Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declined to label Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” in an interview with Politico published Sunday, instead critiquing the question as a litmus test among Democrats.
Kentucky
Three Wildcats who stepped up and shined in Kentucky's first exhibition game
Kentucky‘s first exhibition game in Rupp Arena went even better than the most optimistic Mark Pope fans could imagine. The Wildcats scored 123 points and won by 71 against Kentucky Wesleyan College, which returned most of its roster from the team that upset Louisville in Louisville in this spot one year ago. Kentucky shot 50 percent from 3 against the Panthers, tying the school record for 3s in a single game with 21 makes.
The final score and 3-point barrage were a sight to see, especially in the debut of Pope’s brand of ball at UK. Within the hot night, nearly everyone on the roster was outstanding. However, some of the stars of the night came as a surprise, based on summer speculation and expectations of how the team will look. It’s way too early to form any solid opinions without overreacting to one outing. Still, we can brag on some of the players who weren’t talked about as much in the weeks leading up to their Kentucky debut. The guys not named Jaxson Robinson, Andrew Carr, or Lamont Butler.
You already know we’re starting with the pride of the 13th Region, who caught fire when his number was called in the second half.
Trent Noah
Harlan County’s Trent Noah wasn’t even supposed to be a Wildcat. He initially committed to South Carolina, then found his way home when Pope inherited an empty locker room in Lexington. Ranked 159th in the 2024 recruiting class, Noah came in with low expectations, considering all of the experience around him, with plenty of time to grow and develop. As Jack Givens noted on the KSR Pregame Show, Noah is doing all of the right things and outworking many of his teammates, but he has some guys in front of him in the rotation that will make it hard to play significant minutes in Year 1.
Against Kentucky Wesleyan, Noah got his first opportunity to play at game speed at the college level. He waited his turn and checked in for the first time with 11 minutes to go in the game. He quickly got a steal, which I didn’t see in the box score, but I saw it with my eyes. Then, he ignited his home state crowd by hitting four 3-pointers in less than four minutes. The homegrown freshman finished with 12 points, two assists, and a rebound in nine minutes. I don’t know how much he’ll play when the season officially starts, but Noah made the most of his first college minutes. Mark Pope said afterward, “Trent is not shy.”
Ansley Almonor
Like Noah, Ansley Almonor brought a hot hand off the bench for a surprise performance against Kentucky Wesleyan. The Fairleigh Dickinson transfer hit five 3-pointers on Wednesday night, going five of seven from beyond the arc for 15 points in the game, the third-highest output on the team.
At 6-foot-7, 244 pounds, Almonor will likely see most of his minutes behind Andrew Carr at forward. Time will tell how many minutes he will get against D1 opponents. But he will certainly see the floor plenty if he shoots the ball anything like he did in the exhibition game. I doubt many people, if any, predicted he’d hit five from long range. Although, Otega Oweh saw it coming. Oweh said of Almonor after the game, “Everyone knows he’s capable of hitting from three.”
Otega Oweh
Otega Oweh cracked Mark Pope’s first starting lineup for Kentucky, taking the open two-guard spot next to point guard Lamont Butler. We quickly saw why.
Right away, the Oklahoma transfer cleaned up Lamont Butler’s long miss with an offensive rebound and a second-chance layup for Oweh’s first Kentucky bucket. A minute and a half later, he sank his first 3-point attempt as a Wildcat, followed by another second-chance layup for seven points in the opening minutes. By halftime, Oweh had 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, four rebounds, and two assists before finishing the game with 18 points, second to Jaxson Robinson’s team-high 19. Oweh played only 18 minutes in the win.
Coming from the Big 12, we knew Oweh could play. He averaged 11.4 points in 24.8 minutes as a sophomore, starting in 28 of 32 games for the Sooners in 2023-24. Still, he looked really good in his first exhibition game at his new home. Pope said the starting lineup is subject to change, but it may not need any changes based on the team’s first exhibition. Otega brings a little bit of everything, from athleticism to more 3-point shooting, to a team that may break 3-point shooting records.
Mark Pope loved Oweh’s decision-making against KWC. Pope said in his postgame comments, “I was so proud of Otega tonight. You know, I actually wondered if this was going to be a little bit of a complicated game for him. Because it is such a heavy gap team. His decision-making about when he attacked all the way to the rim and when he came to two feet was brilliant and actually incredible all night long.”
I’ll add that Kentucky looked incredible all night long. Let’s do it again next Tuesday for fun. Who will step up next?
Facts About the Kentucky General Assembly
Discover key facts about the Kentucky General Assembly, including its history, structure, and state government functions.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A revamped bill unveiled late on the final day to pass legislation in the 2026 Kentucky General Assembly with the ability to later override a veto would significantly alter the makeup of Louisville’s public school board.
The new Senate Bill 4 would cut the number of seats on the Jefferson County Board of Education from seven to five. It includes an emergency clause, meaning it would go into effect immediately if passed — Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, who introduced the new bill in the House, said the legislation includes new district maps to be used when voters head to the ballot box this year but added JCPS would be able to redraw its own maps after that.
The bill passed in the House on a 72-21 vote mostly along party lines, with three Republicans (Rep. Vanessa Grossl, R-Georgetown, Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, and Rep. Kim Holloway, R-Mayfield) joining Democrats in opposition.
It quickly passed 25-7 in the Senate a few minutes later, with Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, and Sen. Robin Webb, R-Grayson, joining Democrats in voting no.
A copy of the bill was not immediately available.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, originally aimed to create a principal leadership and mentorship program. But after changes in the House, new provisions were added that would affect the makeup of boards for large school districts, including Jefferson County Public Schools and Fayette County Public Schools.
SB 4 is one of many education bills introduced this session, several of which have specifically targeted JCPS. Senate Bill 1, also passed on April 1, gives more power to JCPS’s superintendent while requiring the board to focus on long-term strategies.
The bills come as JCPS navigates an ongoing financial crisis, with a $188 million shortfall expected in the next budget. Prior to the revisions, the SB 4 would have required two new members with “expertise in finance” to be appointed by the state treasurer, Republican Mark Metcalf. That provision was removed during deliberations between the House and Senate.
In an interview after the votes, board Vice-Chair James Craig told The Courier Journal a five-member board “has made sense to me for a number of reasons.” It’s in line with every other district in the state, he said, and it can be difficult to find qualified candidates who have the bandwidth in their lives to devote enough effort to do the job right.
“I think given the realities of what the legislature could have done, how other districts are governed and the challenges that we’ve faced, Senate Bill 4 reflects a compromise that should be workable,” Craig said. “… But I have significant concerns about Senate Bill 1 and the way it interacts with Senate Bill 4.”
Lawmakers have listened to concerns he and other education advocates have raised, he said, removing some of the “problematic provisions” that had been floated as ones that could be included in SB 1. But the bill takes power from the elected board, he noted, and gives it to an unelected superintendent — in Louisville’s case, he added, someone who is “new to the city of Louisville in the last year.” JCPS Superintendent Brian Yearwood testified against SB 1 earlier this session in Frankfort.
“In my opinion, voters in the city of Louisville do not want a super-empowered superintendent. They want a democratically elected Board of Education that is accountable to them,” Craig added.
Board members will have a discussion with their attorney about potentially challenging SB 1 in court, he said. A similar bill passed in 2022 was struck down late last year by the state Supreme Court after previously being upheld by the high court.
JCPS leaders and board members have raised concerns about the earlier iteration of SB 4 and the removal of two board positions. Three members of JCPS board — Craig, Chair Corrie Shull and Linda Duncan — are scheduled to be up for reelection in November.
Craig does not plan to run again this year, he added.
“Eight years of intense, uncompensated public service have been fulfilling,” he wrote in a text message. “It is time for me to return to the full time practice of law.”
This story will be updated.
Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com. Reach reporter Keely Doll at kdoll@courierjournal.com or follow her on X at @keely_doll.
Kentucky
Final gargoyle returned to its perch atop rehabbed Kentucky cathedral modeled after Notre Dame
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The last stone gargoyle has been returned to its perch as part of a two-year restoration of a Kentucky cathedral with a facade modeled after Notre Dame in Paris.
The rehab project at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption was sorely needed to repair deteriorated stone, metal and glass that adorns the limestone exterior. The project included 32 recreated gargoyles along with repairs of deteriorated finials, arches and balustrades.
The 125-year-old church, in Covington just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, offers the experience of a European gothic cathedral in the Midwest, said the Very Rev. Ryan Maher, the cathedral’s rector. The cathedral has an “intimate connection to what is really the most popular and most well-known cathedral outside of Rome itself,” he said.
“I think it’s very special and very unique,” said Maher, who watched from the sidewalk as the last gargoyle was raised to top of the facade on Monday.
The renovation price tag was nearly $8 million, and most came from donations, Maher said.
Brian Walter, CEO of Trisco Systems, the contractor, said the final gargoyle going in was “a symbol of the accomplishment of all our facade work.”
“That’s a big, monumental occasion for not only people here, but for us. That kind of symbolized the last stone we’re putting in,” Walter said.
Restoration plans grew out of Maher’s discovery in 2018 of a large piece of stone that fell from the exterior.
“We realized at that time that we needed to investigate not only the source of that one piece of stone that had fallen, but to take a look at the overall facade of the cathedral,” Maher said.
Workers will continue with smaller tasks around the facade, including the installation of chimeras that sit on the roofline, but the heavy lifting has been completed, Walter said.
“This is kind of a once or twice in a lifetime project,” Walter said.
“That’s becoming one of those new litmus tests that we said we would never do as a party again,” Beshear told Politico’s Dasha Burns after being asked if he agreed with the label. “It’s trying to throw out a word and, ‘Are you going to raise your hand or are you not going to?’”
Beshear is the Democratic governor of a solidly red state and a potential 2028 presidential contender. His remarks come as Democratic candidates increasingly grapple with their stances on Israel amid record-low support for Israel among their base.
While several lawmakers, including Vermont’s Jewish Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide,” the label has not gained mainstream support in the Democratic Party. Last October, former Vice President Kamala Harris declined to use the “genocide” label, which Israel had long rejected, but said, “We should all step back and ask this question and be honest about it.”
Some Democrats have embraced the question, with a New York congressional candidate telling the leftist streamer Hasan Piker this week that she is “100%” comfortable with the issue serving as a litmus test in her party.
Others have acted as though the litmus test is already in place. In January, for example, California congressional candidate Scott Wiener announced that he believes Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide after drawing scrutiny for declining to answer the question during a debate.
Beshear critiques Trump, Netanyahu
While Beshear told Burns that Israel “has the right to exist as a democratic country, as a Jewish country,” he added that his feelings about President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct during the war in Gaza and ongoing war in Iran were “a different thing.”
“I believe the United States needs a strong Israel, but not one with decisions being made in the way that Netanyahu is making them,” Beshear said.
Beshear also critiqued President Donald Trump’s response to the crisis in Gaza.
“I believe that it could have been done without a lot of the suffering, but I put a lot of that blame also on Donald Trump,” he said. “If he’d said we are coming in and we are bringing food and aid and you are going to make sure that we’re safe, it would’ve happened.”
Last week, a spokesperson for Beshear told Politico that “AIPAC has never contributed to Governor Beshear and they’re never going to – ever,” a response that dovetailed with a host of other potential Democratic presidential candidates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who are increasingly distancing themselves from the pro-Israel lobby.
“I think that’s up to each and every Democrat,” Beshear answered when asked whether he thought his fellow Democrats should take money from AIPAC.
“In the end, I think people need to be clear about their stance on these issues,” Beshear said. “And for me, it’s one where I believe that we need a future with an ally in Israel. But we need decision makers there that are not acting the way that Netanyahu is, and we need a president that will push when we are seeing humanitarian crises to actually do something about it.”
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