An editorial in today’s Lexington Herald-Leader urges Governor Steve Beshear to consider the homes and health of people in Benham and Lynch before allowing destructive surface mining there.

According to the article, two coal operators and their associates spent more than $500,000 to get Beshear re-elected last fall – the largest private-sector donors to Beshear’s campaign.

One donor, James C. Justice II of A&G Coal, plans to mine near Benham and Lynch, threatening the community’s water supply and quality of life. The Beshear administration has given preliminary approval. From the editorial:

With coal money talking so loudly and directly into his ear, the governor should try extra hard to hear average Kentuckians whose homes, health and future are imperiled by the coal industry’s most destructive practices.

The ridges that cradle Lynch — and are at risk of being destroyed — are part of Black Mountain, Kentucky's highest point, which school children fought to save from strip-mining in the late 1990s.

You can’t put a price tag on the history and possibilities that will be lost if Beshear sacrifices this little corner of Kentucky.

The other donor, James Booth of Cambrian Coal, has a permit to mine in Pike County that a judge attempted to block before Beshear’s Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters overruled him and allowed the permit to go through.

Cambrian’s plan to chop 400 feet off a mountain near Elkhorn City in Pike County will pollute tributaries of the Russell Fork that were already seriously degraded by earlier mining.

The editorial follows an analysis of campaign contributions in The Courier-Journal by Tom Loftus. To read that article, click here.

To read the full Lexington Herald-Leader editorial, click here.

To learn more about Benham and Lynch residents’ efforts to protect their community, click here.

There has been some movement on the redistricting issue in Kentucky these past few days.  Here's a quick update to fill in some of the broad details. 

Republican Minority Leader Jeff Hoover filed an injunction in Franklin Circuit Court to push back the filing deadline in light of the possibly illegal and partisan redistricting.  Senator Kathy Stein joined the lawsuit, then Judge Phillip Shepherd heard the case earlier today and said that he will make a decision before the end of the day tomorrow... which is also the (tentative) deadline to file for office.

In other news, Kentucky House an Senate members have still been unable to agree on a plan for Congressional redistricting which will move back the filing deadline, at least for those offices.  In any event, this casts substantial doubt on Governor Steve Beshear's claim that he was only signing the state house and senate redistricting into law because the impending and at the time apparently immovable deadline was hanging over his head. 

In other news, several legislators have filed separate legislation to make the redistricting process less partisan, more transparent, and more reasonable than it has been this year. 

And finally, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Council has stepped forward with a resolution expressing concern with the redistricting and the loss of Lexington senator Kathy Stein.  A resolution has no legal weight, but it matters.  During our first rally in Lexington on this issue, our primary action was to ask people to contact the mayor and city council to do just this, so they deserve our kudos. 

Here are some good quotes from the Herald-Leader article. 

Councilman Jay McChord said he was "sick and tired of Lexington looking weak, acting weak" at the state level. "If they don't like it up there, so be it. Maybe it is time to send somebody else up there," he said.

Councilman Chris Ford said when an action by Frankfort legislators "harms the citizens of Fayette County, we should stand up and speak."

"This is classic gerrymandering," said council member Julian Beard. "I don't think we should duck our head and go quietly into the night."

Council Members K.C. Crosby, Bill Farmer, and  Ed Lane voted against the resolution and Council Member Diane Lawless was not present for the vote.  All 11 other council members voted yes in favor of the resolution. 

If you're a Lexington resident, please contact your city council member and thank them for voting yes if they did, or express concern if they voted no.  Remember that Vice Mayor Linda Gorton, and Council At-Large members Steve Kay and Chuck Ellinger all represent everyone in Lexington.  So they're your council members too.

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2/1/12 Update - Judge delays filing deadline for state legislative candidates to Feb 7th.   This creates space for the Franklin Circuit court to take further action by that time, possibly declaring the redistricting to be illegal and asking the legislature to try again or taking some other action to intervene.  We'll know more by the end of the day on Feb 7th.    

2/2/12 Update - House, Senate appear close on congressional redistricting plan.  There has been some movement on the Congressional redistricting plan too.  Note that this is separate from the state legislature plan at issue above.  We're still waiting for the Franklin Circuit Court ruling by Feb 7th on that one.  In the mean time, you can take a moment to write a letter to the editor to let your community know how you feel about these partisan redistricting plans.

2/6/12 Update - Judge says he will rule in a day or two on legislative redistricting.  We might know something tomorrow or the filing deadline might get pushed back a little more. 

Members and allies at a voting rights rally in Lexington this past December

Our restoration of voting rights amendment is on the move. Just last week House Bill 70 was voted out of committee with bipartisan support by a wide margin of 7-1. We expect the bill to come up for a full vote before the Kentucky House of Representatives any day now. In order to ensure we get the supermajority needed to pass this bill, we need your help.

Kentucky is one of only four states that permanently takes away voting rights from all former felons, even after they've served their debt to society. This directly impacts over 186,000 Kentuckians, including 1 in 4 voting age African-Americans. KFTC believes in restoring the right to vote to these citizens because is is the fair, democratic, and reasonable thing to do.

Take Action!

Do you have three minutes to make a call to help pass HB70?

Call the Legislative Message Line (1-800-372-7181) as soon as you can, and ask to leave a message for some legislators. The line is open 7am to 11pm on weekdays and until 6pm on Fridays. The operator will ask for your name and address.

Ask to leave the message for "House Leadership, Senate Leadership, Senate State and Local Government Committee,” and your own Representative and Senator (if you don’t know who that is, the operator can tell you).

Message: "Please vote yes on House Bill 70."

Thank you for taking action!

According to an article by reporter John Cheeves in the 1/29/2012 edition of the Lexington Herald Leader, Senate President David Williams recently suggested that a 78-year old man protesting mountaintop removal mining in Governor Beshear's office should kill himself.

Richard Beliles is a long-time advocate for honest and transparent government in Kentucky and chairman of the Kentucky chapter of Common Cause, a national organization that advocates for fair elections and limits on the role of money in politics. Since early January, he has taken a weekly shift as part of persistent, peaceful vigil against mountaintop removal mining in the state Capitol. In today's article, Beliles described a chilling interaction he had with Senator David Williams while protesting.

"He said, 'Are you occupying the office?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, why don't you set yourself on fire? Why don't you immolate yourself?' And then he left," said Beliles, who is recovering from cancer treatment. "It was a strange thing for David to say. It sort of shook me up."

Williams's spokesperson said the Senator was "clearly joking." But there is nothing humorous about statements like this, especially from a person in public office who holds a position of significant power.

When activists  occupied the Kentucky Capitol for four days last February, they called on  Governor Beshear to "call for an end to extreme and violent speech aimed at citizens who are working to protect Kentucky's land, air and water." To date the governor has made no such declaration. Kentuckians are still waiting. Richard Beliles, and all of us, deserve far better.

Yesterday, members of the Berea community, the Madison County KFTC and the City Council gathered to celebrate the creation of a Human Rights Commission in Berea. The Human Rights Commission was established to investigate claims of illegal discrimination, and the Berea Fairness Coalition is hoping that the HRC will be a bridge to broader anti-discrimination laws that will protect Berea’s citizens from discrimination in employment and housing based on their sexual orientation. In order to open up a dialogue between community members and the human rights commissioners on the issue of fairness, Berea’s Fairness Coalition invited the commissioners to a reception where they would be able to meet and mingle with the public. 

Berea Mayor Steve Connelly addresses the community members gathered at BC&T

The reception, which was held at Berea Coffee and Tea, attracted over 80 people from the community, who packed into the small coffee shop for a chance to meet the new commissioners. Chris Hartman, a representative of the Kentucky-wide Fairness Coalition, complimented the work of the Berea City Council, expressing his hope that Berea would be the first city in this part of Kentucky to pass a fairness ordinance.

Student activist Ethan Hamblin also commented on what he saw as a successful event: “The reception was a stunning success. We appreciate all of the community and youth that attended the event.” Even with the inauguration of the Human Rights Commission, Bereans For Fairness and the Madison County chapter will continue to fight for the right of all people to live without fear of discrimination.

Return voting rights to ex-felons

Herald-Leader

The Kentucky House of Representatives is once again acting favorably on a proposal (HB 70) by Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights to non-violent felons who have paid their assigned debt to society.

Remarkably, each time in recent years this measure has passed out of the House it has stopped dead in the Senate.

This is a good year to change that pattern. We are, after all, witnessing one of the great political processes as the presidential campaign unfolds before our very eyes.

There is a lot of debate these days about the role of government in our lives, but does anyone really think it should be government's task to prevent people from voting?

Kentucky is one of only a handful of states in which a felony conviction carries with it a lifetime loss of voting rights.

Under our constitution, it's up to the governor to restore that right to people who have served their time. With most governors it's fairly routine to restore rights to people who ask after they've finished their time with the Department of Corrections.

But not always.

Former Governor Ernie Fletcher, for example, required people to write an essay and get three letters of recommendation before he'd even consider restoring an individual's voting rights.

Why, you might wonder, is this even an issue? Why not put a proposed amendment on the ballot and let those of us who can vote decide?

It's really basic political math. A 2006 Kentucky League of Women Voters study found that one in four Kentucky black adults is banned from the polls by this policy. Blacks are much more likely to vote for Democratic candidates and so the Republican-controlled Senate (and the former Republican governor) are not motivated to increase their numbers at the polls.

That's just wrong. Released felons are set free to participate in society, including paying taxes, and so they should be able to participate in one of the most fundamental of our citizenship rights — voting.

It's that simple.

KFTC appreciates the support of HB 70 in this editorial, but we also point out that many strong supporters of HB 70 are Republicans - including former felon spokespeople, co-sponsoring legislators, and legislators in both chambers who support the bill.  The people preventing it from being voted on are just a handful of Senate leaders like Sen David Williams and Sen Damon Thayer.  

And in other Voting Rights news, we've had a good continuous presence in Frankfort talking to legislators, plus field events like this presentation to UK NAACP earlier this week.  KFTC leader and former felon Tayna Fogle talked to almost 40 students, inviting them to take action by phone or by joining us in Frankfort.  We look forward to working with the UK NAACP more soon

Here is a great example of what New Power looks like in Kentucky!

that makes energy efficiency upgrades affordable and doable for customers of rural electric co-ops in eastern Kentucky. The video describes how the Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative is helping its customers in Floyd and Johnson counties save money by saving energy.

How$martKY - Energy Efficiency for Everyone from Appalshop CMI on Vimeo.

How$mart is an innovative way to finance energy efficiency upgrades. Designed by the good folks at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), it is a currently in a two-year pilot phase. Participating rural electric cooperatives include Grayson Rural Electric, Big Sandy Rural Electric, Fleming-Mason Electric, and Jackson Energy. 

If you live in a county served by one of these co-ops, give them a call today to ask for your home to be evaluated for energy savings through How$mart!

KFTC members have long urged utilities in Kentucky, especially our rural electric co-ops, to invest more in energy efficiency programs. Our members are helping to spread the word about this promising approach, and continue to nudge and encourage the co-ops to do everything they can to make this program successful in the pilot stage so it can expand in the future.

If you like this video, be sure to check out other similar stories produced by Appalshop and shared on a new website called Making Connections News. There you will find a growing collection of videos and radio stories about efforts to "build a healthy future for Appalachia's land and people."

KFTC members and allies in Frankfort today had an eventful day with a lot of twists and turns. 

At 8:30 a.m., House Bill 70, our bill to restore voting rights for former felons who have served their debt to society, came up in front it its House committee.  We had a room full of supporters and people ready to testify, but instead, the committee quickly called the issue to a vote and passed it nearly unanimously with just one dissenting vote. The hearing adjourned about 6 minutes after it started.  

We spent the rest of the day meeting with legislators in the House and Senate about HB 70 and also had a number of accountability conversations with the many legislators who voted yes on the House and Senate redistricting plans, respectively. 

Jason Smith, a new citizen lobbyist and a former felon got to tell his story to a couple of legislators throughout the day, including Republican Representative Kevin Bratcher who talked to him for 30 minutes and voted yes on the bill that morning.  

We also held signs to legislators in key areas with messages like "They stole my Senator" and "This is why the people of Kentucky don't trust the legislature."

After that, we held a small but effective rally on the capitol steps speaking out against the redistricting plan.  About 35 people came out and we managed to get good media coverage and gave people a chance to speak their frustrations and let the legislature know that they need to do better.

Then, some KFTC members and allies visited the House and Senate chambers and witnessed Sen. Kathy Stein giving a powerful speech against the Senate redistricting plan, sparring with Senate leadership. 

And as we were headed out of the Capitol, many of our members witnessed an altercation in the hallway that we're still trying to understand.

Media reports are coming in from Frankfort this evening focusing on an altercation in the capitol and there are a lot of confusing and conflicting stories.  We're taking a moment to tell what happened as best as we can to get that information out to you.

KFTC, Occupy Lexington, and a number of others held a rally on the capitol steps today against the unjust House and Senate redistricting plans that affect many voters throughout the state.

After that, many of us went to the Senate and House chambers to watch the legislative business of the day.

In the Senate, Senator Kathy Stein took the floor to call out the Senate leadership for moving her district across the state, effectively disenfranchising her constituents for 2 years.

In the gallery, KFTC members and others clapped from time to time, leading Senator David Williams to threaten to have the gallery cleared of all spectators.

After a quick Senate debate, they adjourned for the day, and senators and spectators alike began to leave the chambers.

In a small side hallway, citizens including KFTC members were leaving the area when Senate President David Williams cut through the hallway.

A man named Stephen Trask approached the Sen. Williams and verbally confronted him, saying something like, "You were attacking Kathy Stein but you were really attacking all of us."

In response, security restrained Trask, and there was a chaotic scuffle in the small, crowded hallway.

Two citizens were asked to leave the building in the aftermath of the struggle, but they weren't charged and they claim that the officers improperly shoved them against the wall in the scuffle.

Trask himself was charged with "menacing" and was arrested.

Trask isn't a KFTC member, wasn't part of the planning for the event, and we certainly didn't even know that he intended to verbally confront Williams.

We will continue to try to understand what happened in full and will report more, if appropriate.

With redistricting in the House and Senate complete, at least excepting the possibility of a legal injunction, it might be important to know who your new Senator and Representative is so you know who you can most effectively lobby in the legislature.

These aren't the best maps, but you can click on them or click here to get a better look at the districts, then cross reference the numbers with the district numbers of legislators in the House and Senate. 

They're still very hard to read in smaller urban districts, but the Legislative Research Center hopes to have better maps up online within the next few days.

Of course, KFTC is still none too pleased with the partisan, and vindictive redistricting process that has led to these maps and we're holding a Rally in Frankfort on the Capitol steps tomorrow at 2pm to take some of this deep disappointment to the legislators and to the Governor.