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Representative Kim Banta (R-Fort Mitchell) will sign on as primary cosponsor. She insisted that this crisis has long existed in Kentucky, but it needs addressing now. “When I think about who this legislation is for – I think of the single mother who was forced to leave her job in the last year to become a childcare provider and teacher. I think of the worker who lost their job when their company was forced to close,” said Banta. “I think of the veteran, who for the last year struggled to get the unemployment insurance they deserved and now faces more stress. We should consider it our duty that these people have access to affordable living.”

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In 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman ordered that land confiscated from Confederate landowners be divided up into 40-acre portions and distributed to newly emancipated Black families. Following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, however, the order granting “40 acres and a mule” was swiftly rescinded by new President Andrew Johnson. The majority of the land was returned to white landowners.

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Louisville’s violence took center stage that year, sending officials scrambling for solutions — intelligence-led policing, summer jobs for teens, the reopening of the Parkland Boys & Girls Club and, importantly, a panel tasked with studying issues contributing to violence.

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Roy Ayers arrived at his Tiny Desk performance beaming with positivity. The 77-year-old funk icon and vibraphonist sauntered through the office with a Cheshire grin on his face, sharing jokes with anyone within earshot. Accompanying him was a trio of brilliantly seasoned musicians — keyboardist Mark Adams, bassist Trevor Allen and drummer Christopher De Carmine. Later during the performance, pride washed across Ayers' face as his bandmates took the spotlight. (Be sure to watch as Adams woos not just the room but brightens Ayers' face during his solo.)

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In a recent survey of criminal justice experts, about two-thirds agreed that increasing police budgets would improve public safety. But many more of them — 85 percent — said that increasing spending on housing, health and education would do so.

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Community violence intervention takes a healing, public-health approach to interrupt the cycle of harm. People who are relatable, and who understand the problem firsthand, intervene in high-risk situations to de-escalate conflicts and connect people with services such as mental health counseling, financial assistance, more stable housing, job and skills training, and employment opportunities.

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Tennessee used to publish statistical reports on juvenile courts statewide. For the last year available, 2014, we compiled reports for all 98 courts. Rutherford County locked up kids in 48% of its cases, eclipsing every other jurisdiction. (The graphic below shows the top 50 courts.) The state stopped publishing this data even as it figured prominently in a lawsuit against Rutherford County.

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The numbers are from a preliminary data set representing 8.4 million undergrad and graduate students from about 50% of U.S. colleges. The numbers show there are now 240,000 fewer undergraduates enrolled this fall compared with the same time last year, and if that rate of decline holds up for the rest of the colleges, that could translate into almost a half-million fewer undergraduate students.

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Gen Z-ers, voters more likely than any other generation to support Democratic candidates, according to Pew, are also now the voters most likely to say they no longer support the job performance of President Joe Biden and other established Democrat leaders.

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These are all places I’ve been before and have seen unhoused folks over the years, but it’s different this time. There are more encampments, for sure. And they’re in new parts of cities. No longer tucked away in alleys and empty lots as places for homeless folks to catch some unmolested sleep, they’re becoming places where people live — they’re communities.

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Students in Louisville, Ky., have been back in classrooms for a month this school year, and already parents are pressuring the governor to address the district's rising COVID-19 case numbers. As of Tuesday, Jefferson County Public Schools has reported 379 positive cases among staff and 2,866 positive cases among students, with 13,346 students being quarantined in a district of about 96,000 students.

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"That is no reason why cities all across America should not be pushing their U.S. Senators to say it is beyond time..."

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Just a few weeks earlier, Owens had watched George Floyd being murdered in an intersection and had joined in the protests. The Berkeley city council had since promised police reform. But Owens, who, at 6 foot 6, is known by one city-council member as the “youngest, tallest, and only Black” regular attendee of transportation-commission meetings, had been stewing on a more specific idea. His Twitter thread laid out his argument for transforming law enforcement by transforming city streets: “I prefer license plate cameras … and mailed tickets over: ‘ok make sure nobody does anything that justifies this cop pumping 4 rounds of lead into me.’”

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When President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) into law last March, it was a momentous occasion for local governments around the country. In contrast to past federal fiscal relief efforts—including the CARES Act of 2020—ARP provided a large number of cities and counties with direct, flexible support from the federal government. And the sums on offer were substantial: $130 billion in Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF) for cities, counties, and tribes, often amounting to significant shares of local governments’ annual budgets.

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"To me, the biggest thing about Rebecca Matheny was her deep and abiding love of Louisville and her desire to make it a better place for everybody and to be very thoughtful about how that might work," said Laura Orr, who grew up around the corner from Matheny in the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood and knew her "since we were in diapers."

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Homelessness is growing in communities across the United States as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable and public systems fail to support people who need assistance, forcing thousands to sleep outside or in shelters. Without access to housing and services, many people experiencing chronic, or long-term, homelessness are trapped in a homelessness-jail cycle—rotating in and out of jail, detoxification centers, and emergency health care. This cycle doesn’t help people access the assistance they need to find stability, and it comes at a major cost to taxpayers.

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Learn effective reparations & policy advocacy. We demand targeted policies and protections that facilitate economic inclusion and integrates the descendants of chattel slavery into the drivers of wealth. We are also fiercely committed to advocating for policies that eliminate the divides faced by Black Americans with immigrant backgrounds.

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Louisville is battling two pandemics, according to public health officials: COVID-19 and violence. They say the COVID-19 pandemic, which first gripped a hold of the metro back in March 2020, has had a direct impact on the rising violent crime numbers. "The most striking statistic is how gun violence is hitting our youth. In 2019, we lost 17 youth to homicide. And this year, as of Oct. 1, we've lost 31," Dr. Sarah Moyer with Metro Health said Tuesday.

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President Biden’s ambitious higher education agenda has had its disappointments as Congress turns it into legislation, with a strict budget forcing lower-than-anticipated funding levels for some of its provisions. While the bill includes funding for historically Black colleges and universities, advocates say it is well below what’s needed. In the current version of the budget reconciliation bill serving as the vehicle for Biden’s Build Back Better Act, HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions are slated to receive $27 billion in tuition subsidies, $1.45 billion for institutional aid and $2 billion to improve research and development infrastructure. Meanwhile, Biden proposed a total of $55 billion for HBCUs and other MSIs to upgrade research infrastructure and create research incubators for improving STEM education.

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Walking a picket line, sitting at a lunch counter, asking for a book in a library: It could get them arrested, beaten or killed. They did it anyway. It was 1961, and across the South, college students, faith leaders, shop owners, high school students, civil rights leaders and many others risked their lives to battle white supremacy. They wanted voting rights and the integration of schools, businesses, public transit and libraries.

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