As world leaders gather Monday in Copenhagen to rewrite energy policies to reduce future carbon emissions, Lexington business leaders have rewritten their energy policy to try to help the coal industry cling to the past.
Commerce Lexington announced a policy revision last week that dropped a reference to “encourage the [...]

Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who last month became the longest-serving member of Congress in history, has a long record of supporting the coal industry.
But as world leaders prepare to meet in Copenhagen to discuss climate change policies, Byrd, 92, today issued some frank [...]
An invitation to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago is one of the biggest honors a high school orchestra can receive.
It’s also one of the biggest challenges.
The name might make it sound like a regional hospital, but the clinic is the largest annual gathering of school band and orchestra [...]

Serving on an organization’s governing board can be an honor, a status symbol and a networking opportunity.
It’s also work, responsibility — and liability, if things go wrong.
There’s a lot of focus now on the responsibilities of boards and board members, thanks in part to increased government oversight. Not to mention [...]
Having seen too many disappointing Kentucky-Tennessee football games, I decided the best show in town Saturday night would be at historic Floral Hall at The Red Mile. I was right.
Lexington’s Ben Sollee, an amazing musician and songwriter who is going to be really famous one of these days, [...]
There’s more energy in two long-neglected corners of downtown Lexington than there has been in decades, and Monday night will be a good chance to glimpse some of it.
The East End Holiday Celebration is from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Isaac Murphy Park on the corner of East [...]
WOW;
James Agee was born 100 years ago today, Nov. 27, 1909. He died only 44 years later, from a heart attack in a taxi while on the way to see his cardiologist.
You don’t hear much about Agee anymore, although you occasionally see one of the classic [...]
As many of us prepare a big Thanksgiving dinner, it’s worth thinking about neighbors who won’t be so lucky.
There are more of them than usual.
In fact, food bank directors across Kentucky say there are more of them than they’ve ever seen before.
A report last week from the U.S. Department of [...]
In a media environment where the public seems to prefer ideology, opinion, speculation and outrage over fact and reason, Bill Sparkman seemed to think he could find plenty of suckers.
He was right.
Authorities said Tuesday that their investigations had determined the part-time Clay County census worker committed suicide in an [...]
People love labels: black, white, Democrat, Republican, Protestant, Catholic, conservative, liberal, Jew, Christian, Muslim.
Labels tell who is similar to us and who is different.
Human conflict — from ancient wars to the terrorism that dominates today’s headlines — has often resulted from people focusing on their differences, rather than their similarities.
For [...]
Have you ever wondered where the money goes when Kentuckians choose to pay a little extra for one of those pretty Share the Road license plates?
Some of it goes to pay for the reminder signs you see on roads. And $9,300 of it will soon be used to [...]
I’m worried about the financial state of journalism.
Digital technology has given news papers more readers than ever. Ironically, though, that technology means newspapers no longer are the dominant force in advertising, from where the money to support journalism has always come.
To make matters worse, most newspapers are owned by big [...]
This is Global Entrepreneurship Week, and it couldn’t come at a better time.
We’re just beginning to climb out of the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression. Bad economic times beg for good ideas, and the only way those ideas can make a difference is when entrepreneurs turn them [...]
At the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center’s conference last month, people talked about how much more economic progress this state could make if cities and their surrounding counties worked together.
Jim Host thinks they’re right — but that they’re thinking too small. That’s no surprise; few Kentuckians think as big as [...]

Other duties have me tied up this. Next week probably will be the same. And the week after that, I’m taking some time off for the holidays. Don’t know when normality will return.
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There was a remarkable public forum at the University of Kentucky on Thursday. The moderator began by saying it reminded him of the old song Which Side Are You On?
Florence Reece, a miner’s wife, wrote that song about the economic controversies surrounding coal in Harlan County in the 1930s. Thursday’s [...]
It’s astounding when you think about it: Lexington Mall has been dead or dying since before this year’s high school graduates were born.
It’s even more astounding when you realize that the 30-acre site could be one of the hottest pieces of real estate in Lexington if it were redeveloped by [...]