Cover Story
Fight for racial justice echoes long battle in Louisville for environmental equality
Thousands began marching in Louisville, day after day, to protest the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Louisville’s Breonna Taylor, a professor at the UofL was a co-author on a study that identified another killer targeting Black lives: toxic pollutants. Along with race, crime and income, the research found that proximity to an…
How To Support Racial Justice and Diversity This Week In Louisville (7/20)
TUESDAY, July 21 Leadership During COVID-19 & Racial Justice Online Free | 5-7 p.m. Learn how Louisville leaders are adjusting operations at their businesses and organizations during this pandemic and a national soul-search for racial justice. Transformation Tuesday Zoom Free | 6-7 p.m. For those living in Russell and nearby, Louisville Central Community Centers, Inc.…
Cameron’s timing was bad, but Beshear’s attitude is far from perfect
“The coronavirus is not involved in American politics.” So says Mitch McConnell, who has gotten most things right about the pandemic but not that one. What he means is that the virus doesn’t pick and choose whom it infects. But it has also infected politics, and that’s making worse the disease it causes — and…
John Lewis’ unending quest for a better country
Several years ago, on the day after John Lewis appeared at the Kentucky Author Forum in Louisville, he sought me out on the House floor. He grabbed and hugged me and then said, “I had one of the greatest days of my life in your city.” I was so proud that Louisville had made such…
7 stories (and photo sets) from LEO’s archives that will make you nostalgic for Forecastle
Like pretty much every fun thing, Forecastle Festival was canceled this year because of COVID-19. In another reality, on July 17, 2020, we’d be sardined into the front row of the Boom stage, sweating, waiting to see Low Cut Connie and looking forward to Jack Johnson in the evening. Now, that sounds more like a…
How To Support Racial Justice And Diversity This Weekend (7/17)
FRIDAY, July 17 Occupy Eviction Court Training Location available upon request Free | 5 p.m. Activists have been protesting outside of eviction court for a few weeks now. Renters impacted financially by the pandemic are at risk of being thrown from their homes. Learn how to participate at this training from the Root Cause Research…
New York Times features 45 days of Louisville protests on video
The New York Times has collected video from a Louisville livestreamer to create “Protests Continue Daily in Louisville. Here’s a Look at 45 Days of Marches.” The video timeline shows the start of the protests, their evolution and significant events since people took to the streets to demand justice in the police slaying of Breonna…
People are dying because of systematic racism: We can change
The health disparities that have long plagued our city, state and nation are now more obvious than ever, with COVID-19 shining a bright light on the historic and ongoing structural racism that for too long has resulted in woefully disparate health outcomes among people of color. The latest statistics show the novel coronavirus is disproportionately…
Pollution, Place, and the Unnecessary Tragedy of Premature Death: Lessons for COVID-19?
“Bluntly put, some neighborhoods are likely to kill you,” observed Brown University sociologist John Logan in 2003. In 2020, we can confirm that some neighborhoods have killed people. Far too many communities are facing environmental degradation today. Low-income men in the United States live five fewer years in the five dirtiest mid-size cities (as measured…
How national attention can help, hurt ‘Justice for Breonna’
Breonna Taylor. Protesters “say her name” every day during demonstrations and on social media posts all over the country, as they did in Louisville on Tuesday when the national social justice organization Until Freedom staged a sit-in on Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s lawn. But for months after police had shot Taylor to death, many Louisville…
Listen… This is your chance to remake the world
This column is dedicated to the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law class of 2020. I also dedicate it to anyone else who graduated in May, just so no one feels left out. But the aforementioned soon-to-be lawyers have a special spot in my heart, because they were my first graduating class as a full-time…
What does the future hold for Jefferson Square?
Jefferson Square, nestled between the monuments of civic power in downtown Louisville — City Hall, Metro Hall, the Hall of Justice and others — is a different place now than it was several weeks ago. Its history has a new chapter and, because of frequent video and photographic coverage this month, the community’s perception of…
Photo Set: Posters for protests
Just before the four-month anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death March 13, protests downtown continued, and so do the creative ways of demanding justice for her. On Saturday, the Healing and Art Social Justice Festival was held in Jefferson Square Park from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tables and open air tents were set up beside…
Thorns and Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd (7/15)
Our police, a broken record(ing) | Thorn An NBC News story on audio of interviews from the police investigation of Breonna Taylor’s slaying reveals the profound brokenness of the police department. That includes how the interviewer, Sgt. Jason Vance, seemed to suggest answers for Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Breonna’s…
The return of concerts is complicated and messy
The Lexington music venue Cosmic Charlie’s permanently shut its doors on May 30 due to the pandemic, but, even with that loss, its co-owner Mark Evans isn’t in any rush to restart his other businesses in the music industry. His company Land Line Presents is the exclusive promoter at Zanzabar in Louisville, which could hold…
Taj Palace takes tasty Indian fare and pandemic safety seriously
There’s no way to put this but bluntly: I don’t think some Louisville restaurants are taking the COVID-19 pandemic as seriously as they should. Why the worry? You probably saw the news item about 11 Louisville businesses that got inspection blasts from Metro Public Health & Wellness over the Fourth of July weekend for failing…
Savage Love: Unplugged
Q: My wife asked me to write to you about our situation. We’ve been married for 15 years. I am 50 years old, and my wife is a decade younger. We are a heterosexual couple with kids. I am a submissive male, and I like to play with my ass using different sized dildos. I…
Keep expanded absentee ballots
The record voter turnout in Kentucky’s primary election demonstrates the emergency plan for voting was a success. Voters surpassed the previous record of votes cast by over 80,000 votes and about 75% of votes cast were done by mail. Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, has been on a (much-deserved) victory lap in the…
