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
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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…
Al Cross: Beshear sees his limits; now it’s time for an individual character test and for you to carry the ball
There’s no shortage of subjects for a Kentucky political column: the U.S. Senate race (Mitch McConnell’s got a leg up,…
Al Cross: McConnell, his power tested, needs a deal at this critical time for him and the nation
The last two times Kentuckians have re-elected Mitch McConnell to the U.S. Senate, his best logical argument has been his…
Al Cross: Local, trusted voices are needed in a pandemic and doing the right thing should be exalted
Norman Chaffins and Donnie Keeton probably never expected to see their name in a column about Kentucky politics. But they’re…
Al Cross: There’s no question Cameron’s timing was bad, but Beshear’s attitude is far from perfect
“The coronavirus is not involved in American politics.” So says Mitch McConnell, who has gotten most things right about the…
Al Cross: Does Amy McGrath have any chance against Mitch McConnell?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell surely smiled as he watched Amy McGrath slip, stumble and nearly fall to state Rep….
Al Cross: Any doubt about the vote count could resonate long past the primary
Voting for the Democratic nomination to face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is over, but the election is not, because…
Al Cross: Charles Booker, Mike Broihier harvest votes on a field Amy McGrath planted
When Amy McGrath ran for the U.S. House in 2018, Cameron French was with her. He was a campus organizer…
Al Cross: National shift makes Booker the Senate candidate of the moment, at least for some
It is easy for some to say that the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd was an outlier, not…
Health commissioner worried that too many Kentuckians think COVID-19 doesn’t pose danger
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Dr. Steven Stack, the state commissioner of public health, said in an interview recorded…
Al Cross: On Memorial Day, we will get to see a story that was almost never told
Fifty-one years ago last month, my Clinton County High School classmate Paul Conner and I got on a bus in…
Al Cross: As Trump’s virus work drags them down, Republicans seem frantic
Republicans facing an election amid a century-rank catastrophe made worse by their president are throwing anything they can against the…
Al Cross: McConnell risks riling public employees with pension, bankruptcy remarks
Ever since he became leader of Republicans in the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell has used that post as his most…
Grayson County story of a rumor is cautionary tale for small towns in uncertain times of COVID-19
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News When a rumor becomes a news story, it often has a larger story to…
Latest models for Kentucky COVID-19 impact vary; estimates how counties will deal with disease
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Projections of COVID-19’s impact on Kentucky continue to vary, but one model has begun…
Al Cross: Coronavirus politics are tough and will get tougher
We figured the ides of April would be the first crucible of Andy Beshear’s governorship, with a Republican legislature rendering…
Al Cross: McConnell again makes a boulder out of a pebble, then makes political hay of crisis
It’s a time for us to be apart literally, and a time to be together figuratively. But politics long ago…