KY lawmakers will ban trans folks from the bathroom but won't stop real child predators
What big men they are, so intent on keeping our children safe from predators in our midst.
Except they don't actually care about keeping our children safe from predators in our midst.
For the third year in a row, an omnibus bill to address teacher sexual abuse failed in the General Assembly.
Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, took up the issue after the Lexington Herald-Leader found that a majority of teachers who lose their licenses do so because of sexual misconduct.
Guess what? The vast majority of cases are not about gay or transgender people. Instead, they involve male teachers and teenage girls.
The legislation has been tinkered with a lot over the past three years, and it has broad bipartisan and teacher organization support.
House Bill 36 would stop problem teachers from being shipped from one district to another and banning nondisclosure agreements between teachers and school districts about teacher misconduct involving minors, including sexual misconduct.
The bill also would increase disclosure requirements about past misconduct and improve current training. Right now, teachers get some training, but not about inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. Incredible as that sounds, they still need it.
The legislature did pass two piecemeal bills: Senate Bill 120, which would make it clear that coaches have to report abuse and neglect, including sexual misconduct, and Senate Bill 181 would make it clear that students and adults can only communicate via already-approved communication means.
These are good steps, but they don't do enough.
Tipton told my colleague Beth Musgrave that some people were still worried about false accusations. But there is plenty of due process to deal with that. Right now there aren't enough ways to stop bad actors from floating around school districts.
Tipton's bill needs to become a top priority for next session. Kudos to him for his diligence and patience on this matter.
But in this session, a lot of lawmakers went after after the things they think are dangerous, such as Black history, clean water and transgender folks, who are, by the way, a tiny percent of the population just trying to live their lives.
What if instead they tried to stop the verifiably bad people who traumatize and abuse our children?
Once again, it is the height of hypocrisy to target a man wearing a dress in the Capitol while, as we speak, a man wearing pants somewhere is sexting with one of his students.
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Do Cuomo and Adams secretly want Mamdani to win?
I have worked with a number of very successful candidates and politicians. The one really invaluable skill they all had in common was that they understood basic math. They knew that two plus two often leads to victory, and that two minus one — or three — usually leads to defeat. Addition, subtraction, division. Simple. Unless, to paraphrase a line from 'Top Gun,' 'Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash.' There is no doubt that many New York City residents — as well as countless people around the country and world who now fear for that iconic city's future — have been shaken by a recent Siena College poll showing that far-left socialist Zohran Mamdani leads the race to become the next mayor by 19 points over his next-closest opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Behind them are Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with 12 percent and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams with 7 percent. Mamdani has the gift of basic math working massively in his favor. In this particular case, division. Without doing a thing, the cliché 'divide and conquer' has been the most important campaign strategy in his quiver. Other than offering the socialist panacea of 'a chicken in every pot' — free stuff to constituents who really know nothing about him — it is the one factor that may make him the next mayor of New York. Mamdani doesn't have to pay for it, focus-group it or expend any political capital. He simply has to sit back and prepare as the respective egos of Cuomo and Adams hand him the keys to Gracie Mansion — and the four years he will need to bring New York City to its knees. Why? Because Cuomo and Adams are now engaged in an ego-fueled blinking contest to see who might exit the race first. That, or they secretly want Mamdani to win. Either way, it's Mamdani with the Cheshire Cat-like smile. This is proving to be an interesting election in that the winning candidate will be the one least despised by the voters. Each of the four major candidates have high negatives and elicit harsh criticism from various blocks of voters. Sadly, forgotten in this high-profile contest between dueling egos are the millions of people in the city who are either barely getting by or suffering in the throes of dysfunction and despair — ironically enough, often caused by the failed policies of previous ego-driven mayors. Many of the residents of New York City who are struggling daily with poverty, crime and lack of education for their children are Black or minority. Ah, but we are seemingly not allowed to talk about that. Many on the left — with a huge assist from Democratic leadership, the media, academia and teachers unions — have gamed it so if you even try to point out the failings of a major American city such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington or Baltimore and who is running it, you risk being labeled a racist, bigot or a misogynist. I don't care what a mayor looks like or how they identify sexually. The only thing I care about is the suffering of millions of constituents. Life for those people is beyond brutal in many cases — an irrefutable fact you almost never hear about, because that would run counter to the various narratives of the left's noise machine. For example, let's look at another major American city that is a poster child for failure, massive dysfunction and turning its back on those most in need: Chicago. A city in which, as I have pointed out in the past, more than 40,000 men, women and children — almost all minority and from the inner city — have been murdered over the last six decades. Extrapolate that number across multiple American inner cities and you have our nation's greatest failing … ever. Except, 'shhhh,' once again, you are not supposed to talk about it. New York City is Chicago on steroids. It has multiple — fixable — problems and life-crushing emergencies across the five boroughs. Unfortunately for those most at-risk inhabitants, many of the people who can help them are entitled elites who exist in bubbles of luxury and safety floating far above the 'unwashed masses' of the city. Two of those elites are Cuomo and Adams. To them, it seems as if the title of 'mayor' is yet one more trophy they can amass, serving either as a potential stepping stone to higher office or to private sector appointments and riches once the last term is complete. In the meantime, those millions of desperately hurting New Yorkers ignored by the elites had better prepare themselves. If (when) Mamdani wins, things will get much worse. 'Free stuff' is the false promise to grab the vote of those New Yorkers. Once Mamdani secures that vote, it will only be about what is best for him and his socialist movement going forward. Those at-risk residents won't even be a fleeting memory.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Notice a theme to Trump's planned takeovers of cities? These Black mayors do.
President Trump has warned he might send the National Guard to other cities. The Black mayors of those cities vow to push back. OAKLAND, California ‒ Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and other officials in this California city are treating President Donald Trump's warning that he might send the National Guard there as more than just an offhand comment. They're bracing for a fight. Lee and other Black mayors, along with civil rights activists and lawmakers across the country are increasingly concerned about Trump singling out cities like Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, DC. All of them are led by Black mayors and all of those leaders are Democrats. 'We just can't help but feel in some kind of way that we're being specifically profiled," said Van R. Johnson, president of the African American Mayors Association and mayor of Savannah, Georgia. 'That's not right. That's not fair. We want our federal government to work with us. We're just a phone call away.' New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, called Trump's takeover of DC's policing a 'blatantly racist and despicable power grab.' 'It won't stop in Washington, DC," she said in a statement. 'The stakes are high not just for Washington, DC, but for the future of democracy in every corner of this country.' Trump used his presidential powers in early August to take over policing in Washington, DC, complaining crime is rampant and officials haven't done enough to address it ‒ despite statistics showing crime in the district is at a 30-year-low. Trump also threatened to deploy the National Guard to help fight crime in other communities. "We're going to take back our capital," Trump said Aug. 11. "And then we'll look at other cities also." He called it a "historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse." Different visions for tackling urban problems White House officials argue the nation's capital is filthy and that Trump has seen that firsthand. In March, Trump signed an executive order titled "Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful," which sets up a task force of federal officials to clean up the city. 'If Democrats had any common sense, they would follow President Trump's lead to crack down on violent crime that has plagued our nation's capital – and Democrat-run cities across the country," Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary, said in an email to USA TODAY. "Instead of criticizing President Trump's popular, tough-on crime policies, they should focus on cleaning up their own cities which are some of the most dangerous places in America." Many big cities are run by Democrats, but both violent and property crimes have fallen nationwide in recent years, federal data shows. Civil rights leaders criticized Trump for portraying cities, especially those led by Black mayors, as crime ridden. "Painting a false picture of the city's largest Black-majority cities, led by Black mayors, is part of the Trump administration's ongoing strategy to exploit racial distrust for political gain,'' Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, and George Lambert, president of the Greater Washington Urban League President, said in a statement. If Trump really wanted to help cities, several mayors argued, he wouldn't be cutting funding for anti-poverty programs and community policing efforts. 'We need to have this federal government invest in cities like Oakland instead of disinvesting in us,' said Lee, who spent 27 years in Congress, including during Trump's first term. 'It doesn't make any sense what this government is doing if they want to see cities not just survive but thrive.' More: 'DC has a right to govern itself': Civil rights leaders denounce Trump's takeover move 'Reasonable people can look at the optics' Trump has yet to publicly bring up race in his criticisms of those cities, but experts point to his history of racially disparaging remarks, including during his first term when he questioned why the United States would let in people from countries like Haiti and parts of Africa, which he referred to using an expletive. Trump also called Baltimore, a predominately Black city, a 'disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess.' While the president didn't specifically mention race then or in his recent references, it's clearly implied, said Jason Williams, a professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Williams said urban centers historically have been code for talking about Black people or communities of color. 'He doesn't necessarily have to say it in order for his base to know what the implications are,' said Williams, adding that most people know DC has a significant Black population. 'It does give him some plausible deniability. Not that I think this president would care." Oakland's Lee told USA TODAY she finds Trump's actions "fearmongering and diversionary." "A lot of what he does is to provoke unrest and that gives him an excuse, so we have to be prepared and ready to fight," she said. Oakland has a contingency plan if Trump tries to send in National Guard, Lee added. When asked if she could provide any details, the mayor replied, 'I'm not at liberty to do that right now. That would be inappropriate at this point.' In DC, Trump justified his actions by citing a recent overnight assault of a former federal official and in Los Angeles, he called in the National Guard to quell civil protests spurred by the aggressive immigration crackdown. He might take advantage of other isolated incidents to target other big cities, said Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice. "It's the red meat that Trump uses to rile up the MAGA base and it is effective as bait only when it's left unchecked," Rahman said. 'We've been here before' Federal officials have sometimes used their powers to undermine Black urban leadership and portray them as chaotic and incompetent or crime prone, Williams said. He pointed to examples such as the urban renewal of the 1960s and 1970s when federal officials displaced Black neighborhoods with highways and a century earlier, after Reconstruction, when governments dismantled post-Civil War gains. 'We've been here before with federal overreach and an attempt to try to roll back hard-won wins," Williams said. The nation's capital has long been in the crosshairs of Trump and GOP congressional leaders. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers threatened to withhold funds if Bowser didn't remove a Black Lives Matter mural from a street near the White House. 'DC has always been this sort of political football for the Republicans,' Williams said. While some Black mayors are concerned about their cities becoming a Trump target, they're continuing their work to combat crime, Johnson, the Savannah mayor, said. 'We're worried about fighting our federal government as well as fighting crime," he said. 'It's a continuous 'what if, what next,' which we think are distractions from what the American people are really talking about.' Johnson said the ideologies and approaches of some Black mayors may be different than Trump's, but that doesn't mean they can't be partners on issues, including crime. 'We understand elections. We're politicians ourselves," he said. 'We're charged with playing with whoever is on the field. When Donald Trump became president, he became president of our cities too.' Contributing: Phillip Bailey
4 hours ago
What to know about the indictment against the New Orleans mayor
NEW ORLEANS -- Months before New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was set to leave office because of term limits, she has been indicted in what prosecutors allege was a yearslong scheme to conceal a romantic relationship with her bodyguard. Prosecutors say bodyguard Jeffrey Vappie was being paid as if he was working when he and Cantrell were really alone in apartments and visiting vineyards, hiding their communication by sending encrypted messages through WhatsApp and then deleting them. Although the pair have said their relationship was strictly professional, the indictment described it as 'personal and intimate.' The first female mayor in New Orleans' 300-year history has been charged with conspiracy, fraud and obstruction. Vappie was already facing charges of wire fraud and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury returned an 18-count indictment Friday that added Cantrell to the case. The City of New Orleans said in a statement that it was aware of the indictment and that the mayor's attorney was reviewing it. Cantrell hasn't sent out a message on her official social media feed on X since July 15, when she said the city was experiencing historic declines in crime. She and her remaining allies have said that she has been unfairly targeted as a Black woman and held to a different standard than male officials. Here are things to know about the mayor and the indictment: The indictment paints a detailed picture of Cantrell and her bodyguard traveling to vineyards and spending time alone in apartments at the same time it says Vappie was being paid as if he was working. Vappie reminisced in a WhatsApp exchange cited in the indictment about joining Cantrell in Scotland in October 2021, saying that was 'where it all started.' Cantrell had told local reporters she needed a security detail 'due to COVID,' saying her travel accommodations were 'a matter of safety, not of luxury.' The following year, instead of Cantrell attending a conference in Miami, authorities said the pair rendezvoused on Martha's Vineyard. Vappie's travel to the island was covered by the city to attend a separate conference. 'The times when we are truly (traveling) is what spoils me the most,' the mayor wrote to him that month. That same year, they also visited several California wineries, according to the indictment. After a 'trusted staff member' posted a photo of the three of them on social media, one of Cantrell's associates asked them to remove it. They met in an apartment while Vappie claimed to be on duty, and Cantrell arranged for him to attend 14 trips, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said. The trips, he added, were described by her as times 'when they were truly alone.' In all, New Orleans taxpayers paid more than $70,000 for Vappie's travel, Simpson said. The pair used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, including efforts to delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents, 'and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,' he said. Cantrell, a Democrat, won a historic election in 2017 by portraying herself as a candidate for the people and not of the city's political class. Her mayoral tenure started strong with her securing tens of millions of dollars for city infrastructure improvements and taking decisive steps during the pandemic. There wasn't strong opposition to her 2021 election for a second term. But it was around that time that the wheels started to come off her administration. After Hurricane Ida pounded south Louisiana in 2021, residents were left without trash collection for weeks, while crime rates were surging. Meanwhile, Cantrell drew criticism for taking first-class trips abroad at the city's expense, violating a policy that requires city employees to use cheaper fares. She eventually agreed to repay the difference. A WVUE television investigation also found she was using a city-owned apartment as a part-time residence. Cantrell survived a recall campaign launched in 2022 by disgruntled Black Democrats and largely funded by wealthy white Republicans. She is also among more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans two decades ago, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group that provided photographs and information to federal authorities in the latest case. Although Cantrell is New Orleans' first mayor to be charged while in office, this is far from the first corruption case to impact the city. 'Public corruption has crippled us for years and years,' Simpson said. 'And this is extremely significant.' In 2014, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to a decade in prison for bribery, money laundering, fraud and tax crimes. The charges relate to actions during his two terms as mayor from 2002 to 2010. He was released early in 2020 during the pandemic. In 2022, Rodney J. 'Jack' Strain, a former Louisiana sheriff, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a federal bribery conviction. He also received four life sentences for earlier convictions for raping boys. After serving five terms, he admitted he used his authority as sheriff to steer profits from a $1 million work-release contract to himself, his family and two deputies. G. Thomas Porteous Jr., a federal judge from New Orleans, was impeached and removed from the bench after the U.S. Senate in 2010 determined he took money from attorneys and bail bondsmen and lied in a personal bankruptcy filing, among other offenses. He never faced criminal charges as a result of the probe, which ran from 1999 to 2007. He died in 2021.
