Editor’s Note: Data center news is coming at us every day. This is the first in an occasional series of stories to keep Lantern readers up to date on the big and small events of an issue that could affect every region of the state. Louisville passed a data center pause, where a data center […]

Considered severely mentally ill, the young woman from Frankfort has spiraled downward since adolescence. Now 22, she has had multiple encounters with police, been diagnosed with illness ranging from schizophrenia to psychosis and, in the past four years, has been hospitalized on emergency court orders 20 times—with stays ranging from one to 27 days. She […]

LEXINGTON — There was one elephant in the room during the Kentucky Democrats’ dinner Saturday evening — the upcoming primary for governor.  U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey noted to the sold-out room that he had to speak between the two Democratic candidates — Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and Rocky Adkins, a former adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear.  “Awkward!” McGarvey […]

Diane Floyd said she was watching her husband’s music show earlier this month when she got a message over Facebook. It was from Brian Luftman, the founder of American Farm Investors, one of the companies trying to bring a hyperscale data center to Mercer County.  Luftman threatened to publish a picture of her 2023 mugshot […]

Last year, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg reinstated a detention policy for immigrants following complaints from the Trump administration.  Since then, the move has led to a dramatic increase in requests to hold immigrants detained so the federal government can assume custody of the people, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky released Thursday.

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.  The county’s planning and zoning commission has also advanced an ordinance to regulate the siting and impacts […]

Federal immigration agents may soon be outfitted with a device – electrical shock gloves – manufactured by a Kentucky company. 

“Are the KY wildcats in trouble?” That wasn’t a sports headline in the Kentucky Lantern, which doesn’t cover my University of Kentucky Wildcats, or any kind of sports. But the headline caught my attention because it was over a news story about the Kentucky General Assembly allowing the hunting of bobcats – the Kentucky wildcat […]

Kentucky’s new license plate camera law is now in effect, and it already looks out of step with the Constitution. Just before it took effect, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the commonwealth a warning its lawmakers cannot afford to ignore. On June 29, the Court ruled in Chatrie v. United States that police conduct a […]

FRANKFORT — Regulations to expand bobcat hunting, including at night with thermal equipment, moved forward Tuesday, despite bipartisan concern from some lawmakers about the status of Kentucky’s bobcat regulation. The state legislature’s Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee has the authority to vote to declare a regulation as “deficient” if lawmakers disapprove of it or recommend changes […]

A group of Kentucky lawmakers voted Tuesday to not revoke a contract with a former president of the State Fair Board that had already been voided by the Beshear administration.  Government Contract Review Committee co-chairman Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, told members the vote would be “basically making a statement.” The committee had deferred review of […]

FRANKFORT — Cases from a University of Kentucky law professor who was removed from his teaching duties more than a year ago now span state and federal court.  Professor Ramsi Woodcock filed a federal lawsuit last month against incoming law dean Judge Gregory VanTatenhove, UK President Eli Capilouto, Provost Robert DiPaola and the university, over Van […]

A data center developer looking to build a campus in Eastern Kentucky told investors Wednesday it could double the size of the project. In May, Maryland-based TeraWulf said it purchased an industrial site on the border of Greenup and Boyd counties to build a data center powered by as much as 1 gigawatt of electricity. […]

Kentucky’s medical schools have agreed to take part in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Service nutrition education program.  According to a Kentucky Senate Republicans’ press release, University of Louisville School of Medicine, the University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and Eastern Kentucky University’s proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine have agreed to […]

Chet Hayes thinks Kentucky has a decent bobcat population. Hayes, a district director for the United Trappers of Kentucky, an organization representing fur trappers throughout the state, said it’s difficult to get solid information on the elusive animal.  “It’s still growing,” Hayes told the Lantern in July. “It’s not in a position where it needs […]

In a state short of jobs, outsiders promising big investments typically receive a red-carpet welcome from Kentucky public officials. That was no doubt the expectation when Big Tech companies began scouting data center locations in the commonwealth. But when the trickle of interest became a flood, and when the proposals swelled from small data centers […]

Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is appointing the former CEO of electric utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative and a CEO of a barge company, both with coal industry ties, to a commission that the state legislature is looking to for advice on energy policy.  In a Friday release, Coleman said he was appointing “two […]

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell says he has been discharged from a rehabilitation program after a seven-week absence from the Senate.  McConnell, 84, was hospitalized in June and said on July 12 he would enter a rehabilitation center.  “Earlier today, I was discharged from the rehabilitation center to continue my recovery at home. Elaine and I […]

FANCY FARM, Ky. – The three-day political cavalcade that ends at the Fancy Farm Picnic was less about this year than next year. Yes, the picnic’s political speaking featured the first faceoff of candidates to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, and they had vigorous exchanges – with each other and the largely Republican crowd stoked […]

Gov. Andy Beshear is expanding Kentucky’s “Pre-K for All” pilot program again — this time to his dad’s hometown of Dawson Springs.  About 160 children will be enrolled through the Dawson Springs Independent School District, Beshear announced Thursday.  “This is a town that’s been through a lot. It’s been through a level of heartbreak that’s […]