News

Sixty-four years of fighting for workers!

On this day in 1955, the AFL and CIO gathered at our first joint convention. Sixty-four years later, the AFL-CIO has so much to be proud of.

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'Mad Matt,' ever the 'crass, classless, recalcitrant man'

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

At least Gov. Bevin is consistent. 

From The Washington Post: Kentucky governor’s stay at Trump hotel could carry legal implications for president

Gov. Matt Bevin's 2018 visit to Trump's DC hotel likley to become fodder for plaintiffs in cases against Trump. 

From The Washington Post: Virginia Democrats could repeal right-to-work. It shows how America is changing.

By CHARLES LANE

Conservative Republicans took control of Wisconsin’s government in 2010 and wasted no time overhauling the state’s labor laws. Gov. Scott Walker’s signature measure, Act 10, adopted in 2011, strictly limited public-sector collective bargaining and ended the mandatory dues check-off for public employee unions.

Henderson: 'All walks of labor' represented on transition team

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Ex-state labor secretary Larry Roberts can't remember a governor-elect who named more union members to a Labor Department transition team than Andy Beshear.  

Neither can fellow team members Dorsey Ridley and Bill Finn, the former a team co-chair. 

From Forward Kentucky: Why McConnell should be scared

By CHRIS HUGHES

Many looked ahead to what this might mean for Senator Mitch McConnell’s re-election in 2020. Does this election portend defeat for McConnell? A possibility of Kentucky turning blue in the presidential?

'The reality and rhetoric of Donald Trump are radically different' (Same for Bevin)

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

More than 38 percent of union members nationwide voted for Donald Trump in 2016, according to polling guru Nate Silver.

Louisville labor lawyer Dave Suetholz thinks the president might not fare as well in union ranks next November. More on that in a minute. 

From The New York Times: Fox News? More Like Trump’s Impeachment Shield

Nixon lacked the cable network’s advantage, but are its viewers misled?

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

When President Richard Nixon’s Watergate misconduct was being dissected before congressional committees in 1973 and 1974, Republican support for him collapsed because most Americans shared news sources and inhabited a similar political reality.

In short, facts mattered.

From The Lexington Herald-Leader: Beshear to Kentucky teachers: Help is on the way

By BRUCE SCHREINER

Associated Press

On election night, long before his win in the Kentucky governor’s race became official, Democrat Andy Beshear made clear who he thought helped make it happen.

“To our educators, this is your victory,” Beshear proclaimed in a Nov. 5 victory speech as he maintained a slim 5,000-vote margin.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader: He’s not running. Kentucky Sports Radio Host Matt Jones bows out of U.S. Senate bid.

By DANIEL DESROCHERS

Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones announced Friday that he will not run for U.S. Senate in 2020, ending months of speculation over whether he would launch an outsider campaign with the goal of taking down U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Jones, who had for months publicly waffled on whether to run, had laid out a political path of appealing to conservative University of Kentucky fans who listen to the show he built and see him as a friendly figure.

The path will remain unexplored.