Posted by: Jessie Skaggs on March 19, 2015
Last week, members of the Growing Appalachia planning committee were guests on WMMT's Mountain Talk, which is a weekly program that covers a wide range of topics pertaining to life in the mountains. Floyd County’s Sister Kathy Curtis and Letcher County’s Valerie Horn were in the studio to talk with host Elizabeth Sanders about the history of the conference, how they got involved, and what people can expect at Saturday’s conference. They were joined in the studio by Jonathan Hootman and Hillary Neff and then joined over the phone by Mark Walden.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on March 12, 2015
KFTC Southern Kentucky chapter members used the 2015 General Assembly to give their local work on renters’ rights a statewide platform.
The Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (URLTA) is a set of codified best practices to clarify the terms of agreements between tenants and landlords.
It simply clarifies and standardizes the terms of a lease and protects renters from retaliatory evictions for reporting housing that is not up to code.
Based on best practices from the rental industry, URLTA is called a “win-win” for renters and landlords. Several states have adopted URLTA statewide. Kentucky’s state law, however, only allows individual communities to opt in to URLTA; it falls short of adopting it statewide.
Posted by: Chris Woolery on March 12, 2015
Many KFTC members who are interested in making their homes more comfortable and energy efficient are now able to make it happen!
How$martKY is an on-bill energy efficiency financing program that doesn’t require a credit check. This means that rural electric cooperative members with high utility bills can often get energy upgrades with no down payment, add the financed payment to their electric bill, and still save money every month.
Posted by: KFTC Staff on March 12, 2015
Linda Stettenbenz, a Jefferson County member who serves on KFTC’s Economic Justice Committee, reached out to Jefferson Community and Technical College professors who are involved in an international movement to demand fair treatment for adjunct professors – professors who don’t have tenure and who often work for near-poverty wages with no job security from one semester to the next. Adjuncts at several colleges and universities opted for walk-outs; JCTC organizers opted for a teach-in.
Posted by: KFTC staff on March 10, 2015
Posted by: Ryan Fenwick on March 10, 2015
Last night's JCKFTC meeting brought out twelve members of the chapter to deliberate, discuss, and take action on affordable housing, an LG&E rate change, the local air quality and economic just
Posted by: Lisa Abbott on March 6, 2015
Wearing buttons that read "Let Us Vote," about two dozen voting rights supporters attended the last regularly scheduled meeting of the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wedneday to bear witness as Senate Republicans yet again refused to act on HB 70, a proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to nearly a quarter million Kentuckians. As expected, they did not see senators take action on the bill. But there was plenty of other action in committee room that day.
Posted by: Kentuckians For The Commonwealth on March 4, 2015
KFTC members have been active in Frankfort this week, supporting several economic justice bills as the session draws to a close. House Bill 374, which closes corporate tax loopholes to fund a state Earned Income Tax Credit, received a hearing in committee yesterday, and CKY member Jesus Gonzalez testified in support of the EITC. Here is Jesus's testimony:
Posted by: Shane Ashford on March 4, 2015
Shelby County chapter members enjoyed a night of soul food and fellowship this past Friday. The spread ran the gamut: cornbread, corn chowder, breaded and fried catfish, fried chicken, barbecue ribs, coleslaw, beans, kale, peach cobbler, you name it! It was as down-home as you could get. The Shelby County chapter of the NAACP provided the tasty provisions while the KFTC chapter provided the entertainment. It came in the form of a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable presentation by local historian Diane Perrin Coon.
Ms. Coon gave a talk entitled "Slavery, Anti-Slavery and the Underground Railroad in Shelby County." The talk was well-received, highlighting demographic trends as well as personal stories from history. Ms. Coon, a gifted storyteller, laid bare Shelby County’s complicities in the institution of slavery as well as its hand in the abolition of that institution.
Posted by: KFTC staff on March 3, 2015
We will be live streaming the final Senate State and Local Government Committee hearing of this legislative session tomorrow, March 4 at noon.
"I've lived a lot of places in my life," says KFTC member and new former felon spokesperson Jim Shepherd. "All over the U.S., really; but my family is from Hazard, I've lived here for the last five years, and I'm planning on staying."