocate recently left his post as executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocate after more than two decades with the organization. He isn’t disappearing into retirement. He will now work as executive vice president and ambassador of Sunrise Children’s Services.
To mark the shift, Brooks recently spoke at length with the Lantern about the future of child advocacy in a state that has, despite its progress in some areas, one of the nation’s worst rates of abuse and neglect.
A statue of “Bowman” on the University of Kentucky is located near the Avenue of Champions opposite Memorial Coliseum. The Patterson Office Tower is in the background. (McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern)
By McKenna Horsley
Former University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart is set to move to a part-time role with the university that includes a schedule for $3.06 million in severance payments.
The amended contract was updated on June 30, which was his last day as athletics director. Earlier this year, the university had offered Barnhart a post-retirement job that would have paid him a $950,000 annual salary. Barnhart decided to not take it following public criticism, including from Gov. Andy Beshear.
A server room in a data center. (Getty Images)
By Liam Niemeyer
Democratic U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Louisville is urging the city’s investor-owned electric utility to ensure that electricity ratepayers don’t bear the costs of hyperscale data centers, saying he’s opposed to data center construction in the city.
McGarvey in a Thursday letter to John Crockett, the president of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, referenced the spike in electricity demand across the country spurred by hyperscale data centers in arguing that working families should not be required “to pay for the costs of bringing this much power online.”
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