Kentucky fans already are excited about players like Andrew Carr, Koby Brea, Jaxson Robinson, Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, and Amari Williams but one name that isn’t discussed all that much but should is Ansley Almonor.

Last season at Fairleigh Dickinson, Almonor averaged 16.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Almonor was the 44th best three-point shooter in all of college basketball last season as he went 93 of 236 for a percentage of 39.4 from deep.

He is only 6’7 but has played center and power forward during his entire college basketball career, so he is used to being undersized at his position.

Almonor will likely come off the bench for Carr, and these two players do a lot of the same things. Almonor is just in a smaller frame than Carr. There is a world where Almonor is the Wildcat’s best player off the bench this season, thanks to his shooting and ability to help on the glass.

Almonor will come in the game for the Wildcats and immediately become a mismatch for any defender on the floor. If Almonor has a season where he shoots the ball well, passes to open players for shots, and helps on the glass, he will be a massive part of why this team has a solid season and goes on a run in March.

Kentucky Athletics sent out this quote from Coach Pope about Almonor, “Ansley is one of the best shooting mid-major bigs out there, and he is a tremendous mover without the basketball. He’s a fearless competitor with great leadership qualities. Ansley is a finance major who comes from an unbelievable family from Haiti. He’s a great addition to this roster as a veteran presence with a lot of college basketball under his belt.”

By McKenna Horsley
Kentucky Lantern

A grassroots advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against Kentucky election officials alleging the state’s process for removing voters from rolls violates federally protected voting rights. 

The state’s top election official responded that undoing the law during a presidential election year would “sow chaos and doubt.” 

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) filed the lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky against Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams and the State Board of Elections, which includes Republican and Democratic members. 

The complaint alleges that Kentucky’s election law, which was changed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and became permanent in 2021, violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. KFTC says the federal act requires registered voters who have moved to receive notice in writing to confirm their address and have time to respond before they are removed from voter rolls. Kentucky’s law “flagrantly violates these requirements,” KFTC argues, by not giving voters notice before removal. 

Adams issued a statement Tuesday saying he plans to defend the law in court. The 2021 changes, known as House Bill 574, were signed into law by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. 

“Kentucky’s elections are a national success story,” Adams said. “Three years ago, Kentucky enacted a bipartisan law to prevent voting in more than one state in a presidential election. Now that a presidential election is underway, a fringe left-wing activist group is trying to undo that law and sow chaos and doubt in our elections. We believe voters should vote in only one state, and we expect to prevail in court.”

In addition to the removal process, the 2021 state law also has provisions for no-excuse in-person early voting and updates to regulations for absentee ballots. 

The secretary of state also said that 4,362 individuals had been removed from the voter rolls in June. Of that group, 3,030 were deceased, 603 were convicted of felonies, 554 had moved out of the state, 78 voluntarily deregistered, 52 were duplicate registrations and 45 were adjudged mentally incompetent.

KFTC is asking the court to permanently enjoin election officials from canceling voter registrations without following provisions required by federal law. 

The group’s lawsuit also says it registered more than 2,000 new voters during last year’s governor’s race and plans to “directly register even more prospective voters due to the presidential race.” 

KFTC will hire 15 people across the state for this year’s voter registration program, which includes field training and webinars. 

Founded in 1981, KFTC’s mission is to “challenge and change unfair political, economic and social systems by working for a new balance of power and a just society.”

Read Kentuckians for the Commonwealth v. Michael Adams

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

COVINGTON, Ky. — A group of business leaders is pushing for a change in the city of Covington’s power structure. It could be on the November ballot if a petition is successful.

Covington’s current form of government is rare among other Kentucky cities. It consists of four elected city commissioners, an elected mayor and a city manager appointed by the commission.

Richard Dickmann, owner of Covington restaurant Smoke Justis, said the current system is not conducive to business.

“One of the concerns I’ve had since I’ve been here is the amount of time it takes to get anything done,” he said. “It takes four meetings a month to run the city because everything has to be done in a public forum. If a company wanted to relocate their business, and they were looking at three different cities, it may take a longer time for the city of Covington to give them the nod.”

Dickmann is the chair of a committee of local business and political leaders, Covington Forward. It’s trying to get enough signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot that would change Covington’s government to the more common mayor-council form.

City councils can have up to 12 members. In contrast to the current form in which the mayor has equal voting power to commissioners, the mayor acts as more of the city’s CEO in the mayor-council format. That includes the power to veto and hiring city workers.

Dickmann said under this format, council members would have less on their plate than the current commissioners.

“You can be more focused on the needs of the community and not the everyday running of the government,” he said. “It’s obvious to a lot of cities that the mayor-council is a better form of government.”

Joe Meyer, Covington’s current mayor who will be leaving office by the time this would go into effect, supports the new model. Before it can go into effect, the group needs to get enough signatures on its petition. At that point, it would be up to the voters.

Covington is the only city in Kenton County with a city manager form of municipal government.