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Kentuckians want a senator, not a rubber stamp
BY AL CROSS This column was written before Tuesday night’s debate among four candidates in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. “Kentucky is in play this year. Believe it,” U.S. Senate candidate Amy McGrath told her email list last week. Perhaps she felt obliged to add those two words because so few people think…
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Mountain Citizen wins Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity
BY AL CROSS A scrappy little newspaper that has fought for more than 30 years for clean water and open government in its Appalachian county is the winner of the 2025 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism. The Mountain Citizen is a weekly paper serving the 11,000 people…
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Eastern Kentucky rises: Economic revival spotlighted at East Kentucky Leadership Conference
BY AL CROSS INSTITUTE FOR RURAL JOURNALISM UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY CORBIN — Eastern Kentucky is about to get an avalanche of federal and state money to help it transition from its largely disappeared coal economy, but some of its towns are already lifting themselves up and setting examples for the region. That was the upshot…
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Rising flu cases drive continued increases in emergency room visits and hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses in Kentucky
BY AL CROSS KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS A big jump in influenza cases more than outweighed small declines in COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus as Kentuckians headed into the holidays, according to the state’s latest respiratory-illness update. The report for the week ended Dec. 23 shows the three illnesses accounted for 4,431 Kentucky emergency department visits,…
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Sixteen of Kentucky’s 72 rural hospitals are at risk of closing, and 10 of them are at immediate risk
BY AL CROSS KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Sixteen of Kentucky’s 72 rural hospitals are at risk of closing, and 10 of those are at immediate risk of closing, according to the latest analysis of hospitals’ Medicare cost reports by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, an advocacy group. The report doesn’t name the 16…
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Alzheimer’s drug under study at University of Kentucky and other sites has shown it is ‘the first crack in the iceberg,’ UK researcher says
BY AL CROSS KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS A partially approved drug for Alzheimer’s disease that slowed memory decline and loss of functional ability in a study is “the first crack in the iceberg for us,” says a Kentucky researcher involved in the study. Dr. Greg Jicha of the University of Kentucky, one of about 100 study…
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Flu off to fast start in Kentucky, as cases keep more than doubling each week
Flu, COVID-19 and RSV threaten a ‘triple-demic’ BY AL CROSSKENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Influenza is spreading quickly in Kentucky, raising the threat of a “triple-demic” of flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The state Department for Public Health’s most recent report says 2,082 flu cases were confirmed during the week that ended Nov. 5. That…
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Social media may be fun, but for the facts, we need newspapers
BY AL CROSS I love social media. They keep me in touch with dozens of friends whom I might otherwise have contact with just every few years or every few decades. They let me share articles that I think bring greater understanding of a subject, usually with a comment of my own, and enjoy similar…
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Doctors back booster shots for recent COVID-19 variants
BY AL CROSS KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Kentucky experts largely dismissed concerns about speedy approval of the new coronavirus vaccines on “Kentucky Tonight,” a Kentucky Educational Television program, Monday night. Ilhem Messaoudi, chair of microbiology at the University of Kentucky, said she has been surprised at people who she said are “up in arms” about the…
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COVID-19 will always be with us
Vaccines, therapies, preventive steps mean we can live with it BY AL CROSSKY HEALTH NEWS The coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease will always be with us and may become more contagious but probably less dangerous while still requiring caution to keep from getting sick. That’s what Kentucky medical experts said June 20 on KET’s…
