Tag Archives: #Kentucky

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Wishful thinking in the Herald-Leader?

The hearts of the editors of the what my, sadly late, best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal must have been all aflutter when former state Representative Charles Booker (D-Louisville) announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to see if he should run for the 2022 Democratic nomination against incumbent Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). In 2020, the editors endorsed the hard-left Mr Booker against faux moderate Amy McGrath Henderson for the nomination to run against Senator Mitch McConnell. After Mrs Henderson won the primary by an unexpectedly-close margin, the editors endorsed her against Mr McConnell, where she lost in a landslide.

We have previously noted the newspaper’s endorsements, and they are all to the left:

But the editors, as wrong-headed as they are in their policy choices, aren’t ignorant when it comes to Kentucky politics. And so I came upon this oh-so-hopeful article about a moderate Kentucky Democrat:

Political Notebook: Could Rocky Adkins be Kentucky’s Joe Manchin in 2022 Senate race?

By Daniel Desrochers | April 16, 2021 | 3:39 PM | Updated April 16, 2021 | 4:29 PM EDT

At a bill-signing ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda last week, Rocky Adkins did what he’s been doing for 34 years in politics.

He worked the room.

The tall man from the left hand fork of the middle fork of the Little Sandy River congratulated the people who got the bill passed. He cracked a joke with House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins. He acted surprised when a reporter told him that his name kept getting mentioned as a possible U.S. Senate candidate.

“What are they saying?” asked Adkins, a senior adviser to Gov. Andy Beshear.

They are saying there is potential for a competitive Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2022 against former state Rep. Charles Booker, who formed an exploratory committee Monday. They are saying it might take a specific kind of conservative Democrat to win statewide in Kentucky. They are saying it’s Rocky Adkins.

They are also saying a run by Adkins is unlikely.

There’s much more at the original.

It wasn’t so long ago that Kentucky was a thoroughly Democratic state. In 1971, when I first registered to vote in Mt Sterling, I registered as a Republican. Come the general election, I found out that I had exactly zero voice, as all of the members of the city council had been selected in the Democratic primary, as no Republican candidates even filed, there being so few of them, and knowing that they had no chance. It was a lesson that many conservative Kentuckians learned.

Many Democrats have tried to run as moderates in the Bluegrass State. Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes tried in her Senate campaign against Mr McConnell in 2014; she lost in a landslide. Mrs Henderson tried it in 2020, but nobody believed her, not after she was caught on tape in 2018, while raising money in Massachusetts to run against Representative Andy Barr (R-KY 6th District) saying, “I am further left, I am more progressive, than anyone in the state of Kentucky,” and Senator McConnell stomped her even harder than he had Mrs Grimes.

Of course, while the editors of the Herald-Leader would prefer a much more ‘progressive’ candidate, they’d be perfectly happy with Mr Adkins in the Senate, because the most important vote a Senator has is the one at the beginning of the session, the one which organizes the Senate by party, the one which determines which party will control the agenda. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, and votes with Republicans reasonably frequently, but it is his being a Democrat and not a Republican which has made Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) the Senate Majority Leader, rather than Mr McConnell.

Kentuckians are Republicans now, because Kentuckians are conservatives. While there are a lot of conservative Democrats in the Bluegrass State, they are older; they are Democrats because they have always been Democrats. It has been their sons and daughters who registered as Republicans. That’s why, in the 2020 elections, the voters of the Commonwealth gave the GOP 75 out of 100 seats in the state House of Representatives, an increase of 14 seats, and 30 out of 38 seats in the state Senate, an increase of two seats.[1]Only 17 of the 38 state Senate seats were up for election in 2020.

And the last thing Kentucky’s voters want to see is the Democrats solidifying their current 50/50 split in the Senate, holding the majority only because Democrat Kamala Harris Emhoff is Vice President and President of the Senate.

The Herald-Leader article notes that Mr Adkins is unlikely to run; he’s not exactly the sacrificial lamb type. But if Kentucky’s Democrats do nominate Mr Adkins, or his political doppelganger, it will be to do one thing, and one thing only: keep the Democrats in control of the United States Senate, and not to represent the beliefs of Kentuckians.

References

References
↑1 Only 17 of the 38 state Senate seats were up for election in 2020.
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Rights delayed are rights denied

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

We had already stated that the courts in the Bluegrass State would try to give Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) time to run out the clock on legal decisions concerning his executive orders, because that was the pattern from the past. Now comes the evidence that we were right. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Kentucky Supreme Court will consider Beshear’s COVID-19 orders in light of new laws

By Jack Brammer | April 16, 2021 | 11:08 AM | Updated: April 16, 2021 | 1:12 PM

The Kentucky Supreme Court has decided to take up two legal cases involving Gov. Andy Beshear’s powers to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and other emergencies and hear them at the same time June 10.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. signed orders Thursday night for the state’s highest court to consider cases from Franklin and Scott circuit courts. He said a time for the June 10 hearing will be set later.

The Franklin case involves Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s appeal of Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s decision to temporarily block four legislative measures the General Assembly enacted this year that curb Beshear’s emergency powers.

The Scott case involves Beshear’s appeal of Circuit Judge Brian Privett’s ruling to temporarily block the state from enforcing some of Beshear’s executive COVID-19 orders against several restaurants and breweries

There’s more at the original.

Note the date of the hearing: June 10th. That’s eight weeks away, effectively another two months before the state Supreme Court will even hold oral arguments for and against the Governor’s executive orders and the laws passed by the state legislature to curtail them. A previous story in the Herald-Leader stated:

As of today, Kentucky is about 900,000 short of reaching the goal of 2.5 million vaccinated. More than 1.55 million Kentuckians have received their “first shot of hope,” said the governor.

With the current supply of the vaccine, Beshear said Kentucky could reach the 2.5 million goal in 3½ weeks, but said it most likely will be between four and six weeks.

So, if the guesstimates of four to six weeks are accurate, and if the Governor them lifts some, but not all, of his executive orders as promised, oral arguments eight weeks from now would make the case in Judge Privett’s case moot; and the Justices would almost certainly simply dismiss it.

But the Governor still wants that visible sign of subservience to his decrees:

Even with the easing of the restrictions, Beshear said, Kentuckians still will have to wear masks until there is more control of the virus. He also said he will address larger venues later.

We noted the previous pattern: Several lawsuits were filed in state courts to stop the Governor’s emergency decrees under KRS39A. On July 17, 2020, the state Supreme Court put a hold on all lower court orders against Mr Beshear’s orders and directed that “any lower court order, after entry, be immediately transferred to the clerk of the Supreme Court for consideration by the full court.” Three weeks later, the  Court set September 17, 2020, another five weeks later, to hear oral arguments by both sides.

The Court then waited for eight more weeks to issue its decision, until November 12, 2020, which upheld the Governor’s orders.

If the Kentucky Supreme Court, officially non-partisan but in practice controlled by the Democrats, follows the same pattern, a second eight week delay will mean a decision around the first week of August! Even if that decision supports the duly passed laws of the General Assembly, the state courts will have given the Governor half a year to exercise power that the General Assembly restricted.

Rights delayed are rights denied. But we will be lucky if our rights are only delayed; it isn’t difficult to picture the state Supreme Court coming up with some convoluted reasoning to invalidate the laws passed by the General Assembly. I can hope that the state legislature impeaches and removes our dictatorial Governor in the 2022 session, but, in reality, our best hope is for the voters to kick him to the curb in the 2023 election.

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The Reich Governor sets his goals

This tweet caught my eye:

I can’t say that this is a surprise, but the meaning is clear: the officially non-partisan but effectively Democrat controlled state Supreme Court will uphold the Governor’s appeal. `

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

Several lawsuits were filed in state courts to stop the Governor’s emergency decrees under KRS39A. On July 17, 2020, the state Supreme Court put a hold on all lower court orders against Mr Beshear’s orders and directed that “any lower court order, after entry, be immediately transferred to the clerk of the Supreme Court for consideration by the full court.” Three weeks later, the  Court set September 17, 2020, another five weeks later, to hear oral arguments by both sides.

The Court then waited for eight more weeks to issue its decision, upholding the Governor’s orders.

The pattern was clear and obvious: the state Supreme Court was trying to give the Reichsstatthalter time to run out the clock, hoping that the COVID problem would be beaten by then, and they could simply declare the lawsuits moot. It hadn’t been beaten, so the Court decided in favor of the Governor.

Republicans in the Bluegrass State ran against Governor Beshear’s authoritarian decrees, and the voters rewarded them with 14 more seats in the state House of Representatives, a 75-25 advantage, and 2 more seats, out of 17 up for election, in the state Senate, giving the GOP a 30-8 margin. Though the Governor claims that opinion polls show that Kentuckians support his actions, in the only poll that actually counts, the one held on election day, they voted strongly against his dictatorship.

The General Assembly met beginning in January, and immediately started working on legislation to rein in the Governor’s powers. Dictators love their dictatorial powers, so the Reichsstatthalter vetoed those bills; the legislature promptly overrode his vetoes, and the Reichsstatthalter then went to court to try enjoin the new laws from taking effect.

Taking the cases to heavily partisan Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, the Governor got what he wanted, the Judge blocking several of the General Assembly’s laws but not actually ruling against them.

And now the authoritarians’ playbook becomes obvious. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Beshear sets goal of 2.5 million vaccinated to lift capacity restrictions on bars, restaurants

By Jack Brammer | April 12, 2021 10:22 AM, Updated 11:08 AM EDT

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday he plans to remove capacity restrictions on nearly all venues, events and businesses that cater to 1,000 or fewer patrons once 2.5 million Kentuckians get their first vaccines against COVID-19.

Once that goal is reached, Beshear said, “We will remove the physical distancing restrictions and the curfew we have on bars and restaurants.”

What does that mean? It means that the Governor has given the courts their timetable, a specified amount of time that he says he needs to run out the clock. All the courts have to do is do nothing, until the Governor’s goals are reached, and then they can decide if he had the authority to do what he did.

In what he called “a pretty big announcement,” Beshear said all Kentuckians should be motivated to get the vaccine.

“If you are a restaurant, a bar, a store, a public pool, a country club, a grocery, a funeral home, a wedding venue, a concert hall, a museum, if you put on festivals, if you are a distillery, this is what you have been waiting for —a clear number and a clear goal to hit,” said Beshear.

He encouraged the businesses to make sure all their staff get the shots.

How, I have to ask, do businesses “make sure all their staff get the shots”? The only obvious way is for businesses to require such as a condition of employment, and have the right to see their employees’ medical records!

Even with the easing of the restrictions, Beshear said, Kentuckians still will have to wear masks until there is more control of the virus. He also said he will address larger venues later.

So, even when the Reichsstatthalter’s ‘goals’ have been met, he still wants to exercise that visible sign of subservience.

As of today, Kentucky is about 900,000 short of reaching the goal of 2.5 million vaccinated. More than 1.55 million Kentuckians have received their “first shot of hope,” said the governor.

With the current supply of the vaccine, Beshear said Kentucky could reach the 2.5 million goal in 3½ weeks, but said it most likely will be between four and six weeks.

But wait: if 1.55 million Kentuckians have received their first shot, in a two-shot series, that still means that they aren’t fully vaccinated. According to The New York Times, while 36% of Kentuckians have received the first dose, only 24% are fully vaccinated. That would mean that roughly only one million eligible recipients have received both shots, and there’s no guarantee that, with our dishonest Governor, he won’t decide that we’ll need another month under restriction, until 2.5 million are fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 is serious, but far more serious is the assault on our constitutional rights and the sheeple allowing the government to control their lives. Freedom, once lost, is very difficult to regain, and far, far, far too many Kentuckians have silently allowed this authoritarian dictator to do whatever the Hell he pleases.

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Judge Phillip Shepherd once again decides that his judgement supersedes that of our elected representatives He just loves enabling authoritarian dictators . . . as long as those dictators are Democrats!

Franklin Circuit Judge and Authoritarian Enabler Phillip Shepherd. Photo: Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts.

We have thrice reported on Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, a continual thorn in the side of Republican Governor Matt Bevin, and a partisan supporter of current Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat. Judge Shepherd blocked several of the bills passed by the General Assembly to limit the Governor’s emergency powers, not actually ruling against those laws, but imposing a temporary injunction and partially stayed the effectiveness of the three new laws. The laws remain on the books, but cannot be enforced, and the Judge has yet to tell us when he will rule on Governor Beshear’s lawsuit.

Shepherd said the court “is mindful that the challenged legislation seeks to address a legitimate problem of effective legislative oversight of the governor’s emergency powers in this extraordinary public health crisis” but “is also mindful that the governor and the secretary (Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander) are faced with the enormous challenge of effectively responding to a world-wide pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Kentuckians and over 500,000 people in the United States.”

The judge said all parties in the case “are acting in good faith to address public policy challenges of the utmost importance” but “the governor has made a strong case that the legislation, in its current form, is likely to undermine or even cripple, the effectiveness of public health measures necessary to protect the lives and health of Kentuckians from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Translation: the Judge recognized the legislature’s authority to change the law, but didn’t think that the legislature’s actions were wise ones. Who knew that a judge had the authority to decide that a legitimately passed law was simply unwise?

One of Governor Beshear’s arguments was that the legislature might not approve extensions of his executive orders, which the held-in-abeyance Senate Bill 1 limited to 30 days without legislative approval. The legislature passed House Joint Resolution 77, passed to go along with Senate Bill 1, which granted the Governor extensions on some, but not all, of his executive orders.

Kentucky governor notches another court victory for his emergency COVID-19 orders

By Jack Brammer | April 8, 2021 | 9:26 AM EDT | Updated April 8, 2021 | 12:45 PM EDT

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has added another legislative measure to the temporary injunction he issued earlier this year to block laws that limit Gov. Andy Beshear’s powers to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and other emergencies.

The judge’s nine-page order handed down late Wednesday afternoon temporarily blocks House Joint Resolution 77. The move keeps Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions in effect, including the mask mandate.

The resolution, sponsored by House Speaker David Osborne, was enacted by the legislature to implement Senate Bill 1, which would limit the governor’s emergency orders, such as one that requires Kentuckians to wear a face covering in public, to 30 days unless the legislature extends them. . . .

In blocking the resolution, Shepherd said, “In general, it appears that the General Assembly has ratified the governor’s actions related to economic relief for regulated businesses and professions but has attempted to impose a general termination of executive authority to impose public health restrictions (such as masking in public, social distancing, seating capacity or limitations on public gatherings.)“

“Whether HJR 77 represents a valid exercise of legislative authority or an unconstitutional usurpation of executive authority” is a legal issue that supports the issuance of a temporary injunction, Shepherd said.

The judge called Beshear’s existing executive orders and emergency regulations “proper responses to a public health crisis.”

“They should remain in full force and effect until the entry of a final judgment or until after notice and a hearing on any motion to terminate any such specific executive action,” he said.

That pretty much tells you how Judge Shepherd will rule; he thinks that the Governor’s orders were the proper responses.

Fortunately, our would be dictator isn’t having it all his way!

KY judge blocks Beshear’s COVID-19 orders at some restaurants and bars

By Jack Brammer | April 9, 2021 | 01:18 PM EDT | Updated April 9, 2021 | 4:00 PM EDT

A Kentucky judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing some of Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive COVID-19 orders against several restaurants and breweries.

The preliminary injunction issued Friday by Scott Circuit Judge Brian Privett runs counter to recent actions by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, which blocked the implementation of new laws that would have ended some of Beshear’s emergency restrictions against the coronavirus pandemic.

Oliver Dunford, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation who represented the businesses, said the differing rulings “probably will expedite all this going to the Kentucky Supreme Court for a final court decision.”

“We are thrilled that Judge Privett issued the injunction, which prevents the governor from enforcing the restrictive orders against our clients,” said Dunford “The order recognizes that the governor is obligated to follow the laws, just like everyone else.”

Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said late Friday afternoon that Privett’s ruling has been appealed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

Well, of course he has!

Judge Privett’s orders are narrow in scope, but by appealing them to the state Court of Appeals, this may well move the decisions out of Judge Shepherd’s court, where he has been slow-walking everything in what appears to be an effort to give Governor Beshear as much time as possible on his repugnant orders before a legal decision is reached.

“This action, at its most basic level, is simple,” said Privett in his order “The governor has two kinds of power: those given to him in the Constitution, and those given to him by the legislature under statute. The emergency powers of the governor at issue in this case are not inherent.”

The state constitution limits the General Assembly to a thirty-day session in odd-numbered years, and the legislature is done for the year, unless the Governor calls them back into a special session, which he will do about as soon as Hell freezes over, unless the state Supreme Court eventually upholds Senate Bill 1. We can expect no saving by the legislature now before next year.

But what really needs to happen is for the voters of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to vote out this wannabe dictator in the 2023 elections. He needs to be sent home, his tail between his legs, and a conservative Governor, one who respects our constitutional rights, elected to replace him.

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No, this isn’t about government controlling people at all!

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY), about whom I have had to write far too frequently, ignores the evidence. His minions tweeted for him:[1]Tweets on that account which are written personally by the Governor are signed are signed ^AB

“”Double down on public health measures,” and “masking up,” huh?

Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) eliminated the mandatory mask order in the Lone Star State, effective on March 10th; on that date, Texas’ seven-day moving average of daily new cases stood at 4,909. As of April 5th, that number was down to 3,007. The New York Times noted that while the moving average was down by 19% over the past fourteen days, the number of daily tests had increased by 8%. More tests, yet far fewer cases; how about that. Hospitalizations were also down, by 18%, and COVID-19 fatalities were down 38%.

Empirical data do not show that mask mandates have reduced COVID-19

So, why does Governor Beshear want us to “double down” on restrictions on our lives, why does he want us to continue to wear face masks, when ditching the mask mandate — which doesn’t stop people from wearing masks; it just makes them optional — not only didn’t result in an increase of cases, but Texas has seen a 38.7% decline in average daily cases four weeks after the mask mandate ended?

In Andy Weir’s book, The Martian, the nerds on earth are discussing why the “Hab,” the living quarters for the astronauts on Mars, didn’t have redundant communications systems capable to contacting earth. The comm systems were instead mounted on the MAV, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, and one of the nerds says, “(It) Never occurred to us. We never thought someone would be on Mars without a MAV. I mean, what are the odds?”

To which another nerd replied, “One in three, based on empirical data. That’s pretty bad if you think about it.”

And so it is. Regardless of what the heavily politicized Centers for Disease Control tell us, the empirical data have shown that dropping the restrictions on people’s lives hasn’t led to the Chicken Little ‘The Sky is Falling’ scenario we’ve been being told. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was dropping mask mandates last December, and while cases continued to increase into January, just like they did everywhere else, cases then started falling rapidly.

In the Bluegrass State, on March 10, the average seven day moving average was 790 new cases per day; on April 5, it was down to 574. That’s a 27.3% reduction, a smaller percentage reduction than was seen in Texas, despite Governor Beshear keeping the mask mandate in place.

And while the number of tests being performed in Texas have increased by 18% over the past 14 days, in Kentucky they have decreased by 9%, which means that more cases may have been missed.

If the empirical data do not show that the mask mandates have reduced COVID-19, then why do Democratic Governors like Mr Beshear keep imposing them? There’s really only one answer: they love authoritarian control!

References

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↑1 Tweets on that account which are written personally by the Governor are signed are signed ^AB
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Do the mandatory face mask orders really protect us from #COVID19? Empirically, that's not the case in one Kentucky county

Search and rescue volunteer, Nate Lair, drives a boat through downtown Beattyville after heavy rains led to the Kentucky River flooding the town and breaking records last set in 1957. March 1, 2021
Alton Strupp / Louisville Courier-Journal

Remember this picture? This is my nephew, Nate Lair, a volunteer fireman in Lee County, who was doing rescue work in Beattyville following the flooding earlier this month. Mr Lair is a trained Emergency Medical Technician as well as a fireman — and no, I don’t use the politically correct term “fire fighter” just because some women work as firemen — so he’s not exactly ignorant when it comes to medicine.

I was teasing him yesterday about killing everyone he rescued, because he wasn’t wearing a mask, something not only shown in the photo, but something I know he just does not do. He’s a fiercely independent sort.

Then he told me that, despite nobody wearing masks during the rescues, Lee County was one of two counties in the Bluegrass State that were in the “green” for COVID positive tests!

Well, he was off a bit, but not by much. The most recent statistics, as indicated by the map at the left from the state website (which you can click to enlarge) has Lee County in the yellow, “Community Spread,” between 1 to 10 average daily cases per 100,000 population, at 3.7.

But Lee County has a population of only 6,881 people! That means just 6.881% of 100,000 people. Doing the math, multiplying the 3.7 per 100,000 rate by 0.06881, I come up with 0.254597, or one confirmed COVID case over the last four days.

Which raises the obvious question: if masks are somehow saving us all from doom from COVID-19, but in less-than-healthy conditions during and after one of the hardest hit areas in the state by the flooding, in which people were more concerned with saving themselves, their jobs, and cleaning up their property, than they were with wearing face masks, why isn’t Lee County in the “red“? Why aren’t the people in and around Beattyville, the “poorest white town in America” from 2008 to 2012 according to CNN, dropping like flies due to the novel coronavirus?

Could it possibly, just possibly, be that these face masks really don’t do much of anything when it comes to the reduction of COVID-19?

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This is what happens when criminals are treated leniently At least no one was killed this time

It was the headline on this Lexington Herald-Leader story that caught my eye!

Lexington man gets more prison time for gun possession than he did for reckless homicide

By Jeremy Chisenhall | March 17, 2021 10:38 AM | Updated March 17, 2021 03:20 PM

A Lexington man is set to spend more time in prison for gun possession than he did after pleading guilty to reckless homicide years ago.

Darryl W. Stewart Jr., 32, was sentenced Tuesday to nearly seven years in federal prison for possessing a gun as a convicted felon after admitting that he had one when detectives searched his car on Sept. 3, 2019. In contrast, he was sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence when he pleaded guilty to a previous Lexington killing.

Stewart was charged after detectives encountered him on Sept. 3, 2019, while trying to arrest Tavis Chenault, a relative of Stewart’s who had outstanding warrants, according to court records. Chenault was riding in the front passenger seat of a Lexus Stewart was driving, according to court records.

There’s more at the original.

Mr Stewart must ser5ve a minimum of 85% of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, and will have three years of probation following his incarceration. That’s typical enough. But what shouldn’t be typical, what shouldn’t have ever happened, was his lenient sentence, in Kentucky state courts, for the 2013 killing of Jered Taylor in what was described as a narcotics deal which went bad.

Taylor, 26, was shot four times in the upper body, according to police testimony.

Police also found duct tape on Taylor’s pants, his head and on one wrist — indications that he had been bound before he was shot, a detective testified at a hearing for Stewart.

Stewart was originally charged with murder, but the charge was amended down. He entered an Alford plea, meaning that he didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him. He was facing a three-year prison sentence, but his prison time was suspended, and he was given five years of probation, according to court records.

The obvious question arises: if Mr Stewart “acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him,” why did prosecutors let him off so lightly? Four shots to the torso isn’t reckless homicide; it’s murder, and the Lexington Police, prosecutors and judges allowed him to walk free.

A bad guy, one who carried guns, and one who dealt drugs, and he was let off with probation!

Who knows, perhaps the prosecution believed that the evidence was weak enough that Mr Stewart would have been acquitted had the case gone to trial, in which event he would have walked out a free man. But, with the acceptance of the plea agreement, he walked out a free man anyway!

Oh, there were some consequences, but not many:

Stewart’s probation order was modified in 2018, and he was ordered to serve 90 days in custody, minus 19 days credited to him for time served, according to court records.

In February 2019, his probation was completely revoked after he tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl, according to court records. He was ordered to serve his full three-year prison sentence at the state penitentiary, with credit for time served while his case was being heard.

Must’ve been a lot of time already served, I suppose:

Stewart was released from custody just months later on May 1, 2019, according to records from the state Department of Corrections.

Fortunately, Mr Stewart didn’t kill anyone, or at least we don’t know that he killed anyone, since he was let out of the hoosegow. But when he was arrested again, his relative, Tavis Chenault, a known narcotics dealer, and he were traveling with multiple weapons and cell phones, along with $1,642 in cash. A shyster might argue that such is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but we all know what was happening: Messrs Chenault and Stewart were involved in the same ‘business’ Mr Stewart was involved in when he murdered ‘recklessly homicided’ Mr Taylor.

How many crimes did Mr Stewart commit when he was out, when he should have been in prison for murder? We don’t know, but he at the very least bought cocaine and Fentanyl, or he wouldn’t have tested positive for their use. He obtained firearms he was, as a convicted felon, legally barred from having. All of this, because Fayette County prosecutors didn’t do their jobs when it came to the murder reckless homicide of Mr Taylor.

I note that Mr Stewart is going to prison for federal offenses related to gun possession, for crimes committed back when Donald Trump was still President. Perhaps President Biden’s appointment, Carlton S. Shier, IV, as Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, isn’t quite as soft on crime as one would expect from the ‘Social Justice’ Department, or perhaps he’s just tough on people owning firearms, as the President would like. But at least the Feds in Lexington seem to be doing their jobs more diligently than then-Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson, who retired in 2016. The current Commonwealth’s Attorney, Lou Anna Red Corn, was Mr Larson’s first deputy at the time of Mr Stewart’s 2013 murder reckless homicide of Mr Taylor.

The Herald-Leader said, at the time of Mr Larson’s retirement:

In nearly 32 years as chief prosecutor, Larson said he has been guided by three principles: “Every person should be treated fairly and the same under the same facts; every person should be held responsible for their conduct; and every person should suffer consequences for violating our laws.”

At the same time, Larson said, he has tried to keep politics out of the office.

“No prosecutorial decision should ever be based on political motives,” Larson said in a statement. “The safety of the public is one of the primary responsibilities of any government, and we at the Fayette commonwealth’s attorney’s office have endeavored to do all that we could to carry out that responsibility and ensure better treatment of crime victims by our court system.”

That was obviously untrue when it came to Mr Stewart. If “the safety of the public” were truly one of his primary responsibilities, his office and he would never have agreed to a plea deal which let a cold-blooded murderer ‘reckless homicider’ walk out of court a free man. Probation does not keep a cold-blooded murderer ‘reckless homicider’ and drug dealer off the streets, does not keep him from continuing to commit crimes, and Mr Stewart is living proof of that.

Perhaps Mr Larson and Miss Red Corn would have lost in an actual criminal trial of Mr Stewart; no one can be certain how a jury will decide things. But what they got by agreeing to the plea agreement was little better than actually losing in court: Mr Stewart was still out on the streets, when he could have been serving a very long sentence, perhaps even life, in Eddyville.

A true concern for “the safety of the public” means taking every effort to get thugs like Mr Stewart off the streets, and into prison for as long as the law allows. It does not mean being soft on criminals, it does not mean taking the easier way out with plea bargains, and it does not mean letting killers walk out free men if there is any way to prevent it.

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Nate to the rescue!

From what I used to call the Curious-Journal:

Beattyville one of many cities hit by flooding in Kentucky

35 Photos | March 2, 2021 | 3:14 PM EST

Search and rescue volunteer, Nate Lair, drives a boat through downtown Beattyville after heavy rains led to the Kentucky River flooding the town and breaking records last set in 1957. March 1, 2021
Alton Strupp / Louisville Courier-Journal

Note that Mr Lair is piloting that boat down one of the main streets in Beattyville. Last I knew, there wasn’t supposed to be deep water in the middle of the street.

My good friend — OK, OK, I’ve never actually met her! — Heather Long wrote a series about Beattyville, Kentucky, when she was still with CNN, a place called the “poorest white town in America” from 2008 to 2012. These floods are the last thing the people of Lee County and Beattyville need.

It’s been a few years now, but Beattyville is still poor . . . and the next county over from where I live. The Kentucky River has flooded my property as well, with water into the crawlspace, and, sadly, 3½ feet into my shop/garage, but it stayed in the concrete block foundation area, and didn’t get into the wooden sills, beams and floor joists of the house. I’m sure that my furnace, which is in the crawl space, is shot, but it was 20 to 25 years old. I may have to rip out and replace some of the insulation between the joists, but I can do that work myself. The main thing is: we didn’t lose our home, something too many people around here — and one is too many — can’t say. My thanks to William Teach for contributing articles to this site, because I wasn’t sure that I’d have sparktricity through all of this.

The river gauge closest to my house, in Ravenna, got stuck, and the last reading was from 5:30 PM yesterday. The water definitely got higher than the 38.11 feet registered then, cresting at my house at sometime around 10:00 this morning. It’s starting to recede now.

And it’s been neighbors helping neighbors. Steve, a guy as poor as a church mouse, brought me two electric heaters to use to warm the place up. Chad, a volunteer fireman, brought two kerosene heaters, one for my (only) neighbor and one for me. Since I now have the two electric heaters, I told David, the neighbor, to keep them both for now. Tomorrow, I’ll (probably) be helping David set his propane tank right.

Main Street in the city of Beattyville sits underwater following heavy rains which caused the Kentucky River to flood, Tuesday, March 3, 2021. Alex Slitz / Lexington Herald-Leader

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Way to promote that “unity,” Lexington Herald-Leader!

I have previously noted how the Associated Press surrendered to political correctness on language, saying that, when referring to race, it will capitalize “black” but leave “white” in lower-case.[1]Note that while the Associated Press and many media outlets will capitalize “black” but not “white”, The First Street Journal maintains its own published Stylebook, and does … Continue reading

After changing its usage rules last month to capitalize the word “Black” when used in the context of race and culture, The Associated Press on Monday said it would not do the same for “white.” The AP said white people in general have much less shared history and culture, and don’t have the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color. Protests following the death of George Floyd, which led to discussions of policing and Confederate symbols, also prompted many news organizations to examine their own practices and staffing. The Associated Press, whose Stylebook is widely influential in the industry, announced June 19 it would make Black uppercase. In some ways, the decision over “white” has been more ticklish. The National Association of Black Journalists and some Black scholars have said white should be capitalized, too. “We agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore these problems,” Daniszewski said. “But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”

I found the whole thing not only obviously silly, but poor grammar. The use of “white” or “black” is simply shorthand for large racial groups, Caucasian and Negro, which are properly capitalized. Irish or French should be capitalized, as they refer to the inhabitants of countries as well as ethnic groups, while white should not be. Similarly, I would capitalize Kenyan or African, but not black. That the Associated Press would treat the words differently is just not very bright.

So now we come to the Lexington Herald-Leader, a McClatchy publication, and this sentence in a story about extending the COVID-19 vaccinations to Tier 1C:

Seventy-seven percent of people vaccinated are white, 6 percent are Black, and only 2.3 percent are Hispanic.

“Black” is capitalized, and “Hispanic” is (properly) capitalized, but “white” is left in lower-case. Yeah, I know: that’s the Associated Press Stylebook in action, but I cannot be the only person who noticed how the Herald-Leader has treated races differently. I have no idea how many readers of the paper will be familiar with, or even heard of, the AP Stylebook, but if the readers match the city’s demographics, 75.7% of them are white, and I would guess that some of them will have felt that they were slighted. Given just how out-of-touch the editors of the Herald-Leader are with their readership, perhaps those readers who feel slighted by that one sentence will have been right about how the editors feel about them.

Then again, anyone who notes that 77% + 6% + 2.3% = 85.3% might be wondering more about the math of the Beth Musgrave, the article author, and whichever editor checked her story before publication! 🙂

The newspaper does still have editors, right?[2]Well, maybe not, given that McClatchy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year ago, and Chatham Asset Management now owns the McClatchy newspapers. The Herald-Leader’s Contact page … Continue reading

The left have spent the last five years decrying Donald Trump, claiming that he is very divisive and a racist, the editors of the Herald-Leader among them. But in going along with the Associated Press Stylebook in the manner they have, they are promoting the same “racial . . . intolerance” about which they complained concerning Mr Trump.

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↑1 Note that while the Associated Press and many media outlets will capitalize “black” but not “white”, The First Street Journal maintains its own published Stylebook, and does not go along with such divisive foolishness.
↑2 Well, maybe not, given that McClatchy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year ago, and Chatham Asset Management now owns the McClatchy newspapers. The Herald-Leader’s Contact page lists 15 non-sports reporters, deputy editors for digital, presentation and accountability, an executive editor and general manager, an editorial assistant and a news assistant. From those titles, I’m not sure that anyone actually reads and corrects reporters’ news stories. The days of the blue pencil are long gone, and there are times I think that editing itself has departed as well.