Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) announced Tuesday afternoon that Kentucky now has 163 confirmed cases of coronavirus — 39 of which have been confirmed in the last day — and also revealed that one of the new cases has been linked with a “coronavirus party.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Beshear said he was &#8220;mad” that someone attended an event making light of the epidemic was among the batch of new cases, reports <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article241471706.html">The Lexington Herald Leader</a>. 
“Anyone who goes to something like this may think they’re indestructible, but it’s someone else’s loved one that they are going to hurt,” said Beshear, reports the news agency. 
“We are battling for the health and the lives of our parents and our grandparents. Don’t be callous as to intentionally go to something and expose yourself to something that will hurt other people. We ought to be much better than that,” he said. 
According to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/kentucky-coronavirus-party-attendee-tests-positive-for-covid-19/">The New York Post</a>, the coronavirus party was attended by young adults in their 20s. The governor declined to further elaborate on the event, or clarify the person is suspected to have contracted coronavirus at the party. 
The Trump administration has advised Americans to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf">avoid gatherings</a> of more than 10 people until March 31. 
However, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had to order the closure of most beaches in the state earlier this week after receiving reports that young people, particularly college students on spring break, were flaunting social-distancing orders despite the pandemic. 
“The message I think for spring breakers is that the party’s over in Florida, you’re not going to be able to congregate on any beach in the state,” DeSantis <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ron-desantis-florida-spring-breakers-party-over">told Fox News</a>. “The bars are closed so you’re not going to have a place to congregate there, so we would just tell those folks maybe come back next year when things are better, but that is not what we’re looking for here in the state of Florida.”
Brady Sluder, one college student in particular, went viral after he told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spring-break-party-coronavirus-pandemic-miami-beaches/">CBS News</a> that he wasn’t going to coronavirus “stop me from partying.”
&#8220;If I get corona, I get corona. At the end of the day, I&#8217;m not gonna let it stop me from partying,&#8221; the student told the news agency. &#8220;We&#8217;re just out here having a good time. Whatever happens, happens.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/03/24/spring-break-party-florida-apologizes-coronavirus-comments/2906379001/">USA Today</a> reports that Sluder has since apologized for the remarks, saying he “wasn’t aware of the severity of my actions and comments.”
“Like many others, I have elderly people who I adore more than anything in the world and other family members who are at risk, and I understand how concerning this disease is for all of us,” said Sluder. “Our generation may feel invincible, like I did when I commented, but we have a responsibility to listen and follow the recommendations in our communities.”
“I will continue to reflect and learn from this and continue to pray for our well-being. I deeply apologize from the bottom of my heart for my insensitivity and unawareness of my actions,” he said.

Coronavirus Testing Laboratory In Glasgow

‘Coronavirus Party’ Attendee Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Says Kentucky Governor

Coronavirus

Kentucky

Deputies surrounded the house of a Kentucky man who refused to quarantine himself after he tested positive for COVID-19.
&#8220;A Kentucky novel coronavirus patient checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice. So to prevent him from spreading the virus, officials are surrounding his house to keep him there,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/us/kentucky-refused-quarantine-coronavirus-trnd/index.html">reported CNN</a> on Tuesday.
In a press conference on Saturday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) said he does not want to force people into isolation but will do so if they refuse to comply with public health guidelines.
“We have had the first instance of a person who has refused to self-isolate, we have taken steps to force an isolation that will be in their home. It&#8217;s a step I hoped that I&#8217;d never have to take,&#8221; Beshear <a href="https://youtu.be/_fDmPhIMMSo?t=2049" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>. &#8220;But I can&#8217;t allow one person who we know has this virus to refuse to protect their neighbors.&#8221;
“Be a good neighbor. Do the right thing. That’s all we’re asking of people,” he later added.
Speaking with the <a href="https://www.kystandard.com/content/person-nelson-county-tests-positive-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kentucky Standard, </a>Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa confirmed that deputies have been dispatched to the man&#8217;s house, though he did not give the residence&#8217;s location. The man was tested at a Louisville hospital and left the facility against medical advice on Friday. He has reportedly been cooperating with police since they were dispatched to his residence.
During his press conference on Tuesday, President Trump stated he was &#8220;not happy&#8221; with people who are refusing to practice social distancing.
&#8220;I’m not happy with those people. But those people are being shouted down by other people. It’s almost like self-policing,” <a href="https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/trump-on-people-gathering-in-crowds-im-not-happy-with-those-people.html">Trump said</a>. “People are not happy when they see other people doing things they’re not supposed to be doing.”
Regarding Americans planning to travel on vacation to countries with minor or no cases of COVID-19, the president advised people to stay home.1
“I would just say enjoy your home. We have to get this problem fixed and then we’ll get back into business really quick,” Trump said. “I would recommend that they enjoy their living room.”
On Monday, the Trump administration laid out <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf">new guidelines</a> for Americans to follow over the next two weeks, which include regularly washing hands, covering your cough and sneeze, staying six feet away from people, and avoiding crowds of 10 or more people. People who are sick and exhibiting symptoms were also strongly advised to stay home along with the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
Given that some residents in certain cities have failed to properly follow guidelines, the possibility of a national quarantine has been floated in some quarters of the internet, though the Trump administration dismissed those notions as rumors on Monday.
“There is an ongoing effort to spread disinformation and cause undue panic,” a senior official in the Trump administration <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-administration-warns-of-foreign-disinformation-campaign-amid-coronavirus-outbreak">told Fox News</a> on Monday. “There is no national quarantine for the United States. It’s important we remain vigilant in ensuring our information is coming from verified sources.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, did say that he favors a national lockdown, strongly encouraging Americans to hunker down while they can.
“I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,”<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-favors-national-shutdown-you-dont-want-to-be-complacent"> said Fauci</a>.  “Everybody has got to get involved in distancing themselves socially … Everything is on the table. Right now, myself personally, I wouldn’t go to a restaurant. I just wouldn’t because I don’t want to be in a crowded place. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m going to be all of a sudden self-isolating for 14 days.”

Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America

COVID-19 Patient Refused Quarantine. Deputies Surround His House.

On Saturday, an off-duty newlywed couple who both work for the Elizabethtown, Kentucky police department were out on a “date night” when a man entered the restaurant wearing a mask, and according to police, pointed a gun at the cashier and demanded cash.
That was a mistake; although the husband told his wife to take his phone and call 911 while he acted, she demurred, instead joining him to draw their weapons and rushed at the suspect, forcing him to flee until they ultimately caught him.
As <a href="https://www.wdrb.com/news/video-married-off-duty-elizabethtown-police-officers-recognized-for-catching/article_0ab7ee8e-526e-11ea-a466-2b1e61fcc334.html">WRDB</a> reports, Elizabethtown Police Detective Chase McKeown and his wife, Officer Nicole McKeown, who have been married for six months, spoke at a news conference on Tuesday, where Chase McKeown noted that their “date night” was the result of some advice they had been given at church. He stated, &#8220;At our church, we&#8217;ve been focusing on marriage,&#8221; adding that his church encourages having a &#8220;date night&#8221; once a week.
Thus the couple went out to eat at Raising Cane&#8217;s restaurant in Louisville for a “date night,” revisiting it because it was the first place they had eaten out after their wedding. An arrest report stated that Justin Carter, 30, walked into the restaurant wearing a mask, pointed a gun at the cashier and demanded cash.
Nicole McKeown noted, &#8220;I think we kind of both saw him at the same time,&#8221; adding that she initially thought Carter was wearing the mask because it was flu season. But then she had second thoughts; she recalled, &#8220;I looked at him and said, &#8216;That&#8217;s kind of odd.'&#8221;
When her husband told her to take the phone and call 911, she said, she thought, &#8220;No — I&#8217;m gonna help my husband!&#8221;
After Carter fled, the couple chased after him, catching him a few blocks from the restaurant, where they held him until LMPD officers arrived.
Det. Dan Mason of the Louisville Metro Police Department&#8217;s Robbery Unit lauded the McKeowns for their actions, asserting they acted &#8220;honorably and heroically … We are police officers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on or off duty.&#8221;
A representative of Raising Cane&#8217;s added, &#8220;We are extremely blessed that they chose to dine with us. It&#8217;s because of good people like Chase and Nicole who give us good hope for tomorrow…we&#8217;ll never be able to thank them enough.&#8221;
Chase McKeown concluded that the laudatory gestures toward him and his wife were unnecessary, stating, &#8220;Maybe it&#8217;s the term &#8216;hero.’ We don&#8217;t feel that way. We just feel like our training kicked in.&#8221; Nicole said they’ll be back at the restaurant again, laughing, &#8220;Oh absolutely. I love Raising Cane&#8217;s.&#8221;
The Elizabethtown Police Department wrote on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/quicksie983/photos/a.10151663833198130/10158205748583130/?type=3&amp;theater">Facebook</a>:
<blockquote>Our current vote for sweetest (and kinda awesome) couple is <a class="profileLink" href="https://www.facebook.com/Etownpd/?__tn__=KH-R&amp;eid=ARB82rGN1lX0bxGpvDcTSSjrn74Tpvh8RWARbNINGHuSPlMyfSlLukVM4swQMv4IArNw8RetIMtQ52Jt&amp;fref=mentions&amp;__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCpsI7o9_zCdU4n2cnTf8VCQTmACMaBXwtRjMqIJF8fAenHlVYmJvtBPftufbLkBF_x9_3kUOzYF5l3E4KpCXQdru9MRJXvQxRuxCqe8pGK9RSJg0kt6sgD2wiNNnUbMrPD1vaFVwS4VUcaJKl1agwLoRrB4fpRYbhFflUw_aDGTLUaC3TX9I6ktUcxZQqb0zvghVl7Kya6JxMsVXyUu0gul8OFsYXwAuaYEdmBe8B2QwI1lmRSgpnv-a11SKBU1e0tiVE8L9K-mOsAdXaNv46qvtMxK2-R2hIzfu3uBTBf7fYJY9jQocKTTL9yx8ZCq0ESYW6kUixjU6YNYBbqFBD2iuTuu6bBZ7ucArZQL1jbZ8BP9XVDeFEswAVvRNcHWADbdgQFu0mFUwhSAqKUNSjOVGnot3YbGfpP0w7GkhjnxB9JX2y4jv2D1jx-XW60cRls-iu5mwnghoTjK2HqthhG3-XD_XKBe8i9vTBFlIZMUdpI8sHRbdOZKn3EhLnOqDl4vFzZEzorkVdVi-CZrh8Yd32zlxLJK0apeBAB-Ob3ohVl6LjKxrZ6I4_eKHFdi8_V_R1Q2mc" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=217670558340146&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22__tn__%22%3A%22%2CdKH-R-R%22%2C%22eid%22%3A%22ARB82rGN1lX0bxGpvDcTSSjrn74Tpvh8RWARbNINGHuSPlMyfSlLukVM4swQMv4IArNw8RetIMtQ52Jt%22%2C%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1">Elizabethtown Police Department</a> Detective Chase McKeown and his wife, Officer Nicole McKeown.  The pair thwarted an attempted robbery at a Louisville <a class="profileLink" href="https://www.facebook.com/RaisingCanesLouisville/?__tn__=KH-R&amp;eid=ARC3MoPKIQtYH8ickSMmhKFlM0m9BoGxGgMcaMXUDcPEIVbMz8SZ74pxSGfBcoi5HyVaTw2LVHPzfb8H&amp;fref=mentions&amp;__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCpsI7o9_zCdU4n2cnTf8VCQTmACMaBXwtRjMqIJF8fAenHlVYmJvtBPftufbLkBF_x9_3kUOzYF5l3E4KpCXQdru9MRJXvQxRuxCqe8pGK9RSJg0kt6sgD2wiNNnUbMrPD1vaFVwS4VUcaJKl1agwLoRrB4fpRYbhFflUw_aDGTLUaC3TX9I6ktUcxZQqb0zvghVl7Kya6JxMsVXyUu0gul8OFsYXwAuaYEdmBe8B2QwI1lmRSgpnv-a11SKBU1e0tiVE8L9K-mOsAdXaNv46qvtMxK2-R2hIzfu3uBTBf7fYJY9jQocKTTL9yx8ZCq0ESYW6kUixjU6YNYBbqFBD2iuTuu6bBZ7ucArZQL1jbZ8BP9XVDeFEswAVvRNcHWADbdgQFu0mFUwhSAqKUNSjOVGnot3YbGfpP0w7GkhjnxB9JX2y4jv2D1jx-XW60cRls-iu5mwnghoTjK2HqthhG3-XD_XKBe8i9vTBFlIZMUdpI8sHRbdOZKn3EhLnOqDl4vFzZEzorkVdVi-CZrh8Yd32zlxLJK0apeBAB-Ob3ohVl6LjKxrZ6I4_eKHFdi8_V_R1Q2mc" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=183763148434459&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22__tn__%22%3A%22%2CdKH-R-R%22%2C%22eid%22%3A%22ARC3MoPKIQtYH8ickSMmhKFlM0m9BoGxGgMcaMXUDcPEIVbMz8SZ74pxSGfBcoi5HyVaTw2LVHPzfb8H%22%2C%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1">Raising Cane&#8217;s</a> over the weekend. The couple, who met on the job at EPD when he was a patrol officer and she was a dispatcher at the agency, have been married 6 months.</blockquote>
Video below:
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Glass of drink by the window with city background at night

WATCH: Police Couple Out On ‘Date Night’ Have Surprise For Man Pointing Gun At Cashier

Police

The news media, which never tires of cake-related controversies, spent some time last week ginning up outrage towards a Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the headlines, the stodgy bigots over at Whitefield Academy expelled a 15-year-old student for the crime of eating a multi-colored birthday cake.
The headlines were breathless and unanimous:
<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=11&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiUrP3c8pLnAhVPSN8KHSYnDwAQFjAKegQIAhAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Freligion%2F2020%2F01%2F15%2Frainbowcakewhitefieldacademy%2F&amp;usg=AOvVaw16WHM_dWE0BANQg_rOvYae">Christian school expels teen after she posed with rainbow birthday cake, mother says.</a>
<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/whitefield-academy-kentucky-christian-school-expels-15-year-old-over-rainbow-cake-mom-says">Kentucky Christian School Expels 15-Year-Old Over Rainbow Cake, Mom Says.</a>
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/14/kentucky-christian-school-expels-girl-gay-rainbow-cake-mom-says/4468374002/">Christian school expelled student over a &#8216;gay&#8217; rainbow cake, family says.</a>
<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/15/teen-expelled-from-christian-school-after-rainbow-shirt-cake-photo/">Teen expelled from Christian school after rainbow shirt, cake photo.</a>
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christian-school-whitefield-academy-expels-teen-girl-rainbow-sweater-birthday-cake-violate-christian-values/">Christian school expels teen for rainbow sweater and birthday cake that violate &#8220;Christian values.&#8221;</a>
And so on.
Some of the headlines include the &#8220;mother says&#8221; qualifier, while others simply assert the family&#8217;s claims as objective fact. But in either case, the point is to paint the school as clear villains in the situation.
Here&#8217;s how the body of the CBS report, linked above, frames the story:
<blockquote>A teenager from Kentucky celebrated her 15th birthday last month by blowing out the candles on a rainbow cake while wearing a rainbow sweater. After her mother posted a photo from her birthday party on Facebook, the teen was expelled from her Christian high school.
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<div id="mpu-plus-top-right-rail" class="ad-mpu-plus-top-right-rail lazypreload lazyloaded" data-ad="mpu-plus-top-right-rail" data-ad-unit="&quot;mpu-plus-top-right-rail&quot;" data-google-query-id="CMmu34P0kucCFdIchwodfTsOaw">
<div id="google_ads_iframe_/8264/aw-cbsnews/us_4__container__">Kayla Kenney was a freshman at Whitefield Academy, a private Christian school in Louisville, until she was expelled last week. Her mother said the school called her daughter&#8217;s sweater and cake &#8220;lifestyle violations.&#8221;</div>
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</div>
Kenney&#8217;s mom, Kimberly Alford, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that she received an email from Whitefield Academy&#8217;s head of school, Bruce Jacobson, expelling her daughter. He wrote that the picture she posted on Facebook &#8220;demonstrates a posture of morality and cultural acceptance contrary to that of Whitefield Academy&#8217;s beliefs.&#8221;
While the rainbow flag is a symbol of LGBTQ rights, Alford said when she ordered the cake, the design was described as having &#8220;assorted colors&#8221; and was not meant to have a deeper meaning.</blockquote>
Already, even without any more information than what the media has deigned to provide, a thoughtful person should be extremely skeptical. It is not a simple or easy process to expel a student. At a private school, the expulsion comes with a financial cost. You aren&#8217;t just kicking the student to the curb, but her tuition alongside her. Why would a school go through that trouble and absorb that cost over something as trivial as a cake? And if they do issue expulsions so easily, shouldn&#8217;t there be dozens of other stories of students getting tossed out for similarly arbitrary reasons? There are almost always two sides to a story like this. Could this be the exception where the first version of the story, as presented by a partisan for one side of the dispute, is entirely accurate and faithful to the facts? Maybe. But probably not.
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Social media is not a place for this sort of healthy skepticism, so thousands of people hopped on the outrage train and issued angry tweets about the stupidity and pettiness of this school, in particular, and Christian schools, in general, and Christians, in general. And then, after the reputation of Whitefield Academy had been sufficiently injured, the train moved on and the media lost interest. The outrage mob always descends like a tornado, rips everything to shreds, and dissipates as quickly as it formed. By the time the other side of the story is presented, nobody cares any longer.
Predictably, the other side of the story in this case, <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-rainbow-cake-girl-what-the-media-are-hiding/">as reported by Rod Dreher over the weekend</a>, paints a very different picture from the one offered by the family and the media. After looking at the student&#8217;s social media posts, talking to insiders at the school, and reading the school&#8217;s public statements, Dreher reports that the student was allegedly a perpetual troublemaker who had been given numerous warnings about her behavior. She also allegedly promoted the LGBT lifestyle both at school and in her social media posts. The rainbow cake and sweater were a part of this pattern — and by far not the most egregious example of it — and it is this pattern of flouting the rules and violating school policy that got her expelled. The apparently purposeful trolling she did with the cake may have been the last straw, but it is dishonest to report that it was the only straw.
School principal Dr. Bruce Jacobson, while limited in his ability to defend his actions due to confidentiality concerns, <a href="https://www.wave3.com/2020/01/15/whitefield-academy-defends-decision-expel-student-after-picture-rainbow-sweater-birthday-cake/">explained</a> in a letter to parents that the student had been specifically warned &#8220;that any further promotion, celebration, or any other actions and attitudes that are counter to Whitefield’s philosophy would not be tolerated.&#8221; I suppose you could choose to believe that the rainbow cake and sweater weren&#8217;t intended to promote or celebrate anything, and didn&#8217;t have any &#8220;deeper meaning&#8221; at all, as the mother contends, but Dreher&#8217;s report makes that extremely hard to believe. From his piece:
<blockquote>When Alford says her daughter “is no angel,” and confirms that she has had “disciplinary issues,” she’s understating matters. My understanding is that Kayla Kenney had a long, specific list of repeated infractions — bullying, disrespecting teachers, vaping in school (as Alford acknowledges), and so forth. Part of what she has allegedly done is promoting LGBT consciousness in the school, including aggression on that front. I’m trying to be delicate here, but I can tell you that she has transgressed against other students on this front, to promote bisexuality. For example, she allegedly drew rainbows and wrote slogans like “bi pride” on other kids’ papers, and gave at least two different girls the impression that she was sexually harassing them. Kayla has been presenting herself as gay on her Instagram account.</blockquote>
Granted, many people will feel that expelling a student for promoting the LGBT lifestyle isn&#8217;t any better than expelling her for eating a cake. But one&#8217;s personal feelings about Christian teaching on homosexuality are irrelevant. This is a private Christian school. In that role, it understandably seeks to advance Christian teaching on all matters, including sexuality. If you do not agree with those teachings, if you think those teachings are barbaric and bigoted and so on, you are quite free to attend any other school. Nobody forced this student&#8217;s parents to enroll her in this particular academic institution. Louisville is not some outpost in the wilderness with no other schools around for hundreds of miles. This family must have had many options. They chose the one place where waving a gay flag will get you into trouble. They gave this place their money. They signed an agreement swearing to follow its rules. And then, apparently, they decided they didn&#8217;t like the rules anymore. Whose fault is that? Not the school&#8217;s, as far as I can tell.

A slice of rainbow cake

WALSH: Media Claims A Christian School Expelled A Student For Her Rainbow Birthday Cake. Now The Truth Has Come Out.

Christianity

Fake News

Homosexuality

LGBT

Media

Media Bias

A Kentucky state representative legislator has revived a bill that would ensure restrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms in the state’s public schools would be designated for either males or females, thus preventing members of the opposite biological sex from sharing the facilities. The bill would also permit students to sue if school personnel gave a transgender student access to share those facilities with the opposite biological sex.
The bill, titled the Kentucky Student Privacy Act, or <a href="https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/20rs/prefiled/BR1020.html">Bill Request 1020</a>, was revived by state Rep. David Hale, and <a href="https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/20RS/BR1020/orig_bill.pdf">states</a>, “Allowing students to use restrooms, locker rooms, or showers that are reserved for students of a different biological sex: (a) Will create a significant potential for disruption of school activities and unsafe conditions; and (b) Will create potential embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury to students.”
The bill adds, “Parents have a reasonable expectation that schools will not allow minor children to be viewed in various states of undress by members of the opposite biological sex, nor allow minor children to view members of the opposite sex in various states of undress; and schools have a duty to respect and protect the privacy rights of students, including the right not to be compelled to undress or be unclothed in the presence of members of the opposite biological sex.”
The bill would require school personnel to provide separate, private areas designated for use by students based on their biological sex in any situation requiring the students to be undressed. It makes allowances for transgender students by offering the “best available accommodation,” as long as it was not “designated for use by students of the opposite biological sex while students of the opposite biological sex are present or could be present.”
The bill permits a student “a private cause of action against the school if school personnel: Gave the person encountered permission to use facilities of the opposite biological sex; or failed to take reasonable steps to prohibit the person encountered from using facilities designated for use by the opposite biological sex.”
Chris Harman, the director of the Fairness Campaign, complained to the <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/12/09/kentucky-legislation-would-set-bathroom-rules-transgender-kids/2632897001/">Courier-Journal</a> that the bill was “political pandering” to “an ultra-conservative minority,” adding, “It’s gross, it’s disgusting, it’s dangerous and it’s deadly … I wish legislators would mind their own business in the bathroom.” He continued, “At the end of the day, what that says is that ‘You are so different that the only accommodation we are willing to make is to make you use a special restroom, a different restroom,’ which once more isolates the transgender youth and makes them additionally vulnerable targets. So if I am the only trans kid in school and I can only use the single stall locking bathroom on the third floor, everybody knows that that’s where I’m gonna go to go to the restroom. And, again, it’s easy to target someone if that’s what you’re looking for.&#8221;
Harman told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/kentucky-bill-would-let-students-sue-over-transgender-bathroom-use-n1101651">NBC News</a>, “It’s an election year, so this bill has Hale pandering to the lowest of his base. This bill should in no way be a priority for the Kentucky Legislature &#8230; the Kentucky Student Privacy Act paints a target on trans kids’ back and sends all the wrong messages.”
The Kentucky legislature is slated to return on January 7.
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Restroom Signs For Men And Women

Kentucky Rep. Revives Bill Barring Transgender Students From Sharing Bathrooms With Opposite Biological Sex

Transgender

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On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a 2017 pro-life law in the Kentucky requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and play the sound of the baby&#8217;s heartbeat to women seeking abortion.
&#8220;The Supreme Court has allowed Kentucky&#8217;s ultrasound requirement law to go into effect!&#8221; posted Live Action founder and prominent pro-life advocate Lila Rose. &#8220;When women have the chance to see the humanity of their child &amp; hear their heartbeat, many reject the violence of abortion.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a great win for Kentucky &amp; our nation,&#8221; she added.
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BREAKING:
The Supreme Court has allowed Kentucky&#39;s ultrasound requirement law to go into effect!
When women have the chance to see the humanity of their child &amp; hear their heartbeat, many reject the violence of abortion.
This is a great win for Kentucky &amp; our nation.
&mdash; Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1204072911910264832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Kentucky argued the law is &#8216;simple and straightforward,&#8217; calling it part of an &#8216;informed-consent process.&#8217; The law, Kentucky said, &#8216;does nothing more than require that women who are considering an abortion be provided with information that is truthful, non-misleading and relevant to their decision of whether to have an abortion,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/09/politics/abortion-supreme-court-kentucky-ultrasound/index.html">CNN</a> reported.
CNN noted that the court &#8220;rejected the case without comment or noted dissent by any of the justices.&#8221;
Pro-life advocates praised the Supreme Court for their decision to uphold the Kentucky law.
“March for Life applauds the U.S. Supreme Court decision today upholding a Kentucky ultrasound law,&#8221; March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire. &#8220;Women facing an unexpected pregnancy deserve to have as much medically and technically accurate information as possible when they are making what could be the most important decision of their life.”
President and CEO of American United for Life (AUL) Catherine Glenn Foster said the decision &#8220;confirms that women deserve the truth.&#8221;
“Americans United for Life hails the final legal victory today of Kentucky’s common-sense informed consent provision simply ensuring that abortion facilities offer women who are thinking about abortion visual, ultrasound confirmation of the humanity of the life in their womb,&#8221; Glenn Foster said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire. 
&#8220;Consistent with the Supreme Court’s direction that mothers considering abortion may be given accurate, nonmisleading information about abortion and the nature of human life, today’s decision confirms that women deserve the truth, and cannot give real informed consent to an abortion unless facilities are transparent and honest about what abortion really is,&#8221; the AUL president added. &#8220;That’s a right that was denied to me when I was 19 years old and making a difficult, life-changing decision, and I am so relieved that going forward, the women of Kentucky will have the opportunity I never did.”
&#8220;The fact that there were no recorded dissents from any of the justices is notable,&#8221; added Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, a former federal law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. &#8220;That ought to help demonstrate the common-sense, straightforward nature of Kentucky&#8217;s law.&#8221;
Pro-abortion advocates had claimed Kentucky&#8217;s pro-life law violates the First Amendment by mandating abortion-seeking women see their child and hear their heartbeat before going through with the life-ending procedure.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that this was nonsense.
&#8220;As a First Amendment matter, there is nothing suspect with a State&#8217;s requiring a doctor, before performing an abortion, to make truthful, non-misleading factual disclosures, relevant to informed consent, even if those disclosures relate to unborn life and have the effect of persuading the patient not to have an abortion,&#8221; the three-judge Sixth Circuit panel said in its ruling, CNN noted.

Portrait of sceptical baby girl in front of yellow background

Pro-Lifers Land Major Win With Latest Supreme Court Ruling

Abortion

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Lawsuit

Supreme Court

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke down the recent election results in Kentucky during an interview on Sunday, explaining why he believes, contrary to the narrative in the media, there was actually a &#8220;red-wave&#8221; in the state. Also during the interview, Paul highlighted how existing U.S. law could actually protect President Donald Trump in the Democrats&#8217; impeachment inquiry into his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
&#8220;Let me start with the Kentucky results first, before we get into the events of later this week, just your initial reactions,&#8221; NBC &#8220;Meet The Press&#8221; host Chuck Todd said. &#8220;Matt Bevin, do you see his loss as something bigger than Matt Bevin, about the Republican Party as a whole?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, when you look at all the races, there were six statewide races, we won five out of six. Republicans won five out of six,&#8221; Paul responded. &#8220;We did lose the governor&#8217;s race. We were disappointed in it. But the interesting thing is we beat a lot of other candidates that no one expected us to. So actually, in many ways, there was sort of a red wave in Kentucky.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it was mostly particularly about one race. And I think the teachers were very unhappy. He tried to fix the pension but got crossways with the teachers,&#8221; Paul continued. &#8220;And I think the teachers&#8217; anger came out. But I think he was trying to do the right thing, which is save the pension for the teachers. But it&#8217;s tough. When you ask people to pay more to keep their pension in place, people get unhappy.&#8221;
Paul also highlighted that in some of the counties where Bevin lost, other Republicans who won in the election won in those counties by over 60%.
On the issue of impeachment, Paul noted that Americans want fairness and that they are not &#8220;going to judge fairness, when they&#8217;re accusing President Trump of the same thing Joe Biden did, threatening the aid, if some kind of corruption&#8217;s not investigated.&#8221;
&#8220;But if it were me, I wouldn&#8217;t give them the aid, because we don&#8217;t have the money,&#8221; Paul added. &#8220;We have to actually borrow the money from China to send it to Ukraine. So I&#8217;m against the aid. And I think it&#8217;s a mistake to do the aid.&#8221;
Paul then highlighted a defense of Trump&#8217;s actions that is likely to pick up steam in upcoming weeks, saying that current U.S. law prevents the U.S. from providing aid to corrupt countries, and so Trump would have to ask for an investigation into the Bidens, who Trump believes is corrupt, in order to be able to provide the aid.
&#8220;Foreign aid, by law, can only go out to countries that are not corrupt,&#8221; Paul said. &#8220;So, if you think that a country is acting in a corrupt way, a president can always withhold aid until the corruption is fixed. So, you&#8217;re going to have to get into the mind of Trump and his advisers and say, &#8216;Well, he didn&#8217;t really believe that the Bidens were corrupt.’ I think he absolutely does. I think you could give him a lie detector test and say, &#8216;Do you think the Bidens were corrupt? And do you think you were investigating corruption, and that corruption is in the law, that you can&#8217;t give aid to a country that has corruption?'&#8221;
&#8220;This ends up being a policy debate and a partisan debate,” Paul continued. &#8220;And it has nothing to do with legality or illegality or impeachment. It&#8217;s purely a partisan way of trying to overturn the election.&#8221;
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Rand Paul

Paul Highlights Law That Could Protect Trump In Impeachment Inquiry; Explains Kentucky Election Results

Donald Trump

Impeachment

Ukraine

It was a mixed bag for Republicans on Tuesday — but not in Virginia, where the GOP was swept completely out of power for the first time in over two decades.
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&#8220;The Democratic Party won control of the Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday, giving the party total control of the Old Dominion’s state government for the first time since 1994,&#8221; <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/469164-democrats-flip-virginia-state-senate">The Hill</a> reports. &#8220;Democratic candidates outpaced Republican incumbents and nominees in the three most populous regions of the state, picking up seats in Hampton Roads, Richmond and the surrounding suburbs, and the fast-growing Washington suburbs.&#8221;
In the Virginia Senate, Democrats have won at least 21 out of the 40 seats, wresting control of the chamber from the Republicans. The same story played out in the House of Delegates, where the Democrats now control at least 53 of the 100 seats, likewise flipping the chamber.
With a Democrat, embattled though he may be, in the Executive Mansion, the Democrats now have complete control of the state.
&#8220;Democrats had a significant fund-raising advantage in Tuesday&#8217;s races, while Republicans had hoped to hold on to suburban seats that have sent its lawmakers to Richmond for decades,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/05/us/elections/results-virginia-general-elections.html">The New York Times</a> reports. In a follow-up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/politics/election-day-2019.html">analysis</a>, the Times notes that Virginia &#8220;is the only Southern state the president lost in 2016, and Republicans faced a series of difficult races in metropolitan districts.&#8221;
While the GOP has lost Virginia and appears to have narrowly lost the governorship in Kentucky — which would be a significant victory for Democrats though against a widely unpopular incumbent — the party has maintained Mississippi gubernatorial control.
Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves defeated Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood in the contest for who would replace outgoing Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R). With both the Mississippi House and Senate in Republican control, the GOP has maintained its firm grip on the state.
Trump took to Twitter late Tuesday to celebrate Reeves&#8217; big win in Mississippi. &#8220;Congratulations to [Tate Reeves] on winning Governor of the Great State of Mississippi,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1191941077646876672">tweeted</a>. &#8220;Our big Rally on Friday night moved the numbers from a tie to a big WIN. Great reaction under pressure Tate!&#8221;
Trump also made sure to point out that while incumbent Republican Gov. Matthew Bevin — described by NBC News as &#8220;one of the least popular governors in the country&#8221; — appears to have been edged out by Democrat Andy Beshear in Kentucky, the GOP enjoyed &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-celebrates-a-lot-of-winning-in-kentucky-gop-edged-out-in-governors-race-sweep-the-rest">a lot of winning</a>&#8221; in the state.
“Won 5 out of 6 elections in Kentucky, including 5 great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. “[Matt Bevin] picked up at least 15 points in last days, but perhaps not enough (Fake News will blame Trump!). Winning in Mississippi Governor race!”
“Our big Kentucky Rally on Monday night had a massive impact on all of the races,” Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet. “The increase in Governors race was at least 15 points, and maybe 20!” Backing up his claim about the surge for Bevin, Trump retweeted a post by Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who wrote: “In Kentucky, the governor was down 17 points. President Trump helped lift the entire ticket, winning 5 of 6 statewide races so far!”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/curl-while-trump-drops-in-polls-on-the-ascent-is-hillary">CURL: While Trump Drops In Polls, On The Ascent Is … Hillary?!</a>
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President Trump

GOP Loses Virginia Completely, Keeps Full Control Of Mississippi

Mississippi

Virginia

While Democrats are cheering what appears to be a razor-thin win for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear in Kentucky, which would be a major pick-up for Democrats, President Trump and the RNC are declaring victory in the state nonetheless after sweeping all of the other races and seeing what they say is a double-digit surge for embattled, unpopular Republican Gov. Matthew Bevin following Trump&#8217;s efforts to rally voters.
&#8220;Won 5 out of 6 elections in Kentucky, including 5 great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night,&#8221; Trump tweeted early Wednesday. &#8220;[Matt Bevin] picked up at least 15 points in last days, but perhaps not enough (Fake News will blame Trump!). Winning in Mississippi Governor race!&#8221;
&#8220;Our big Kentucky Rally on Monday night had a massive impact on all of the races,&#8221; Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet. &#8220;The increase in Governors race was at least 15 points, and maybe 20!&#8221; Backing up his claim about the surge for Bevin, Trump retweeted a post by Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who wrote: &#8220;In Kentucky, the governor was down 17 points. President Trump helped lift the entire ticket, winning 5 of 6 statewide races so far!&#8221;
As predicted by Trump, the media has indeed already begun painting the unpopular Bevin&#8217;s likely loss as a failure by the president. &#8220;Trump couldn&#8217;t save the unpopular Bevin after campaigning with him the night before the election in Lexington, where the president told supporters a loss by the GOP governor would be portrayed as Trump&#8217;s having suffered &#8216;the greatest defeat in the history of the world,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/elections-kentucky-mississippi-test-trump-s-political-power-n1075581">NBC News</a> reported late Tuesday night.
But Trump is pointing to the positive. &#8220;A lot of winning in Kentucky. Check out the numbers,&#8221; Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet linking to the latest numbers from Kentucky&#8217;s <a href="https://wchstv.com/news/election-results">ABC 8</a>.
As of Wednesday morning, Beshear (D) is edging out Bevin (R) by just over 5,000 votes, 709,673 &#8211; 704,523. That Bevin appears to have lost the race is unsurprising. As NBC notes, Bevin is &#8220;one of the least popular governors in the country.&#8221;
The rest of the races are firmly in Republicans&#8217; hands:
<ul>
<li>Secretary of State: Michael Adams (R) defeated Heather French Henry (D) 52-48%.</li>
<li>Attorney General: Daniel Cameron (R) trounced Gregory Stumbo (D) 58-42%.</li>
<li>Auditor: Mike Harmon (R) easily defeated Sheri Donahue (D) 56-41%.</li>
<li>Treasurer: Allison Ball (R) demolished Michael Bowman (D) 61-39%</li>
<li>Ag Commissioner: Ryan Quarles (R) buried Robert Haley Conway (D) 58-39%.</li>
<li>House District 18: Samara Heavrin (R) downed Becky Miller (D) 60-40%.</li>
<li>House District 63: Kimberly Bantra (R) won by the biggest margin of the day over Josh Blair (D) 63-37%.</li>
</ul>
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-first-african-american-wins-kentucky-ag-race-hes-a-republican">The Daily Wire</a> reported, Daniel Cameron&#8217;s sizable victory for Attorney General is historic. Cameron, 33, is not only the first Republican elected to the position in more than 70 years, he is the first African-American to ever be elected to the position and &#8220;the first African-American voted individually to state-wide office in Kentucky history,&#8221; as LEX 18 put it.
&#8220;It’s really heartwarming and encouraging when folks regardless of political affiliation walk up to you and express support for the idea that you put yourself out there and made a decision to put your name on a ballot,&#8221; Cameron said Tuesday. &#8220;I can hit the ground running. I bring that experience to the table. I’ve been a trial lawyer for over 40 years. I’ve prosecuted both criminal and civil cases through my career. So experience we think matters in the attorney general office.&#8221;
Cameron, who ran on a solidly conservative platform, appeared at a big rally in Kentucky with Trump earlier in the week at which the candidate declared that &#8220;Kentucky is Trump country.&#8221;
&#8220;We are proud to stand with you on pro-life issues in here in the Commonwealth, we are going to stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Mr. President, we are going to stand with you in protecting the Second Amendment rights of all Kentuckians, and Mr. President, I make a personal commitment to you as the next Attorney General, we are going to make sure that Kentucky is never a sanctuary state. Thank you.&#8221;
In his series of tweets Wednesday morning, Trump predicted an easy victory for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2020. &#8220;Based on the Kentucky results, Mitch McConnell will win BIG in Kentucky next year!&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s tweets below:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionNight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionNight</a> Won 5 out of 6 elections in Kentucky, including 5 great candidates that I spoke for and introduced last night. <a href="https://twitter.com/MattBevin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MattBevin</a> picked up at least 15 points in last days, but perhaps not enough (Fake News will blame Trump!). Winning in Mississippi Governor race!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1191937709364928513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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A lot of winning in Kentucky. Check out the numbers. <a href="https://t.co/xcXIzIwylg">https://t.co/xcXIzIwylg</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1191942342879666178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Our big Kentucky Rally on Monday night had a massive impact on all of the races. The increase in Governors race was at least 15 points, and maybe 20! Will be in Louisiana for <a href="https://twitter.com/EddieRispone?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EddieRispone</a> on Wednesday night. Big Rally!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1191947091461001216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Based on the Kentucky results, Mitch McConnell <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@senatemajldr</a> will win BIG in Kentucky next year!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1192062007324938240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Trump Celebrates ‘A Lot Of Winning In Kentucky’: GOP Edged Out In Governor’s Race, Sweeps The Rest

Democratic Party

Republican Party

On Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a unanimous 6-0 ruling in favor of a Lexington-based print shop owner who refused to print messages that violated his deeply held religious beliefs.
The case dates back to 2012, when the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) filed a complaint with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission against print shop owner Blaine Adamson, who, citing his Christian beliefs, declined a request to print shirts promoting the Lexington Gay Pride Festival. Adamson reportedly declined politely and referred the organization to another printer who was willing to print the shirts. The GLSO complained that Adamson was discriminating against LGBT customers by refusing to promote the event.
In 2014, the commission ruled that Adamson must print messages conflicting with his religious convictions. The court system subsequently ruled repeatedly against the commission&#8217;s order, until the case eventually made its way to the state&#8217;s highest court.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), who helped represent Adamson in the case, maintained that the business owner has demonstrated that he &#8220;serves all people, including LGBT customers,&#8221; as he did when his shop, Hands On Originals, printed promotional materials for an openly lesbian singer who performed at the Lexington&#8217;s 2012 Pride festival. Adamson also has taken a consistent stand on the issue of free speech, ADF underscored, refusing to print other messages that likewise conflict with his Christian beliefs, including shirts advertising a strip club, shirts containing violent messages, and &#8220;pens promoting a sexually explicit video.&#8221;
ADF Senior Counsel Jim Campbell, who argued on behalf of Adamson in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court, said in a statement released Thursday that the unanimous decision in the Christian shop owner&#8217;s favor &#8220;makes clear that this case never should have happened.&#8221;
&#8220;For more than seven years, government officials used this case to turn Blaine’s life upside down, even though we told them from the beginning that the lawsuit didn’t comply with the city’s own legal requirements,” said Campbell, in a statement included in an ADF <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/9254">news release</a> Thursday. &#8220;The First Amendment protects Blaine’s right to continue serving all people while declining to print messages that violate his faith. Justice David Buckingham recognized this in his concurring opinion, and no member of the court disagreed with that.&#8221;
The ruling by Kentucky&#8217;s highest court, ADF argues in the release, &#8220;highlights why the U.S. Supreme Court should take up the important First Amendment issue at the heart of the case and decide whether governments may force creative professionals who serve everyone to print messages or create art that violates their beliefs.&#8221;
The legal defense organization also notes that the valuing of free speech rights crosses the left-right divide. Adamson received &#8220;broad public support, including from lesbians who own a print shop in New Jersey and agree that promotional printers shouldn’t be forced to print messages they consider objectionable,&#8221; ADF highlights in the release.
Other states expressed support for Adamson&#8217;s First Amendment right to decline printing messages that violate his beliefs. Thirteen friend-of-the-court briefs were sent to the Supreme Court supporting Adamson, ADF notes, while only one was sent in support of the commission&#8217;s initial ruling.
In a statement, attorney Bryan Beauman, who worked with ADF on the case, chided the commission for having &#8220;wasted taxpayer dollars and judicial resources by pressing this complaint in the first place and then appealing it all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court.&#8221;

Constitution

KY Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Print Shop Owner Who Refused To Print Messages Violating His Beliefs

Free Speech

Religion

Sexuality

Conservatives are seeking to underscore Democrats&#8217; radical gender policies, and its destructive implications for girls and women in particular, in a new hard-hitting ad supporting Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. The conservative is in a hotly-contested race against Democratic challenger Attorney General Andy Beshear.
With election day creeping up on November 5, American Principles Project (APP) Super PAC &#8220;Campaign for American Principles&#8221; released an ad Monday showcasing a grim world wherein Beshear-supported gender policies leave young female athletes behind. In the clip, which can be viewed below, young female track runners are blown out by a male competitor who identifies as female.
&#8220;All female athletes want is a fair shot in competition, at a scholarship, at a title, at victory,&#8221; a narrator says. &#8220;What if that shot was taken away by a competitor who claims they’re a girl who was born a boy?&#8221;
&#8220;Andy Beshear supports legislation that would destroy girls’ sports. He calls it &#8216;equality.&#8217; Maybe. But is it fair?&#8221; the female narrator continues.
The ad closes out urging citizens to vote against Beshear, noting he&#8217;s &#8220;too extreme for Kentucky,” and links to <a href="https://extremeandybeshear.com/">ExtremeAndyBeshear.com</a>.
If the premise seems far-fetched, reconsider the reality that is already on the ground. Soon after the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference adopted a policy allowing &#8220;gender identity&#8221; to trump biology in athletics, high school girls were smoked by female-identifying biologically male track athletes — derailing vital collegiate opportunities in the process.
&#8220;It&#8217;s scientifically proven that males are built to be physically stronger than females. It&#8217;s unfair to put someone who is biologically a male, who has not undergone anything in terms of hormone therapy, against cis-gender girls,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50501/feds-probe-whether-conn-transgender-athlete-policy-amanda-prestigiacomo">said</a> track athlete Selina Soule. The teenager took eighth place in a high-stakes high school track competition where two biological males spanked the field; Soule missed an opportunity to compete in front of college coaches by two places.
Moreover, in Ohio, parents were recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27309/parents-lose-custody-child-refusing-support-amanda-prestigiacomo">stripped of custody</a> when they opposed their child undergoing experimental sex-change procedures.
Unlike Bevin, a solid conservative standing strong to protect females-only spaces and parental rights against the Left&#8217;s redefining of gender, Beshear is all-in on legislation like the deceptively named <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47176/hammer-house-democrats-equality-act-both-josh-hammer">federal &#8220;Equality Act&#8221;</a> and Kentucky &#8220;Fairness&#8221; bill, which &#8220;would destroy women&#8217;s sports, eliminate parental rights, and allow men to take advantage of women through loopholes in said legislation,&#8221; APP Director of Policy and Government Affairs Jon Schweppe told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;You may not know it, but the truth is that Extreme Andy Beshear supports forcing your daughters to compete against males in sports,&#8221; ExtremeAndyBeshear.com reads. &#8220;And already, parents in nearby Ohio lost custody when their child was encouraged to undergo experimental sex-change procedures. Yet Beshear refuses to support a parental rights bill that would protect families from this abuse. Beshear is too extreme for Kentucky.&#8221;
The site notes that Beshear refused to support a bill protecting parents&#8217; rights when it &#8220;came into conflict with his radical &#8216;equality&#8217; agenda.&#8221;
&#8220;When a child is struggling with mental health problems and expresses confusion about their gender to a teacher or school administrator, should the school keep it a secret from the child&#8217;s parents?&#8221; the site continues. &#8220;Should government bureaucrats and medical professionals make medical decisions for a child against the wishes of the child&#8217;s parents by encouraging a child to take experimental &#8216;gender-changing&#8217; drugs that permanently alter the child&#8217;s body?”
Schweppe put out a warning shot at Democrats. &#8220;Our plan is to show how vulnerable Democrats are on these issues and demonstrate how effective it can be for the GOP to message on them in 2020,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. &#8220;This is about putting extreme Democrats on notice: We&#8217;re coming for you.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50501/feds-probe-whether-conn-transgender-athlete-policy-amanda-prestigiacomo">Feds Investigating Violation Of Girls’ Civil Rights In CT After Trans Athletes Smoke Competition</a>

screen_shot_2019-09-23_at_11.29.35_am

WATCH: New Ad In Kentucky Gubernatorial Race Scorches Democrats On Radical Gender Policy

Children

Gender

Sports

Out-of-work miners blocking a load of coal from leaving a remote part of southeastern Kentucky have been <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206251239636497&amp;set=a.4071340798461&amp;type=3&amp;theater">told</a> by their lawyers that the matter won’t be resolved until October at the earliest, as a federal bankruptcy court <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Court-orders-Blackjewel-negotiators-to-resolve-matters-outside-of-court-560079481.html">wants</a> negotiators to reach an agreement without judicial intervention.
Demonstrators have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50230/standoff-kentucky-miners-block-train-loaded-1-jeffrey-cawood">occupied a set of railroad tracks</a> in Harlan County since July 29 after Blackjewel LLC issued bad checks to hundreds of coal workers in the area before abruptly declaring bankruptcy. Some miners are owed more than <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article233956317.html">three weeks</a> in back pay and have <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Date-for-next-Blackjewel--558742851.html">vowed</a> to continue with the blockade until they are paid what they earned. The parked coal, which was initially <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackjewel-miners-kentucky-protest-after-abrupt-bankruptcy-leaves-workers-without-pay-2019-08-01/">reported</a> to be worth about $1 million, was sold before the company filed for bankruptcy, <a href="https://www.harlanenterprise.net/2019/08/23/judge-delays-ruling-on-blackjewel-coal/">according</a> to Blackjewel lawyers.
&#8220;If we didn’t go to the bargaining table this would drag on, and that’s intolerable,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wtvq.com/2019/09/15/blackjewel-coal-miners-protest-continues/?fbclid=IwAR2Wo8NX-iQa_Gj3lsv_EB7XWb-GebCECZTtwNIkZf-ZtUKG7beJeEPWVdw">said</a> Ned Pillersdorf, an attorney representing several former Blackjewel coal miners. &#8220;We’ve got to get this resolved sooner rather than later. The miners are running out of money.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">It’s busy on Day 47 of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blackjewel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Blackjewel</a> protest as coal miners gather round to hear an update from their lawyers. It’s not looking good. These miners protesting for fair pay may be here til October. <a href="https://t.co/83I24XO0bN">pic.twitter.com/83I24XO0bN</a>
— Sydney Boles (@sydneyboles) <a href="https://twitter.com/sydneyboles/status/1172904051199156226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Pillersdorf said he met with about fifty miners and their families at the protest site over the weekend. He <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206255939353987&amp;set=a.4071340798461&amp;type=3">told</a> them his legal team had “shifted gears into a negotiation strategy” with Blackjewel because &#8220;Murphy’s law has kicked in,&#8221; claiming &#8220;an intense battle&#8221; between the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and Blackjewel had brought the bankruptcy proceedings “to a virtual halt.”
On August 5, the first day of Blackjewel’s bankruptcy hearing, Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50477/trump-administration-wants-train-loaded-1-million-jeffrey-cawood">filed an emergency motion</a> with the court requesting the blockaded shipment stay put. The DOL <a href="https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/local/judge-issues-temporary-restraining-order-to-prevent-movement-of-blackjewel/article_8048ada7-f5e4-53fd-83dc-8b231816b194.html">argued</a> the coal is considered &#8220;hot goods&#8221; and must be &#8220;cooled&#8221; — meaning those who mined it are paid their owed wages before the product can be transported in interstate commerce, per federal law. The agency asked former Blackjewel miners to testify at an evidentiary hearing earlier this month. Blackjewel lawyers <a href="https://twitter.com/ConnorWYMT/status/1169322932465782787">claimed</a> there is no way of knowing whether the coal in question was mined by the individuals who testified. They said the load, which fills an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206223290057775&amp;set=a.4071340798461&amp;type=3&amp;theater">estimated</a> 75 train cars, should be transferred to its buyer soon before losing more value from oxidation. West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports that the bankruptcy judge recently <a href="https://www.wvpublic.org/post/timeline-briefs-set-blackjewel-hot-goods-case-miner-pay-remains-murky#stream/0">set a timeline</a> to resolve the &#8220;hot goods&#8221; dispute, giving the DOL and Blackjewel until September 23 to submit a series of briefs to the court, with a final set due on October 1.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206245572254816&amp;set=a.2207908653822&amp;type=3&amp;theater">According</a> to Pillersdorf, the lengthy process has &#8220;effectively prevented&#8221; re-start operations at former Blackjewel mines in Harlan County that could present job opportunities for laid-off miners.
In an <a href="https://www.wtvq.com/2019/09/15/blackjewel-coal-miners-protest-continues/?fbclid=IwAR2Wo8NX-iQa_Gj3lsv_EB7XWb-GebCECZTtwNIkZf-ZtUKG7beJeEPWVdw">interview</a> with ABC News’ affiliate in Lexington, former Blackjewel coal worker Chris Rowe said, &#8220;You’ll have setbacks in anything that you do.&#8221;
&#8220;The way that we try to look at it, a few little setbacks will make us try that much harder. You can’t give up, don’t lay down and we’re not going to,&#8221; he continued.
If the miners and Blackjewel cannot reach an agreement by October 1 through &#8220;good faith negotiations,&#8221; there will be mediation with a federal magistrate, <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Court-orders-Blackjewel-negotiators-to-resolve-matters-outside-of-court-560079481.html">according</a> to a court order filed last Wednesday.
Pillersdorf said he has also filed an adversary class action lawsuit on behalf of the miners against former Blackjewel CEO Jeff Hoops, his son, Blackjewel, and the Lexington Coal Company, LLC.
&#8220;We are certainly going to pursue this claim in that we made it clear in our pleadings that we believe the bankruptcy filing is simply a Jeff Hoops scheme to shed debt,&#8221; Pillersdorf <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206245572254816&amp;set=a.2207908653822&amp;type=3&amp;theater">said</a> last week.
<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-battle-for-a-paycheck-in-kentucky-coal-country">According</a> to the New Yorker, &#8220;Hoops is currently building a resort in his home state of West Virginia, called the Grand Patrician, named after his wife, Patricia.&#8221;
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.

Blackjewel

Protest Enters 8th Week As Kentucky Coal Miners Continue Blockade Demanding Earned Wages

Two coal minors depicted in Kentucky Senate hopeful Amy McGrath’s campaign ad are demanding that the Democratic candidate stop using their image for partisan politics.
Christopher Thacker, the attorney for coal miners Randy Robbins and Albrow Hall, sent a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382857-2144-001.html">cease and desist letter</a> to McGrath’s campaign on Wednesday after a video of the duo was — unknowingly to them — used in the political advertisement.
“They are personally offended at seeing their images being used in a political attack ad that does not reflect their personal feelings or beliefs,” Thacker wrote in the letter. “It is simply wrong for the McGrath Campaign to use individual miners suffering from black lung disease as political pawns without their permission or consent.”
Robbins and Hall, two members of their local chapter of the Black Lung Association, participated in a trip to the nation’s capital to meet with lawmakers over the summer as part of an effort to urge Congress to reinstate a higher excise tax on coal companies that would subsequently help fund their medical care.
McGrath’s campaign ad features a reenactment of the group of coal miners on their ten-hour bus ride from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. in what Thacker says the miners were led to believe was footage to be used for a documentary on the Black Lung Association.
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At the time, some of the miners were disappointed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had only met with them for a short amount of time, reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-blacklung/us-coal-miners-discouraged-by-black-lung-meeting-with-mcconnell-idUSKCN1UI18G">Reuters</a> in July. However, neither Robbins nor Hall felt that way.
“Randy and Albrow felt that the trip was a success. They deeply appreciated the warm reception they received from a number of elected representatives who took the time to meet with the group, including Senator Mitch McConnell,” Thacker wrote. “They were therefore happy to cooperate when they were contacted several weeks later to participate in the filming of a reenactment of the bus trip.”
The attorney also stated that Robbins and Hall were “shocked and outraged” when they saw their images prominently featured in the ad’s opening scene.
“They do not believe that black lung is or should be mad into a partisan political issue,” Thacker continued. “Black Lung does not discriminate by party affiliation, and my clients believe that people of good will from both political parties are working hard to address the needs of coal miners with black lung disease.”
The McGrath campaign, however, claims that the miners were aware that the footage would be used in an attack ad. Terry Sebastian, McGrath’s spokesperson, said they were not only informed but were given the opportunity to sign up for campaign apparel at the time, reported <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article234737737.html">The Lexington Herald Leader</a>. He also stated that the McGrath campaign has not yet official received the cease and desist letter, but that it is now reviewing the request.
McConnell’s campaign, Team Mitch, responded to the controversy over Twitter.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Amy McGrath exploits coal miners. Who could have seen this coming? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYSen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KYSen</a> <a href="https://t.co/jjzZTcLuWi">https://t.co/jjzZTcLuWi</a> <a href="https://t.co/f7juJlmBzc">pic.twitter.com/f7juJlmBzc</a>
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/Team_Mitch/status/1169638145589219328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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“Amy McGrath exploits coal miners,” Team Mitch tweeted with a link to the report. “Who could have seen this coming?”

President Trump Meets With GOP Senators During Their Weekly Policy Meetings

Coal Miners Demand That Mitch McConnell’s Democratic Challenger Stop Using Their Image In Attack Ad

Mitch McConnell

Some coal companies doing business in Kentucky have not complied with a decades-old state law to protect miners’ wages in case of bankruptcy, and there is no regulatory mechanism in place to enforce the policy, according to a <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article234398952.html">recently published report</a>.
The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained records that show “not a single coal company formed in Kentucky within the past five years has posted a bond required by state law” that would ensure workers get paid if operations suddenly shut down. The investigation comes after Blackjewel LLC issued bad checks to hundreds of miners in the state before abruptly filing for bankruptcy on July 1, resulting in lost jobs, overdrawn bank accounts, and an adverse economic impact on an area already ravaged by a declining coal industry.
The report says officials in Republican Governor Matt Bevin’s administration “urged lawmakers last year to pass a bill that would have eliminated the requirement.” However, Bevin has expressed support for <a href="https://www.whas11.com/article/news/politics/bevin-happy-to-sign-proposed-bill-to-close-blackjewel-loophole/417-e768814d-5951-406e-91da-afc9c25c6191">upcoming legislation</a> intended to close a recently-publicized enforcement loophole after out-of-work miners began <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50230/standoff-kentucky-miners-block-train-loaded-1-jeffrey-cawood">occupying a set of railroad tracks</a> in Harlan County more than five weeks ago. The former Blackjewel employees are blocking nearly 100 train cars loaded with coal that they mined from leaving, vowing to remain until they are paid what they earned.
<a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article234398952.html">More from the Herald-Leader</a>:
KRS 337.200 requires “every employer engaged in construction work, or the severance, preparation, or transportation of minerals” that has continuously operated in Kentucky for less than five years to post a performance bond with the Labor Cabinet to cover its payroll for four weeks. …
Many Kentucky coal companies are exempt from the law because they’ve continuously operated in Kentucky longer than five years, but the Herald-Leader identified a handful that appear to meet the requirements for posting a bond. …
When the newspaper asked the Labor Cabinet for a list of companies in violation, it responded that it does not keep that list “because the cabinet is not required to maintain such a list.”
Kentucky Labor Cabinet Secretary David A. Dickerson has previously <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article233335167.html">described</a> the requirement as self-policing and said not all companies comply.
Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear, who is attempting to unseat Gov. Bevin in November, lashed out at “the governor’s Labor Cabinet” last week, <a href="https://kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-stream.aspx?n=AttorneyGeneral&amp;prId=826">claiming</a> the agency “may have failed to secure a single bond for any mining company operating in the state.”
Beshear’s office completed a review that found “as many as 30 mining companies should have bonds on file, without which nearly 1,000 mining employees are at risk.”
He demanded that the Labor Cabinet “begin enforcing these bonds to assure no one ever goes through what the Blackjewel miners are going through.”
Cabinet spokesperson Mary Robertson <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article234398952.html">told</a> the Herald-Leader it is curious that Beshear “is just now weighing in with his after-the-fact advice,” adding, “he casts stones for political purposes.”
“Since this law went into effect 33 years ago, it has only allowed the cabinet to issue citations and seek civil penalties against employers who fail to pay the bond, which the cabinet aggressively pursued against Blackjewel,” she said.
Robertson added, the cabinet “is eager to work with the General Assembly to make changes to KRS 337.200 that allow the cabinet to track and enforce performance bond requirements.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath recently released a <a href="https://twitter.com/AmyMcGrathKY/status/1164897509690527744">campaign ad</a> accusing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) of neglecting coal miners. McConnell, who is up for reelection next year, <a href="https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/8885ac5a-4541-4d15-a4af-b1758bf0b3bb/335D626EA1A176EE8629565591EC5E32.mcconnell-letter-to-dol-sec.pdf">insists</a> his office has been collaborating with the Trump administration to help them.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50477/trump-administration-wants-train-loaded-1-million-jeffrey-cawood">emergency motion</a> last month asking a federal bankruptcy judge to halt the movement of Blackjewel coal from Harlan County until the former employees who produced it receive their owed wages. The proposed order by Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella says “the coal is considered ‘<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50477/trump-administration-wants-train-loaded-1-million-jeffrey-cawood">hot goods</a>’ and should be prevented from being transported in interstate commerce.” The topic is expected to be addressed at an evidentiary <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206209087702725&amp;set=a.2207908653822&amp;type=3&amp;theater">hearing</a> on Wednesday in Charleston, West Virginia. <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Date-for-next-Blackjewel--558742851.html">According</a> to WYMT Mountain News, miners at the Harlan County blockade “say they will not leave until they get paid, no matter what the judge rules.”
The shipment was once estimated to be worth $1 million, but lawyers for Blackjewel <a href="https://www.wtvq.com/2019/08/23/hearing-ordered-miners-protest-blocking-coal-trains/">say</a> the coal is losing value as it degrades from oxidation and becomes more combustible.
Last month, the DOL successfully won a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district court judge <a href="https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/local/judge-issues-temporary-restraining-order-to-prevent-movement-of-blackjewel/article_8048ada7-f5e4-53fd-83dc-8b231816b194.html">preventing</a> Blackjewel from moving coal from three mines in southwest Virginia.
Blackjewel also had coal operations in West Virginia and Wyoming, <a href="https://trib.com/business/blackjewel-says-sale-of-wyoming-mines-is-dead-according-to/article_a3d9eaca-01e7-5a07-b21f-d78e0c039872.html#anchor_item_1">closing</a> a total of 32 mines across the nation after it filed for bankruptcy nearly two months ago. Approximately 1,700 people lost their jobs.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50230/standoff-kentucky-miners-block-train-loaded-1-jeffrey-cawood">STANDOFF: Kentucky Miners Block Train Loaded With $1 Million Of Coal After Paychecks Bounce</a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50477/trump-administration-wants-train-loaded-1-million-jeffrey-cawood">Trump Administration Wants Train Loaded With $1 Million Of Coal To Stay Put Until Miners Are Paid</a>
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.

Kentucky Coal Miners Continue Blockade Protest In Harlan County

LOOPHOLE: Kentucky Law To Protect Miners’ Wages Expects Coal Companies To Self-Enforce

The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a judge to stop a train filled with $1 million worth of coal from leaving a remote mine in Southeastern Kentucky until the non-union workers who produced it are paid for their efforts.
The emergency motion was filed in federal court on Monday, one week after coal miners began <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50230/standoff-kentucky-miners-block-train-loaded-1-jeffrey-cawood">occupying a set of railroad tracks</a> to block the shipment. Their former employer, Blackjewel LLC, had issued bad checks to hundreds of miners in Harlan County before abruptly declaring bankruptcy on July 1. Now out of work, many are owed more than three weeks in back pay.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenateMajLdr</a>: This is an important step for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kentucky?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kentucky</a> miners in Harlan. I applaud <a href="https://twitter.com/USDOL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USDOL</a> for taking action &amp; calling on a federal judge to stop <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coal</a> shipments until Blackjewel pays its workers. These miners should be paid in full for their work. <a href="https://t.co/ZY0bHuGY18">https://t.co/ZY0bHuGY18</a>
— Senator McConnell Press (@McConnellPress) <a href="https://twitter.com/McConnellPress/status/1158511611369447425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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On Tuesday, Knoxville-based Kopper Glo Mining LLC announced that it had successfully bid for the Blackjewel mines in Harlan County. In a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3455961731096148&amp;id=2389391974419801">statement</a>, the company said it “has a plan to re-start certain operations and is confident this plan will bring jobs back to many of the former Blackjewel employees.” It also committed to funding a portion of the money due to the Harlan County miners, who are <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Hundreds-of-Blackjewel-miners-gather-at-railroad-tracks-for-answers-from-bankruptcy-court-526032051.html">reportedly</a> owed about $2.6 million. The deal <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article233592902.html">includes</a> $450,000 toward those unpaid wages, promising an additional $550,000 from future royalties after mining operations resume.
“In order to recover the rest of what they are owed, the miners also have a priority lien against the six million dollars that Kopper Glo will pay to the debtor at the closing,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206112959979592&amp;set=a.2207908653822&amp;type=3&amp;theater">wrote</a> Ned Pillersdorf, an attorney representing the miners, on Facebook. “However, we believe that all or nearly all of the lien holders have separately resolved their liens, and so our primary competitors will be the government.”
Protestors remain at the blockade and continue to receive support from politicians, law enforcement, and a community that was built around a once-thriving coal industry. Some of the miners <a href="https://www.wtvq.com/2019/08/07/small-victory-coal-miners-approved-bankruptcy-sale/">say</a> they will continue obstructing the train’s path out of Harlan County until they get their money in full.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">It’s sunset on Day 10 at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/blackjewelprotest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#blackjewelprotest</a>. The crowd has dwindled as kids head back to school. But the protest continues. Folks are still worried they won’t recoup everything they’re owed. <a href="https://t.co/fVTRYcKUj8">pic.twitter.com/fVTRYcKUj8</a>
— Sydney Boles (@sydneyboles) <a href="https://twitter.com/sydneyboles/status/1159254563817426944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Department-of-Labor-requests-the-halt-of-Blackjewel-coal-520754291.html">According</a> to the proposed order by Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella, “the coal is considered ‘hot goods’ and should be prevented from being transported or transferred in interstate commerce” until the miners have been paid in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
As Bloomberg Law <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trump-labor-enforcers-use-obama-tactic-to-aid-protesting-miners">explained</a> on Thursday, the Trump administration’s move to support the miners “relies on a powerful if rarely used tool,” elaborating:
The tactic, called “hot goods,” seeks to freeze the movement of goods produced by workers who were shortened on pay… 
The leverage gained by government from invoking hot goods is so strong that the mere suggestion is usually enough to cause employers to cave, according to several former DOL officials. Typically, to achieve the desired results, the department doesn’t even need to file a motion as it did this week.
The Blackjewel case is complicated by its Chapter 11 filing earlier this summer. That means the final outcome could be determined by a bankruptcy judge who has other priorities besides protecting workers’ wages … In response to the department’s filing, an attorney for Blackjewel told the judge that the company will hold some of the proceeds from the sale of coal in Harlan County until the workers there are paid. The judge will continue to consider the hot goods motion when the bankruptcy proceeding resumes.
Meanwhile, the Richard and Leslie Gilliam Foundation donated more than $1 million to help 508 laid-off Blackjewel miners in Central Appalachia earlier this week. The money was disbursed to local assistance groups in Southeastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia. Miners listed in immediate need databases will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/05/us/blackjewel-miners-gilliam-foundation-donation/index.html">reportedly</a> receive $2,000 each as early as Friday.
“The nation rallied around them, understood how badly they’d been mistreated and I think that impacted things,” Pillersdorf <a href="https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Hundreds-of-Blackjewel-miners-gather-at-railroad-tracks-for-answers-from-bankruptcy-court-526032051.html">told</a> WYMT Mountain News.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50230/standoff-kentucky-miners-block-train-loaded-1-jeffrey-cawood">STANDOFF: Kentucky Miners Block Train Loaded With $1 Million Of Coal After Paychecks Bounce</a>.
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.

Trump Administration Wants Train Loaded With $1 Million Of Coal To Stay Put Until Miners Are Paid

Trump Administration

Every six years, Democrats offer up a sacrificial lamb to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Each one seems a plausible alternative and receives constant media attention and support, but none really have a chance against his political machine.
The latest challenger is Marine combat aviator Amy McGrath, who lost her last election. But with Democrats the way they are these days, even losers get held up as formidable contenders. McGrath ran for the House of Representatives in 2018 and lost to Rep. Andy Barr – 51% to 47.8%.
Politically, McGrath holds some right-leaning positions, including support for the Second Amendment (though she renounced her membership to the National Rifle Association) and claims to be a fiscal conservative, though she opposed President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and repealing Obamacare.
On Tuesday, McGrath announced she would run against McConnell, writing on Twitter that “Everything that’s wrong with Washington had to start somewhere—it started with him.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I’m running to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate. Everything that’s wrong with Washington had to start somewhere—it started with him. With your help, we can defeat Mitch and defend democracy. Join us: <a href="https://t.co/c4b0WAp4ji">https://t.co/c4b0WAp4ji</a> <a href="https://t.co/DNLjFkHGua">pic.twitter.com/DNLjFkHGua</a>
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmyMcGrathKY/status/1148544945265020928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Obviously, this statement is false, since the Senate existed long before McConnell was first elected in 1985. He has also followed logically (for better or worse) the steps first put into place by his predecessor, former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).
Moving past that, Fox News reported that McGrath faces a steep uphill battle to unseat McConnell.
“History is not on McGrath’s side, as Kentucky has not elected a Democratic senator since 1992,” Fox reported. “Trump’s popularity in the state may also be a hurdle, as McConnell successfully helped the president achieve a number of goals, including the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.”
In response to McGrath’s announcement, McConnell’s official campaign Twitter account posted a video showing McGrath’s numerous far-Left positions with the caption, “Welcome to the race, Amy.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Welcome to the race, Amy. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYSen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KYSen</a> <a href="https://t.co/VdmKfFvTpI">pic.twitter.com/VdmKfFvTpI</a>
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/Team_Mitch/status/1148554996037890048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
McConnell’s campaign manager, Kevin Golden, also provided a statement to Fox News regarding McGrath’s announcement. He called her “an extreme liberal who is far out of touch with Kentuckians.&#8221;
“Comparing President Trump’s election to 9/11, endorsing a government takeover of healthcare, and calling the wall ‘stupid’ is a heckuva platform that we will be delighted to discuss over the next sixteen months,” he added.
For McConnell, this race shouldn’t be too difficult. Though he is not a popular politician, he does run a massive political machine and decades of campaign experience in a reliably Red State that the media has been unable to crack.
In 2014, media outlets propped up Alison Lundergan Grimes as a formidable alternative to McConnell, yet he trounced her in the election, 56.2% to 40.7%. In that election, the incumbent raised and spent $30 million. This time around, expect money to pour in from out of state like it did for Robert “Beto” O’Rourke in Texas last year. As Mark Hemingway pointed out on Twitter, McGrath will likely become “this cycle’s Beto.”
“Media will hype her campaign relentlessly, without much justification, and in the end &#8212; she&#8217;s gonna lose.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Prediction: Amy McGrath&#8217;s campaign against McConnell is going to be this cycle&#8217;s Beto. Media will hype her campaign relentlessly, without much justification, and in the end &#8212; she&#8217;s gonna lose.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) <a href="https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1148592256938586113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Another Twitter pundit noted that beating McConnell is not the point of McGrath’s campaign.
“The point is always to recruit as many formidable candidates as possible to make the other team spend money that would otherwise go towards playing offense,” he wrote.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Amy McGrath isn&#8217;t going to beat Mitch McConnell in KY-SEN, but that&#8217;s not really the point. The point is always to recruit as many formidable candidates as possible to make the other team spend money that would otherwise go towards playing offense.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) <a href="https://twitter.com/EsotericCD/status/1148595563350372352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Mitch McConnell Gets His Latest Challenger. Here’s What That Means For The Senate Majority Leader.

2020 Election

In a tremendous victory for the pro-life movement and unborn children, on Thursday judges in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Kentucky law that requires doctors to play the sound of the fetal heartbeat and show and describe the ultrasound of the unborn child for the prospective mother before she undergoes an abortion. The Court ruled that Kentucky&#8217;s &#8220;Ultrasound Informed Consent Act&#8221; doesn&#8217;t violate the Constitution by compelling doctors to play the sound of the heartbeat and the ultrasound before their patients.
The ruling came in a split decision; Judge John Bush, writing for the majority, <a href="http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/19a0062p-06.pdf">stated</a> of the bill, H.B. 2:
<blockquote>
H.B. 2 provides relevant information. The information conveyed by an ultrasound image, its description, and the audible beating fetal heart gives a patient greater knowledge of the unborn life inside her. This also inherently provides the patient with more knowledge about the effect of an abortion procedure: it shows her what, or whom, she is consenting to terminate. That this information might persuade a woman to change her mind does not render it suspect under the First Amendment. It just means that it is pertinent to her decision-making.
</blockquote>
The bill had been challenged by EMW Women&#8217;s Surgical Center, P.S.C. and its associated physicians under the First Amendment; EMW won its suit against the defendants, Kentucky Attorney General Andrew G Beshear and Kentucky Secretary of the Cabinet of Health and Family Services Adam Meier, in the district court, which, as Bush wrote, &#8220;applied heightened scrutiny to invalidate the statute and permanently enjoin enforcement of H.B. 2.&#8221; Bush continued, &#8220;Our court then denied the motion of then-Defendant-Appellant Vickie Glisson, who was Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, to stay the injunction pending appeal.&#8221;
Bush explained, &#8220;In NIFLA the Court clarified that no heightened First Amendment scrutiny should apply to informed-consent statutes like the abortion-informed-consent statute at issue in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. &#8230; Thus, even though an abortion-informed-consent law compels a doctor&#8217;s disclosure of certain information, it should be upheld so long as the disclosure is truthful, non-misleading, and relevant to an abortion. &#8230; Because H.B. 2, like the statute in Casey, requires the disclosure of truthful, non- misleading, and relevant information about an abortion, we hold that it does not violate a doctor&#8217;s right to free speech under the First Amendment. We also hold that the Attorney General, Defendant-Appellant Andrew Beshear, is not a proper party to this case. &#8220;
Bush noted, &#8220;There is no requirement that the patient view the images or listen to the doctor&#8217;s description. The doctor also must auscultate the fetal heartbeat but may turn off the volume of the auscultation if the patient so requests. &#8230; But H.B. 2 does not penalize a doctor if the patient requested that the heartbeat sound be turned off or chose not to look at the ultrasound images.&#8221;
Bush noted the ubiquity of ultrasounds nowadays:
<blockquote>
The prevalence of ultrasound-use in pregnancy also underscores the relevance of the mandated sonogram of H.B. 2 to a woman&#8217;s abortion decision. Ultrasounds are ubiquitous procedures that are a part of every pregnancy and, EMW concedes, every abortion. &#8230; The physical invasiveness of the sonogram, as noted by the Dissent &#8230; therefore, is no reason to characterize the procedure as an unwarranted invasion of bodily integrity; indeed, the Dissent cites authority &#8220;finding that up to 98% of U.S. abortion facilities use an ultrasound to date the pregnancy,&#8221;
</blockquote>
Bush also noted that times have changed since Roe v. Wade was decided:
<blockquote>
Sonograms of unborn life were uncommon when Roe was decided. Writing for the Roe Court, Justice Blackmun was limited by words on paper&#8212;sometimes using medieval descriptions such as &#8220;quickening&#8221; or &#8220;infused with a &#8216;soul&#8217; or &#8216;animated&#8217;&#8221;&#8212;to explain when life had been understood to come into being. &#8230; But in the Cyber Age, words tell only part of a story. For today&#8217;s Posterity, the Gen-X, Millennial, and Gen-Z generations, whose first picture of themselves commonly comes from a sonogram, and who increasingly turn to photos and videos to share information one can hardly dispute the relevance of sonogram images for twenty-first-century informed consent.
</blockquote>
Bush concluded:
<blockquote>
In sum, H.B. 2, like the Pennsylvania statute in Casey, provides truthful, non-misleading, and relevant information aimed at informing a patient about her decision to abort unborn life. Therefore, although the statute requires doctors to disclose certain truthful and non-misleading information relevant to the abortion procedure, it does not violate their First Amendment rights because the required disclosures are incidental to the Commonwealth&#8217;s regulation of doctors&#8217; professional conduct.
</blockquote>

Appeals Court Upholds Kentucky Law Requiring Doctors To Play Sound Of Baby’s Heartbeat Before Abortion

A Catholic teenager who has never received a vaccination for the chicken pox out of moral objection to its apparent ties to abortion is not allowed to go back to school, a judge <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">ruled</a> Tuesday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s my understanding that the vaccine is derived from aborted fetal cells,&#8221; said plaintiff Jerome Kunkel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">according</a> to WLWT. &#8220;And it is against my religion. Abortion is against my religion.&#8221;
Christopher Wiest, Jerome&#8217;s lawyer, said his client was &#8220;devastated&#8221; by Tuesday&#8217;s ruling, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/02/judge-ruling-due-kentucky-youths-suit-against-chickenpox-vaccine-boone-county-catholic-abortion/3348359002/">according</a> to USA Today.
The teenager was banned from attending classes and extracurricular functions, such as athletic events, after a chicken pox outbreak occurred at his high school Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky.
The Kunkel family did not vaccinate Jerome due to moral objections after finding out about a link between aborted fetal matter and the chicken pox vaccine. As <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/catholic-church-has-given-green-light-to-using-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-fetal-cells-but-one-family-is-still-suing-over-beliefs/">noted</a> by KHN Morning Briefing, &#8220;The Varicella vaccine, specifically, is derived from the cell lines of two fetuses that were electively aborted in the 1960s.&#8221;
The Northern Kentucky Health Department intervened on March 14 to ban unvaccinated students, such as Jerome, from such school functions.
&#8220;Chickenpox is raging through Assumption Academy in the Boone County city of Walton. Since early February, more than 30 students, or 13 percent of the student body, have developed the highly contagious illness,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/03/19/chickenpox-vaccine-and-abortion-link-1960-s-brings-lawsuit-religious-objection-catholic/3213271002/">reported</a> the Cincinnati Enquirer in mid-March. &#8220;Officials with Northern Kentucky Health Department ordered school events canceled until the outbreak is brought under control.&#8221;
Though Jerome was still handing in his school assignments, he was losing out on the full learning experience by being barred from the classroom, he said. And as the varsity basketball team&#8217;s starting center, he missed a season-ending playoff loss by one point, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">according</a> to The Washington Post.
The family filed suit, arguing their son&#8217;s First Amendment rights were infringed, and, as noted by the Post, the suit alleges that the health department &#8220;violated due process when officials enacted the extracurricular and school attendance bans without declaring an official emergency.&#8221;
Wiest noted that the department&#8217;s rationale for banning unvaccinated students was ineffective. &#8220;The chickenpox order makes no sense,&#8221; he argued. &#8220;They all go to daily and weekly mass. The parish receives communion on the tongue. Communion-age kids are going to spread chickenpox. That testimony was unequivocal.&#8221;
&#8220;This is tyranny against our religion, our faith, our country,&#8221; Bill Kunkel, Jerome&#8217;s father, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/19/god-country-chickenpox-how-an-outbreak-entangled-one-school-vaccine-showdown/?utm_term=.2ea4f1c92d33">told</a> the outlet.
<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/judge-denies-unvaccinated-teens-demand-to-return-to-school/">According</a> to Law &amp; Crime, parents in the state are permitted to opt out of such vaccines for religious reasons, but with the disclaimer that their child &#8220;may be subject to exclusion from school, group facilities or other programs, if the local and/or state public health authority advises exclusion as a disease control measure.&#8221;
Fifteen years ago, the Catholic Church permitted Catholics to use the vaccine if there&#8217;s a threat to public health. &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t mean nothing to me. I follow the laws of the Church, and I know what&#8217;s right and wrong,&#8221; the boy&#8217;s father said of the Church&#8217;s stance, before adding that abortion is a &#8220;moral absolute,&#8221; according to the Post.

Judge Issues Ruling In Case Of Catholic Teen Who Refused Vaccination Over Abortion Concerns

Education

Vaccines

On Monday, over one hundred schoolchildren from Kentucky, spearheaded by the Sunrise Movement, launched a protest in favor of the pie-in-the sky Green New Deal, targeting the office of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. Many of them wore T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase, &#8220;We Have A Right To Good Jobs And A Livable Future.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hundreds of young activists with <a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sunrisemvmt</a> are headed to Leader Mitch McConnell&#8217;s office to confront him over the Green New Deal <a href="https://t.co/hImVsu2K5h">pic.twitter.com/hImVsu2K5h</a>
&#8212; aída chávez (@aidachavez) <a href="https://twitter.com/aidachavez/status/1100059554098921472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Those same T-shirts were featured in a <a href="https://sunrisemovement.myshopify.com">picture on The Sunrise Movement&#8217;s website</a> worn by a large group headed by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
The Sunrise Movement is <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/1/7/sunrise-movement-is-shaking-up-the-climate-debate-will-more-funders-pay-attention">funded in part</a> by Wallace Global Fund, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Winslow Foundation, run by Wren Winslow Wirth, the wife of former Colorado senator Tim Wirth. Tim Wirth served as the national co-chair of the Clinton-Gore campaign; he <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/wirth.html">admitted</a> that in 1988, during the Senate hearing on global warming, he and his cohorts called the Weather Bureau to discover what was historically the hottest day of the summer, then scheduled the hearing for that day, which turned out to be blisteringly hot. He said, &#8220;&#8230; What we did it was went in the night before and opened all the windows, I will admit, right? So that the air conditioning wasn&#8217;t working inside the room and so when the, when the hearing occurred there was not only bliss, which is television cameras in double figures, but it was really hot.&#8221;
The Wallace Global Fund&#8217;s <a href="http://wgf.org">founder</a>, Henry A. Wallace, the 33rd Vice President of the United States serving under president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was an <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/04/henry-wallace-unsung-hero-left-ron-capshaw/">avowed </a>defender of the murderous Stalinist regime in the 1930&#8217;s; he finally realized in 1950, five years after World War II concluded, that he had been mistaken.
The Sunrise Movement <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/about">claims on its website</a>:
<blockquote>
We&#8217;re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
We are ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are gathering in classrooms, living rooms, and worship halls across the country. Everyone has a role to play. Public opinion is already with us &#8211; if we unite by the millions we can turn this into political power and reclaim our democracy.
</blockquote>
The Sunrise Movement also <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/principles">claims</a> that the &#8220;wealthy few&#8221; want to divide the movement, stating: &#8220;We are Americans from all walks of life. We are of many colors and creeds, from the plains, mountains, and coasts. A wealthy few want to divide us, but we value each other in our differences and we are united in a shared fight to make real the promise of a society that works for all of us.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43869/watch-far-left-group-uses-kids-pressure-feinstein-ryan-saavedra">The Daily Wire</a> reported on Saturday, &#8220;On Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) shut down a far-left activist group after they used children to create a scene in her office in an attempt to push alarmist climate change policies. The Sunrise Movement, a fringe group that tries to intimidate politicians into supporting socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s (D-NY) &#8216;Green New Deal,&#8217; shared a selectively edited video clip of the exchange.&#8221;

PLAYING HOOKY: Over 100 Kids Out Of School To Target McConnell Over Green New Deal

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The high school at the center of the media firestorm over a confrontation between teenagers, Native Americans, and Black Hebrew Israelites has closed its doors Tuesday &#8220;to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, and staff.&#8221;
School officials <a href="http://www.fox19.com/2019/01/22/covington-catholic-high-school-closes-tuesday/">sent an email</a> early Tuesday morning announcing the closure, which was obtained by Fox 19.
&#8220;After meeting with local authorities, we have made the decision to cancel school and be closed on Tuesday, January 22, in order to ensure the safety of our students, faculty and staff,&#8221; read the email, from school principal Robert Rowe.
&#8220;All activities on campus will be cancelled for the entire day and evening. Students, parents, faculty and staff are not to be on campus for any reason. Please continue to keep the Covington Catholic Community in your prayers,&#8221; he continued.
Many other schools in the area <a href="http://www.fox19.com/weather/closings/">are closed today</a> due to the temperatures, but Covington Catholic was originally among those with a delay. Extra security was already planned since Tuesday would be the first day the school was opened <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42416/heres-what-you-need-know-about-confrontation-emily-zanotti">since the media wildly misreported</a> on a video showing Covington Catholic students and a group of Native Americans. The original narrative was that the students were mocking and harassing the Native Americans, but additional footage showed that the students were the ones being harassed.
First, the students were harassed by a group of Black Hebrew Israelites who shouted racial and anti-gay slurs at the teenagers. To counteract this hate, the students claim and video suggests, the teenagers began singing their school songs to drown out the harassment. Then the group of Native Americans approached them and the leader, Nathan Phillips, began banging his drum just inches from one of the students&#8217; faces as he smiled politely and nervously back.
The media leapt on the original story suggesting that it was the white, Make America Great Again hat-wearing male teenagers who were in the wrong, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42441/blue-checkmarks-delete-tweets-defaming-covington-ashe-schow">death threats and threats of physical harm against minors began</a>.
Fox 19 reports the American Indian Movement Chapter of Indiana and Kentucky plans to hold a protest at 10 a.m. Tuesday outside the Diocese of Covington. The protest was originally planned to be held outside the school, but was moved &#8220;as a precaution,&#8221; <a href="http://www.fox19.com/2019/01/21/extra-security-covcath-tuesday-protest-location-moved/">according to Fox 19</a>.
Since the additional videos gave a more nuanced view of the situation, multiple attorneys <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42474/lawyer-covington-kids-threatens-sue-nyt-obvious-james-barrett">have offered to represent the students</a> and sue individuals and media outlets who spread misinformation about the students and smeared them. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s James Barrett reported, attorney Robert Barnes offered to represent the students &#8220;for free&#8221; if they sue The New York Times&#8217; Maggie Haberman for libel. Barnes went on to call out several others who he says libeled the students, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and comedienne Kathy Griffin.
Other attorneys also chimed in on Twitter offering their services, according to Barrett:
<blockquote>
&#8220;I&#8217;ll happily help work the case for free as well. Evil needs to be stopped,&#8221; wrote one supporter. &#8220;Whatever I can do in PR, I am all-in,&#8221; added another. &#8220;I think it is time to get a group together that does pro bono work PR work etc. when media slander somebody innocent. We must stop this madness,&#8221; added yet another.
&#8220;Someone set up a GoFundme page and I&#8217;ll be the first check in,&#8221; wrote another follower. &#8220;This is, without hyperbole, evil. Time for us patriots to take back the narrative from the MSM/Dem liars and present truth. Thank you to the lawyers and such offering services.&#8221;
</blockquote>

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