Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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April 21
The Daily Independent on Comer’s Braidy comments:
U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-1st District, appeared on a television show this past week and embarrassed himself with comments about Eastern Kentucky economic development efforts, Gov. Matt Bevin and Braidy Industries.
This is a sitting Republican U.S. congressman, yet he sounded like a blogger living in his mother’s basement during the appearance on Hey Kentucky! as he criticized Bevin and Braidy’s’ attempts to bring 600 jobs to Eastern Kentucky. Comer was asked about Bevin and Braidy, saying:
“I have a lot of questions about Braidy Industries,” Comer said. “I wouldn’t invest my own money in Braidy Industries. I don’t like the fact that Gov. Bevin essentially got the Legislature to give him a blank check for $15 million that he in turn gave Braidy Industries to capitalize the company. That’s something Bernie Sanders wouldn’t even do. Use tax dollars for a private investment.”
“If it were a private investment in Amazon that’s one thing,” Comer said. “This is a private investment in a start up that has a long way to go to start up. This is just another bad headline for Braidy. I hope something good happens in Greenup County. I hope we can get some jobs there but it’s not looking real good for this business.”
Comer went on to say he would not take Russian money to help fund the construction of the aluminum mill.
Some important background here - Comer comes from a region of the state that already hosts prime aluminum producers. Braidy, however, has aligned itself with a Russian producer of prime aluminum. Is it possible this could have something to do with Comer’s caustic comments? Possibly. Another possible reason is he lost to Gov. Matt Bevin in a prior election bid, perhaps providing more motivation for his incendiary comments.
Here’s the real deal on all of this: people have every right to question the $15 million taxpayer investment in Braidy. After all, it is taxpayer money, and a lot of it. Our view is taxpayer investment and tax breaks - whether one likes it or not - are part of the equation these days when it comes to recruiting major economic development projects in America. If Kentucky isn’t willing to make those types of investments, other states are. As Braidy has indicated, many states were recruiting the company at the time Braidy selected Eastern Kentucky.
People also have every right to question, given the public investment, whether the aluminum mill will materialize. Very fair questions, and we strongly respect anyone asking these questions. To be clear this project is not locked in.
The problem here is the nature in which Comer is asking the questions. One expects a U.S. representative from Kentucky to carry themselves with dignity and grace. Comer however comes across as out to undermine all of this with his comments. Not exactly what we expect from a federal representative when talking about an attempt to create jobs in a region that has lost scores of jobs recently and struggled with poverty for generations. Our view is we need federal representatives in Kentucky who have a team approach to creating jobs and economic growth. What is good for Eastern Kentucky, in our view, is good for all.
Braidy responded to the criticisms, saying the company is trying to help grow the Appalachian economy and provide the region with good-paying jobs. Braidy, also without referencing Comer by name, said some are attempting to use Braidy as a political football.
It appears this is the case with Mr. Comer. He attempted to punt Braidy and shanked it right out of bounds. An eight-yard punt on your own side of the field in the fourth quarter.
Not acceptable for a congressman from Kentucky.
Online: https://www.dailyindependent.com
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April 21
The News-Enterprise on doing right by victims of sexual assault:
The long motionless wheels of criminal prosecution finally begin to spin for a former Hardin County resident and victim of an almost decade-old sexual assault cold case.
Thanks to the work of Elizabethtown Police Detective Madison Kuklinski who reopened the cold case, and the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative within Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office, Thaddeus Artis, 37, has been indicted by a Hardin County grand jury for the 2011 case.
Currently jailed at the Marion County Detention Center on illegal drug and weapon possession violations, Artis is charged with first-degree rape forcible compulsion, first-degree sodomy forcible compulsion, intimidating a participant in the legal process and first-degree persistent felony offender.
Beshear, a three-member cold case investigation and prosecution task force and the law enforcement offices with which they’re working hope to deliver justice for this victim and thousands more like her whose sexual assault cases have sat in a backlog of cold cases for years.
Success in doing so will carry these victims one important step closer to the closure they desperately seek.
According to statistics published by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, someone in the U.S. is victimized in a sexual assault every 98 seconds. The center said 63 percent of these sexual assaults go unreported to police. Rape is the most underreported sexual assault.
When a victim does report a rape and consents to a thorough medical examination for the purpose of crime investigation, the forensic evidence collected is preserved in what commonly is called a rape kit. The process is invasive and time consuming. It also can be humiliating, resulting in feelings of re-victimization.
Imagine the physical and emotional trauma, shame that can be felt when reporting the crime, embarrassment of having one’s most intimate areas photographed and swabbed for evidence collection, only to learn the rape kit sat untouched and untested for years.
Inexcusably, this has been the experience for hundreds of thousands of rape and sexual assault victims across the country whose kits have been collecting dust on crime lab storage shelves.
Kentucky’s untested rape kit backlog was discovered through a 2015 state audit. As a result, the state was among the first in the nation to enact comprehensive state-wide reform. A 2016 law now requires the testing of all rape kits collected by law enforcement.
According to www.kentuckybacklog.com, of the state’s backlog nearly 3,200 untested rape kits have been processed by a private lab in Salt Lake City, Utah. Of these, 1,229 DNA profiles have been submitted and included within federal and state law enforcement databases. From these, the work so far has generated almost 400 hits matching either matching evidence collected from one or more other past crime scenes or matching the DNA of a registered offender. This progress and its continuation gives hope to victims who wait for their assailants to be captured and prosecuted.
Funding has come through federal grants from the U.S. Department of Justice National Assault Kit Initiative.
Further aiding the testing and investigation of rapes and sexual assault cases is the state’s pioneering of new DNA testing technology. Known as the ANDE Rapid DNA system and approved for use in accredited labs by the FBI, the new tool scans check swabs and creates a DNA profile for sexual assault offender identification in far less time than previously possible.
Kentucky is making great strides in this important area of law enforcement. But serial rapists are not confined by state borders. All other states across the country quickly should get on board with necessary legislation and procedure.
Testing all kits and uploading DNA profiles into state and federal databases will cast the necessary wide net to link and capture these predators. Doing so is not only a law enforcement imperative, but a moral obligation for the victims involved.
Online: https://thenewsenterprise.com
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April 17
The Daily News on Western Kentucky University Dean Larry Snyder:
By all accounts, Larry Snyder, dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters at Western Kentucky University, is a respected educator.
Snyder is liked by many students on campus and we believe he has performed well as dean of Potter College. Snyder also has a long history at WKU. He joined WKU in the Department of Philosophy and Religion in 1990. He assumed the Potter College dean’s role in 2016 and had previously served for 12 years as associate dean of Potter College. That’s why we, like many others, were very surprised when he announced last month that he was resigning from that position.
After his resignation, and as questions swirled around campus regarding the move, Snyder, in an email to the Daily News, said the parting was a mutual decision.
“Leadership changes happen all the time in the academy. It is not unusual, especially during times of structural change,” he wrote in part. “New Provosts and Presidents have the right to choose their teams and then get the leadership they deserve. As for me, I get to return to the teaching and research that I love and have been unable to do. It’s just one more stage in a long career.”
Although Snyder said it was a mutual decision, many at the university contended that Snyder was indeed forced out of his position.
Something didn’t smell right to us, and it didn’t smell right to the students at WKU, either. Students began protesting outside the Wetherby Administration Building, demanding Snyder be reinstated as dean. Meanwhile, university officials offered few details about the circumstances that led to Snyder’s resignation. It appeared the university wasn’t giving its students and the public the full picture on why Snyder resigned.
Soon after Snyder’s resignation, WKU’s faculty Senate overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote aimed at WKU Provost Terry Ballman, who many believed was responsible for Snyder’s resignation. The no-confidence resolution was passed by the University Senate in a 50-10 vote, with three abstentions.
This was not Ballman’s first run-in with controversy during her brief tenure as provost. Last semester, Ballman came under fire for how she handled an announcement regarding the employment status of all full-time, non-tenure eligible faculty. At the time, Ballman said those faculty members should expect letters notifying them they may ultimately not be rehired in the next school year - an announcement she later backed away from in a campuswide email.
Fast forward to now. Less than a day after the no-confidence vote, Ballman stepped down as WKU provost, and in the subsequent days Snyder was reinstated as dean of Potter College.
Snyder ultimately said the decision to resign was not what he wanted to do.
“It was never my first choice to leave that position,” he said.
These words by Snyder clearly show he was pushed out of his position as dean, apparently by Ballman. If that was the case, it is probably best she is no longer the university’s provost, although she remains employed by WKU, serving as an assistant to President Timothy Caboni.
It is quite clear there was a lack of transparency among some administrators regarding Snyder’s departure. That is unfortunate, since public universities such as WKU are supposed to be places where transparency is welcomed.
As the dust settles on this unnecessary mess, we are very glad Snyder is back in the position where he rightfully belongs, and we are proud of the students at WKU who spoke their minds by protesting the forced departure of a dean who had earned their respect.
Their actions greatly helped correct that wrong. Justice for Snyder was served.
Online: https://www.bgdailynews.com
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