Moving Kentucky Forward

In this week's Moving Kentucky Forward, we're joined by Gay Adelmann, founder of Dear JCPS and Save Our Schools Kentucky, and a strong advocate for public education in Louisville and in Frankfort. She helped recruit many of the educators running for office this year, and that led to a new form of activism – she's now a candidate herself!

We're joined this week by Ben Self, the new chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party who was elected last fall. Ben got his start in campaign politics working on the Howard Dean campaign, helping to build that famous digital operation. Now he's taking on building up the KDP in time to make a difference in 2018 and beyond. We ask Ben what he sees as the challenges and solutions, and what he sees happening in this year's elections in Kentucky.

Long-time state rep Jim Wayne joins us, and tells us the best and worst bills of the past General Assembly, and what he thinks is going to happen on pensions and tax reforms. He also is direct in his thoughts on Governor Bevin and the Republican majority. And finally, he shares the two things he would do if we gave him a magic wand to wave over the state!

Join us as we interview Nicole George, candidate for Louisville's Metro Council in 2018. Nicole talks about the issues in her district, and at the end, we give her a magic wand to fix the things SHE thinks are most important. Listen to see her top priorities for the district and for the city of Louisville!

Ryan Eller of Define American joins us to bring us up to speed on immigrants in Kentucky, both documented and undocumented ... and we covered a lot of ground! We can almost guarantee that you will learn things you didn't know, including the financial impact of immigrants on our state, AND what the current deportation program means to both the families involved and to you and me. In addition, we get into DACA, and talk about promises our country made to these young people, and how those promises are being broken.

The PFM pension recommendations caused strong reactions on all sides of the pension issue. So we went to Jason Bailey of KCEP to get his calm, fact-based analysis.

While everyone is talking about Trumpcare, let's not forget that draconian cuts are also proposed for Medicaid. These cuts will affect not only the poor and elderly, but our entire state, including causing the loss of over 80,000 jobs. Emily Beauregard and Dustin Pugel join us to lay out just how bad these cuts are, and the effects they will cause across our state. Links for More Info Kentucky Voices for Health About Emily Beauregard Medicaid Articles Kentucky Center for Economic Policy About Dustin Pugel Medicaid Articles  

Right after the 2016 election, Krystal Ball wrote a HuffPost essay titled "The Democratic Party Deserved to Die." As you can imagine, the post went viral ... and out of it came a new book AND a new political project. The book is entitled Reversing the Apocalypse: Hijacking the Democratic Party to Save the World, and it has drawn widespread praise for its honest assessment of the state of the party AND what to do about it. Here's our review of the book. And here's where you can order it on Amazon Kindle. The new project is The People's House, a project to challenge incumbent Republicans throughout Appalachia and the Midwest. The project is just launching, and you can visit the web site here. In our interview, Krystal Ball discusses her move to Kentucky, the People's House project, and her insights into the party and how to rebuild it. She also spends some time talking about the economic plight facing so many of our citizens, and how automation is going to make their situation even worse, and we take some ti

Adam Edelen joins us to talk about his exciting new solar project on a mountain outside Pikeville, and the impact it could make on our state. He also updates us on his political work with the New Kentucky Project, and shares some candid and insightful thoughts about politics and the progressive movement in Kentucky. There is much to think about in what he says, so give a listen – and take notes!

In this week’s episode, we’re joined by Representative Attica Scott, fresh off her first session of the General Assembly. We’ll ask her about her impressions of serving in Frankfort, as well as what she thinks of the bills that passed AND the bills that didn’t. It’s Sunday, April 2, 2017, and time to move Kentucky forward. Let’s get started!  

One of the most exciting developments since the election is the Indivisible movement! In this episode of Moving Kentucky Forward, we're joined by Kim Hibberd and Dawn Cooley, the co-founders of Indivisible Kentucky, as they share with us what it's like to be leading this fast-growing group, and where they see it going.    

We're joined this week by Rep. Joni Jenkins of Louisville, who shares an update about this years' General Assembly, and helps us understand how to have a bigger impact in Frankfort!

In this episode, we’re joined by Amy Shir, who shares about her work doing “financial empowerment.” She also tells us about a recent event in Louisville where she volunteered to share a personal story, only to wind up going to Washington and hanging out with Senator Al Franken! Join us to learn more about her inspiring work.

Join us as Bruce Maples, publisher of Forward Kentucky, shares some thoughts on how to stand for justice without adding to our polarization or Othering your opponents. Also, we've got updates on events of the week, as well as new features coming to Forward Kentucky. Enjoy!

We attended the annual conference of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, and interviewed four interesting people while there: Joe Grady of Topos, on how to get people to think differently about taxes Clark Williams, an IRS agent turned minister, on why our state budget is a moral document MacKenzie Cantrell, on her experiences as a new state legislator Jason Bailey, the director of KCEP, on what he is most worried about, and what he would do with a magic budget wand Join us for four varied and interesting interviews!  

We interview Matt Wyatt, chair of the Elizabethtown School Board. The E-town school board recently passed a resolution opposing charters, and Matt lays out the reasons why. In addition, we take a look at news, fake news, and propaganda, the differences among them, and the standards Forward Kentucky has set for itself when it comes to our news work. It's important for you that we get this right; listen and learn why.

Our first interview, and who better than Congressman John Yarmuth! He has been working for progressive causes for decades, and represents Kentucky's Third District with determination and clarity. The Congressman shares with us the current mood in Washington, how Republicans feel about the incoming President, and some things WE can do to Move Kentucky Forward.

Our new podcast! Bruce Maples, publisher of Forward Kentucky, talks briefly about our goals for the Moving Kentucky Forward podcast, and some of the content we hope to include. He finishes with a request for YOUR help: people, topics, and stories we can use for the show.