Kentucky

Progressives are mounting efforts to best establishment Democrats in Kentucky and New York Tuesday.

Black Lives Matter protests around the country have added energy to the left, and Black progressives are surging in contests in both states.

In Kentucky, the race between the two leading Democrats vying for the right to likely take on Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is coming down to the wire. All the momentum is on the side of state Rep. Charles Booker over Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot with a lot of money and the party's backing.

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that overturned Kentucky’s ban on a common abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation, saying it would impose a burden on women seeking abortions.

Kentucky’s Republican-led state legislature passed the ban in 2018, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Matt Bevin.

EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, at the time the state’s only abortion provider, sued over the law, saying it would all but eliminate abortions after the 13th week of pregnancy — the time frame when dilation and evacuation procedure is most commonly used.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll only support sending more federal funds to state and local governments if the money is spent on responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and governors across the country have been pleading with Congress to prop up struggling state budgets during the pandemic amid a massive decline in income and sales tax revenues—taxpayers are making and spending less money.

Governor Andy Beshear said some childcare programs can resume as soon as June 8. Beshear said in-home childcare programs that care for 10 or less children can re-open on the 8th and larger childcare centers will be allowed to open on June 15.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Tuesday the hospitalization of a second minor due to the coronavirus.

The Kentucky legislature again declined to pass a bill explicitly banning lawmakers from sexually harassing their employees during this year’s legislative session.

The legislature’s ethics rules don’t currently ban sexual harassment, though lawmakers have been punished for harassing employees under a rule that bans misuse of their official positions.

House Bill 168, sponsored by Taylor Mill Republican Rep. Kim Moser, would have defined sexual harassment as an ethical violation and created a process for the Legislative Ethics Commission to review sexual harassment complaints.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced during his May 7 press conference the next phase of the state’s reopening will be initiated sooner than expected. Phase 2 will begin May 22 with restaurant reopenings and at a later date allow movie theaters, fitness centers, campgrounds, childcare facilities, and youth sports to reopen.