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Putin announces military operation in Ukraine

In a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country's military offensive in Ukraine early Thursday.

AP

The Bluegrass State is more than 5,000 miles from Ukraine, but Russia's overnight invasion of the European country still sent shockwaves through the commonwealth.

Several members of Kentucky's congressional delegation and other local political figures weighed in Thursday morning in the hours after the attack was launched on Ukraine, which has a population of about 44 million and had traditionally been seen as a buffer between Russia and NATO-aligned European nations to its west.

Gov. Andy Beshear, in a video address posted Thursday morning to social media, warned that while Kentuckians would not be called upon to fight in the conflict, its impact would be felt in other ways back home higher gas prices are likely, for instance, he said.

From USA TODAY: Russia declares war, launches attack in Ukraine

"This is a small price to pay to stop this act of aggression, though I understand we will all feel it," Beshear said."What I'd ask is that this be a time of unity. This should be a reminder that we have real enemies overseas that want to harm us and others, and that we are not each other's enemies. It's time for America to be united, every single one of us, against this external threat."

Reactions weren't limited to Kentucky's governor.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, who serves as the U.S. Senate Minority Leader, said during a Thursday press conference in Kentucky that the withdrawal from Afghanistan last year sent a signal that "America is in retreat" and was "an invitation" to autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin to take action against foreign nations they consider to be enemies.

Serious action, McConnell added, should be taken against Russia.

"We're all together at this point and we need to be together about what should be done," McConnell said. "But I have some advice ratchet the sanctions all the way up. Don't hold any back. Every single available tough sanction should be employed and should be employed now."

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Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has repeatedly called for the U.S. to stay out of foreign conflicts that don't directly impact the nation, said the invasion "will further isolate Russia and lead to a pariah status not seen since the Cold War ended."

Congressional representatives from around the commonwealth also weighed in.

Rep. Andy Barr, who represents parts of Central and Eastern Kentucky and is a member ofthe House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the invasion "represents a naked attempt to re-litigate the terms of the endof the Cold War" and placed blame on President Joe Biden's "weak and feckless foreign policy" in a statement.

He called on the administration to impose additional sanctions against Russia and to provide additional Foreign Military Financing and arms sales to Ukraine.

Rep. John Yarmuth, who represents Louisville, wrote that he is praying for peace and for the people of Ukraine, describing the invasion as "an undeniable and unprovoked act of war against an independent, sovereign nation."

"The entire world must stand together in opposition to such evil," he wrote.

Rep. Thomas Massie, who represents Northern Kentucky, on Wednesday signed a bipartisan letter "to remind the President that Congress alone has the authority to declare war" but had not publicly commented further as of Thursday afternoon.

Rep. Hal Rogers, who represents Eastern Kentucky as well as southern portions of the commonwealth, tweeted Thursday afternoon that "Putins brazen strikes on Ukraine are an international breach of peace and an evil attempt to extend his reach of power."

"I firmly condemn this deadly attack and I pray for Gods protection over the people of Ukraine, as well as added strength in their defense," Rogers tweeted. "The United States must be bold in holding Russia accountable and thwart Putins unjustified aggression against a sovereign nation."

Rep. Brett Guthrie, who represents portions of Central and Western Kentucky, called the invasion "unlawful & indefensible" in a Twitter post and called on Biden to take action "by restoring American energy independence and protecting Americans from surging energy prices."

And Rep. James Comer, who represents much of Western Kentucky, condemned Putin and the invasion in a statement Thursday as well, saying he supported sanctions against Russia.

"In the battle between freedom and tyranny, freedom must always win," Comer wrote."Our prayers are with the people of Ukraine, our servicemen and women overseas, and all Americans left in Ukraine.

This story has beenupdated.

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.

Continued here:
Kentucky politicians react to 'undeniable and unprovoked act of war' in Ukraine - Courier Journal

Jordan Morgan (right with her father C. Wesley Morgan in a photo from Facebook) was shot dead on Tuesday during a home invasion.

The daughter of a Republican former state representative from Kentucky was shot and killed during an early morning home invasion earlier this week, authorities say.

Jordan Morgan, 32, was killed when an intruder broke into her familys $6.5 million home in Richmond at around 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Kentucky State Police. Her father, Clinton Wesley Morgan, confirmed that his daughter had been murdered in an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Mr. Morgan also revealed that he had been wounded while exchanging gunfire with the intruder, saying he and his wife had been shot at. He made a full recovery and was released from the hospital that same day while his wife managed to avoid suffering any injuries.

On Thursday, authorities provided an update identifying the suspect as 23-year-old Shannon V. Gilday of Taylor Mill, Kentucky.

Gilday forced his way into the home at approximately 4:00 am, armed with a rifle and fatally shot 32-year-old Jordan Morgan while she was in bed.

After the initial shooting, Gilday confronted the homeowner, when gunshots were exchanged between the two. As a result, the homeowner sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and the armed suspect left the scene in a white passenger car, authorities said, noting that the 2016 Toyota Corolla has a license plate of 379-VMJ.

Gilday, considered armed and dangerous, is wanted as of Thursday afternoon on charges of murder, burglary, criminal mischief, assault, and attempted murder.

Kentucky State Police have otherwise said little about the incident and encouraged any individuals with information about the crime or who may have witnessed any individuals in the neighborhood around the time of the shooting contact investigators.

Some of the few details that have been made available were shared by Kentucky State Police in a news release on Tuesday evening:

The initial investigation indicates an armed suspect entered the home just before 4:30 am, at which time shots were fired, killing a female inside. Gunshots were then exchanged between the homeowner and the intruder. As a result, the homeowner sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the University of Kentucky Hospital, where he was treated and released. The armed suspect left the residence after the shooting, and no arrests have been made at this time.

The release also thanked the Richmond Police Department, Madison County Sheriffs Office, and the Madison County Coroner for their assistance in the investigation.

Sgt. Robert Purdy later provided a brief update from the scene of the shooting on Wednesday, where investigators are still hard at work.

The residence that we are searching, the residence where were looking for evidence is substantially large and we dont want to miss anything, Sgt. Purdy told reporters, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Weve brought in a lot of resources the agency has. Weve brought in our best detectives, frankly, to comb the house, to look for evidence and take as much as we can from here so we know we can paint a picture of exactly what happened later on.

Ms. Morgan served as a summer intern to Sen. Rand Paul and later worked on the campaign of Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin according to her LinkedIn profile. She briefly served as Deputy Finance Director and Deputy Press Secretary for Gov. Bevin before taking a position as the Assistant Commonwealths Attorney for Kentuckys 54th District.

Ms. Morgan had started a job with a new law form just one week before the fatal shooting (Facebook post above)

At the time of her death, Ms. Morgan had just started a new position at the law firm Reminger Co.

I am thrilled to share that I have joined Remingers Lexington office as an Associate Attorney, wrote Ms. Morgan on Facebook a week before the fatal shooting.I look forward to this new chapter in my legal career and am so grateful for this opportunity! God is so good, yall!

Her involvement in politics started long before her father took office. Mr. Morgan served a single term in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 2017 through 2018, and then unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell for the Republican nomination in the 2020 election.

He said in a Facebook post at the time: I am running because I want to help President Trump drain the swamp, and to do that, we must tackle the head swamp creature himself: Mitch McConnell.

Mr. Morgan had listed his 14,300 square-foot home, which has nine bedrooms and nine and-a-half bathrooms, for $6.5 million. The property, which sits on 200 acres of land, had been on the market since August.

[Image via Fox 56 screengrab]

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Jordan Morgan, 32, Killed in Home Invasion at Home - Law & Crime

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., walks to her office in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. Her positions on the filibuster and other issues have drawn threats of a primary challenge in Arizona. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., walks to her office in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. Her positions on the filibuster and other issues have drawn threats of a primary challenge in Arizona.

When Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema last week reiterated her opposition to changing Senate filibuster rules, helping to doom her party's efforts to pass voting rights legislation, it only added to the frustrations of progressives in her home state.

Arizona progressives had spent months trying to convince Sinema that voting rights are important enough to alter the Senate's legislative filibuster.

The rule requires a 60-vote majority to move most legislation forward through the chamber. Republicans have used it for the length of President Biden's time in office to block voting bills that Democrats including Sinema argue are needed to combat voting restrictions passed at the state level by Republicans.

"We really are in a situation where our freedom to vote is at stake," said Emily Kirkland, executive director of Progress Arizona.

Unable to change Sinema's mind on their own, Kirkland and dozens of other Democratic women in Arizona sent a letter to an organization they hoped would have more influence: EMILY's List, a decades-old national campaign group focused on electing female Democrats who support abortion rights.

Historically, abortion advocates like EMILY's List have resisted calls to change or eliminate the filibuster. It's been used in the past to defend women's access to health care, a point frequently noted by Sinema in her defense of the Senate rule.

Kirkland said the stakes are too high for groups like EMILY's List to stay on the sidelines.

"We're in a moment where, given the threats to our democracy, we can't afford for people and organizations to be staying in their lane and focused only on one issue," she said.

On Tuesday, EMILY's List heeded the call.

In a statement, President Laphonza Butler said if Sinema "can not support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of Emily's List.

"Right now, Sen. Sinema's decision to reject the voices of allies, partners and constituents who believe the importance of voting rights outweighs that of an arcane process means she will find herself standing alone in the next election," Butler added.

Amid mounting calls in Arizona for a primary challenger to Sinema in 2024, when she's next up for reelection, the statement marked a turning point from speculation to concrete action, not just locally, but by an organization that's steadfastly supported Sinema over the years and holds broad, national influence.

"EMILY's List is a very powerful, trusted messenger to Democrats, and to pro-choice women," said Tony Cani, a political strategist who served as deputy director of the Biden campaign in Arizona.

And it's no hollow threat. From 2015 to 2020, while Sinema was running for the Senate, no one contributed more to her campaign than EMILY's List over $400,000, according to OpenSecrets.

On Thursday, after the bid to change Senate rules officially failed, Butler made clear that EMILY's List won't endorse Sinema in the future.

EMILY's List seemed to set a tone for other organizations as well. On Tuesday, the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America issued its own statement that, without mentioning Sinema by name, made its target clear: "We will not endorse or support any senator who refuses to find a path forward on this critical legislation," the organization said of the two voting rights bills stuck in the Senate.

And organizers with Stand Up America and Living United for Change in Arizona, also known as LUCHA, released a statement vowing to challenge Sinema in 2024 if she won't change her mind.

In her own statement ahead of Wednesday night's vote when she and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin joined all 50 Senate Republicans in blocking a proposed change to the filibuster Sinema brushed aside the criticism, as she had a week earlier, chalking it up to honest disagreements over policy and strategy.

Sinema later issued a statement touting her vote for voting rights legislation, but also explained why she blocked the only path forward at the time to actually pass the bills.

"I also maintained my long standing opposition to separate actions that would deepen our divisions and risk repeated radical reversals in federal policy, cementing uncertainty and further eroding confidence in our government," she said.

Arizona Democratic Sens. Sinema and Mark Kelly, along with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, center, listen during a roundtable about infrastructure and supply chain problems at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz. on Nov. 19, 2021. Sinema helped craft the bipartisan infrastructure law, and has made her mark in the Senate working across the aisle. Jonathan J. Cooper/AP hide caption

Arizona Democratic Sens. Sinema and Mark Kelly, along with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, center, listen during a roundtable about infrastructure and supply chain problems at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz. on Nov. 19, 2021. Sinema helped craft the bipartisan infrastructure law, and has made her mark in the Senate working across the aisle.

Arizona strategist Cani said Sinema may believe she's doing the right thing by preserving the filibuster. But if the senator is making a political calculation, Cani said she's mistaken.

"I think that what she's missing here is that her brand is somebody who gets things done," Cani said. "And the problem right now is ... she's becoming someone who is a symbol for the type of obstruction that exists in Washington, D.C., in the Senate that is preventing reasonable laws from getting passed that the American people want."

For some Arizona progressives, Sinema's speech a week ago in defense of the filibuster had already confirmed she's a part of the problem, not the solution.

"I think she is showing the American public and Arizonans very clearly who she is standing with," said Alejandra Gomez, co-executive director of LUCHA. "And she is not standing with voters."

Sinema did help craft the bipartisan infrastructure law, and has made her mark in the Senate working across the aisle.

Arizona is a tightly contested state where centrist candidates have found success in general elections. But to win reelection in 2024, she'll first have to survive a primary.

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Many Arizona Democrats are none to happy with Kyrsten ...

By Ronald J. Rosenberg

While the states election districts were recently redrawn gerrymandered by a progressive-Democratic majority in the State Legislature for the purpose of favoring their party, gerrymandering is not a particularly new political weapon. Those on both sides of the aisle have used their power to redraw district lines, depending on who holds the majority. The practice goes back to the 1800s, but this years redrawing by is unprecedented, and comes at a time when the self-proclaimed progressives larger political agenda ranges from defunding police to bail reform to demonizing the successful entrepreneur, i.e., capitalism.As U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi pursues his gubernatorial primary quest, his former 3rd Congressional District is now unrecognizable. The progressive gerrymander has recreated his congressional borders into what they now humorously call the Long Island Sound District. It now stretches from Smithtown in Suffolk County, along the lightly populated North Shore, into the densely populated Bronx, and ends in Democratic Westchester County. While several Long Island Democrats have announced their intentions to run for Suozzis vacated seat, they will face a growing number of New York City-based progressives who see their population density and massive Democratic enrollment in the city and its environs as bulletproof at the ballot box. The numbers speak for themselves. The Village of Northport, part of the new 3rd C.D., has some 8,000 residents. The City of New Rochelle, in Westchester, which is also part of the new district, has some 80,000.Now consider who is lining up to run in the 3rd District so far: Bronx State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, who defeated moderate Democrat Jeff Klein a number of years ago. In a December tweet, Democratic Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had nothing but praise for Biaggi.Also in the running is Melanie DArrigo, a self-described progressive who has been endorsed by former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a city pol who once co-chaired the City Councils Progressive Caucus.

Ronald J. Rosenberg has been an attorney for 42 years, concentrating in commercial litigation and transactions, and real estate, municipal, zoning and land use law. He founded the Garden City law firm Rosenberg Calica & Birney in 1999.

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Long Islanders have been mugged by progressives - liherald.com

In a relatively rare move, progressive Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib is planning to give a response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech. Her speech has raised concerns that it'll underscore party divisions as the midterm elections draw near.

The Working Families Party announced on Wednesday that it had selected Tlaib to deliver its response to Biden's address. Tlaib, who has previously clashed with party leaders and moderates, hinted that her speech will criticize the White House and Congressional Democrats for not moving more aggressively on legislative priorities while they still control the House and Senate.

"It should not be this hard to deliver on health care, climate, housing, child care, safety, voting rights, clean water and so much more," Tlaib said in a statement. "Democrats are in the majority and must set a new course that moves with a sense of urgency. Our communities deserve for us to act now."

Tlaib was first elected in 2018 to a Detroit-based House seat. As a member of the so-called "squad," a group of left-wing lawmakers, Tlaib has rankled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not being receptive to their approaches on the environment, health care and other issues.

More recently, Tlaib, along with other like-minded lawmakers, last year voted against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill after failing to link it to the expansive Build Back Better social spending package. She has also criticized Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as "corporate" Democrats over their opposition to the package.

The Build Back Better package, voting rights reform and other Democratic priorities have since stalled, raising debates about the party's direction as it heads into what's expected to be a bruising midterm.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman turned party critic, said on Twitter that Tlaib's speech would hurt the party.

"It is highly unusual for anyone FROM THE PRESIDENT'S OWN PARTY to give a response to the SOTU speech," Walsh said. "This is a silly political mistake. This is an in-kind donation to the Republican Party. This will only help Republicans take back the House & Senate."

Although a third party, the Working Families Party rarely runs its own candidates. Instead, it typically backs candidates that support its progressive policies. The party in a statement pointed to its efforts to elect Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock to the Senate in 2020 while electing progressive state legislators across the country.

According to the Working Families Party, Tlaib's response isn't the first time it has recruited Democrats to offer a response to the State of the Union. Previously, the response was given by Representative Jamaal Bowman in 2021, Representative Ayanna Pressley in 2020, Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor and former WFP national committee member Mandela Barnes in 2019 and former Representative Donna Edwards in 2018.

"Obstructionist Republicans and a handful of corporate Democrats have ground Washington to a standstill while child poverty spikes and costs continue to rise for housing, health care, and child care," Working Families Party National Director Maurice Mitchel said in a statement. "It doesn't have to be this way. Rashida will articulate a progressive vision for how we can meet the basic needs of the American people, and ensure all of us can thrive."

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is slated to give the Republican Party's rebuttal to Biden's address on Tuesday.

Newsweek has reached out to Tlaib, the Working Families Party and the White House for a response.

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Dem Division on Display as Progressives Plan Response to State of the Union - Newsweek