Kentucky Chamber's Ashli Watts to emcee annual Fancy Farm Picnic
Fancy Farm Picnic-goers stroll the grounds on Aug. 3, 2024, at St. Jerome Catholic Church. Organizers announced Tuesday that Kentucky Chamber of Commerce CEO Ashli Watts will emcee the political speaking at this year's picnic. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
Ashli Watts, the president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, will be the emcee for the next Fancy Farm Picnic this August.
Ashli Watts (Provided by St. Jerome Picnic)
Held as a fundraiser for the St. Jerome Catholic Church in the far west Kentucky town of Fancy Farm, the picnic annually brings together Kentucky politicians for fiery stump speeches in front of a boisterous crowd. Picnic organizers announced that Watts would be the emcee for this year's picnic in a Tuesday press release.
Watts became the president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber in 2019. The organization represents more than 3,800 member businesses across the state and often brings together its members and Kentucky lawmakers for conversations about economic issues. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce spent the most out of any group to lobby the Kentucky General Assembly in 2024 and 2025.
The picnic's press release said that as leader of the Kentucky Chamber, Watts 'played a key role in the passage of landmark legislation including felony expungement, right-to-work, and tax reform measures.'
'Ashli's experience and poise make her the ideal choice to guide this year's political speaking,' said Steven Elder, the political chairman of the picnic. 'Her leadership and deep understanding of Kentucky's political landscape will bring energy, fairness, and insight to this year's event.'
The Fancy Farm Picnic is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 2.
Emcees in recent years have included Lexington's Father Jim Sichko and David Beck, president of Kentucky Venues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Democrat Beshear renews push for universal preschool in Kentucky
Gov. Andy Beshear appeared before a joint session of the House and Senate on Jan. 8, 2025 to deliver his State of the Commonwealth address. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes) Gov. Andy Beshear has signed an executive order to establish an advisory committee to explore support for universal pre-kindergarten programs in Kentucky. Beshear, a Democrat, has long supported implementing universal pre-K statewide. He again called on Republicans in the state legislature supermajority to fund such initiatives in his State of the Commonwealth Address earlier this year. However, top Republicans said their caucuses don't have a consensus on the matter. The executive order creates the Team Kentucky Pre-K for All Advisory Committee with 28 members representing experience in business, workforce development and education. Jamie Link, the secretary of the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet is the chair of the committee. Other members include Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher, Council on Postsecondary Education President Aaron Thompson and former state lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican. Beshear announced the 'Pre-K for All' initiative with local leaders in Louisville Wednesday. The city launched a five-year plan for universal pre-K last year. The governor emphasized a need to offer all Kentucky 4-year-olds pre-K programs to increase kindergarten readiness. ''We are here, not as Democrats or Republicans, not as part of the right or the left,' Beshear said in a statement. 'Instead, we are here as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, educators and business leaders. We are here because we want the best for our Kentucky kids, the best for our Kentucky parents and caregivers, and we want to build and maintain the best workforce in America.' The Kentucky Center for Statistics says that 53.8% of Kentucky children are not prepared for kindergarten on the first day of school. Beshear also said that 18 states, including Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and West Virginia, offer pre-K access to 4-year-olds — further underscoring that he views the issue as nonpartisan. The advisory committee will hold public meetings throughout Kentucky and create a report on feedback heard by Oct. 15. That's a few weeks ahead of the beginning of the 2026 legislative session, which is when lawmakers will begin debating the next two-year state budget. Beshear, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and senior adviser Rocky Adkins will travel across the state in the coming days to highlight the 'Pre-K for All' initiative.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Kentucky Make America Healthy Again task force meets for first time
Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, discusses her resolution to establish a Make America Healthy Again Kentucky Task Force to implement the Trump administration's health policies. Feb. 27, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) During the first meeting of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Kentucky Task Force, lawmakers said they want to address food deserts and food quality, childhood obesity, mental health and health care costs, among other things. Members and non members had a slew of ideas for what the task force should focus on — including education, diabetes, personal responsibility around health, the importance of physical fitness, agricultural partnerships, chronic illnesses, dental care, cancer and other topics. Co-chair Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said the task force could 'chase a lot of rabbits' but should stay focused. She and co-chair Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, want to place emphasis on food quality and availability. In 2023, 753,410 Kentuckians were food insecure, meaning they don't have enough to eat and may not know where their next meal will come from. Meanwhile, the 'big beautiful bill' Republicans in the U.S. House passed in May shifts to state governments some of the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food to low-income Americans. The Kentucky General Assembly created the MAHA Kentucky Task Force this year as a way to implement the Trump administration's principles in the commonwealth. Hot button topics like fluoridated water will come up during the interim, Funke Frommeyer said, but 'I don't think you'll hear that in our committee.' In the 2025 session, a bill to make fluoride in water optional in Kentucky passed the House but not the Senate. Task force members, in addition to Funke Frommeyer and Lockett, are Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville; Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville; Sen. Craig Richardson, R-Hopkinsville; Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville; Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville; Rep. Robert Duvall, R-Bowling Green; Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington; and Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union. Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, who is not a task force member but shared his thoughts during the Wednesday meeting, said 'the work that will be done here will touch every committee that we have in the legislature.' 'We forget that we don't live and work in a vacuum, and everybody's going to be impacted by this, said Meredith, a retired hospital executive. 'I've been preaching for the last year about the unsustainable growth in health care costs, particularly in the United States. If we don't get control of this, I truly believe it's going to cause our economy to collapse.' The next task force meeting is July 10 at 3 p.m. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
She got death threats after Harrison Butker post she didn't write. She's suing KC
A Kansas City communications staffer says her superiors ignored her requests when she asked that they clear her name after she was falsely accused of sending out a social media post last year that allegedly doxxed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and then faced online harassment, vitriol and racist death threats. After she complained about their inaction, Andrea Watts said she was subjected to increasingly critical treatment at work in City Hall. She recently sued the city seeking monetary damages on the basis of those allegations. The city declined comment on the lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court, as officials do not discuss pending litigation. Watts said she felt threatened by the racist, sexist and violent posts directed toward her after she was falsely identified online as the person who posted a message on the city's X account in response to Butker's controversial speech at a college graduation ceremony last spring. 'Just a reminder that Harrison Butker lives in the City of Lee's Summit,' the May 15, 2024 posting on X said. While it was no secret that Butker lived in that Kansas City suburb and that the tweet did not give out his address, online commenters accused Kansas City of exposing Butker to personal risk and harassment by posting the name of the city where he lived. Many of the commenters accused the city of doxxing Butker after he gave a speech in which he expressed his conservative views on political and social issues, such as abortion and how be believes his wife is happier having sacrificed her career for becoming a homemaker. City officials deleted the post 40 minutes after it went up. Both the city's account and Mayor Quinton Lucas issued online apologies that night, agreeing that the post was inappropriate. The unnamed city employee who authored the post later lost their job. But in the immediate hours after the post was taken down, online furor grew. Watts, a social media specialist, and another female city staffer, were soon singled out for scorn by the online mob, despite having nothing to do with posting the tweet. Both are Black and were subjected to racist and misogynistic posts. They felt threatened when their own personal information was posted online. According to her lawsuit, Watts was identified through her Linked-In account. People posted messages that included her photo and photos of the entryway of one of her addresses 'and personal identifying information published for the purposes of threatening and harming' her. She got death threats. 'There is no hole deep enough, no woods deep enough for you to hide in,' one post read, according to the lawsuit. Another pictured a Black woman hanging from a tree in front of a photograph of the apartment building where Watts lived along with her full name and address. That night, she asked that the city post a statement 'right away to clear her name,' but nothing was done, the suit says. Two days later, on May 17, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey posted a letter to social media demanding records that would show who penned the Butker tweet. That same day as the harassment directed at the two women, Watt's unnamed co-worker sent an email to Mayor Quinton Lucas, the City Council and city manager asking that steps be taken to clear their names, as they felt scared from being subjected to the vile harassment on line. Lucas instead issued a general statement that day stating that some city employees were being falsely accused and harassed. But he did not mention Watts or the other woman by name and the harassment continued. He also sent a letter to Bailey, alleging that his on-line statement had contributed to the climate that led to the ongoing threats towards Black women employed by the city. The women were called the N word. Watts was singled out as 'a DEI hire' and a 'ghetto rat.' The lawsuit claims that the city's 'refusal to end the harassment and discrimination by publicly clearing' Watts' name and that of her co-worker reflected 'a selfish desire to prevent negative media and public attention that would harm the City's reputation and more importantly City Manager Brian Platt's and Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz's reputations.' The names of Platt and Kozakiewicz are redacted in the public court record. Platt was fired as city manager this spring after the city lost a lawsuit filed by former communications director Chris Hernandez. The latter claimed he was demoted because he and Platt disagreed on the importance of telling the truth to the news media and public. Platt was focused on the city's image, while Hernandez insisted on being truthful, the suit said. Koazakiewicz oversees the city's communications office and remains a city employee. Due to threats of harm and the release of her personal information, Watts said she asked that the city find her temporary lodging until the internet storm blew over, but claims her request was denied. The city also refused to make any attempt to scrub her personal information from the internet after she requested it, the lawsuit says. She claims her worklife became hostile. She received increasing criticism about her job performance and other unfair treatment after complaining about how the city mishandled her situation. Watts is still employed with the city. She is seeking lost pay and future wages, as well as punitive damages, attorneys fees and other costs associated with preparing the case. She is represented by Erin Vernon and Lynne Bratcher, the lawyers who won the Hernandez whistleblower lawsuit. The City Council last month approved a $1.4 million final settlement that ends any further proceedings in that case. The other woman who was doxxed has also hired an attorney who specializes in employment discrimination, who says she will file a lawsuit in the next couple of weeks.
