UnitedHealth Group’s multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company. Pharmacy benefit managers, often called PBMs, act as middlemen that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug companies, insurance plans and pharmacies. Some lawyers and advocates say PBMs helped […]
Advertisements promoting the abortion pill will be at gas stations across West Virginia and Kentucky over the next few weeks. Mayday Health, a New York-based health education nonprofit, will run the ads at 104 rural gas stations through Sept. 7. The campaign started Aug. 11. The advertisements say “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more […]
As students across Kentucky return to campus, our colleges and universities face difficult times. Higher education is viewed with a great deal of suspicion by those outside its inner sanctum, though recent data suggests a subtle shift toward a more positive view. Institutions of learning are under mounting pressure to show their value to society, […]
A Democratic lawmaker asked Republican Auditor Allison Ball if her office’s recent critical audit of the Kentucky Department of Education makes the case for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s universal pre-K plan. Ball presented the findings of the audit released last month during a Monday meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Education. The audit said […]
SHELBYVILLE – A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes. Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, […]
Mandates from President Donald Trump’s administration to retain aging coal plants could cause a massive spike in energy costs, according to an independent analysis commissioned by several environmental groups. Orders from the U.S. Department of Energy to save coal plants from retirement could cost ratepayers more than $3 billion per year, according to a report […]
While the nation was distracted by headlines about celebrity trials and summer storms, a seismic shift occurred in American education policy: The U.S. Department of Education was effectively gutted by President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Billed as a move to return power to the states, this legislation dismantles the infrastructure of […]
Week after week, a teenage Brandon Long sat through counseling sessions that he said framed his identity as a failure. Now an ordained minister in northern Kentucky, Long told Kentucky state lawmakers about the years he spent undergoing therapy designed to rid him of his “same-sex attraction.” “Just imagine yourself being told, session after session, […]