Author

Vanessa Gallman

Vanessa Gallman

Vanessa Gallman, a Kentucky Lantern freelance columnist, worked for more than two decades as editorial page editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She was also a local government editor for The Washington Post and a national correspondent for Knight-Ridder Inc.

Commentary
Map of the United States showing guns

Illegal gun use is making Kentucky more deadly; red flag laws could save lives here

By: - December 13, 2022

A Lexington wife and mother was killed in her home Nov. 23 — three days after a judge rejected an emergency protective order that police encouraged her to seek. The ruling: “No imminent threat.” The man she was divorcing called police to report he had shot her. Convicted of a past drug felony, he wasn’t […]

Commentary

Mitch McConnell diagnosed GOP problem with voters but didn’t follow his own prescription

By: - December 1, 2022

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, after beating back a challenge to his leadership position, offered a reasonable analysis on why his party fell short of midterm election hopes. “We underperformed among indepen--dents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party, and leadership roles, is that they’re dogged in chaos, negativity, […]

Commentary
abortion

Wait a minute, the abortion-rights vote does too matter

By: - November 30, 2022

If Kentucky voters had approved the ballot measure denying any constitutional support for abortion rights, the results certainly would have been used to argue for retaining restrictive bans. So why shouldn’t the rejection of that measure be a key factor in the Kentucky Supreme Court’s various decisions about the constitutionality of abortion laws?? The legislature […]