Legacy

Daily stories of overdoses, deaths and efforts to reduce opioid addiction have made us all too aware of the continuing drug crisis taking place in Greater Cincinnati. 

Yahoo recently announced that at least 500 million of their users had their information stolen in 2014. And earlier this year the Internal Revenue Service said a cyber hack of its system gained access to personal data from more than 700,000 taxpayer accounts. 

Given just how unusual this presidential campaign has been, political pundits have found it difficult to accurately predict what is going to happen next. 

The Democratic and Republican Parties are the largest political parties in the United States, and the two receive most of the attention from voters and the media. 

Heroin abuse is becoming epidemic across the country, and the Northern Kentucky area has been particularly hard hit, experiencing a dramatic increase in those addicted to the drug and overdose deaths. Local communities, law enforcement, service agencies and medical professionals are collaborating on efforts to reduce heroin use, but there are different views on how best to combat the problem.

  For their book, “Running for Office: Why Young Americans are Turned Off to Politics,” Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox asked more than 4,000 young Americans if they were interested in running for office one day. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said no. So what drives someone to run for political office at a time in their life when most of their peers are focusing their time and energy on building their careers and starting families?

Homelessness is a serious and continuing problem in Greater Cincinnati, on both sides of the Ohio River. In 2013, the State of Kentucky ranked worst in the nation in the extent of child homelessness. And the number of sheltered individuals in Kenton, Boone and Campbell Counties increased by more than 60 percent in 2014.

  Since it was founded in 2008, The Northern Kentucky Forum has conducted more than 50 public affairs events, exploring a range of political, economic, health, education and social issues.