Al Cross: For our Derby visitors, real and remote, a scratch sheet on Kentucky politics
OK, we’re back to normal. Partly. The Kentucky Derby is back where it has been since the Great Depression, on…
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Al Cross: Republican legislature grabs wheel from Democratic governor; voters will have a say in 2022
When Kentuckians elected Andy Beshear in 2019, they created a recipe for partisan conflict between a legislature with a recent,…
Al Cross: Rural Republican Stivers finds common ground on race with urban, Democrat senators
Just before the legislature adjourned Tuesday night, there was a remarkable scene on the dais of the Senate: fist bumps…
Al Cross: Al Smith’s journalism was one of good faith, now often missing
Al Smith, my friend and mentor who died last weekend after a very full life, was known best as the…
Al Cross: In a sneaky way, the secretive, short-circuited legislature makes itself more secret
For years, the Kentucky General Assembly has been sliding down the slippery slope of secrecy, into a hole that shields…
Beshear calls new vaccine a ‘game changer’ as end of pandemic is in sight; masks, distancing still needed
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News As a new vaccine was released and the coronavirus and Covid-19 kept waning in…
Al Cross: McConnell stayed true to form; no guardian of the republic, but ready for the next battle
As the House impeachment managers concluded their case against Donald Trump Saturday, one seemed focused on a senator in the…
Pandemic metrics continue to fall in Kentucky, but state’s infection rate remains one of the highest
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Two major measures of the pandemic in Kentucky, new cases of the novel coronavirus…
Al Cross: McConnell never evolved so quickly, and then in reverse
The 50-year political career of Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. is a study in evolution. When he was running for and…
Al Cross: McConnell makes play to sideline Trump as he has chance to remake how he’ll be remembered
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. . ….
Al Cross: McConnell’s speech was a turning point, at last, as he stands up for the truth
On one of the most dramatic days in American history, Kentucky’s senior senator saw he would lose control of the…
Al Cross: Mischievous Christmas gifts for Kentucky politicians, a tradition continued
Thirty-nine years ago, Ed Ryan, then the Frankfort Bureau chief of The Courier-Journal, wrote a column headlined “Possible gifts for…
Al Cross: Governor Beshear needs help with preventive pandemic messaging
It’s rare for a high-ranking official to seek advice publicly, but that’s exactly what Gov. Andy Beshear did Wednesday at…
Al Cross: Mitch McConnell has the switch to turn off The Trump Show, but will he use it?
As far as we know, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t told President Trump to throw in the towel and…
Al Cross: Republicans cement Frankfort power; will they overreach?
Well, that was a whoopin’. Tuesday’s election was a political disaster for Kentucky Democrats, and it has the makings of…
Al Cross: Good, evil, McConnell and the Supreme Court
After decades of writing about politics, never have I been so eager – anxious may be a better word –…
Al Cross: Amendment 2, on the ballot, has a hidden agenda but it’s a good one
As our tumultuous, pandemic-extended election consumes the country, this space takes a breath to offer a closer look at something…
Al Cross: McConnell’s good at politics but for whom?
In the only debate of their race, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Amy McGrath painted very different pictures of the incumbent,…
Al Cross: Trump gets an F, Beshear a B so far; what pandemic grade will local officials get?
As we approach a crucial election, it’s time to think about the sort of leaders we want and need at…
Al Cross: Power, precedents, and political pyromania — yes, indeed, McConnell is playing with fire
There is logic in Sen. Mitch McConnell’s argument for quickly filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of…
Al Cross: McConnell should get Trump to stop contradicting science — that’s bad for public health
When I was a child growing up in one of the poorest counties in the nation, with one of the…
Stack goes another round with legislators, pushes back on data questions, answers queries on schools
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Republican legislators kept up their questioning of the state’s coronavirus data Thursday, and the…