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.

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.

Activists pushing for automatic voting right restoration for felons
Local advocates lobby for passage of new law

Cartoon by Bryan Wylie, published with the story.

By Crystal Wylie Register News Writer

RICHMOND — More than 186,000 Kentuckians cannot participate in one of the most fundamental expressions of speech — the right to vote, according to a report by the League of Women Voters of Kentucky (LWVK).

Kentucky is one of the two states that permanently disenfranchise all persons with felony convictions after they have completed their full sentence, except through executive pardon, the report says.

“The right to vote is a foundation of citizenship,” social justice group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth stated on its website. “We require ex-felons to pay taxes and comply with the laws enacted by their legislators when they return to their communities. The right to vote, a hallmark of our democracy, should follow.”

Local members of KFTC, which has a chapter in Berea, along with dozens of other organizations, are in support of a bill that will allow voters to decide in November whether to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent ex-felons...

For the full article, click here.

Longtime KFTC ally and Executive Director of Greater Birmingham Ministries Scott Douglas will be on the Colbert Report on Monday, January 16th.

Scott will be speaking truth to power on the shameful, anti-immigrant bill HB56 and we're hoping everyone can tune in and spread the word.

He'll be on Comedy Central on Monday at 11:30pm eastern/10:30pm central.

If you want to watch it via the internet, you go to www.colbertnation.com and click on the tab, "Full Episodes."

Document

The interim joint committee on local government will host a "discussion on solar energy" tomorrow, October 26th, in Frankfort at 10 am in the Capitol Annex room 171.

Join us to support Matt Partymiller and Denis Oudard of Solar Energy Solutions (which did the solar install left) and the Kentucky Solar Energy Society, both member groups of the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, of which KFTC is a member group.

The committee is co-chaired by Senator Damon Thayer and Representative Steve Riggs. Both are interested to learn about the opportunity Kentucky has to advance solar energy and how local governments can take action.

Ashland The Daily Independent
Barbourville Mountain Advocate
Bardstown The Kentucky Standard
Benton Tribune Courier
Bowling Green The Daily News
Corbin Corbin News Journal
Corbin Corbin Times Tribune
Covington The Kentucky Post
Covington The Kentucky Enquirer
Cynthiana Cynthiana Democrat
Danville The Advocate Messenger
Elizabethtown The News-Enterprise
Frankfort State Journal
Georgetown Georgetown News-Graphic
Glasgow Glasgow Daily Times
Greensburg Greensburg Record-Herald
Harlan The Harlan Daily Enterprise
Henderson The Gleaner
Hindman Troublesome Creek Times
Lawrenceburg The Anderson News
Lexington Lexington Herald-Leader
London The Sentinel-Echo
Louisa Big Sandy News
Louisville Eccentric Observer
Louisville The Courier-Journal
Maysville The Ledger-Independent
Morehead The Morehead News
Murray Murray Ledger & Times
Nicholasville The Jessamine Journal
Owensboro Owenboro Messenger-Inquirer
Paducah The Paducah Sun
Paintsville The Paintsville Herald
Pikeville Applachian News Express
Prestonsburg Floyd County Times
Richmond Richmond Register
Russellville News Democrat & Leader
Somerset Commonwealth Journal
Springfield The Springfield Sun
Whitesburg The Mountain Eagle
Williamstown Grant County News
Winchester Winchester Sun

    One week from today is the deadline to submit letters to the editor to the Herald-Leader in support of specific candidates and is also likely to be considered the deadline to submit other letters pointed at the election, such at talking about election issues or non-partisan voter mobilization issues.   It's also likely to be close to the deadline for other newspapers.

    In the Herald, letters of support can be no more than 150 words and must be received by 5pm on Wednesday, October 26th.  You can email letters to the editor to hleditorial@herald-leader.com or use their convenient online form at www.kentucky.com/369

   The Courier Journal's online form is online here.  and you can find links to other KY newspapers in the side bar. 

    Writing a letter to the editor is a simple and easy way to reach thousands of Kentuckians and help to educate, organize, and build awareness around the issues that we care about.  It's an effective way to let decision-makers and the community at-large know how you feel about important issues and candidates.  Even very short letters can be powerful, so write one today!

   Your letter to the editor should be:
- Brief (250 words or fewer, depending on the paper), easy to read, and to the point.  Some of the best letters are just a couple of sentences long.
- Focused on one issue, and maybe even one angle of a particular issue.
- Supported by key facts.
- Personal. Describe how you are affected or why you care about this issue.
- A call to action. What do you want decision-makers and members of the public to do?

College Campus Newspapers
EKU Eastern Progress
Murray State News
NKU The Northerner
UK Kentucky Kernel
UofL Cardinal
WKU College Heights Herald

Re-posted from the Louisville Eccentric Observer.

Activists point to higher bills, job creation in urging legislators to support clean energy
By Anne Marshall

Earlier this month, the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s public hearing unfolded much like a game of dominoes. Held at Louisville’s Johnson Traditional Middle School, members of the scant crowd leaned into the microphone, one after another, their pleas all generally falling into line: Don’t raise our bills, protect low-income families who can’t afford ever-blooming energy costs, and get serious about alternative energy.

Clean energy advocates hope the combination of rising rates, along with the potential for job creation, will steer legislators towards passing the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, a bill that’s gone nowhere in the past two legislative sessions. It mandates that a portion of Kentucky’s energy come from renewable sources, rather than solely from coal. An admittedly uphill battle in a mountaintop removal state.

“I think it will look nearly impossible until the day before it passes,” says Wallace McMullen, conservation chair with Louisville’s chapter of the Sierra Club.

The Sept. 6 hearing was part of a series as the Public Service Commission decides whether LG&E and Kentucky Utilities should be allowed to tack on an environmental surcharge to bills. That could raise residential electric bills in Louisville by up to 19 percent over the next four years. (The Sierra Club and Metropolitan Housing Coalition will go before the Public Service Commission in November as interveners in the surcharge case. The Sierra Club questions the analysis behind the fee. The Housing Coalition is concerned with how the higher bills may inevitably hit the poor the hardest.)

The charge would eventually drop off once the utilities have covered the estimated $2.5 billion needed to improve existing coal-fired power plants not meeting Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. One such upgrade would include the addition of “scrubbers” that will catch emissions before they escape into the air. Joan Lindop, with the Greater Louisville Sierra Club, likens this to billions on Band-Aids.

“If they scrub more emissions out, that’s more that’s going into a coal ash pile,” she says. “We’re really not wanting to encourage them to spend that money on old plants when it could be used for renewables.”

And so for the third year, advocates are gearing up to push legislation they say would spark production and demand of solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal power.

In 2010, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act (HB 239) was assigned to the state House of Representatives’ Natural Resources and Environment Committee, headed by global-warming denier Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence. It did not get a hearing. In 2011, the bill was strategically rerouted outside of Gooch’s committee and into the Tourism Development and Energy Committee led by Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville. That resulted in measured progress: A discussion hearing. No vote.

This year’s proposed legislation will look much like the one from last year, with two critical pieces. The first includes a renewable and efficiency portfolio standard, a policy already adopted by 29 other states. It would require utilities to generate 12.5 percent of retail sales from renewable energy by 2021, with at least 1 percent from solar.

This is a rather conservative standard when compared to several other states demanding that well over 20 percent of energy eventually be derived from renewable sources.

The other proposed policy calls for a “feed-in tariff,” which works as a contract, establishing a fixed premium price for energy produced in Kentucky, be it from large-scale operations or individual homeowners.

Mike Hynes, president of the Housing Partnership Inc., a developer of affordable housing in Louisville, wrote a letter to the Public Service Commission in support of this idea. Hynes recently installed solar panels on one of the Housing Partnership’s properties, but was careful to only invest in panels that would generate 75 percent of their energy needs.

If Hynes outfitted the building with enough panels to exceed 100 percent of their desired energy, LG&E would give him a credit to go toward future bills, rather than pay him for that energy.
“Basically, that builds up in perpetuity. In my mind, that creates an incentive not to produce enough electricity as one could for their household,” he says. “With a rebate program, that’s an incentive to create systems that are larger than what you can use."

Several regional utility companies including Duke Energy, Georgia Power and Florida Power and Light have tariff programs that pay per kilowatt-hour, then turn around and put that energy back into the grid.

Tom FitzGerald, with the Kentucky Resources Council, says the timing is right for renewables.
“The unit cost of solar and wind is coming down,” says FitzGerald, adding that while coal may appear to be the cheapest source of fuel, that’s not including environmental costs and restrictions.

“Over the course of time, you start having to fold in extra costs because externalities have to be accounted for.”

Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, will sponsor the renewable energy bill again this year. She says supporters are tailoring their arguments for the legislation in light of another sore subject — jobs.

“When you’re looking at business and manufacturing folks coming to Kentucky, they want constancy in the market,” she says. “Coal is cheap now, but it’s going up.”

The Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance reports that neighboring states with clean energy standards are experiencing a boom in manufacturing and construction employment. For example, after Ohio passed legislation in 2008, about 1,500 solar-related jobs were created.

While no one expects the Clean Energy Opportunity Act to garner much attention until election hoopla ceases, advocates believe this year the support just might be there. They point to this week’s Governor’s Conference on Energy and the Environment in Lexington, where various panels discussed the issue.

“What we have to consider is coal is always going to be No. 1 for the foreseeable 15 to 20 years,” Marzian says. “But if we don’t start looking at different tools … we’re going to be left holding the bag.”

A handful of Kentucky politicians are pushing to make it harder for Kentuckians who are homeless and people without photo IDs to vote in elections.  We're expecting these issues to turn into legislation in the state General Assembly in January that we'll be fighting against. 

But this isn't happening in a vacuum - there has already been a flood of new restrictive voting laws throughout the US and it's important to try to understand the landscape and the national context.

The Brennan Center has just published this valuable report, which helps tell the overall story.

Voting Law Changes in 2012

Ahead of the 2012 elections, a wave of legislation tightening restrictions on voting has suddenly swept across the country. More than five million Americans could be affected by the new rules already put in place this year -- a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.

This report is the first full accounting and analysis of this year's voting cutbacks. It details both the bills that have been proposed and the legislation that has been passed since the beginning of 2011.

Download the Report (PDF)

Download the Appendix (PDF), a compilation of potentially vote-suppressing legislation proposed in the 2011 legislative sessions.

Download the Overview (PDF), a four-page summary with key findings.

Read the Executive Summary

View the Report

On Monday and Tuesday of last week, September 26th and 27th, at least 10 KFTC members promoted the need for increased investment in clean energy solutions at the Kentucky Governor's Conference on Energy and the Environment.

After hearing a speaker state that Kentucky doesn't have the resources necessary to generate electricity from renewable energy, member Tona Barkely stood up and asked, "Why do I keep hearing this mantra - that Kentucky doesn't have what we need to generate clean energy? It simply isn't true and I don't know why it continues to be repeated." Several audience members cheered.

Conference participants also had the chance to hear EPA's Region 4 director, Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, tout the values of clean energy during her speech as well.

"We all recognize the need for clean energy and fuel, green housing, sustainable infrastructures, weaving public health protections into our decisions proactively. And, we have a constitutional rights – our laws don’t say “clean water for some and not for others,” she said.

Taking the conference as a whole, there were signs that the statewide discussion about clean energy solutions is advancing. Compared to the last few years, a comparatively wide variety of sessions on clean energy solutions were offered. Break-out sessions explored distributed energy options in Kentucky, the Kentucky Home Performance home efficiency program and statewide recycling efforts. A representative from East Kentucky Power Cooperative was one of several speakers who promoted the notion that Kentucky has great opportunities for small-scale solar generation and he gave examples of such in the EKPC service territory.

Further, former Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado was invited to speak on a plenary session about the advances his state saw in job creation and renewable energy production during his tenure. He credited the success to the implementation of statewide energy policies that encouraged such growth.

 While dismissive of Kentucky's ability to generate energy from renewable sources, State Energy Secretary Len Peters and Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President Dave Adkisson, both said that energy efficiency contains a lot of promise and seems to be the most likely common ground amongst many interests. "There's a quiet revolution going on in conservation," Adkisson said.