By Linda Blackford | Editor
Good morning! Wednesday afternoon saw some high drama in Frankfort over budget cuts that threaten to close the Lee Specialty Clinic in Louisville, which serves people with disabilities. Legislators blamed the governor, the governor blamed the legislature, and families said, please just fix this. Read Sarah Ladd’s account.
Last week, Attorney General Russell Coleman announced he was suing two prediction market companies for being unlicensed gambling operations. This week, the Trump administration snapped back with a lawsuit of their own against Kentucky.
The President himself also made news on Wednesday when he held a massive bipartisan housing bill hostage, refusing to sign it as scheduled because the Senate has not yet passed his SAVE Act.
And as Washington, D.C., gets ready to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, Berry Craig explores the 150th anniversary of a famous battle in which some Kentuckians took part.
Kentucky advocates came to Frankfort to ask elected officials to find a way to keep Lee Specialty Clinic open despite recent budget cuts that caused them to discharge more than 1,000 patients. June 24, 2026. (Sarah Ladd/Kentucky Lantern)
By Sarah Ladd
For more than an hour on Wednesday, parents and community advocates pleaded with Kentucky leaders to reverse budget cuts that threaten to shutter Lee Specialty Clinic in Louisville.
Polymarket odds in late June 2026 have Republican Andy Barr winning the Kentucky U.S. Senate race. (McKenna Horsley/Kentucky Lantern)
By McKenna Horsley
A Trump administration organization that oversees regulation of derivatives markets has sued Kentucky to block efforts by the state’s attorney general to prevent two prediction market companies from operating what he says are unlicensed and illegal sports gambling operations.
Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026. The hall was set up for a ceremony in which President Donald Trump would sign into law a broadly bipartisan housing bill, but Trump abruptly canceled the event. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Jacob Fischler and Jennifer Shutt
President Donald Trump derailed a housing overhaul that he was set to sign into law Wednesday, canceling a signing ceremony for the broadly popular bipartisan bill until Congress passes an election security measure.
Michael Madden was a Kentuckian injured at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 26, 1876. (Berry Craig/Kentucky Lantern)
COMMENTARY
By Berry Craig
On June 26, 1876, U.S. Seventh Cavalry trooper Michael P. Madden of Louisville gulped brandy before a surgeon amputated his right leg under fire during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The sawbones gave the Irish-born Kentucky enlistee another snort afterwards. Supposedly, Madden was so appreciative of the second drink that he invited the surgeon to “cut off me other leg.”
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