Ordinarily I am not much of a tourist when I go on the road. Oh, if some famous or historic place happens to get in my way, I will pause to take a look. Usually, though, I’m too preoccupied with what I have to do.
It was different when I made my first trip to cover […]

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By saying that his dream job is athletics director at the University of Kentucky, as opposed to Governor or Lieutenant Governor, Richie Farmer gave us something to think about. Such as, if the UK A.D.’s job was put on the ballot, who would win an election between Farmer and incumbent Mitch Barnhart?
Barnhart couldn’t run on […]

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My longtime friend David Kindred, best wordsmith of my newspaper generation, has a new book out about one of his former employers, The Washington Post, and how it has coped with the swift and startling changes in the communications business. Those who know Dave’s work will not be suprised to learn that it’s beautifully written […]

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I must begin with a disclaimer: I’ve done three books that were published by Butler Books, including two that are still on the market (The Monarchs and The Great American Rock n’ Roll Dream and Celebrating 54 Years at Freedom Hall). I also must point out that I have always fought for transparency and integrity […]

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PIKEVILLE, Ky. – Even if  Paul Patton had not been a former Kentucky governor, it would have been impossible to overlook him Thursday night at the Pikeville-Georgetown game in Pikeville’s downtown civic center. He was wearing an orange sport coat for which Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl would have killed.
“Had it made at Brooks Brothers in […]

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Back in the 1950s, when I was collecting baseball cards, the manager Al Lopez had a coach named Tony Cucinello on his staff with both the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. So when I heard that WHAS Radio had hired a talk-show host named Francene Cucinello, I had to e-mail her and ask […]

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He is somewhere overseas, deep in the heart of an economically poor nation. For hours, he has been standing in the back of a truck, handing out shoes to kids with wide eyes and raggedy clothes. The kids have never had shoes, much less brand-new ones. They aren’t sure what to do with the shoes, […]

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Whenever somebody from the national media goes up into Eastern Kentucky and does a documentary about coal and poverty, which are inextricably linked, you can bet that the elected representatives of the folks who live there will howl like scalded cats about the perpetuation of hillbilly stereotypes.
Of course, perceptions don’t get to be stereotypes unless […]

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Asked to send one of his newly published books to President Barack Obama, University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari thought it would be a good idea to include a UK basketball jersey with the President’s name on the back and the No. 44 (Dan Issel’s number) because he’s our 44th President.
It seemed to be […]

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Here in the early stages of the campaign for Jim Bunning’s seat in the U.S. Senate, a most amazing transformation already has occurred: Dr. Daniel Mongiardo, our Democratic lieutenant governor, has morphed into Dr. Ernie Fletcher, the scandal-ridden Republican whom Mongiardo helped Steve Beshear oust in 2007.
Running against Beshear and Mongiardo, Fletcher engaged in campaign […]

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